Logo
  • News
  • Prices
  • Data
  • Indices
  • Research
  • Events
  • Sponsored
  • Sign In
  • Sign Up
BTC logo
BTC
$121,991.39
3.31%
ETH logo
ETH
$4,298.89
1.78%
XRP logo
XRP
$3.2647
0.90%
USDT logo
USDT
$0.9998
0.01%
BNB logo
BNB
$819.91
1.51%
SOL logo
SOL
$185.26
2.31%
USDC logo
USDC
$0.9998
0.00%
DOGE logo
DOGE
$0.2377
0.70%
TRX logo
TRX
$0.3404
0.61%
ADA logo
ADA
$0.8218
1.59%
HYPE logo
HYPE
$46.50
6.48%
LINK logo
LINK
$22.20
1.58%
XLM logo
XLM
$0.4540
2.21%
SUI logo
SUI
$3.9352
2.77%
BCH logo
BCH
$576.62
1.65%
HBAR logo
HBAR
$0.2655
1.58%
AVAX logo
AVAX
$24.48
2.53%
USDE logo
USDE
$1.0005
0.03%
WBT logo
WBT
$45.70
2.66%
LTC logo
LTC
$123.93
2.51%
BTC logo
BTC
$121,991.39
3.31%
ETH logo
ETH
$4,298.89
1.78%
XRP logo
XRP
$3.2647
0.90%
USDT logo
USDT
$0.9998
0.01%
BNB logo
BNB
$819.91
1.51%
SOL logo
SOL
$185.26
2.31%
USDC logo
USDC
$0.9998
0.00%
DOGE logo
DOGE
$0.2377
0.70%
TRX logo
TRX
$0.3404
0.61%
ADA logo
ADA
$0.8218
1.59%
HYPE logo
HYPE
$46.50
6.48%
LINK logo
LINK
$22.20
1.58%
XLM logo
XLM
$0.4540
2.21%
SUI logo
SUI
$3.9352
2.77%
BCH logo
BCH
$576.62
1.65%
HBAR logo
HBAR
$0.2655
1.58%
AVAX logo
AVAX
$24.48
2.53%
USDE logo
USDE
$1.0005
0.03%
WBT logo
WBT
$45.70
2.66%
LTC logo
LTC
$123.93
2.51%
Ad
Markets
Share this article
X iconX (Twitter)LinkedInFacebookEmail

First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Extends Losing Streak as Pelosi Taiwan Trip Passes Without Incident

ALSO: Solana's SOL token slides after wallet hack and Sam Reynolds provides an on-the-ground assessment of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan trip.

By Sam Reynolds, Helene Braun, Bradley Keoun
Updated Apr 14, 2024, 10:34 p.m. Published Aug 3, 2022, 11:53 p.m.
Taipei, Taiwan, skyline. (Creative Commons, modified by CoinDesk)
Taipei, Taiwan, skyline. (Creative Commons, modified by CoinDesk)

Good morning. Here’s what’s happening:

Prices: Bitcoin extends losing streak, while Solana's SOL token slides after hack that drained crypto wallets.

jwp-player-placeholder
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy.

Insights: Risks posed by this week's visit to Taiwan by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi failed to materialize – at least in the eyes of the bitcoin market, Sam Reynolds reports.

●Bitcoin (BTC): $22,807 −1.1%

●Ether (ETH): $1,614 −2.0%

●S&P 500 daily close: 4,155.17 +1.6%

●Gold: $1,781 per troy ounce +0.5%

●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.75% +0.007


Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Bitcoin Extends Losing Streak to Six Days

By Helene Braun

Bitcoin (BTC) extended its losing streak to six days, dropping 1% to about $22,800.

The largest cryptocurrency by market cap seemed mostly unfazed by crypto’s latest hack that left over 8,000 wallets, including several Solana (SOL) addresses, compromised on Tuesday.

But Solana's SOL token fell over 4.2% during the past 24 hours and is down 76% year to date. The ninth-biggest cryptocurrency by market cap did not break below its 50-day simple moving average (SMA) – suggesting that some large Solana holders might still be holding on.

Over the past two weeks, bitcoin seems to have entered a new range, now hovering between $21,200 and $24,400, a step up from the $17,000 to $21,000 range in the weeks before.

“Bitcoin needs a crypto-specific catalyst to trigger a meaningful move above the $24,700 level,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at the foreign-exchange broker Oanda, wrote Wednesday in an email update.

Read More: Today's Market Wrap by Glenn Williams Jr.

Markets in general seem to have recovered from U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) visit to Taiwan on Tuesday, which caused many investors to stay away from risky assets amid potential U.S.-China tensions.

Ether (ETH) ended the day slightly lower, trading at $1,644.62 at press time.

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Cosmos ATOM +0.8% Smart Contract Platform Chainlink LINK +0.4% Computing Polkadot DOT +0.2% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Terra LUNA −6.5% Smart Contract Platform Solana SOL −6.4% Smart Contract Platform Gala GALA −4.5% Entertainment

Insights

Nothing is Going to Happen as a Result of the Pelosi Trip. So Let’s all Calm Down

By Sam Reynolds

Taipei — Tuesday was a fairly normal day in Taiwan. On Kinmen, a group of islands only a few miles from China, “the threat of war is the furthest thing from people's minds,” as one foreign journalist on the island described the local mood in the late afternoon.

On Twitter and most Western media it was something different: Clouds of war were gathering. Beijing was certainly egging on the narrative with displays of military hardware on beaches in Xiamen, a coastal city in China. Censors on Weibo, a local social media platform, who are often quick to erase anything politically sensitive, let the videos remain untouched. They eventually made their way onto YouTube.

After Pelosi landed, Beijing was quick to "retaliate." It suspended import licenses for citrus fruit, two types of fish, as well as 100 brands of snacks and confectionaries. They’ve also promised to conduct live fire exercises off of Taiwan’s coast later in the week, but haven’t specified what exactly that would entail.

China's economy

Let’s put this all in context

There’s speculation that, on Beijing’s side, these might be calculated measures to distract the local population from the bleak economic reality unfolding within China.

Four regional banks in-country are reportedly ready to collapse, dragged down by China’s growing debt bubble, the precarious housing market and an industrial slowdown due to its lockdowns and COVID-19 lockdown policies. When one bank refused to accept withdrawal requests, protesters marched on its steps; authorities hired thugs to disperse them and weaponized the protesters’ health QR codes, turning them red, which is an automatic quarantine sentence in state-run facilities.

Blaming Americans for meddling in Taiwan – what China calls its own affairs, governing – is an easy distraction.

Both sides know their limits. After all, China is Taiwan’s largest trading partner, with 40% of its exports going to either China or Hong Kong. Likewise, Taiwan is an important trading partner for China: It's the ninth-largest destination for China’s exports.

Taiwan also conducts its share of military exercises close to China’s coast. Kinmen, a rock of tranquility this week as many in the West thought Pelosi’s impending arrival was the precipice of war, plays host to annual live-fire military exercises that take place only miles from Xiamen.

While China sends aircraft into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, an area beyond a country’s airspace that’s monitored by the military, it tends to keep its aircraft well away from Taiwan’s actual airspace and doesn’t cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait. In contrast, Taiwan’s air force regularly flies to Kinmen, and its other offshore islands that are past the median line such as Penghu and Matsu.

Taiwan semiconductors

Neither side wants war.

If China really wanted to escalate things, it would use its vast censorship leviathan to wipe Weibo clean of videos of military equipment moving or talk of live-fire exercises off the coast of Taiwan.

It would also seek to ban more significant Taiwanese exports rather than citrus fruits, frozen fish and sweets. Keep in mind that the last agricultural export ban backfired as locals and other nations annoyed with China bought up the Taiwanese fruit destined for China that would otherwise go to waste.

Semiconductors amount to just over 35% of all of Taiwan’s exports, and banning their import to China would significantly hurt the Taiwanese economy.

But at the same time, it would deprive Chinese firms of the advanced chips their electronics industry requires. Its own semiconductor fabrication firms are years behind Taiwan and South Korea because export restrictions first put through by the former Trump administration in the U.S. prevent Chinese firms from getting the tools they need to compete. A semiconductor import ban would do serious harm to the Chinese economy, which is why it's not being considered.

It seems that the most China is able to do is cause annoyances with a cyber campaign and using bots to spread disinformation about missile attacks.

The market has seemed to shake this all off as cooler heads have prevailed. There’s been saber rattling for domestic audiences, but cross-strait business continues to thrive. And that’s not something that will affect the price of bitcoin.

CoinDesk TV

In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of "First Mover" on CoinDesk TV:

Headlines

  • Ethereum Classic Is Not Ethereum so a Merge-Fueled Rally Won't Last: It's unlikely Ethereum Classic has any long-term viability, despite interest by miners, according to Messari analyst Tom Dunleavy.
  • Amid Crypto Carnage, Huge Traders Remain Super Bullish on Bitcoin: A big player in professional finance says its trading partners see bitcoin rebounding to $32,000 this year.
  • US Senate Bill Will Give CFTC Crypto Market Oversight – but Doesn't Say How Much: The measure would make the Commodity Futures Trading Commission the watchdog for most of the market, but it doesn’t define whether tokens are securities or commodities.
  • Robinhood CEO Shuts Down FTX M&A Chatter, Says He Has Money to Do His Own Deals: Robinhood has $6 billion in cash should the brokerage want to explore potential acquisitions, CEO Vlad Tenev said Wednesday.
  • Hackers Return $9M to Nomad Bridge After $190M Exploit:The popular Ethereum to Moonbeam bridge is working with law enforcement and data analytics firms.
  • Want to Strike Terror in Crypto Markets in 2022? Just Say You’re Suspending Withdrawals:Voyager Digital's and Celsius network’s bankruptcies were preceded by announcements they were barring customers from getting their money.
  • Riot Blockchain Mined 28% Less Bitcoin in July as Heat Wave Cut Power Supply:Lower energy consumption helped the miner generate $9.5 million in power credits.
  • Goerli Is Coming: Ethereum’s Last Rehearsal Before the Merge:The Prater upgrade, the first component of the upcoming Goerli testnet merge, is happening this week.
  • Binance Taps Co-Founder Yi He to Head $7.5B Venture Arm:Binance Labs announced a new $500 million fund in June to invest in Web3 and blockchain projects.
  • Bank of America Says Blockchains Have Intrinsic Value, Citing Transaction Fees:The bank's report, however, noted that the fees on the Bitcoin and Ethereum chains have fallen this year.
  • Alchemy Integrates Astar Network to Support Web3 Developers in Polkadot Ecosystem: The dapp-staking feature will encourage developers to build on the chain to earn rewards in its native token.
  • CFTC Would Become Primary Crypto Regulator Under New Senate Committee Plan:The bill would create a definition of "digital commodity."
  • Banking Platform Galoy Raises $4M for Bitcoin-Backed Synthetic Dollar:Stablesats lets people use Lightning for everyday payments without exposure to short-term volatility.
  • B2B Payments Startup Paystand Acquires Mexican Peer Yaydoo:While the companies will operate independently, there is hope for cross-selling opportunities.

This edition of First Mover Asia was edited and produced by Bradley Keoun.

First MoverAsia PacificBitcoinEtherAltcoins
Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Asia. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.

X icon
CoinDesk News Image
Helene Braun

Helene is a New York-based markets reporter at CoinDesk, covering the latest news from Wall Street, the rise of the spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds and updates on crypto markets. She is a graduate of New York University's business and economic reporting program and has appeared on CBS News, YahooFinance and Nasdaq TradeTalks. She holds BTC and ETH.

X icon
Helene Braun
Bradley Keoun

Bradley Keoun is CoinDesk's managing editor of tech & protocols, where he oversees a team of reporters covering blockchain technology, and previously ran the global crypto markets team. A two-time Loeb Awards finalist, he previously was chief global finance and economic correspondent for TheStreet and before that worked as an editor and reporter for Bloomberg News in New York and Mexico City, reporting on Wall Street, emerging markets and the energy industry. He started out as a police-beat reporter for the Gainesville Sun in Florida and later worked as a general-assignment reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Originally from Fort Wayne, Indiana, he double-majored in electrical engineering and classical studies as an undergraduate at Duke University and later obtained a master's in journalism from the University of Florida. He is currently based in Austin, Texas, and in his spare time plays guitar, sings in a choir and hikes in the Texas Hill Country. He owns less than $1,000 each of several cryptocurrencies.

X icon
CoinDesk News Image

More For You

[Test LCN] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

By CoinDesk
Aug 7, 2025
Breaking News Default Image

Test dek

Read full story
Latest Crypto News
Breaking News

[Test LCN] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

Aug 7, 2025
Breaking News

[Test Today label] Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.

Aug 7, 2025
FastNews (CoinDesk)

[Test Fast News] Industry-Funded Polls Back Crypto Message: They Have Enough Voters to Make a Splash

Aug 6, 2025
Breaking News

[Test Breaking News] Crypto Cash Fueled 53 Members of the Next U.S. Congress

Aug 6, 2025
Breaking News

[Test one more time; LCN block] DUPLICATE

Aug 5, 2025
Breaking News

[Test one more time; LCN block]

Aug 5, 2025
Top Stories
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

JPMorgan To Allow Clients To Buy Bitcoin, Says Jamie Dimon blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

May 19, 2025
Consensus 2025: Anthony Scaramucci, Founder, SkyBridge Capital

Scaramucci Says Bitcoin Treasury Trend Will Fade Despite Saylor’s Success

Jul 2, 2025
A barman shakes a cocktail shaker with an array of drinks bottles behind him.

Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin Whiplash Shakes Market as U.S. Yield Spike Threatens Bull Run

May 19, 2025
Tokyo, Japan (Jaison Lin/Unsplash)

Metaplanet Buys Another 1,004 Bitcoin, Lifts Holdings to Over $800M Worth of BTC

May 19, 2025
Protocol Village is CoinDesk's living column chronicling blockchain tech project updates (CoinDesk)

Protocol Village: Starknet Claims to Shatter Transaction Speed Record Among Ethereum Layer-2 Networks

Oct 30, 2024
A breakdown of how well the Fairshake PAC did with candidates it backed.

Crypto Cash Fueled 53 Members of the Next U.S. Congress

Dec 3, 2024

Only 2 articles remaining this month.

Sign up for free

About

  • About Us
  • Masthead
  • Careers
  • CoinDesk News
  • Crypto API Documentation
  • Blog

Contact

  • Contact Us
  • Accessibility
  • Advertise
  • Sitemap
  • System Status
Disclosure & Polices
CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.
EthicsPrivacyTerms of UseCookie SettingsDo Not Sell My Info

© 2025 CoinDesk, Inc.
X icon
Sign Up
  • News
    Back to menu
    News
    • Markets
    • Finance
    • Tech
    • Policy
    • Focus
  • Prices
    Back to menu
    Prices
    • Data
      Back to menu
      Data
      • Trade Data
      • Derivatives
      • Order Book Data
      • On-Chain Data
      • API
      • Research & Insights
      • Data Catalogue
      • AI & Machine Learning
    • Indices
      Back to menu
      Indices
      • Multi-Asset Indices
      • Reference Rates
      • Strategies and Services
      • API
      • Insights & Announcements
      • Documentation & Governance
    • Research
      Back to menu
      Research
      • Events
        Back to menu
        Events
        • CoinDesk: Policy & Regulation
        • Consensus Hong Kong
        • Consensus Miami
      • Sponsored
        Back to menu
        Sponsored
        • Thought Leadership
        • Press Releases
        • CoinW
        • MEXC
        • Phemex
        • Advertise
      • Videos
        Back to menu
        Videos
        • CoinDesk Daily
        • Shorts
        • Editor's Picks
      • Podcasts
        Back to menu
        Podcasts
        • CoinDesk Podcast Network
        • Markets Daily
        • Gen C
        • Unchained with Laura Shin
        • The Mining Pod
      • Newsletters
        Back to menu
        Newsletters
        • The Node
        • Crypto Daybook Americas
        • State of Crypto
        • Crypto Long & Short
        • Crypto for Advisors
      • Webinars
        Back to menu
        Webinars
        Select Language
        English enEspañol esFilipino filFrançais frItaliano itPortuguês pt-brРусский ruУкраїнська ukDeutsch deNederlands nl한국어 ko中文 zh