Crypto markets attempt to recover despite widespread panic

The panic surrounding the crypto market continues this week after further developments regarding the FTX situation led to a widespread uncertainty involving the whole sector with many now questioning the safety of other major exchanges and defi protocols. Many large institutions rushed to reassure their customers, investors and market as a whole of their financial positions after major doubts emerged following the FTX collapse. Understandably, the Crypto fear and greed index is signaling levels of extreme fear as a large outflux of coins and cash from exchanges is threatening the stability of the ecosystem even further. Major price swings, spiky volatility and projects approaching collapse are all factors causing an outflow of capital from the ecosystem as the overall market cap hovers around $844 billion while major crypto currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum attempt to hold above their key supports. While there is a high potential for unexpected developments and high volatility, some investors may take the fact that BTC and ETH stabilized slightly as a reassuring sign, at least in the short term. On the other hand, confidence in the crypto industry is likely hovering around historic lows as many who may have been supporters have begun to doubt their conviction as they see companies that may have seemed too big to fail crumble almost overnight leaving investors and customers to deal with the aftermath. 

Pound pulls back from highest level since August

The pound has managed to pull off an impressive recovery since the beginning of November with the GBPUSD pair rising over 6% and reaching a high of 1.185, a level not seen since the end of August. This came as the USD started to retreat following macroeconomic reports supporting a slightly less hawkish approach by the FED and as the recently appointed British PM attempted to calm investor sentiment after his predecessor. Today we can see a fairly balanced situation in the FX market with both USD and GBP performing strongly and with the pair pulling back slightly as it trades around 1.177. Many will be focused on the G20 taking place this week as progress on the geopolitical front may also help with improving sentiment while Sunak remains under pressure with regards to taxes, cuts and migrants. From a technical perspective, the GBPUSD pair is trading at an interesting price reaction area after encountering resistance and pulling back almost 1% and breaking below the 21SMA on the hourly chart. As the sentiment surrounding the pound remains uncertain, any major developments may cause large volatility spikes that could cause a breakout from the short term trading range.