Market Wrap: Bitcoin Clings to $10.4K; Ether in Smart Contracts Highest Since 2016

Ether holders are increasingly choosing smart contracts to park the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin trading around $10,494 as of 20:00 UTC. Gaining 0.10% over the previous 24 hours.

After bitcoin prices fell sharply Monday, the world's oldest cryptocurrency stayed near the $10,400 mark on spot exchanges such as Coinbase Tuesday.

Tuesday did not even approach that level, and was at $210 million in spot volume as of 4 p.m. ET."We are at 50% of all-time-highs, which is a good area for future consolidation, but the perpetual funding rate for BTC is showing negative," said Jason Lau, chief operating officer for cryptocurrency exchange OKCoin.

Like futures contracts, perpetual swaps allow traders to long or short a position, taking advantage of movements in a cryptocurrency's price.

"Leading up to the U.S. election and debates, more institutional holders of bitcoin are preferring to hold cash and determine whether or not to re-enter afterwards."

Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Tuesday trading around $343 and slipping 0.44%% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC.The amount of ether parked in smart contracts is at its highest level since 2016, when investors plowed into The DAO, an early decentralized finance precursor.

The percentage of ether supply in smart contracts is at 15.96%, the highest level since July 25 2016.Brian Mosoff, CEO of investment firm Ether Capital, says this metric proves Ethereum's ability to offer DeFi capabilities which its cryptocurrency competition simply does not provide.

"The ETH in various DeFi contracts is probably an indicator that ETH holders want to continue to hold the asset but are looking for ways to generate yield," said Mosoff.

"This shows how ETH acts as a productive asset, contrasted with bitcoin, where it may be a great store of value but it lacks the productive yield layer that ETH does."