First Mover Asia: Singapore’s Distaste for Retail Crypto Is Spooking Institutional Money<br /><br />Good morning.<br />Here’s what’s happening:<br />Prices: Bitcoin returned to where it started the weekend.<br />Insights: Singapore's growing crypto regulatory scrutiny has raised concerns among institutional investors.<br />Technician's take: BTC's trading range could persist into the following week.<br />Catch the latest episodes of CoinDesk TV for insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis.<br />And sign up for First Mover, our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context.<br />Prices<br />Bitcoin (BTC): $38,594 +2.2%<br />Ether (ETH): $2,844 +3.9%<br />Biggest Gainers<br />Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector<br />Filecoin FIL +8.5% Computing<br />Ethereum Classic ETC +7.3% Smart Contract Platform<br />Internet Computer ICP +6.8% Computing<br />Biggest Losers<br />There are no losers in CoinDesk 20 today.<br />Bitcoin investors continued their recent dour mood this weekend amid ongoing macroeconomic uncertainty and a widely-expected, half-point interest rate hike by the U.S. central bank by Wednesday.<br />The largest cryptocurrency by market cap was recently trading at about $38,400, up about 2.2% for the past 24 hours but about where it started the weekend.<br />Bitcoin finished April down 17%, its worst month yet in a ragged 2022 for cryptos.<br />Ether, the second largest crypto by market cap, followed a similar weekend pattern and was trading at roughly $2,840, up about 3.9% over the previous day but little changed from late Friday.<br />Most other major cryptos were recently up, although gains over the weekend were smaller.<br />Terra's luna token and SOL were up over 5% and 7%, respectively at one point.<br />Popular meme coin DOGE rose nearly 6%.<br />Trading was light as is often the case on weekends.<br />"At the moment, there are no major bullish catalysts on the horizon and BTC is likely to grind in this range or break down lower before more aggressive accumulation can begin," Joe DiPasquale, CEO of fund manager BitBull Capital wrote to CoinDesk.<br />"The lack of bullish catalysts is still evident and U.S. equities have show weakness as well as the U.S. dollar index rose.<br />All these factors continue to weigh down BTC."<br />DiPasquale noted that the Federal Reserve Federal Open Market Committee's likely decision to try to tame inflation through a more hawkish rate increase "could result in price volatility."<br />The Fed is also expected to explain how it will reduce its asset portfolio of mortgage and Treasury securities, which has ballooned to $9 trillion during the pandemic.<br />Bitcoin vs other assets (CoinDesk Research)<br />Crypto declines in recent days have largely dovetailed with major stock indices as investors veer away from riskier assets.<br />The tech-heavy Nasdaq plunged a hefty 4% on Friday.<br />The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were off 3.6% and 2.7%, respectively.<br />Gold was up slightly.<br />The Nasdaq 100, an index of mostly tech, biotech and healthcare companies, plummeted 13% in April.<br />Economic growth has slowed worldwide, a result of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.<br />On Friday, the European Union reported that the economies of 19 countries that use the euro grew by just 0.2% for the first quarter of the year.<br />The news followed the announcement that the U.S. economy had grown by a sluggish 0.4% over the same period.<br />Rising energy prices and supply chain delays exacerbated by the Russian offensive have hampered businesses worldwide.<br />With Bitcoin failing to hold the $42,000 level this week, DiPasquale was measured in his expectations for the coming days.<br />"We have continued to see $38K levels acting as support but continued testing of this range may result in a breakdown toward $35K-$32K," he wrote, adding: "Bulls will want to see the bleeding stop and serious buyers stepping in before they can be confident of a trend reversal."<br />Markets<br />S&P 500: 4,131 -3.6%<br />DJIA: 32,977 -2.7%<br />Nasdaq: 12,334 -4.1%<br />Gold: $1,896 +.08%<br />Insights<br />Singapore's less crypto friendly environment<br />Three Arrows Capital is the latest crypto firm that’s decided to call Singapore quits and move to Dubai.<br />“The energy in Dubai’s digital asset industry is electric right now,” fund co-founder Su Zhu told CoinDesk during the Crypto Bahamas conference.<br />“We have decided to move our Three Arrows headquarters to Dubai and I’m looking forward to meeting more technology startups.”<br />“For a while, Singapore was making pro-crypto decisions, but now something’s changed course,” added Kyle Samani, the fund’s other co-founder.<br />To be sure, on paper Singapore hasn’t advanced any new set of rules that would affect a fund like Three Arrows Capital.<br />The government has been clear that its policy position is to create a “conducive environment for such activities to flourish in Singapore.”<br />But that is for institutional capital.<br />The Monetary Authority of Singapore has also been clear that it doesn’t approve of retail investors getting deeply involved in crypto.<br />“We have taken a tough line on unfettered access to retail public because r