Huobi Experiences Net Outflows, Controversial NFT Sales Spark Debate
Market Update
- Traditional markets rebound after posting a loss last week as investors look to Thursday's CPI print for clues as to whether the Fed will continue to raise rates. SPX and QQQ -0.07% are trading at 0.6% and 0.2% higher than Friday's close, while earnings reports are set to roll in for the worst quarter since 2020. Digital asset markets seem to be breaking correlation from traditional markets, with BTC (-0.9%) breaking down from its $29k range and ETH (-0.7%) trading at $1.81k. Should we decisively break below this range, we believe $21 to $24k to be compelling buying opportunities (should we get them) as ETF news buyers from $25 to $30k get flushed out on fears of a BTC ETF delay and/or Binance DoJ headline risk.
- Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi has experienced net outflows of over $73.3 million during the past week after reports that some of its executives were taken into police custody in China. The data, provided by blockchain analytics firm Nansen, indicates an outflow of $505.9 million worth of tokens and an inflow of $432.5 million, resulting in the net outflow. In the last 24 hours alone, Huobi's net outflow was $32.9 million, and its stablecoin balances have shrunk 33% to $99.47 million over the past seven days. Financially, Huobi has struggled to turn a profit, failing to post profits from Q3 2022 to Q2 2023. However, the exchange anticipates breaking even in the current quarter and returning to profit in Q4, according to Sun.
- A series of controversial NFT sales into Blur bids sparks legal ethics debate. Trader Hanwe Chang utilized a strategy to dupe a competitor's bot into purchasing certain Azuki NFTs at an inflated price, netting a profit of 800 ETH (~$1.5m). The scheme involved selling 12 Azuki NFTs with a specific "Off White A" background for 50 Ethereum each, a marked-up price from floor prices of 5ETH. Blur, known for its gamified incentives and trading volume, became a focal point of crypto Twitter, with some commentators condemning Chang's actions as illegal, while others defended it as a strategic play.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Stellar remains in consolidation mode following its outsized high-volume rally which resulted in XLM more than doubling in the month of July. Its recent pullback is holding up near the 50% retracement area of the June-July rally, but yet the price action in recent days hasn't been convincing that this has bottomed. After two straight days of XLM closing well off earlier intra-day highs at a time when near-term weakness has been seen across the crypto-currency spectrum, another minor pullback down to 0.125 would likely represent attractive support where this could bottom out. Structurally, the decline from 7/20 has taken the shape of an ABC-type corrective pattern per Elliott-wave analysis, and weakening to test mid-July lows would help to complete this pattern and should hold the area near 0.1249. Overall, until 0.15 is exceeded, the near-term trend is negative as part of a larger pattern which has grown more constructive in the last few months. However, one should look to find support near 0.125, or await a rally back over $0.15 before thinking XLM is actionable.
Daily Important Metrics
|
All metrics as of August 7, 2023 11:58 AM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $561B | $28,841 | ↓ -0.45% | ↑ 74% | |
 ETH | $218B | $1,815 | ↓ -0.65% | ↑ 51% | ↓ -23% |
 ADA | $10B | $0.2889 | ↓ -0.75% | ↑ 17% | ↓ -57% |
 SOL | $9.2B | $22.73 | ↓ -1.15% | ↑ 130% | ↑ 56% |
 MATIC | $6.2B | $0.6623 | ↓ -0.54% | ↓ -13% | ↓ -87% |
 DOT | $6.0B | $4.93 | ↓ -0.81% | ↑ 13% | ↓ -61% |
 LINK | $3.8B | $7.07 | ↓ -0.49% | ↑ 27% | ↓ -47% |
 NEAR | $1.2B | $1.33 | ↓ -0.98% | ↑ 4.27% | ↓ -70% |
 DOGE | $0.0000 | $0.0001 | ↑ 0.07% | ↓ -100% | ↓ -174% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -27% | $18.89 | ↓ -1.70% | ↑ 128% | ↑ 54% |
| BITW | ↓ -49% | $12.26 | ↓ -2.85% | ↑ 128% | ↑ 54% |
| ETHE | ↓ -36% | $10.99 | ↓ -3.49% | ↑ 131% | ↑ 57% |
| BTCC | ↑ 0.11% | $5.32 | ↓ -0.93% | ↑ 76% | ↑ 1.48% |
News
QUICK BITS
The Block OPNX bids for beleaguered lender Hodlnaut: Bloomberg Citing a term sheet, Bloomberg reported that the deal would result in OPNX owning 75% of Hodlnaut. |
The Block Ethereum community baffled by mysterious $4.5 million ether burn incident Observers in the crypto space were stunned when nd4.eth sent 2,500 ether ($4.5 million) to a burn address for currently unknown reasons. |
MARKET DATA
Decrypt.co Huobi Crypto Exchange Grapples with Rumors of Insolvency Amidst Hefty Outflows Crypto analyst Adam Cochran dismissed claims by the company's community manager that his information "has been pure rumors." |
The Block Almost 100 crypto funds have closed this year: report A total of 97 crypto funds have shut down this year out of the more than 700 that exist around the world, Bloomberg News reported. |
The Block Bridged assets to Coinbase’s Layer 2 top $100 million Base made headlines last month after a cambrian explosion of memecoins launched on the network led to a surge in activity. |
REGULATION
The Block Digital Currency Group faces NY probe over linkage to troubled Genesis: Bloomberg DCG is facing a probe from New York’s leading law enforcement officer over its financial dealings with subsidiary Genesis Global Capital. |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
CoinDesk Crypto Investor HashKey Aims to Raise $100M for New Digital Assets Fund The liquid digital assets fund, regulated by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, will open for investments on Sept. 1. |
TrustNodes Singapore Announces $150 Million Fund For Web3 and New Tech The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is to invest $150 million over the next three years in web3 startups and other technologies, MAS said. |
NFTS
Decrypt.co NFT Trader Admits Nabbing $1.5 Million in Ethereum After ‘Elizab.eth’ Gets Rekt on Blur Spotting a bot mimicking his trades, Hanwe Chang used the strategy against its owner to earn a huge premium. |
PRODUCT UPDATES AND PARTNERSHIPS
The Block Coinbase lays out leverage ambitions with Prime Financing Coinbase quietly launched Coinbase Prime Financing in Q2, aiming to offer leverage and other services to large financial institutions. |
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
The Block Valkyrie files to convert BTF into bitcoin and ether ETF: analyst As filings pour in for ether exchange-traded funds, Valkyrie looks to convert its Bitcoin Strategy ETF to a Bitcoin and Ether Strategy ETF. |
HACKS, EXPLOITS, AND SCAMS
Coin Telegraph JPEG'd confirms return of 5,495 ETH from Curve hacker The hacker drained a number of pools on Curve Finance, stealing roughly $70 million, but has gradually started returni... |
The Block Curve offering $1.85 million bounty for exploiter’s identity (and conviction) Curve is offering a public bounty for identity information that leads to its exploiter's conviction — unless they return the funds in full. |
Coin Telegraph Alchemix reports return of all stolen funds from Curve pools The attacker started returning stolen funds after accepting nearly $7 million in bug bounty. Funds had been returned t... |
Reports you may have missed
MARKET COMMENTARYU.S. EQUITIES ARE RELATIVELY FLAT AS THEY CONSOLIDATE ABOVE PRIOR ALL-TIME HIGHS. THE SPX IS TRADING AT 5,300, AND THE NDQ IS HOVERING NEAR $18,600, WHILE THE DXY 0.00% (-0.07%) IS SHOWING A SLIGHT DECLINE, TRADING AT $104.4. Crypto assets are showing strength, with BTC -0.99% rising 2.84% to $67.1k and ETH -1.52% surging 4.86% to $3,090. Liquid staking tokens are building on Ether's outperformance, as LDO -1.99% and PENDLE -3.55% have gained 10.11% and 13.43%, respectively. Similarly, layer-2...
CRYPTO MARKET UPDATETODAY, WE ARE SEEING SOME MINOR CONSOLIDATION IN THE CRYPTO MARKET COINCIDING WITH THE SLIGHT BOUNCE IN THE RATES AND DXY 0.00% . BTC -0.99% is trading just north of $65k, while ETHBTC continues to struggle, with ETH -1.52% moving lower for the 5th consecutive day and still trading below the $3k mark. Despite the market consolidation, SOLBTC is still green on the day as SOL -1.50% works to regain the $160 level....
MARKET COMMENTARYINVESTORS WELCOMED THIS MORNING’S SLIGHTLY SOFTER THAN EXPECTED CPI DATA AND A LARGE DOWNSIDE MISS ON U.S. RETAIL SALES, ALLEVIATING INFLATION CONCERNS AND HELPING TO PROPEL STOCK INDICES TO NEW INTRADAY ALL-TIME HIGHS. The SPY 0.14% and QQQ -0.07% have gained over 1% to surpass $528 and $451, respectively, while US treasury rates have turned significantly lower, with the US10Y dropping below 4.34%. Crypto is responding in similar fashion with BTC -0.99% ...
Tornado Cash Developer Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison, LayerZero Succeeding Against Sybils
CRYPTO MARKET COMMENTARYAPRIL PPI CAME IN MIXED THIS MORNING, WITH A LARGE UPSIDE SURPRISE IN MOM READINGS (0.5% VS. 0.3% EXP.) AND YOY METRICS LARGELY IN LINE WITH EXPECTATIONS. The upside in the MoM reading was offset by March figures being revised downwards. Yields initially spiked upon the data release but have turned negative across the curve. Equities are showing mild gains as attention shifts towards tomorrow’s CPI data release. The SPY 0.14% has gained 0.17% and the QQQ -0.07% has gained 0.31%. Crypto assets are...
