Marathon Announces Strong Earnings and Bitcoin L2, Gemini Comes to Settlement Agreement
Market Update
- The January PCE report this morning was largely in line with expectations, alleviating fears of a reacceleration of inflation. U.S. equities responded positively to the data, with SPY gaining 0.17% and the QQQ rising 0.42%. Crypto markets are mixed, with BTC declining 0.78% to $62k and ETH rising 1.45%. Yesterday marked the largest day of net inflows into Bitcoin ETFs since the launch, totaling $673 million and bringing cumulative AUM to an impressive $7.4 billion. Altcoins are seeing some buying pressure as BTC.D (-1.41%) is retreating. SOL and BONK are two of the strongest performers today, gaining 9.32% and 25.29%, respectively, potentially indicating an upcoming period of Solana ecosystem outperformance similar to Q4 2023.
- Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital reported 2023 earnings yesterday, announcing the company’s return to profitability, with a net income of $261.2 million. Marathon saw a 229% year-over-year increase in revenue to a record-setting $388 million and increased Bitcoin production by 210%, mining 12,852 BTC. Marathon boasted increases in hash rate, unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, and a 56% reduction in debt. Along with the impressive earnings report, Marathon announced the development of Anduro, a new multi-chain L2 network built on Bitcoin. Anduro leverages a process called merge-mining, where participating miners like Marathon will earn Bitcoin-denominated revenue from transaction fees on Anduro side chains while maintaining mining operations on Bitcoin’s base layer. Marathon is already incubating Anduro’s first two side-chains, Coordinate and Alys. Coordinate offers a cost-effective UTXO stack for ordinals, and Alys is an EVM-compatible chain for institutional asset tokenization. Development on Bitcoin has grown rapidly in recent months, and Anduro will encourage ecosystem growth and provide an additional revenue stream for Marathon.
Source: Marathon Digital
- Crypto exchange Gemini has come to a settlement agreement with Genesis and the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), which will result in the return of approximately $1.8 billion in crypto assets to its Gemini Earn customers. The Gemini Earn program allowed users to lend their assets to Genesis in exchange for interest. Unfortunately, Genesis declared bankruptcy in November 2022, leaving Gemini Earn customers unable to access their assets. If approved in bankruptcy court, customers will receive 97% of their assets in-kind within two months and the rest by the end of the year. Gemini will also pay a $37 million fine for unsafe practices, failure to conduct proper diligence on Genesis, and not maintaining adequate reserves. The NYDFS also retains the right to bring further action against Gemini if it does not meet its obligations following the resolution of Genesis’ bankruptcy. Gemini has pledged up to $40 million to aid in Genesis’ bankruptcy case, and the proposed plan is being reviewed in court this week.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Yesterday's consolidation breakout in Solana paved the way for upward acceleration today, and this should be viewed as a successful technical development in resolving the neutral period of range-bound consolidation that's lasted since late December, over two months ago. Upside technical targets lie initially at $145 but it's expected this proves minor in scope before a larger rally to $186 and intermediate-term targets near former all-time 2021 highs at $260. $186 resistance coincides with a 100% alternate extension of last Fall's rally when measured from late January lows. Overall, the daily chart shows a pattern that's proven to be fairly reliable over time as a Cup and Handle pattern that has just resolved itself by a breakout above the neckline ~119. This is bullish and higher prices look likely into mid-March and for a bullish uptrend to accelerate higher back to new all-time highs sometime in 2024.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of February 29, 2024 12:10 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $1.21T | $61,640 | ↑ 2.03% | ↑ 46% | |
 ETH | $412B | $3,426 | ↑ 3.93% | ↑ 51% | ↑ 4.63% |
 SOL | $57B | $129 | ↑ 17% | ↑ 26% | ↓ -20% |
 ADA | $24B | $0.6760 | ↑ 5.00% | ↑ 14% | ↓ -32% |
 DOGE | $18B | $0.1270 | ↑ 20% | ↑ 43% | ↓ -3.30% |
 LINK | $12B | $19.80 | ↑ 0.66% | ↑ 32% | ↓ -14% |
 DOT | $11B | $8.59 | ↑ 1.97% | ↑ 5.87% | ↓ -40% |
 MATIC | $10B | $1.02 | ↓ -1.67% | ↑ 6.30% | ↓ -40% |
 NEAR | $4.1B | $3.90 | ↑ 6.55% | ↑ 8.39% | ↓ -38% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -3.50% | $37.25 | ↑ 4.78% | ↑ 1.09% | ↓ -45% |
| BITW | ↓ -43% | $24.10 | ↑ 3.88% | ↓ -1.87% | ↓ -48% |
| ETHE | ↓ -12% | $19.73 | ↑ 4.50% | ↑ 1.39% | ↓ -45% |
| BTCC | ↑ 0.08% | $8.07 | ↑ 3.46% | ↓ -1.34% | ↓ -47% |
News
QUICK BITS
Decrypt.co Gemini to Return $1.1 Billion to Earn Customers, Pay $37 Million Fine In New York Settlement Gemini says the resolution for crypto lender Genesis means full digital asset returns for Earn program participants—market gains included. |
The Block Coinbase stock hits multi-month highs despite platform glitch as trading volume surges Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest offloaded more than $17 million worth of Coinbase shares yesterday amid the move. |
MARKET DATA
The Block Spot bitcoin ETFs hit record $673 million daily net inflow, led by BlackRock’s IBIT Daily volume also reached the highest levels since the ETFs launched — generating over $7.6 billion in trading yesterday. |
CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE
The Block Coinbase Cloud added Nethermind and Erigon to its Ethereum staking infrastructure and improve execution client diversity. |
REGULATION
BTC Manager HSBC Hong Kong to allow investments into virtual assets in 2024 HSBC’s Hong Kong investments head, Sami Abouzahr, says asset tokenization is one of the top priorities for the bank for this year. HSBC Hong Kong is set to doub... |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
CoinDesk IOTA's Ecosystem Foundation Commits $10M for Tokenization, Trade Startups IOTA's recently-launched Ecosystem Foundation is making its first series of investments, committing $10 million to to early-stage startups focused on digital tr... |
NFTS
CoinDesk Solana Gaming Project MixMob Bags Stormtrooper NFT Licensing Rights MXM, MixMob’s governance token on the Solana blockchain, operates the MXM Esports League and incentivizes players. |
MINING
The Block Marathon Digital unveils two Bitcoin sidechains as part of Anduro network Crypto mining firm Marathon Digital announced a new multi-chain Layer-2 network on bitcoin named Anduro, to accelerate bitcoin adoption. |
INVESTMENT PRODUCTS
CoinDesk Digital Asset Manager Onramp Invest Integrates CoinDesk 20 Index for RIAs Onramp is the first U.S.-based firm to allow for investible access via the CoinDesk 20 Index. |
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