- Markets seem to be wishing another Uptober into existence, as crypto and equities are starting the month on a bullish note. At the time of writing, the $SPX (+2.2%) and $QQQ (+1.8%) are up substantially after finding new YTD lows last week. Meanwhile, the US 10Y is down to under 3.7%, a sizeable pullback from its rise above 4.0% just last week. The $VIX is down nearly 5%, while the $DXY is down 0.2% on the back of Prime Minister Truss' revised tax cut plan, which is giving the British Pound a slight boost compared to the dollar. The global crypto market cap is up 2.1% as $BTC (+1.7%) looks to challenge the $20k level, and $ETH (+2.2%) is doing its best to stay above $1.3k. Several prominent DeFi names are leading the market in the morning as blue chips such as $MKR, and $UNI are each up over 5%, and $AAVE and $RUNE trail close behind, posting 24-hour gains of approximately 3.0%.
- Centralized stablecoin issuer Tether, who currently commands a plurality of the stablecoin market share, took dramatic steps to reduce its exposure to commercial paper. Tether CTO Paulo Ardoino took to Twitter to reveal that US treasury bills now account for 58.1% of Tether's $68 billion of reserves, up from approximately 43.5% as of June 2022. More importantly, as of September 30th, its exposure to commercial paper amounts to a rounding error, down to less than $50 million from nearly $20 billion five months ago. This is consistent with Tether's commitment earlier this year to reduce its exposure to commercial paper. Tether has received substantial criticism for its lack of transparency around the specific commercial paper it was invested in. However, the shift from commercial paper to treasuries likely has more to do with the risk-adjusted yield short-duration treasuries provide for centralized stablecoin providers in this higher interest rate environment. For example, $68.0 billion of reserves lent at a 3.0% annualized rate (the lower bound of the target fed funds rate range) equates to an approximate $2 billion revenue run rate.
- A pair of infrastructure issues plagued the crypto ecosystem over the weekend. The first occurred when a Solana validator ran a duplicate validator instance, meaning that they produced the same block twice, which confused the rest of the network leading to approximately 6 hours of downtime and causing the network to fork. Depending on how it is measured, this was the 5th instance this calendar year of a disruption to the Solana Mainnet. While downtime and node centralization are risks that we have highlighted in our notes on Solana (a network we are generally bullish on), it is worth noting that this network disruption was somewhat dissimilar from previous ones as it was caused by a bug in consensus as opposed to a spam attack. See our most recent weekly note for more color on the recent resurgence of the NFT market on Solana, a driving factor behind its recent outperformance. The other infrastructure-related issue came from Coinbase, which encountered a technical problem on Sunday that prevented users from making payments or withdrawals involving US bank accounts. The case was resolved later the same day, but the company has yet to state the specific issue leading to the disruption in service.
Crypto Daily Report – October 3
Oct 3, 2022
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Reports you may have missed
By Sean Farrell
•
Apr 19, 2024
Happy Halving Day to all. It has been another volatile 24 hours for crypto markets, with war-related headlines sending risk assets lower overnight. BTC-1.91% briefly dipped below the $60k mark but has since recouped all its losses and is now trading above $64k. ETH-1.76% followed BTC's initial drop, trading below $2900 last night, but it has now rebounded to above $3000. SOL-2.06% has shown remarkable resilience amid the turmoil, now...
Tether Outlines New Organizational Structure, Aptos Partners with Microsoft, Brevan Howard, and SK Telecom
Market Update
By Tom Couture
•
Apr 18, 2024
Traditional markets are finding some relief in Thursdayâs trading after four consecutive sessions of losses. The SPY and QQQ have gained approximately 0.30%, while the IWM (+0.99%) is showing outsized gains. Crypto markets are finding larger relief, with $BTC rising 3.92% to $63.7k, and $ETH gaining 2.71% to exceed $3,050. Injective ($INJ) is one of the leading tokens today, gaining 9.37% following news of a partnership with JamboPhone to bring blockchain-powered financial solutions to emerging markets. JamboPhone...
By Tom Couture
•
Apr 17, 2024
Equities and crypto assets are selling off in tandem today as inflation and geopolitical fears have spooked risk assets. The SPY and QQQ have decreased by 0.46% and 0.92%, respectively, while crypto is selling off more aggressively. $BTC (-5.49%) has tested the high $59,000s and $ETH (-4.42%) is trading below $3,000. Among a sea of red, $SUI is showing relative strength, gaining 6.44% on the back of a partnership announcement with...
By Sean Farrell
•
Apr 16, 2024
Risk assets remain under pressure as the DXY's relentless rally has continued, now approaching its 2023 highs, currently at 106.5. Rates continue to move higher, with the 10Y now reaching a new year-to-date high of 4.7%. Gold continues its upward march amid persistent geopolitical tensions. Crypto remains weak in the face of rising rates, geopolitical risks, and tax season. $BTC continues to range between $61K and $63K following yesterday's afternoon...
