FTX Considers Anthropic Sale, Perpetual Exchange Avantis Launches on Base
Market Update
- The SPY (-0.44%) and QQQ (-0.40%) are moving lower to start the week following ISM Services data coming in at 53.4 vs. 52.0 expected, marking the highest level since October. The prices paid component surged to 64.0 vs 56.4 expected, causing rates and the DXY (+0.52%) to move higher. $BTC and $ETH pared early morning gains and are roughly flat on the day, trading at $42.5k and $2.3k respectively. Chainlink ($LINK) is continuing last week’s strength, rising 5.72% to $19.2 and reaching its highest level since February 2022. In contrast, $RNDR is one of the worst performers in the top-100, falling 8.11% over the last 24 hours despite being one of the strongest tokens last week.
- The FTX bankruptcy estate has filed a motion that would enable the exchange to sell its approximate 8% stake in Anthropic, an AI company. Sam Bankman Fried invested $500 million in Anthropic in October 2021, which represents one of FTX’s largest illiquid assets. The filing outlines how the Anthropic investment could be sold via auction or private sale, but the desired price was redacted from the filing for confidentiality reasons. Anthropic’s latest reported valuation was $18 billion, making FTX’s investment worth approximately $1.4 billion. The potential sale may give creditors and customers more confidence that they’ll receive full payment of their claims. Additionally, FTX filed a motion to shorten the deliberation period for the sale motion so it can be heard at the next bankruptcy hearing on February 22nd.
- Perpetual decentralized exchange, Avantis, launched on Base mainnet on Friday, marking one of the first perp exchanges to launch natively on the L2. Avantis offers traders up to 100x leverage and offers crypto, forex, and commodities pairs and is backed by prominent crypto investors such as Pantera, Galaxy Digital, and Modular Capital. During its two-month testnet phase, Avantis facilitated over $5 billion in trading from over 50,000 wallets. Avantis differentiates itself from other perpetual exchanges by offering traders rebates on potential losses if they take contrarian positions, a novel design compared to funding rates, which are traditionally utilized by exchanges. Avantis plans to expand RWA trading opportunities, potentially integrating on-chain trading of crude oil and treasury rates.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
$LINKBTC has now risen to the highest levels since early 2022, arguably breaking out of a reverse Head and Shoulders pattern going back two years. Chainlink's outperformance vs. many cryptocurrencies has proven excellent following LINK's breakout of the consolidation from November of last year. However, the relative breakout to Bitcoin also supports the idea of continued relative strength in LINK vs. Bitcoin in the weeks and months ahead. Overall, this ratio of LINK to BTC looks appealing to consider as something which could show ongoing improvement in the weeks to come. While Bitcoin's dominance chart has not rolled over sufficiently to avoid Bitcoin in the near-term, LINK has begun to act much stronger, and this LINKBTC breakout makes Chainlink something to give preference to. Technically speaking, I expect LINKBTC to retrace at least 38.2% of the prior decline from 2020 and it could reach 50%, which would signify above-average returns in all likelihood for Chainlink investors, or those who favor LINKBTC rallies to continue.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of February 5, 2024 3:08 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $835B | $42,550 | ↓ -0.15% | ↑ 0.75% | |
 ETH | $277B | $2,302 | ↑ 0.98% | ↑ 1.17% | ↑ 0.42% |
 SOL | $42B | $95.94 | ↓ -0.49% | ↓ -5.68% | ↓ -6.43% |
 ADA | $17B | $0.4935 | ↓ -1.27% | ↓ -17% | ↓ -17% |
 DOGE | $11B | $0.0788 | ↓ -0.33% | ↓ -11% | ↓ -12% |
 LINK | $11B | $19.16 | ↑ 4.80% | ↑ 28% | ↑ 27% |
 DOT | $8.7B | $6.78 | ↑ 0.67% | ↓ -16% | ↓ -17% |
 MATIC | $7.5B | $0.7823 | ↑ 0.60% | ↓ -19% | ↓ -19% |
 NEAR | $2.9B | $2.76 | ↓ -0.49% | ↓ -23% | ↓ -24% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| GBTC | ↓ -0.63% | $37.25 | ↑ 4.78% | ↑ 1.09% | ↑ 0.34% |
| BITW | ↓ -37% | $24.10 | ↑ 3.88% | ↓ -1.87% | ↓ -2.62% |
| ETHE | ↓ -14% | $19.73 | ↑ 4.50% | ↑ 1.39% | ↑ 0.64% |
| BTCC | ↓ -0.26% | $8.07 | ↑ 3.46% | ↓ -1.34% | ↓ -2.09% |
News
QUICK BITS
CoinDesk Bitcoin ETF Provider Valkyrie Adds BitGo as Second Custodian in Risk Mitigation Move The digital asset investment firm has become the first of the ETF providers to diversify custody of its coins by tapping BitGo's expertise in addition to Coinba... |
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MARKET DATA
Bitcoin.com Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Skyrockets by 7.33%, Setting New Record for 2024 On Friday, Feb. 2, 2024, the Bitcoin network witnessed a significant milestone as its mining complexity metric surged by 7.33% at block height 828,576. This mar... |
BTC Manager Bitcoin ETF sees net inflow of $38.4 million, BlackRock outpaces Grayscale Bitcoin ETFs experienced a net inflow of $38.4 million on Feb. 1, marking the fifth consecutive day of such inflows. |
DOSE OF DEFI
CryptoPotato Avantis – The Next Generation Perpetuals DEX, Launches Today on Base Mainnet [PRESS RELEASE – New York, United States, February 2nd, 2024] Avantis Testnet saw more than $5.5 billion in trading volumes in just two months of testing since ... |
REGULATION
CoinDesk Hong Kong to Consult on Regulation for OTC Crypto Venues 'Very Soon' The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau will consult on over-the-counter venues like shops and online platforms following the outlets' role in crypto fra... |
MINING
BTC Manager Marathon Digital pays Hut 8 $13.5m to run two Bitcoin mining sites Marathon Digital has finalized a deal with Hut 8 to take over the operational control of Bitcoin mining sites by paying a termination fee of $13.5 million. |
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