Market Update
- Risk markets were selling off before today's FOMC meeting where it was unanimously voted to keep interest rates steady. The Fed announced it would be reducing the speed of its balance sheet taper from $60 billion per month to $25 billion per month, a larger than expected reduction. Following the announcements and Chair Powell’s comments, yields turned sharply lower with the US10Y falling 9 basis points while equity indices rose. The SPY 0.54% and QQQ 0.97% have gained by 1.17% and 1.24%, respectively. BTC -3.35% (-2.70%) has pared losses to $59k after reaching a low of $56.5k early this morning, while ETH -2.94% (-0.67%) is trading just below $3k. Despite the large drop in Bitcoin, altcoins are showing relative strength, with Bitcoin’s dominance ratio dropping 1.57%. Layer-2 networks are a few of the leaders in the top-100 tokens today, with OP -2.46% , MATIC 0.29% , and STRK -0.99% all increasing by more than 4%.
- Tether released its Q1 attestation showing a record-breaking $4.52 billion first-quarter profit. The majority of profits came from mark-to-market gains in Bitcoin and Gold positions, and approximately $1 billion came from issuing stablecoins and managing underlying reserves, mainly from US Treasury holdings. Tether’s total direct and indirect treasury holdings exceed $90 billion. Tether also holds $5.4 billion worth of Bitcoin, $3.6 billion of Gold, $2.3 billion of other investments, and $1.8 billion of cash and cash equivalents, totaling $110.3 billion in USDT reserves. Total reserves exceed liabilities by $6.3 billion, providing a comfortable cushion to support further offerings. Tether issued $12.5 billion worth of USDT in the first quarter and commands a 69% stablecoin dominance ratio. Additionally, for the first time, the Tether Group revealed its net equity of $11.37 billion, a 62% increase from Q4 2023’s $7.01 billion.
Source: Tether
- Changpeng Zhao (CZ), former CEO of Binance, was sentenced to four months in prison yesterday after pleading guilty to anti-money laundering charges during his tenure at Binance. The sentencing was significantly shorter than the three years that the prosecutors were pursuing and less than the federal recommendations of 12-18 months. Besides the prison sentence, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion fine, and CZ paid a $50 million criminal fine and a $50 million penalty to the CFTC. Following the sentencing hearing, CZ took to Twitter to thank supporters and reiterate his conviction in the crypto industry and the safety of Binance’s exchange. The four-month sentence also coincidently played into the ongoing joke stemming from CZ tweeting the number “4” last year as a way to tell others to ignore negative news in the wake of the CFTC bringing the lawsuit against Binance.
Daily Technical Strategy
Mark L. Newton, CMT
Head of Technical Strategy
Despite the lack of strong rally in most cryptocurrencies in recent weeks, there has been some silent strengthening in Ethereum relative to Bitcoin which has carved out a reversal pattern most commonly referred to as a reverse Head and Shoulders pattern. This would be confirmed over .052 allowing for a push higher back to .06. This latter level is quite important on the charts of ETHBTC, as it would represent a breakout of the intermediate-term downtrend which has been ongoing since Fall 2022. Thus, while many have given up hope for a spot Ethereum ETF in the near future, ETH -2.94% has begun to show better relative strength than Bitcoin since the first part of April. Overall, i suspect an eventual breakout in the two-year downtrend of ETH to BTC. Yet, a move above $0.052 is a necessary first step towards believing this recent stabilization in ETHBTC can lead to rallies. Then a weekly close over $.06 would argue for the start of more material outperformance in Ethereum over Bitcoin.
Daily Important Metrics
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All metrics as of May 1, 2024 2:32 PM
All Funding rates are in bps
Crypto Prices
| Symbol | Market Cap | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
 BTC | $1.16T | $59,114 | ↓ -2.08% | ↑ 40% | |
 ETH | $365B | $2,991 | ↑ 0.63% | ↑ 31% | ↓ -8.54% |
 SOL | $59B | $132 | ↑ 6.47% | ↑ 30% | ↓ -10% |
 DOGE | $19B | $0.1311 | ↓ -0.40% | ↑ 47% | ↑ 7.26% |
 ADA | $16B | $0.4508 | ↑ 3.85% | ↓ -24% | ↓ -64% |
 DOT | $9.8B | $6.78 | ↑ 11% | ↓ -16% | ↓ -56% |
 LINK | $7.8B | $13.26 | ↑ 2.14% | ↓ -11% | ↓ -51% |
 MATIC | $6.8B | $0.6891 | ↑ 4.93% | ↓ -28% | ↓ -68% |
 NEAR | $6.7B | $6.30 | ↑ 4.57% | ↑ 75% | ↑ 35% |
Exchange Traded Products (ETPs)
| Symbol | Premium to Nav | Last Price | Daily Change | Year to Date | Relative to BTC YTD |
| BITW | ↓ -32% | $28.69 | ↓ -2.02% | ↑ 23% | ↓ -17% |
| ETHE | ↓ -24% | $21.33 | ↑ 3.39% | ↑ 10% | ↓ -30% |
News
QUICK BITS
The Block CZ’s four-month prison sentence sparks mixed early reactions Former Binance CEO and crypto pioneer Changpeng Zhao will be the richest person to ever serve time in a U.S. prison. |
BTC Manager Tether bags record $4.5b profit in Q1 USDT issuer Tether set a new record after making $4.5 billion in net profits during the first quarter of 2024. |
CRYPTO INFRASTRUCTURE
The Block Uniswap enables crypto purchases via Robinhood Connect Beginning this week, Uniswap users can leverage Robinhood Connect to purchase cryptocurrencies with funds from their Robinhood accounts or a debit card, as well... |
Bitcoinist Coinbase Increases Bitcoin Transaction Speeds With Complete Integration Of Lightning Network US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has taken a major step forward in the digital payments space by introducing support for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. This al... |
REGULATION
The Block US lawmakers introduce bill to clarify taxation of staking rewards Two lawmakers introduced a bill clarifying that staking rewards should be taxed only at the time of their sale. |
FUNDRAISING AND M&A
The Block BlackRock leads $47 million strategic funding round in tokenization firm Securitize The alternative investment management firm Hamilton Lane, ParaFi Capital and Tradeweb Markets also contributed to the financing. |
The Block Binance Labs backs Movement Labs’ mission to bring Facebook’s Move to Ethereum and beyond Movement Labs has announced an investment from Binance Labs in addition to the $38 million raised in its Series A round. |
