Crypto Market Update

Crypto was certainly looking strong relative to equities yesterday until Asian market hours commenced. Shortly after the HK market opened, we saw increased sell pressure and approximately $100 million in liquidations across all crypto assets, bringing BTC -0.62% down to below $64,000, ETH 3.38% down to $3,150, and SOL -2.37% to just below $170. This contrast in price action during U.S. and Asia market hours has been consistent throughout July. Over the past month, BTC is up 12.2% during U.S. hours and down 3.4% during the APAC session. Crypto prices have rebounded since the U.S. market opened, in line with the broader bounce in risk assets. This is despite a hotter-than-expected GDP, which led to an upward impulse in rates. Equities are showing a strong bounce, with small caps once again outperforming large caps. All eyes will now turn to the PCE and possible BTC conference-related catalysts tomorrow.

AAVE Weighs a Fee Switch

Aave’s latest proposal, led by Marc Zeller of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI), seeks governance feedback on implementing a “fee switch” to redistribute a portion of the protocol’s net excess revenue to key users. The proposal outlines a roadmap for this redistribution as part of an updated “AAVEnomics.” It aims to segregate and enhance the efficiency of the Safety Module by eliminating reliance on secondary liquidity, thus allowing for slippage-free debt coverage. The proposal also introduces the concept of Aave protocol restaking, which could provide new revenue streams. This initiative is designed to bolster the protocol’s long-term sustainability and efficiency, potentially increasing net excess revenue and aligning user incentives more closely with protocol growth. The proposal is currently open for community feedback and will proceed to a snapshot vote if consensus is reached. Investors certainly found the proposal favorable, with AAVE -0.88% token outperforming this morning.

MARA Buys $100 Million of BTC

According to a press release today, Marathon Digital (MARA -3.12% ) has purchased $100 million worth of bitcoin and reinstated its strategy to hold all mined BTC on its balance sheet, now totaling over 20,000 bitcoins valued at approximately $1.3 billion. CFO Salman Khan cited Bitcoin’s recent price decline and Marathon’s strong balance sheet as key factors behind returning to this strategy, while CEO Fred Thiel emphasized their confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term value as a treasury reserve asset. Marathon held $268 million in cash as of June 30 and will report its Q2 earnings on August 1st. While this does not affect the operations of MARA, it should increase its beta to BTC going forward.

Technical Strategy

TRON continues to show exemplary relative strength and remains one of the more favored Cryptocurrencies, after having suffered just minor weakness during the early part of July following its steep runup from May lows. Recent consolidation has not served to give much technical damage to its larger trend, and a rally back to recent highs looks likely into the month of August. Technically, the area of $0.14890 looks important, and weekly TRX 0.48% closes above this level should allow for acceleration up to challenge all-time highs from April 2021 near $0.18.  It maintains an excellent intermediate-term technical structure, and has formed a large Cup and Handle pattern from early 2021 which should give way to an upside breakout of its Handle in the weeks ahead. Only a move back under $0.105 would serve to postpone its rally, which isn’t anticipated in the coming weeks.

Daily Important Metrics Crypto Size Bullish signal is tied to the crypto market growing Market cap 2.31T $-106.9B (-4.43%) BTC Dominance 54.80 % (1.06%) Stablecoins Increase in circulating stablecoins is a Bullish signal In Circulation +$114B (-0.02%) In Exchanges +$19B (-0.29%) BTC Metrics A decrease in Bitcoin on exchanges is bullish, indicates investors are moving coins to cold storage # BTC Exchanges +$3.0M (0.43%) Funding Rates Positive funding rates indicate traders are Bullish Aggregate +0.8908 (0.0935) Binance +0.9919 (-0.0069) Bitfinex +0.5916 (0.5916) Bitmex +1.0000 (0.0000) ByBit +1.0000 (0.0000) Deribit +0.2706 (-0.2914) Huobi +1.0000 (1.0000) Kraken +0.5071 (-0.2422) Mean +0.8908 (0.0935) OKex +0.5333 (0.6882) Sentiment BMI : 60 (100.00%) Futures A positive spread between Futures Prices and Spot Prices is Bullish CME Price $64,160 (-3.47%) Spot Basis +$11 (0.02%) Volume 487,477 (-22.77%) Open Interest 296,381 (0.30%) Options all exchanges Higher open interest change in a bull market is bullish for the sector Volume 22,211 (-20.96%) Open Interest 274,290 (-0.13%) Vol. Put/Call Ratio 0.3311 (-35.57%) OOI Put/Call Ratio 0.4418 (-1.80%) All metrics as of 2024-07-25 12:08:24 All Funding rates are in bps Crypto Prices Symbol Market Cap Last Price Daily Change Year to Date Relative to BTC YTD BTC $1.26T $63,973 -3.68% 51.47% ETH $412B $3,424 -0.53% 50.49% -0.65% SOL $83B $179 1.64% 76.32% 16.40% DOGE $350,469 $0.0004 -2.24% -99.61% -99.74% All prices as of 2024-07-25 12:45:00 Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) Symbol Prem. to Nav Last Price Daily Change Year to Date Relative to BTC YTD BITW -28.58% $36 -2.41% 53.18% 1.13% ETHE 1.56% $27 -5.91% 38.01% -8.89% News Quick Bits CoinDesk Deutsche Telekom Joins RWA-Focused XDC as Infrastructure Provider in Digital Asset Push The company already runs nodes on multiple blockchain networks and is considering bitcoin mining plans, its web3 head revealed last month at a conference. The Block Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest sells $7.8 million of its own spot Bitcoin ETF Ark Invest offloaded 118,209 ARKB shares on Wednesday, worth $7.76 million, as the investment firm rebalanced its fund weightings. The Block Polymarket’s July trading volume surpasses $275 million, hits record high Decentralized prediction markets platform Polymarket saw its highest monthly volume, exceeding $275 million, in July. CoinDesk Coinbase's CBPL Fined $4.5M by UK Regulator for Money Laundering Lapses Despite the restrictions in place, CBPL onboarded and/or provided e-money services to 13,416 high-risk customers, the Financial Conduct Authority said. The Block MARA purchases $100 million worth of bitcoin, holdings surpass 20,000 BTC MARA also said it intends to adopt a full "HODL" approach to its bitcoin treasury policy, retaining all bitcoin mined. Market Data The Block US spot Ethereum ETFs saw $133 million in net outflows on second trading day The Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) saw $326.86 million in net outflows, the only one logging outflows among the ether funds. The Block Spot Ethereum ETFs generate $937 million in volume in second day of trading In their second day on the market, ether ETFs generated over $934 million in cumulative trading volume on Wednesday. Regulation CoinDesk India to Release Its Crypto Policy Stance by September After Stakeholder Consultations: Report India plans to put out a discussion paper outlining its policy stance on cryptocurrencies before September, according to Indian news outlet Moneycontrol citing an interview with Senior Finance Ministry Official Ajay Seth. Fundraising and M&A The Block Michael Novogratz’s Galaxy secures $113 million for crypto-focused venture fund According to a press release, the venture capital fund has already invested in over 100 portfolio companies, including Ethena, M^0, Monad and Plume.