Market Update

U.S. equities are declining ahead of Nvidia earnings later today, with the SPY 2.59%  decreasing to $558.53, while the Nvidia-heavy QQQ 3.27%  has dropped to $472.20. The crypto market has suffered from large amounts of liquidations over the last 24 hours, totaling over $355 million as yesterday evening, BTC 0.10% fell swiftly from $62k down to $58k while ETH 3.13% made a similar move, falling from $2.6k to $2.4k in less than an hour. Both Bitcoin and Ethereum have since recouped some of their losses, with each trading at $59k and $2.5K, respectively. After sharp declines earlier this week, TON -41.91% is showing strength, briefly rising over 10% on news that Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov has been released from French police custody and is set to appear in court later today, where he faces a potential indictment.

OpenSea Receives Wells Notice

NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has received a Wells Notice from the SEC, according to its CEO, Devin Finzer. A Wells Notice indicates the SEC is considering pursuing regulatory action against a company, in this case regarding NFTs on OpenSea constituting securities. In a statement from Finzer, he expressed his disbelief in the SEC’s actions, which make broad allegations against NFTs, which are largely seen as digital collectibles or art. Finzer argues that digital art should not be regulated in the same manner as collateralized debt positions. The consequences of such a classification would be hundreds of thousands of online artists and creators being responsible for sales of securities, which would be impractical and stifle innovation. It is important to note that OpenSea will have time to present a counterargument to the SEC’s allegations, hopefully providing further information that results in no legal action from the SEC. In addition to OpenSea pushing back against the SEC, Finzer announced that they are pledging $5 million to help cover legal fees for any NFT creators and developers that receive a Wells Notice from the SEC. NFT marketplace tokens have dropped on the news, with BLUR 11.44% and LOOKS 2.33% both declining over 10% in the last 24 hours.

BNB Launches Official Cross-Chain Bridge

BNB Chain has launched its official cross-chain bridge, partnering with Stargate, Celer, and deBridge to improve interoperability within the BNB ecosystem and attract more developers to the network. BNB Chain Bridge integrates with Stargate’s cross-chain liquidity system, Celer’s state-channel-based cross-chain network, and deBridge’s interoperability framework. The bridge will support networks including Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Blast, and Linea, among others, aiming to provide users with a simpler and more efficient bridging experience compared to sole-provider solutions. BNB Chain is also creating a liquidity pool to streamline transfers from other chains in an effort to grow its stablecoin ecosystem. BNB is showing modest gains following the announcement, currently trading at approximately $534.

Technical Strategy

With three days left in the month of August, the monthly ETHBTC chart shows this pair set to close at the lowest levels in over three years, with August’s breakdown violating prior May 2024 lows & showing a steady trend of underperformance for Ethereum vs. Bitcoin.  While these types of consolidations like what’s occurred since 2021 following a big surge from 2019-2021 often do result in retracements that can give back 50-62% of the prior rally, it’s important to show some stabilization before this takes takes out 2019 lows followed by a breakout of the existing downtrend to have confidence of a rally.  Near-term, it’s difficult to make a bullish case for ETHBTC given this large monthly decline to three-year lows.  In the weeks/months ahead,  the ability to exceed the two-year steep downtrend from September 2022 peaks, is something to pay close attention to, which will represent the first evidence of ETHBTC starting to turn higher.

Daily Important Metrics Crypto Size Bullish signal is tied to the crypto market growing Market cap 2.08T $-86.8B(-4.00%) BTC Dominance 56.01 % (-0.60%) Stablecoins Increase in circulating stablecoins is a Bullish signal In Circulation +$118B (0.00%) In Exchanges +$21B (0.27%) BTC Metrics A decrease in Bitcoin on exchanges is bullish, indicates investors are moving coins to cold storage # BTC Exchanges +$3.0M (0.17%) Funding Rates Positive funding rates indicate traders are Bullish Aggregate -0.4484(-0.8022) Binance +0.6918(0.4923) Bitfinex +0.0476(0.0476) Bitmex -0.9250(-1.1014) ByBit +0.1614(-0.6735) Deribit +0.0860(0.0842) Huobi -0.3927(-0.3927) Kraken -0.0049(-0.2526) Mean -0.4484(-0.8022) OKex -0.7359(-0.6143) Sentiment BMI : 48 (100.00%) Futures A positive spread between Futures Prices and Spot Prices is Bullish CME Price $59,235(-4.41%) Spot Basis +$194(0.33%) Volume 836,309(76.39%) Open Interest 288,574(-0.88%) Options all exchanges Higher open interest change in a bull market is bullish for the sector Volume 30,010(9.23%) Open Interest 301,718 (1.93%) Vol. Put/Call Ratio 0.5829 (10.57%) OOI Put/Call Ratio 0.4667 (1.16%) All metrics as of 2024-08-28 15:08:45 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 $58,914 -4.45% 39.49% ETH $300B $2,494 -3.33% 9.61% -21.42% SOL $67B $144 -6.29% 41.74% 1.61% HNT $1.1B $6.98 4.59% -81.50% -86.74% DOGE $202,200 $0.0002 -6.01% -99.77% -99.84% All prices as of 2024-08-28 11:59:40 Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) Symbol Prem. to Nav Last Price Daily Change Year to Date Relative to BTC YTD BITW -26.66% $32 -4.68% 36.39% -2.22% ETHE 5.14% $21 -2.47% 9.90% -21.21% News Quick Bits CoinDesk Telegram CEO Pavel Durov Set to Appear in French Court After Weekend Arrest The head of the popular social-media and messaging platform was arrested on Saturday as part of an investigation into money laundering, drug trafficking, child pornography and non-cooperation with law enforcement crimes. CryptoSlate TON resumes operations after traffic surge from $550M DOGS airdrop disrupts network The Open Network (TON), the blockchain network linked to Telegram, has resumed operations following a significant outage that lasted nearly six hours due to a spike in network traffic. In an Aug. 28 post on X, TON confirmed it was back online and producing blocks as usual. What caused the outage? Some community members speculated […] The post TON resumes operations after traffic surge from $550M DOGS airdrop disrupts network appeared first on CryptoSlate. Regulation Coin Telegraph OpenSea marketplace receives Wells notice from the SEC CEO Devin Finzer pledged to "stand up and fight" any potential enforcement action the regulator might bring involving NFTs. Devin Finzer, CEO of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, reported the company had received a Wells notice from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), suggesting a potential enforcement action.In an Aug. 28 X post, Finzer said the SEC had issued the Wells notice, alleging that the NFTs traded on the marketplace may qualify as unregistered securities. The OpenSea CEO said the platform was ready to “stand up and fight” any potential enforcement action.“[T]his is a move into uncharted territory,” said Finzer. “By targeting NFTs, the SEC would stifle innovation on an even broader scale: hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at risk, and many do not have the resources to defend themselves.”Read more Fundraising and M&A Decrypt.co Solana Restaking Protocol Solayer Closes $12 Million Round Led by Polygon The Solana restaking protocol said it would use the new funding to emulate EigenLayer's approach to "shared economic security." The Block Crypto VC Lemniscap raises $70 million for third fund Lemniscap, a crypto-focused venture capital firm, has raised a new fund worth $70 million to invest in early-stage startups. CoinJournal Cypher Capital backs Echelon in $3.5 million seed round Echelon aims to improve capital efficiency with features for institutional markets. Cypher Capital participated in Echelon’s $3.5M seed round. The funding supports the development of new products, RWAs, and expansion to new networks. Cypher Capital, a prominent multi-strategy crypto investment firm, has announced its participation in a $3.5 million seed funding round for Echelon, a […] The post Cypher Capital backs Echelon in $3.5 million seed round appeared first on CoinJournal. Product Updates and Partnerships The Block BNB Chain launches official cross-chain bridge with Celer, deBridge and Stargate The BNB Chain Bridge aims to boost cross-chain interoperability, liquidity and user experience in the BNB Chain ecosystem. Investment Products Coin Telegraph Bitwise Bitcoin ETF to absorb $120M Osprey Bitcoin Trust Subject to closing conditions, the agreement will see Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF scoop up all the Bitcoin from the Osprey Bitcoin Trust. The Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) will soon be getting $120 million in Bitcoin after a plan to acquire the assets in the Osprey Bitcoin Trust (OBTC).The deal, revealed in an Aug. 27 joint statement between Bitwise Asset Management and Osprey Funds, has seen the two enter into an Asset Purchase Agreement. Part of the transaction will see OBTC unitholders receive shares of BITB as they liquidate their shares of OBTC. Subject to closing conditions, it is expected to close “later this year.” Read more