Crypto Research
254 Results
CARNAGE GIVES WAY TO INDIFFERENCE There are few cohorts of people more excited to turn the page to a new year than crypto investors. After nearly 12 months of unwinding leverage, we have finally reached a point in the cycle where indifference has crept into the market, as demonstrated by the continued decline in volumes and realized volatilities. Aggregated ETH volume is the best proxy for trading activity in crypto....
ONTO NEXT YEAR Our last weekly strategy note of the year is going to be a brief one. I want to thank everyone for turning to us for timely and actionable research on crypto throughout this year. It was undoubtedly a trying time for the industry. We witnessed a period of reckoning that will leave the space better off over the long term. We will be back in the new...
DCG UPDATE _LEVERAGE UNWIND RECAP_ Clearly, the most challenging part of analyzing cryptoassets this year has been the opaque parts – the lending, borrowing, trading, and siphoning of assets that have occurred off-chain. This year, we have seen a deleveraging event throughout the global crypto market spurred on by the centralized elements of crypto. First, we saw the de-pegging of UST and the incineration of $50 billion in market value...
REALIZED CAP HIGHLIGHTS CONTINUED OUTFLOWS Realized capitalization is an important metric we have frequently referenced in prior notes. It values the network based on the price at which each bitcoin was last exchanged. It is a way to calculate the overall cost basis of all BTC holders and, consequently, is a useful measure of flows into and out of the bitcoin network. As one might expect, this year has witnessed...
ADJUSTING TO A POST-FTX WORLD A couple of weeks ago, we discussed several critical risk vectors remaining in the market and provided our take on each matter. Our near-term view was that it was more likely than not that most of the contagion from the implosion of FTX had been sifted through, but due to the unknown status of Digital Currency Group, investors might not be getting paid enough for...
MAPPING POSSIBLE CONTAGION Recently, we have discussed the risk of further drawdowns from the fallout from FTX as the reason for not being too aggressive at these admittedly favorable long-term entry levels. In this week’s note, we wanted to further unpack a few areas of the market where contagion could be lurking. Below is a fascinating graphic compiled by Bloomberg that maps SBF’s exposure throughout the crypto and traditional financial...
A FLOCK OF BLACK SWANS Unless you have been off the grid for the past week, you likely are familiar with the shockingly abrupt implosion of FTX. For those just entering the fold, to make a long story short – Sam Bankman Fried (SBF) allegedly stole an estimated $4 billion of customer deposits for Alameda, the fund in which he has a significant ownership stake. Alameda subsequently lost these funds,...
SBF VS. CZ As we addressed in our daily note on Monday, one thing few can argue is that crypto always keeps things interesting. As many know by now, two industry giants, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), sparred over the weekend following circulating rumors that FTX was on the verge of insolvency. _TO RECAP RECENT EVENTS:_Rumors initially emerged from a COINDESK REPORT last week implying that...
IDIOSYNCRATIC OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND The euphoric part of the bull market for crypto was largely about finding the fastest horse paired with one’s relative risk appetite. Unfortunately, in a bear market, most horses, notably the weaker or tired ones, no longer want to race. However, the past few months have revealed that ample opportunities exist to find the few horses that have some giddy-up in them. The two environments require fundamentally...
COINS DO NOT CARE ABOUT EPS As we have addressed over the past month, cryptoassets were nonreactive to the onslaught of gruesome tech earnings this week. At the time of writing, bitcoin, ether, and the rest of the crypto ecosystem have vastly outpaced the Nasdaq. As we can see below, a major contributing factor to crypto doing so well is yields rolling over for the first time since early October....
EARNINGS REVISITED Below is a chart that is both slightly jarring and fairly intuitive at the same time. The jarring aspect is obviously the rapid ascent of the expected terminal fed funds rate over the past six months. The intuitive part is that bitcoin does not like tightening monetary conditions and has steadily declined in direct opposition to the expected terminal rate. Note that we are using the futures market...
CPI STILL HOT For the second consecutive month, inflation was much hotter than analysts had anticipated. Despite headline CPI easing for the third consecutive month, the headline figure of 8.2% came in above the market consensus of 8.1%, and Core CPI accelerated to 6.6%, the highest in 40 years. Despite some relief in goods inflation, the numbers were not highly constructive for risk markets (or so it would seem). _Source:...