November Weekly Update #3

November 11th to 17th Recap:

▫️ US Spot ETH ETFs recorded their highest ever net inflow day, totaling $294.9M on Monday
▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 27,200 BTC for $2.03B at $74,463 per BTC
▫️ 18 U.S. states filed to sue the SEC over unconstitutional overreach & unfair crypto industry persecution
▫️ Trump confirmed ‘DOGE’ efficiency dept led by Musk & Ramaswamy as Dogecoin investors drop $258B lawsuit against Musk
▫️ Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced bill for Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act paving the way for the state to hold BTC as a reserve asset
▫️ FBI raided Polymarket CEO's home, seizing phone & electronic devices
▫️ NYSE Arca filed Form 19b-4 to uplist the Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund (BITW) as an ETP
▫️ Franklin Templeton expanded its $410M money market fund to Ethereum blockchain
▫️ BlackRock launched BUIDL on Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism, & Polygon
▫️ VanEck launched SUI ETN offering in Europe
▫️ Canary Capital filed with SEC for pioneering Hedera HBAR spot ETF
▫️ Zero Gravity LAbs (0G Labs) raised $40M seed & secured a further $250M in financing /token purchase commitment
▫️ Portal Ventures raised $75M for fund to invest in pre-seed crypto startups
▫️ Solana Wallet provider Phantom issued emergency iOS update after app reset locked users out of their wallets & required seed recovery phrase

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $93,409
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $84,717

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,438
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,027

November 18th to 24th Upcoming Events:

▪️ November 19 - Bitwise launches first Aptos Staking ETP on SIX Swiss Exchange
▪️ November 20 - ENA, $7.7M token unlock
▪️ November 20 to 21 - European Web3 Summit 2024
▪️ November 21 - ADA, $13.7M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

Another strong week in crypto markets took place with BTC hitting new highs of $93k before going on to fluctuate at around $89k amid confirmation of the Republican party retaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Digital asset inflows hit $2.2B last week with BTC ETFs amassing $1.48B in global inflows while ETH ETFs had an even stronger week, going on to post record inflow numbers. US spot ETH ETFs experienced their highest net inflow day on record on Monday, totaling $294.9M while global ETH ETF inflows hit $646M for the week.

With the US inflation data coming in higher at 2.6% YoY rather than the expected 2.4% & given the relative general strength of financial markets & US economy, Fed Chair Jerome Powell outlined a likely slow-down in further rate cuts which is bearish for crypto near-term. While the week ahead sees no specific price action catalysts, the strength of the rally since the Nov. 6 election will make traders & investors wary of betting against the trend.

November Weekly Update #4

November 18th to 24th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 51,780 BTC for $4.6B at $88,627 per BTC & completed a $3B offering of convertible notes at 0% coupon & 55% conversion premium
▫️ BlackRock BTC ETF options went live & experienced just under $1.9B in notional exposure traded via 354k contracts on launch day
▫️ Cantor Fitzgerald negotiated a $600M deal to acquire a 5% ownership interest in Tether
▫️ Over $450M was liquidated as BTC hit a new ATH, surpassing $97,600
▫️ Cboe announced intention to launch first spot BTC cash-settled options product on Monday, December 2
▫️ SEC Chair Gary Gensler announced intention to depart agency on January 20
▫️ Bitwise registered Solana ETF in Delaware & CBOE received 21Shares & VanEck Solana ETF filings
▫️ Bitfinex Securities & NexBridge launched tokenized US T-Bill offering under El Salvador's legal framework
▫️ The SEC lost “crypto” broker-dealer rule lawsuit in US District Court
▫️ Binance introduced BFUSD, a yield-bearing “stablecoin” offering 19.55% APY
▫️ Polymarket blocked French users after scrutiny over US Presidential Election betting
▫️ Grayscale BTC ETF options went live with trading opened for $GBTC & $BTC
▫️ Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new ATH of 102.29T
▫️ Coinbase announced 4.7% APY reward for USDC holders using Coinbase Wallet
▫️ MetaMask launched token swaps not requiring ETH to pay fees

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $99,421
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $90,458

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,482
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,038

November 25th to December 1st Upcoming Events:

▪️ November 26 - Starknet launch STRK staking on mainnet
▪️ November 26 - WalletConnect 185M WCT airdrop
▪️ November 26 - ADA, $18.5M token unlock
▪️ November 29 - IMX, $41M token unlock
▪️ November 30 - OP, $75M token unlock
▪️ November 30 - 1INCH, $39M token unlock
▪️ December 1 - SUI, $205M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

Crypto showed sustained strength this week with BTC taking out new ATH's before hitting $99k & then retracing back to $94k at the time of writing. Digital asset investment products experienced a record breaking week with the largest ever weekly inflows of $3.13B. BTC accounted for the vast majority of the total recording $3B of inflows, & inflows into US BTC ETFs actually surpassed $3.2B with European outflows bringing the global total down slightly.

Signs of the current bullish sentiment are everywhere from Donald Trump appointing pro-crypto hedge fund manager Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary to the Solana-based Phantom wallet becoming the 2nd highest-ranked app under the Utilities category in the U.S. Apple App Store, trailing behind Google.

To cap it off, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index hit 94 signalling “Extreme Greed” on Friday, the highest level since February 2021. US Thanksgiving in the week ahead means fewer trading days & lighter volumes in the traditional markets which often results in higher volatility which can bleed into crypto markets. All eyes will be locked on to whether the week ahead will see BTC breaking the $100k barrier or whether bears will take temporary control as things cool off in the short term to provide a break from the sustained bullish activity.

December Weekly Update #1

November 25th to December 1st Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 55,500 BTC for $5.4B at $97,862 per BTC
▫️ BTC price fluctuations led to over $500M in liquidations over 24 hours at the start of the week
▫️ US court ruled that sanctions against Tornado Cash smart contracts are unlawful
▫️ Russia approves crypto law recognizing digital assets as property
▫️ BTC mining company MARA Holdings purchased $615M worth of BTC, increasing total holdings to 34,794 BTC
▫️ Celsius Network began 2nd distribution of $127M to eligible creditors, offering 60.4% recovery rate
▫️ Youtube competitor Rumble announced plan to allocate up to $20M of excess cash reserves to BTC
▫️ Bitwise 10 Crypto Index ETF filed with The SEC
▫️ OKX exchange published its 25th Proof of Reserves (PoR) report, detailing $26.61B of total reserve assets
▫️ Crypto fund issuer Valour launched 1st DOGE ETP on Sweden's Spotlight Stock Market
▫️ Total stablecoin value reached new ATH at just under $200B
▫️ The combined on-chain DEX volume across 23 chains reached an ATH of $16.8B using the seven-day moving average
▫️ Solana’s monthly DEX volume surpassed $100B for the first time
▫️ CowSwap DEX’s monthly volume revealed to have hit a new ATH in November of $5.3B
▫️ Coinbase announced end of USDC rewards for holders in the EEA due to MiCA regulation with rewards accruing until November 30
▫️ MetaMask users experienced connection problems due to outage at RPC provider Infura

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $98,652
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $91,035

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,735
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,277

December 2nd to 8th Upcoming Events:

▪️ December 3 - EIGEN, $5M token unlock
▪️ December 3 - Kaspa TN11 Hard Fork
▪️ December 4 - ENA, $10M token unlock
▪️ December 6 - US unemployment rate announcement
▪️ December 6 - ADA, $22M token unlock
▪️ December 7 - JTO, $465M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

BTC opened up the week with a sudden pull back followed by a rebound to $96k which triggered a raft of liquidations before going on to close at 2% down WoW. This matched broader markets & with a shortened trading week BTC experienced significant institutional selling. Globally, BTC ETFs saw outflows of US$457M, the first significant outflows since early September which appears to highlight some apprehension/profit taking as BTC tests the psychological $100k barrier.

Despite this, digital asset investment products still experienced $270M of inflows fueled by ETH attracting inflows of $634M, outdoing BTC for the first time & bringing year-to-date inflows to $2.2B. Ethereum's strong price action (8% up WoW) highlighted the shift in sentiment & the overall bullishness around crypto is apparent with corporations across the world either committing to or executing BTC purchases for their corporate treasuries. With more corporations carrying out their 2025 strategic planning, the week ahead could see more positive announcements around institutional digital asset inclusions setting the stage for a big December.

December Weekly Update #2

December 2nd to 8th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 15,400 BTC for $1.5B at $95,976 per BTC
▫️ BTC broke $100K & price fluctuations led to over $1B in liquidations over 24 hours on Thursday
▫️ Trump nominated Paul Atkins as SEC Chair & named former PayPal COO David Sacks as White House AI & Crypto Czar
▫️ Coinbase announced launch of Apple Pay crypto purchases
▫️ The Czech Republic decided to exempt BTC holdings over 3 years from capital gains tax
▫️ BTC mining company MARA proposed $700M convertible senior note offering to buy more BTC
▫️ Former Celsius CEO Mashinsky plead guilty in US fraud case
▫️ Coinbase obtained letters revealing U.S. regulator FDIC told banks to avoid crypto companies
▫️ Grayscale filed for Solana ETF with NYSE
▫️ US govt moved $1.9B worth of BTC to Coinbase wallets & Mt. Gox moved $2.4B in BTC to unknown address
▫️ November revealed as record month for U.S. spot BTC ETFs as net inflows hit $6.1B
▫️ Pudgy Penguins announced release of PENGU token
▫️ Total stablecoin value reached new ATH at just under $200B
▫️ The combined on-chain DEX volume across 23 chains reached an ATH of $16.8B using the seven-day moving average
▫️ Solana’s SDK suffered breach resulting in compromised private keys & stolen funds

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $103,551
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $94,035

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $4,089
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,555

December 9nd to 15th Upcoming Events:

▪️ December 9 - BGB, $15M token unlock
▪️ December 10 - EIGEN, $6M token unlock
▪️ December 11 - ENA, $13M token unlock
▪️ December 11- APT, $162M token unlock
▪️ December 11 - US Inflation Announcement
▪️ December 15 - STRK, $41M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

After a prolonged period of testing, BTC finally crossed $100k this week, stimulating positive sentiment & generating significant interest in the future of both BTC & the digital asset space in general. Large buys by Microstrategy & MARA in addition to “crypto-friendly” announcements by the US govt regarding key recruitment positions possibly provided the impetus for the move up to $103k.

Digital asset investment products saw the largest weekly inflows ever with $3.85B flowing in. BTC saw inflows of $2.5B setting a new record while ETH saw its largest weekly inflows ever worth $1.2B. The positive sentiment also bled into DeFi with DEX trading volumes reaching new highs & the total value locked (TVL) for lending protocols reaching a new ATH of $54B.
BTC making the mainstream news will result in much stronger institutional interest in the mid to long term but may also result in both retail & institutions FOMO buying up assets in the week ahead. However, bears have been warning of a pullback for weeks, & it will be worth keeping an eye on which digital assets show strong price action over the week ahead.

December Weekly Update #3

December 9th to 15th Recap:

▫️ Early week price fluctuations led to over $1.7B in liquidations over 24 hours on Monday
▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 21,550 BTC for $2.1B at $98,783 per BTC
▫️ Texas House of Reps introduced bill to establish a strategic BTC reserve
▫️ BTC mining company MARA Holdings purchased 11,774 BTC for $1.1B at $96,000 per BTC
▫️ Vancouver City Council passed motion to become a “Bitcoin-friendly city” & explore possible municipal use
▫️ Nasdaq announced Microstrategy to join Nasdaq 100 & QQQ ETF
▫️ Tether’s USDT recognized as Accepted Virtual Asset in Abu Dhabi Global Market
▫️ Riot Platforms proposed $500M convertible senior note offering to buy more BTC & purchased 5,117 BTC for $510M at an average price of $99,669 per BTC
▫️ Trump’s World Liberty Financial began purchasing tokens including ETH, LINK, AAVE, & ENA
▫️ Avalanche (AVAX) raised $250M From Galaxy Digital, Dragonfly, & others
▫️ Total stablecoin market cap hit $200B
▫️ Daily active users in crypto hit a record high of 18.7M in early December
▫️ Grayscale launched Optimism & Lido DAO Trusts

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $104,847
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $94,588

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $4,002
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,530

December 16th to 22nd Upcoming Events:

▪️ December 17 - APE, $24.5M token unlock
▪️ December 17 - EIGEN, $7M token unlock
▪️ December 17 - Fuel Network token sale on Impossible Finance
▪️ December 18 - Fed rate cut announcement
▪️ December 18 - ENA, $15M token unlock
▪️ December 18 - QAI, $22M token unlock
▪️ December 20 - ADA, $20M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

While most global equity markets traded down, crypto continued its strong upward momentum with BTC touching $105k over the weekend & trading at 5% up WoW at the time of writing. Microstrategy, MARA, & Riot Platforms led BTC corporate treasury buys while the Texas House bill introduction highlighted current positive developments regarding national & federal treasuries acquiring BTC.

The positive sentiment saw digital asset investment products attract inflows totalling $3.2B with BTC attracting inflows of $2B while ETH attracted inflows worth $1B. ETH products saw their 7th consecutive week of inflows while all digital asset investment products hit a 10th consecutive week of inflows. With 2024 drawing to a close, total inflows currently stand at $44.5B.
This week sees the Fed meet for the last time this year on December 18 with consensus seemingly forming around a 25 bps rate cut, however, the Fed Chair's future outlook & possible hints at either a continuation of or a stop to rate cuts may lead to short term volatility & markets swinging either up or down.

December Weekly Update #4

December 16th to 22nd Recap:

▫️ BTC hit $108k as following price drop led to over $1B in liquidations over 24 hours on Thursday
▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 15,350 BTC for $1.5B at $100,386 per BTC
▫️ Rumble announced $775M strategic investment from Tether
▫️ Ohio Congressman proposed the Ohio Bitcoin Reserve Act to create a state-backed BTC reserve
▫️ BTC mining company MARA Holdings purchased 15,574 BTC for $1.53B at $98,529 per BTC
▫️ SEC approved 1st spot BTC & ETH combo ETFs from Hashdex & Franklin Templeton
▫️ FTX announced January 3, 2025 date for its Chapter 11 plan of reorganization
▫️ Tether announced plans to launch AI platform in Q1 2025 as USDT market cap hit new ATH of $135B
▫️ Assets Under Management (AUM) of BTC ETFs in the U.S. surpassed gold ETFs as percentage of BTC market cap to gold reached new ATH of 14%
▫️ Pudgy Penguins launched $1.5B PENGU token airdrop on SOL with claims open for 88 days
▫️ Kraken officially launched Ink network as part of Optimism Superchain
▫️ Layer 2s reached a new ATH in stablecoin TVL of close to $12B
▫️ Layer-2 network Fuel announced plan to airdrop 10% of FUEL token supply to 200K wallets
▫️ Trump’s World Liberty Financial swapped cbBTC for WBTC after Justin Sun joined as adviser
▫️ Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain’s largest-ever upgrade 'Avalanche9000' went live

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $108,364
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $92,422

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $4,056
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,125

December 23rd to 29th Upcoming Events:

▪️ December 25 - ENA, $13.4M token unlock
▪️ December 26 - ADA, $16.5M token unlock
▪️ December 27 - IMX, $33.5M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

A volatile week in crypto saw BTC start off strongly by hitting an ATH of $108,364 before dropping to $95k & ending the week around 7% down. Globally, digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling $308M. However, Thursday brought the largest single day of outflows totalling $576M, with total outflows over the final 48 hours of the week hitting $1B.

US ETF flows generally tracked asset price movements & BTC ETFs ended the week with $446M in inflows while ETH ETFs gathered $62M despite the late sell-offs. One of the major causes of the volatility was the Fed funds rate announcement & Chair Powell's future outlook. As we mentioned last week the quarter-point cut was not a surprise but the Fed Chair's commentary around 'only' 2 further cuts in 2025 & shooting down the idea of a BTC strategic reserve in the near-term stimulated the sell-off.

As the year comes to a close, fewer traditional market trading days in the holiday week ahead means lower trading volumes which can lead to volatile swings in either direction in tradfi & crypto. While the medium term outlook remains bullish, the market could lag or continue to sell off with some analysts earmarking Trump’s official inauguration on January 20 as a potential market benchmark.

December Weekly Update #5

December 23rd to 29th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 5,262 BTC for $561M at $106,662 per BTC
▫️ Donald Trump appointed Bo Hines as executive director of the "Crypto Council" advisory group
▫️ Bitwise filed for a Bitcoin Standard Corporations ETF with the SEC
▫️ El Salvador purchased a further 11 BTC, bringing its total holdings to 5,994.77 BTC
▫️ BTC broke past $2T & hit a new ATH for monthly trading volume
▫️ Coinbase reached a new ATH of $119B in weekly trading volume, averaging almost $20B daily
▫️ Solana hit 72.8m daily transactions on December 23, setting a new record
▫️ North Korean hackers stole a record $1.34B in crypto over 2024, accounting for 61% of all crypto thefts this year
▫️ The Montenegrin Minister of Justice signed a decision to extradite Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon to the U.S.
▫️ Jupiter DEX announced plan to distribute 700 million tokens in January
▫️ Close to $15B revealed to have been distributed through airdrops over 2024
▫️ Crypto fundraising hit a yearly high of $3B in December

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $99, 800
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $92,937

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,535
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,305

December 30th to January 5th Upcoming Events:

▪️ December 31 - OP, $58M token unlock
▪️ January 1 - SUI, $275M token unlock
▪️ January 1 - ZETA, $31.4 M token unlock
▪️ January 1 - DYDX, $12.75M token unlock
▪️ January 1 - ENA, $12.65M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

Bears are starting to take control & BTC is down 2% WoW (at time of writing) after a week where US BTC ETFs recorded $378M in outflows. Despite the sell offs, ETH maintained its recent strong performances with $349M flowing into US ETFs, however, ETH opened & closed the week trading at around $3,300. The past week also saw several innovative BTC filings targeted at institutional investors including Strive & REX Shares Bitcoin corporate Treasury holders ETF & ProShares' Bitcoin-hedged equity index ETF.

These filings illustrate the sustained confidence in digital assets in general & BTC specifically as a mainstream asset class. However, another shortened trading week will again mean lower volumes i.e. we will likely see a couple of days with global trading volumes sub $100B which have been rare since Trump's election win on Nov 6th. As stated last week, these low volumes can lead to volatile swings in either direction in both digital & traditional asset markets.

All in all, a massive year for crypto comes to an end with major milestones including BTC reaching $100k, crypto ETFs gaining record-breaking adoption, governments adopting favourable crypto regulations, & stablecoins surfacing as crypto’s “killer use-case". Despite all this, the beginning of 2025 may see depressed prices as both individuals & institutions look to sell for tax purposes & the recent exuberance may remain subdued until funds from the $16B FTX creditor repayments move back into the market & Trump’s official inauguration on January 20.

January Weekly Update #1

December 30th to January 5th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 2,138 BTC for $209M at $97,837 per BTC
▫️ Tether added 7,629 BTC ($700M) to reserve address, & brought total holdings to $7.7B
▫️ The IRS delayed the FIFO crypto tax reporting requirements until Dec 2025
▫️ The FTX payout plan officially went into effect on Jan. 3, with creditor repayments set to begin within 60 days
▫️ MicroStrategy announced plan to raise up to $2B through public offerings of perpetual preferred stock as part of its 21/21 Plan to acquire more BTC
▫️ BlackRock's spot BTC ETF, IBIT, hit $50B in 11 months, & matched the combined AUM of 50+ Euro ETFs built over 2 decades
▫️ Monthly volume on DEXs hit a record high of $462B in December
▫️ Ethereum L2s reached a new ATH of 10.61M active addresses
▫️ At least 60 billionaires worldwide were revealed to hold BTC
▫️ Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon appeared in Manhattan court & pleaded not guilty to eight felony charges
▫️ BTC's hash rate hit a new ATH, surpassing 800 EH/s or 800 quintillion hashes per second

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $99,695
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $92,173

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,664
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,312

January 6th to 12th Upcoming Events:

▪️ January 8 - ENA, $16M token unlock
▪️ January 9 - MOVE, $52M token unlock
▪️ January 10 - US unemployment rate announcement
▪️ January 11 - APT, $112M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

After last week’s drawdown, the price of BTC recovered to trade 4% up WoW (at time of writing) pushed up by US BTC ETFs recording $900M in inflows alone on Friday. This massive inflow helped to offset some earlier volatility which saw Blackrock’s IBIT experience a record net outflow of $331M on Thursday.

ETH ETFs broke their 5 week streak of net inflows, recording $38M in outflows (ETH trading 8% up WoW), & after a couple of shortened trading weeks, the upcoming week should see daily trading volumes revert back to normal. However, a surprise on the US unemployment rate announcement on Jan 10th could cause volatility but with no other near-term catalysts a neutral trading outlook for the week ahead seems likely.

January Weekly Update #2

January 6th to 12th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 1,070 BTC for $101M at $94,004 per BTC
▫️ Spot BTC ETFs accumulated 51.5k BTC in Dec 2024, nearly 3x the 13,850 BTC produced by crypto miners as 859,454 BTC was bought by ETFs & public companies in 2024
▫️ AI revealed as best performing sector for 2024 with 2,939.8% YTD return, followed by memecoins with 2,185.1% returns, & RWA with 819.5%
▫️ Over $650M liquidated over 24 hours as BTC fell from $101.8k to $95.8k on Tuesday
▫️ US DOJ cleared to sell $6.5B of seized Silk Road BTC
▫️ Bhutan SAR announced plan to adopt BTC, ETH & BNB as part of its strategic reserves
▫️ The Ethereum network experienced outflows of $43.5B over 2024, with a $7.7B net outflow
▫️ MANTRA blockchain to tokenize $1B of real-world assets for UAE-based property firm DAMAC
▫️ Bitfinex received Digital Asset Service Provider licence & relocated derivatives services to El Salvador
▫️ UK exempted crypto staking from collective investment scheme rules
▫️ Sol Strategies took out $25M credit line to invest in SOL tokens & staking operations & announced CAD $27.5M private placement with ParaFi Capital
▫️ Ethereum network accounted for over 55% of TVL across all chains in 2024
▫️ Monthly Base volume on Uniswap Protocol hit a new ATH of $15.65B
▫️ ETH L2 project Movement Labs closed $100M Series B funding round
▫️ 0G Foundation raised $30M selling AI nodes with node operators receiving up to 15% of the 0G token supply for 3 years

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $102,215
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $91,314

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,712
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,180

January 13th to 19th Upcoming Events:

▪️ January 15 - STRK, $27M token unlock
▪️ January 15 - ENA, $11M token unlock
▪️ January 15 - SEI, $21M token unlock
▪️ January 14 - Nosana Mainnet Launch
▪️ January 15 - US Inflation announcement
▪️ January 16 - ARB, $66M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

The past week brought significant price volatility for BTC, & while we highlighted the US unemployment rate as an announcement to keep an eye on, the strong US services sector reading on Tuesday preceded Friday January 10th's strong jobs report. This duo of macro indicators turned out stronger than expected & when paired with news that the US DOJ could potentially sell $6.5B in seized Silk Road BTC the market understandably suffered a down week.

US BTC ETFs ended the week net positive with $313M in inflows while ETH ETFs recorded outflows of $186M. Globally, BTC investment products saw inflows totalling $214M with large outflows later in the week, while ETH recorded $256M in outflows.

Looking forward, with Trump's January 20th inauguration fast approaching, alongside the long awaited stepping down of SEC Chair Gary Gensler, the US inflation announcement on January 15th presents an additional catalyst for possible market volatility in the week ahead. However, a higher than expected reading may result in sharp downwards moves as investors start to doubt the likelihood of more than 2 rate cuts this year.

January Weekly Update #3

January 13th to 19th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 2,530 BTC for $243M at $95,972 per BTC
▫️ $TRUMP & $MELANIA meme coins launched ahead of inauguration
▫️ US Govt stated 120k seized BTC from 2016 Bitfinex hack worth $4B should be returned to Bitfinex
▫️ SEC charged Digital Currency Group & sanctioned Genesis CEO Michael Moro for misleading investors
▫️ Oklahoma Rep proposed Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Act for state to invest in BTC
▫️ Canary Capital filed for a LTC ETF
▫️ Sony launched Soneium public blockchain platform on mainnet
▫️ Vitalik Buterin detailed 'large changes' to Ethereum Foundation leadership as ETH developers set Pectra mainnet upgrade for March
▫️ Phantom Wallet raised $150M at $3B valuation in Series C funding round
▫️ MoonPay purchased buy Solana crypto payment processor Helio for $175M
▫️ Tether received Digital Asset Service Provider licence & announced relocation to El Salvador
▫️ Coinbase launched DeFi-backed BTC loans for US users via Morpho
▫️ Swiss state-owned bank PostFinance expanded into ETH staking
▫️ Orbiter Finance announced OBT token launch & airdrop details
▫️ L2s crossed $500B in all-time volume on Uniswap
▫️ Sigma Capital unveiled $100M fund to accelerate Web3 innovations

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $106,180
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $90,815

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,512
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,015

January 20th to 26th Upcoming Events:

▪️ US President Trump’s Inauguration
▪️ January 20 - IMX, $28M token unlock
▪️ January 21 - FTN, $77M token unlock
▪️ January 22 - ENA, $11M token unlock
▪️ January 24 - IMX, $28M token unlock
▪️ January 25 - JUP, $657M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

The week leading up to Trump's inauguration did not disappoint with a host of announcements and rumors sending crypto markets flying. US Bitcoin ETFs collected a whooping $1.8B while Ethereum ETFs netted $212M with large flows recorded following a softer than expected US inflation announcement on Wednesday. With Bitcoin already crossing $105k during the week, Trump's memecoin launch during the inaugural crypto ball caused further frenzy in the market and a volatile weekend which resulted in the memecoin setting records on its way to a $15B market cap (based on circulating supply).

The beginning of next week is the largest catalyst the crypto world has been awaiting since the Nov 6 election, Trump's inauguration. Expect volatility on Monday based on any crypto related "Day One executive orders" and announcements during the week including a potential crypto council to advise Congress on much-needed regulatory clarity.

January Weekly Update #4

January 20th to 26th Recap:

▫️ MicroStrategy acquired an additional 11,000 BTC for $1.1B at $101,191 per BTC
▫️ Bitcoin ETFs revealed to hold over 1,100,000 BTC around 5.7% of current supply
▫️ Acting SEC Chairman Uyeda announced formation of new crypto task force
▫️ Senator Lummis announced new role as Chair of the Senate Banking Digital Assets Subcommittee
▫️ SEC rescinded crypto accounting guidance SAB 121
▫️ US Appeals Court lifted OFAC sanction against Tornado Cash
▫️ Utah introduced a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill
▫️ Bitwise filed for Doge ETF in Delaware
▫️ Trump pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht
▫️ White House crypto czar David Sacks stated NFTs & memecoins are collectibles, not securities
▫️ CME leaked potential XRP & SOL futures launch on February 10 after regulatory review
▫️ Rex filed for Doge, Bonk, & Trump ETFs
▫️ Circle acquired $1.3B tokenized RWZ firm Hashnote
▫️ Solana hit ATHs for daily tx fees ($50M), DEX volume ($39.2B), REV ($56.5M), TVL ($10B) & stablecoin supply ($10B)
▫️ Ethereum experienced second largest drawdown of staked ETH from ATH since 2023 Shapella upgrade
▫️ Base hit an ATH of $2.9B DEX volume, driven by $1.3B in ETH-USD volume
▫️ Binance Labs rebranded to YZi Labs
▫️ Aave hit new ATH for TVL in ETH terms

🔼 Bitcoin Weekly High: $108,168
🔽 Bitcoin Weekly Low: $99,897

🔼 Ethereum Weekly High: $3,420
🔽 Ethereum Weekly Low: $3,173

January 27th to February 2nd Upcoming Events:

▪️ January 29 - US Fed & Bank of Canada Interest Rate announcements
▪️ January 29 - Jupiter Exchange Jupuary Airdrop claim goes live at 15:30 UTC
▪️ January 29 - TRIBL, $54M token unlock
▪️ January 31 - OP, $45M token unlock
▪️ February 1 - SUI, $243M token unlock
▪️ February 1 - ZETA, $19M token unlock

*Nota Bene:

Arguably one of the most impactful weeks politically speaking in crypto's history just ended which included Trump being inaugurated & signing the first crypto executive order. The establishment of a new crypto working group with clear near-term deadlines & the repealing of SAB 121 are both highly important steps in bringing much-needed regulatory clarity in the US.

Moreover, the controversial TRUMP token brought a spike in Solana network usage with stablecoin TVL crossing $10B and daily transaction fees hitting $50M as people (many new market entrants) bought USDC to gain access to TRUMP token via the highest traded USDC pair. Unsurprisingly even with US markets closed on Monday, domestic ETFs recorded strong inflows across the week with $1.75B flowing into BTC ETFs & $139M into ETH ETfs.

Towards the end of the week, the Chinese AI company Deepseek announced a powerful AI which was trained for significantly less when compared to its US counterparts. This spooked the markets & due to the AI fueled rally in traditional assets over the past two years, both crypto & traditional markets immediately began trading lower with the full impact of this announcement to be seen in the week ahead. Lastly, while political factors took the spotlight in the previous week it will be worth monitoring the Fed’s interest rate decision on Wednesday particularly around the Fed Chair's overall outlook for 2025.