The crypto market traded sideways over the past week, with some notable outperformers. Last week’s big news was that Jane Street and Jump Crypto – two of the world’s largest market makers – would pull back from trading digital assets in the U.S. due to increasing regulatory pressure. Bitcoin and Ethereum decreased by 1.69% and 1.58% week-over-week, respectively. On the decentralized finance front, Lido stood out with a 15.76% price increase over the same period. Lido’s outperformance is likely due to the release of Lido v2 on May 15, which enabled users to finally redeem their stETH (staked ETH). Lido remains the largest staking provider in Ethereum, with a ~31% market share.
Figure 1: 7-Day Price and TVL Developments of Cryptoassets in Major Sectors
Source: 21Shares, CoinGecko, DeFi Llama. Close data as of May 15, 2023.
Key takeaways
• Jane Street and Jump Crypto will cease market-making in the U.S. for digital assets, except BTC and ETH, due to increasing regulatory pressure.
• Bitcoin’s BRC20 is splitting the community while inspiring other legacy payment networks to continue innovating.
• Blur launches Blend, an NFT lending protocol, while Business Insider declares the death of the metaverse.
Spots and Derivatives
Figure 2: Total Liquidations
Source: Coinglass
On May 10, we saw over $100 million in liquidations after a pseudonymous source tweeted false information alleging that Bitcoin wallets controlled by the U.S. government were on the move. Most positions liquidated were long, as BTC dropped 5% from ~$28,200 to ~26,800 in less than an hour (see Figure 2). The market’s overreaction was entirely avoidable. For instance, we built a dashboard over two months ago that anyone can access to monitor the U.S. government-controlled wallets in real-time.
Figure 3: Average fees paid per Bitcoin Block
Source: Glassnode
The increase in activity resulting from the introduction of Ordinals and BRC-20 has prompted miners to amass greater revenue from fees compared to inflationary issuance in the previous month. The disparity between the earnings miners derive from block issuance versus fee accumulation has been observed on only five occasions throughout Bitcoin’s history, as depicted in the chart above. It is crucial to acknowledge the notable disparity at hand in order to comprehend the captivating new paradigm that Bitcoin has embraced.
Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com
Disclaimer
The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.
The fourth quarter got off to a strong start, with bitcoin (BTC) bumping up against its all-time high late in the month and the Nasdaq Crypto Index™ (NCI™) returning 7.2%.
Many crypto assets, however, struggled in October as the US elections and other uncertainties cast a shadow over bullish sentiment. Our CIO, Samir Kerbage, wrote about how the November 5th elections might impact investors and also joined a webinar with the CEO of The Digital Chamber to cover this topic in more depth. You can watch a replay of the webinar here.
As always, we are greatly appreciative of your trust in us and are here to answer any questions you may have.
Your Partners at Hashdex
Market Review
October is typically a favorable month for crypto assets, particularly bitcoin (BTC). For this reason, the month is often referred to as “Uptober.” This year was no different: the Nasdaq Crypto Index™ (NCI™) posted a 7.2% gain, despite slight declines in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 stock indices. However, unlike September, the vast majority of altcoins did not have a positive month.
In the first ten days of the month, the NCI™ gave back its gains from September. All NCI™ constituents recorded declines, except for Uniswap, which announced plans to develop its own layer two network on Ethereum. From then on, a strong recovery began, particularly for Bitcoin and Solana, which were up double digits by the 29th. This rally coincided with the sharp increase in Trump’s odds in election betting markets, and brought Bitcoin close to its all-time high. In the last two days of the month, crypto assets retreated, following the strong pessimism that overtook traditional markets.
Among NCI™ constituents, the positive highlights were Bitcoin and Solana, with gains of 10.6% and 9.0%, respectively. On the downside, Ripple dropped 18.6% due to the SEC lawsuit, while MATIC fell more than 20%, apparently due to migration to a new token called POL.
Among CF Benchmarks’ sectoral indices, the smallest drop was in the Smart Contract Platforms Index, mitigated by the performance of its main constituent, Solana. A similar effect was seen in the Digital Culture index, which dropped 7.6%, despite its largest constituent, SuperVerse, rising more than 20%. The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) index declined by 8.6%, with only Uniswap showing gains among its constituents. The Vinter Hashdex Risk Parity Momentum Index saw a small drop of 0.6%, heavily influenced by the sharp losses in Ripple and Near. In all five indices, the largest asset posted gains, but most other constituents did not.
In the near future, the US election results could serve as a trigger for a new all-time high in Bitcoin, as well as a recovery for smaller assets that are lagging this year. We remain optimistic about the development of the crypto asset class over the medium and long term.
Top Stories
Stripe acquires Bridge for $1.1B
Stripe acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge for approximately $1.1 billion, becoming Stripe’s largest acquisition and one of the biggest in the crypto sector. Bridge was created to compete with traditional payment networks like SWIFT and credit cards and helps Stripe’s growing interest in building a worldwide stablecoins infrastructure. This move boosts stablecoins credibility and signals an increasing fintech interest in Web3, potentially attracting more institutional investors and expanding blockchain-based financial use cases.
Robinhood launches crypto transfers in Europe
Robinhood Crypto has launched cryptocurrency transfers for customers in Europe, allowing deposits and withdrawals of over 20 cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH SOL. This was one of the most requested features by users in the region, and makes crypto transfers now available to all eligible Robinhood Crypto customers in Europe. This move signals the growing adoption of digital assets in Europe, boosting confidence in the asset class growth potential.
Bernstein predicts Bitcoin at $200,000 in 2025
Bernstein published a report predicting that Bitcoin could reach $200,000 by the end of 2025, driven by factors such as the halving, increased institutional adoption, and interest in inflation-hedging assets. Additionally, Bernstein foresees a growing integration of Bitcoin mining with artificial intelligence (AI), where about 20% of mining capacity could be redirected to AI by 2027. This underscores the growing integration of crypto and AI, driving technological advancements and boosting demand for both.
Sedan i fredags har tre nya tematiska ETFer, börshandlade fonder utgivna av Invesco kunnat handlas på Xetra och Börse Frankfurt.
Invesco Artificial Intelligence Enablers UCITS ETF (IVAI) ger investerare tillgång till företag över hela världen som utvecklar teknologier, infrastruktur och tjänster som driver tillväxten och funktionaliteten av artificiell intelligens (AI). Investeringar görs framför allt i företag som erbjuder hårdvara, mjukvara och lösningsutveckling för AI-algoritmer, infrastrukturtjänster för dataintensiva AI-funktioner och produkter samt tjänster för AI-applikationer och datahantering.
Invesco Cybersecurity UCITS ETF (ICBR) investerar globalt i företag verksamma inom IT-säkerhetsområdet. De erbjuder system för att upptäcka, försvara mot eller förhindra cyberattacker, nätverks- och internetsäkerhet, autentisering och identitetshantering, samt applikationssäkerhet, datasäkerhet, kryptering och skydd.
Invesco Defence Innovation UCITS ETF (IDFN) fokuserar på företag över hela världen som utvecklar toppmoderna vapen, försvarssystem och gränssäkerhetslösningar. Fokus ligger på aktiviteter som smarta gränser och säkrande av kritisk infrastruktur, militära tillämpningar av cybersäkerhet, rymdsystem, robotik, drönare, bärbar teknologi och virtuell verklighet.
Produktutbudet i Deutsche Börses XTF-segment omfattar för närvarande totalt 2 278 ETFer. Med detta urval och en genomsnittlig månatlig handelsvolym på cirka 16 miljarder euro är Xetra den ledande handelsplatsen för ETFer i Europa.
First Trust SMID Rising Dividend Achievers UCITSETF Class A Accumulation (FTGD ETF) med ISIN IE0001R850E1, syftar till att spåra Nasdaq US Small Mid Cap Rising Dividend Achievers-index. Nasdaq US Small Mid Cap Rising Dividend Achievers-index spårar amerikanska små och medelstora företag som konsekvent har ökat sina utdelningar de senaste åren.
Den börshandlade fondens TER (total cost ratio) uppgår till 0,60 % p.a. First Trust SMID Rising Dividend Achievers UCITSETF Class A Accumulation är den enda ETF som följer Nasdaq US Small Mid Cap Rising Dividend Achievers-index. ETFen replikerar det underliggande indexets prestanda genom fullständig replikering (köper alla indexbeståndsdelar). Utdelningarna i denna ETF ackumuleras och återinvesteras.
ETF lanserades den 9 april 2024 och har sin hemvist i Irland.
Det betyder att det går att handla andelar i denna ETF genom de flesta svenska banker och Internetmäklare, till exempel DEGIRO, Nordnet, Aktieinvest och Avanza.