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Do Kwon Has A Plan, Good News for Norway’s Bitcoin Miners, and More!
The overall sentiment for the cryptoassets industry is still in shock from the market correction that happened over the past few weeks. The macro factors driving the markets are a by-product of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and China’s COVID Zero policy combined, with the Federal Reserve’s latest interest hike adding fuel to the fire. Food prices have gone up 37% year-over-year, spurring protests in Sri Lanka and Iran. However, panic selling seems to be coming to an end; large investors, such as MicroStrategy, are still holding on to their crypto holdings. Bitcoin is down by 13%, trading between $33K and $29K over the past week, shrinking its market cap dominance to 42.4% as shown in Figure 1. Ethereum is down by 20%, trading between $2,423 and $2,013. On the upside, the top gainers out of last week’s rally were Cosmos, Solana, and Cardano.
Figure 1: Major Cryptoassets By Percentage of Total Market Capitalization
Source: CoinMarketCap
Regulations and Adoption
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urged the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee to pass a bill this year to regulate stablecoins. The current framework, she believes, does not provide consistent or comprehensive standards for the risks of stablecoins as a new type of payment product. The pending Stablecoin Trust Act does not affect non-payment stablecoins, which include algorithmic stablecoins. It is still unclear whether Congress will embrace algorithmic stablecoins or impose an outright ban.
Germany released a document on Tuesday outlining clear income tax rules for cryptoassets. Individuals who sell Bitcoin or Ethereum more than 12 months after acquisition will not be liable for taxes on the sale if they realize a profit. This is a great win for the cryptoassets market, especially in the time of bearish sentiment.
On the other hand, Portugal will allegedly start imposing taxes on cryptoassets in the “near future.” Until this announcement was made public in the country’s parliament, Portugal was considered a tax haven for investors holding and trading cryptoassets, primarily due to an effective capital gains rate of zero.
As Bitcoin enters its seventh week in decline, Bitcoin miners in Norway breathed a sigh of relief. The Norwegian parliament rejected a bill banning Bitcoin mining, proposed back in March. Norway contributes up to 1% to the global Bitcoin hash rate, taking advantage of the country’s renewable energy generated by hydropower.
In El Salvador, representatives of 44 countries met on Monday to discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in the country.
On the back of the ordeal of Terra Luna, being a Singapore-registered company, the country’s regulators are expected to focus their lens of scrutiny on Terraform Labs, which has no material ties to the country. There is a trend of crypto companies registering in Singapore to conduct business abroad without having a physical office in the country. Last month, the parliament passed a bill that requires these companies to be licensed primarily for anti-money-laundering reasons. Terra Luna’s bank run might inspire regulators to expand the provisions.
DeFi and NFTs
Many crypto exchanges, including Binance and OKX, have delisted LUNA and UST. Founder of Terraform Labs Do Kwon revealed a “revival plan” that will essentially reboot the network as “Terra Classic,” with Luna Classic (LUNC) as its new token, and redistribute the ownership of the network entirely to UST and LUNA holders through 1 billion new tokens. Luna Foundation Guards also just revealed its reserve and Bitcoin spending of 80K BTC, and after the crash was left with 313 BTC, which it will use to compensate its UST holders, starting with the smallest.
Figure 2: TerraUSD (UST) Performance in the Past Week
Source: TradingView
Aurora, an Ethereum Virtual Machine, has launched a $90M fund, in partnership with Proximity Labs, to scale decentralized apps on Near Protocol. PancakeSwap, a decentralized crypto exchange (DEX) built on Binance Smart Chain, announced in a new lite paper that it’s switching from an unlimited supply model to one capped at 750M CAKE.
Bancor, a DEX built on Ethereum and EOSIO, released the third upgrade of its protocol, which has new features meant to provide easier staking; which include Instant Impermanent loss protection, dual rewards, and auto compounding.
On the NFT front, the largest GameFi app on Avalanche, Crabada, will be migrating to Swimmer Network, Subnet of Avalanche, easing congestion on the network and therefore reducing gas fees. Dapper Labs, the company behind CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot, and the Flow blockchain, unveiled a $725M ecosystem fund to support the latter. With the participation of venture capital firm a16z, Coatue, and others, the monumental fund will offer support for existing and future developers to build apps on the Flow blockchain through investments and FLOW token grants. It will focus on support for gaming, infrastructure, DeFi, content, and creators. The capital may also be used for team expansion, user acquisition, and general operating expenses.
Weekly Returns
The returns of the top five cryptoassets over the last week were as follows — BTC (-3.55%), ETH (-13.6%), BNB (-6.5%), ADA(-11.47%), XRP (-17.86%).
Net Inflows per 21Shares ETP
The net Inflows of our ETPs amounted to $3.4M in the past week. Find the breakdown of the inflows and outflows per ETP below.
Media Coverage
We are excited to share that we are launching two ETPs tracking DeFi; one of which already got listed on SIX Swiss Exchange on May 12, the 21Shares Crypto Layer 1 (LAY1). Meanwhile, the 21Shares DeFi 10 Infrastructure ETP (DEFI) will be listed on the same exchange on May 18, both with total expense ratios (TER) of 2.50%.
“Our financial system is at the beginning of a paradigm shift. A plethora of new blockchain-based applications around DeFi and Web3 are already under development and making enormous progress,” 21Shares’ President and Co-founder Ophelia Snyder told ETF Stream on this occasion. “They are the components of a completely new, democratic and inclusive financial system. With our new thematic crypto ETPs, we are providing investors with two broadly diversified investment vehicles at the ideal time to participate in this revolution.”
If you happen to be at the Permissionless conference in Florida, meet our team at booth 611. Also, our very own Head of Tokens James Wang will be taking part in a panel discussing investment in an on-chain world. James’ fellow panelists are from Dragonfly Capital, Wintermute, Nansen and Volt Capital. The discussion will be moderated by Michael Ippolito, co-founder of Blockworks.
News
Coinbase CEO Reassures Traders That Funds Are Safe, After $430M Loss in Q1
What happened?
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disclosed to the SEC its first net loss as a public company of $430M in Q1 of 2022. Coinbase disclosed that revenue had dropped by 27% to $1.17B, down from $1.6B same time last year, dipping far below its Q4 2021 revenue of $2.5B. Monthly transacting users also dropped by over 19% to 9.2M, from last quarter’s 11.4M. This has spurred some uncertainty in the ecosystem, in response, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong reassured investors on Twitter, saying that funds are safe at Coinbase, just as they’ve always been.
Why does it matter?
On the back of this news, we have been receiving some questions from clients and investors given that Coinbase is 21Shares’ custodian partner. We contract with and hold the ETP assets with Coinbase Trust Company. This is a fiduciary under § 100 of the New York Banking Law and is licensed to custody its clients’ digital assets in trust on their behalf. As a New York state-chartered trust held to the same fiduciary standards as national banks, Coinbase Custody is a qualified custodian for purposes of § 206(4)-2(d)(6) of the Advisers Act, commonly called the custody role.
This is the same standard that must be met by equity custodians of traditional US equity ETFs and these are accepted as being bankruptcy remote. The assets are held as a bailment for the benefit of 21Shares rather than as an asset on the balance sheet of the company. This is also reflected in our agreement with Coinbase Trust Company which states that the assets are segregated and do not form part of the assets of Coinbase.
Research Newsletter
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.
• Bitcoin Weathers Macroeconomic Storm
• Heightened User Activity, Soaring Transaction Fees, While Miners Sell Less
• Runes Protocol and Bitcoin’s Ever-Growing Ecosystem
Navigating Macro Headwinds, On-Chain Optics, and The Rise of Runes
This newsletter will be a Bitcoin-centric edition as we dissect the impact of recent macroeconomic events on Bitcoin’s price, followed up with an on-chain analysis of the network’s behavior post-halving. Additionally, we’ll explore some of the exciting innovations emerging within the Bitcoin ecosystem that were timed following the latest halving.
Bitcoin Weathers Macroeconomic Storm
The past two weeks have presented a challenging market environment for the crypto industry. As mentioned in our last newsletter, rising inflation in the U.S. remains, as evidenced by the higher-than-expected CPI print on April 9. Additionally, escalating conflict in the Middle East poses a significant threat to regional stability and added stress on the U.S. The potential of wider involvement from additional militant groups such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, coupled with Iran’s control of a crucial maritime passage for commodity trading, the Strait of Hormuz, raise concerns about potential energy price hikes, steepening inflationary pressures and their effect on various asset classes.
Bitcoin initially reacted negatively to these events, experiencing an 8.22% drop in the immediate aftermath. Despite the 24/7 nature of crypto markets, which could have amplified the initial price shocks, Bitcoin’s underlying resilience shines through upon closer inspection. The S&P 500 fell by 2.03% on the market reopening last Monday and continues to tumble, while Bitcoin has recovered over 3.28% since the drawdowns, evidenced in Figure 1. This suggests a potentially more robust response to geopolitical turmoil compared to traditional assets, which is unsurprising given Bitcoin’s narrative as a flight to safety.
Figure 1: Bitcoin vs. Gold Price Performance Amid Geopolitical Tension
Source: TradingView
Examining Bitcoin’s market data, we see clear evidence that the futures market played a significant role in the initial price drops, which were attributed to the macroeconomic events of the last few weeks. A significant spike in long liquidations on the day of the attack, at $168M, suggests that some leveraged traders exited their positions, as shown below in Figure 2. Additionally, the high open interest at $35B leading up to the CPI print was followed by a recent $5B cool-off, indicating a correction in the futures market, reflected in the consolidation of the Bitcoin price.
Figure 2: Bitcoin Futures Long Liquidations, Short-Term and Long-Term Holder Supply
Source: Glassnode
Importantly, the spot market paints a more optimistic picture. In the last 10 days, which includes last week’s turbulence, long-term holders displayed minimal selling activity. Their holdings decreased by only 0.05%, while short-term holders continued to accumulate BTC, increasing their holdings by 0.5%. Notably, “Accumulation Addresses,” characterized by having no outbound transactions, holding more than 10 BTC, and not being affiliated with centralized exchanges or miners, have capitalized on the recent market dip. They currently hold over 3.17M BTC, accumulating over $2.3B since the CPI print, as evidenced below by Figure 3.
Figure 3 – Total Balance in Accumulation Addresses
Source: Glassnode
Further bolstering the positive outlook, the 90-day due diligence period for U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs has now concluded. According to Bloomberg, over 100 fund managers have disclosed their ownership of these products, signifying the growing institutional appetite for Bitcoin exposure, adding another layer of support to the asset class.
Heightened Activity, Soaring Transaction Fees, While Miners Sell Less
In the world of Bitcoin, transactions get logged onto a whiteboard-like structure, divided into cells called “blockspace,” where each cell represents a limited amount of space. Transaction fees play a crucial role in managing limited block space on the Bitcoin network. Users who pay higher fees get their transactions prioritized for confirmation within these blocks. This ensures smoother operation by preventing congestion and disincentivizing low-value spam transactions. Additionally, transaction fees serve as an important security measure. They incentivize miners to dedicate significant computing power to validate transactions and secure the network. Without these fees, mining might become less profitable, potentially jeopardizing network security.
Finally, transaction fees are at the core of Bitcoin’s economic sustainability as the mining reward gets halved every 210,000 blocks, transaction fees step up to fill the gap and pump miners’ revenue. We can already see the early innings of transaction fees rising against the issuance or block rewards since the launch of Ordinals in 2023, as shown in the chart below.
Figure 4 – Bitcoin Miners Revenue Breakdown
Source: 21co on Dune
It is no surprise that Bitcoin network activity has been high this year, with the amount of active addresses hovering between 700K and 1 million since January, up until the halving event. On-chain data reveals a lower-than-expected drop in active addresses following the halving, with transaction fees reaching new highs. While active addresses did experience a significant drop (43%) on April 19, falling from over 893K to 500K, they have already recovered 70K since then. Historically, the halving typically leads to a smaller decrease in active addresses (3-9%). This larger drop could indicate that rising fees are pricing some users out of the market for now, but as we’ll cover later, there are certain solutions being worked on to help alleviate this issue.
That said, transaction fees soared up to $128 on April 20, breaking $78M, tripling the previous all-time high, and making up 75% of Bitcoin miner revenue, as shown in Figure 4. The spike was primarily due to Ordinal-like inscriptions which have recently seen a spike thanks to Runes protocol, which we’ll delve deeper into in the last section. In line with this, the burgeoning Bitcoin ecosystem, expedited by Rune, has not only pushed Bitcoin out of its comfort zone unlocking new use cases, but also its transaction fees to surpass Ethereum’s since May 2023, as seen in Figure 5.
Figure 5 – BTC vs ETH fees (2 Years)
Source: Glassnode
The growth in transaction fees is appreciated even further, especially when we examine miner behavior following the halving event. Miners are now less motivated to immediately liquidate their freshly acquired BTC, as they can capitalize on an additional revenue stream apart from block rewards.
Let’s zoom in on miner activity after the halving. About 50 BTC were sold on centralized exchanges on April 20, which doesn’t compare to the sell-off of March 5 when approximately 1,154 BTC were sent to exchanges, pulling the asset to ~$64K, down from ~$68K, as shown in the chart below. The recent sale also doesn’t compare to the 307 BTC sold on the day following the previous halving in May 2020, when the asset was trading just below $9K.
Figure 6 – Transfer Volume from Bitcoin Miners to Exchanges in BTC (YTD)
Source: Glassnode
The rising importance of Ordinal inscription, akin to non fungible tokens (NFTs), can be seen with Bitcoin generating $475M in real NFT sales versus Ethereum, which helps miners rake in more revenue and become sustainable. That said, the growing adoption of the Runes protocol is expected to drive even more activity toward the miners over the coming months.
Runes Protocol and Bitcoin’s Evergrowing Ecosystem
To recap, Runes streamlines the creation and management of fungible tokens on top of Bitcoin. It addresses the inefficiencies of the BRC20 standard, which have burdened the Bitcoin blockchain due to its inefficient data handling approach. That said, Runes achieves this in two key ways. Firstly, it optimizes transaction fees by consolidating multiple Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) transactions into one bundle, leveraging Bitcoin’s accounting UTXO model. Additionally, it utilizes Bitcoin’s script, OP_Return, to inscribe data directly onto the blockchain, which serves to assign and transfer Runes balances within the network’s UTXOs. By minimizing data usage to 80 bytes, compared to BRC20’s 4MB, Runes prevents unnecessary bloat on the Bitcoin blockchain.
Ultimately, Runes presents an innovation aimed at bolstering Bitcoin’s security budget, offering miners an alternative revenue source to reduce their dependence on Bitcoin’s subsidized rewards over the long term. In fact, miners have earned about 1,500 BTC, valued at close to $100M in less than three days of trading activity, as seen below in Figure 7. To that end, Runes has garnered widespread support from the outset, with multiple Tier 2 exchanges such as OKX and Gate.io already announcing the listing of early collections like UNCOMMON.GOODS and MEME.ECONOMICS, which were among the first collections minted. Additionally, Binance appears to be hinting at support for meme tokens like Wizard and Pups, which were also among the first tokens to migrate from the BRC20 to the Runes standard. Meanwhile, NFT platforms like Magic Eden and Bitcoin-focused wallet provider Unisat are also joining the trend to capitalize on Runes’ growing popularity.
Figure 7: Fees Paid by Users to Mint Tokens Using the New Runes Protocol
Source: CryptoKoryo on Dune
Following the pattern of past hype cycles, we anticipate that the initial excitement surrounding Runes will gradually subside, followed by a surge of heightened activity in the long run. This trend is often observed because the initial wave of interest tends to be on meme tokens, which can be quickly deployed and attract the masses’ attention, but often don’t add substantial value. However, as time progresses, sophisticated primitives like exchanges, automated market makers, and other DeFi lego blocks will begin emerging. These advancements will bolster Bitcoin’s capabilities at the application layer, streamlining the process of token trading on the Bitcoin network, much like ERC20/ERC721 did for Ethereum. In fact, when considering Bitcoin’s untapped market potential to establish its own fungible market ecosystem compared to other smart contract platforms, it becomes evident that there is substantial room for growth for this new generation of tokens, as illustrated in Figure 8 below.
Figure 8: The Market Opportunity for Bitcoin’s Fungible Tokens Ecosystem
Source: FranklinTempleton
That said, Ordinals and Runes aren’t the only source of excitement pushing the boundaries of Bitcoin. For one, Bitcoin’s scaling solution Stacks began the first phase of its Nakamoto upgrade, called the instantiation stage, on April 22, while its final phase is expected to culminate by the end of May. As part of the upgrade, Stacks will introduce faster block processing times, enabling transactions to be finalized in under 5 seconds, a significant improvement from Bitcoin’s average of 10-30 minutes. Additionally, Stacks will leverage Bitcoin’s robust security guarantees, making transaction reversals on the Stacks network as challenging as those on the Bitcoin network. Furthermore, the upgrade will introduce a 1:1 BTC-backed asset (sBTC), enhancing the utility of Bitcoin by enabling its use across a diverse ecosystem of financial and gaming applications built on top of the scaling solution. The growing excitement surrounding its upgrade has pushed the total valued locked on the network to its highest point last week, reaching $170M.
On the other hand, there is a growing ecosystem of scaling solutions emerging on the back of BitVM, released last year. Standing for Bitcoin Virtual machine, this primitive is an operating system that allows for native smart-contract functionality on top of Bitcoin. It does so by introducing what’s known as a two-party provider verifier model that allows for complex computation to be executed off-chain, which can then be challenged on top of Bitcoin using fraud proofs, akin to how Arbitrum and Optimism function. To put it simply, BitVM enables Bitcoin to host more complex applications, which is giving birth to an embryonic L2 landscape, including Chainway, BitLayer, and Bob, amongst others, aiming to alleviate the issue of rising transaction costs. However, we will be closely monitoring this emerging sector, as there are numerous projects attempting to exploit the unprecedented enthusiasm for Bitcoin to launch potentially fraudulent protocols.
Bookmarks
Have you read our latest report, The Bitcoin Halving and Beyond? Click here to get a digital copy.
This Week’s Calendar
Source: Forex Factory, 21Shares
Research Newsletter
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.
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