Cryptocurrency daily summary:
BTC fails to hold $70,000 as market faces renewed sell-off fears
AVAX, W and other tokens unlock nearly $1 billion in August
21Shares’ CETH Integrates Chainlink Proof of Reserves
Let’s first look at the trading activities of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on July 23, Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF (GBTC) saw an outflow of US$54.3 million; at the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) saw an outflow of US$5.9 million, and Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) saw an outflow of US$21.3 million.
The first-day net inflow of Bitwise Ethereum Spot ETF (ETHW) was temporarily reported at $204 million; the first-day net inflow of Fidelity Ethereum Spot ETF (FETH) was $24.8 million; the first-day net inflow of Grayscale Ethereum Spot ETF (ETHE) was $71.3 million;
BTC fails to hold $70,000 as market faces renewed sell-off fears
Bitcoin (BTC) climbed to nearly $70,000 during early European trading, hitting its highest level since early June. The rally was driven by a positive market reaction to Donald Trump’s BTC 2024 appearance in Nashville. The Republican presidential candidate revealed that he would build a strategic Bitcoin reserve if elected in November. However, Bitcoin failed to hold onto the $70,000 high.
Bitcoin faced huge selling pressure after Wall Street opened on July 29. According to Arkham Intelligence, a wallet marked as belonging to the U.S. government transferred $2 billion worth of Bitcoin to an unidentified wallet on Monday.
About 28,000 bitcoins, with a total value of more than $2 billion, appear to be related to funds previously seized by the U.S. Department of Justice from darknet markets (late last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals ultimately ruled to seize 69,370 bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies associated with the network). Arkham Intelligence noted that about an hour after the transfer was completed, the U.S. government split the bitcoins into two separate addresses, allocating 19,800 bitcoins (about $1.3 billion) to one address and 10,000 bitcoins (about $670 million) to another address.
This news may also have affected the price of bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">BTC. As of now, the price of Bitcoin is $66,234.78, down 4.8% in 24 hours.
21Shares’ CETH Integrates Chainlink Proof of Reserves for Greater Transparency
21Shares US LLC, a subsidiary of 21Shares AG, has integrated the industry-standard Chainlink Proof of Reserves on Ethereum, aiming to increase transparency of the Ethereum reserves backing the 21Shares Core ethereum-eth Ethereum ETF (ticker: CETH).
According to the press release, 21Shares selected Chainlink as its preferred decentralized computing platform due to its proven track record of achieving over $12 trillion in total value in on-chain markets.
“By integrating Chainlink’s Proof of Reserves solution, 21Shares can gain clear visibility into CETH’s underlying ETH reserves, providing investors with greater assurance and confidence that CETH is backed by the underlying ETH holdings,” the press release stated.
In February, 21Shares announced the integration of Chainlink Proof of Reserves to increase transparency of the Bitcoin reserves backing the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF. ARKB was launched in January and currently manages $3.2 billion in assets.
“We are excited to further our collaboration with 21Shares and support an important milestone in our industry’s history by bringing greater transparency to the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF through Chainlink Proof of Reserves,” said Johann Eid, Chief Business Officer at Chainlink Labs. “21Shares plays an important role in supporting the adoption of digital assets, and the Chainlink platform is helping financial institutions realize their vision of seamless tokenization on a global scale.”
CETH is one of nine Ethereum spot ETFs listed last week. Eight of the new funds had net inflows of more than $1 billion, but Grayscale's ETHE had a net outflow of $1.5 billion, far exceeding CETH.
Token projects planned to be unlocked in August: including popular tokens such as AVAX and W, with a value of nearly $1 billion
After months of airdrops, the cross-chain project Wormhole will unlock a third of its circulating supply this month: 600 million tokens, currently worth about $180 million. However, it is far from the only project to unlock a large number of tokens. ZetaChain will unlock nearly a fifth of its circulating supply, and several other projects will also unlock tokens worth $50 million or more.
- AVAX: August 20, $268 million
Layer1 blockchain Avalanche will unlock 2.42% of its circulating supply on August 20: 9.5 million tokens, currently worth $268 million.
- Wormhole: August 3, $180 million
Wormhole will unlock 600 million tokens on August 3, equivalent to one-third of its circulating supply, worth more than $180 million at current prices. Wormhole is the bridge between Solana and other top DeFi projects with unicorn valuations. The project recently completed an airdrop of more than 670 million tokens in April.
- Sui: August 1, $50 million
Layer 1 network SUI will unlock tokens this month along with its competitor Aptos, unlocking 2.56% of its circulating supply: 64 million tokens, currently worth about $50 million, on August 1. The network is about to celebrate 15 months of launch.
- Aptos: August 12, $80 million
Aptos, one of two projects comprised largely of former members of Facebook’s Libra currency project (the other is Sui), will unlock an additional 2.41% of its circulating supply, or 11.31 million tokens, currently valued at around $80 million, on August 12.
- ARB: August 16, $67 million
Arbitrum, which recently became the first Layer 2 network to reach $150 billion in total trading volume on Uniswap, will unlock 2.8% of its circulating supply on August 16. Those 92.6 million tokens are currently worth approximately $67 million.
- OP: July 31, $55 million
Ethereum layer 2 network Optimism will unlock 31.3 million tokens for core contributors and investors on July 31, accounting for nearly 2.8% of its circulating supply. The current value of these tokens is about $55 million. Optimism also supports layer 3 networks on its "super chain."
- ZetaChain: August 1, $35 million
ZetaChain is a Layer 1 chain that launched earlier this year with the goal of eventually integrating many different blockchains onto one platform after raising $27 million last year. On August 1, it will unlock 18.92% of its circulating supply. At current prices, the nearly 54 million tokens are worth about $35 million.
Market analysis: The market fell across the board, and there was a lack of sustained hot spots
Market Trends
BTC: BTC briefly touched $70,000 before falling sharply and is currently below $67,000, which may be related to the US government transferring $2 billion worth of BTC.
ETH: ETH performed relatively well, and although the Grayscale ETF saw outflows of $200 million, it was down about $150 million from the previous few days.
Altcoins: There are no new hot spots in the market, and the overall market is falling.
Data indicators
AHR999 Index: Today's AHR999 Index is 0.89. The index has dropped slightly, but it is still suitable for long-termists to make fixed investments.
Fear and Greed Index: Currently at 67, the market's greed sentiment has cooled slightly as the market fell.
Macro News
The three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield at 4.17% and the 2-year Treasury yield, which is most sensitive to the Fed's policy rate, at 4.36%. Risk markets are waiting for the Fed's interest rate decision at 2 a.m. Thursday.
Market Hotspots
Meme sector: NEIRO, which is the name of the new pet of Doge's owner, was popular in the market over the weekend, with a short-term market value of over $100 million, but it has fallen back and is unlikely to become a long-term hot spot. BOME and MOG are both fully circulated tokens, with increases of more than 10%. BOME started the meme craze on the Solana chain this year, while MOG attracted meme enthusiasts on the Ethereum chain with its iconic colored sunglasses.
AI sector: AI tokens such as WLD, FET and IO all fell. In this year's market, the AI sector once led the market together with the Meme sector, but with the large-scale unlocking of the leader WLD, the AI sector urgently needs a new leader to emerge.
Summarize
The current market sentiment is optimistic, but slightly cooler. BTC is back below $67,000, while ETH is performing relatively well. Altcoins are generally down, and the market lacks new hot spots. Meme tokens such as NEIRO, BOME, and MOG have performed well, but their sustainability remains to be seen. The AI sector is under pressure to unlock large amounts of tokens, and new leading tokens are needed. Investors need to pay close attention to the Fed's policy trends and the impact of the tokens that are about to be unlocked on the market.
Macro: Asian stocks fall after Fed, Bank of Japan minutes; investors await key data
S&P 500 edges higher as investors await key earnings, jobs data and Fed meeting
The S&P 500 rose slightly after choppy trading on July 29 as investors awaited earnings reports from big tech companies, the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut policy decision and key U.S. jobs data to be released this week.
The week's highlights include the Federal Reserve meeting on Wednesday and the jobs report on Friday, as well as quarterly earnings reports from big tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Apple, which will provide investors with clues as to whether tech stocks face vulnerability or can extend their recent gains.
Stock index performance was as follows: the Dow Jones fell 0.12%, the S&P rose 0.08%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.07%.
Asian stocks fall as oil prices fall after Fed, Bank of Japan minutes
Bond, currency and stock markets traded cautiously on Monday, July 30, ahead of U.S. and Japanese central bank meetings and a slew of major corporate earnings reports.
Markets generally do not expect a rate cut in the U.S. this week, but have fully anticipated a 25 basis point cut in the federal funds rate in September, so dovish comments from policymakers are expected. In Japan, markets are pricing in a nearly 60% chance of a 10 basis point rate hike by the Bank of Japan and are looking forward to an announcement on how the central bank will exit its massive bond-buying program.
Japan's Nikkei fell nearly 6% last week and was down another 0.7% in early trading. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares fell 0.7%.
In the foreign exchange market, the US dollar and the Japanese yen remain in a fairly tight range, taking a breather after their recent breakout moves. The yen has rebounded sharply from a 38-year low of 161.96 hit in early July to 153.95. The euro is trading at 1.0851 against the dollar, while the Australian dollar is under slight pressure, falling from 0.68 against the US dollar three weeks ago to 0.6536 currently, dragged down by falling commodity prices.
In commodity markets, oil prices fell to near a seven-week low on Tuesday due to weak demand outlook, with Brent crude futures hitting $79.36 overnight and turning into a seller's market.
Gold prices struggled to find momentum on Tuesday as investors looked for more clues from this week’s policy meetings and data releases about when the U.S. central bank will cut interest rates. Spot gold fell 0.1% to $2,380.31 an ounce, while U.S. gold futures were little changed at $2,377.30 an ounce.
