The Bitcoin (BTC) bull is back, and so are the price swings. BTC has retreated after reaching new highs around $64,000 yesterday and is currently trading at $62,992, up 6.8 percent. The cryptocurrency's 30-day realized volatility, or the standard deviation of price changes over the last 30 days, increased from 30% to 46% in a week. Activity in the crypto derivatives market has also increased. According to Switzerland-based data platform Laevitas, $374 billion worth of crypto futures, consolidated futures and options contracts were traded in the last 24 hours. This is the highest single-day volume seen since November 2021. The increasing demand for leveraged products indicates an increase in risk appetite and price fluctuations caused by sudden liquidations.
Bitcoin miners are selling more coins and depleting their stocks with the rising market. Data tracked by Glassnode shows that the estimated number of BTC held in wallets connected to miners has fallen by 8,426 BTC ($530 million) since the beginning of the year, to 1,812,482 BTC. This decline started in the second half of October, when miners had more than 1.83 million BTC. According to analysts at FRNT Financial, the few months away from the mining rewards halving and the ongoing recession in China are accelerating the sales.
Morgan Stanley is trying to decide whether its brokerage platform will offer spot bitcoin ETFs to clients. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs on January 10, and the said exchange-traded funds have witnessed massive inflows since the launch. However, if some registered investment advisor (RIA) networks and broker platforms such as Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo start offering ETF services, the liquidity problem in the market may also be alleviated considerably. Morgan Stanley, a leader in alternative investments and private markets, has over $150 billion in assets under management and became the first major U.S. bank to offer its wealthy clients access to bitcoin funds in 2021.
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Trading volume on tokenization protocol Pendle Finance has reached a record high of over $100 million. Pendle allows investors to split return-generating assets, such as staked ether, into a yield token and a master token, creating a trading platform to exchange these tokens. Provides liquidity pool service.
