Cryptocurrency daily summary:
ETF Pass Possibility Pushes BTC Above $71,000, ETH Soars to Two-Month High
Hackers Attack GALA Games and Mint $200 Million in GALA Tokens
Let’s first look at the trading activities of Bitcoin ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on May 20, Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF (GBTC) received an inflow of US$9.3 million. At the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) received an inflow of US$64 million, Bitwise Bitcoin Spot ETF (BITB) received an inflow of US$24 million, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Spot ETF (ARKB) received an inflow of US$68.3 million.
According to CoinShares data, digital asset investment products attracted $932 million in net inflows between May 13 and 17, showing investor optimism about slowing inflationary pressures. Despite the high net inflows, weekly trading volume was relatively low at $10.5 billion, down from $40 billion in March.
Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF saw small inflows this week, totaling $18 million. The fund has seen outflows of $16.6 billion since January. Regionally, Hong Kong and Canada saw outflows of $83 million and $17 million, respectively.
The biggest highlight of today’s market was the sudden rise in ETH versus BTC, with Ethereum prices surging to a two-month high of $3,700 as analysts significantly raised expectations that a spot ETH ETF might be approved.
Shares surged more than 18% after Bloomberg senior analyst Eric Balchunas raised the odds of approval for an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) from 25% to 75%. Balchunas noted that the SEC could be under political pressure given their previous stance indicating little engagement with ETF applicants.
The analyst further mentioned that the SEC is reportedly asking exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to update their filings, although the regulator has yet to officially confirm it. Nevertheless, ETF Institute co-founder and ETF Store president Nate Geraci said that the registration requirements for individual funds (S-1) are still pending finalization.
BTC price also broke through the key resistance area of $70,000, rising by more than 8% and even testing the resistance level of $72,000. The price hit a new weekly high of $71,896 and is currently consolidating gains.
The rally was well above the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level of the move from $66,047 to $71,896 highs, as monitored by NewsBTC. There is a connecting bullish trend line formed with support at $70,500 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.
The price is currently facing resistance near $71,850. The first major resistance is likely to be around $72,000 and the next key resistance is likely to be at $72,500. If the price breaks clearly above the $72,500 resistance, it could result in further gains and test the $73,200 resistance. Conversely, if the bulls fail to break above the $72,000 resistance, there could be a short-term downside correction.
Web3 gaming platform Gala Games suffered a potential vulnerability that resulted in losses of over $200 million. The hacker who attacked GALA minted 5 billion GALA tokens, worth approximately $206 million. It appears that the attacker also exchanged the minted GALA tokens for ETH, causing great confusion.
After the incident, the price of GALA fell by 5.77% in one day, and the platform's native token GALA plummeted by nearly 15%. GALA currently maintains a market value of US$1.7 billion and a circulation of 40.6 billion.
Market analysis: ETH surged by more than 20%, and altcoins generally rose
Market Trends
-BTC (Bitcoin): Breaking above $71,000 shows strong upward momentum.
-ETH (Ethereum): It surged more than 20% overnight, breaking through $3,700 during the day, approaching its previous high.
-Altcoins: generally rose, led by BTC and ETH.
-U.S. stocks: continued to rise and hit record highs.
-U.S. Dollar Index: Weekly decline, which could provide support to cryptocurrency markets.
Market Hotspots
1. ETH Spot ETF
-The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires accelerated updates to ETH ETF application documents.
-The probability of ETF application approval increased from 25% to 75%.
-The Ethereum spot ETF has an August 7 deadline for approval, and could be approved as early as May 23.
2. Ethereum staking section
-$PENDLE , ETHFI, REZ, LDO, ENA: These pledge-related tokens also performed significantly with the rise of ETH.
3. Meme section
-$PEPE and MOG: surged, showing the market’s speculative interest in meme tokens.
4、Layer2
-$METIS : With a surge of more than 30%, Layer2 solutions have gained more attention in the market.
5. Ethereum Domain Name Protocol
-ENS: With an increase of more than 30%, the domain name protocol also benefited from the strong performance of Ethereum.
6. Solana Ecosystem
-PYTH and BONK: surged, especially PYTH, which rose instead of falling after unlocking a huge amount of tokens. PYTH may be taking advantage of the momentum to sell, so be vigilant.
In general, the current market sentiment is relatively optimistic, especially the strong performance of ETH and BTC has driven the rise of the entire cryptocurrency market. However, investors still need to pay attention to market volatility and potential risks, especially the possible speculation in some tokens and the market reaction after the tokens are unlocked.
Macro: Nasdaq hits record high, tech stocks rise ahead of Nvidia earnings
United States, May 20, 2024 - The Nasdaq closed at a record high on Monday, while the S&P 500 rose slightly, mainly due to a rise in technology stocks ahead of Nvidia's highly anticipated earnings release and as investors speculated on the timing of a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
At last count, the Dow was down 0.49%, the S&P 500 was up 0.09%, and the Nasdaq was up 0.65%.
Of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors, the technology index led gains, rising 1.32%, driven by chipmakers such as Nvidia.
Nvidia shares rose 2.49% ahead of its quarterly results on Wednesday. Nvidia's gains came as brokerages raised their profit targets ahead of its results on Wednesday; peer Micron Technology also rose, with its shares rising 2.96% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the memory chip maker's rating to "equal weight" from "underweight." The PHLX Semiconductor Index rose 2.15%.
A strong earnings season and signs that inflation may be starting to cool again have rekindled hopes that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates this year, pushing the major averages to record highs. The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 40,000 for the first time last week.
The recent rally has begun to raise concerns about stock valuations, with the S&P 500's forward price-to-earnings ratio at 20.8, well above its historical average of 15.9, according to London Stock Exchange data.
However, the recent gains have begun to raise concerns about stock valuations, with the S&P 500's forward price-to-earnings ratio at 20.8, well above its historical average of 15.9.
Comments from Federal Reserve officials on Monday did little to change expectations for a rate cut by the central bank, with some stressing the need to "proceed with caution." Markets are pricing in a 63.3% chance of a rate cut of at least 25 basis points (bps) at the September meeting, according to CME's FedWatch tool.
Asian stocks fell on Tuesday, while the dollar firmed, as investors awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting to assess the timing and extent of possible interest rate cuts this year. MSCI's index of Asia-Pacific shares retreated more than 1% from Monday's multi-month high, while the Hang Seng Index fell 0.6%.
Gold prices fell 0.2% to around $2,420 an ounce after hitting the $2,450 mark for the first time overnight.
