Cryptocurrency daily summary:
ARK Invest terminates partnership with 21Shares on Ethereum ETF
ARB, APT, OP and other tokens are unlocked in large quantities
Uniswap postpones voting on delegation rewards, UNI falls 8.7%
Let’s first look at the trading activity of Bitcoin ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, last Friday, May 31, Grayscale Bitcoin Spot ETF (GBTC) continued to outflow $124.3 million; at the same time, Fidelity Bitcoin Spot ETF (FBTC) inflowed $5.9 million, and iShares Trust Bitcoin Spot ETF (IBIT) inflowed $196.1 million.
ARK Invest announces termination of cooperation with 21Shares on Ethereum ETF
21Shares has updated its S-1 filing for its Ethereum spot ETF, renaming the fund the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF, while announcing that ARK Invest has terminated its partnership with 21Shares and will no longer participate in the ETF.
In the newly revised S-1 form, there are no updated fees. Despite acknowledging Ethereum’s breakout potential and long-term value, a representative from ARK Invest confirmed the company’s decision not to move forward with an Ethereum ETF, saying it needed to re-evaluate its investment strategy.
Despite the termination of the cooperation on Ethereum ETF, 21Shares and ARK Invest still cooperate on other projects, such as the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF launched in January this year. In addition to Bitcoin and Ethereum futures, the two companies also launched the ARK 21Shares Blockchain and Digital Economy Innovation ETF, which aims to invest in public stocks of companies in the blockchain industry. 21Shares said that the product provides investors with comprehensive exposure to the development of blockchain technology.
On May 10 this year, ARK Invest and 21Shares revised their spot Ethereum ETF proposal, abandoning plans to pledge part of the fund's assets through a third-party provider. In a filing on February 7, the two companies included a clause stating that 21Shares expects to receive ETH as a staking reward and classify this income as fund income.
Last week, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved eight Ethereum ETFs on Form 19b-4, and issuers must wait until the S-1 report becomes effective before they can begin trading.
Uniswap Foundation postpones vote on token staking and delegation rewards, UNI falls 8.7%
The Uniswap Foundation, the organization that oversees decentralized exchange Uniswap, postponed the staking and delegation rewards vote scheduled for Friday, causing the price of UNI to fall 8.7%.
The reason for the delay is that "stakeholders" discussed issues that raised more concerns with the foundation. The foundation explained on social media platform X: "Last week, we announced that the first proposal to initiate Uniswap protocol governance would be deployed on-chain today. However, a stakeholder raised a new issue related to this work that requires additional effort for our full review. Due to the immutable nature and sensitive nature of the proposed upgrade, we have decided to postpone this vote."
The foundation added: “We sincerely apologize for the delay and will keep the community informed of any significant changes and will update everyone once future timelines are confirmed.”
As of 2:00 p.m. ET on May 31, Uniswap’s UNI token was trading at $10.20, according to data from The Block Prices, after falling 8.7% the previous day.
The proposal was proposed in February to compensate loyal Uniswap stakers and delegates for high-quality participation. The Uniswap Foundation explained a week ago that in preparation for the vote, which was originally scheduled for May 31, UNI holders must delegate their tokens on the platform before the voting begins.
Important token unlocks in June: Arbitrum and Aptos unlock $100 million in tokens, as well as APE, OP, and more
June is expected to be a big month for token unlocking in the cryptocurrency space, with multiple major projects set to unlock over $650 million worth of tokens at current prices. This was driven primarily by Ethereum’s $100 million double unlock, including for Layer 2 network Arbitrum and popular Layer 1 project Aptos. According to Token Unlocks data, here are the major tokens set to be unlocked this month:
Aptos: June 12, $100 million
Aptos, one of the projects formed by former members of Facebook's Libra project, expects to unlock 2.59% of its circulating supply, or 11.31 million tokens, on June 12, with a current value of approximately $100 million.
ImmutableX: June 14, $55 million
Web3 gaming company ImmutableX will unlock 1.72% of its circulating supply, or 25.5 million tokens, currently valued at $55 million, on June 13. ImmutableX’s launch could put it among the top 25 tokens by market cap in 2024.
StarkNet: June 15, $75 million
Ethereum Layer 2 network StarkNet announced its 2024 roadmap in March, promising increased throughput and lower transaction fees. The network will unlock 64 million tokens on June 15, accounting for 5.6% of the circulating supply, currently worth about $75 million.
ARB: June 16, $103 million
Arbitrum, which recently became the first Layer 2 network to reach $150 billion in total trading volume on Uniswap, will unlock 3.2% of its circulating supply, or 92.6 million tokens, currently valued at approximately $103 million, on June 16.
Market Trends
-BTC and ETH: BTC fluctuated around $68,500, and ETH returned to around $3,800. The overall market trend is downward, which may be related to the macroeconomic environment and market sentiment.
-U.S. stocks: U.S. stocks fluctuated near record highs, and macroeconomic data was mixed, which may also have a certain impact on the cryptocurrency market.
Market Hotspots
1. NOT and TON:
-$NOT : It surged by more than 200% this week, approaching $0.03 at one point, and its 24-hour trading volume exceeded $4.4 billion, showing extremely high market enthusiasm.
-TON: Driven by the surge in NOT, the price of TON has broken through the $7 mark again. This linkage effect shows that the market pays more attention to related concept tokens.
2. RWA Section:
-ONDO: Breaking through the all-time high, launching the USDY yield stablecoin with an annualized yield of 5%. The launch of high-yield products may be the main driving force behind its price increase.
-$POLYX 、$OM , PRCL: These tokens also performed quite well, showing the overall strong performance of the RWA sector.
3. Meme coin GME on Solana chain:
-GME: Soared 200%. The well-known US stock KOL Roaring Kitty announced that she had bought a large number of GME call options, which further triggered a surge in the Meme coin of the same name. This shows the importance of celebrity effect and social media influence in the cryptocurrency market.
4.GameFi concept:
-NOT and ALICE: Led by them, GameFi concept tokens generally rose. ALICE rose by more than 30% in a day, showing investors' strong interest in games and metaverse-related projects in the short term.
The current cryptocurrency market is characterized by hot spot differentiation, especially the tokens of Meme concept and GameFi concept are relatively strong. At the same time, the macroeconomic environment and market sentiment also affect the trend of mainstream cryptocurrencies to a certain extent. Investors should pay attention to market hot spots and macroeconomic changes, and make reasonable asset allocation and risk management.
Macro: Dow Jones Industrial Average posts biggest one-day gain of the year on Friday, surges in May; Asian markets rise on rate cuts
On May 31, Reuters reported that the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 closed higher last Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average recording its biggest single-day percentage gain since November 2023.
The repositioning at the end of the month drove a sharp rise in late trading, with all three major stock indexes recording significant gains in May. Nearly all of the S&P 500's major sectors ended higher, with energy gaining 2.5% and technology falling slightly.
Specific data: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.51%, the S&P 500 rose 0.8%, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell slightly by 0.01%.
The annual inflation rate for personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in the United States rose 2.7% year-on-year in April. According to a report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the PCE price index rose 0.3% last month, the same as the unrevised increase in March. The report also showed that consumer spending slowed more than expected.
In May, the S&P 500 rose about 4.8%, the Nasdaq gained 6.9% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 2.4%. However, stocks fell this week, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq breaking a streak of five consecutive weeks of gains.
Asian stocks rose in early trading on Monday, June 3, as investors looked to rate cuts in Europe and Canada as the next step in global policy easing, although high inflation could make that a protracted process.
There was good news out of China, where the Caixin Private Survey showed its main manufacturing index rose to a two-year high of 51.7 in May from 51.4 in April. Japanese factory activity expanded for the first time in a year in May, while South Korean factory activity also grew at the fastest pace in two years.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rebounded 1.4% after falling 2.5% last week. Chinese blue chips rose 0.3%. Japan's Nikkei rose 1.1% after rebounding from a one-month low on Friday, while South Korea's SE KOPSI rose 1.8%.
In foreign exchange markets, the yen remains the weakest performer among major currencies, even though the Japanese government is clearly prepared to spend a lot of money to slow the yen's slide. Data last week showed that Tokyo invested 9.788 trillion yen (about 62.27 billion U.S. dollars) in currency intervention between April 26 and May 29.
USD/JPY was at 157.09, just below last week’s peak of 157.715. EUR/USD was solid at 1.0855, benefiting from the EU inflation report, but facing resistance at 1.0895.
In commodities, oil prices recovered from early losses and moved higher on Monday after OPEC+ agreed on Sunday to extend most of its oil production cuts until 2025, but some cuts will be rolled back starting in October 2024. Brent crude rose 38 cents to $81.49 a barrel, while U.S. crude rose 39 cents to $77.38 a barrel.
Gold prices firmed slightly to $2,330 an ounce, marking four straight months of gains, driven in part by buying by central banks and China.
