Coin360 Weekly Dispatch | Crypto Market Updates & Highlights | August 12 - August 18, 2023

Crypto Weekly Market Update

Written by Van

Table of Contents

Crypto Market Overview

• Crypto Weekly Recap: Price Actions, Market Trends, and Key Developments

Market Trends and Major Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin's 10% Crash Spurs Billion-Dollar Liquidations
• Shibarium's Rocky Launch Causes Shiba Inu Token Dip
• Europe's First Spot Bitcoin ETF Launched in Amsterdam
• FedNow Partners with Dropp for Fast Micropayments

Regulatory and Exchange Developments

• SEC Expected to Approve Ethereum Futures ETFs Soon
• Sei Network's Chaotic Launch Leads to Backlash
• Coinbase Adjusts Services and Partnerships in Canada
• Binance Connect Closes Amid Regulatory Struggles
• PayPal Halts UK Crypto Purchases Due to Regulations

NFT and Blockchain Innovations

• ConsenSys Launches Ethereum Scaling Solution Linea
• OpenSea to Disable Royalty Enforcement Tool
• Magic Eden Funds Polygon Creators with $1M
• DeLabs Co-Founder Leaves Amid NFT Price Fall
• Coca-Cola Unveils NFT Collection on Coinbase's Network
• Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Face Price Decline

Crypto Weekly Recap: Price Actions, Market Trends, and Key Developments

Bitcoin:

• Weekly change: -11.1%
• From last Friday to Monday afternoon (UTC), BTC's price was between $29,100 and $29,300 before peaking at $29,660.
• Digital asset investment reversed a three-week outflow trend last week, with inflows of $28.5 million, including Bitcoin's $27 million. BTC's institutional investment trend stalled; price fell to around $29,400 later on Monday, beginning a downward move.
• The decline continued through Wednesday night, with BTC dropping under $29,000 after CFTC Chair Behnam's call for crypto regulation, remaining below $28,600.
• By Thursday afternoon, BTC had fallen under $28,000 due to rising rates and Wall Street's risk aversion. Leveraged funds were the most bearish in Bitcoin futures since April 2022, according to CoinDesk.
• Friday saw BTC crash below $26,000, with $1 billion in cryptocurrencies liquidated. Factors included rumored SpaceX sales, China Evergrande's collapse, market shifts, rising U.S. interest rates, and speculative ETF trading.

Ethereum:

• Weekly change: -9.64%
• ETH's price remained stable despite news about Ether Futures ETF efforts from Valkyrie, Volatility Shares, and former US President Donald Trump's holding.
• ETH hit its weekly high of $1,860 on Sunday evening (UTC), before settling back to around $1,850, then moving sideways.
• In line with BTC's movement, ETH crashed to its lowest level since mid-June on Friday, reaching $1,617 before recovering to $1,670 at the time of writing.
• A flash dump led an unknown trader or trading entity to lose $55 million on an ETH long position against BUSD on Binance.
• The plunge was halted when the US securities regulator showed an inclination to approve several Ethereum futures ETFs.
• A crypto whale sold $41 million worth of Ether before the market crashed, dodging a potential $5 million loss.
• Whales saw both panic sales and discounted buys post-crash.

Altcoins:

• ARB: An ARB whale bought 1.27 million tokens. Arbitrum will unlock $1.2B ARB in March 2024.
• AVAX: Avalanche Foundation provided $3M in AVAX tokens to Dexalot.
• ALGO: Algorand reached a new all-time low amid market downturn.
• AllianceBlock: Backed Nexera DEX, looking at institutional adoption with decentralized KYC, AML.
• AXS: Philippines law enforcement warned about risks with “play-to-earn” games, including Axie Infinity.
• Mantle: Discussed pausing token migration to stop FTX converting $43M in BIT tokens to MNT. Crossed $40 million in TVL within a month.
• BNB: BNB Chain hacker lost $62.5M after getting liquidated in Friday's crash.
• Tether: Discontinued USDT support on Bitcoin, Kusama, and Bitcoin Cash due to low usage.
• CRV: Aave DAO voted to acquire CRV tokens with USDT.
• ADA: Number of Cardano whale and shark wallets surged to 16-month high despite bear market (Santiment).
• CHZ: Chiliz announced two proposals to upgrade for smart contracts.
• FXS: Frax V2 enabled permissionless DeFi validators.
• HNT: Helium Mobile debuted a crypto wireless network in Miami for $5 a month.
• MKR: Maker's profit expectation dropped from $80M to below $2M (Messari).
• NEXT: Connext to airdrop native token 'Next' in early September.
• OPNX: 3AC founders’ crypto project penalized with $2.7M in Dubai.
• RUNE: THORChain rose nearly 40% even after market bloodbath.
• SAND: The Sandbox unlocked $133M worth of tokens.
• SEI: Sei Mainnet went live, but the token took a hit.
• SHIB: Shibarium launch faltered, community still supports; lead dev said ‘Funds are SAFU.'
• SRM, SNM, YFII: Binance to delist and cease trading on all pairs for these tokens.
• XRP: Institutional investors led to 57% growth in AUM; a 45% crash in XRP/USDT contract on Bybit; 150 million XRP moved to Bithumb.
• YFI: Wintermute proposal to borrow YFI faced criticism from the DeFi community.

Bitcoin's 10% Crash Spurs Billion-Dollar Liquidations

On Friday, Bitcoin's price crashed by nearly 10%, hitting a nine-week low and leading to over $1.04 billion in liquidations. The overall cryptocurrency market declined by 9%, reflecting a drop in crypto coin prices across major digital assets.

Rumors of SpaceX liquidating Bitcoin holdings, the Federal Reserve's interest rate stance, and market volatility factors like China Evergrande's financial issues and potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF approval contributed to the crash. The turbulence affected major cryptocurrencies, including Ether and altcoins. The authenticity of the SpaceX report was later questioned.

Shibarium's Rocky Launch Causes Shiba Inu Token Dip

Shiba Inu's layer 2 network, Shibarium, faced challenges and glitches during its mainnet launch, leading to trapped Ethereum and a backlog of transactions. The launch was criticized for its execution and ineffective features. The launch issues affected the price performance of Shiba Inu-related tokens, causing a dip.

A whale took advantage of the situation, selling a substantial number of BONE tokens. The community experienced panic and a sell-off of tokens. Despite setbacks, the Shiba Inu ecosystem maintained strong community support and BONE staking. 

Europe's First Spot Bitcoin ETF Launched in Amsterdam

Europe's first spot Bitcoin ETF, Jacobi Bitcoin ETF (BCOIN), launched on the Euronext Amsterdam Exchange. Custody is handled by Fidelity Digital Assets, and the ETF focuses on sustainable investing by monitoring energy consumption through renewable energy certificates.

However, experts noted that the ETF is registered in Guernsey, not an EU member. The SEC's decision on Grayscale's Bitcoin ETF application is still pending, and analysts are closely watching cryptocurrency charts to gauge impacts, with a potential deadline of early 2024. 

Sanford C. Bernstein predicts that a spot Bitcoin ETF could claim 10% of Bitcoin's market cap within three years if adopted by 5% of US investors. 

FedNow Partners with Dropp for Fast Micropayments

The Federal Reserve's instant payment service, FedNow, has partnered with Dropp, a micropayments platform built on Hedera Hashgraph. Dropp allows for real-time transactions, reducing credit card fees and making micropayments more accessible.

Hedera Hashgraph operates using a unique consensus mechanism, enabling over 10,000 transactions per second with a settlement time of 3-5 seconds.

This development has caused a surge in the crypto price of HBAR, the cryptocurrency associated with Hedera Hashgraph, with a four-month high of $0.067141 and an overall growth of approximately 50% since mid-June 2023. 

SEC Expected to Approve Ethereum Futures ETFs Soon

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is expected to approve Ethereum futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the coming months. Over a dozen companies, including ProShares, Volatility Shares, Bitwise, and Valkyrie, have submitted applications for Ethereum futures ETFs.

The ETFs would track the price of Ethereum futures traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, providing insights into the Ethereum market cap and its potential fluctuations. Approval for some of the filings could come as early as October. The SEC has previously approved Bitcoin futures funds, and this move signifies a shift towards approving crypto-related ETFs.

The management fees for proposed Ethereum futures ETFs are lower compared to Bitcoin futures ETFs. 

Sei Network's Chaotic Launch Leads to Backlash

Sei Network's cryptocurrency launch faced backlash due to a chaotic token airdrop process, leading some to label it the "worst L1 Blockchain Airdrop distribution ever." The confusion over claiming and an unexpected "warmup period" disappointed investors.

The Sei Foundation's decision to increase eligible wallets for the SEI Airdrop from 500K to 1.5M led to a sell-off, causing the SEI token's price to drop by 12.02% and trading volume to decrease by 42% in a day.

Sei's goal to scale decentralized exchanges and its claim as the fastest layer 1 blockchain remain overshadowed by this fiasco.

Coinbase Adjusts Services and Partnerships in Canada

Coinbase is adjusting its services in Canada, suspending trading of USDT, DAI, and RAI for Canadian users from September 1, while still allowing deposits and withdrawals. This follows regulatory changes and Binance's exit from the Canadian market.

Meanwhile, Coinbase has partnered with Peoples Trust Company to introduce Interac payment rails for Canadian dollar transactions and is promoting a 30-day trial of Coinbase One to attract Canadian users. The company's expansion in Canada is part of a broader strategy to grow internationally amid regulatory challenges in the U.S.

Binance Connect Closes Amid Regulatory Struggles

Binance Connect, the regulated crypto arm of Binance, closed on Aug. 16, reflecting shifts in market and user demands. Launched as Bifinity, it supported 50 cryptocurrencies and faced various regulatory hurdles, including suspensions and legal battles in different regions.

UK credit card processor Checkout.com has terminated its contract with Binance over compliance issues, temporarily affecting transactions worth $400 million. Binance plans legal action against Checkout.com, adding to its existing legal complexities.

PayPal Halts UK Crypto Purchases Due to Regulations

PayPal will temporarily halt crypto purchases in the UK until early 2024 due to stricter rules implemented by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to combat money laundering. Customers can still keep or sell their existing crypto assets, but new purchases will be disabled starting from October 1.

PayPal is committed to compliance and working closely with regulators worldwide. This move follows PayPal's recent launch of a stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), in the United States. The FCA is also expected to introduce further regulations for advertising crypto in the country. 

ConsenSys Launches Ethereum Scaling Solution Linea

ConsenSys has completed the public launch of its Ethereum scaling rollup, Linea. Over $26 million worth of Ether has been bridged, with more than three million transactions processed.

Linea, a zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) solution, offers lower transaction costs and higher throughput for decentralized applications (DApps) on the Ethereum network. It has onboarded over 150 partners and supports various Web3 use cases, particularly in decentralized finance (DeFi).

Linea's mainnet enables trustless bridging between Ethereum and layer 2 in minutes, providing a capital-efficient environment. The release also includes a token bridge for ERC-20 tokens. 

Top Weekly Altcoin Gainers and Losers

Gainers:

THORChain RUNE (+46.65%)

Toncoin TON (+3.59%)

Injective INJ (+0.57%)

Unus Sed Leo LEO (+0.12%)

Losers:

Conflux CFX (-27.73%)

Compound COMP (-24.53%)

Rollbit Coin RLB (-23.31%)

GMX GMX (-23.07%)

Litecoin LTC (-22.25%)

NFT Market Map

OpenSea to Disable Royalty Enforcement Tool

OpenSea, a popular NFT marketplace, will disable its royalty enforcement tool, Operator Filter, starting August 31. The tool allowed creators to blacklist marketplaces that didn't enforce royalties. OpenSea's CEO, Devin Finzer, stated that the tool did not receive enough support and faced pushback from creators.

While the move may disappoint some creators seeking passive income, Finzer emphasized that creator fees are not going away, just the unilateral enforcement of them. This decision has sparked mixed reactions within the NFT community. 

Magic Eden Funds Polygon Creators with $1M

Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden has launched a $1m fund to support creators building on the Polygon blockchain. Selected applicants will receive mentorship, marketing assistance, tech support and grant dollars to bring their projects to market.

The aim is to foster blue-chip NFT collections on Polygon, which is best known for web3 gaming. Magic Eden first added Polygon NFT support in November 2022 before adding Polygon NFT minting and trading capabilities for gaming a month later.

DeLabs Co-Founder Leaves Amid NFT Price Fall

Finn DeGods, co-founder of DeLabs, has left the startup amid falling NFT prices and backlash. DeGods' NFT collection saw a floor price drop from $15,900 to $7,750, while y00ts' fell from $2,950 to $1,750 since August 9.

Despite this, DeGods experienced a 530% trading volume increase after announcing y00ts' migration to Ethereum and revealing new art pieces. The current floor price of a DeGods NFT stands at 7.1 ETH ($13,000).

Coca-Cola Unveils NFT Collection on Coinbase's Network

Coca-Cola has launched its "Masterpiece" NFT collection on Coinbase's Ethereum Layer 2 network, Base. The collection features classic and modern artworks intertwined with a Coca-Cola bottle. The NFTs are available from 0.0011 ETH to 0.014 ETH, with nearly 50,000 minted so far.

This is not the first time Coca-Cola has ventured into the world of NFTs, having auctioned four unique NFTs in July 2021 and launched 136 collectibles to celebrate Pride Month in July 2022. The launch is part of Coinbase's multi-week "Onchain Summer" initiative, which ends on August 30.

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Face Price Decline

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs have seen a significant decline in price, dropping below 30 Ethereum from a peak of 128 ETH in May 2022. The decline has sparked discussions on whether NFTs are dead, with overall NFT sales hitting a 31-month low of $221.2 million in August.

Despite celebrity endorsements, the waning interest in NFTs is attributed to fragility in the broader economic landscape.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.