Last week in the news
Previous week was marked by the moves of central banks of both the US and EU. Fed made a short pause of further rate hikes, while ECB continued with a 25 bps increase. While EU equity markets were supported by the ECB decision, the US markets ended the week in red, after reaching new short-term highs during the week. On the other side, the BlackRock`s filing for first BTC backed ETF fund supported the crypto market as of the end of the week. BTC is finishing the week above $26K, ETH is holding above $1.7K.
During the previous week, both FOMC and ECB meetings were held. As it was expected, the FED skipped to hike rates at June`s meeting, however, as per after-the-meeting statements, it is still not planned to halt further increases of interest rates, as two more are ahead. This pause will be used by FED officials to assess implications of current monetary measures. Two more rate increases would lead US benchmark interest rates to the level of 5.6% as of the end of this year. As Fed Chair Powell said, the full effect of current measures is still to be fully relieved in the future period. At the same time, their colleagues from the European Central bank continued raising rates by an additional 25 bps on Thursday. The rate increase is coming due to ECB`s expectations for headline inflation to be elevated during the course of this year at levels of 5.4% and 3% in 2024. The ECB also revised the expected growth rate for the EU for this year to the level of 0.9% and 1.5% in 2024. In her speech, ECB President Lagarde commented that the ECB is still not finished with rate hikes, indicating potential for another hike in July this year. Officially released data shows that the EU is in technical recession, where some economists think would be a limiting factor for ECB to continue further hakes from levels of 3.75%-4%.
In a wake of disputes with the SEC, Binance is cutting jobs in order to prepare for the costly fight with the regulator, and also announced that the company will exit the Netherlands market. This decision is coming after Binance`s failure to obtain the license from Netherland`s authorities to conduct its business as a virtual asset service provider. In its official announcement, there has not been a comment over the cause why the Dutch regulator rejected Binance`s application. Still the company already obtained such licenses in France, Spain, Sweden, and several other EU countries. However, although Binance is claiming that the SEC`s allegations do not affect Binance`s businesses in other countries, still during the week the news hit the market that Binance`s office in Paris has been visited by the French police, investigating “money laundering”.
As of the end of the week, the crypto market has been highly supported by the filing of the BlackRock, asset management company, for the first spot bitcoin ETF, where Coinbase will be its crypto custodian. Previous applications from other investment companies in the US for BTC ETF fund have been rejected by the SEC, so BlackRock`s filing would represent a sort of break-through on the market in case that it is approved by the SEC. Still, analysts are noting that BlackRock`s btc ETF fund is not the same as, for example, Grayscale`s ETF fund. The difference is coming from the structure of a trust which allows redemptions, so the fund will function like an ETF. On the other hand, GBTC did not have an option of redemptions. The crypto market gained significantly as of the end of the week, as this news was announced.
Crypto market cap
During the week the crypto market was trying to recover from the previous losses, but all investors' eyes were on the equity market, which gained strongly since the beginning of this year. Significant breakthrough was made at the end of the week, by the announced filling of the BlackRock, a largest asset manager in the US, for its first BTC ETF. This was the moment when markets regained positive sentiment, after the last two weeks of negative news related to the crypto industry and SEC`s allegations. Certainly, the recovery will be slow, but this move from BlackRock shows that investors are still not ready to give up on cryptos. Total market capitalization gained modestly from the week before, by adding total $27B to the market cap, which is a 3% increase. Daily trading volumes modestly eased to the level of $60B on a daily basis, from previous week`s $85B. Total crypto market capitalization increase since the beginning of this year currently stands at 37%, where it has been added total $280B to the market cap.
It was a sort of mixed trading week on the crypto market, ending in a positive sentiment. Total crypto market capitalization has increased by 3% and was mostly driven by BTC in nominal terms. BTC gained $17.5B in its market capitalisation during the week, increasing it by 3.5% on a weekly level. ETH had a relatively modest week with a small loss of $1B in value or 0.5%. Regardless of all negative news, BNB managed to modestly recover from recent losses, adding $1.6B to its market cap, or 4.3% on a weekly basis.
Altcoins with significant gain during the week in a relative terms were LINK, with gain of 10.4%, Uniswap surged by 13%, while Polygon, Algorand, Filecoin and Maker were up by 10% w/w. There has been an increase in circulating coins, where LINK managed to increase its coins by 4.1% and was the absolute winner of the week. Tether continues with an increase of its coins in circulation by 0.3%, while Filecoin added 0.4% w/w.
Crypto futures market
A relatively negative market sentiment was holding on the crypto futures market, regardless of the positive developments on the spot market as of the end of the week. BTC short term futures were holding relatively flat compared to the week before, still, the long term ones were traded more than 4% lower. BTC futures maturing as of the end of this year were traded at the price of $ 26.150, or 4.4% lower, while those maturing in December 2024 were down by 4.25% and were closed at price of $26.800.
ETH futures experienced a higher drop from BTC futures, where short term ones were traded up to 10% lower on a weekly basis. Futures maturing in December this year were down by 10.5%, finishing the week at price $1.689. Futures maturing in December 2024 finished the week at price $1.730, which was by 9.85% from previous week`s level of $1.919.
Previous week was marked by the moves of central banks of both the US and EU. Fed made a short pause of further rate hikes, while ECB continued with a 25 bps increase. While EU equity markets were supported by the ECB decision, the US markets ended the week in red, after reaching new short-term highs during the week. On the other side, the BlackRock`s filing for first BTC backed ETF fund supported the crypto market as of the end of the week. BTC is finishing the week above $26K, ETH is holding above $1.7K.
During the previous week, both FOMC and ECB meetings were held. As it was expected, the FED skipped to hike rates at June`s meeting, however, as per after-the-meeting statements, it is still not planned to halt further increases of interest rates, as two more are ahead. This pause will be used by FED officials to assess implications of current monetary measures. Two more rate increases would lead US benchmark interest rates to the level of 5.6% as of the end of this year. As Fed Chair Powell said, the full effect of current measures is still to be fully relieved in the future period. At the same time, their colleagues from the European Central bank continued raising rates by an additional 25 bps on Thursday. The rate increase is coming due to ECB`s expectations for headline inflation to be elevated during the course of this year at levels of 5.4% and 3% in 2024. The ECB also revised the expected growth rate for the EU for this year to the level of 0.9% and 1.5% in 2024. In her speech, ECB President Lagarde commented that the ECB is still not finished with rate hikes, indicating potential for another hike in July this year. Officially released data shows that the EU is in technical recession, where some economists think would be a limiting factor for ECB to continue further hakes from levels of 3.75%-4%.
In a wake of disputes with the SEC, Binance is cutting jobs in order to prepare for the costly fight with the regulator, and also announced that the company will exit the Netherlands market. This decision is coming after Binance`s failure to obtain the license from Netherland`s authorities to conduct its business as a virtual asset service provider. In its official announcement, there has not been a comment over the cause why the Dutch regulator rejected Binance`s application. Still the company already obtained such licenses in France, Spain, Sweden, and several other EU countries. However, although Binance is claiming that the SEC`s allegations do not affect Binance`s businesses in other countries, still during the week the news hit the market that Binance`s office in Paris has been visited by the French police, investigating “money laundering”.
As of the end of the week, the crypto market has been highly supported by the filing of the BlackRock, asset management company, for the first spot bitcoin ETF, where Coinbase will be its crypto custodian. Previous applications from other investment companies in the US for BTC ETF fund have been rejected by the SEC, so BlackRock`s filing would represent a sort of break-through on the market in case that it is approved by the SEC. Still, analysts are noting that BlackRock`s btc ETF fund is not the same as, for example, Grayscale`s ETF fund. The difference is coming from the structure of a trust which allows redemptions, so the fund will function like an ETF. On the other hand, GBTC did not have an option of redemptions. The crypto market gained significantly as of the end of the week, as this news was announced.
Crypto market cap
During the week the crypto market was trying to recover from the previous losses, but all investors' eyes were on the equity market, which gained strongly since the beginning of this year. Significant breakthrough was made at the end of the week, by the announced filling of the BlackRock, a largest asset manager in the US, for its first BTC ETF. This was the moment when markets regained positive sentiment, after the last two weeks of negative news related to the crypto industry and SEC`s allegations. Certainly, the recovery will be slow, but this move from BlackRock shows that investors are still not ready to give up on cryptos. Total market capitalization gained modestly from the week before, by adding total $27B to the market cap, which is a 3% increase. Daily trading volumes modestly eased to the level of $60B on a daily basis, from previous week`s $85B. Total crypto market capitalization increase since the beginning of this year currently stands at 37%, where it has been added total $280B to the market cap.
It was a sort of mixed trading week on the crypto market, ending in a positive sentiment. Total crypto market capitalization has increased by 3% and was mostly driven by BTC in nominal terms. BTC gained $17.5B in its market capitalisation during the week, increasing it by 3.5% on a weekly level. ETH had a relatively modest week with a small loss of $1B in value or 0.5%. Regardless of all negative news, BNB managed to modestly recover from recent losses, adding $1.6B to its market cap, or 4.3% on a weekly basis.
Altcoins with significant gain during the week in a relative terms were LINK, with gain of 10.4%, Uniswap surged by 13%, while Polygon, Algorand, Filecoin and Maker were up by 10% w/w. There has been an increase in circulating coins, where LINK managed to increase its coins by 4.1% and was the absolute winner of the week. Tether continues with an increase of its coins in circulation by 0.3%, while Filecoin added 0.4% w/w.
Crypto futures market
A relatively negative market sentiment was holding on the crypto futures market, regardless of the positive developments on the spot market as of the end of the week. BTC short term futures were holding relatively flat compared to the week before, still, the long term ones were traded more than 4% lower. BTC futures maturing as of the end of this year were traded at the price of $ 26.150, or 4.4% lower, while those maturing in December 2024 were down by 4.25% and were closed at price of $26.800.
ETH futures experienced a higher drop from BTC futures, where short term ones were traded up to 10% lower on a weekly basis. Futures maturing in December this year were down by 10.5%, finishing the week at price $1.689. Futures maturing in December 2024 finished the week at price $1.730, which was by 9.85% from previous week`s level of $1.919.
