Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

The Cleveland Fed's forecast for core PCE is not optimistic, and the probability of a rate hike in September has risen to over 70%. The crypto trading volume in Q2 decreased significantly, reaching its lowest point since Q4 2019. It created conditions for large price volatility in the coming weeks. Most crypto assets lost ground against Bitcoin recently and ETH/BTC dropped to a 50-week low of 0.060. Despite the rise in ETH prices, there hasn't been a significant increase in network activity so far in 2023.

Options Market

The uptrend momentum seemed to be running out of steam as BTC consolidated through the week around 30k which seamlessly held well. The indecisive market price action brought vol sellers back as the short-term IVs were sold down while the long-term vols remained bid. IVs on ETH largely followed the pattern of BTC but still trailed behind for 1-2 points of vol across the term structure. Skew, on the other hand, cooled off as the spot consolidated and down protection demand arose again.

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• According to official sources, native USDT issued on the Kava network is now live and being distributed to over 60 Cosmos application chains.
• Multiple cross-chain bridge contracts on Multichain have experienced a significant abnormal outflow of tokens, and Multichain may have lost control of MPC multi-signature address assets due to uncontrollable circumstances.
• BendDAO's proposal to participate in NFT auctions using its DAO treasury has been approved with a 97.11% vote in favor. The proposal aims to cover potential floating losses, boost user confidence, and help maintain market stability.
• According to Nansen's report, NFT royalty revenue in June dropped to its lowest point in two years. Royalty payments peaked in April 2022, with creators earning 28,000 ETH per week, or nearly $76 million. Meanwhile, during the peak week in June, creators earned a total of 2,000 ETH, or about $3.8 million.
• Blockchain startup Web3Go has completed a $4 million seed round of financing, with Binance Labs leading the investment and other participants including HashKey Capital, NGC Ventures, Shima Capital, IVC, LIF, Big Brain Holdings, and Archerman Capital.
• According to statistics from Hacked.slowmist, the total amount lost in the blockchain field due to hacking attacks since January 2012 has exceeded $30 billion, with a total of 1,101 hacking incidents.
• According to The Block, the total supply of stablecoins has dropped from $138 billion at the beginning of the year to $124 billion.

Macro

Stocks closed lower quietly in a holiday-shortened week: the DJIA ended-2.0%, the S&P500- 1.2%, and the NASDAQ -0.9%. The Wednesday Fed minutes revealed a hawkish outlook: the rates would remain higher and longer. The labor-market data (June ADP and nonfarm payroll reports) continues to remain resilient. Investors are now having eyes on the release of Q2 earnings reports.