Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

The US dollar has achieved its peak value in 2023, as the increase in Treasury yields helped to strengthen it. The sentiment in stock and crypto markets has become increasingly bearish. According to data from CryptoQuant, Bitcoin spot trading volume dropped to 6-year low. Investors tended to hold their coins, instead of selling at the first sign of profit. Ethereum faced a potential delay in its Deneb-Cancun upgrade designed to address scalability. MKR, which represents the lending sector, delivered the highest returns in the 30-day period. This has been attributed to the RWA narrative and the DAI Savings Rate effort.

Options Market

Realized volatilities receded to the mid-20s, with spot prices consolidating in the range of 26k to 27k for BTC and 1.6k to 1.7k for ETH respectively. Implied volatilities fell at a faster pace on the rebound late in the week. The shift has returned the volatility carry to a negative stance, favouring gamma buyers who have been hurt throughout most of the year. Nonetheless, volatility continued to trade at a historical low level. The desk observed some upside plays in BTC ahead of spot ETF decisions in October. 

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• According to CoinDesk, Valkyrie’s application to add Ethereum futures contracts in its Bitcoin futures ETF was approved.
• BlockFi’s creditors have approved its bankruptcy reorganization plan, according to an email BlockFi sent to creditors.
• Binance issued an announcement stating that Binance will fully exit Russia and has sold its Russian business to CommEX.
• Mox Bank, a Hong Kong virtual bank with Standard Chartered Bank as its major shareholder, revealed that it is waiting for approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission No. 4 license and said it will launch new fund services once obtained the license.
• Data: NFT sales on Ethereum hit approximately $140 million in September, the lowest since February 2021.
• According to Spot on Chain monitoring, FTX attacker 0x3e9 transferred a total of 10,250 ETH (approximately US$17.1 million) through 5 addresses in the past 24 hours.
• According to Bloomberg, Su Zhu, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, was arrested at the Singapore Airport. The court issued an arrest warrant and sentenced him to four months in prison.
• Chaos Labs proposes to distribute $20 million worth of DYDX incentives to dYdX v4 early adopters.

Macro

The major benchmarks closed mixed for the week: the DJIA lost -1.3%, the S&P -0.7%, and the NASDAQ added 0.1%. Higher oil prices contributed to concerns on inflation, and the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yields hit 4.6% on Wednesday. The S&P 500 index suffered a fourth consecutive week of pullback. Energy stocks outperformed the market.