Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

US Bitcoin ETFs received the highest inflows since May 3 with $303 million on May 15, as institutional investors turned bullish after the US CPI data met expectations. The surge in BTC prices also contributed to the increase in inflows for spot Bitcoin ETFs. ETH/BTC and ETH sentiment almost reached a bearish climax. With only a month left until the ETF decision, very few people consider it probable. ETH/BTC is highly oversold on shorter timeframes.

Options Market

The bullish sentiment was boosted by the lower CPI print. BTC and ETH both posted a decent gain post-CPI announcement. That said, ETH still underperformed BTC. The ETH/BTC spot spread recovered a bit from its downward trend. The ETH/BTC volatility spread narrowed down as the realized spread dropped below 5 vols. Positive carry makes short gamma positions still attractive. Skew reflected a more optimistic view on the upside with call skew being well bid, making it more attractive to sell calls to earn yield.

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• Aevo announces the launch of Aevo Airdrops, in collaboration with pre-launch projects, and will airdrop their tokens to the most active pre-launch traders and AEVO stakers. The first batch of collaborating projects is Swell Protocol and Zerolend Finance.
  

• According to Crowdfund Insider, in the first quarter of 2024, there has been a significant increase in cryptocurrency financing, with startups raising $2.4 billion in 518 transactions. Compared to the previous quarter, investment capital has grown by 40.3%, and transaction volume has increased by 44.7%.
  

• According to official website data, the total locked value of the Solana ecosystem liquidity staking protocol Jito has exceeded 10 million SOL tokens.
  

• On May 17th, the official announcement from the knowledge graph protocol 0xScope stated that the OpenScope mainnet is now live.
  

• According to official sources, Huaxia Fund Hong Kong's products, including Bitcoin ETF and Ethereum ETF, have been included in Hong Kong's new capital investor immigration program.
  

• Blockchain digital identity verification solution Netki announces the launch of its groundbreaking compliance oracle DeFi Sentinel on Sui.
  

• On May 16th, Tether will collaborate with the TON Foundation and Oobit to create a seamless cryptocurrency payment solution.
  

• DeFi protocol Shogun's developer, Intensity Labs, has completed a $6.9 million seed funding round, with Polychain Capital and DAO5 as lead investors, and participation from Arrington Capital, Arthur Hayes' family office Maelstrom, and others.
  

• Ethereum Layer 2 network Blast announces that its airdrop will start on June 26th. Due to a slight delay from the initial estimate in May, the airdrop distribution will be increased.

Marco

The major indexes hit new record highs following the release of CPI data: the DJIA added +1.2%, the S&P 500 +1.5%, and the NASDAQ +2.1%. The concerns around inflation appeared to be pacified. The long-term U.S Treasury note yield hit a month low after the CPI report.