Market Highlights
- Bitcoin and Ethereum started the week with steep declines before hovering sideways and regaining their losses.
- VanEck’s proposal for a US-based Solana ETF boosted trade volume on the network.
- The first Presidential debate saw a flurry of activity in meme coins, with steep sell-offs in the coins, Joe Boden (BODEN) and Donald Tremp (TREMP).
- The US Supreme Court overturned the Chevron doctrine, which could be good news for the trajectory of crypto regulation.
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Bitcoin (BTC)
After a 8% drop to begin the week, bitcoin’s price hovered sideways before retracing some of its earlier losses. Notably, the key level around US$60,870 continues to provide support despite breaking to the downside earlier in the week.
Also this week, a dormant bitcoin whale, whose wallet had held bitcoin for almost six years, sent 1,000 BTC, currently worth US$61 million, to Coinbase. When a whale moves their coins to an exchange, it often means they will sell and take profit. If this particular whale sells, they will realise an 817% profit. In the first half of June, whales realised US$1.2 billion in profits.
The latest US inflation data was released this week. Final gross domestic product (GDP) came in at the forecast annual rate of 1.4% for the first quarter of 2024. Meanwhile, the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) index — the US Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure — came in at the expected 0.1% for June. It’s the first time since November 2023 that the core PCE index hasn’t risen, signalling that the Fed may look to cut rates in September, provided that the current trajectory continues.
Bitcoin is currently trading at US$62,844, an increase of 4.8% on the week.
Past performance is not indicative of future results.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum’s price action was similar to bitcoin this week. The week started with declines of over 2% on Monday 24 June before moving sideways. Price then found key support at US$3,355 again, regaining the losses from earlier in the week.
Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum’s co-founder, has added to recent criticism about the regulatory approach to cryptocurrency in the US. Central to his criticism of current regulation is the consistent classification of utility tokens as securities. In a post on warpcast, Buterin expressed his frustration that tokens with no utility, “...something where you’re asking people to give you money in exchange for vague references to potential returns at best…” doesn’t classify the token as a security. However, when projects give people a clear indication of how returns will be generated and their rights as investors, their tokens are classified as a security and subject to tighter regulation. Buterin continued to say, “The incentive gradient that this "anarcho-tyranny” creates ends up worse for the space than either plain anarchy or plain tyranny.” As many critics have said recently, the current regulatory landscape makes it more difficult for well-intentioned crypto innovators to grow their projects.
Ethereum is currently trading at US3,441, an increase of over 3% on the week.
Altcoins
Utilities and Services dominated sector growth this week with an increase of 15.7%. The Bridge sector grew by 8.3%, followed by the Bitcoin Ecosystem, Smart Contract Platforms, and Oracles, which trailed behind with 7.3%, 5.2%, and 4.2% growth, respectively. Other sectors saw steep declines, including AI, which contracted by 17.9% and staking services, which saw losses of 15.5%.
Solana-Driven Memecoin Gains
- dogwifhat (WIF) gained 45.4%, taking its market cap to US$2.3 billion. Price took off after bouncing off key support around US$1.50. The rebound in price this week is presumably due to a spike in trading volume, which occurred across Solana-based coins amid VanEck’s filing for a Solana ETF. In a 24-hour period, WIF had a trading volume of US$600 million, overtaking both Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, and Pepe.
- cat in a dogs world (MEW) gained 35.1%, which takes its market cap to US$424.9 million. The Solana-based meme coin presumably enjoyed gains due to an uptick in trading volume on the Solana network. MEW also listed on CoinOne exchange this week. The meme coin debuted in March 2024 and aims to disrupt the dominance of dog-themed meme coins in the market.
Time for a Rebrand
- Ethereum Name Service (ENS) continued its strong price action of late, growing by 42.6% to take its market cap to US$1 billion. The ENS founders held an AMA on Wednesday 26 June, and the team unveiled its plans to rebrand, which was received positively by the market. Price has now broken US$30 to the upside — a level that has been key resistance since the start of 2024.
Smart Contract Innovations and Growth
- Router Protocol (ROUTE) grew by 37.6%, taking its market cap to US$48.1 million. The cross-chain interoperability protocol recently completed a funding round, presumably driving price upwards. The team expanded its capitalisation table with prominent founders and web3 executives. Some of the new angels and advisors include Keone Hon (Monad), Parker Jou (Caldera), Amrit Kumar (Altlayer), Aniket (Biconomy), Anurag Arjun (Avail), Amitej (Stader), and Ravindra (Frontier).
- AIOZ Network (AIOZ) gained 29.6%, taking its market cap to US$639.6 million. Price for the decentralised physical infrastructure network (DePIN) responded positively to an ecosystem upgrade, which includes transcoding functionality. With transcoding functionality, users can convert video files into other formats. The upgrade also includes an improved user interface and functional improvements.
Yielding Change
- Akropolis (AKRO) grew by 33.2%. This takes its market cap to US$592.6 thousand. The DeFi yield aggregator’s price spiked 84% on Friday 28 June, before retracing. The price growth is presumably due to the active governance proposal that looks set to pass. In passing the proposal, a new dPoS-based blockchain will be launched with better Ethereum virtual machine (EVM) compatibility and new tokenomics aimed at improved utility and ecosystem growth.
In Other News
Digital asset investment products saw outflows of US$30 million this week, making it the third consecutive week of outflows. However, the outflows were much smaller than in previous weeks, indicating a potential turnaround in sentiment.
Ethereum investment products had outflows of US$61 million, the largest week of outflows since August 2022. Currently, Ethereum is the worst-performing asset for net flows year-to-date.
Bitcoin and multi-asset exchange-traded products saw small inflows of US$18 million and US$10 million, respectively. Further supporting a potential change in sentiment was the outflows in short-bitcoin, which totalled US$4.2 million.
- Solana (SOL) experienced a strong week, with price growing 17% to US$146.64 at the time of writing. The price growth was driven by asset management firm, VanEck proposing a US-based Solana ETF. It’s the first time a Solana ETF has been proposed. In its S-1 registration statement, the firm said the “VanEck Solana Trust” will “reflect the performance of the price of Solana”. The Trust’s shares will be backed directly with SOL tokens, and the ETF, if approved, will be listed on the Cboe BZX Exchange.
- BLAST, an Ethereum layer-2 network’s highly anticipated airdrop, went live this week. The airdrop saw hundreds of millions of dollars in tokens gifted to users. However, minutes later, sell-side activity took off. BLAST’s token started at US$0.025 and fell to US$0.02. The pool of 14 billion tokens reserved for the airdrop was originally worth US$354 million and declined to US$289 million. The sell-off is presumably due to disappointment following investors' expectations for a higher launch price, especially due to crypto whales’ interest in the network and the large sums Blur, the network’s predecessor, raised for its incentivised NFT marketplace.
- Crypto markets responded to the first US Presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump this week. The price for meme coins bearing obscured versions of the faces of Biden and Trump declined steeply following the debate. The Joe Boden (BODEN) token saw losses of 52% in one day as President Biden’s re-election odds declined. The Donald Tremp (TREMP) token also experienced a sell-off, but its overall price for the week was up 13% at the time of writing.
Regulatory
- The US Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Chevron doctrine in a 6-3 vote on 28 June 2024. This landmark decision indicates the balance of power between the judiciary and administrative agencies is shifting. It emphasises the need for judicial independence and could benefit the Bitcoin industry, like the Supreme Court’s decision that stopped overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency in *West Virginia v. EPA.* The Chevron doctrine was established in Chevron U.S.A., Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837 (1984). It required courts to defer to administrative agencies to interpret unclear statutes, shifting the power to these agencies rather than the judiciary. In short, this ruling means statutory ambiguities can no longer be deferred to administrative agencies, potentially minimising regulatory overreach. It’s particularly relevant in light of the ongoing issues with crypto industry regulation, such as the failed overturning of SAB 121.
- Cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase has filed a lawsuit against the SEC and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), alleging that the regulators are crippling the crypto industry. The lawsuits allege that the SEC and FDIC didn’t comply with Coinbase’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The exchange argues that their FOIA requests would shed light on the coordinated efforts by regulators to deny crypto companies access to the banking system. Coinbase’s submission likens the current environment to the Obama-era “Operation Choke Point,” which discouraged banks from engaging with industries deemed “high-risk”.
Disclaimer: This assessment does not consider your personal circumstances, and should not be construed as financial, legal or investment advice. These thoughts are ours only and should only be taken as educational by the reader. Under no circumstances do we make recommendation or assurance towards the views expressed in the blog-post. The Company disclaims all duties and liabilities, including liability for negligence, for any loss or damage which is suffered or incurred by any person acting on any information provided.
