Markets
NYSE Sees Opportunity for Traditional Structures in Crypto
Lynn Martin, NYSE Group chairman and ICE president of fixed income and data services, said the exchange will continue to try to find opportunities to surface traditional structures alongside crypto assets as it aims to launch cash-settled bitcoin index options. .
Martin spoke at the Consensus 2024 conference in Austin, Texas, on a panel about the convergence of crypto and traditional finance on May 29.
That day, the New York Stock Exchange, part of the Intercontinental Exchange, announced that it wants to launch cash-settled index options tracking the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which it says is the oldest operating spot bitcoin index. Last year, ICE Futures Singapore collaborated with CoinDesk Indices to update its bitcoin futures contracts.
Martin said the NYSE is working to gain regulatory approval to launch options contracts on Coindesk’s Bitcoin index. She said: “We are extremely excited about this.”
Andy Baehr, head of product at CoinDesk Indices, said in a statement: “XBX has delivered a trusted bitcoin price to millions of investors, market participants and bitcoin enthusiasts since 2014. Collaboration with NYSE to launch XBX index options opens a new chapter in digital assets, putting important and familiar risk management tools in the hands of U.S. and global investors.”
Tom Farley, chief executive of regulated digital asset exchange Bullish, which is also the parent company of CoinDesk Indices, also spoke on the Martin panel and Farley spoke at Consensus 2024.
Farley said the idea for the contract began when David LaValle, global head of ETFs at digital currency asset manager Grayscale Investments, told him the industry needed a cash-settled bitcoin option that would be new and differentiated.
“In the world of stock options, cash-settled options have a long history of being a very interesting product for clients,” Farley added. “Cash-settled S&P options may be the best-known options product.”
If options contracts are approved and traded, Farley said it could result in more overall liquidity for bitcoin, especially in combination with new types of bitcoin ETFs that he expects to see in the near future.
Martin added that options will be an additional risk management tool, attractive to both new entrants and more established institutional names getting involved in bitcoin ETFs.
“This is yet another evolution in the way institutional and retail investors can manage risk in their portfolios, which I consider positive,” she said.
Accelerated settlement
On May 28, 2024, the U.S. securities market went from liquidating two days after a trade, T+2, to the day after the trade, T+1. In contrast, on-chain digital assets can be liquidated instantly.
Martin explained that it took the industry a year to move from D+2 to D+1, while it took several years to move from D+3 to D+2.
The technology that underpins cryptography, specifically blockchain, is excellent technology,” she added. “It’s something the industry will continue to look at to see how it can be used to make settlement more efficient and transparent.”
She is optimistic that the industry will eventually move toward real-time settlement as it updates archaic technology, much of which was built in the 1980s. However, the traditional financial ecosystem needs to digest T+1 before to move on to the next innovation.
“I remain optimistic about using blockchain technology to make processes more efficient,” said Martin.
Farley, former chairman of the NYSE, agreed that digital assets have the benefit of atomic settlement, but highlighted that other parts of the ecosystem still lag far behind the connectivity speed of traditional market centers. For example, trades on cryptocurrency exchanges can take seconds or, at best, milliseconds, while stock trades are measured in microseconds.
Martin highlighted that the NYSE’s average response time to close a trade is 30 microseconds. As a result, the exchange processed three-quarters of a trillion order messages received every day.
Furthermore, although instant settlement means there are no failed trades, the process requires much more capital because trades have to be pre-funded. Additionally, crypto venues have more outages than traditional exchanges.
“Many crypto venues, including us, are close to canceling real-time settlement and offering things like deferred settlement because it allows for a lot more liquidity and more active trading,” Farley said.
He continued that the current stock market is largely efficient, so blockchain offers more benefits in other asset classes such as fixed income.
Martin said: “In fixed income, for example in the US municipal bond markets, there is no liquidity. This is probably a better market to start employing the technology that underpins the crypto industry, as it has an inefficient market structure.”
Bitcoin and other digital assets are available for trading 24/7. The NYSE commissioned a survey on 24/7 trading and Martin said the exchange is still consulting with members.
“Most importantly, we are looking at the various aspects of the ecosystem and the offset piece in particular, to see how it would handle the 24/7 aspect, whether it’s five or seven days a week,” she added. “There are a variety of conversations going on.”
Martin was also asked whether the NYSE would launch a spot crypto trading exchange, and she said this could be an opportunity if there was clear regulatory guidance.
NEW: 🇺🇸 Black Rock #Bitcoin The ETF became the fastest ETF to reach $20 billion.
Bitcoin shook Wall Street 🤯 pic.twitter.com/HehCIiLd6V
– Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) May 30, 2024
Crypto ETFs
Martin highlighted that it took six years for the US Securities and Exchange Commission to approve bitcoin ETFs. The SEC recently approved ether ETFs, which Martin believes is in part due to the approximately $58 billion in bitcoin ETFs since they were launched in January 2024, which she described as a tremendous success.
“The flows are a strong signal that the market is looking for crypto on traditional structures,” she added. “We will continue to try to find opportunities to surface traditional structures alongside crypto assets.”
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Markets
Crypto Markets Rebound as Spot Bitcoin ETFs Attract Massive Inflows
This week saw $722 million worth of Bitcoin spot ETF inflows, including the largest daily inflow in a month.
Cryptocurrency markets rallied on Wednesday, driven by inflows into spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is up 3% over the past 24 hours to last change hands at $65,200, according to CoinGecko. Ethereum (ETH) is up 2% and is trading at $3,471. Solana (SUN) and Polkadot (POINT) increased by 4%.
Bitcoin spot ETFs saw $422 million in daily inflows on Tuesday, the highest in the past 30 days, according to Far side data, . The all-time record for a single day was $1.05 billion on March 12.
Among Tuesday’s top contributors, BlackRock’s IBIT led with $260 million in inflows, followed by Fidelity’s FBTC with $61 million. This week has already seen more than $722 million in inflows.
Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap, Worldcoin (WLD) led with a 28% increase, followed by Helium (HNT) with 20% and Lido DAO (LDO) with 15%.
Worldcoin, a decentralized identity project led by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, announced is extending the lockups for early investors and team members. This means that tokens will be gradually released through 2029, instead of the original 2027 plan. Token unlocks are generally seen as a negative because they increase supply and early investors can sell their tokens for profit.
Meanwhile, XRP, the token of the XRP Ledger network, jumped 8% after the CME and CF benchmarks introduced new indices and reference rates for XRP.
U.S. stocks faced a downturn on Wednesday. The S&P 500 fell 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite and Dow Jones Industrial Average both fell 2%.
Markets
Altcoins on the cusp of a major breakout – WLD, AR, and INJ prices could surge by 20% in the coming days
Crypto markets appear to have been taken over by the bulls as major tokens have surged above their crucial resistance zone. Bitcoin surged above $65,000 while Ethereum was above $3,500, and XRP, which had remained passive for quite some time, surged over 40% in the past few days to hit $0.6. The uptrend has been captured in most altcoins, with Worldcoin (WLD), Arweave (AR), and Injective (INJ) leading the rally. Here’s what to expect for these tokens in the coming days.
Worldcoin (WLD) Price Analysis
O Worldcoin Price has been trading inside a descending wedge since it marked a new ATH near $12 in the final days of Q1 2024. The recent price action helped the price break out of the upper resistance of the wedge, breaking above the crucial resistance zone between $2.21 and $2.39. Market sentiments have changed, but technicals suggest that the bulls may remain passive for a while, which could offer some room for a bearish pullback.
The price broke out of the wedge with a significant increase in volume, but the current volume suggests that the bulls have taken a step back. Meanwhile, the RSI is about to reach the upper boundary, which could attract bearish forces. Additionally, the DMI has undergone a bullish crossover, but the decline in the ADX suggests that the rally may remain consolidated above the gains. Therefore, the WLD price is expected to maintain a horizontal consolidation between $3 and $3.3 and trigger a fresh rally to $4.4 during the next bullish rally.
Arweave (AR) Price Analysis
Arweave formed a strong base around $25, which helped the rally trigger a recovery during the bearish attack. Mt. Gox and German terror forced the price to fall below $20. However, the recent price action has brought the altcoin within the bullish range and raised expectations of maintaining a decent uptrend for a few more days.
AR price has hit one of the major resistances around $30 to $31.5, which could act as a strong base once overcome. The buying volume is slowly increasing, which could keep the bullish hopes for the rally high. Moreover, the supertrend has just flashed a buy signal, indicating a clean reversal of the trend. Therefore, AR price seems primed to maintain a healthy uptrend and rally above $40. However, if the bulls maintain a similar trend, making new highs above $50 may not be a tedious task for the bulls.
Price Analysis of Injective (INJ)
Injective price has been showing sharp strength since the beginning of the year and hence, the recent turnaround is expected to revive a good uptrend going forward. The bears engulfed the rally to a large extent, but the recent price action suggests that the bulls have regained their dominance. Therefore, INJ price is expected to maintain a strong uptrend with a bearish interference on the way down.
INJ price has surged above the lower support zone and has registered consecutive bullish candles. Although the volume is below the required levels, the OBV is maintaining a sharp uptrend. Furthermore, the Ichimoku cloud lead span B is heading towards the lead span A and a healthy crossover indicates the start of a new uptrend. However, INJ price may be out of the bears’ reach once it secures the resistance zone between $30.77 and $32.12, which seems to be on the horizon.
Markets
Ethereum at $3.5K, Exchange Supply Hits 34-Month High
Ethereum (ETH) supply on exchanges has hit a 34-month high as the asset’s price surpassed the $3,500 mark.
ETH has risen 2.3% over the past 24 hours and is trading at $3,490 at the time of writing. The second-largest cryptocurrency — with a market cap of $419 billion — briefly touched an intraday high of $3,517 earlier today.
ETH Price, Whale Activity, RSI, and Exchange Supply – July 17 | Source: Santiment
Ethereum’s daily trading volume also increased by 7.6% to reach $19.8 billion.
According to data provided by Santiment, the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has reached $19.52 million ETH. This level was last seen in September 2021, when the asset was trading around the same price.
On the other hand, data from the market intelligence platform shows that the number of whale transactions has fallen by 12% in the last day — falling from 8,730 to 7,629 unique transactions per day.
The move shows that the supply of Ethereum on exchanges has been increasing with small deposits rather than large transactions from whales.
Additionally, the ETH Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently hovering at the 60-mark, per Santiment. The indicator shows that Ethereum is slightly overbought at this price point, but it may not be in a critical position due to its large market cap.
One of the main drivers of Ethereum price increase is ETH spot expectations ETFs in the US Investment products are scheduled to start trading on July 23rd.
Markets
Bits + Beeps: How to Play the ‘Trump Trade’ in Cryptocurrencies After the Assassination Attempt
Also, how much will the Fed cut rates (and when)? What will be the inflows into ETH ETFs? And what is the near future for Bitcoin?
Posted on July 17, 2024 at 12:00 PM EST.
Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Capsules, Source, Podcast Addict, Pocket molds, Amazon Musicor on your favorite podcast platform.
In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart, Alex Kruger and Joe McCann, joined by guest Jack Platts, dive into the market reaction to the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, analyzing how this event will influence the 2024 US presidential election and the cryptocurrency markets.
They also cover potential rate cuts: Could there be a cut in July? How big could the September rate cut be? Could the decision be influenced by the upcoming election?
They also give their predictions on what percentage of BTC ETF inflows the ETH ETFs will reach, and James talks about what he expects for Grayscale’s ETHE (hint: his outlook would be positive for ETH).
Finally, they delve into what’s next for Bitcoin as the German government runs out of BTC and Mt. Gox distributions begin. Just now?
Program Highlights:
- Whether Trump’s shooting decided the election and whether the event caused a “flight to safety”
- How election markets are becoming a place to watch election probabilities and whether cryptocurrencies “lean right”
- Whether rate cuts will occur in July or September and by how much they will cut: 25 bps or 50 bps
- How Joe sees the relationship between global liquidity cycles, rate cuts, and the potential rise of Bitcoin
- What are the new updates about Ethereum ETFs and their expected launch?
- Why Solana Hasn’t Performed Significantly Better Since Trump News
- What Market Breadth Indicates About the Current Market Rally and the Impact of Rates on Small Caps
- Everyone’s predictions on ETH ETF inflows and how much outflow we’ll see on Grayscale’s ETHE
- What’s Next for BTC After German Government Exits Bitcoin and Mt. Gox Giveaways Starting This Week
Hosts:
Guest:
- Jack PlattsCo-Founder and Managing Partner of Hypersphere Ventures
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