Market Insights: DEC 2024 | Week3
Wavebridge Research/
Bitcoin Network Achievements and Market Dynamics
Since its inception, the Bitcoin network has processed a total of $1.31 trillion in transactions, with more than 1.12 billion transactions resulting in a market value of more than $2 trillion. Investors have recorded a total of $1.27 trillion in gains and $592 billion in losses on-chain, with net capital inflows reaching $750 billion. Of Bitcoin's total supply, 9.1 per cent is on exchanges, 5.6 per cent is in US-based ETFs, and 3.5 per cent is held by miners. The US Treasury also holds 187,000 BTC, or 0.9 per cent. Bitcoin has a large options expiry coming up, with $19.8 billion in options set to expire on 27 December. Open interest in the Bitcoin options market stands at $12 billion in calls and $7.8 billion in puts. By exchange, Deribit has a 72% share, followed by 12% on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and 9% on Binance. Bitcoin balances on exchanges are at a seven-year low of 2.8 million. Meanwhile, IBIT reached a historic milestone, surpassing $50bn in assets under management for the first time ever. This is five times faster than the 5.5 years it took gold ETFs to reach the same level.
Ethereum Network Growth and Key Developments in the Crypto Ecosystem
Activity on the Ethereum network has increased significantly recently, with the average number of new addresses created per day reaching an eight-month high of 130,200. BlackRock's Ethereum ETF recently saw $3 billion in inflows. At the same time, the number of active addresses increased by 4.24 per cent and new address creation increased by 2.65 per cent. Ripple's stablecoin, RLUSD, has been fully licensed by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Avalanche completed a $250 million private token sale, with the funds to be used to support Avalanche's upcoming mainnet network upgrade on 16 December. USDe, the EthenaLabs Synthetic Dollar, has become the third largest stablecoin by market capitalisation. The USDe market capitalisation has more than doubled since November to $5.5 billion. Weekly DEX trading volume totalled $10.058 billion, down 1.64% from the previous week. By chain, Solana recorded $30.5 billion in weekly trading volume, followed by Ethereum with $24.5 billion. Sui generated $2.59 billion in weekly trading volume, up a whopping 59.49 per cent. The Fuzzy Penguin NFT token became the second most valuable NFT in the world, with a floor price of $100,000.
Regulatory Priorities and Investment Trends in the Cryptocurrency Market
The chairman of the US House of Representatives' Financial Services Committee has said that creating a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies will be a key priority. He pointed out that there are no clear rules for the cryptocurrency market. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon encouraged investment in digital assets. BlackRock has recommended investing in Bitcoin, and investors interested in Bitcoin should consider allocating up to 2% to their portfolio. BlackRock is focusing on Bitcoin and Ethereum spot ETFs and has no plans to launch other crypto ETFs. Binance has seen $24.2 billion in inflows this year. Bybit saw $8.2 billion and OKX saw $5.3 billion. Bitcoin miner Riot Platform made a large Bitcoin purchase with proceeds from a convertible bond issue. Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings purchased $1.1 billion worth of Bitcoin. Marathon Digital Holdings purchased 11,774 BTC with proceeds from a convertible bond issue.
Global Adoption and Strategic Moves in Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Policy
Satoshi Hamada, a member of Japan's House of Councilors, proposed the introduction of a national Bitcoin reserve. The President of Argentina announced a reform policy to adopt Bitcoin as an official currency by 2025. An Australian pension fund invested around $27 million in Bitcoin. Ukraine announced that it will legalise cryptocurrencies by the first quarter of 2025, but will not provide tax breaks for cryptocurrency transactions. The Vancouver, Canada city council approved a resolution to look into integrating bitcoin into the city's financial operations. A member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council introduced a proposal for the city's endowment fund to invest in cryptocurrencies. Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was listed on the Nasdaq market. A member of the Russian parliament proposed a national bitcoin reserve, which would allow Russia to use bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset in addition to its existing foreign exchange reserves. Argentina opened its stock market to cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds. The Bhutanese government recently sold a series of bitcoins, with the government holding 11,791 bitcoins.