📉 Bitcoin miner reserves drop to three-year low; Standard Chartered is establishing a spot trading desk for BTC and ETH

Bitcoin miner reserves drop to three-year low; Standard Chartered is establishing a spot trading desk for BTC and ETH; Asset managers revised S-1 filings on U.S. Spot Ether ETF applications.

Quick Take

• Bitcoin miner reserves drop to three-year low; Standard Chartered is establishing a spot trading desk for BTC and ETH; Asset managers revised S-1 filings on U.S. Spot Ether ETF applications.
• U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETFs had a second consecutive week of net outflows (past five trading days) totaling US$734 million last week, compared to a $581 million net outflow the week before. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF’s (GBTC) weekly net outflow settled at $205 million. 
• On the macro side, Switzerland’s central bank SNB cut its main policy rate by 0.25% to 1.25%, its second rate cut in 2024. Australia’s RBA, China’s PBoC and UK’s BoE left main interest rates unchanged last week. In the UK, inflation dropped to 2% target rate in May, the first time since 2021.
• Notable updates: Aptos (APT) mainnet upgrade to v1.14 scheduled on 26 June; Sui (SUI) mainnet is expected to upgrade to Protocol 49; Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) announced updates to token merger schedule and conversion ratios; Crypto.com App listed zkSync (ZK) and LayerZero (ZRO).
• Notable events in the coming week: U.S. Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (May) and Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index (Jun)

Weekly Market Index

All three indices dropped last week. Price and volume indices decreased by -3.92% and -3.22% last week, while volatility index decreased more significantly by -67.18% . Volatility changes were led by BTC (-70.67%), which coincided with reports on the German government selling off US$325 million BTC over two days.

Chart of the Week

Bitcoin miner reserves dropped to a three-year low of 1.8 million BTC as of 23 June, 2024. Miner reserves represent the amount of BTC held by miner wallets, or in other words, the reserves that miners can sell. A drop in miner reserves is usually associated with price drop as it represents heightened selling activities. 

Although BTC miner reserves have dropped, the USD value of miner reserves are still at $115 billion compared to $63 billion three years ago, due to BTC’s recent price appreciation. 

Weekly Performance

BTC and ETH decreased by -5.2% and -5.3%, respectively, in the past seven days. The price action for all selected top market cap tokens was negative, INJ (-18.5%) led the drop.

Selected key categories were all down in terms of market capitalisation changes in the past seven days, with the meme category leading the drop.

News Highlights

• Several asset managers revised S-1 filings on their U.S. Spot Ether ETF applications last week. Hashdex filed with the SEC to create a combined Spot BTC and ETH ETF on Nasdaq. The proposed ETF would balance the two cryptocurrencies according to market capitalisations. If approved, this will be the first of its kind. 
• Standard Chartered is establishing a London-based spot trading desk for Bitcoin and Ether. This makes the bank one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading.  
• VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF went live on Australian Securities Exchange, Australia’s biggest stock exchange, on 20 June. 
• 3iQ, an investment fund manager based in Canada, filed for a Solana ETP on Canada’s Toronto Stock Exchange. If approved, the Solana Fund (QSOL) will be the first Solana ETP listed in North America. 
• The U.S. SEC ended its probe into Consensys and would not recommend an enforcement action against it. At the same time, Consensys also announced that the SEC was “closing its investigation into Ethereum 2.0”. 
• Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telecommunications provider, will soon mine Bitcoin. Since 2023, the company has been running a Bitcoin node and Bitcoin Lightning nodes. In 2022, the company also ran validator nodes on Ethereum. 
• MicroStrategy purchased an additional 11,931 BTC at the price of $65,833 per BTC, using proceeds from the recent $800 million convertible notes offering and excess cash. As of 20 June, the company holds 226,331 BTC acquired for $8.3 billion with average price of $36,798 per BTC. 

Recent Research Reports

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• SocialFi – Business Models and New Developments: SocialFi in Web3 empowers users with enhanced data control and direct creator compensation without intermediaries, leveraging blockchain for better user engagement and innovative monetisation methods. 
• Research Roundup Newsletter [May 2024]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into points farming and SocialFi, and many more.

Recent University Articles

• What Are Passkeys and How to Use Them With Your Crypto.com Account: Passkeys are a safer alternative to passwords that can be used alone or with your hardware token. Here’s how to set one up for your Crypto.com account.
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Catalyst Calendar

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