BTC is currently trading around $54,000 and ETH around $2,400. There are no notable gainers in the last 24 hours. The global crypto market cap is $2.0T, down 11.5% over the last day. DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$74b and BTC dominance is around 57%.
Equity markets are plunging across the globe, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 12% in its worst day since 1987 and US markets off 2-3% to start the day. The heavy drawdown appears to be due to a bevy of factors. First, the Yen carry trade is unwinding, where higher borrowing costs in Japan, the rising value of the Yen, and falling asset prices are causing traders to take off positions. Second, geopolitical uncertainty is rising, as some fear conflict between Israel and Iran could spill over into the larger Middle East after Iran vowed revenge after a Hamas political leader was assassinated. Lastly, worries around slowing US growth are increasing after last week’s disappointing economic data, particularly around Friday’s tepid employment report.
Meanwhile, though they’ve bounced off the bottom, crypto prices cratered as panic ensued, with the total crypto market cap registering its largest single-day drop since 2022 at one point and Bitcoin touching as low as $49,200 over the last 24 hours. As it stands, Bitcoin and Ethereum are now down 9% and 16% over the last day, and 21% and 28% over the last week. While the crypto markets have been impacted by the equity market turmoil and geopolitical and economic uncertainty mentioned above, they are also being impacted by reports of likely selling by Jump Crypto. Per The Block, “Jump Crypto appears to be liquidating hundreds of millions of dollars worth of crypto” and that “much of the crypto is in the form of staked ether”. Further, crypto markets face additional near-term uncertainty from potential Mt Gox related selling, mixed digital asset ETF inflows, and rising odds US Vice President Harris may win the White House. Finally, note that the large draw down resulted in over $1.2b of liquidations over the last 24 hours.
Notable news includes: France’s AMF began accepting applications from crypto-asset service providers; US Rep Khanna’s virtual meeting between White House officials and crypto executives was moved from today to later in the week; collapsed crypto lender Genesis Global completed its restructuring and began to distribute $4b in digital assets and cash to creditors; the US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw their biggest single-day outflow in 90 days on Friday; Morgan Stanley became the first major Wall Street bank to allow its advisors to solicit clients to purchase the spot Bitcoin ETFs; Fantom Foundation rebranded to Sonic Labs and the Fantom chain rebranded to Opera; and, Lido launched Lido Institutional for large clients such as custodians, asset managers, and exchanges.
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Author:
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | Twitter, Telegram, LinkedIn
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