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February 02, 2024
5 min read

DigitalX Weekly Crypto Update: Market Trends and Analysis

26 January-2 February 2024

This week's latest trends and insights in the digital asset market from our asset management team.

Market Commentary

The global cryptocurrency market cap is at US ~$1.6 trillion, up an incredible ~US $550 billion since October last year. Analysts watched the flows and volumes of the 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs which topped 3 times the daily volume of 500 other ETFs launched in 2023 – a resounding success. Experts in the financial sector have speculated that asset manager Charles Schwab will eventually release its own spot Bitcoin exchange-traded product with Bloomberg analysts speculating that Schwab’s delay may allow the firm to offer lower fees than its competitors. “They may shock the world and offer something that is 10-basis-points in a few months.”

The next Bitcoin halving is just ~79 days away – expected to occur on the 22 April. This halving event will see the block reward for miners on the network drop from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. Bitcoin halvings are programmed to occur automatically every 210,000 blocks, roughly every four years. Once hit, miners will receive 50% less in bitcoin rewards for every block they verify and add to the blockchain. 

With 11 spot bitcoin ETFs trading underway, the broader crypto market is now pondering whether a spot Ethereum ETF will follow — and when. There are differing views with firms like Standard Chartered expecting the SEC to approve spot Ethereum ETFs by May 23 2024, whilst others such as TD Cowen anticipating an approval in late 2025 due to US elections in November 2024 and the political climate within several regulatory agencies. 

 

CEO Comment

The Gap between Bitcoin and the S&P 500 shrunk this week to 41%, from 45% last week, volatility will continue with “hangover drivers” such as FTX’s selling of Bitcoin as well as Mt Gox’s supply and demand being driven by continuous new ETF demand. 

There is also a second Gap where the broader digital asset market has circa 66% to close so there is a big opportunity here, we see this as a selective opportunity to select and grow our alts portfolio via our “alThematics” work.

As for the shift list, which we define as the major events and announcements facilitating the broader market’s transition to Web3 financial rails or the internet of value, the top three for this week includes:

A new feature this week is our “alts shift list featuring shifts in our Alt universe:

  • Scaling  is the next big shift – this is a great move – Polygon-powered Immutable zkEVM mainnet launches in early access mode – #2024theyearofscalingup
  • Interoperability is huge for scaling, so this is great for our Solana holding – Solana-Based Dex Saw More Trading Volume than Ethereum—Briefly 

What are our favoured thematics for 2024? We continue to like any infrastructure plays of the shift from Web2 to Web3 financial rails and any plays in the real world asset tokenisation infrastructure, data validation and decentralised  storage, and scale up technologies such as ZKrollups – anything Crypto identity realty, we are closely following all the ”de’s” – DeFi, DePin, DeSoc – (want to know what that means? – message us). 

Lisa Wade, CEO DigitalX

 

CRYPTO TOP 20 7 DAY PRICE CHANGE

*All figures throughout are in USD unless otherwise specified 25/01/2024

 

Market Updates

The Shift List

Macro and Regulatory Environment

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