Macro puzzler
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 6 a.m. 26th April 2024.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
Don’t invest in crypto unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.
What’s up
Risk Assets Confront Cloud Of Ambiguity – Or Perhaps A Tailwind?
Bitcoin greened up slightly to about $65,000 on Thursday even as U.S. stocks fell following a fresh batch of U.S. economic data suggesting dreaded stagflation – slow growth, persistent inflation – is taking root. The shifting environment could represent another headwind for central bankers caught in a monetary policy vice grip.
Expectations for rate cuts are downshifting from "oh, definitely a bunch of them this year" to "ah, who the heck knows, maybe one in the fall?" Analysts surely will continue to closely monitor the movement of BTC relative to the S&P 500, with the two assets possibly diverging in what could wind up being, if the trend sustains, a positive catalyst.
“This [GDP] report was the worst of both worlds," wrote Chris Zaccarelli, investment chief at Independent Advisor Alliance.
Nah, nothing to see here, a few other analysts remarked of Thursday's economic news, downplaying inflation levels as inconsequential while calling fears of stagflation overblown.
Meanwhile, scanning the ranks of the Top 30 coins, a pair, HBAR and NEAR, stand out as the best seven-day performers heading into the weekend.
As of Thursday at 5 p.m. (EST), Near Protocol's NEAR, 19th-largest coin, had risen 21.1% over the past seven days.
NEAR is now pushing toward $7. The layer-1 chain's native token surged toward $8 last month on news of integration of multi-chain access technology called "chain signatures."
NEAR's record high of $20.44 came in January of 2022. One year ago at this time, NEAR was under $2.
As for Hedera's HBAR, recall how it rocketed more than 100% earlier this week on reports suggesting behemoth asset manager BlackRock had singled it out as a partner for a groundbreaking tokenization project; when the tale turned out to be overblown, HBAR, the 27th-largest token, pulled back dramatically. Actually there was a BlackRock money market fund transported to the blockchain, and it did involve Hedera, except the project was arranged as a one-off by a digital platform, Archax.
Anyway, all told, HBAR rose +44% this week.
What's down
IBIT Inflows Finally Peter Out
Another $130 million exited the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF this week, bringing the converted vehicle's total outflows this year to $17 billion.
GBTC charges a 1.5% management fee. It's a king's ransom comparatively. Other spot BTC ETF products charge much lower fees. With low-fee ETFs soon about to launch in Hong Kong, pressure on GBTC may be about to intensify.
Two Hong Kong issuers are actually waiving management fees, so, yeah, expect even more outflows, said Rebecca Sin, a Bloomberg ETF Analyst.
Momentum for spot BTC ETFs in the U.S. seems to be waning.
In fact, BlackRock's juggernaut offering, IBIT, after enjoying inflows for 71 straight days, recently saw net daily inflows fall to, effectively, zero.
What's next
ETH Ecosystem Player Takes Pre-Emptive Strike
Consensys, a software company focused on building products on Ethereum, filed a federal lawsuit in a Texas court on Thursday, asserting that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has no business policing the industry's second-largest crypto. The maker of the MetaMask wallet wants the court to come right out and rule once and for all that ETH is not a security.
The SEC has been "attempting to unlawfully regulate ether through ad hoc enforcement actions," Consensys' complaint alleged.
What Consensys ultimately seeks is formal codification that the SEC lacks the legal authority to regulate Ethereum and all it entails.
The SEC for its part has not yet indicated one way or the other whether ETH is a security. The SEC is currently considering multiple applications from money managers seeking to launch ETFs that track ETH's spot price. Applicants are not hopeful about a forthcoming regulatory blessing as recent meetings between SEC staff and issuers apparently were chock filled with consternation over ETH staking.
The Consensys lawsuit comes as the SEC pursues an aggressive enforcement campaign against crypto, including reportedly asking developers for documents related to their dealings with the Ethereum Foundation.
