CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
Crypto markets surged this week amidst the Fed’s rate cut decision and positive economic data releases. Total Crypto Market Cap was up 10% from the beginning of the week, now at 2.21Trillion USD. The S&P 500 gained 2.01%, largely spurred by the announcement of a 50 bps rate cut on Wednesday’s FOMC meeting.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a rise of over 8.07% across the week, while Ethereum (ETH) fared much weaker, closing the week with a gain of only 3.93% from the week prior.
Daily liquidations largely remained muted, hovering in the $100M range, with a slight increase in short liquidations towards the end of the week due to the larger positive market movements. Funding rates on both BTC and ETH climbed into the double digit range, possibly reflecting a higher risk appetite in investors.
📌 Michael Saylor’s Microstrategy announces purchases of 18,300 BTC at an average price of $60,408, bringing their total holding to 244,800 BTC. - Link
📌 The Fed announces a rate cut of 50 bps, taking rates down to 4.75-5%. - Link
Why does it matter?
After months of anticipation, the rate cut of 50 bps has finally been announced, removing the overhanging uncertainty for speculators and long-term investors alike. Additionally, the week ended off stronger with release of jobless claims, which came in at 219K, under estimates of 230K.
The positive news and economic data pushed the S&P 500 once again to a new all-time high, while the Nasdaq trails slightly, just trading 4% off all-time highs.
The week saw incredible strength in BTC, with TOTAL3 falling 5% in the week against BTC and BTC Dominance rising almost 2.1%. Nevertheless, several sectors of altcoins continued to outperform against the rest of the market. Coins that were dubbed as “VC coins” including Celestia (TIA), ZetaChain (ZETA) and AltLayer (ALT), strongly outperformed this week, after months of downtrend against majors. Memecoins also did well this week, with popular cat coins POPCAT and MEW ranking in the top performers.
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Narrative of the Week 📰
Stablecoins take the spotlight this week, with several new upcoming stablecoins on the horizon and moves from Circle.
📌 BitGo announces plans to launch their own reward-bearing stablecoin, USDS, in Jan 2025, which will reward institutions that provide liquidity to the network. - Link
📌 Crypto-friendly fintech firm, Revolut, is reported to be in progress to launching their own stablecoin, joining fellow fintech player, PayPal in the stablecoin arena. - Link
📌 Circle launches native USDC on the Sui blockchain, enabling Circle’s Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) as well to facilitate cross-chain transfers of USDC in and out of the chain. - Link
📌 Circle partners up with Sony-backed blockchain, Soneium, to launch USDC on the L2 chain. - Link
Why does it matter?
Stablecoins have always been a core crypto product, as a stable asset to trade in and out of as well as powering payments and transfers across borders. With the additional regulations on crypto such as the recent Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) in the EU, fintech companies and institutions are setting their sights on the lucrative opportunity that is regulatory-compliant stablecoins.
However, with Circle currently operating the current largest compliant stablecoin, USDC, they are also ramping up efforts to expand native USDC to different chains to cement their position in the stablecoin sector.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Ethereum zero-knowledge rollup, ZKSync, enables governance on the chain, which now requires due governance process before any on-chain upgrades are passed. Additionally, ZkSync integrates Chainlink’s CCIP into the chain, enabling seamless cross-chain interoperability. - Link
📌 Interoperability layer, Wormhole, is bringing Worldcoin’s World ID to Solana, powered by Wormhole Queries. - Link
📌 Near Protocol partners with AI privacy layer, Nillion Network, enabling all 750+ applications on the L1 to tap on Nillion’s resources. - Link
📌 Venture capital firm, ParaFi Capital, tokenizes $1B in venture funding on the Avalanche blockchain via Securitize, a real-world asset tokenization platform. - Link
📌 Omnichain interoperability protocol, LayerZero, announces lzCatalyst, a program designed to connect builders on LayerZero with the top venture capital firms in space, including a16z Crypto, Delphi Ventures, Spartan Capital, and more. - Link
📌 Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) based Ethereum L2, Atlas, launches their private testnet, allowing developers to register for access. Atlas is designed for high speed transactions while ensuring transparency. - Link
📌 Cosmos-based L1, Kujira, puts up a governance proposal for the merger of the Kujira ecosystem and the Levana ecosystem under a single token, Rujira (RUJI). - Link
📌 Aethir and XAI Games announce a $10M ecosystem grant program, designed to empower creators and gamers. - Link
Why does it matter?
Ethereum’s L2s have always been criticized, especially by Solana investors, for their centralization. This remains the case for most, if not all, L2s, which have not gone further than fraud proofs. ZkSync’s move takes the chain one step closer, albeit a small one, towards full decentralization, with the implementation of on-chain governance via the ZK token.
DeFi Brief 🏦
Source: https://coinmarketcap.com/chain-ranking/
📌 Crypto market maker Wintermute launches a permissionless prediction market smart contract for the upcoming 2024 US elections, which will be accessible on Ethereum, Base and Arbitrum. - Link
📌 DEX aggregator, 1inch, introduces Fusion+, a cross-chain swap mechanism powered by intent-based atomic swaps. - Link
📌 Synthetic dollar protocol, Ethena, launches sENA, a liquid receipt token for locked ENA, enabling stakers to remain liquid despite staking their ENA tokens. - Link
📌 Popular Solana wallet, Phantom, introduces Phantom usernames, which allows users to create their own Phantom identity, send crypto to users easily and sync their accounts across multiple devices. - Link
📌 Hyperliquid-based lending protocol, HyperLend launches their application on the Hyperliquid EVM testnet, in preparation for their upcoming mainnet launch. - Link
📌 Credit and real-world asset (RWA) lending platform, Clearpool, introduces Oxygen (O2), the RWA liquidity layer powering their L2, Ozean. - Link
Why does it matter?
The US Presidential Elections have formed a core narrative for the year, with speculators in the crypto space expressing their predictions in a variety of ways including betting via prediction markets or through politically-inspired memecoins on their chain of choice. Wintermute’s latest addition to the prediction markets scene adds a new cross-chain prediction market solution, removing barriers to entry and improving pricing for speculators.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 Iggy Azalea, the Australian rapper behind the MOTHER memecoin, teases Motherland, an upcoming platform for the memecoin, with some speculation around a possible gambling angle to the project. - Link
📌 Binance lists Ethereum-based memecoin, NEIRO, for spot trading, sparking confusion as NEIRO on ETH, a separate memecoin with the same ticker, was just listed on perpetuals the week prior. - Link
📌 Solana-based NFT collection, DeGods, migrates all of their ecosystem assets under 1 new ticker, DEGOD, which launched this week. - Link
📌 Memecoin launcher, Fanko.tech, launches on Arbitrum. Fanko.tech enables the seamless deployment of tokens, similar to the mechanism of the popular deployer, Pump.fun, on Solana. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 Solana-based developer infrastructure project, Helius Labs, raises $21.75M in a funding round led by Haun Ventures and Founders Fund, with support from Foundation Capital, 6th Man Ventures and more. - Link
Solana perpetuals platform, Drift, raises $25M in a Series B funding round led by Multicoin Capital, with support from Blockchain Capital, Folius Ventures, Maelstrom and Primitive Ventures. - Link
📌 Universal proof generation layer, Fermah, raises $5.2M in a seed round led by a16z’s CSX fund and Lemniscap, with participation from Bankless, Longhash, Daedalus Angels and more. - Link
📌 Permissionless Labs raises $10M in a Series A funding round led by Multicoin Capital, with other investors including Solana Ventures, Robot Ventures and Anatoly Yakovenko as an angel investor. - Link
📌 Bitcoin and Ethereum powered modular network, Hemi Network, raises $15M in a strategic seed round led by Binance Labs, Breyer Capital and Big Brain Holdings, with support from crypto.com, Quantstamp and more. - Link
📌 AI-powered wellness wearable firm, CUDIS, raises $5M in seed funding led by Draper Associates, with participation from SkyBridge, Penrose, SNZ Holding, Mozaik Capital and more. - Link
📌 User-owned data platform, Vana, raises $25M in total funding, with investors including Polychain, Paradigm and Coinbase Ventures. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 ETH restaking layer, EigenLayer, opens claims for Season 2 of their EIGEN token airdrop, with rewards distributed to Stakers & Operators, Ecosystem Partners and the Community. - Link
📌 WalletConnect announces their own token WCT, with an upcoming airdrop of 185M WCT tokens on Optimism, that will remain untransferable until 2025. - Link
📌 Telegram-based gaming platform, Catizen, opens claims for the CATI token airdrop to eligible users. The token will be deposited into the selected wallets on 20th September. - Link
📌 Bridging protocol, DeBridge, enables direct-to-CEX claims, enabling users to claim their airdrops straight to a centralized exchange upon listing. Four CEXs are currently supported: Bitget, Kucoin, MEXC and Gate.io. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: DegenerateNews
Vitalik Buterin is simply built different.
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