Bullish Insights Weekly Market Recap

Jul 14, 2023 • 3 min read

The Bullish Insights Weekly Market Recap includes curated industry news and analysis from the Bullish team for the week of July 10, 2023.

Bullish exchange

This week’s peak exchange trade volume (24h): US$484,572,931 (15,947 BTC) on July 13, 2023.

This week’s headlines

Google Play has updated its policy to allow for the integration of digital assets such as NFTs into gaming applications on the platform.
Circle has announced that it has reduced its workforce to strengthen its balance sheet and to focus “on core business activities and execution”.
For the first time in almost a year, Ark Investment Management has trimmed its position in Coinbase Global with its Innovation ETF selling 135,152 shares.
Convenient store giant 7-Eleven has launched Slurpee NFTs on the Polygon network for its “Slurpee Day” where customers are able to claim their own digital collectible.
South Korea’s Financial Services Commission is looking at draft rules that could force companies to disclose their cryptocurrency holdings from next year onwards. Information such as quantity, volume, market value etc. of the company’s crypto holdings will need to be provided.
Crypto exchange BitOasis has had their Dubai operating license suspended by the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). The regulator has said the firm failed to meet “key conditions over 30-60 day timeframes”.
Vitalik Buterin noted in a Twitter space talk that for Bitcoin to be more than payments it would require scaling solutions, similar to that of what Arbitrum and Optimism have done for Ethereum.
Grayscale has updated its weighting in its DeFi Fund with Uniswap making up 45.46%, Lido at 19.04%, and Aave at 11.53%. Other alts include MakerDao, Curve, and Synthetix.

Equity markets

U.S. equity markets started the week off on a high note in Monday's session ahead of CPI data later in the week.
U.S. equity markets climbed further in Tuesday's session with energy producers leading gains.
U.S. equity markets climbed again in Wednesday's session after CPI data indicated a cooling in inflation to 3% in June which was the lowest level seen since 2021. The S&P 500 rose 0.7%, the Dow advanced by 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed by 1.2%.

Crypto market highlights

According to Ark Invest data, of the 19.4mn Bitcoin in circulation, nearly 70% has not moved (been transacted on) in at least a year or longer. The number of BTC being held for longer than a year has also peaked to an all-time high, signaling a bullish outlook of hodling by these wallets.
The correlation between Bitcoin and U.S. equities had long held a strong relationship since a post-Covid stimulus environment. Currently though, its 30-day correlation with the Nasdaq has fallen to the lowest level seen since two-years ago, back in July 2021.
The U.S. government has appeared to have moved separate sums of US$49mn BTC and US$248mn BTC to two new wallet addresses and eight whale wallets respectively. The whale wallets have been inactive for two years.
Trading activity has been relatively muted over the June/July period. The crypto volatility index reflects that vol has been wavering below 60 for the past three months with periods in June and July dipping below 50.

Other updates

Ripple’s ongoing lawsuit against the SEC has seen a US judge rule in favor of Ripple Labs deeming it not a security. The judge however also ruled that if $XRP was sold to an institutional investor then it would be seemed as a security as it meets the Howey Test. (Source: CoinTelegraph)
Following Ripple’s ruling, Coinbase and Kraken exchange will look to relist $XRP. (Source: Blockworks)
Binance US has relisted $XRP. (Source: Twitter)
Three US regulatory agencies are now after former CEO of fallen Celsius Network, Alex Mashinsky for fraud charges and other crimes. Mashinsky has pleaded not guilty at a New York hearing earlier on Thursday. (Source: Bloomberg)
A new proposal on the Polygon network pending community buy-in will look at converting $MATIC to $POL tokens. The proposal’s intent is allegedly to allow staking across different chains in the Polygon ecosystem. (Source: The Block)