Bullish Insights – Weekly Market Recap

The Bullish Insights Weekly Market Recap includes curated industry news and analysis from the Bullish team for the week of August 22, 2022.

Bullish Exchange

This week’s peak trade volume (24h): August 23rd, 2022, $623,553,801

Crypto market highlights

• The next largest liquidation event for ETH DeFi lending protocols is at the $1,571 price point. At this price point, Euler Protocol should see the largest liquidation among the six protocols with ~$14.9mn worth of liquidations.
• The final testnet merge is a two-step process starting with the Bellatrix upgrade that is expected to be complete at epoch 112,260. When the network hits a Terminal Total Difficulty (TTD) of 10,790,000, Goerli (PoA) merges with Bellatrix on Ethereum block #58750000000000000000000, and the PoW chain will merge onto the Beacon chain transitioning to PoS. This is anticipated to occur somewhere between September 15 to 16.
• Last week, digital asset investment total flows saw $9mn worth of outflows. Bitcoin saw the majority of outflows at $15.3mn and Ethereum saw inflows of $2.9mn.
• An IMF blog revealed that although Bitcoin showed little correlation with Asian equity markets before Covid, this figure has picked up along with crypto trading. A covid environment coupled with low interest rates made financing easier, which could have been a driver as to why the region saw increased trading activity.
• Stablecoin issuers now make up $80bn worth of US Treasury Bills which is roughly 2% of the total pie. This portion is larger than that of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, as well as offshore MMFs (Money Market Funds).
• Between July 2021 and July 2022 the number of reported NFTs that were stolen through scams was in excess of $100mn. Out of the collections, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection suffered the highest scam rate with 167 reported cases.

Macro market highlights

• Investors turned to risk-off assets in Monday's trading session, as they await Powell's speech at Jackson Hole this Friday. All three major stock indices declined with the S&P 500 down by 2.1%, the Dow down by 1.9% and the Nasdaq Composite retreating by 2.6%.
• As of August 24, US equity markets fell after data indicated sales of new US homes decreased for the sixth time, year-to-date. Business activity also saw a contraction for two consecutive months. The S&P 500 was down by 0.2%, the Dow down by 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite saw little change.
• US equity markets edged higher in Wednesday's trading session with the energy stocks leading. The S&P 500 was up by 0.3%, the Dow gained by 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%.
• US equity markets edged higher in Thursday's trading session for the second consecutive day ahead of Powell's address at Jackson Hole later today. The US Commerce Department data indicated that inflation-adjusted GDP dipped by 0.6% in 2Q2022.

Other updates

• SudoRare Protocol has shut down its AMM services and allegedly vanished with 519 ETH tokens (~$815,000). (Source: COINTELEGRAPH)
• Canadian regulator, the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has issued a warning to investors against 13 firms which includes KuCoin for not being registered to deal/advise in Ontario. (Source: OSC)
• Despite sanctions against Tornado Cash, Tether (USDT) did not blacklist accounts associated with the protocol as its competitor Circle (USDC) has done. In a statement, Tether said that it “has not been contacted by U.S. officials or law enforcement with a request.” (Source: The Washington Post)
• Eminem and Snoop Dog are anticipated to perform in metaverse, The Otherside. The BAYC holders will hold the performance as part of MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs). (Source: COINTELEGRAPH)
• Sam Trabucco, co-CEO of Alameda Research, has announced he will be stepping down from his position and retain ties with the firm through an adviser role. Trabucco cited personal reasons for the move and that he needed to “prioritize other things.” Caroline Ellison will become the company’s sole CEO. (Source: CoinDesk)
• Together with Bloomberg, we’ve convened a group of leading crypto voices—including Tom Farley, incoming CEO of Bullish, Michael Novogratz, Founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, Tim Draper, venture capitalist and Founder of Draper Associates, Raoul Pal, Co-Founder and CEO of Real Vision Group, Kristin Smith, Executive Director of the Blockchain Association, and Anthony Pompliano, CEO of Pomp Investments—to predict what’s next for digital assets.

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