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 December 5, 2022.

Bullish Exchange

This week’s peak trade volume (24h): December 9, 2022, $286,488,193 (16,626 BTC)

Crypto market highlights

• Liquidity appears to be drying up as VCs record their lowest number of funds and amount raised in almost two years in the month of November. November 2021 saw 143 open investment projects compared to just 65 this year, roughly a 55% drop.
• According to Glassnode, Binance's current proof of reserves consists mainly of $19.25bn BUSD, $7.27bn BTC, $5.98bn ETH, and $2.34bn USDT. As of December 6, 2022, the exchange has seen a -$99.56mn change in its BUSD reserves in 24 hours.
• As of November 15, 2022, MicroStrategy still leads in terms of owning the largest number of Bitcoin for a public company. The firm holds 130,000 BTC equivalent to ~$2.1bn followed by Marathon with 10,055 BTC ~$168mn, and Tesla with 9,720 BTC ~$163mn.
• Overall developer activity on Github has seen a plummet from the number of total active developers to total commits. When looking at a 180-day % change, the Solana network saw a 77% decrease in the number of unique developers while Polkadot saw a 65% dip.
• NFT trading volume has seen a notable decrease since its hype in January earlier this year. January 2022 saw monthly transaction volumes exceeding $16bn versus November 2022 figures of below $1bn. NFT marketplace LooksRare has also plummeted in market share of trading volume while X2Y2 has risen to second place behind OpenSea.
• GBTC is now trading at a record discount of 47.27%. Calls for the asset manager to extend proofs of reserves last month after FTX's collapse was shunned as the company wrote in a statement that “Due to security concerns, we do not make such on-chain wallet information and confirmation data publicly available through a cryptographic Proof-of-Reserve, or other advanced cryptographic accounting procedure.” The GBTC discount to NAV has since reached an all-time high.

Macro market highlights

• US equity markets retracted in last Friday's trading session as labor market data showed no signs of cooling, increasing investor concerns for more rate hikes to come. November non-farm payrolls were up to 263,000 with the unemployment rate steadying at 3.7%. The S&P 500 was down by 0.1%, the Dow rose by 0.1% and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 0.2%.
• The US equity market's sell-off continued on Monday starting the week off with losses stemming from concerns of further tightening by the Fed after stronger than expected data came in for the factory and services sector. According to the Commerce Department, factory orders in October rose by 1% and the Institute for Supply Management reading indicated the services sector in November climbed to 56.5 compared to 54.4 in October. The S&P 500 was down by 1.8%, the Dow dipped by 1.4%, and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.9%.
• US equity markets extended losses in Tuesday's trading session as fears of further rate hikes were exacerbated over stronger-than-expected economic data. The US trade deficit widened as exports in October fell with the goods and services trade gap at $78.2bn up from September's revised $74.1bn. The S&P 500 fell by 1.4%, the Dow dipped by 1.0%, and the Nasdaq Composite retreated by 2.0%.
• US equity markets retreated again with the S&P 500 seeing five consecutive days of losses. The S&P 500 fell by 0.2%, the Dow saw little change, and the Nasdaq Composite retreated by 0.5%.
• US equity markets rebounded in Thursday's trading session with the S&P 500 seeing gains after five consecutive days of losses. The S&P 500 rose by 0.8%, the Dow climbed 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced by 1.1%.

Other updates

• FTX Japan looks to return customer funds through platform Liquid. In a draft plan, that would require regulatory approval in Japan, the company intends to transfer user balances to Liquid after KYC in order for clients to be able withdraw remaining funds left on the exchange. (Source: Bloomberg)
• Galaxy Digital has successfully won the bidding of GK8, a self-custody platform that was once a part of Celsius Network. Celsius previously acquired the company for $115mn in 2021, but terms of the current deal with Galaxy remains undisclosed. (Source: Cision)
• Swyftx a Brisbane-based crypto exchange let go of 40% of its workforce, a total of 90 employees after suffering from a down-turn in current market conditions. (Source: The Sydney Morning Herald)
• An excel file named “OKX Binance & Huobi VIP fee comparision.xls“ is being floated in Telegram group chats and was identified by Microsoft as a malicious attack targeting cryptocurrency groups. (Source: Microsoft)
• The Financial Times revealed the VC portfolio of FTX/Alameda. 
• On Tuesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler is expected to speak with Democrats at a members-only meeting, briefing regulators on the collapse of FTX. (Source: The Block)
• Circle and Concord Acquisition Corp ended their SPAC proposal after the deal “timed out.” (Source: The Block)
• A public letter was issued by Silvergate in order to quell speculation and misinformation that has allegedly been spread by “short sellers and other opportunists trying to capitalize on market uncertainty” said CEO Alan Lane. The company reiterates that it has a strong balance sheet and ample liquidity. (Source: SEC)
• The chair of the US House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, stated to SBF that it is “imperative that you attend our hearing on the 13th…” as SBF attempts to delay his testimony.
• Canada’s largest pension fund, CCP Investments, allegedly ceased its investment research across the crypto industry. It is speculated that the abandonment of the sector comes as the fund intends to redeploy resources to other areas. (Source: Reuters)
• Bankruptcy judge Martin Glenn ruled that Celsius must return $50mn worth of crypto to its users. (Source: Bloomberg)
• EIP-4895 is the next hard fork on the Ethereum network with developers targeting March 2023 as the next release. The upgrade is set to unlock staked ETH withdrawals on the Beacon Chain. (Source: Coindesk)
• After losing out to Citadel CEO Ken Griffin last year, Constitution DAO is back with Constitution DAO 2 aimed at purchasing one of the two constitutions held privately in the US. The auction is set for December 13 next week. The DAO previously raised $47mn in the period of one week in November 2021. (Source: ConstitutionDAO2)

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