ARP's Crypto Digest

General Digital Asset Market View:

U.S. Bitcoin spot ETFs recorded a net outflow of $135.1 million last week, breaking the 7-week streak of continuous inflows that had started in early October, especially after setting a record inflow of $3.35 billion the previous week.

Specifically, the first two trading sessions of the week, November 25 and 26, saw a large sell-off of nearly $560 million. While buying activity returned afterward, due to the U.S. stock market holiday on November 28 for Thanksgiving, BTC ETFs were only able to attract an additional $423 million in inflows during the remaining two days of the week, leading to the end of the weekly inflow streak that had lasted for nearly two months.

Macro:

The key economic focus this week will be the US jobs report on Friday. November’s ISM indices — both manufacturing and services — will also be important alongside the latest Beige Book and run of global PMI reports. Japanese wages — due Friday — are one of the final important releases prior to the BOJ’s meeting on 19 December. From a central bank POV, both Powell and Lagarde are scheduled to speak on Wednesday while the RBI will meet on Friday.

More Crypto:

The ‘Alameda gap’ — the gap in liquidity left after the collapse of FTX and its sister company Alameda has closed on US exchanges. Bitcoin 1% market depth is up above its pre-FTX levels of around $120mn this year driven by both rising prices and growing market participation.

Kraken, Coinbase and LMAX Digital have seen the strongest rise in liquidity. Notably Bitcoin market depth on institutional focused LMAX hit a record $24mn last week, briefly surpassing Bitstamp as the third most liquid Bitcoin market.

Demand for leveraged ETH exposure has been relentless in the past few weeks. 

Since November 5, the ETH equivalent exposure in the VolatilityShares 2x leveraged long ETH ETF has increased by 278,150 ETH (+160%).

VolatilityShares now hold more than half of CME’s ETH OI (50.1%).

Stablecoins Metrics and News:

Metrics:

Over the past 12 months, the stablecoin market has significantly expanded, with a more than 50% increase in value, reaching approximately $170 billion. Tether continues to lead with a 69% market share and $133 billion in circulation, while USDC has grown to $39.5 billion, holding 21% of the market. 

This resurgence in stablecoins and the broader crypto market, which includes a Bitcoin surge past $99,000, has been bolstered by President-elect Donald Trump’s supportive stance on digital assets.

News:

• Ripple poised for New York approval of stablecoin, set to enter regulated US crypto market — Link

• Ethena, Securitize join race for Spark’s $1B liquidity with USDtb — Link

• Coinbase will end USDC Rewards for EU clients due to MiCA — Link

• Non-USD stablecoins can spur adoption: Report — Link

What Happened This Week:

• Bitcoin has bounced back to around 97K and with $BTC dominance going down, alts are getting a boost.

• Spot ETF inflows are increasing and have seen more than 3 days of positive inflows. While Bitcoin ETFs were negative on November 25 and 26, ETH was positive.

• Celsius Network is distributing $127M to eligible creditors as part of its second payment under bankruptcy proceedings.

• MicroStrategy purchased an additional 55,500 BTC (~$5.4B) at an average price of $97,862 per $BTC.

• Avalanche has launched the Avalanche9000 testnet and announced the launch of a $40M grant program.

What to Look Out For:

• Stacks has announced the timeline for its sBTC launch and incentive program, with Phase 1 kicking off on December 16th.

• Wormhole co-founder Robinson mentioned in a comment on the X channel that $W staking rewards are coming soon.

• Chinese publicly traded company SOS is planning to buy up to $50m worth of $BTC.

• Ken Sim, mayor of Vancouver, Canada’s third largest city, announced plans to include bitcoin in the city’s investment portfolio to diversify its assets and make Vancouver a bitcoin-friendly city.

• Asset manager WisdomTree has filed for an $XRP ETF in Delaware.

What we enjoyed reading and listening to:

• Stablecoins: The first killer app — Link

• AI Agents Could Be This Cycle’s Step Function Unlock — Link

• Breakdown of Crypto Data Accessed for Blockchain Devs, Analysts and more — Link

• MicroStrategy: The Infinite Money Glitch That’s Breaking Wall Street — Link

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