ARP's Crypto Digest

General Digital Asset Market View:

Investor sentiment towards Trump’s campaign promises was mirrored by market inflows into the US BTC-spot ETF. This past Friday, the market reported net inflows of $490.3 million, marking its fifth consecutive session of inflows.

For the week ending November 22, the US BTC-spot ETF market experienced inflows totaling $3,353.1 million, the highest since its inception in January 2024:

• iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) saw net inflows of $2,503.5 million during the week ending November 22.

• Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) recorded net inflows of $772.7 million on Wednesday.

• ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) registered net inflows of $301.5 million for the week.

BlackRock’s ETF inflows have been particularly notable. Since its launch, IBIT has accumulated net inflows of $31,333 million, surpassing the total net inflows of $30,814 million for the entire US BTC-spot ETF market. Conversely, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has experienced net outflows of $20,326 million since its launch on January 11, 2024.

Fun Fact: US spot ETFs now 98% of way there to passing Satoshi as world’s biggest holder.

Macro:

The key economic focus this week is inflation reports, including the run of US PCE deflators, the flash November CPIs in Europe, and the Tokyo CPI in Japan. From a central bank POV, there will be the FOMC minutes, the ECB’s consumer expectations survey as well as the RBNZ’s policy decision (50bp expected, a strong case for 75bp). From a politics POV, there will be the election of the European Commission by the Parliament on Wednesday (if confirmed, the new Commission will begin its work on December 1) as well as a general election in Ireland on Friday.

More Crypto:

Growth of $1k Portfolio Since Dec/2022 (Bitcoin bottom ~ $15k)…

• Bitcoin: 444.3%

• Ethereum: 143.8%

• S&P 500: 45.1%

• Gold: 45.9%

• Silver: 37.9%

MicroStrategy is accelerating its pace of Bitcoin buying by increasing the amount of convertible notes it’s selling by almost 50% to fund additional purchases of the cryptocurrency. 

The Bitcoin treasury company is moving rapidly to meet a goal announced last month of raising $42 billion in capital over the next three years to buy more Bitcoin.

The company is now the largest institutional holder of the digital asset, with 331,200 BTC.

Stablecoins Metrics and News:

Metrics:

Stables are catching up to established settlement network. 
According to the graph, in the space of 6 years, stables have gone from ~0 to near parity with Visa. 

What’s unique about stablecoins compared to other payment and settlement networks is that, because they are issued and transferred over public blockchain networks, stablecoin transaction data is publicly available in real time.

Following President Donald Trump’s win in the US elections on November 5, the cryptocurrency market has seen a substantial infusion of roughly $10 billion in new capital. 

According to DeFiLlama, Tether (USDT) spearheaded this growth, climbing by $8 billion to set a new record of $128 billion. Circle’s USDC also saw significant gains, increasing by $2 billion to hit a peak of $37 billion since March 2023.

The total supply of the stablecoin market has recently surged to $183 billion, marking its highest level since March 2022. This rise indicates a substantial rebound from the downturn experienced during the crypto winter over the past two years. Since the downturn, notable new entrants including PayPal, BitGo, and Ripple have joined the stablecoin space, playing a major role in its growth.

News:

• Stripe is acquiring stablecoin platform Bridge in a $1.1B deal — Link

• Circle CEO sees stablecoins as linchpin for global trade — Link

• The Fed Is the Wrong Regulator for Stablecoins — Link

• Juiced USDS Yields Woo Solana Traders to Sky’s Stablecoin — Link

• Kraken, Tether-Backed Dutch Firm Rolls Out MiCA-Compliant Euro, U.S. Dollar Stablecoins — Link

• Issues with Existing Stablecoin Models — Link

What Happened This Week:

• MicroStrategy completes $3 billion offering of 0% convertible Senior Notes due 2029.

• Cboe to launch the first cash-settled options product related to spot Bitcoin, beginning Monday, December 2.

• Trump team preparing to announce ‘very pro crypto’ Scott Bessent as Treasury Secretary.

• Ethereum-compatible L1 blockchain Monad has begun rolling out Testnet.

• Citron released a report stating that MicroStrategy stock is overvalued. It noted that it is bullish on $BTC itself, but hedges $MSTR with a short position.

• Charles Schwab, the $7T asset manager, plans to offer cryptocurrency investments directly to its clients.

What to Look Out For:

• Reuters reports that Trump’s proposed cryptocurrency advisory council could set up a U.S. Bitcoin reserve.

• SEC Chairman Gary Gensler announces that he will officially step down on January 20, 2025.

• Discussions between the SEC and issuers looking to launch a $SOL Spot ETF are ongoing, and the SEC is currently working on an S-1 application.

• The Trump team is reportedly in talks with the cryptocurrency industry to create a position in the White House dedicated to cryptocurrency policy.

• Trump Media & Technology Group is in talks to acquire cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt.

What we enjoyed reading and listening to:

• Culture For Sale, by JJ Alicea — Link

• Notes on Consumer Crypto — Link

• State of Crypto Report 2024: New data on swing states, stablecoins, AI, builder energy, and more — Link

• An overview of the AI developments over the past few months — Link

• Winning in Crypto: It’s All About Attention — Link

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