- Arp Digital
- Posts
- ARP's Crypto Digest
ARP's Crypto Digest
ARP Digital
January 06, 2025
General Digital Asset Market View:
Source: Source: Farside, ARP Digital Research Team Q1’25
Last week, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF continued to experience its largest outflow in history. On January 2, 2025, the IBIT fund recorded an outflow of $332.6 million, marking the third consecutive outflow, a situation that had never occurred since the fund’s inception in January 2024.
Overall, US Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total outflow of $247.8 million on the first trading day of the new year. Despite this, IBIT remains the largest Bitcoin spot ETF, with a total of $36.9 billion in inflows over the past 12 months and currently holding $53.5 billion worth of BTC.
The significant outflow from IBIT could be attributed to large US institutions rebalancing their portfolios for the new year, as well as preparing for Q4 2024 reports and tax obligations.
Macro:
The main focus this week will be the run of latest US labour market data (JOLTS, services ISM, ADP, Challenger job cuts, claims, NFP). Elsewhere, inflation data in the Euro Area, Switzerland and China will also be in focus alongside Japanese wages. From a central bank POV, we have FOMC minutes on Wednesday and the ECB’s consumer expectations survey on Tuesday. US stock markets are closed on 9 January to mark the death of former US President Jimmy Carter. The bond market will close at 2 p.m. New York time, per the recommendation of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
More Crypto:
Since the implementation of MiCA in June, MiCA-compliant stablecoins like Circle’s EURC, Société Générale’s EURCV, and Banking Circle’s EURI have gained momentum, now accounting for over 92% of the euro stablecoin market, compared to only 20% previously.
On the other hand, non-compliant EUR stablecoins like Tether’s EURT have seen decreasing demand, with Tether recently announcing it will discontinue EURT. Our latest report on the State of the European Crypto Market dives deeper into these trends.
As of now, MiCA’s impact on USD-backed stablecoins has been minimal. Tether’s USDT, which is not MiCA compliant, actually saw an increase in market share in November, even though it was delisted from several major exchanges for EEA users.
However, this could change, as Binance — the largest stablecoin market — announced a strategic partnership with Circle, the issuer of USDC, last week. This partnership, which goes beyond simple zero-fee promotions, is expected to drive higher adoption for USDC, especially as Binance plans to use it for its Treasury.
What Happened This Week:
BlackRock Spot BTC ETF ($IBIT) net outflows are trending upward. Today, IBIT saw the largest daily net outflows ever, reaching -300.8m.
Tether’s $USDT marketcap suffered its steepest weekly marketcap drop since the FTX collapse in November 2022.
Hong Kong-listed company Yuxing acquired 78.2 $BTC for $6.3m.
The market cap of Total AI agent coins has nearly tripled to $16B in about a month. AI agent coin market cap is up 16% today alone.
Tether’s Bitcoin Reserve has added 7,629 BTC (~$752.5m) after nine months of inactivity.
What to Look Out For:
Morgan Stanley subsidiary E-Trade, an electronic trading platform, has announced that it is considering offering cryptocurrency trading.
The Uniswap team tweeted that v4 is coming soon, originally scheduled for Q3 2024, but this has been delayed.
Swiss lawmaker Samuel Kullmann is pushing forward with plans for a referendum to include Bitcoin in the Swiss constitution.
Polkadot has released its 2025 roadmap. This includes smart contracts, a unified address formats, fast unstaking, universal gas tokens, and more.
What we enjoyed reading and listening to:
ARP Digital is regulated by the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Category 3 Crypto Asset Service Provider. All communications and services are directed at Professional Clients only, persons other than Professional Clients, such as Retail Clients, are NOT the intended recipients of our communications or services. ARP Digital does not provide investment advice, and nothing herein shall be considered, construed as, or deemed to be, investment advice. Furthermore, nothing herein is intended to be, or shall constitute, an offer or invitation to buy securities or any form of financial instrument or investment product by ARP Digital or any of its related parties or persons.