CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📈
Last week’s positive momentum has been cut short due to adverse geopolitical developments in the Middle East.
Bitcoin (BTC) is currently down 7.3% in the last 7 days, whereas Ethereum (ETH) lost more than 11.2%. The two cryptocurrencies are up 5% and down 4.2% respectively in the last month.
Daily liquidations have spiked in October, with over $530 million in liquidations on October 1 alone. Of this, $450 million in longs were wiped out, compared to just $80 million in shorts — demonstrating a bearish skew.
Funding rates on BTC and ETH have come down in the last few days, with BTC currently hovering around 8% compared to 4% for ETH — down significantly from last week but still in bullish territory.
📌PayPal has just completed its first business transaction using the $PYUSD stablecoin by paying an invoice to multinational accounting firm Ernst & Young. - Link
📌US lawmakers propose creating a national Bitcoin reserve, aiming to make the US a global crypto leader, with bipartisan support following Senator Cynthia Lummis’ announcement at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference. - Link
Why does it matter?
Since the start of October, more than $1 billion in open interest has been wiped off the Bitcoin order books. Meanwhile, TOTAL3 is down 5.6% to $576.3 billion — erasing two weeks of growth and indicating a spooked market.
Nonetheless, a handful of cryptocurrencies managed to resist the trend and showed relative strength. Standouts include Wormhole (up 11%), Sui (down 0.2%) and Mantra (down 3.6%) respectively.
Narrative of the Week 📰
📌Tensions between Iran and Israel escalated earlier this week, with Iran launching a ballistic missile attack at various targets in Israel. The move prompted a broad market sell-off. - Link
📌Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was released early from police custody. - Link
📌HBO’s new documentary 'Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery' claims to reveal Satoshi Nakamoto's identity. Airs Oct. 8, 2024, at 2 a.m. CET. - Link
Why does it matter?
Recent price action shows how changing geopolitical environments can have a significant impact on “risk-on” assets like cryptocurrencies. Similar levels of fear were seen in February 2022, when Russia escalated the Russo-Ukrainian War with a military invasion of Ukraine.
The CMC fear and greed index now sits at just 36 — one of its lowest values over the last year.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌Layer-1 Ethereum competitor, Sui, just saw its circulating supply increase by 2.3% with the unlock of 64.19 million SUI tokens. The token is now down 5% for the week, performing better than most. - Link
📌EIGEN, the official token of the Eigenlayer restaking platform, is now transferable and tradeable. The token was listed on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken and most other exchange platforms. - Link
📌 Trump-family-backed DeFi project, World Liberty Financial, has launched its KYC process. Users can now whitelist on the official website ahead of the WLFI token sale. - Link
📌US-based asset management firm, Bitwise, has just filed an S-1 for an XRP exchange-traded product (ETP). The community response has so far, been largely negative. - Link
Why does it matter?
These points highlight key industry trends: how expanding token supply impacts market dynamics, DeFi projects adapting to regulations show maturation and ETP filings reflect growing crypto integration into traditional finance.
With Celestia (TIA) set to unlock around $850 million in tokens at the end of October (~85% of mcap), its performance will reveal how substantial unlocks affect low float high FDV projects.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌TRON Founder Justin Sun has just posted the current growth statistics for the TRON blockchain. Q3 revenue is up 43% compared to Q2 with a total of $1.66 billion in revenue in the past year. - Link
📌SoLayer Labs introduces $sUSD, the first yield-bearing USD on the Solana blockchain. The token is backed by U.S. treasury bills and will be restakeable within the SoLayer restaking network. - Link
📌Solana now has five $1 billion+ TVL protocols. Raydium and Marinade now have over $1 billion TVL apiece following a month of growth, while liquid staking platform Jito leads the rankings with $1.81 billion TVL. - Link
Why does it matter?
Once the undisputed king of decentralized finance, Ethereum is beginning to see its dominance slip away as competing platforms gain momentum.
Several alternatives are seeing growing TVL while Ethereum’s slowly fades. Solana, BNB Chain, Base and Sui saw their TVL grow in September, while Ethereum and Arbitrum shrunk.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌Former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes recently took to X to promote Smoking Chicken Fish (SCF), a cult-like meme targeting misfits with a $71 million market cap. - Link
📌Moo Deng, a meme centered around a boisterous baby hippo has retraced more than 42% from its peak. It now sits at a $195 million market cap. - Link
📌$POCHITA, a meme coin named the successor to the famous Shiba Inu “Cheems” hit a $16 million mcap before crashing back under $1.2 million less than 24 hours later. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌BNB Chain-based AI and XR Metaverse, SecondLive, raised $12 million in a private token sale led by Crypto.com Capital. Other key investors include Spark Digital Capital, Cypher Capital and CSP DAO. - Link
📌Crowd-sourced token-incentivized mapping platform, MeshMap, raised $4 million in funding with participation from a16z crypto, Lattice Capital, Colosseum, Escape Velocity and more. - Link
📌Fully Homomorphic Encryption Layer, Mind Network, raised $10 million in a pre-Series A funding round. Participants include Animoca Brands, Cogitent Ventures, ArkStream Capital and more. - Link
📌AI pioneer, OpenAI has raised a further $6.6 billion ahead of plans to transition to a for-profit entity. The company is now valued at $157 billion and will use the funds to accelerate the proliferation of AI tools and technologies. Participants include Microsoft and Softbank. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌After receiving more than 5 million EIGEN toen in the airdrop, TRON Founder Justin Sun appears to have sold them all at an average price of $4.03. - Link
📌A recent research report by crypto market maker, Keyrock, found that airdrops have just an 11% success rate, with deep liquidity and a fair distribution model critical to long-term growth. - Link
📌Blockchain digital identity platform, Humanity Protocol, has just launched its testnet. There are indications that it will be incentivized. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
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