CMC Market Pulse delivers actionable market insights, giving you all the key narratives and developments you need in under 5 minutes.
Market Overview 📉
Crypto markets bled this week after a weekend pump from the de-escalation from the crisis in the MIddle East. Total Crypto Market Cap stayed largely flat across the week, rising 0.36% from the week prior, now sitting at $2.209T.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a slight dip of 1.56% across the week, while Ethereum (ETH) fared better, closing the week with a gain of 0.56%.
Daily liquidations remain largely stable across the week, with long liquidations hovering in the $140M range, while short liquidations remained low aside from certain anomalously green days. Funding rates on BTC fell to the low positives, while ETH’s climbed higher instead, possibly reflecting an increasing interest in ETH by traders.
📌 A survey by Schwab reveals that crypto is the number one asset class of choice for investments via ETFs for millennials, with half of the survey respondents indicating that they would invest in crypto ETFs over bonds, international equity and alternative investments. - Link
📌 $4B in BTC and $1.3B in ETH seized from the Silk Road case and the PlusToken scheme respectively have been authorized for sale, creating a potential selling pressure on both assets. - Link
📌 Crypto.com files a suit against the SEC after receiving a Wells Notice from them, contending that the SEC has “unilaterally expanded its jurisdiction beyond statutory limits”. - Link
Why does it matter?
Markets remain on edge regarding the flare up in the Middle East, with uncertainty on the level of retaliation expected on the respective participants in the conflict. Additionally, weaker than expected Chinese stimulus leaves investors disappointed, causing a retrace in both traditional and crypto markets. Finally, hotter than anticipated inflation figures on the US CPI this week has also put some investors off from going risk on, although others feel that inflation has now taken a backseat to other macroeconomic data such as unemployment.
The week saw strength in altcoins rather than BTC, with TOTAL3 rising 1.8% in the week against BTC and BTC Dominance falling almost 2%. Notable outperformers among altcoins largely centered around memecoins with popular choices POPCAT, APU, GIGA, SPX and more making huge moves against the broader market. Bitcoin Runes also see a resurgence with PUPS•WORLD•PEACE seeing a 230% rise over the week.
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Narrative of the Week 📰
Memecoin influencer and former Bitcoin maximalist, Murad Mahmudov (better known by his X handle, MustStopMurad), has become the latest main character on Crypto Twitter, dividing many over his behavior on the platform.
📌 Blockchain sleuth, ZachXBT, identifies 11 wallets suspected to belong to memecoin influencer, Murad. Some users laud the transparency while many others criticize the move as bringing danger to Murad, who is a doxxed individual. - Link
📌 On-chain analysis reveals that Murad had acquired $387K worth of the memecoin, SPX6900, between June and August, which have since increased by 62x in value to $24M today. - Link
📌 0xSisyphus purports that both Ansem and Murad are very much similar, highlighting the difference which the Crypto Twitter community has received both of them, with Ansem painted as a villain and Murad as a sort of memecoin messiah. - Link
Why does it matter?
Memecoins have been the best performing sector this year in crypto, significantly outperforming all other subsectors of altcoins. With the drawn out bleed in the broader crypto markets, many memecoins which had done well in the beginning of the year fell significantly from their highs, with many seeing declines of 70-90%. With Murad emerging with his memecoin supercycle thesis and a list of memecoins which he strongly believed in, liquidity has once again returned to revitalize the sector.
While many have criticized him for some of his smaller market cap shills, many also celebrate him as their hero for giving retail investors something to believe in again.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 Uniswap introduces Unichain, a new L2 designed for speed, seamless multi-chain swaps, and significantly cheaper fees as compared to transacting on the Ethereum L1. - Link
📌 ETH restaking layer, EigenLayer, updates on an unexpected token sale from a wallet linked to the protocol’s team wallet, addressing it as a compromised transfer which resulted in the sale. - Link
📌 Aethir Cloud announces a $100M ecosystem fund designed to back and stimulate the development of AI and gaming projects in the ecosystem. The first phase kicks off with Aethir Catalyst, a grants program to scale such projects using Aethir’s resources. - Link
📌 dYdX founder, Antonio Juliano, has returned to the perpetual DEX as its CEO after stepping down six months earlier from the same position. - Link
📌 ETH restaking layer, Symbiotic, deliver a post-mortem on the attack on the Symbiotic X account in which the account was compromised and tweeted several phishing links over a period of four days. The account has since been secured by the Symbiotic team. - Link
📌 Google Search has officially integrated the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) enabling any .eth name to be searched for within Google Search with associated balances displayed. - Link
📌 Cortex Protocol introduces the Cortex L1, a new L1 centered around complete chain abstraction. The chain is secured by SYN, the governance token of the Synapse network. - Link
Why does it matter?
Uniswap is the latest in a line of decentralized applications making the move to their own chains to increase what’s possible with their applications and to increase their reach to the masses. Optimized for user experience, Uniswap’s L2 Unichain seeks to enable seamless cross-chain swaps across Uniswap-supported chains, in line with Ethereum’s rollup-focused scaling roadmap.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 MakerDAO-backed lending platform, Spark, updates rates on the platform, lowering the DAI Savings and Borrowing Rate while increasing the Sky Savings Rate to encourage the migration of sDAI to sUSDS. - Link
📌 Sky (formerly MakerDAO) releases new incentives for suppliers of USDS on lending platform, Aave. 50,000 USDS has been allocated weekly to at least match the current sUSDS rate of 6.5%. - Link
📌 Cross-chain bridging protocol, DeBridge, introduces DeBridge Hooks, which allow developers to customize DeBridge orders, enabling features such as chain and account abstraction, among others. - Link
📌 Money market platform, Aave, completes the Aave v3.2 upgrade, bringing to the platform Liquid eMode, which provides users with greater flexibility over the management of collateral and debt as well as customizable risk management. - Link
📌 Stripe has now enabled payments on Solana with USDP and Solana USDC. - Link
📌 Solana-based DEX, Lifinity, launches on Eclipse, the first Ethereum L2 built on the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM). - Link
Why does it matter?
After the rebrand of MakerDAO and DAI to Sky and USDS, the stablecoin has received flak for introducing a feature which enables the USDS stablecoin to be frozen, similar to other centralized stablecoins such as USDT and USDC. As such, certain groups of DeFi users have been hesitant to migrate their DAI to the new USDS, a non-mandatory process. With the introduction of lowered rates for DAI and increased rates for staked USDS (sUSDS), this could encourage users who were on the fence to finally make the swap over and increase adoption of the new stablecoin.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 American rapper, Cardi B, launches a memecoin, WAP, after her 2020 hit song of the same name. The token has since dumped 80% from its high, with discussions around the high centralization of the token supply. - Link
📌 Four market-making firms and 14 individuals have been charged by US prosecutors for their involvement in market manipulation and sham trading. Some of these organizations are involved in providing market making services for several memecoins. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 Bitcoin-backed stablecoin protocol, Yala, raises $8M in a seed round led by Polychain Capital and Ethereal Ventures, with participation from Amber Group, ABCDE and HashKey Capital, among others. - Link
📌 Bitcoin Layer-2 blockchain, BitLayer, raises $9M in a Series A extension funding round led by Polychain Capital and Franklin Templeton, with support from Selini Capital, SCB Limited and more. - Link
📌 Semantic Layer raises $3M in a seed round led by Figment Capital, with other investors including Hack VC, Banless Ventures, Fenbushi, Anagram, Robot Ventures and Perridon Ventures. - Link
📌 Ethereum infrastructure project, Layer, raises $6M in a seed round led by 1kx, with support from Arrington Capital, Founderheads, Fabric Ventures, Stake Capital Group and more. - Link
📌 Decentralized AI platform, OpenGradient, raises $8.5M in a seed round with investors including a16z CSX, Coinbase Ventures, Foresight Ventures and more. - Link
📌 Network of networks, Delta, raises $11M in funding from venture capital firms including Figment Capital, Variant, Maven 11, Delphi Ventures and Robot Ventures, among others. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 Zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) L2 chain, Scroll, announces their token, SCR, and its airdrop. The snapshot will be taken on 19 Oct, with the airdrop on the 22nd. - Link
📌 ETH liquid restaking protocol, Puffer Finance, announces the PUFFER airdrop, which distributes 7.5% for their first airdrop. Claims will open on October 14th. - Link
📌 ETH restaking platform, Swell Network, unveils the airdrop checker for users who participated in the Swell Voyage, with 8.5% of the total token supply allocated to the airdrop. - Link
📌 Optimism unveils Airdrop #5, allocating more than 10M OP tokens to 54K different addresses to reward power users who have contributed to the growth of the Superchain Ecosystem. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: 0xENAS
The chop and bleed continues.
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