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Market Overview 📉
The week saw Bitcoin (BTC) trade largely sideways for the majority of the week before finally breaking the $100K level on Thursday. However, the move only held for half a day, leading to a quick pullback into the sub $100K zone in a leverage flush. Nevertheless, the Total Crypto Market Cap still saw a new high, increasing 7.65% to a new high of $3.757T.
Bitcoin (BTC) saw a small increase of 1.97% across the week, while Ethereum (ETH) continued its streak of outperformance, closing 8.34% higher from the week prior.
Daily liquidations surged primarily on the longs, as BTC reversed the upward move over $100K, with long liquidations peaking at $816M on December 5. Shorts were not spared as well, with close to $280M liquidated on the way up. Funding rates on BTC actually fell across the week, resetting to a modest 13.52% by the end of the week, while ETH’s rose instead to 31.45%.
📌 Donald Trump appoints pro-crypto representative, Paul Atkins, for the incoming SEC Chair, in light of Trump’s pro-crypto vision for America. - Link
📌 Grayscale submits their application for a Solana spot ETF on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). - Link
Why does it matter?
After several attempts at a new all-time high, Bitcoin has finally broken through the resistance into uncharted territories for the asset. The $100K level has finally fallen, albeit with a sharp retracement following the break. Nevertheless, creating a new all-time high has created renewed interest from non-crypto natives, as well as reignited the bullish sentiment among the crypto crowd. Traditional markets did well this week, with the S&P 500 climbing more than 1.17%, while the Nasdaq did much better with a surge of 3.14% instead to set a new high for the index.
The market strength was led by altcoins, specifically ETH and ETH-adjacent coins. BTC showed weakness instead against a strong altcoin performance, with Bitcoin dominance falling across the week from 58.2% to 55.4% from the start of the week.
Notable outperformers among altcoins were distributed across various categories, including Ethereum DeFi coins and “Dino coins”. Top performers included Curve DAO (CRV), Convex Finance (CVX), and Yearn Finance (YFI) on the DeFi side, while the strong “Dino coins” included Hedera (HBAR), EOS (EOS) and Ripple (XRP), which all saw increases of more than 50% in the past week.
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Narrative of the Week 📰
Bitcoin took centerstage this week, as it blasts through its all-time high once again, and finally, the legendary $100,000 level for the asset.
📌 Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, likens BTC to gold, coining it a “digital gold” as well as a “competitor” to the precious metal. - Link
📌 Michael Saylor announces yet another purchase of BTC, this time at 15,400 BTC for ~$1.5B. This brings his total purchases across the month to over $13B. - Link
📌 Bitcoin mining firm, Marathon Digital Holdings, proposes another $700M in Zero-Coupon Convertible Senior Notes, with plans to utilize the proceeds to accumulate more BTC. - Link
Why does it matter?
Bitcoin has finally surpassed the huge psychological round number target that is $100,000. For years, Bitcoiners and crypto investors have looked at the number as a sort of target for the entire crypto market. With the asset finally reaching this momentous target, the stage is set for the traditional finance world, institutions and nations alike, as to whether to capture a piece of the pie for themselves too or fear being left behind in an increasingly digital world. Many smaller nations have already adopted Bitcoin as a solution to rampant inflation within their countries, while developed countries are often much more hesitant to take the leap.
Major Project Updates 🗓️
📌 XRP blasts through its 2021 high, even flipping both Solana and USDT to take its place as the third largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. - Link
📌 Sonic (formerly known as Fantom) is finally live on mainnet. The public launch of Sonic will occur shortly after. - Link
📌 NFT collection, RTFKT, announces plans to wind down operations, after three years from their initial launch. - Link
📌 Blur-backed L2 chain, Blast, proposes a buyback of the BLAST native token using yield from deposited assets on their chain, issuing yield to depositors in the BLAST token instead of ETH or USDB. - Link
📌 Move-based money market platform, Echelon, launches its own appchain powered by Initia’s stack, with Celestia underneath as its data availability layer. - Link
📌 ETH restaking infrastructure layer, AltLayer, launches its first security-focused actively validated service (AVS) for GoPlus Security, which supports more than 12M wallet users on-chain. - Link
📌 The team behind the Bored Apes, Yuga Labs, acquires Tokenproof, an NFT infrastructure project designed to help empower NFT utility in real-world experiences. - Link
📌 Walletless L1 blockchain, XION, launches on mainnet, with their token, XION. XION seeks to drive adoption through the removal of barriers to entry in crypto. - Link
📌 L2 blockchain, Mode Network, introduces Synth, a Bittensor subnet by Mode, for the purpose of financial forecasting. - Link
Why does it matter?
Older cryptocurrencies which have largely fallen out of favor, termed “dino coins”, took their chance to shine this week, with tokens such as Ripple (XRP), Stellar Lumen (XLM) and Hedera (HBAR), surging across the week. Many have attributed this to a familiar retail bid, while others attribute the move to late entry institutional bids or market manipulation from whales holding these tokens.
DeFi Brief 🏦
📌 BlackRock’s on-chain RWA fund, BUIDL, enters DeFi alongside other institutional funds via Securitize, through a partnership with Curve and Elixir and powered by Elixir’s stablecoin, deUSD. - Link
📌 Synthetic stablecoin protocol, Ethena, partners up with Securitize to enter USDtb into Sky’s (formerly MakerDAO) Tokenization Grand Prix initiative. - Link
📌 Popular stablecoin DEX, Curve Finance, launches their contracts on the Hyperliquid EVM devnet, in preparation for their mainnet launch in Q1 2025. - Link
📌 Derivatives chain, Derive (formerly Lyra), integrates Ethena’s USDe onto their platform, enabling users to earn yield on their collateral, while distributing DRV tokens to sENA stakers - Link
📌 DeFi yield platform, Instadapp, rebrands to Fluid, named after their newly launched DEX of the same name. Additionally, a token buyback will be put in place, using up to 100% of protocol revenue. - Link
📌 Aerodrome introduces AERO Fed, a mechanism to enable veAERO holders to determine the protocol’s monetary policy. - Link
Why does it matter?
As mainstream attention falls on the crypto space again with Bitcoin finally crossing the $100K mark, real-world use cases once again take centerstage to create sustainable adoption for cryptocurrencies and blockchains. With facilitation from Securitize, funds and institutions are accessing DeFi and stablecoin yields, creating the bridge between TradFi and DeFi and allowing investors to have the best of both worlds.
Meme Coins 🚀
📌 Solana dynamic liquidity protocol, Meteora, airdrops M3M3, a memecoin with a (3,3) mechanism built in where if everyone stakes, everyone wins. - Link
📌 Hailey Welch, the woman behind the “Hawk Tuah” meme, launches her own memecoin, HAWK, before rugging the token as 90% of the token supply was held by insiders. - Link
Fundraises 💰
📌 AI economic layer, GAIB, raises $5M in a pre-seed round led by Hack VC, Faction, and Hashed, with participation from Spartan Group, CMCC Global, Animoca Brands and more. - Link
📌 Hyper-efficient interoperability protocol, Union Labs, raises $12M in a Series A round, led by Gumi Cryptos Capital and LongHash, with support from Borderless Capital, BlockChange VC, Foresight Ventures and more. - Link
📌 Bitcoin-based reputation and identity protocol, BLIFE, raises $7M in a funding round led by UTXO Management, with other investors including Animoca Brands, Aspen Digital, GSR Ventures and more. - Link
📌 Stablecoin infrastructure project, USDX Money, raises $45M in funding with investors including NGC Ventures, Generative Ventures, UOB Venture Management and more. - Link
📌 Crypto superapp, DeFi.app, raises $2M in a round led by Mechanism Capital, with other investors including Selini Capital, North Rock Digital and several undisclosed angels. - Link
Airdrops Abound 🎁
📌 Perpetual DEX and L1, Hyperliquid, kicks off their genesis airdrop, releasing 31% of the supply to eligible wallets. As of November 30, the HYPE airdrop has become one of the largest airdrops ever, airdropping more than $1.6B to its users. - Link
📌 Wise Monkey, a project backed by Animoca Brands and the Ape Accelerator, is airdropping 35% of their token supply to the Floki ecosystem and Apecoin holders. - Link
📌 Solana identity platform, Solana ID, announces their token, SOLID, as well as plans for an airdrop of 6% of the total token supply within 4-8 weeks after the token generation event (TGE). - Link
📌 NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, releases the checker for their upcoming ME token airdrop, allowing users to link all of their eligible wallets to their Magic Eden wallet for the eventual token claim on December 10. - Link
Tweet of the Week 📝
Source: realDonaldTrump via Truth Social
A pro-crypto president. A pro-crypto America. A pro-crypto world. Staying bullish.
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