Issue #75

Market Overview

As of the time of writing (Monday 5pm), the total market cap of the crypto asset market is $US1.69T, down (-1.7%) from last week.

Below is the weekly performance of the top crypto assets. 

News Headline Highlights

• January 3rd (aka Genesis Day), was Bitcoin's 15th birthday! 

• Bitcoin ETF update
  • It is still expected that a spot Bitcoin ETF in the US will be approved in the coming days (Jan 8-10).
  • As reported last week, all 19b-4 forms were expected to be filed on Friday if we are to expect the ETF to be approved on or before the 10th of January. Sure enough, on Friday afternoon in the US, all 3 exchanges (NYSE, Cboe, Nasdaq) filed 19b-4s informing the SEC of their intention to list Bitcoin ETF shares.
  • There are rumours that BlackRock has $2B in applications in their Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) lined up for the first few days of trade.
• Bitwise released their annual survey of financial advisors last week, revealing several interesting advisor views:
  
  • Less than half (39%) of the 437 advisors surveyed believe a spot bitcoin ETF will be approved this year. Magnet quick take: It appears a lot will be caught by surprise over the next few days.
  • 64% cite regulatory uncertainty as a barrier to greater crypto adoption in their portfolios. 
  • 88% that are interested in buying bitcoin are waiting until a spot ETF is approved.
  • 71% favour bitcoin over Ethereum, up from 53% last year.
• Michael Saylor, the co-founder of software firm MicroStrategy, announced his intentions to sell $216 million worth of stock options in the company to purchase Bitcoin in his name, along with paying for some undisclosed personal expenses.
• Monthly cryptocurrency exchange trading volume surpassed $1 trillion in December, a threshold that exchanges had failed to surpass since September 2022. December’s rise in volume was likely spurred by the anticipation of spot bitcoin ETFs gaining approval.
• Bain & Co and Onyx by JP Morgan published a report on the $400 billion revenue potential from alternative fund  tokenization. The figure is based on wealthy investors shifting a proportion of their assets into alternatives.
• The total amount “lost” during 2023 from security incidents was almost $2 billion, down 51% from 2022, according to security-focused CertiK’s annual 2023 web3 security report. The report defines losses in this context as the value of digital assets stolen by malicious actors.
• Investment firm and spot bitcoin ETF Applicant, VanEck pledged 5% of its potential spot bitcoin ETF profits to Bitcoin core developers.

Regulation Station

• The International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) published new standard documentation for the trading of digital asset derivatives, alongside a whitepaper that addresses some of the legal issues raised by the recent bankruptcies of major crypto exchanges and market participants. The updates hopes to provide an unambiguous contractual framework for digital asset derivatives under the umbrella of the ISDA Master Agreement, reducing credit and market risk by setting clear provisions for execution and settlement.
• South Korea's Financial Services Commission (FSC) proposed banning the use of credit cards for cryptocurrency purchases, citing concerns of "illegal outflow of domestic funds overseas".

The Weekly Deal Room

• Bracket Labs, an on-chain leveraged product provider, raised $2m in a pre-seed with participation from Binance Labs, NGC Ventures and Cypher Capital.