Last week in the news
The potential timing of the approval of the first ETH ETF and the US inflation data continues to be the major focus of investors on financial markets. The crypto market went into relatively quiet mode during the previous week., while the major developments were on the side of traditional markets. The S&P 500 managed to finish May 4.8% higher from the month before, however, some weakening in investors optimism is evident. The nervousness regarding the PCE data pushed the 10Y US yields toward the level of 4.6%, still, the yields relaxed a bit, after the posted data were in line with market expectations. The price of gold was traded in a relatively short range in line with the US Dollar moves.
The market started the week in expectation of the PCE data for May, as this indicator represents one of the Fed's favourite gauges for the inflation. Released data showed that the PCE Price Index was standing at 2.7% in April, exactly in line with market expectations. Core PCE was 2.8%, without a change from the previous month. Core PCE was increased by 0.2% on a monthly basis, while PCE index was up by 0.3% for the month. Although analysts welcomed PCE data in line with their expectations, still, they are arguing that there is no improvement in data which will clearly show that the inflation is on a down path toward 2%. In their latest FOMC meeting, Fed officials asked for more time, in which sense, the markets will have to stay patient, as new readings on inflation are coming.
Analysts and crypto professionals are generally reacting positively on SEC`s approval of holdings in the ETH, however, concern stays over the timing when the first ETH ETF will be approved. Jan van Eck, a CEO of VanEck investment company, noted in an interview with CNBC a positive move from the SEC, as they were on the road to “lose any kind of jurisdiction over digital assets'' and that with their latest move “there is a bigger narrative going on”. Several other investors also commented in a positive note to the SEC's decision, but when regulation is in question, currently the bigger impact will come from the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, or FIT21, which has passed in the House during May this year, but it's adoption by the Senate, remains unclear until the election in the US this year.
A company behind stablecoin Tether is expanding further its business. As per news report, Tether agreed to buy a Singapore-based bitcoin miner Bitdeer (BTDR) for the total price of $150 million. As noted, Bitdeer will use the funds to expand its data centre as well as ASIC-based mining development.
Crypto market cap
The crypto market slowed down during the previous week. News regarding SEC`s approval of exchange traded funds to hold Etherum`s native token is still digested by the market. The timing of the first approved ETH ETF is still unknown, in which sense, the market pulled a bit in order to reconsider in which direction SEC is actually pulling its decision – whether it was a political one or imposed by the several prior court decisions. Total market capitalization decreased by 1% during the previous week, with an outflow of 35B from this market. Daily trading volumes decreased to the level of 113B on a daily basis, from 120B traded during the previous week. Total crypto market capitalization increase from the end of the previous year, currently stands at $ 826B, which represents a 50% surge from the beginning of this year.
Although two weeks ago Ether was the star of the crypto market, still, during the previous week the majority of coins slowed down. Bitcoin lost some 2% in value, losing 28B in the market cap. Ether modestly gained 1.3% on a weekly basis, adding 6.2B to its cap. The majority of altcoins ended the week in red. Some of the highest losers on a weekly basis were Uniswap, with a drop in value of 10.4%, Theta was down by 11.4%, while Bitcoin Cash dropped by 6.5% and Bitcoin Gold dropped by 8.8% w/w. The majority of other altcoins dropped somewhere between 6% and 2%. On the opposite side was only a small number of coins which managed to gain during the week, like Monero, which was up by 4.2%, LINK was traded higher by 6.6% and Solana, which managed to gain 2.3% on a weekly basis.
As for circulating coins, for another week Tether increased the number of its coins on the market by 0.2%, however, several other coins had an significant increase. In this sense, OMG Network had a surge in circulating coins by 2.3%, Miota increased the number of coins by 0.6%, Filecoin traditionally increased the number of its coins, which were higher by 0.5% on a weekly basis. Solana was the winner of the week, where the number of its coins was increased by 2.3% w/w.
Crypto futures market
There has not been too much activity when the crypto futures market is in question during the previous week. While short term futures were following the spot market, the long term ones for ETH were traded with a modest negative sentiment, and closed the week around 0.25% lower from the week before. Futures maturing in December closed the week at $3.939, while those maturing a year later reached the price of $4.136.
BTC short term futures were last traded down by 2.5%, while long term ones remained relatively flat on a weekly basis, gaining modest 0.5%. Futures maturing in December 2024 were last traded at $72.065, and those maturing in December 2025 closed the week at $76.050.