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CCData's weekly ‘Chart of the Week’ highlights topical digital asset developments with vital commentary and analysis.
In September, FDUSD, a stablecoin issued by a subsidiary of First Digital Limited, a financial firm headquartered in Hong Kong, experienced a significant increase in trading activity on Binance.This surge in volume coincided with Binance's decision to eliminate trading taker fees for BTC-TUSD pairs and the announcement of the discontinuation of major BUSD pairs on the exchange. Additionally, Binance introduced zero trading fees for BTC-FDUSD spot and margin pairs, further contributing to the rise in FDUSD trading volumes.
Using a 7-day moving average, we observed that the trading volume of BTC-FDUSD witnessed an astonishing 905% growth since the beginning of September (data up till the 25th). In contrast, during the same period, BTC-TUSD and BTC-BUSD experienced declines of 92.3% and 45.7%, respectively.
This week’s Chart of the Week highlights May’s correlation of daily returns between BTC, ETH and the SP500, falling to 15.8% and 18.2%, respectively, the lowest level since August 2022.
Digital assets have benefitted from a significant price appreciation following signs that tight monetary policy and high interest rates may soon reach their peak. This comes after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, causing a stir in the banking system, and amplifying the interest in digital assets.
The depegging of USDC and regulatory issues with BUSD has led to Binance converting $1 billion of their Industry Recovery Initiative funds to BTC, ETH, and BNB, triggering further buy pressure for digital assets.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we are examining the significant surge in the price of The Open Network (TON) since August, a period during which it has appreciated by over 100%.
This surge coincided with the launch of its TON-based wallet on Telegram, which offers custodial options. While Bitcoin and other major altcoins experienced minor drawdowns in the past month, the #TON token seized the opportunity to rise into the top 10 assets by market capitalisation, (based on circulating supply.)
In this week's "Chart of the Week," we explore the challenges that SOL's price has encountered over the past few months, which have largely stemmed from repercussions related to FTX. Currently, FTX controls a significant portion of the $SOL supply, a circumstance that could potentially induce substantial selling pressure if it decides to liquidate its holdings.
From August 1st to September 11th, SOL experienced notable losses against major cryptocurrencies, with declines of 13.2% against BTC, 10.7% against ETH, 12.6% against BNB, and 25.0% against TRX. Despite these concerns, it is important to note that a substantial portion of the SOL held by FTX will remain locked until it fully vests in 2028.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we look into how, despite the falling participation and interest, crypto investment products have maintained strong assets under management (AUMs) this year, with total aggregated AUM exceeding $35bn in August.
Although the SEC remains at large with their interpretations based on the age-old Howey Test, we have witnessed other jurisdictions such as the EU, UAE, and the UK introduce clear and positive legislation: MiCA, VARA, and FMSA respectively, which has positively impacted institutional flows into products.
In this week's 'Chart of the Week', we examine the surge in spot trading activity on Huobi during August. As of August 27th, the exchange recorded $25.8bn in trading volumes, making it the second-largest centralised exchange by monthly spot trading volume.
The exchange also saw its spot market share increase to 6.33%, its highest since October 2021. The uptick in trading activity coincides with recent concerns surrounding USDT flows on the exchange.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we explore AI tokens' resilience, yielding an impressive 18.4% increase despite recent market turbulence.
AKT leads the basket with an exceptional 248% return, followed closely by FET at 94.2%. Even without major market catalysts, like the SEC's ETF approval delays, investor focus appears to shift to real-world applications. AI's consistent outperformance throughout the year underscores this trend.
This week's Chart of the Week looks at the month-to-date (MTD) performance for a collection of major assets.
In August, the Dollar Index (DXY) and Bitcoin (BTC) emerged as the best performers, posting positive returns in a month which has been marked by significant declines across traditional asset classes.
Historically, $BTC has had an inverse correlation to the Dollar Index, whilst usually maintaining a positive correlation with traditional equities, especially tech stocks. However, this month has proved to be different - with BTC maintaining steady ground while other risky assets sell off.
Compared to other assets, BTC has shown signs of strength, most likely due to the positive sentiment surrounding the recent flurry of BTC Spot ETFs and the advancements made in the case against the SEC seen in the recent XRP ruling.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the volatility of Bitcoin, which reached an all-time low of 36.3 on August 6th, according to the Bitcoin Volataility Index (BVIN). The BVIN measures the implied volatility of Bitcoin and is calculated by CCData using options data from Deribit.
Volatility has reached record lows following weeks of Bitcoin trading in a narrow range and historically low trading volumes on centralised exchanges. Typically, low volatility in the markets is followed by large market movements, the direction of which is unpredictable.
On Sunday, Curve DAO's token price experienced a sharp decline of ~17.0% as a result of a bug exploit related to the programming language, Vyper. This caused vulnerabilities in certain liquidity pools within the platform and resulted in over $20m in losses. The news of this exploit spread rapidly, prompting some exchanges, including Upbit, to temporarily halt trading of the token to assess the situation. As a consequence of the incident, the trading volume for the token skyrocketed,
reaching ~60% market share on the hourly trading volume chart, surpassing the trading volume of most other tokens on major decentralised exchanges. Furthermore, the open interest for the token surged dramatically, with many traders opting to short the token in response to the ongoing uncertainty and concerns about its vulnerability. This heightened shorting activity contributed to the token's funding rate recording an unprecedented -0.04% value, indicating the prevailing bearish sentiment among traders.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine Dogecoin's price action following Twitter's rebrand to 'X'. Dogecoin's price jumped 10% to a daily high of 0.0778 following Twitter's rebrand to X, outperforming the majority of the other crypto assets.
Meanwhile, the aggregate open interest for the token on centralised exchanges surged by 24% to $502mn after Elon Musk appeared to have added $DOGE symbol on his Twitter profile, with traders speculating on a possible integration of the token with the revamped platform.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the aggregate open interest and average funding rate of Binance Coin (BNB). The average funding rate of BNB has dipped to a negative -0.0802%, marking its lowest level since May 2nd. This factor, coupled with an increase in open interest, suggests high levels of short positioning on BNB perpetual futures.
Since November 2022, there has been a noticeable trend between average funding rate and Binance Launchpad token launches - which require investors to lock BNB to gain access to coins launching on the platform. Investors seeking to maintain delta neutrality can hedge themselves via the perpetual contracts. In this instance, they accept funding rate costs to mitigate against market risk.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we highlight the large discount between fiat pairs trading on Binance.US vs the wider market. BTC/USD is trading at a 9.5% discount to CCCAGG's BTC reference price, whilst both USDT and USDC are trading at an 8.88% discount to their peg. The convergence of these discounts suggests the fair value discount to redeem fiat against crypto on Binance.US is around 9%.
Following the SEC's recent action against Binance.US, the exchange was forced to close down its fiat operations, with fiat deposits suspended in June. Only entities with liquid fiat available on Binance.US can take advantage of the low prices.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the minimal impact on the markets despite the SEC's recent criticisms about the insufficiency of recent ETF filings. Following the news, Bitcoin's price underwent a moderate decline, falling from a peak of $31,116 to a trough of $29,613 within an hour. Additionally, open interest in Bitcoin futures contracts dropped from $10.4 billion to $9.3 billion, a decrease of 11.9%.
Market participants continue to maintain a positive outlook on the prospects of BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, especially with Fidelity also showing interest and filing for its own Bitcoin ETF. This optimistic sentiment has effectively cushioned the market against potential negative impacts.
This week’s Chart of the Week highlights the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) repricing event amidst its listing on EDX Markets. EDX Markets, a non-custodial exchange, launched trading on the 20th of June, with backing from Charles Schwab, Fidelity Digital Assets and Citadel Securities. The platform has garnered significant interest from institutional players in the space, as well as being looked upon favourably by the regulators. As such, the four assets being listed on the exchange, BTC, ETH, LTC, and BCH, are now more accessible for institutional investors, which has led to positive price action and speculation.
BCH was the standout performer of the group, seeing its price double within the space of a week. This is likely due to its market cap being significantly lower than its peers, as well as its poor YTD performance, which needed a strong catalyst. It is worth monitoring any changes to the assets listed on EDX, as they can act as a proxy for assets which are seen to be safe in the eyes of the U.S. regulators.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the changes in 1% market depth for BTC trading pairs on selected exchanges following the SEC lawsuit on Binance US. Since the lawsuit on June 5th, the 1% market depth of BTC pairs on Binance US has dropped by 78%. Similar effects can be observed on most other US exchanges, with Gemini and Kraken experiencing a decline in liquidity of 16% and 10%, respectively.
Coinbase stands out with a 27% increase in market depth since the lawsuit, suggesting that US-based traders and market makers may have sought refuge in the largest US exchange, considering it a safe haven. Binance and OKX have also witnessed a more modest rise in liquidity for BTC pairs, with market depth increasing by 2% and 12% respectively since June 5th, indicating heightened trading activity on exchanges outside the US.
In this week's Charts of the Week, we observe a significant impact on market liquidity following the SEC’s lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase. BinanceUS and Binance experienced substantial drops in liquidity for the BTC-USD pair, as shown in the 1% Market Depth. Both pairs experienced their lowest levels for the year, with decreases reaching as much as 85.0% and 65.6% respectively compared to January 1st. In contrast, Coinbase's 1% market depth demonstrated resilience, with a mere average decline of 5.18% as of June 10th.
As another ripple effect of the lawsuit announcement, assets identified as securities by the SEC took a severe hit. These recorded an average return of 20.4% on June 10th, a sharp contrast to Bitcoin's relatively minor drop of 5.03%.
In this week's chart of the week, we highlight the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust’s (GBTC) discount compared to net asset value (NAV), which is now at -43.10%. Despite improving this year, the discount fluctuates based on speculation related to their ongoing legal battle with the SEC.
Grayscale continues to contest the SEC's rejection of its bid to convert GBTC into a spot ETF. If successful, the NAV discount could be eliminated due to ETF's arbitrage mechanisms.
In this week’s Chart of the Week, we examine Binance's recent banking issues in Australia, which have led to a sharp drop in the BTC-AUD pair's price and volume on the exchange.
Deposits via bank transfer were halted on May 18th, and withdrawals were allowed only until June 1st. This pushed the discount of the BTC-AUD pair down by 9000 AUD (a 22% discount) on May 28th.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we delve into the notable shift in the digital asset market landscape. Binance saw its market share decrease by 10.8% (as of May 20th) following the removal of zero-fee trading for USDT.
In this reshuffled field, Bullish, OKX, BitMEX, and Bybit have emerged as the biggest beneficiaries. They've gained 1.55%, 1.44%, 1.25%, and 1.04% in market share, respectively.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we take a closer look at the BTC-USD market behaviour from the past week. On BinanceUS, the BTC-USD pair exhibited a premium of $388.17, representing a 1.36% discrepancy when compared with CCData's Aggregate Price (CCAGG).
The marginal rise in premiums is likely driven by declining liquidity tied to the prevailing market sentiment and ongoing banking issues encountered by BinanceUS.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine the market depth of various BTC trading pairs on Binance. CCData’s spot Order Book data reveals that since Binance announced zero-fee trading for TUSD pairs on March 22nd, the 1% market depth for BUSD and USDT has decreased by 54.0% and 48.5%, respectively, as of April 30th.
Concurrently, the 1% market depth of the BTC-TUSD pair on Binance has experienced a 285% increase, solidifying its position as the second-largest pair on the exchange in April.
This week's Chart of the Week illustrates the influence large-scale sell-offs have on Bitcoin's price and volatility. Since the final week of April, considerable liquidations have been in motion, pushing Bitcoin downward from the $30,000 zone to ~$27,000.
For instance, on May 1st at 2:38 am, a transaction of 222 BTC was executed on Binance for the BTC-USDT pair. Following this transaction, the BTC price receded from $29,200 to $29,100.
This week's Chart of the Week delves into the exciting news of Coinbase and Gemini's upcoming launch of their derivatives platform and Deribit's recent addition of spot trading.
With this in mind, we examine the market share of exchanges that provide both spot and derivatives trading.
Despite the competition, Binance has the largest market share 38.7% (spot) and 64.3%(derivatives) respectively.
However, other exchanges have experienced varying levels of success in each category. For example, Bybit, the second-largest derivatives exchange with a 14.5% market share, holds only 0.92% of the spot market share.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we delve into the latest findings from our Exchange Benchmark, the industry standard for assessing the risk associated with digital asset exchanges. The report highlights how an increasing number of exchanges are enhancing their security measures via the implementation of security certificates and custodian services.
According to our research, the percentage of exchanges holding ISO 27001, SOC2 certificates, or similar credentials has risen from 24% in October 2022 to 30% in April 2023. In addition, the adoption of custody providers has increased from 26% in October 2022 to 34% currently.
The Shapella Upgrade, which allows for staked withdrawals, goes live today! The upgrade will allow for the withdrawal of locked staked funds and will complete the network’s transition to a proof-of-stake system.
It is expected to have a positive impact on the underlying asset, represented by lower negative funding rates and increasing open interest. Over the past few months, Ethereum open interest has experienced consistent growth.
This week's Chart of the Week highlights market cap dominance, which has surged from 38.3% at the start of the year to a new high of 45.2%, surpassing the levels seen in April 2021. Bitcoin has a track record of leading market recoveries during downtrends, a pattern that could potentially repeat itself.
This week's "Chart of the Week" showcases the growth achieved by March. Following a surge in price, the leading surpassed other leading coins, recording a staggering 20.9% return (as of March 26th) and marking its highest market dominance for the year. BTC's market capitalisation also broke the $500bn milestone, reaching a figure not seen since June 2022.
This week’s Chart of the Week highlights May’s correlation of daily returns between BTC, ETH and the SP500, falling to 15.8% and 18.2%, respectively, the lowest level since August 2022. Digital assets have benefitted from a significant price appreciation following signs that tight monetary policy and high interest rates may soon reach their peak. This comes after the recent collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, causing a stir in the banking system, and amplifying the interest in digital assets.
The depegging of USDC and regulatory issues with BUSD has led to Binance converting $1 billion of their Industry Recovery Initiative funds to BTC, ETH, and BNB, triggering further buy pressure for digital assets.
In this week's ChartoftheWeek, we examine the depegging of numerous stablecoins following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. The depeg began after concerns surrounding the reserves of USDC were raised following the collapse of SVB. As a result, USDC de-pegged to below $0.90.
However, USDC and other stablecoins regained their parity following FDIC's intervention, which expanded deposit guarantees to all depositors. Other fiat-redeemable stablecoins including USDT, BUSD and TUSD largely remained pegged to their parity during the turmoil.
This week's Chart of the Week highlights how Bitcoin (BTC) has been outperforming both ETH and MVDA 100 (a market cap-weighted index tracking the performance of the 100 largest digital assets) in terms of returns so far in 2023.
As of March 2nd, BTC recorded an impressive 42.0% of returns, compared to 37.9% and 33.5% for ETH and MVDA, respectively. Additionally, Bitcoin's dominance has spiked to 41.7%, indicating that traders and investors may still have concerns about the overall market and the possibility of further declines.
This week's Charts of the Week shows a significant drop in Average Transaction Size (ATS) on Binance for major assets like BTC and ETH, falling from $1,690 and $1,768 in March 2022 to $865 and $1,021 in February 2023. This suggests lower market participant conviction, as they enter with smaller sizes compared to a year ago.
ATS can also reveal increased conviction and interest in other assets benefiting from specific narratives. Lido's LDO and Stack's STX tokens are examples of this. For example, LDO's ATS on Binance has risen from $141 in June 2022 to $385 in February 2023, whereas STX's ATS also increased to $240 in February, up 27.7% from the previous month.
In our Chart of the Week this week, we examine the decline in BUSD Market Share on Binance. After the initial surge in BUSD trading volumes on Binance - following the SEC's regulatory intervention, the market share of BUSD stablecoins has trended downward from 43.3% to 25.7% on February 13th.
This is the lowest daily market share for BUSD since the 25th of August 2022, days before the exchange implemented BUSD auto conversion, which saw customers' USDC, TUSD, AND USDP automatically converted to BUSD.
This week's Chart of the Week showcases the thriving liquid staking derivative (LSD) token market, with four major players making waves - Frax's FXS, Lido's LDO, Rocket Pool's RPL, and Ankr's ANKR.
These tokens have seen impressive growth, soaring by 286%, 239%, 208%, and 103%, respectively. Lido continues to dominate the market with a market share of 64.7% in January and 56.1% in February, while RPL experienced a decline.
This week, we feature two Charts of the Week showcasing BTC, ETH and stablecoins’ aggregate market cap dominance dropping 2.7% to 69.8% of the total crypto market cap. This is the biggest month-on-month fall since August 2021, when the market was recovering between BTC’s $64,000 peak in April and $69,000 peak in November.
The decline relates to a fall in stablecoin market share - down from 16.6% at the start of the year to 12.3% at the end of January. The decline in aggregate dominance in these assets, which are the least volatile assets in the crypto landscape, highlights the increased performance of small, volatile assets and market participants' change in sentiment during the first month of the year.
This week's Chart of the Week showcases the upward trend of Bitcoin, which is currently on track to record its highest monthly return in January since 2013.
As of January 29th, the cryptocurrency has experienced a 43.7% increase from December, marking its highest monthly return since December 2020.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we used our granular derivatives data to examine digital asset open interest and funding rate metrics to track market movements and measure the flow of money into the crypto futures market.
Bitcoin dominated Open Interest, recording an increase of 5.09% from the 1st of January till the 18th, followed by Ethereum, which recorded an increase of 14.29%. Ripple’s XRP and Cardano’s ADA also saw a significant increase in Open Interest — with a 51.6% and 69.4% rise, respectively.
In this week's Chart of the Week, we examine Bitcoin's overall yearly performance. Bitcoin ended 2022 at $16,531, recording the third ever negative yearly performance in its 14-year history.
The 64.2% fall in price, however, is not its largest decline in history. 2018 saw a 73% decline followed by a 92% increase the following year.
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