After briefly dropping to below $60,000, bitcoin has trended sideways this week, consolidating around $61,000 on Friday, as it lacked direction despite the release of the PCE. The Fed’s preferred inflation gauge indicated that inflation continued to edge lower. Crypto prices were mostly unaffected after last night’s presidential debate, partly because the topic of crypto was not mentioned. Joe Biden and Donald Trump didn’t address crypto during their first debate, despite a multibillion-dollar crypto lobbying war chest aimed at influencing the elections. While BTC and ETH look set to end the week slightly lower, Solana’s SOL token outperformed after New York-based investment management firm VanEck filed an S-1 registration statement for its VanEck Solana Trust.
Overall, Bitcoin’s price dipped nearly 15% during the second quarter, with most altcoins faring even worse. Year-to-date, large-cap meme coins such as WIF and PEPE have emerged as the clear winners, registering gains of 1,100% and 845%, respectively, in 2024 while BTC is up 45% this year. However, more volatility could be ahead for BTC. The put-call ratio for bitcoin options on Deribit leading up to today’s expiry rose to 1.66. A ratio above one indicates significantly more put options than call options being traded, suggesting more investors are betting on or hedging against a price decline rather than an increase.
In macroeconomic data releases, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation metric edged lower to 2.6% in May. Core PCE, excluding changes in food and energy prices, also came in at 2.6%, matching economists’ expectations and marking the lowest reading since March 2021. This release supports those betting on the prospect of interest rate cuts from the US central bank by the end of 2024. The Fed’s next interest rate decision is on July 31. Markets anticipate roughly two 25 basis point cuts this year, with a slightly more than 50% chance of the first occurring in September. This will also be the final policy decision before the presidential election on November 5.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.38 trillion – down from $2.47 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for about 50.3%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Kaspa (KAS) outperformed, gaining about 23% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 4.4% to $60,864 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 3.1% to $3,403. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at almost $96 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 61.5% of TVL. Arbitrum One is currently the largest Layer 2 by value locked, accounting for 39% of the $44 billion in assets.
This Week’s Headlines
- SEC could approve spot Ethereum ETFs by July 4, Reuters reports
- VanEck files for US Solana ETF, claiming SOL is a commodity
- Marathon Digital expands into altcoin mining to diversify revenue streams post-Bitcoin halving
- Ethereum Layer-2 network Blast airdrops tokens worth $354 million to users
- Pudgy Penguins and OverpassIP unveil parent firm Igloo
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Animoca Brands considering public listing in second half of 2025, founder says
- CleanSpark acquires Bitcoin miner GRIID in $155 million deal
- Crypto infrastructure firm Conduit has raised $37 million in a round led by Paradigm and Haun Ventures
- New blockchain MegaETH raises $20 million at 9-figure token valuation in a seed round from Dragonfly, Vitalik Buterin and others
- Crossover Markets raises $12 million in a Series A round
- Web3 entertainment ecosystem Redacted raises $10 million in a round led by Spartan Group
- Bitcoin startup Rebar raises $2.9 million to build MEV products
- Blockchain data infrastructure firm Covalent raises $5 million in strategic funding
- Verida raises $5 million to protect user data amid rise in generative AI
- Decentralized AI network Allora raises $3 million ahead of mainnet launch
- EigenLayer AVS Ava Protocol acquires blockchain data startup Openstory
- Solana accelerator Colosseum raises $60 million for its first fund
