Bitcoin and most other cryptoassets appear poised to end the week lower amid ETF outflows and a generally subdued market environment ahead of the Labor Day weekend. BTC fell below $59,000 due to signs of temporarily reduced demand and net outflows from major ETFs. On Thursday, BlackRock’s IBIT – the world’s largest bitcoin fund by assets under management – reported outflows for only the second time ever. The ETF sold 228 BTC, valued at approximately $13 million. Prior to this, US bitcoin ETFs had recorded eight consecutive days of positive inflows. Meanwhile, US spot ether ETFs briefly returned to net inflows on Wednesday following nine days of negative flows. However, since their launch, these new ETFs have collectively experienced total net outflows exceeding $475 million, driven primarily by substantial withdrawals from the Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE).
In other news, Telegram-linked Toncoin (TON) experienced a sharp price drop this week following a network outage on Tuesday that lasted over six hours. The halted chain was partly due to an unusually high volume of transactions on the network, triggered by the DOGS memecoin, which had recently conducted its airdrop event. The Open Network (TON) blockchain experienced a second, albeit shorter outage on the following day. Another event that negatively impacted the TON token’s price was the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov in France, linked to an investigation into allegations that Telegram provided, among other things, cryptography tools and services facilitating money laundering. Durov was indicted by a French court on Wednesday after being released earlier in the day.
Market Overview
The global cryptoasset market capitalization currently amounts to roughly $2.18 trillion – down from $2.35 trillion last week, with bitcoin accounting for more than 54%. Among the Top 30 cryptoassets by market cap, Tron (TRX) outperformed, gaining about 4.4% over the week. The price of bitcoin (BTC) fell by 3% to $59,377 while the price of ether (ETH) decreased by 5.7% to $2,517. The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi is sitting at $82.5 billion, with Ethereum (excluding Layer 2s) accounting for about 57% of TVL. Arbitrum One is currently the largest Layer 2 by value locked, accounting for almost 41% of the $35.5 billion in assets.
This Week’s Headlines
- OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer says the NFT marketplace has received a Wells Notice from the SEC
- Stablecoin market cap hits new all-time high, exceeds 2022 record of $167 billion
- El Salvador’s President Bukele says Bitcoin strategy a “net positive”, but adoption lags
- New Layer 1 blockchain Kaia from messenger apps Kakao and LINE launches mainnet, invites Telegram-style apps
- Sony is launching the first public testnet for its Optimism-based Soneium blockchain
- MakerDAO rebrands to Sky and will roll out new upgradable versions of its DAI and MKR tokens
- Donald Trump’s fourth NFT collection sales reach $2.1 million, not tradable on secondary markets until 2025
Notable Deals and Fundraising
- Bitcoin miner Bitfarms to acquire Stronghold Digital in $175 million equity and debt deal
- Blockchain security audit provider Zellic acquires smart contracting auditing platform and competitor Code4rena
- Bitwise Bitcoin ETF to acquire the assets from Osprey Bitcoin Trust
- Stablecoin money movement firm Bridge raises $58 million in funding
- Edge Matrix Chain raises $20 million in a round led by Polygon Ventures and others
- Microsoft-backed AI, blockchain startup Space and Time raises another $20 million
- Solana restaking protocol Solayer raises $12 million seed round at a $80 million valuation
- Gameplay Galaxy raises $11.17 million in a new funding round at a $71 million valuation
- Bitcoin restaking platform SatLayer raises $8 million in pre-seed funding
- Base DeFi protocol BSX raises $6.2 million ahead of token launch
- Layer 1 Quai Network closes $5 million strategic round
- Web3 oracle provider Stork Network raises $4 million in seed funding
- Peregrine Exploration raises $3.6 million for restaking-focused stablecoin protocol Level
- Crypto VC Lemniscap raises $70 million for third fund
