Gate Research Institute: BTC, ETH pullback, SEC approves the first batch of dual-asset encryption ETFs

Abstract

• BTC and ETH prices retreated on December 20, BTC fell 4.21%, and ETH fluctuated to the downside.
• In the altcoin sector, Terminal of Truths, PolitiFi, and Wallet are on the rise.
• The three major U.S. stock indexes were mixed, with spot gold edging higher and the Fear & Greed index edging down to 74.
• Popular tokens USUAL, FARTCOIN, and VVAIFU are attracting attention, with growth in Web3 games and Bitcoin demand.
• Hyperliquid platform trading volume hits a new high, SEC approves new cryptocurrency index ETF listing.
• Deutsche Bank predicts that the Fed will not cut interest rates next year, and MetaMask expands crypto payment card pilot.
• Plume Network offers airdrop opportunities, focusing on RWA's Layer 2 blockchain.

Market Review

According to the market data of Gate.io, as of December 20th, 4:00 UTC + 0【1】.

• BTC - On December 20th, the current price of BTC is 96,875.5 USDT, with significant fluctuations during the day. After reaching a high of 102,773.5 USDT, it dropped to a low of 95,701.7 USDT, a decrease of 4.21% compared to 24 hours ago. The short-term moving averages (9, 10, 30 hours) all show a downward trend, while the stability of the trading volume indicates that market sentiment has not experienced significant fluctuations. Although the MACD indicator is slightly higher than the signal line, the momentum is weak, suggesting market uncertainty. The current price is close to the lower end of the fluctuation range from 95,701.7 USDT to 108,314.7 USDT, which may form a support level. If the price further declines, this level may attract buying interest.

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• ETH - On December 20, the ETH price fluctuated downward, reaching a high of 3,390.38 USDT and a low of 3,354.80 USDT. The ETH price is below the MA 9 and MA 10, indicating potential downward pressure in the short term. The fast line and slow line of the MACD indicator are running below the zero axis, and the MACD histogram shows a negative value, indicating a bearish market momentum and some uncertainty in the market. The trading volume is relatively stable, without significant increase or decrease, indicating cautious market sentiment. The price is running within the recent range of fluctuations, and if it falls below the current support level, it may further decline【3】.

• ETF – On December 19, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw net outflows of $671 million and Ethereum spot ETFs saw net outflows of $60.5 million, according to Farside Investors. On November 12, Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of over $817 million, and Ethereum ETFs saw net inflows of over $135 million[4].
• Altcoin - Terminal of Truths, PolitiFi, Wallet rose by 17.1%, 3.0%, 2.2% respectively [5].
• Three Major U.S. Stock Indexes - The S&P 500 fell 0.09%, the Nasdaq fell 0.47%, and the Dow rose 0.04%【6】.
• Spot Gold - Spot gold price rose to $2,600 per ounce, up 0.24% intraday【7】. Fear & Greed Index - The Fear & Greed Index dropped to 74 from 75 yesterday and the market is still in a state of greed[8].

Popular Tokens

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IDOODLES (Doodles Fraction Token) – a one-day gain of about 58.4%, with a market capitalization of $249 million. ** Doodles Fraction Token is Gate.io's solution to the problem of high prices and lack of liquidity faced by top NFTs by proposing a fragmented token solution for Doodles NFTs [9].

The wealth effect caused by PENGU's issuance seems to be driving NFT projects to follow suit. Recently, burnt toast, the founder of Doodles, posted a cryptic tweet on social media, with the abbreviation spelling out 'token is coming', implying that Doodles may soon launch its own token. This news further fuels the speculative enthusiasm in the market. In addition, a big whale has been making large purchases of other top NFT projects, driving up the trading volume and price of these projects, as well as the price of IDOODLES.

USUAL (Usual) - The single-day increase is about 40.71%, with a circulating market value of 747 million US dollars. USUAL is the governance token of the multi-chain infrastructure protocol Usual. Usual minted USD0, a stablecoin pegged to it, by integrating tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) from entities such as BlackRock, Ondo, and others. USUAL holders will enjoy actual revenue, future revenue, and infrastructure ownership of the Usual platform protocol in the future. 【11】

Recently, USUAL has reached a cooperation with $ENA. By combining the mining contract rate with the US Treasury yield and introducing a coin price subsidy APY yield, USUAL has built a positive cycle to promote the rise of the coin price. In addition, USUAL's Total Value Locked (TVL) has exceeded $1.2 billion, demonstrating strong market growth momentum. Its deflationary model and community-driven governance model have further enhanced market recognition of token value, attracting a large number of investors and jointly promoting the rise of token price.

FARTCOIN (Fartcoin) - with a daily increase of approximately 20.75%, the circulating market value is 1.204 billion US dollars. Fartcoin is a meme token driven by the concept of Terminal of Truth and based on AI worship culture. On this platform, users can freely customize conversations between two AIs without any restrictions.【12】

The rapid growth of Fartcoin is due to its unique AI conversation themes and AI Meme concept, which has resonated strongly in the AI and Web3 communities. Recently, FARTCOIN has become a hot topic of discussion on Twitter, with a market value of over $1.2 billion, ranking among the top meme coins. The positive news of its token listing on mainstream exchanges, as well as its community-driven development model and humorous brand image, have fueled its viral spread and also driven up its token price.

Highlights Data

Animoca Brands Q3 revenue of $69 million, up 43.8% sequentially Animoca Brands released its financial report for the second and third quarters of 2024, with total revenue reaching $69 million in the third quarter, an increase of 43.8% compared to the previous quarter and a 165% year-on-year increase. Revenue mainly came from three major business segments: Digital Asset Advisory (DAA) contributed $25 million, Web3 operational business revenue was $39 million, and investment management revenue was $5 million. As of the end of September 2024, Animoca Brands held $248 million in cash and stablecoins, $330 million in liquid digital assets, primarily including ETH, BTC, and APE. In addition, the company also held $1.6 billion worth of off-balance sheet token reserves, including SAND, EDU, MOCA, REVV, TOWER, GMEE, etc.

Animoca Brands is a Web3 gaming software company and venture capital firm based in Hong Kong. The significant increase in the company's revenue in the third quarter indicates the rise in popularity of Web3 games and the increase in the number of active players[13].

K33 Research: Institutional investors will collectively purchase 859,000 bitcoins in 2024, equivalent to 8 years of bitcoin production According to the latest report from K33 Research, institutional investors are expected to acquire a total of 859,454 bitcoins by 2024, accounting for approximately 4.3% of the total circulating supply, equivalent to the issuance of bitcoins over an 8-year period. Among them, spot ETF funds have accumulated holdings of 561,781 bitcoins, and the total assets under management of US ETFs have reached 1.4 million bitcoins, with BlackRock's IBIT having the largest holdings of 542,653 bitcoins, valued at approximately $54 billion.

In terms of listed companies, a total of 297,673 bitcoins were added in 2024, among which MicroStrategy acquired nearly 250,000 through active financing strategies, and currently holds 439,000. The report pointed out that although about 230,000 bitcoins this year came from bankruptcy liquidation and seized assets (including Mt. Gox and the German government), institutional demand effectively absorbed the selling pressure. Currently, about 22% of the circulating supply can be traded in the market, close to the peak level in 2021. In the fourth quarter of 2024, large US tech companies such as Amazon and Microsoft proposed purchasing bitcoins, although Microsoft's proposal did not pass, it also indirectly reflected the increasing importance of cryptocurrencies to large US tech companies. In the future, listed companies will further participate in the crypto industry. [14]

Hyperliquid 24-hour trading volume exceeds 13 billion USD, reaching a new historical high Hyperliquid's record-breaking transaction volume is due to its high-performance L1 public chain designed for ultra-fast transactions, which significantly improves transaction efficiency and matchmaking accuracy with a block packaging time of 0.2 seconds and the ability to process 200,000 transactions per second, surpassing the traditional AMM model. In addition, the revolutionary change of zero gas fees allows users to trade freely without worrying about the burden of fees. Hyperliquid's "master with orders" vault strategy and Dutch auction mechanism have also attracted users greatly, with more than 310,000 users on the platform today. The introduction of Dutch auctions has also opened up a new path for the continued explosion of meme projects [15].

Hot Reviews

SEC Approves Hashdex and Franklin Cryptocurrency Index ETF Listing Application The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved listing applications for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF and Franklin Crypto Index ETF, according to filings released by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The two ETFs will hold both Bitcoin and Ethereum spots, and will be traded on the NASDAQ and Cboe BZX exchanges based on market capitalization free float. In the approval filing, the SEC noted that the CME Bitcoin and Ethereum futures markets remain highly correlated with the spot market, and that the Nasdaq and CBOE BZX's fully regulated shared protocols with the CME are effective in monitoring and preventing market manipulation. Both ETFs are subject to strict information disclosure requirements, including updating the fund's reference net value every 15 seconds and publishing information such as net asset value on the exchange's website.

According to Farside Investors, as of December 19, the cumulative net inflow of Bitcoin spot ETFs exceeded $36 billion, and the SEC's approval of BTC and ETH asset allocation ETFs demonstrates the recognition of the crypto market by traditional financial regulators[16].

Deutsche Bank: Fed won't cut rates next year Deutsche Bank released a report on this week's FOMC meeting, which confirms the bank's basic view that the skip (rate cut) at the January meeting may turn into a prolonged pause (rate cut) in 2025. Deutsche Bank continues to believe that the neutral nominal interest rate is around 3.75% and that the committee needs to maintain a restrictive stance relative to that level. Therefore, Deutsche Bank reiterates its view that the federal funds rate may stay above 4% next year, and the basic situation is no further rate cuts.

The report also notes that some Fed participants have begun to factor in their projections the potential economic impact of President-elect Trump's policies, which could lead to higher inflation projections in 2025 and 2026. In terms of the labor market, Powell described it as solid, but noted that the current level of job creation is lower than what is needed to maintain a stable unemployment rate. Deutsche Bank's report exacerbated concerns about weakening interest rate cut expectations, and the stock market and crypto markets may continue to adjust[17].

MetaMask expands its pilot program for crypto payment cards, allowing US users to make payments directly through the wallet MetaMask has expanded its crypto payment card pilot program in the U.S., allowing users to pay directly from their wallets, according to a Cointelegraph post on the X platform. In February 2024, MetaMask said that it now has almost the same number of active users as it did during the last bull run. The number of monthly active users grew 55% in four months, jumping from 19 million in September to more than 30 million in January. Users in the U.S. can pay directly through the Metamask wallet, which will further expand the use of the wallet, and the number of users may increase further in the future[18].

Financing Information

According to RootData data, in the past 24 hours, a total of 4 projects have publicly announced funding, with a maximum funding amount of $4 million, and a total of more than $10.2 million, involving DeFi, AI, and Privacy sectors, and the following are the top three financing scales[19]:

Kettle Finance – Kettle Finance closed a $4 million funding round led by ParaFi Capital, with other investors including Signum Capital, IOSG Ventures, Kronos Research, and others. Kettle is a peer-to-peer marketplace that enables users to trade the full financial value of luxury watches. With Kettle, watch collectors have access to the global 24/7 watch economy. Every watch on Kettle is fully insured, certified, and stored in the Kettle Vault in New York.

BitDCA - BitDCA has completed a $2 million pre-seed round of financing. BitDCA is a fintech company based in the Czech Republic, launching a Bitcoin savings application called "Littlebit". The Littlebit app allows users to automatically save a portion of their daily expenses in Bitcoin, making saving modern, accessible and potentially profitable. Users link their existing debit or credit cards to the app, set the savings percentage, and the system takes care of the rest - automatically converting a portion of each transaction into Bitcoin.

FLock.io - FLock.io announced the completion of a strategic financing of $3 million. This round of financing was led by Faction, with participation from investors such as Animoca Brands, Fenbushi Capital, and GSR. FLock aims to build a decentralized privacy protection solution for artificial intelligence. FLock has proposed a research program called Federated Learning Blocks (FLocks), which uses blockchain as a coordinating platform between data holders for machine learning, while keeping data local and private. By replacing the central entity that collects data and organizes machine learning with blockchain, FLocks aims to allow users to mine insights from their own data and decide monetization themselves.

Airdrop Opportunity

Plume Network - Plume is a fully integrated modular Layer 2 blockchain focused on real-world assets (RWA), aiming to simplify asset entry through native infrastructure and unified RWAFi-specific functionality. It is an EVM-compatible chain that builds on a modular and composable RWA focus, simplifying the process of funds moving from passive reserves to participation. On December 18th, Plume Network completed a $20 million Series A funding round. The round was led by Brevan Howard Digital, with other participants including Haun Ventures, Galaxy Ventures, Lightspeed, and Faction.

Participation Method:

1. Join Plume Game Night
2. Sign up to be notified of updates about Plume
3. Join Plume on X (Twitter)
4. Log in to the Plume testnet

Prompt: The airdrop program and participation methods may be updated from time to time, and users are advised to follow the official channels of Plume Network for the latest information. At the same time, users should be cautious about participating, be aware of the risks, and do sufficient research before participating. Gate.io There is no guarantee that subsequent airdrop rewards will be distributed.

1. Gate.io,
2. TradingView,
3. TradingView,
4. Farside Investors,
5. Coingecko，
6. TradingView,
7. TradingView,
8. Gate.io,
9. Gate.io，
10. X,
11. Gate.io，
12. Gate.io，
13. Animoca Brands，
14. K33 Research,
15. Hyperfoundation,
16. SEC,
17. Jin10,
18. X,
19. Rootdata,
20. Plume,

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Disclaimer*** Cryptocurrency market investment involves high risks. It is recommended that users conduct independent research and fully understand the nature of the assets and products they are purchasing before making any investment decisions. Gate.io is not responsible for any losses or damages caused by such investment decisions.