Feb. 11, 2025

We're excited to announce our new format "Crypto Daybook Americas" will replace "First Mover" on Feb. 24. "Crypto Daybook Americas" is your new morning briefing on what happened in crypto markets overnight to equip you with what you'll need to know about during the coming day. It will arrive in your inbox at 7 a.m. ET to kickstart your morning with comprehensive insights and analysis. If you want a preview, "Crypto Daybook Americas" is already being published on the CoinDesk website, so hop over and take a look. You don't need to do anything to sign up, you'll start receiving "Crypto Daybook Americas" automatically when it starts coming out.

CoinDesk 20 Index: 3,266.39  +2.00%
Bitcoin (BTC): $97,724.20  +0.36%
Ether (ETH): $2,683.60  +1.65%
S&P 500: 6,066.44  +0.67% 
Gold: $2,931.2 +0.58%
Nikkei 225: 38,801.17 +0.04%

Bitcoin consolidated around $98,000, while Cardano's ADA leads an altcoin rebound heading into the U.S. session. ADA rallied 14% over the past 24 hours while litecoin (LTC), SUI and Uniswap's UNI enjoyed 7%-8% gains.Ethereum's ETH, while languishing in price over the past weeks relative to BTC, might be poised for a rebound to $3,000 from deeply oversold levels, 10x Research said in a morning report. Ethereum's fundamentals are improving, with total value locked on the network rising sharply despite the lackluster price performance, a Citi report said. "ETH looks to be trying to establish some bullish momentum and could be looking to finally make a recovery back above $3,000," LMAX strategist Joel Kruger noted.

Litecoin and dogecoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) could be next to come to the U.S. market with high odds of winning regulatory approval. “We're putting out relatively high odds of approval across the board. Mainly focused on Litecoin, Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin for now,” Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said. He assigned a 90% probability for a litecoin ETF getting approved and 75% for a DOGE-based product. SOL and XRP-based ETF filings had slightly lower chances with 70%-65% likely to be approved in the coming months. Asset manager Grayscale also filed for an ETF that holds Cardano's ADA, boosting the token's price.

Solana has topped $60 million in decentralized exchange volumes this month, continuing to dominate Ethereum. Despite being designed as a low-fee blockchain, Solana has generated $25 million in revenue so far in February, outperforming Ethereum's $16 million. "Solana’s lower fees and higher throughput continue to attract developers and users, highlighting its growing role in decentralized finance," Tagus Capital said. The outperformance supports the bullish case for the SOL-ETH ratio, which recently declined from January's peak, CoinDesk's Omkar Godbole noted.

Hedge funds are holding record short positions in ether (ETH) futures trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), raising questions about the motivations behind these positions.

At first glance, the data could suggest that sophisticated market players are anticipating price slides, as discussed on social media. However, this isn’t entirely accurate: Carry trades or arbitrage plays primarily drive the record short interest, but some of these short futures trades represent outright bearish bets on the cryptocurrency, some observers say.

As of the week ended Feb. 4, hedge funds held a net short position of 11,341 contracts in the CME futures, according to data tracked by ZeroHedge and the Kobeissi Letter. The number has increased 40% in one week and 500% since November, according to the Kobeissi Letter.

"There is evidence suggesting that a notable portion of the short interest in Ether futures is tied to the carry trade. Despite macro headwinds and Ether's relative underperformance, U.S. ETH ETF inflows have remained steady over the past three months, coinciding with an increase in futures short interest—potentially signaling an uptick in basis trades," Thomas Erdösi, head of product at CF Benchmarks, told CoinDesk.

- Omkar Godbole