Sept. 5, 2024

CoinDesk 20 Index: $1,797.26 +0.88% 
Bitcoin (BTC): $56,839.07  +0.34%
Ether (ETH): $2,395.07  −0.31% 
S&P 500: 5,520.07 −0.16%
Gold:  $2,516.37 +0.81%
Nikkei 225: 36,657.09 −1.05% 

Bitcoin fell below $57,000, erasing gains from Wednesday's brief rally above $58,000. BTC was trading around $56,800 at the time of writing, around 0.3% higher than 24 hours ago. The broader digital asset market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index, added about 1%, with SOL and DOGE leading the gains. Bitcoin peaked above $65,000 on Aug. 25 and has been falling ever since, with the downtrend characterized by brief, shallow bounces, a sign of a persistent "sell-on-rise" mentality. This likely stems from increasing U.S. recession risks, which lead to a reduction in exposure to risk assets.

Weak economic data from the U.S. this week has strengthened the possibility of rate cuts from the Fed, but that has yet to stem bitcoin's downward movement. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics's latest Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey on Wednesday showed the number of job openings at the end of July at 7.67 million, missing the market expectation of 8.1 million and weaker than the revised June figure of 7.9 million. BTC's weakness points to limited appetite for risk assets, according to Alex Kuptsikevich, a senior market analyst at The FxPro. "Bitcoin is down for the ninth day out of the last 11 as its attempt to consolidate above the 200-day average triggered an intensified sell-off," Kuptsikevich told CoinDesk in an email.

Blockstream Mining is opening a third round of investment for its hashrate-backed tokenized note, which gives participants a slice of the bitcoin earned from the company's mining activities over the next four years. Blockstream has raised around $7 million from two earlier rounds of the BMN2 note. The third sale, which will last for three weeks, will be priced at $31,000 and give holders the bitcoin produced by 1 PH/s of hashrate. Hashrate-backed contracts are not new as crypto markets have become increasingly financialized. Blockstream has differentiated its note with a 48-month duration. Most rival offerings lock in the hashprice for a year.

Since spot ether ETFs debuted in the U.S. in late July, activity in ETH derivatives listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange has cooled, according to CCData.

Trading volume in ether futures declined 28.7% to $14.8 billion in August, the lowest since December 2023. Volume in ether options fell 37% to $567 million.

"This decline in trading volumes for ETH instruments suggests lower-than-expected institutional interest in the asset, particularly following the launch of spot ETH ETFs," CCData noted. "The reduced inflows into spot ETH ETFs in August further support this trend."

Before the advent of spot ETFs, futures and futures-based ETFs were the only regulated avenues available for traditional stateside institutions. The spot products are generally perceived as superior to futures-based ETFs because the latter are vulnerable to "contango bleed." That said, demand for spot ETFs has not been impressive either, with $500 million in net outflows registered in their first six weeks.

"Ether’s high beta (~2.7) implies high losses in periods of risk aversion, and Ether prices had now seen a 30% drawdown since launch," DBS Treasuries said in a market insights post on Wednesday.

- Omkar Godbole