Crypto Market Pulse

Market Data

Over the past week, the total cryptocurrency market capitalisation surged by more than $40 billion, reaching $3.4 trillion. Following a $300 billion inflow the previous week, an additional $40 billion entered the market, driven by optimism around potential interest rate cuts supported by favourable inflation data. As of early December 1, Bitcoin’s spot price stood at $95,107, reflecting a 2% correction over the past seven days. Meanwhile, Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency, rose approximately 6% over the same period to $3,689. Bitcoin and Ethereum’s market capitalisations are approximately $1.91 trillion and $446.6 billion, accounting for 56% and 13% of the total market, respectively. Bitcoin’s market share has retreated by nearly 2% from last week, while Ethereum’s rose by 1%, narrowing the gap between the two to its smallest in recent months. This trend indicates significant capital inflows into altcoins.

Last week, $ENS, $ALGO, and $HBAR emeged as the Top 3 gainers, while $RAY, $POPCAT, and $SAND were the Top 3 losers. According to CoinMarketCap data from last week, most of the top 100 altcoins saw positive market cap growth. The flow of funds continued the previous trend, with capital moving out of the MEME sector and into layer-1 blockchain tokens. The top-performing altcoin last week was $ENS (Ethereum Name Service), which surged by over 91%. $ENS is a decentralised naming system on Ethereum that maps human-readable names (e.g., “example.eth”) to blockchain addresses, streamlining interactions with Ethereum-based assets and applications. A key catalyst for $ENS’s rally was recognition from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, who described $ENS as a critical piece in the decentralised identity puzzle.

The second-best performer was $ALGO (Algorand), with a gain of nearly 72%. Algorand, a secure and energy-efficient blockchain for decentralised applications, saw its price rise due to community-driven updates. These included the Algorand Foundation’s announcement on 21 November about joining the Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF) to support open standards for digital identity. Additionally, Algorand introduced a decentralised identifier (DID) framework, enabling individuals and organisations to create secure identifiers using its blockchain.

$HBAR (Hedera Hashgraph) ranked third, with a 67% increase, continuing its prior upward momentum. Hedera is a high-performance distributed ledger known for its efficiency and low costs. A contributing factor to its rise was the submission of spot ETF applications for HBAR, along with XRP and Litecoin, by Canary Capital to the U.S. SEC within the past month.

Stablecoin supply continued to grow last week, marking a new all-time high of approximately $180 billion. Alongside the bullish sentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market, stablecoin net inflows shifted dramatically from equilibrium earlier in the month to a pronounced inflow over the past seven days. On exchanges, stablecoin holdings also transitioned from a balanced state to substantial net inflows, indicating robust new capital entering the cryptocurrency market in recent weeks.

In the derivatives market, Bitcoin perpetual contract open interest saw a sharp increase followed by a swift decline over the past week, while Ethereum’s open interest maintained consistent growth. Bitcoin’s perpetual contract volumes exhibited cyclic fluctuations, and after spot prices stabilised around $95,000, futures activity tapered off. Ethereum’s futures volumes surged in line with a brief upward trend in spot prices around 26 November, reaching levels significantly higher than recent weeks. Liquidation data aligned with the price trends, with total liquidations at their lowest levels in a month. Long and short positions were evenly balanced, indicating the market’s ongoing upward trajectory.

The total value locked (TVL) in decentralised finance (DeFi) saw an increase, reaching $126.4 billion. However, decentralised exchange (DEX) trading volumes dropped 14% to $88.9 billion over the past week. The market share gap between DEXs and centralised exchanges (CEXs) narrowed significantly, with DEXs now accounting for 33% of total CEX trading volume. Among the top 10 blockchain projects by TVL, rankings remained mostly unchanged. Despite a 10% decline, SUI retained its ninth position, while Ethereum and Base TVL increased by 4% and 8%, respectively.

The Ethereum non-fungible token (NFT) market saw a strong rebound, with total market capitalisation increasing by 27% to $8.7 billion. Weekly transaction volumes soared by 143%, reaching $147 million, a multi-month high. Among Ethereum’s leading blue-chip NFT collections, floor and average prices showed sustained growth. For instance, CryptoPunks’ floor and average prices increased by 17% and 10%, respectively. The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) saw floor and average prices surge by 91% and 38%, respectively, while Pudgy Penguins, currently the third-largest collection by market capitalisation, experienced 9% and 17% gains in floor and average prices.