With the uncertainty around the election in the U.S. out of the way, markets are showing?a risk-on mood with very little resistance in the way for the time-being. Perhaps the only event to watch out for this week will be the CPI data print mid-week, as inflation will be a key headline that determines the Fed's plans for further rate cuts.? ? ?
Surging DeFi Markets Post-Election
This week, we revisit the themes from our election day update. As the dust settled and President Trump's re-election seemed imminent, we discussed the impacts on DeFi tokens and the Solana ecosystem in our market update, which can be reviewed in our previous LinkedIn post. ?
Following our initial insights, DeFi tokens indeed experienced significant upward movements. The market's recent rally in DeFi tokens has been largely attributed to expectations of a more favorable regulatory environment under the new administration. This optimism, reflecting the overall market sentiment, suggests that investors anticipate beneficial regulatory changes that could further energize the DeFi sector. ?
This week, we want to delve deeper into the specifics of the DeFi protocols in the Solana ecosystem. In addition to the broader market optimism, there has been specific positive news regarding Coinbase integrating cbBTC with the Solana network, which is anticipated to significantly boost the DeFi scene on Solana.
Here are brief summaries of notable Solana-based DeFi protocols:
- Jito: A Solana-based protocol specializing in liquidity staking
- Kamino: Specializes in automated yield optimization on Solana, helping users maximize returns from DeFi investments
- Jupiter: Acts as a DeFi aggregator on Solana, facilitating token trading
- Raydium: Serves as an on-chain Automated Market Maker (AMM), providing liquidity and enabling high-speed trading
- Drift: Offers a trading platform that specializes in perpetual futures
As the DeFi landscape evolves, these protocols from the Solana ecosystem highlight the potential for significant market shifts and growth. Stay tuned for more updates. ?
- Donald Trump?defeats Kamala Harris in a US presidential election that put crypto in the public eye Commentary: Former president Donald Trump has won the U.S. presidential election, beating his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump won the race, which was declared by the Associated Press and various media outlets, with 277 electoral votes. The crypto industry became a hotly contested election issue as cash flooded into super political action committees and crypto executives for Harris and Trump. The latter reportedly raised $21 million, for example, during the Bitcoin 2024 event at a roundtable. Attendees included Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss as well as celebrities Kid Rock, Jake Paul, and Billy Ray Cyrus, according to Fox journalist Eleanor Terrett.
- Coinbase, bitcoin miners?rally as Trump's presidential win drives bitcoin to new highs and boosts crypto stocks Commentary: The combination surge in bitcoin and market indices led to a strong day for crypto-related equities. Coinbase led the way, rising more than 31%. This comes just a week after falling 15% following third-quarter earnings. The crypto exchange was followed by several bitcoin miners like Cipher Mining, which saw shares close up more than 30% higher. Other bitcoin mining companies like Iris Energy, Cleanspark, Terawulf, Riot Platforms, and MARA saw shares surge more than 20% daily.
- BlackRock Bitcoin ETF?sees 'biggest volume day ever' with $4.1B traded Commentary: BlackRock’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) witnessed a record day of trading after Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election. Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas shared that the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) witnessed its “biggest volume day ever” with over $4.1 billion daily trading volume on Nov. 6. The other Bitcoin ETFs also had one of their best days since “the crazy early days” in January, with most of the funds doing two times their average volume, according to a follow-up post from Balchunas.
- Cynthia Lummis?announces U.S. ‘Strategic Bitcoin Reserve’ after Trump win Commentary: U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis has asserted that the U.S. government will create a government-owned stockpile of Bitcoin. On Nov. 6, Lummis tweeted “We are going to build a strategic Bitcoin reserve” in all capitals. On July 31, Senator Cynthia Lummis introduced the Boosting Innovation, Technology, and Competitiveness through Optimized Investment Nationwide (BITCOIN) Act of 2024. The bill outlined a plan to purchase up to 200,000 BTC annually to build a Bitcoin stockpile of up to 1 million BTC. The assets would be held for a minimum of 20 years.
- Bitcoin volatility?jumps to 3-month high ahead of U.S. election Commentary: An options-based measure of expected price swings in bitcoin (BTC) has hit a three-month high amid indications from betting markets of a tightly contested U.S. presidential race in crucial swing states. Meanwhile, the New York Times/Siena poll of likely voters released early Sunday showed Trump and Harris tied at 48%, with Harris leading by two points in a Marist survey that includes undecided voters. In U.S. politics, a swing state is any state a Democrat or Republican candidate could reasonably take. The presidential election is due on Nov. 5, with results to be announced on Nov. 8.
- Detroit?will become the largest US city to accept crypto to pay taxes and fees Commentary: City officials announced Thursday that Detroit will become the largest city in the United States to accept cryptocurrency payments. Residents can pay taxes and other city fees using crypto through a secure platform managed by PayPal. The option will become available in mid-2025, along with additional improvements to city payment services, said Treasurer Nikhil Patel. It's part of a larger strategy by the city of Detroit to explore innovative technologies that could enhance public services, strengthen civic engagement, and foster economic growth.
- Caroline Ellison?begins serving a two-year prison sentence in Connecticut for her role in the collapse of FTX Commentary: Caroline Ellison began serving her prison sentence of two years on Thursday for her role in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX that caused customers to lose billions of dollars. Ellison was the co-CEO of Alameda Research, which was revealed to have closer than realized ties to FTX. Bankman-Fried founded both FTX and Alameda Research.
- Jack Dorsey’s Block?shifts focus to Bitcoin mining amid Trump's crypto promises Commentary: Block, Inc. is doubling down on its bitcoin mining hardware business as President-elect Donald Trump's presidential win opens the crypto industry to a potentially more favorable environment for the crypto mining sector. Trump's campaign promises to support bitcoin mining in the US come at a critical time for the sector, which has faced profitability challenges following the recent halving event, which reduced mining rewards by half to 3.125 BTC.
- Arkham?launches crypto perpetuals exchange Commentary: Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence has launched a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange. The exchange will reportedly target retail traders and compete with existing platforms such as Binance. Trading will commence next week but the exchange will not be available to people in the United States. It raised $12 million from investors including Sam Altman, the founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
- Swift, UBS, Chainlink?pilot tokenized fund settlement Commentary: In a key development under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian, Swift, UBS Asset Management and blockchain oracle network Chainlink have completed a pilot for tokenized fund settlement. Unlike other tokenization pilots, the project enables transactions without blockchain-only payment options, promoting digital finance through existing infrastructure. A news release revealed that Swift’s infrastructure allowed real-time fund redemptions and subscriptions for tokenized investment funds to create an automated, cost-efficient, and transparent process.
- Elizabeth Warren?beats pro-XRP lawyer John Deaton for Massachusetts Senate seat Commentary: Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren has won the Massachusetts senate seat over crypto-friendly Republican John Deaton in a landslide victory. Warren — arguably the most high-profile crypto critic in US politics — has secured 74% of the 145,000 votes counted so far, according to election data from the Associated Press. Deaton gained significant backing from the leaders in the crypto space, securing $2 million in funding from Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Ripple.
- Binance?lawyers seek to dismiss SEC’s amended securities complaint in a new filing Commentary: Lawyers representing Binance and former CEO Changpeng Zhao filed a motion on Monday to dismiss the SEC’s amended complaint. Binance lawyers stated in the filing that the SEC’s charges of illegal securities against the exchange lack legal basis. A federal judge previously ruled that Binance’s BUSD and Simple Earn programs, as well as BNB secondary sales, do not constitute investment contracts.
- Mt. Gox?moves $2.2 billion worth of bitcoin to unmarked wallets Commentary: Defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox transferred around 32,371 BTC ($2.19 billion) to unmarked wallet addresses on Monday, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham. Monday’s transfer, the largest seen from Mt. Gox in months, came just a few days after the exchange moved 500 BTC to two unmarked wallets. While it is unclear whether Monday’s transfer is part of Mt. Gox’s future distributions to creditors that lost money in the bankrupt exchange, such movements in the past have preceded repayments via centralized exchanges including, Bitstamp and Kraken.
- Robinhood, Kraken, Paxos?launch Global Dollar stablecoin network Commentary: A swathe of traditional finance and crypto companies, including Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Paxos, have formed a consortium supporting the latest stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar. In a Nov. 5 statement, blockchain infrastructure firm Paxos shared that the new “open network” was designed to accelerate the adoption and use of stablecoins worldwide. The network is designed to support the global adoption of Paxos’ USDG stablecoin, launched by the firm on Nov. 1. USDG is currently only available on the Ethereum blockchain, but Paxos said the stablecoin will be made available on other chains as regulations evolve.
- Singapore?advances asset tokenization with new MAS frameworks Commentary: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced a multipronged effort to advance the commercialization of asset tokenization. To achieve its goals, the MAS has drawn from various projects and produced new frameworks to provide guidance. Speaking at the first MAS Layer One Summit, deputy managing director Leong Sing Chiong reviewed the successes of the large financial institutions participating in Project Guardian in demonstrating the potential for tokenization in foreign exchange and funds. Over 40 institutions have carried out more than 15 trials across seven jurisdictions using six currencies.
- Michigan pension fund?maintains Bitcoin ETF investment, adds Ether ETFs Commentary: The State of Michigan Retirement System has added exposure to Ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs), according to a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Michigan’s state pension fund disclosed holding 460,000 shares of the Grayscale Ethereum Trust and 460,000 shares of the asset manager’s Ethereum Mini Trust. The investment, reporting for Sept. 30, added to the fund’s previously disclosed exposure to the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.
- UBS?launches tokenized money market investment fund on Ethereum Commentary: Investment giant UBS, the largest private bank in the world, today announced the launch of uMINT, or the "UBS USD Money Market Investment Fund Token," a tokenized investment fund on the Ethereum blockchain. While UBS didn't disclose exactly which financial instruments made up the fund, it said the fund provides investors access to "high quality money market instruments based on a conservative, risk-managed framework" in a press release.
- US government?seeks return of $13 million in political donations from former FTX executives Commentary: A recent filing shows that the U.S. government has been given more time to negotiate with certain political action groups over the return of up to $13.25 million in donations made in the names of former FTX executives Sam Bankman-Fried and Nishad Singh. The political groups in question are mostly Democrat-aligned, including the Senate Majority PAC, Emily’s List/Women Vote, and the Future Forward PAC, which received $6 million.
- November 13?- U.S. Consumer Price Index for October
- November 15?- U.S. Retail Sales
- November 29?- BTC CME November (BTCX24) Options Expiry
- December 2?- U.S. ISM Manufacturing PMI
- December 18?- U.S. FOMC Interest Rate Decision
- December 27?- BTC CME December (BTCZ24) Options Expiry
