The most recent market price movements are in the context of August 1, 2022.
- Bitcoin’s price surpassed $24,000 over the weekend but has since declined. This weekend’s levels were the highest since mid-June.
- Ether remains a hot topic among investors ahead of the Merge, with ETH open interest in the Deribit options exchange surpassing bitcoin for the first time.
Price Point
Bitcoin (BTC) was down 2% on the day following a weekend in which the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached its highest levels since mid-June.
Sunday saw BTC reach $24,593, according to CoinDesk data.
On Monday, Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, fell 3% to $1,649.
Futures for the United States declined alongside the dollar and oil on traditional markets. Contracts on the Nasdaq and S&P 500 fell on Monday after the major indexes had their best month since 2020.
The remainder of the crypto market was also declining, with the exception of Filecoin’s FIL token, which gained 12 % on the day.
In the news, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority stated in a policy document that investments in crypto assets should be capped, and consumers were warned they could lose their entire investment.
Bank of America stated in a report that the Ethereum blockchain must improve its scalability in order to maintain its market position. Due to their proof-of-stake consensus mechanisms, lower transaction fees, and greater scalability, Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Avalanche, and Solana have reportedly taken market share away from Ethereum.
The decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave’s proposal to launch a native crypto-based stablecoin GHO was approved with 99 % support over the weekend, according to the governance page of the platform.
The article written by Andres Angler over the weekend about two football teams transferring a South American player using USDC piqued my interest. Bitso of Latin America facilitated the transfer of a player from Banfield of Argentina to So Paulo, one of Brazil’s teams. Here is the full story.
Market Movements
ETH Open Interest ExceedsFor the First Time, BTC Open Interest on Deribit
According to data from Glassnode via Colin Wu, for the first time in history, the open interest of Deribit ether options, with a notional value of $5.6 billion, exceeded the open interest of BTC options (approximately $4.3 billion). Open interest is the sum of all outstanding derivative contracts that have not yet been settled.
Currently, there are 0.26 times more call options than put options for ether. Contracts expiring on September 30 and December 30 account for 1.2 billion and 1.8 billion call options, respectively.
Charles Storry, head of growth at Phuture, a crypto index platform, stated that the upcoming Merge is a major price driver right now.
Approximately forty % of today’s ether price movement is attributed to the Merge, or Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work to a proof-of-stake protocol, according to him. The Merge is scheduled to occur on September 19.
Laurent Kssis, the head of Europe at Hashdex, believes that many investors have already taken adequate positions at cheaper ETH levels to account for the potential rally.
“Everything will hinge on the Ethereum Merge in September,” stated Kssis. This demonstrates position building.