Daily Market Update: August 4, 2023

August 4, 2023

BTC is currently trading around $29,200 and ETH around $1,850.  Notable gainers in the last 24 hours are FLEX, CSPR, and FXS.  The global crypto market cap is $1.21T, up 0.4% over the last day.  DeFi Total Value Locked is ~$41b and BTC dominance is around 50%.

Equity and crypto markets are little changed, while bond yields are down after a mixed US employment report this morning.  While nonfarm payrolls growth of +187,000 came in below expectations, the unemployment rate fell more than expected (to 3.5%) and average hourly earnings increased faster than anticipated.

Notable crypto news includes: SEC Chair Gensler is reportedly shifting his focus from crypto to AI and stated that AI “warrants the hype”; The Digital Dollar Project completed a CBDC retail remittance pilot with Western Union; The Bank of Russia revealed it will charge fees on digital ruble transactions; Coinbase filed an order in federal court seeking dismissal of the lawsuit by the SEC; a Hong Kong lawmaker floated the possibility of licensed Hong Kong exchanges connecting with Shanghai exchanges; Twitter is looking for a financial data giant to build a trading hub inside its app; neobank Revolut announced plans to end its crypto services in the US due to regulatory uncertainty; Figure Technologies pulled its application to become a US federally chartered crypto bank after a three-year fight; State Street’s global head of digital custody and payments is leaving the bank; former Genesis co-head of trading joined BitGo to head up its Go Network; US ether-based ETF filings now total 11 after ProShares’ recent application; Ilya Lichtenstein admitted to the $4.5b Bitfinex hack in court; Curve founder Michael Erogov has now sold 106m CRV for $42m in an effort to reduce liquidation risks of his DeFi loans; Curve, Metronome, and Alchemix are offering a 10% bounty on the Vyper hack; key Curve and Uniswap pools became imbalanced as traders ditched USDT; Matter Labs’ CEO denied Polygon’s claims that its developers copied critical components of Polygon’s code for ZKSync’s Boojum proving system; GMX went live with its V2; Trader Joe went live on Ethereum; LinksDAO, which bought a golf course, is accepting new members; and, US President Joe Biden unknowingly promoted Bitcoin in an ad by drinking from a mug with a picture of himself with laser eyes.

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Authors:
Matt Kunke, Research Analyst | TwitterTelegramLinkedIn
Brian Rudick, Senior Strategist | TwitterTelegramLinkedIn

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