Daily News | 9 Bitcoin ETFs with Asset Management Scale of $4B, BlackRock Stops Launching XRP Spot ETFs, Solana Stablecoin Transfer Volume Records Monthly High

2024-01-22, 04:12

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## Crypto Daily Digest: BlackRock Discontinued Launching <a href="/price/xrp-xrp" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">XRP</a> Spot ETFs, <a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> Stablecoin Transfer Volume Records Monthly High
Firstly, let's focus on the situation of <a href="/price/bitcoin-btc" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Bitcoin</a> spot ETFs.

After six days of trading, nine approved spot Bitcoin ETFs currently hold a total of approximately 95000 Bitcoins and manage assets (AUM) of nearly $4 billion. According to data disclosed by Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, the inflow of funds from the nine recently launched ETFs has exceeded the outflow of grayscale GBTC. The assets managed by GBTC decreased by $2.8 billion within six days.

Among these 9 ETFs, Fidelity's FBTC and BlackRock's iShares (IBIT) performed well, with inflows exceeding $1.2 billion in six days of trading. Although the inflow of Fidelity ETFs is slightly higher, BlackRock currently manages slightly more assets at $1.4 billion, compared to Fidelity's nearly $1.3 billion. Jingshun ETF (BTCO) ranks third and maintains stable growth.

According to media reports, BlackRock has decided to stop launching spot <a href="/price/xrp-xrp" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">XRP</a> ETFs, a decision made in the face of ongoing regulatory uncertainty and unclear legal status of XRP. BlackRock has previously shown interest in the digital currency field, with CEO Larry Fink suggesting that the company will collaborate with XRP. However, a ruling in July brought confusion to XRP's legal status, leading to the company's decision to withdraw from launching spot XRP ETFs.

According to CoinGecko data, the current market value of cryptocurrencies is $1.723 trillion, with a daily increase of 0.7%. The 24-hour trading volume is $34.7447 billion, with Bitcoin currently accounting for 47.4% of the market value and <a href="/price/ethereum-eth" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Ethereum</a> accounting for 17.2%.

Other data changes, according to Artemis data, are that the Stablecoin transfer amount on <a href="/price/solana-sol" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">Solana</a> exceeded $300 billion in January, exceeding the $297 billion in December last year. In addition, the Stablecoin transfer amount to date in January is $303 billion, an increase of 2520% from the $11.56 billion Stablecoin transfer amount in January 2023.

Solana's Stablecoin market share is currently close to 32%, a significant increase from 1.2% a year ago. The Stablecoin activity on Solana has been recovering since October and has steadily increased by 650%.

According to Token Unlocks data, a total of four projects experienced a one-time large unlock this week, including:

At 15:00 (UTC) pm on January 23rd, <a href="/price/dydx-dydx" target="_blank" class="blog_inner_link">dYdX</a> will unlock 575000 DYDXs (approximately $1.62 million), accounting for 0.18% of the circulating supply;

At 0:00 (UTC) am on January 25th, Acala will unlock 4.66 million ACAs (approximately $438,000), accounting for 0.53% of the circulating supply;

At 14:00 (UTC) pm on January 27th, Yield Guild Games will unlock 16.69 million YGGs (approximately $8.75 million), accounting for 5.94% of the circulating supply;

At 0:00 (UTC) am on January 28th, Singularity NET will unlock 9.11 million AGIXs (approximately $2.54 million), accounting for 0.73% of the circulating supply.

## Macro: The Federal Reserve suppresses interest rate cuts and focuses on this week's US GDP and PCE data
The strong economic data released last week, including retail sales, suggests that the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates aggressively as expected by the market. At the same time, Federal Reserve officials have strongly countered speculation about rate cuts. Bostic urged decision-makers to act cautiously in relaxing policies, while Federal Reserve Director Waller seems to question the current demand for strong interest rate cuts.

Therefore, traders who were originally expected to cut interest rates six times in 2024 have now reduced their expectations to five, and their certainty about whether these rate cuts will start in March has greatly decreased.

However, after wavering at the beginning of the year, the S&P 500 index rose for the second consecutive week, driving the index to a new high, mainly driven by technology stocks. The Nasdaq 100 index set a record and rose nearly 3% this week. At the same time, the US treasury bond bonds, which ended last year with a historic rise, have suffered losses in the new year, and the yield of US bonds of various maturities has risen. The cumulative increase in 10-year US Treasury bonds this week is about 18 basis points, and the cumulative increase in 2-year US Treasury yields is about 24 basis points.

The Federal Reserve officials have come on stage to suppress expectations of interest rate cuts. The Federal Reserve's Gullsby said that inflation data will determine the path of interest rates, and a decrease in inflation will open the door to interest rate cuts. If inflation progress reverses, interest rate hikes may be necessary. Bostic also pointed out that he hopes to ensure steady progress toward the 2% target before interest rate cuts. Daley believes that it is too early to announce a victory over inflation and an upcoming interest rate cut.

In the atmosphere of the Federal Reserve suppressing interest rate cuts, the US dollar continued its cumulative rise since the beginning of the year, rising more than 0.8% this week. Gold achieved its worst weekly performance since early December. Oil prices have risen by about 1% this week, while oil prices have risen by 0.34%. The situation in the Red Sea and the Middle East continues to drive up oil prices. The US Department of Energy's release of last week's unexpected decline in crude oil inventories is also a major driver, and some economic data has raised concerns about the demand outlook in the oil market.

This week, our focus on US GDP and PCE data may provide an early glimpse of the Federal Reserve's policy direction.

According to median estimates from Bloomberg surveys, economists expect the initial Q4 GDP of the United States to show an annualized growth of 2%. This will continue the growth of 4.9% in the third quarter and mark the strongest consecutive quarters of growth since 2021. On the same day, data is expected to show that the core PCE preferred by the Federal Reserve rose by 3% in the year ending December last year, marking the 11th consecutive month of annual price growth slowdown.

Bloomberg economists said, "Our forecast means that the US GDP will maintain strong growth for 2023, with an expected growth rate of 2.7%, a significant increase from 0.7% in 2022. However, considering concerns about the rapid cooling of the labor market, availability of credit, and sustainability of consumer demand, we believe that growth in the first half of this year will significantly slow down."

If the upcoming initial PMI and actual personal expenditure indicators in the United States show resilience in the US economy, it may raise questions about the duration of high inflation, similar to recent non-farm employment reports and CPI data.

<div class="blog-details-info">
<div>Author:**Byron B.**, Gate.io Researcher
<div>Translator:Joy Z.
<div class="info-tips">\*This article represents only the views of the researcher and does not constitute any investment suggestions.
<div>\*Gate.io reserves all rights to this article. Reposting of the article will be permitted provided Gate.io is referenced. In all cases, legal action will be taken due to copyright infringement.
</div>