TL;DR

• Over the weekend, BTC and ETH prices traded within a narrow range, with BTC facing resistance at the critical $65,000 level.
• The NFT market is rebounding, with BAYC gaining 12.77% and Pudgy Penguins surging 19.91% over the past 7 days.
• The Fear & Greed Index has re-entered the “Greed” zone. Data shows that BTC and ETH contracts are predominantly long positions.
• On Friday, BTC ETFs recorded a net inflow of $252 million, while ETH ETFs saw a net outflow of $5.7 million.
• The arrest of Telegram’s founder triggered a significant decrease in TON’s Total Value Locked (TVL) and a sharp decline in related ecosystem token prices.

Market Analysis

According to Gate.io, as of August 26, 03:00 UTC[1]:

BTC —— Bitcoin’s price dipped 0.14% over the past 24 hours, currently trading around $64,032.10. It reached a daily high of $65,098, with a low of $63,788. After briefly breaking above $65,000, BTC retraced to the 4-hour MA5 moving average near $64,109, fluctuating between $64,000 and $65,000 throughout the day[2].

ETH —— Ethereum’s price declined by 0.78% in the last 24 hours, currently at approximately $2,741.46. It peaked at $2,792, with a low of $2,720. ETH traded between $2,740 and $2,800 during the day, with short-term support at the $2,730 level[3].

SOL —— Solana saw a slight increase of 0.11% over the past 24 hours, with the current price around $158.72. The daily high reached $161.92, with a low of $155.22. SOL displayed strong performance, rebounding quickly after breaking below the 4-hour MA10 moving average at $156, forming strong support at that level. The current support is at $156, with resistance at $163[4].

Spot ETFs —— According to data from SoSoValue and Coinglass, Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a net inflow of $252 million last Friday, while Ethereum spot ETFs experienced a net outflow of $5.7 million[2][5].

NFTs —— As of August 26, 06:00 UTC, Blur data shows rising floor prices for blue-chip NFT collections:BAYC floor price is 13.8 ETH, up 12.77% over 7 days; Pudgy Penguins at 10.9 ETH, up 19.91%; Azuki at 4.77 ETH, up 7.35%; and MAYC at 2.15 ETH, up 8.1%[6].

Fear & Greed Index —— As of August 26, 06:00 UTC, the Fear & Greed Index stands at 55, indicating a “Greed” market sentiment. This suggests that investors might adjust their positions, potentially leading to significant price volatility at current levels[7].

Top Performers

According to Gate.io, as of August 26, 03:00 UTC, the following altcoins have shown notable performance over the past 24 hours, based on trading volume and price movements:

• FET —— The FET token posted a strong daily gain of 7.63%, with a market cap of $3.612 billion and a 24-hour trading volume of $14.76 million on Gate.io. Fetch.ai is a blockchain platform based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, allowing anyone to share or trade data. Recently, Fetch.ai launched an Innovation Lab with a $10 million fund for AI agent startups on the platform.[8].

• LQTY —— The LQTY token saw a daily gain of 2.65%, with a market cap of $102 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.2 million on Gate.io. Liquity is a decentralized lending platform that accepts ETH as collateral and issues the stablecoin LUSD. LQTY is the utility token used for staking and liquidity mining. The recent rise in LQTY may be linked to the upcoming launch of Liquity v2. The v2 upgrade addresses several issues from v1, removing penalties for leveraging by increasing redemption risk, supporting multiple collateral configurations, and introducing user-set interest rates. These enhancements are expected to further expand the LUSD ecosystem[9].

• LUNA —— The LUNA token experienced a significant daily increase of 12.15%, with a market cap of $282 million and a 24-hour trading volume of $39.6 million on Gate.io. LUNA is the native token of Terra, which collapsed in May 2022 due to the depegging of its algorithmic stablecoin, UST, leading to Terra’s collapse. The recent surge in LUNA’s price may be driven by news that Terraform Labs will hold a bankruptcy restructuring hearing on September 19. According to court orders disclosed in Terra’s Chapter 11 case, Terraform Labs is required to undelegate and burn 150 million LUNA received from Terra community funding. This order will take effect following the September 19 hearing. Additionally, Terraform Labs will also burn 25 million LUNA allocated for liquidity provision[10].

Data Highlights

BSC On-Chain Trading Volume Increases by 39.82% Over 7 Days
As of 02:00 UTC on August 26, data from DeFiLlama shows that BSC’s trading volume over the past 24 hours nearly matched that of the Solana chain, with BSC recording approximately $725 million in transactions, compared to Solana’s $729 million. Over the past week, BSC’s trading volume has surged by 39.82%, approaching Solana’s overall volume. This trend suggests growing interest among market participants in the BSC ecosystem[11].

The rise in BSC’s trading volume could be linked to the emergence of a meme launch platform on the BSC chain, similar to Pump.fun. Four.meme stands out a leading meme fair-launch platform on BSC, offering a seamless and low-cost way to issue meme tokens. Backed by a strong promotional team, Four.meme leverages viral marketing on social media platforms like Twitter, enabling both newcomers and seasoned crypto enthusiasts to quickly create or discover the hottest meme tokens and profit from them.

Bitcoin Spot ETFs See $252 Million Net Inflow
According to data from SoSoValue and Coinglass, last Friday saw a net inflow of $252 million into Bitcoin spot ETFs[12], while Ethereum spot ETFs experienced a net outflow of $5.7 million[13]. Most Bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows, with the exception of GBTC, which saw a net outflow of $35.5 million. This trend may be linked to favorable macroeconomic signals from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s public remarks.

On the same day, Ethereum ETFs likely experienced outflows due to a $9.8 million withdrawal from Grayscale’s ETHE. Additionally, Blackrock’s ETHA and Franklin’s EZET both recorded zero net inflows.

Long/Short Contract Ratio
As of 02:00 UTC on August 26, Coinglass data shows that the weighted funding rate for Bitcoin open interest stood at 0.0001%[14], while for Ethereum, it was 0.0011%[15]. Over the past 24 hours, the long/short ratio for both Bitcoin and Ethereum contracts has skewed towards long positions[16]. Additionally, as of 04:00 UTC on August 26, the total liquidation across the market in the past 24 hours reached approximately $79 million, with long positions accounting for over $53.14 million of the total. The buy/sell ratio for Bitcoin was 0.8235, suggesting that market participants are generally cautious about Bitcoin’s short-term price direction[17].

Powell Expresses Confidence in Inflation Returning to 2%, Signals Willingness to Cut Rates in September
On August 23, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell delivered a speech on the economic outlook at the Jackson Hole Symposium, indicating that the time for policy adjustments has arrived and clearly signaling the Fed’s intention to cut interest rates in September. Following Powell’s comments on the impending policy shift, CME’s “FedWatch” tool showed a positive shift in expectations: the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point rate cut by November is 43%, a 75 basis point cut is 45.2%, and a 100 basis point cut is 11.8%. Overall, Powell’s remarks provided some optimism for the crypto market but also introduced a degree of uncertainty. The specific rate cut and policy direction in the Fed’s September meeting will be crucial factors influencing the future trajectory of the crypto market[18].

Spotlight Analysis

Telegram Founder Arrested, TON Ecosystem Tokens and TVL Experience Significant Volatility
On August 24, Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested at a French airport and may face multiple criminal charges. Durov is accused of inadequately address criminal activities on the Telegram platform and not cooperating with French law enforcement. Although the Telegram Open Network (TON) was originally developed by the Telegram team, it was later handed over to the community due to legal issues. However, TON maintains a close partnership with Telegram, which has integrated a TON-based crypto wallet into its ecosystem, allowing nearly a billion Telegram users to make crypto payments with ease. Many DApps in the TON ecosystem operate as Telegram Mini Apps.

According to Gate.io market data, following the news of Pavel Durov’s arrest, the price of Toncoin (TON) experienced a significant drop. In the early hours of August 26, $TON plunged by over 20%, bottoming out at $5.20. As of 04:00 UTC on August 26, the price had rebounded to around $5.80. Tokens within the TON ecosystem, such as NOT, also saw declines, with NOT dropping by as much as 25%, and other related tokens suffering varying degrees of losses[19].

According to DeFiLlama data, the TVL (Total Value Locked) on the TON chain has significantly declined, dropping to $337 million—a 34% decrease within 24 hours and over 56% below its July peak. Liquid staking projects on TON, such as Tonstakers and Bemo, saw their TVL decrease by more than 15% due to the drop in TON’s price. Data from Staking Rewards indicates that the amount of TON staked has remained relatively stable, fluctuating between 600 million and 630 million over the past two weeks, showing minimal impact so far. However, DEX liquidity has seen noticeable withdrawals. As the data below shows, several DEXs have experienced TVL losses exceeding 20%, likely due to this liquidity exodus. DeFiLlama reports that TON’s two major DEXs, DeDust and Ston.Fi, both saw their TVL drop by over 30%.

The recent decline in TON’s price is similar to the drop in BNB following the arrest of BNB Chain founder Zhao Changpeng, which affected market confidence. Due to the strong partnership between Telegram and TON, TON is viewed as a significant entry point into Web3. Although Pavel Durov’s arrest has not been directly linked to TON, many developers and entrepreneurs in the TON ecosystem have started to pay closer attention to potential regulatory and legal risks. While the charges against Durov could potentially lead to restructuring or even a shutdown of Telegram, this may undermine TON’s associated advantages. However, according to TON Stat data, on-chain metrics such as transaction volume, fees, and the number of active accounts have already returned to pre-incident levels. [20]As further details of the arrest have not yet been disclosed and the legal process could be lengthy, the impact of Durov’s arrest on the TON ecosystem remains to be seen. Gate Research continues to monitor this event closely.

Mt. Gox Bitcoin Holdings Decrease by Approximately 68.3%
According to monitoring by Arkham, the Mt. Gox wallet held a total of 141,690 BTC since early 2021, reaching a peak market value of $10.12 billion in March 2024. As of 09:00 UTC on August 24, the Mt. Gox wallet held 32,900 BTC (approximately $2.11 billion). As of 06:00 UTC on August 26, the wallet held 44,899 BTC (approximately $2.87 billion), which is about 31.7% of what it held in early 2021, reflecting a decrease of around 68.3%.

In a previous daily report, Gate Research mentioned that Mt. Gox’s ongoing repayments could potentially cause some market disruption. However, based on recent repayment activities and BTC price trends, the market does not appear to have been significantly impacted by the BTC released into circulation. Notably, since the two large transactions on August 21, BTC prices have not declined but instead rose from around $60,000 to approximately $64,000 on August 23, maintaining this level for more than two days[21].

Funding News

According to RootData, from August 24 to August 26, 2024, only one project in the DePin sector received funding. The details are as follows[22]:

ATT: The platform ATT, which integrates DePin and RWA technologies, has secured institutional investment from Waterdrip Capital. This funding will support the platform’s expansion into international markets, strengthening ATT’s strategic position in the DePin and RWA sectors. ATT employs a unique DA-AIOT-P (Decentralized Asset-Artificial Intelligence Internet of Things-Payment) mechanism to build a new digital advertising ecosystem that integrates physical advertising assets, e-commerce merchants, user resources, and digital technology. Currently, the ecosystem focuses on LED screens in Hong Kong’s Lan Kwai Fong district, with plans to expand into major commercial areas in Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, and Europe[23].

Airdrop Opportunities

Orderly Network —— The cross-chain derivatives liquidity layer, Orderly Network, began its airdrop claim process on August 26, allocating 13.3% of the total supply for the airdrop. Users could claim the entire airdrop on that day. Orderly Network previously raised $20 million in June 2022, backed by investors including Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Sequoia China, Jump Crypto, and Seven X. In March 2023, Orderly Network completed a strategic funding round at a $200 million valuation. On August 16, 2024, Orderly Network secured an additional $5 million in strategic funding, with participation from OKX Ventures and others[24].

Corn —— Corn, an Ethereum Layer 2 solution that uses Bitcoin as gas, completed a $6.7 million funding round on August 19, with investments from Polychain Capital, Binance Labs, Framework Ventures, OKX Ventures, HTX Ventures, and Relayer Capital. On August 23, Corn announced the launch of an airdrop campaign, providing eligible users with retroactive reward points called Kernel, which represent their share of the $CORN airdrop. The snapshot for this airdrop was taken on July 13, 2024, at 04:20 (UTC+8).

In addition to the retroactive airdrop, Corn is running several ongoing airdrop campaigns, including the Galxe points airdrop and the deposit-to-earn points campaign:

• Galxe Points Airdrop: This onsists of two Galaxy missions. The first mission has already ended, while the second is currently ongoing with no specified end date. Participants can earn points by sharing and completing various tasks.
• Deposit-to-Earn Points Campaign: Users can deposit seven types of tokens—WBTC, weETH, rsETH, DAI, sDAI, USDC, and USDe—on Corn’s official website. Depositing WBTC, which is then minted into BTCN, earns 2x points; depositing DAI, sDAI, or USDC, which are converted into sDAI, earns 1.25x points; depositing weETH also earns 1.25x points. Deposits can be withdrawn at any time, and for every $1 deposited for 210 minutes, participants earn 1 Kernel point. However, participation in this deposit-to-earn points campaign requires an invitation code[26].

Reference：

1. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/zh/price
2. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/price/bitcoin-btc
3. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/price/ethereum-eth
4. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/price/solana-sol
5. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/eth-etf
6. Blur, https://blur.io/eth/collection
7. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/zh/bigdata/homeindex
8. FET, https://cointelegraph.com/news/fetch-ai-innovation-lab-10-m-fund-startups
9. LQTY, https://www.liquity.org/blog/licensing-liquity-v2-may-the-fork-be-with-you
10. Luna, https://medium.com
11. DeFiLlama, https://defillama.com/dexs/chains
12. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/bitcoin-etf
13. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/eth-etf
14. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/AvgFunding/BTC
15. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/pro/AvgFunding/ETH
16. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/LongShortRatio
17. CoinGlass, https://www.coinglass.com/LiquidationData
18. CME Group: https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html
19. Gate.io, https://www.gate.io/price/the-open-network-ton
20. Tonstat, https://www.tonstat.com/
21. Arkham, https://platform.arkhamintelligence.com/explorer/entity/mt-gox
22. Rootdata, https://www.rootdata.com/zh/Fundraising
23. ATT, https://x.com/aiwayworld/status/1827265235776106774
24. Orderly Network, https://x.com/OrderlyNetwork/status/1826907267075031223
25. Corn, https://blog.usecorn.com/corn-the-genesis-of-the-super-yield-network-f52170ffbe84

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