Altcoins rally as Bitcoin ETFs see ~$400 million of inflows
Weekly Market Update #42
Major developments for the week:
Last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $397.2 million, while Ethereum ETFs experienced net outflows of $26.2 million
ParaFi Capital is tokenizing part of its $1 billion venture funding on Avalanche using Securitize.
Fireblocks and Chainlink Labs have announced a strategic partnership aimed at speeding up the issuance of regulated stablecoins.
The TON Foundation collaborates with Curve Finance.
Dragonfly is looking to raise a new fund of $500 million.
BlackRock and Microsoft are launching a $30 billion investment fund focused on artificial intelligence.
Solana Mobile unveils Solana Seeker.
WisdomTree has introduced a platform for tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) on Ethereum, targeting businesses and institutions.
BNB Chain has entered into a partnership with Telegram.
Franklin Templeton is planning to introduce a mutual fund on the Solana blockchain.
Last week, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw net inflows of $397.2 million
Last week’s Bitcoin spot ETFs saw a total net flow of $397.2 million, with significant movements across various funds. FBTC led the inflows, bringing in $137.7 million over the week, with its largest single inflow of $56.6 million on 17th September. ARKB followed closely, contributing $101.9 million, including a substantial $81.1 million inflow on 19th September, despite seeing a notable outflow of $43.4 million the previous day. BITB showed significant volatility but ended the week with $67 million in net inflows, after experiencing a $3.9 million outflow on 18th September. On the other hand, GBTC consistently faced outflows, losing $28.9 million throughout the week, with the largest outflow being $20.8 million on 16th September. Overall, the week was marked by strong inflows into the major ETFs despite some volatility and outflows from GBTC.
During the week of 16th to 20th September 2024, the total net flow for Ethereum spot ETFs amounted to -26.2 million. The largest inflows were seen in ETHA, which brought in $14.3 million over the week, with notable inflows of $4.9 million on 18th September and $5.2 million on 19th September. In contrast, ETHE experienced substantial outflows, losing $46.4 million in total, with the largest single-day outflow of $17.9 million on 17th September and $14.7 million on 18th September. Smaller ETFs, such as FETH, CETH, and QETH, saw no activity throughout the week. ETHW had a negative flow of $2.1 million on 16th September, while Grayscale ETH registered moderate inflows, totaling $8 million, with the highest inflow of $2.9 million on 20th September. Overall, the week was marked by heavy outflows in the Ethereum market, led primarily by ETHE.
Another interesting development came from WisdomTree in which it introduced WisdomTree Connect; a platform designed to tokenize real-world assets on the Ethereum Blockchain. Geared towards businesses and institutions, this platform allows users to manage tokenized assets via blockchain technology. Assets can be held in self-hosted wallets or through third-party custodians, with transactions facilitated in either US dollars or the USDC stablecoin. WisdomTree Connect is part of the firm's larger initiative to bridge traditional finance with blockchain, complementing its retail-centric app, WisdomTree Prime.
Hyperliquid Open Interest Surpasses $1 billion
Hyperliquid is a decentralized perpetual trading protocol that aims to deliver a user experience on par with centralized exchanges while maintaining the decentralization, security, and transparency inherent in blockchain technology. Built on its custom Layer 1 blockchain, Hyperliquid combines the best elements of both centralized and decentralized finance. As of today, the platform boasts more than 200,000 active users and has processed over $300 billion in cumulative transaction volume. Daily trading volumes consistently exceed $1 billion, with over 8,000 unique traders interacting with the platform regularly.
Last week their open interest surpassed $1 billion on September 20th marking an impressive milestone. You can check out our primer on Hyperliquid here.
Solana Introduces Solana Seeker Phone
Solana also saw a couple of interesting developments last week. The first of which came from Solana Mobile which introduced its next-generation web3 smartphone, the Solana Seeker, at the TOKEN2049 event in Singapore. Building on the success of the Solana Saga, the Seeker is designed to enhance blockchain capabilities on mobile devices. Key features include the Seed Vault Wallet for secure crypto transactions, an updated Solana dApp Store, and a Seeker Genesis Token that provides exclusive rewards. Priced at $450, the Seeker offers improved hardware, such as a brighter display and a better camera, with over 140,000 units sold in presales. The official release is scheduled for 2025.
The second Solana related development came from Franklin Templeton who has announced plans to launch an on-chain mutual fund on the Solana blockchain. This initiative seeks to harness Solana’s low costs, high speed, and advanced infrastructure to improve financial service operations. The mutual fund will function natively on Solana, utilizing a custom-built digital wallet infrastructure and an on-chain transfer agent. This development aligns with a growing trend of institutional adoption of blockchain technology, with Citibank also considering Solana for payment transfers and smart contract applications.
Ton Partners with Curve Finance and BNB Chain
In other news, the TON Foundation has partnered with Curve Finance to launch a stable swap project on the TON blockchain, aiming to enhance stablecoin trading with low-slippage and low-fee transactions. By leveraging Curve’s automated market-making expertise, this collaboration will significantly boost decentralized finance services within the TON ecosystem. Michael Egorov, founder of Curve Finance, will advise the project, which will be developed by an independent team with community involvement. This initiative comes in response to the growing demand for stablecoins on TON, particularly USDT, which has seen substantial growth in circulation.
In a parallel development, BNB Chain has integrated with Telegram to improve Web3 accessibility. This partnership introduces Telegram Mini Apps, allowing users to manage BNB assets via Telegram bot wallets, and enables developers to streamline onboarding using Privy's SDK for seamless Telegram login. This integration leverages Telegram's vast user base, making blockchain technology more accessible and lowering barriers for the next billion Web3 users.
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