Market Update: August 15, 2022
Blackrock Partners with Coinbase, Goerli Merge Successful, Aerarium Fi Top Gainer...
The markets continue their rally in the previous week with ETH hitting just over $2,000 over the weekend, before retreating back to current levels of $1,900. U.S. CPI YoY came in at 8.5% which was below the previous report at 9.1%, leading some investors to think inflation has peaked and the worst is behind us. Additionally, the previous week saw a significant blow to the ecosystem when Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the U.S. government. This event has been a powerful reminder that perhaps crypto and DeFi are not as decentralized as we like to think they are.
Total Crypto Market Cap (Coin Market Cap): +4.00% WoW
Top 10 Altcoin Index (Eightcap): +1.24% WoW
BlackRock to Offer Institutional Clients Bitcoin Exposure
BlackRock has recently announced that due to high customer demand they are now offering institutional investors access to Bitcoin. With over $10 trillion in assets under management, this is by far the largest institution to offer Bitcoin trading to their clients. As regulation continues to improve we expect more headlines of major institutions offering Bitcoin services to their clients. Over the next few weeks, a key target to watch for Bitcoin is the CME gap at the $27,000 level as BTC has historically closed all major gaps.
Bitcoin: +3.68% WoW
Goerli Merge Successful
The last week was a major milestone for Ethereum as the final testnet merge was successful. This now leaves the mainnet merge as the final step left before the transition from proof of work to proof of stake. At current estimates, the mainnet merge is expected to occur around September 15th or 16th. Expect prices to be volatile in these final weeks leading up to the merge, but if all things go accordingly to plan it can be a significant catalyst for a continued rally.
Ethereum: +10.97% WoW
Market Movers
The market movers for this week have a number of centralized players on it with Celsius, Nexo and Huobi making the list. Taking the number one spot is an interesting DeFi protocol on Metis. If you are unaware, Metis is a layer two network that uses optimistic roll ups. Oh yeah, and Vitalik’s mother is a public leader for the Metis ecosystem. Aera is treasury as a service protocol, allowing users to earn part of the treasury by purchasing and staking AERA. With a market cap below $1M we expect Aerarium Fi to continue its volatility, and benefit from the merge narrative moving forward.
Aerarium Fi: DeFi, +134.5%
Celsius: CeDeFi, +119.1%
Nexo: CeDeFi, +34.3%
Shiba Inu: Meme Coin, +29.7%
Huboi: CEX, +21.6%