The Summer Chop: Navigating the Triangle Gang's Playground
70k resistance, 60k support - but Q4 fireworks incoming?
ETFs, elections, and end-of-year gains
You full analysis inside 👇🧵
Macro Pulse Update 29.06.2024, covering the following topics:
1️⃣ Macro events for the week
2️⃣ Bitcoin Buzz Indicator
3️⃣ Market overview
4️⃣ Key Economic Metrics
5️⃣ Eurozone Spotlight
Credits to @TraderMagus for the image
1️⃣ Macro events for the week
Last Week
Next Week
2️⃣ Bitcoin Buzz Indicator
Major Crypto Updates
Mt. Gox Repays Creditors 140,000 BTC in July 2024
VanEck, 21Shares File for First Solana ETF in US
Blast Token Debuts with $420M Market Cap, Faces Challenges
Cardano Withstands DDoS Attack, Unveils Governance Model
Banking and Regulatory Updates
SEC Sues ConsenSys for Unregistered Brokerage Activities
Nubank Integrates Bitcoin Lightning Network with Lightspark
Tether Stops Minting USDT on Algorand and EOS
TON Ecosystem Developments
TON Ecosystem Faces Phishing Attacks, Whales Accumulate Coins
Crypto Exchanges and Platforms
Coinbase Won't Support ASI Token Merger, Partners with Stripe
Major Token Unlocking Events in July Total $755 Million
NFT Market and Influencer Moves
Pudgy Penguins and OverpassIP Launch Igloo Inc.
Mark Cuban Sells 14 NFTs Amid Market Downturn
NFT Trading Volume Drops 45% This Quarter
Logan Paul Sues Coffeezilla Over CryptoZoo Defamation
Altcoins
MakerDAO delegate lost $11M in crypto assets in a phishing scam.
HashKey announced an airdrop and public listing of HSK token.
Arbitrum committee recommended diversifying 35M ARB into USDY and other RWA products.
CoinShares secured a 116% return from FTX claim sale.
Binance Labs backed Berachain ecosystem with a major investment in Infrared Protocol.
Jump's Kariya, who rose from intern to crypto leader, left the trading giant.
Market makers manipulated 78% of new crypto listings.
Telegram-based web3 game Hamster Kombat drew an Irani general’s ire amid a rising local player base.
DEX Screener unveiled a new meme coin launch pad, Moonshot.
Swarm Markets prepared for MiCA stablecoin regime with a gold NFT offering.
ZKSync debuted ‘Elastic Chain’ in its 3.0 roadmap.
Jason Derulo sold a meme token despite promising ‘never to sell’.
Fetch.AI jumped after Injective teased an upcoming collaboration.
Alex Lab linked a $4M exploit to the North Korea-backed Lazarus Group.
MakerDAO and Sherlock teamed up for a historic $1.35M security audit contest.
Celsius small business creditors demanded reimbursement after a 35% cut in claims.
54% of institutional investors in Japan planned to invest in crypto.
Shardeum allocated 3.3M SHM tokens for a testnet airdrop.
Notcoin burned $3M and announced new tokenomics.
CEO of defunct yield protocol Delio said user deposits weren’t 'principal protected'.
Bybit surpassed Coinbase to become the second largest crypto exchange by volume.
DWF Labs cashed out JASMY tokens, reaping massive profits on Binance.
Paradigm and Haun Ventures co-led a $37M round in Conduit.
EigenLayer AVS Ava Protocol acquired blockchain data startup Openstory.
Bitcoin-powered Core Blockchain launched an exchange-traded product in Sweden.
Worldcoin teamed up with Alchemy to launch World Chain.
Ex-fintech CEO was sentenced to 3.75 years over a price manipulation scheme.
Meme coin DORAE plummeted; developer suspected of rug pull.
Binance secured a VASP license in Dubai.
CertiK was accused of front-running bug bounties through a subsidiary.
Animoca looked to go public in Hong Kong or the Middle East in 2025.
Unstoppable Domains launched a marketplace supporting ‘.com’ tokenization.
Metallica’s official X account was hacked to promote a now-collapsed token.
Vitalik Buterin introduced a tool for anonymous online voting.
ZynCoin patched things up with Philip Morris.
Chainlink data streams debuted on Avalanche with GMX V2.
Crypto exchange Abra reached an $82.1M settlement with 25 U.S. states.
South Korean-based Hashed Ventures announced Abu Dhabi expansion.
Polymarket contradicted its oracle service in a rarity for prediction market.
Litecoin whale withdrew $20M in LTC from Binance.
Marathon Digital diversified revenue by mining Kaspa, aimed for 16% global hash rate.
Crypto losses to hit $25B next year due to deepfake, Bitget warned.
Infinite Block, Korea’s first licensed crypto custodian, embraced XRP.
Dfinity announced a new ICP-powered platform to tackle cybersecurity.
Andromeda integrated with Injective to drive DeFi adoption.
Half a billion was lost to crypto hacks and fraud in Q2, said Immunefi.
Tezos unveiled Tezos X roadmap to revolutionize blockchain.
BVNK launched Layer1 to simplify stablecoin payments for businesses.
Zeta Markets airdropped ZEX token.
Seoul High Court ruled in favor of Fantom Foundation over network development’s ownership.
Swiss Crypto Bank Sygnum added 20 new lenders for business enhancements.
Wanchain debuted a new bridge to connect Polkadot and Cardano blockchains.
CleanSpark agreed to acquire GRIID for $155M amid mining struggles.
Dogecoin profitability rose to 75% as Shiba Inu plunged to 52%.
Zerion deployed a testnet for Layer 2 rollup developed using ZK Stack.
Worldcoin’s WorldID arrived on Solana via Wormhole grant.
Fake Phantom wallet promoted in iOS AppStore drained users' funds.
Aptos Foundation teamed with Alibaba Cloud to launch Alcove in Japan.
Manta-based USDM stablecoin leveraged BlackRock’s BUIDL for backing.
CoinStats suffered a $2M loss in a crypto hack, CEO pointed to social engineering tactics.
Curve Finance adopted crvUSD for fee distribution.
Yield App suspended activity and entered liquidation proceedings, citing FTX collapse.
Lightning Network hacker Burak launched ‘Brollups’ Layer 2 solution for Bitcoin.
Aethir and MetaGravity partnership boosted scalable DePIN gaming development.
PancakeSwap launched an AI-prediction market on Arbitrum with 60,000 ARB rewards for ETH price movements.
Bitstamp delisted Euro Tether amid new MiCA rules.
Ethereum LSD solution Puffer Finance moved to based rollups after raising $18M.
Wormhole’s NTT powered ETHFI’s multichain transfer on Arbitrum.
Bolivia lifted the ban on Bitcoin, authorizing crypto transactions via banks.
Pendle lifted the cap for Ethena’s USDe, also extended into Aave.
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) price jumped on rebranding news.
3️⃣ Market overview
Macro & TradFi Insights:
U.S. Economic Growth: The U.S. economy exhibited sluggish growth in Q1 2024, with GDP expanding at a revised rate of 1.4%, marking its slowest pace in nearly two years. Consumer spending, a crucial driver, showed disappointing growth at 1.5%, suggesting cautious consumer sentiment amid inflationary pressures.
IMF Evaluation: The IMF's critical evaluation of the U.S. economy highlighted concerns over large deficits, escalating debt levels, and aggressive trade policies. Despite recognizing robust economic fundamentals, the IMF downgraded its growth forecast to 2.6% for the year, emphasizing the need for fiscal reforms and international financial stability measures.
DeFi & CeFi Insights:
VanEck's Solana ETF Filing: VanEck's filing for a Solana ETF in the U.S. underscores growing institutional interest in crypto investment products. This move follows a similar filing in Canada and contributed to an 8% price increase for SOL, highlighting the potential for significant market inflows pending regulatory approval.
Coinbase Lawsuits Against SEC, FDIC: Coinbase's legal actions against federal regulators reflect ongoing challenges in regulatory clarity for the crypto industry. The lawsuits accuse the SEC and FDIC of non-compliance with FOIA requests, alleging efforts to isolate crypto from traditional banking and financial systems. This legal battle could shape future regulatory dynamics for digital assets in the U.S.
Innovation and Investment: Covalent Network's $5 million funding round and Zerion's deployment of a Layer 2 rollup using ZK Stack demonstrate continued innovation and investment in blockchain technology. These developments highlight ongoing efforts to enhance scalability, security, and user experience within decentralized finance (DeFi) and centralized finance (CeFi) ecosystems.
4️⃣ Key Economic Metrics
Some indicators pointing to a potential slowdown in consumer spending, while others remain positive. The Federal Reserve is closely monitoring these trends for their implications on inflation and future monetary policy decisions.
🔴 Possible consumer slowdown:
Retail sales grew slowly in May (0.1% increase) after declining in April (-0.2%).
This might indicate the beginning of a long-anticipated slowdown in consumer spending growth.
🔴 Price cuts affecting sales figures:
Retailers are aggressively cutting prices to generate sales.
This contributes to lack of inflation for goods and reflects weakness in demand.
🟡 Fed Governor Adriana Kugler's observations:
More optimistic about inflation moving towards the 2% target.
Suggests possibility of easing monetary policy later this year.
Notes consumers are "trading down" to lower-cost products.
Concerned about potential sudden increase in unemployment.
🟡 Economic factors influencing consumer spending:
Real wages and employment are rising.
Energy costs are stable.
However, high borrowing costs, rising house prices, and weak demand for homes could negatively impact spending on home-related goods and services.
5️⃣ Eurozone Spotlight🔴
Fiscal challenges in the Eurozone. The ECB warns of "significant fiscal burdens" due to demographics, higher defense spending, climate-related investments, and higher borrowing costs.
Stagnant or declining working-age populations coupled with growing elderly populations are leading to rising pension and healthcare costs but stagnant tax revenue.
Country-specific challenges such as Slovakia and Spain face the most urgent need to address their deficits. Estonia, Croatia, Greece, and Cyprus have less burdensome challenges.
Tight labor market in the Eurozone. The job vacancy rate remained high at 2.9% in Q1 2024. Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, and Germany have the highest job vacancy rates.
Rising labor costs. Hourly labor costs in the Eurozone increased by 5.1% year-over-year in Q1 2024.
Wages rose by 5.8% and non-wage labor costs by 4.8%. Eastern European countries experienced particularly large labor cost increases.
Despite starting to cut rates, the ECB's actions may be constrained by concerns about the impact of labor costs on inflation.