Blockstone Capital Weekly Digest: Friday 20 September 2024

BTC is + 10.25%, trading at $63.8K

ETH is +8.05.%, trading at $2.54K

BTC dominance: 56.8%

Crypto market cap: $2.21T

Macro Overview

This week featured three key interest rate decisions, with the spotlight on the Fed’s 50 bps cut—the first in four years and larger than the anticipated 25 bps reduction. Gold climbed to an ATH as U.S. stocks, major stock indices in Europe and Asia all surged, signaling strong market optimism of the Fed's move. Bitcoin led the gains in digital asset markets, rising from $60K to $63.8K. Later in the week, both the BoE and BoJ held rates steady, diverging from the Fed’s aggressive cut.

Trump continues to promote crypto

On Monday night, former President Donald Trump appeared on X to discuss World Liberty Financial (WLF), though few substantive details on the project were disclosed He criticized the Biden administration and the SEC for their "hostile" approach to crypto, cautioning that the U.S. risks losing its leadership in this sector should the Democrats prevail in November. Later in the week, Trump paid his tab in a NYC bar using Bitcoin, marking the first public crypto transaction by a president.

Total stablecoin market cap exceeds $170bn ATH

The total stablecoin marketcap has exceeded its previous $170bn all-time high, with Tether now commanding a 75% market share. The milestone comes amid announcements from several entities planning to launch their own stablecoins, namely custodian BitGo and the European neobank Revolut. 

Institutional adoption of crypto continues

Big announcements from Germany as banking giants Commerzbank and DZBank are set to launch BTC and crypto trading services. Meanwhile, at the Solana Breakpoint conference in Singapore, the $1.7T asset manager Franklin Templeton announced plans for a mutual fund on Solana, building on its existing on-chain U.S. government money funds across Stellar, Polygon, and Arbitrum networks.

Lastly, BlackRock has just released a new report titled "Bitcoin: A Unique Diversifier", explaining why it sees Bitcoin as a strategic portfolio asset.