Daily News | BTC and ETH Soar, Crypto Market Heats Up; Hackers Attacked GALA Games and Minted $200M GALA Tokens; Nasdaq Index Hit a Historic High
Crypto Daily Digest: ETFs have the potential to push BTC above $71,000 and ETH soaring to a two-month high; Hackers attacked GALA Games and minted $200 million GALA tokens
First, let’s examine the trading activities of Bitcoin ETFs. According to Farside Investor data, on May 20, Grayscale Bitcoin spot ETFs (GBTC) received an inflow of $9.3 million in funds. Meanwhile, Fidelity Bitcoin spot ETF (FBTC) inflow was $64 million, Bitwise Bitcoin spot ETF (BITB) inflow was $24 million, and ARK 21Shares Bitcoin spot ETF (ARKB) inflow was $68.3 million.
According to CoinShares data, from May 13 to 17, digital asset investment products attracted a net inflow of $932 million, indicating investors’ Optimism about slowing inflationary pressures. Despite a high net inflow, weekly trading volume remains relatively low at $10.5 billion, a decrease from $40 billion in March.
Grayscale’s Bitcoin ETF saw a small inflow of funds this week, totaling $18 million. Since January, the fund has flowed out $16.6 billion. From a regional perspective, the outflow of funds from Hong Kong and Canada was $83 million and $17 million, respectively.
The biggest highlight of today’s market is the sudden rise in ETH and BTC, with Ethereum prices soaring to a two-month high of $3,700, as analysts have significantly raised their expectations for the possible approval of spot ETH ETFs.
After Eric Balchunas, a senior analyst at Bloomberg, increased the approval probability of Ethereum Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) from 25% to 75%, the stock price surged by over 18%. Balchunas pointed out that the US Securities and Exchange Commission may face political pressure as their previous stance indicated limited contact with ETF applicants.
Analysts further mentioned that according to reports, the US Securities and Exchange Commission requests exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq to update their filing documents. Regulatory authorities have not yet officially confirmed. However, Nate Geraci, co-founder of the ETF Institute and President of the ETF Store, stated that the registration requirements for individual funds (S-1) are still pending a final decision.
The BTC price also strongly broke through the key resistance zone of $70,000, rising by more than 8%, and even tested the resistance level of $72,000. The price has reached a new weekly high of $71,896 and is consolidating its gains.
According to NewsBTC monitoring, the price increase this time is much higher than the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level between the high point of $66,047 to $71,896. On the hourly chart of the BTC/USD currency pair, a bullish trend line is formed, supporting the position at $70,500.
Presently, the price faces resistance around $71,850, with the first major resistance level possibly around $72,000 and the next key resistance level possibly around $72,500. If the price significantly breaks through the resistance level of $72,500, it may further increase and test the resistance level of $73,200. On the contrary, if the bulls fail to break through the resistance level of $72,000, there may be a short-term downward correction.
The Web3 gaming platform Gala Games has suffered potential vulnerabilities, resulting in losses exceeding $200 million. Hackers who attacked GALA minted 5 billion tokens worth approximately $206 million. It seems that the attacker also exchanged the minted GALA tokens for ETH, causing great chaos.
After the incident, the price of GALA fell by 5.77% within one day, and the platform’s native token, GALA, plummeted by nearly 15%. Currently, GALA maintains a market value of $1.7 billion with a circulation of 40.6 billion coins.
Market Trends: ETH surged by over 20%, while Altcoins generally rose
BTC (Bitcoin): Broke through $71,000, showing strong upward momentum.
ETH (Ethereum): Surged over 20% at night and reached a daily high of over $3700, approaching its previous high.
Altcoins: Driven by BTC and ETH, Altcoins rose.
US stocks: These continue to rise and reach a historic high.
US dollar index: Weekly decline may provide support for the crypto market.
Market Hotspots:
ETH spot ETF
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requests an accelerated update of ETH ETF application documents.
The probability of ETF application approval has increased from 25% to 75%.
The final deadline for approving Ethereum spot ETFs is August 7, and they may be approved as early as May 23.
Ethereum Staking Sector
PENDLE, ETHFI, REZ, LDO, ENA: These staking-related tokens also show significant performance with the rise of ETH.
Meme Sector
PEPE and MOG surged, indicating speculative interest in meme tokens in the market.
Layer2
METIS: With a surge of over 30%, the Layer2 solution has gained more attention in the market.
Ethereum Domain Name Protocol
ENS: With an increase of over 30%, the domain name agreement also benefits from Ethereum’s strong performance.
Solana Eco
PYTH and BONK: skyrocketing, especially after completing a massive token unlock; PYTH may rise instead of falling. PYTH may use this opportunity to pull up shipments, so it is essential to be cautious.
Overall, the current market sentiment is relatively optimistic, especially with the strong performance of ETH and BTC driving up the entire crypto market. However, investors still need to pay attention to market volatility and potential risks, especially in the speculative behavior in some tokens and the market reaction after token unlocking.
Macro: The Nasdaq index hit a historic high, while technology stocks rose before Nvidia’s financial report
On Monday, May 20, 2024, in the United States, the Nasdaq index closed at a historic high while the S&P 500 index rose slightly, mainly due to the rise of technology stocks before Nvidia’s highly anticipated financial report and investor speculation about the timing of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cut.
According to the latest data, the Dow Jones index fell 0.49%, the S&P 500 index rose 0.09%, and the Nasdaq index rose 0.65%.
Among the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 index, the technology index led the rise, up 1.32%, mainly driven by chip manufacturers such as Nvidia.
Nvidia’s stock price rose 2.49% before announcing quarterly results on Wednesday. Nvidia’s stock price rose due to securities firms raising their target profits before announcing results on Wednesday; Micron Technology, a peer company, also saw an increase. After Morgan Stanley raised the rating of this storage chip manufacturer from “underweight” to “flat,” the company’s stock price rose by 2.96%. The PHLX semiconductor index rose by 2.15%.
The strong profit season and signs that inflation may begin to cool again have reignited hopes for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this year, driving the primary average index to a historic high. The blue-chip Dow Jones index closed above 40,000 points for the first time last week.
According to data from the London Stock Exchange, recent gains have begun to raise concerns about stock valuations, with the forward P/E ratio of the S&P 500 index at 20.8, far above the historical average of 15.9.
However, recent gains have begun to raise concerns about stock valuations, with the forward P/E ratio of the S&P 500 index at 20.8, far higher than the historical average of 15.9.
The comments made by Federal Reserve officials on Monday hardly changed people’s expectations for the central bank’s interest rate cut, with some officials emphasizing the need to act with caution. According to CME’s FedWatch tool, the market expects a 63.3% chance of a rate cut of at least 25 basis points (bps) at the September meeting.
As investors waited for the minutes of the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting to assess the timing and extent of potential interest rate cuts this year, Asian stock markets fell on Tuesday while the US dollar strengthened. The MSCI Asia Pacific Stock Index has fallen more than 1% from its several-month high on Monday, while the Hang Seng Index has fallen 0.6%.
After hitting the $2450 mark for the first time overnight, gold prices fell 0.2% to around $2,420 per ounce.
