News recap: BTC sale before the halving event

Crypto market in numbers

The cryptocurrency market cap is on the rise again, up by 10.3% to $1.71 trillion. Positive sentiment is growing in the crypto sphere, driven by ETFs and the upcoming bitcoin halving event.

Trading activity has remained relatively stable. Daily volumes have mainly ranged between $30 to $60 billion between 25th January and 8th February, a slight decline from the peak levels observed in the past two months.

The cryptocurrency fear and greed index has shifted back into the “Greed” zone, increasing by 26.9% from 52 to 66 points. Market sentiment among participants is noticeably more positive.

Cryptocurrency volatility has notably decreased. The 30-day BTC volatility index dropped by 17.6% from 2.15% to 1.77%, while ETH’s saw a 10.4% decrease from 2.68% to 2.40%.

While the cryptocurrency market is bouncing back, there’s a tough road ahead due to strong resistance. Given the still-low volatility levels, expect some sharp movements in the near future. It seems the market has had a decent breather.

Bitcoin ETFs are now seeing net inflows, signalling growing interest every day. The main drivers of price movements in the digital asset market will be expectations of a sharp increase after the bitcoin halving event (which could potentially backfire) and the potential approval of spot ETH-ETFs this spring.

Historically, February has been favourable for cryptocurrencies, with only two instances of the market closing in the red zone. On average, growth exceeds 12%.

Gainers (23rd January – 6th February)

Losers (23rd January – 6th February)

Easily track gainers and losers within the Simple trade section on EXMO. Check real-time updates in the last 24 hours, week and month.

Most traded coins (23rd January – 6th February)

Top crypto market driving factors

Overall сrypto market

▲ 29.01.2024 – Santiment notes that the combined market cap of the largest stablecoins has grown by 8% over the past four months. Historically, it is a bullish signal for cryptocurrencies.

▲ 30.01.2024 – Nearly 30% of the total USDT in circulation is held on crypto exchanges, marking the highest result in the last ten months.

▲ 01.02.2024 – Tether reported a profit of $2.85 billion in the fourth quarter, setting a new record for excess reserves.

▲ 01.02.2024 – Trading volumes on centralised cryptocurrency exchanges in January 2024 hit an annual maximum of $1.12 trillion.

▼ 05.02.2024 – JPMorgan warns that the growing dominance of Tether is a negative factor for the stablecoin market and the overall crypto ecosystem.

▼ 06.02.2024 – Negative sentiments emerge in crypto blue chips, as prices stagnate following a period of growth, as reported by Santiment.

Bitcoin (BTC)

▼ 26.01.2024 – Net outflows from all spot bitcoin ETFs amounted to $80 million.

▲ 26.01.2024 – Spot bitcoin ETFs surpassed silver ETFs in assets, with $30 billion versus $11 billion, led by BlackRock and Fidelity.

▲ 26.01.2024 – The number of active bitcoin addresses sharply increased, momentarily surpassing 1 million.

▼ 26.01.2024 – Bitcoin saw the fastest decrease in the number of small wallets since October 2023, according to Santiment.

▼ 26.01.2024 – The U.S. announced plans to sell 2,875 confiscated bitcoins (~$115 million).

▼ 26.01.2024 – JPMorgan labelled the inflow figures for bitcoin ETFs as “disappointing,” with net inflows totaling only $857 million in the first nine days of trading.

▼ 31.01.2024 – CryptoQuant noted an increase in bitcoin sales by miners since the beginning of the year.

▲ 05.02.2024 – 83.87% of bitcoins are currently profitable.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Bitcoin mining difficulty reached a new record of 75.5 T.

▼ 05.02.2024 – Since late January, wallets holding balances of 100-1000 bitcoins have been actively selling BTC, according to Santiment.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Since late January, wallets holding balances of 1000-10,000 bitcoins have been actively buying BTC, according to Santiment.

▲ 06.02.2024 – BlackRock increased the number of bitcoins on its balance sheet to 75,702 coins for its spot bitcoin ETF.

▼ 06.02.2024 – Bitcoin miner reserves have decreased to levels not seen since June 2021 (1.82 million BTC) amid the upcoming halving event.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Michael Saylor stated that Microstrategy is now positioning itself as a “bitcoin developer and bitcoin product company” among other things.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Microstrategy purchased an additional 850 bitcoins. The company owns 190,000 bitcoins with a total value of $5.93 billion, with an average purchase price of $31,224.

Ethereum (ETH)

▲ 01.02.2024 – Ethereum developers successfully implemented the Dencun (Deneb-Cancun) hard fork in the second test network of the ecosystem, Sepolia.

▲ 01.02.2024 – The SEC will approve spot ethereum ETFs on 23rd May, by the time that ether’s price will reach $4,000, according to Standard Chartered.

▲ 05.02.2024 – Glassnode reported that almost 510,000 ETH was withdrawn from cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 3 weeks.

▲ 05.02.2024 – According to a CoinShares survey, 75% of respondents believe that ETH has the most attractive growth prospects.

▲ 07.02.2024 – Ethereum developers reported a successful launch of the Dencun update in the Holesky test network.

Ripple (XRP)

▼ 01.02.2024 – Approximately 213 million XRP worth around $112 million was stolen as a result of the Ripple hack.

Solana (SOL)

▲ 26.01.2024 – The Solana network has been running without failures for 336 consecutive days.

▲ 29.01.2024 – Solana intends to double its efforts to attract developers and startups to its ecosystem.

▲ 31.01.2024 – In January, the Solana blockchain processed transactions worth almost $1 trillion.

▲ 01.02.2024 – The number of newly registered addresses on the Solana blockchain in January reached a record 12 million, according to The Block.

▼ 06.02.2024 – At 09:52:45 UTC, the Solana network stopped processing blocks.

▲ 06.02.2024 – The Solana network was rebooted, and new blocks were processed.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

▲ 29.01.2024 – The Dogecoin network saw a record number of active DOGE addresses – 247,240.

▲ 30.01.2024 – There is a significant increase in the number of new addresses on the Dogecoin network, with their number increasing by 1,100% over the last week.

▲ 06.02.2024 – SpaceX accepted payment in DOGE for the DOGE-1 lunar mission.

Chainlink (LINK)

▲ 30.01.2024 – Major Chainlink holders added over 57 million LINK to their balances in the last 30 days.

Sui (SUI)

▲ 31.01.2024 – Sui ended January with a new record token price and locked value volume, with TVL exceeding $430 million.

EXMO.com news

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