Dispatch #181: When Bulls Run

In this patch of your weekly Dispatch:

• The Years of Investments 📊
• The Billions of Capital 💲
• The Coming of Age 🌸

The Big Idea

Waking Up to a $60K Bitcoin

In light of the recent market events, please note that all numbers below are correct as of editors’ close because the bull market got wild mid-week!

Bitcoin? At $62,000, it’s awfully close to a new all-time high! And ETH? That didn’t struggle at $3,000 as we thought, finding the energy for 15% further up to $3,500.

Even your good ol’ Nexo token crushes the charts, sitting comfortably above $1.30.

As swiftly as it happened, such intense appreciation has long been rumored. But what’s more important is that we’re potentially seeing the most genuine rally for Bitcoin to date, driven by the single most powerful market force (some would say) – greed. Here are some greedy numbers:

• The popularity of spot Bitcoin ETFs is driving significant demand for BTC, with newly issued US ETFs requiring 2,800 units daily, surpassing the daily production of 900 Bitcoins. This surge coincides with a 40% increase in Bitcoin's price over the past month, reaching $64,000 briefly on Wednesday. Spot Bitcoin ETFs broke daily trading volume records too, exceeding $7B.
• Newly-approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US collectively manage over 300,000 BTC, totaling about $17B, according to K33 Research. This is 1.5% of the total 19.6 million BTC in circulation, with each BTC valued at approximately $57,040. In total, spot Bitcoin ETFs, both new and old, now hold nearly $43B worth of the cryptocurrency.
• February witnessed a surge in Bitcoin futures and options open interest, reaching over $22B and $19B respectively to indicate heightened activity and bullish sentiment among traders and investors. The ratio of open calls to puts favored calls at 64% versus 36%, reinforcing the bullish sentiment and suggesting expectations for continued price appreciation or hedging strategies.

So, it’s a little surprising to learn that some think retail investors have been sleeping on this ascent to new all-time highs. We’d agree to disagree here and simply hope that we’ve all learned greed to be a momentary state of the market and not a mindset in crypto. 🙏

(currency-data: eth button: Check Price)

The Latest In…

Reaping What We Saw?

These bull runs do not come out of nowhere, you know – it’s a lot of work to bring out the products that effectively utilize crypto every day, something we’ve been giving our all for since 2018. And now we have the perspective to add. According to data from The Block Research, the crypto sector has attracted $90B in a total of 9500 investments.

The growth has been propelled by exciting developments in DeFi, infrastructure, NFTs/gaming, and web3 projects with renowned investors like Animoca Brands and Polychain Capital leading the way. While investment levels from 2021 and 2022 are still to be reached again, the report notes the number of deals under $10M suggests an accessible landscape for budding ventures.

The Latest In…

More Money, More Crypto

Thе bull market we’re in has brought some exciting numbers to the charts. Thankfully, it’s all in sync with new capital entering, pointing to a healthy trend:

• The stablecoin market has rapidly expanded, reaching over $140B in February, its highest level since December 2022. Notably, $10B of this growth has been witnessed since the start of the year, indicating a significant uptrend in market activity.
• Stablecoin market cap is a gauge for money flows into the crypto ecosystem, with inflows year-to-date contributing to more than 50% of the total growth.
• Tether's USDT surged to an all-time high of $98B, with USDC reaching over $28.5B. USDC's supply expanded nearly 10% in the past month, bringing more than half of the total stablecoin growth.

The Latest In…

ETH Is No Kid!

Grayscale Investments hailed Ethereum's “coming-of-age” with the activation of the highly anticipated Dencun upgrade on testnets. The mainnet debut is set for March 13. Dencun, featuring ephemeral data blobs with EIP-4844, promises to slash transaction fees and boost scalability and competitiveness. The upgrade addresses historical challenges, potentially tripling operating margins for Layer-2 solutions. Grayscale's endorsement underscores market optimism, reflected in ETH's recent 42% surge.

The Week’s Most Interesting Data Story

The True All-Time High Is Already Here?

Bitcoin's realized capitalization (or realized cap) currently stands at $467.2B, almost matching its historic peak. This indicates the total value of all Bitcoin based on the time and price of each coin's last movement, signifying the true liquidity-adjusted capital invested in BTC.Or in other words, we’re officially back in bull market territory.

Hot Topics

What the Community Is Discussing

It appears Dispatch may face some stiff competition soon…

Surely, a bit harsh on the HOLDers… who are NOT selling!

ETH has its own deflationary monetary policy, you know.

What to Watch for Next Week:

• Would DeFi get a bull run too?
• Is Dencun ETH’s ticket to an ATH?
• Can regulation and adoption merge in Asia?