The Grayscale ruling set off a frenzy of Bitcoin (BTC) trading in a rollercoaster week for the crypto market. However, the subsequent decision by the SEC to delay several ETF approvals until October left traders on edge. Kaiko’s latest Data Debrief delves into the repercussions of these events.
Bitcoin’s Trading Volumes Fail To See Significant Boost
Markets initially celebrated as a court ruling favored Grayscale in its dispute with the SEC, briefly causing Bitcoin to spike to $28,000. This rally was marked by a surge in trading volumes, particularly on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
Binance’s BTC-USDT pair saw a remarkable over $50 million increase in cumulative volume delta (CVD), while Coinbase’s surge was more gradual, peaking at about $35 million.
However, the mood shifted when the SEC postponed its ETF decisions, triggering a selling frenzy. Binance and Coinbase reported sharp declines in their Bitcoin trading instruments, with BTC-USDT and BTC-TUSD on Binance approaching -$100 million, and Coinbase also turning negative.
Despite the dramatic price swings, the Grayscale ruling failed to boost BTC’s overall trading volumes significantly. In fact, August 29 ranked just 504 out of 973 days since the start of 2021 in terms of Bitcoin volume. BTC’s open interest in native units experienced only a modest 8% decrease between August 29 and 31, far less than the 22% plunge during the August 16-17 selloff.
Meanwhile, Kaiko introduced a novel methodology for measuring stablecoin depegs, providing insights into the stability of USDC, BUSD, USDT, DAI, and TUSD since the beginning of 2023.
Aave’s GHO stablecoin struggled to maintain its $1 peg, prompting Aave governance to increase the borrowing rate to 2.5% to stabilize its value.
XRP, which surged after a U.S. court declared it not a security, experienced heavy selling on Korean exchange Upbit and OKX. Although XRP’s average trade volume was four times higher than other top altcoins, it couldn’t hold onto its gains.
Binance tightened restrictions for Russian users due to potential investigations by the U.S. DOJ related to sanctions circumvention. This move led to a significant decline in the platform’s RUB and UAH trade volumes.
AI-affiliated tokens saw a modest increase in weekly trade volume in August, with the controversial launch of Worldcoin resulting in a more than 50% drop in its value. Meanwhile, Fetch.ai and Ocean gained traction with a decentralized data exchange system.
Despite the exchange’s collapse, FTX’s exchange token FTT continued to trade on centralized exchanges, primarily Binance and Huobi. Its use cases remain unclear, but it maintains a notable presence in the market.
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