Market Wrap: Cryptos Rise With Altcoins in the Lead

Bitcoin (BTC) was roughly flat on Thursday, confined to a tight trading range as traders await a decisive breakout or breakdown in prices. For now, sentiment among crypto traders is still bearish, albeit less so compared with last week, according to the bitcoin Fear & Greed index.

Meanwhile, most alternative cryptos (altcoins) outperformed bitcoin on Thursday, indicating a greater appetite for risk among short-term traders. Typically, alts rise more than BTC during up markets because of their greater risk profile. And the opposite is true during down markets.

Two standouts on Thursday were Chainlink's LINK token and Helium's HNT token, which both rallied by as much as 10% over the past 24 hours. And over the past week, Cardano's ADA token rose by 9%, compared with BTC's flat performance over the same period.

Latest prices

●Bitcoin (BTC): $30,038, −0.31%

●Ether (ETH): $1,784, −0.18%

●S&P 500 daily close: 4,019, −2.36%

●Gold: $1,850 per troy ounce, −0.13%

●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.04%

Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found at coindesk.com/indices.

Funding rates compressed

Bitcoin's funding rate, or the cost of funding long and short positions in the perpetual futures market, has been at or around neutral levels over the past six months. The previous record duration of a compressed funding environment lasted for four months from May to October last year.

"This consistency of neutral to negative funding rates is unprecedented in the BTC [perpetual market] history," Arcane Research wrote in a report this week. That could be driven by the prolonged bearish sentiment among crypto traders, or the entrance of more funds taking advantage of the base neutral funding rate of 0.01% to earn a consistent yield, according to Arcane.

Typically, funding rates have seen sharp swings, which reflected extreme bullish/bearish sentiment around price highs and lows. Over time, however, traders have been less willing to pay for additional long or short exposure, possibly indicating a lower appetite for leverage or a neutral outlook among market participants.

Currently, funding rates are making minor lows, which could signal stabilization in prices after extreme sell-offs. For example, BTC's dip last weekend sent Bybit’s funding rate to the lowest level since February, similar to what occurred after BTC's sharp drop toward $25,300 on May 10.

Altcoin roundup

• SEC investigating company behind terraUSD: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is looking into whether Terraform Labs – the Singapore-registered firm that created the terraUSD (UST) stablecoin and luna token – violated U.S. laws regarding how it marketed the crypto coins. Terra and luna functionally lost all of their value last month. Terraform tried relaunching luna, creating a new token and rebranding the original to luna classic. Read more here.
• Stolen Optimism: Ethereum scaling tool Optimism announced Wednesday that attackers stole $15 million in OP governance tokens. Optimism intended to send the funds to a crypto market maker, but the funds fell into the wrong hands when the market maker, Wintermute, provided Optimism’s team with a wrong blockchain address. Read more here.
• UFC taps VeChain: VeChain has signed on to be the first official layer 1, or base layer, blockchain partner for mixed martial arts organization UFC. According to an announcement post, the partnership includes a variety of integrations into UFC live events and original content for its digital and social media channels, starting Saturday, June 11. Read more here.

Relevant insight

• Terraform Labs Loses US Appeal Over SEC Subpoena: The court found that the SEC followed its own rules on serving subpoenas.
• Virtu Sees Crypto Market-Making Opportunity, Has Little Confidence in Incumbents, CEO Says: Virtu Financial's CEO is positive on building a crypto marketplace with Citadel Securities.
• CFTC Chief Behnam Sees a Crypto Movement Brewing in Washington: As a key regulator of digital assets, Chairman Rostin Behnam encourages legislation that gives his agency more funding and reach into cash markets.
• Jay-Z, Jack Dorsey Unveil ‘Bitcoin Academy’ for Brooklyn Public Housing Residents: The two entrepreneurs are teaming up to offer Bitcoin-focused financial literacy courses beginning this summer for children, teens and adult residents of the Marcy Houses.
• Coinbase Makes Strategic Investment in Crypto Exchange Zipmex: Report: Coinbase has opted for a strategic investment instead of an acquisition despite earlier talks.
• Anchorage Digital Spearheads Crypto Custody Exchange Network to Enhance Trading, Liquidity: Anchorage and crypto companies including Binance.US have created an exchange network for institutional investors.

Other markets

Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day higher.

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Chainlink LINK +4.7% Computing Polygon MATIC +4.5% Smart Contract Platform Solana SOL +3.0% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Internet Computer ICP −3.3% Computing Cardano ADA −2.6% Smart Contract Platform Litecoin LTC −1.7% Currency

Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges.