Market Wrap: Crypto Rally Continues, Smaller Altcoins Outperform Bitcoin in June

Crypto assets continued to rally on Tuesday, three days after market-wide selling caused the price of bitcoin (BTC) to drop to a 52-week low.

Bitcoin and ether (ETH) were both recently up about 5%, with bitcoin trading at $21,158.43 and ether at $1,146.41 on Tuesday afternoon.

Stocks also rose as part of a wider rebound in assets. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 2.88%, and the S&P 500, which had its worst week since 2020 last week, gained 2.74%.

Although the increases on Tuesday might cause some relief for traders after bitcoin saw its most volatile week since May 2021 last week, according to data from Arcane Research, many experts warn that the worst isn’t over.

“The bear market will not be over until recession arrives or the risk of one is extinguished,” Morgan Stanley wrote in a note to clients.

“This could be a short-term bounce. Longer term, I’d be concerned that there could be some more selling out there,” Tuttle Capital Management CEO and Chief Investment Officer Matthew Tuttle said on CoinDesk TV.

Smaller altcoins also rallied on Tuesday. Elrond (EGLD), Bitcoin SV (BSV) and Helium (HNT) were among the winners, surging by as much as 51%.

Smaller crypto assets by market cap have fared better than bitcoin this month, although they have also been deep in the red. One small-cap index, which tracks the performance of the 50 smallest crypto assets, fell 27%, according to a report by Arcane Research. Bitcoin, which dropped as much as 35%, underperformed all indexes in June.

“It's a long time since we saw such strong performances from the smaller coins,” the report stated. “It’s highly unusual to see small caps performing better than bitcoin in a falling market.”

Latest prices

●Bitcoin (BTC): $21156, +5.45%

●Ether (ETH): $1146, +4.02%

●S&P 500 daily close: 3,776.74, +2.77%

●Gold: $1834 per troy ounce, +NaN%

●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.31%

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.

'Enormous Outflows' From Largest Bitcoin ETF May Have Triggered BTC Crash

By Krisztian Sandor

The world's largest bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund lost half of its assets under management last Friday, which might have exacerbated bitcoin’s crash on Saturday.

The Purpose Bitcoin ETF saw an outflow of 24,510 bitcoins on Friday, the most severe redemption in a single day since the fund made its debut on the Canadian Stock Exchange in April 2021, according to the Norway-based Arcane Research.

The outflows mean that the fund had to sell about $500 million in BTC at Friday’s price, adding to the selling pressure in an already shaky crypto market, Arcane wrote in a report.

“The enormous outflows are likely caused by a forced seller in a huge liquidation,” Arcane analyst Vetle Lunde wrote. “The forced selling of the 24,000 BTC could have triggered BTC’s move down towards $17,600 this weekend.”

Read the full story here.

Altcoin roundup

• DeFi moves into real estate: Teller Protocol, a startup focused on bringing real-world assets into decentralized finance (DeFi), is working with real estate veteran Tower Fund Capital. The partnership allows liquidity providers to earn interest using USDC stablecoins via Tower Fund Capital, a Securities and Exchange Commission-regulated private lender for real estate investment loans with a $140 million debt fund. This comes after Teller offered an opportunity for DeFi investors to lend capital to a travel insurance company and earn yield. Read more here.
• Cardano delays upgrade: Input Output (IOG), the development lab for the Cardano blockchain, didn't release Monday's planned Vasil hard fork on the Cardano testnet because of technical bugs. The firm said that the Vasil, a network upgrade that would increase scaling capabilities on Cardano, is now slated for a late June release on Cardano's test network. The Cardano blockchain’s native token ADA rose 1% in the last 24 hours, underperforming bitcoin’s 5% gain. Read more here.
• Solana whale moves funds: A large wallet at the center of the governance drama at Solana lending platform Solend started to move millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrencies Tuesday morning, Solend said in a tweet. The move potentially averts the risk of contagion in case of a liquidation that could have caused hundreds of millions of dollars in losses. The anonymous wallet had deposited 95% of Solend’s pool of SOL tokens and represented 88% of USDC borrowing, but came close to a margin call last week as the token’s price dropped more than 40% to as low as $27. Read more here.

Relevant insight

• Listen 🎧: The CoinDesk "Markets Daily" podcast discusses BTC’s recent recovery from weekend lows and fight to stay above $21,000 as risks mount.
• CBDCs, Not Crypto, Will Be Cornerstone of Future Monetary System, BIS Says: A 42-page chapter in the Bank for International Settlements’ annual economic report envisions a future where programmability and tokenization are built on top of central bank digital currencies.
• Former SEC Lawyer Sees More Crypto Regulations After Celsius Network's Debacle: The crypto lender froze withdrawals, and several states are investigating.
• NYDIG to Work With Deloitte in Offering Bitcoin Capabilities to Clients: The two firms formed a strategic alliance to help businesses of different sizes incorporate digital assets into their operations.
• Miner Bitfarms Sold Almost Half Its Bitcoin to Reduce Debt: The miner sold 3,000 BTC in the past week to improve liquidity and reduce indebtedness.
• BlockFi Receives $250M Credit Facility From FTX: The proceeds will be used to fulfill client balances across all accounts.
• FTX Unit Buys Stock-Clearing Platform Embed to Expand Equity Trading Infrastructure: The acquisition is intended to aid FTX.US' equity trading ambitions.
• Kaiko to Provide Deutsche Boerse With Crypto Market Data: The integration is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter.

Other markets

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

Biggest Gainers

Asset Ticker Returns DACS Sector Shiba Inu SHIB +47.0% Currency Dogecoin DOGE +15.1% Currency Polygon MATIC +11.1% Smart Contract Platform

Biggest Losers

There are no losers in CoinDesk 20 today.

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.