First Mover Americas: BTC Starts June Trading Flat, Alts Decline

Good morning, and welcome to First Mover. I’m Lyllah Ledesma, here to take you through the latest in crypto markets, news and insights.

• Price point: Bitcoin trades flat and altcoins underperform.
• Market Moves: BTC futures now account for 63% of the open interest in the crypto futures market.

Price Point

Bitcoin (BTC) opened its first day of trading in June at around $31,800. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trading relatively flat and hasn't seen much price movement overnight.

Bitcoin has fallen 15% from this time a year ago, when it was trading at around $37,000.

Ether is trading at $1,900 at the time of writing and is down 26% from this time a year ago.

According to Charles Storry, head of growth at Phuture, a crypto index platform, the sell-off is just beginning.

“We are entering a 12-18 month bear market. I am bullish long term as this is short term fear and panic selling,” Storry said.

Altcoins saw weakness over the last 24 hours after some of the coins rallied on Tuesday. Cardano (ADA) has dropped 7%, Avalanche (AVAX) fell 5.7%, and Solana’s SOL declined 5%.

Tron’s TRX was the only gainer, climbing by 10% over the last 24 hours.

Optimism (OP), the token that powers the layer 2 Ethereum scaling tool Optimism, has dropped 65% from its listing price after its much anticipated airdrop.

Market Moves

Bitcoin Dominance in Derivatives

Open interest in bitcoin futures and perpetuals now account for 63% of the open interest in the crypto futures market. In early April, open interest was around 50%, according to data from Arcane Research. This has come as the global interest in the crypto market has seen a sharp decline.

BTC futures accounting for 63% of the crypto market are at their highest level since October 2021.

Bitcoin’s dominance in the derivatives market mirrors the cryptocurrency’s dominance in the wider market, which trended higher in May.

Joshua Lim, head of derivatives at Genesis Global Trading, said that this data suggests the speculative interest in altcoins is diminishing.

“Alts have had a rough run and a lot of liquidations and de-risking has taken speculators out of the market,” Lim said.

Latest Headlines

• Binance Labs Raises $500M Fund for Web 3, Blockchain Investments The new fund will invest in cryptocurrency companies in three stages spanning from incubation to late-stage growth.
• Crypto Exchanges Should Lose Licenses for Laundering Breaches, EU Regulators Say The advice comes as legislators reach the closing stages of the landmark crypto MiCA law.
• Tech Experts 'Counter-Lobby' Washington Criticizing Crypto, Blockchain: Report A letter from 26 technologists refers to crypto as risky, flawed and unproven.
• Polygon Increases KYC Scrutiny of Potential Investments and Grants in India Polygon is now requiring extensive customer details for prospective partners in India as regulatory scrutiny there grows, according to a source.

Today’s newsletter was edited by Lyllah Ledesma and produced by Parikshit Mishra and Stephen Alpher.