First Mover Americas: Solana, Cardano Lead Losses as Market Starts Week in the Red

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The crypto market started the week in the red, with Solana's SOL and Cardano's ADA leading the losses, having dropped 5% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency by market value, lost the $41,000 support level early Monday, as the CoinDesk 20, a liquid index of the highest traded tokens, slumped 2.86% in the past 24 hours. Traders expect prices to fall as low as $38,000 in the coming weeks, which could lead to more losses in other cryptocurrencies. Recent downward pressure on bitcoin has been attributed to sales stemming from Grayscale’s GBTC bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), as per some analysts, including Bloomberg’s Eric Balchunas. However, other newly approved bitcoin ETFs are seeing net inflows. BlackRock’s IBIT and Fidelity’s FBTC ETFs crossed $1 billion last week, data tracked by CoinGlass shows, indicative of buying pressure.

Meme coins Dogecoin [DOGE] and floki [FLOKI] rose as much as 12% before retreating, as an @xpayments profile on X (formerly Twitter) sent adoption hopes flying among crypto circles. There is speculation that advertisers could use DOGE for ads and other purposes on the social media site. Trading volumes for both tokens shot up 200% over the weekend, CoinGecko data shows, even as broader crypto volumes remained relatively lower amid little volatility. Elsewhere, futures tracking the tokens saw open interest rise to a cumulative $430 million from $200 million, indicative of rising bets. However, broader market downward pressure took hold during European morning hours, with both down over 5% on the day at the time of writing.

Terraform Labs, developer of the failed stablecoin TerraUSD which collapsed in May 2022, has filed for bankruptcy. Documents filed in Delaware on Jan. 21 say that the firm has between $100 million to $500 million in assets and the same amount in liabilities. "The filing will allow TFL to execute on its business plan while navigating ongoing legal proceedings, including representative litigation pending in Singapore and U.S. litigation" Terraform Labs said in a statement. Amongst the list of unsecured creditors are TQ Ventures, a U.S.-based digital assets investment fund, and Standard Crypto, a San Francisco-based venture fund.

Chart of The Day

• The chart shows the basis between bitcoin and ether CME futures and the spot prices of the two cryptocurrencies.
• The premium in bitcoin futures has narrowed to less than 0.5%, down significantly from the year-to-date high of over 4% seen before the debut of 11 spot ETFs in the U.S. on Jan. 11. Ether futures seem to be following bitcoin's lead.
• Traders may have sold futures while simultaneously buying cryptocurrencies early this month to pocket the elevated premium. That, coupled with a leverage shakeout after ETFs' debut, likely pushed the premium lower.
• Source: Coinbase, Coinmetrics, Bloomberg

- Omkar Godbole

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