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👀Altcoins Outperform As BTC Suffers Sell-On-The-News ETF Aftermath
The Defiant Daily
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BTC is underperforming ETH and altcoins following the launch of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs last week. Bitcoin ranks 99th among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap for seven-day price performance as investors rotate capital out of BTC and into other digital assets.
New analysis from CoinShares indicates Bitcoin's highly anticipated halving this April will precipitate miner capitulation. The drop in block rewards coupled with Bitcoin's hash rate doubling last year is expected to culminate in many miners no longer being profitable after the halving.
Plus, Ethereum's validator exit queue is empty again after spiking to record highs two weeks ago as Celsius, the bankrupt CeFi lender, moved to unstake its Ether. Celsius sent $125M in Ether to exchanges this past week and still holds an enormous $1.37B worth of ETH in its wallets.
✍️ In today’s newsletter:
- Bitcoin underperforms altcoins after spot ETFs go live
- CoinShares predicts Bitcoin miner exodus post-halving
- Waitlist to exit Ethereum staking clears after Celsius offboards
📈 Markets in last 24 hrs:
| Ticker | Value | 24h |
|---|---|---|
| BTC | $42,848 | ↙ -0.11% |
| ETH | $2,576 | ↗ 2.04% |
| S&P 500 | $4,784 | ↗ 0.08% |
| GOLD | $2,047 | ↗ 1.61% |
| Arch WEB3 | 1.25pts | ↙ -2.81% |
| ↳ FINANCE | 1.20pts | ↙ -4.35% |
| ↳ INFRA | 1.38pts | ↗ 0.06% |
| ↳ CONSUMER | 1.35pts | ↙ -4.67% |
Learn more about Arch Indices here.
🎬 WATCH
In this week's Crypto with Cami, we explore the aftermath of spot Bitcoin ETF approval. Also watch our podcast with Matt Hougan, the CIO of Bitwise, to get his take on what the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs means for the digital asset markets and web3 sector.
THANKING OUR NEWSLETTER SPONSORS
| Newsletter continues below |
Markets
BTC Underperforms ETH and Altcoins As Investors Sell Bitcoin After ETF Approval
TLDR The price of BTC is down more than 12% from its local top of $48,500 on Jan. 11. BTC ranks 99th among the top 100 digital assets by seven-day price performance as investors rotated out of Bitcoin.
SO WHAT BTC's underperformance comes in spite of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs going live last week following months of speculation. The event manifested as a sell-on-the-news event for BTC, with traders appearing to turn their attention to ETH and other altcoins.
READ MORE: BTC Underperforms ETH and Altcoins As Investors Sell Bitcoin After ETF Approval
Bitcoin
CoinShares Predicts Post-Halving Miner Exodus
TLDR A new report from CoinShares predicts many miners will exit Bitcoin after its fourth halving goes live in April. CoinShares noted that Bitcoin's hash rate doubled last year, increasing difficulty ahead of block rewards falling by 50% amid the halving.
SO WHAT The report estimates it will cost $37,856 on average to mine one Bitcoin after the halving. CoinShares found that Bitcoin's hash rate has fallen by 9% on average during the six months following previous halvings.
SPONSORED SHOUTOUT
Stellar Network's Soroban Smart Contract Platform Releases the Phased Rollout Timeline
Over the past two years, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) and the wider Stellar community have worked tirelessly to bring smart contract functionality to the Stellar network, which will usher in new capabilities and opportunities that will work with all existing network functionality.
Recently the Stellar Development Foundation and the maintainers of key Stellar SDKs announced the release of a full suite of software that supports Protocol 20, which will bring Soroban smart contracts to Stellar. With the technical pieces now in place, Stellar network validators have agreed to a January 30 vote on the Mainnet upgrade to Protocol 20.
Ethereum
Ethereum Exit Queue Clears As Celsius Rebalances Assets
TLDR The waitlist for stakers exiting Ethereum is again empty after spiking to a record high of 16,766 two weeks ago. The queue was bloated by Celsius, the bankrupt centralized crypto lender, unstaking its ETH in preparation to distribute assets to creditors.
SO WHAT Celsius said it offboarded from Ethereum staking to rebalance and recall assets ahead of creditor distributions. The company still holds an enormous $1.4B worth of ETH despite sending $125M to exchanges in the past week, with Ether comprising its largest crypto holding by more than three times.
READ MORE: Ethereum Exit Queue Clears As Celsius Rebalances Assets
🔎 OUR REPORTERS ARE WATCHING
🌍 ELSEWHERE
- Moody's says adoption of tokenized funds signals 'untapped market potential' (The Block)
- GameStop axes its short-lived NFT marketplace as it retreats from crypto (Engadget)
- Tether crypto token increasingly favoured by money launderers, UN warns (Financial Times)
