Your weekly crypto market statistics, news headlines and trading ideas, all in one place.
Brief Overview
The cryptocurrency market is entering a consolidation phase amid mixed macro signals. While macro data such as inflation and liquidity indices are favorable, the simultaneous strengthening of the yen could pose a threat to the bull market.
This week’s much-anticipated presidential debate was a non-event for cryptocurrencies, with neither candidate mentioning the topic.
The TOKEN 2049 Singapore Conference will be held next week. Will the market continue the trend of previous years and fall, or will it be different this time?
We’ll dive deeper into the possibility that Solana will continue to outperform the market before the end of the year.
Data Overview
Outperforming currencies:
$FTM (+24.5%): FTM was the best performing L1 blockchain over the past week, fueled by its Sonic upgrade and bullish comments from founder Andre Cronje.
$SUI (+23.5%): Grayscale announced that its Grayscale Sui Trust is now open to accredited investors interested in investing in $SUI.
$TON (+14.2%): Binance announced the listing of Hamster Kombat — a small game in the TON ecosystem.
Underperforming Coins:
$LTC (-5.3%): Litecoin has been on a slow downward trend since May.
$ETH (-1.8%): Large institutions continue to deposit Ethereum into exchanges, causing it to continue to underperform Bitcoin.
$WIF (-0.6%): WIF is losing momentum as new meme coins on Ethereum EtherVista gain traction.
News
Macro:
ETH ETF weekly outflow: -$20.4 million ( source )
BTC ETF weekly outflow: -$29.3 million ( source )
August CPI report: Inflation falls to 2.5%, but core prices appear more stubborn ( source )
The latest reverse repurchase (RRP) data fell to an annual low, indicating that liquidity is easing ( source )
Nikkei falls for seventh day as stronger yen weighs on Nikkei ( Source )
Gold prices hit a record high, and US PPI data supports the Fed's interest rate cut expectations ( source )
project
1inch Network releases cross-chain innovation white paper ( source )
Ethervista: VISTA app coming soon ( source )
EigenLayer: Season 2 Stakedrop claims will be open on or before September 17 ( Source )
The number of long-term TRX holder addresses increased by 237% in one year ( source )
Grayscale to launch first XRP trust in the US, paving the way for potential ETF (source )
Competition in the DEX market intensifies, and Uniswap’s market share drops to 36% ( Source )
Donald Trump announces launch date for World Liberty Financial ( source )
Since the Dencun upgrade, the Ethereum L1 protocol has received almost zero revenue from Layer 2 ( source )
Trading Alpha
NOTE: The following does not constitute financial advice. This is a compilation of market news and we always encourage you to do your own research before executing any trades. The following is not meant to express any guaranteed returns and BitMEX cannot be held responsible if your trades do not perform as expected.
Long$SOL: Solana Breakpoint is coming
SOL is planning a significant token unlock in Q1 2025, but this may already be priced in by the market. The main upcoming event to watch is likely to be Solana Breakpoint, which will take place at the end of next week - will we see a rally before then?
The big question for Solana is: what can we expect at this highly anticipated gathering? The last event revealed exciting developments like the $JUP airdrop and the introduction of $IO — so expectations are high this time around.
Previous concerns
We previously outlined the case for short$SOL, primarily due to the lack of sustained growth catalysts:
New native projects have dried up since the airdrop season ended
Meme coin trading is losing momentum
No new compelling narratives or projects emerge
How might this situation change?
The upcoming Solana Breakpoint conference may reveal some interesting developments.
As Multicoin Capital’s report highlights, most DePIN projects now rely on Solana — @Hivemapper, @helium, @rendernetwork, @ionet, @kuzco_xyz, @teleportxyz, and @GEODNET_.
Private companies like Stripe, and Fortune 500 fintech giants like Visa and PayPal have already chosen Solana as their platform (or one of several platforms). Moreover, with the recent launch of token expansion, Solana is taking a significant RWA market share. Hamilton Lane even launched a credit fund on the Solana blockchain. The snowball effect for Solana is growing.
Solana’s recent success is reflected in its increased usage compared to Ethereum and other modular networks. User activity on Ethereum has been declining relative to Solana, likely due to its poor user experience, high latency and fees, and increased reliance on L2 (which erodes ETH’s primary value capture mechanism, MEV).
Over the past quarter, the number of new daily active addresses on Solana has consistently exceeded that of Ethereum L1, demonstrating the migration of users from high transaction fee environments to Solana’s low-cost ecosystem.
We expect Solana’s momentum to continue through the end of the year and into 2025, driven primarily by the launch of Firedancer and the upcoming annual Solana Breakpoint conference in Singapore.
Firedancer is a new validator client being built by Jump Trading (one of the world's largest high-frequency trading firms) with a focus on network speed and performance. Jump Trading's decades of experience with low-latency trading systems make them uniquely suited for the task. Firedancer is expected to outperform current Solana clients, significantly benefiting the Solana DeFi protocol and users. Firedancer is written in a different language than existing Solana clients, which should theoretically prevent a single bug or failure from affecting the entire network. Multiple network clients thus increase Solana's resiliency while enhancing speed.
The Next Story on Solana: PayFi
PayFi on Solana makes a compelling case for blockchain adoption by solving real-world financial challenges. It leverages Solana’s high-speed, low-cost infrastructure to provide instant settlement, enhanced security, and reduced costs. Crucially, PayFi’s accessibility to global markets, including the unbanked, could drive significant user growth for Solana while addressing financial inclusion issues. This practical application of blockchain technology in everyday transactions could solidify Solana’s position as the leading blockchain for real-world use cases.
What else to expect:
In addition to PayFi and semi-secret projects in the consumer space, we’re also looking forward to updates on Solana Actions and Blinks. These features could potentially attract more users to the cryptocurrency space, making it another exciting direction for development.
There are also rumors circulating about major keynotes from existing projects like Jupiter. After announcing their token at the last Breakpoint conference, many are expecting the project to perhaps announce a mobile trading app, on-chain shares, a second round of airdrops or bounties, or a major update to their product line. Stay tuned.
