Equities are showing slight increases today as investors weigh disappointing housing data against improved consumer confidence and steady inflation expectations. The SPY and QQQ have both increased by approximately 0.2%. Crypto assets are mixed with BTC 0.71% and ETH 1.01% gaining following yesterday’s late-day selloff, while altcoins are broadly lower. Net flows this week have been muted for both Bitcoin and Ethereum, with Bitcoin ETFs seeing $3.5 million in outflows and Ethereum seeing roughly $1 million in inflows. Among altcoins, Synapse, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, has surged almost 50% today after Binance listed a futures contract for SYN 4.07% , giving investors access to leverage trading. In contrast, meme coins are underperforming, with WIF 1.31% , BONK 0.05% , and PEPE all losing over 8% over the last twenty-four hours.
Uniswap Initiates $2.5 Million Audit Competition
Uniswap Labs is launching a $2.35 million audit competition for its upcoming v4 protocol, claiming to be the largest prize pool in DeFi history. The prize pool will fund independent reviews of Uniswap v4’s smart contracts and novel Universal Router system, enabling swaps between ERC20s and NFTs. The audit competition will go live on September 4th and run through the end of the month. Anyone can submit code vulnerabilities, and rewards will be allocated based on the bug severity and quality of submission documentation. Uniswap v4 is expected to improve DeFi with new features like hooks, which enable the customization of liquidity pools, adding functionality for dynamic fees, limit orders, and purpose-built oracles. Additionally, v4 will unveil Uniswap’s “singleton” contract, with all liquidity pools held in a single contract, improving capital efficiency and reducing transaction costs. Uniswap Labs wants v4 to be the most audited set of contracts ever deployed and ensure there are no issues upon deployment. UNI N/A% is showing relative strength following the news, gaining 2.34%, while most alts are negative on the day.
Flexa Launches Point-of-Sale Payments Toolkit
Flexa, a crypto payments company, has introduced a new tool, Flexa Components, an asset-agnostic, embeddable toolkit allowing developers to interface directly with retailer point-of-sale systems. Flexa Components simplifies digital payments for merchants, allowing people to pay with digital assets at the point of sale. Customers can pay with their preferred crypto wallet, either by scanning a QR code or tapping a pay button on the merchant’s system. Flexa Components supports payments with USDC 0.00% , BTC 0.71% , ETH 1.01% , SOL 1.55% , MATIC 2.78% , LTC 1.50% , and other assets, and Flexa has already onboarded notable retailers, including Chipotle, Regal Cinemas, Mikimoto, and 99 Ranch Market. Flexa Components is simple for merchants to implement, with integrations taking less than a day and coming with out-of-the-box user interfaces, benefiting merchants with faster payment processing and cost savings. Flexa was founded in 2018 and continues to contribute to making digital assets a part of existing financial infrastructure.
Technical Strategy
As Mark Newton is on break, there will be no Technical Strategy section for this week. Mark will be returning on Tuesday, August 20th.
Daily Important Metrics
Crypto Size
Bullish signal is tied to the crypto market growing
Market cap 2.06T
$-22.5B(-1.08%)
BTC Dominance
55.98 % (0.32%)
Stablecoins
Increase in circulating stablecoins is a Bullish signal
In Circulation +$117B
(0.16%)
In Exchanges +$20B
(-0.89%)
BTC Metrics
A decrease in Bitcoin on exchanges is bullish, indicates investors are moving coins to cold storage
# BTC Exchanges +$3.0M
(-0.11%)
Funding Rates
Positive funding rates indicate traders are Bullish
Aggregate
-0.6059(-0.3876)
Binance
+0.9963(0.0568)
Bitfinex
0.0000(0.0000)
Bitmex
-1.1993(-0.4005)
ByBit
+0.0548(-0.2511)
Deribit
-0.2274(-0.2158)
Huobi
-0.2500(-0.2500)
Kraken
-0.6106(-0.4004)
Mean
-0.6059(-0.3876)
OKex
-0.7122(-0.7195)
Sentiment
BMI : 44 (100.00%)
Futures
A positive spread between Futures Prices and Spot Prices is Bullish
CME Price $58,900(-0.55%)
Spot Basis +$386(0.66%)
Volume 858,284(24.90%)
Open Interest 290,575(3.10%)
Options all exchanges
Higher open interest change in a bull market is bullish for the sector
[PRESS RELEASE – Victoria, Seychelles, August 16th, 2024] Bitget Wallet the leading Web3 wallet is excited to announce a groundbreaking milestone of reaching 30 million users as it sets a new record for global app downloads in July 2024, surpassing MetaMask’s growth for the month. Since crossing 20 million userbase in March this year, Bitget Wallet […]
South Korea’s National Pension Service (NPS) holds more than $80 million worth of MicroStrategy and Coinbase shares, according to a new filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Aug. 13 filing revealed that the NPS purchased 24,500 shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR) for about $33.75 million during the second quarter ending June 30. […] The post Third largest pension fund globally invests $80M in MicroStrategy and Coinbase appeared first on CryptoSlate.
Ghana’s central bank has published draft guidelines for Virtual Asset Service Providers. According to the Bank of Ghana’s Aug. 16 draft, the nation has witnessed a spike in demand for cryptocurrencies, prompting the need for regulations to counter the various…
Bitdeer Technologies Group’s stock price dropped to $6.33 after it announced a senior convertible notes offering. Singapore-based crypto mining firm Bitdeer Technologies Group announced a proposed public offering of $150 million convertible notes due in 2029 to expand its data center and develop ASIC-based mining rigs. On Aug. 15, Bitdeer said that the notes would be senior, unsecured obligations of the company, which will mature on Aug. 15, 2029, unless converted, redeemed or repurchased earlier. A senior convertible note is a type of debt security that can later be converted into equity. It’s a form of debt for the company that can also accrue interest payments for the investor over time. A senior convertible note has priority over all other debt securities issued by a company.Read more
Flexa Components will allow retailers to accept crypto payments like USDC at the point of sale.
Disclosures(show)
This research is for the clients of Fundstrat Direct only. Fundstrat Direct Subscription entitles the subscriber to 1 user, research cannot be shared or redistributed. For additional information, please contact your sales representative or Fundstrat Direct at fundstratdirect.com.
Analyst Certification (Reg AC)
Tom Couture, the research analyst denoted by an “AC” on the cover of this report, hereby certifies that
all of the views expressed in this report accurately reflect
his
personal views, which have not been
influenced by considerations of the firm’s business or client relationships.
Neither I, nor a member of my household is an officer, director, or advisory board member of the
issuer(s) or has another significant affiliation with the issuer(s) that is/are the subject of this
research report. There is a possibility that we will from time to time have long or short positions
in,
and buy or sell, the securities or derivatives, if any, referred to in this research.
Conflicts of Interest
This research contains the views, opinions and recommendations of Fundstrat Direct. At the time of publication of this report, Fundstrat Direct does not know of, or have reason to know of any material conflicts of interest.
General Disclosures
Fundstrat Direct is an independent research company and is not a registered investment advisor and is not acting as a broker dealer under any federal or state securities laws.
Fundstrat Direct is a member of IRC Securities’ Research Prime Services Platform. IRC Securities is a FINRA registered broker-dealer that is focused on supporting the independent research industry. Certain personnel of Fundstrat Direct (i.e. Research Analysts) are registered representatives of IRC Securities, a FINRA member firm registered as a broker-dealer with the Securities and Exchange Commission and certain state securities regulators. As registered representatives and independent contractors of IRC Securities, such personnel may receive commissions paid to or shared with IRC Securities for transactions placed by Fundstrat Direct clients directly with IRC Securities or with securities firms that may share commissions with IRC Securities in accordance with applicable SEC and FINRA requirements. IRC Securities does not distribute the research of Fundstrat Direct, which is available to select institutional clients that have engaged Fundstrat Direct.
As registered representatives of IRC Securities our analysts must follow IRC Securities’ Written Supervisory Procedures. Notable compliance policies include (1) prohibition of insider trading or the facilitation thereof, (2) maintaining client confidentiality, (3) archival of electronic communications, and (4) appropriate use of electronic communications, amongst other compliance related policies.
Fundstrat Direct does not have the same conflicts that traditional sell-side research organizations have because Fundstrat Direct (1) does not conduct any investment banking activities, and (2) does not manage any investment funds.
This communication is issued by Fundstrat Direct and/or affiliates of Fundstrat Direct. This is not a personal recommendation, nor an offer to buy or sell nor a solicitation to buy or sell any securities, investment products or other financial instruments or services. This material is distributed for general informational and educational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting or investment advice.
The statements in this document shall not be considered as an objective or independent explanation of the matters. Please note that this document (a) has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research, and (b) is not subject to any prohibition on dealing ahead of the dissemination or publication of investment research.
Intended for recipient only and not for further distribution without the consent of Fundstrat Direct.
This research is for the clients of Fundstrat Direct only. Additional information is available upon request. Information has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but Fundstrat Direct does not warrant its completeness or accuracy except with respect to any disclosures relative to Fundstrat Direct and the analyst’s involvement (if any) with any of the subject companies of the research. All pricing is as of the market close for the securities discussed, unless otherwise stated. Opinions and estimates constitute our judgment as of the date of this material and are subject to change without notice. Past performance is not indicative of future results. This material is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any financial instrument. The opinions and recommendations herein do not take into account individual client circumstances, risk tolerance, objectives, or needs and are not intended as recommendations of particular securities, financial instruments or strategies. The recipient of this report must make its own independent decision regarding any securities or financial instruments mentioned herein. Except in circumstances where Fundstrat Direct expressly agrees otherwise in writing, Fundstrat Direct is not acting as a municipal advisor and the opinions or views contained herein are not intended to be, and do not constitute, advice, including within the meaning of Section 15B of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All research reports are disseminated and available to all clients simultaneously through electronic publication to our internal client website, fundstratdirect.com. Not all research content is redistributed to our clients or made available to third-party aggregators or the media. Please contact your sales representative if you would like to receive any of our research publications.
