In regulatory news, the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed to drop its case against DebtBox "without prejudice.” The case is significant since the regulator received several criticisms after getting an emergency warrant to freeze corporate assets, which led the federal judge to question the agency on allegations they provided false and misleading evidence. The SEC could see sanctions, though they argue that dismissing the case is sanction enough.
In Europe, rumors abound of the European Commission (EC) publishing a report labeling Bitcoin as environmentally harmful and a threat to “energy security.” The EC appears to be pushing to ban Bitcoin miners and discourage Bitcoin investment through ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) measures.
Centralized Exchange (CEX) comparisons from weeks 1/23/2024 and 1/30/2024
Total spot trading volume for key BTC pairs over the last three years
Centralized exchange trading volume has been in a state of recovery over the last three years, with peaks in the second half of 2022 caused by the major waves of exchange and fund collapses, bankruptcies, and regulatory action. As we entered the new year with the Bitcoin ETF approvals, we’ve seen a slight bump in trading volume on key BTC trading pairs (BTC/USD, BTC/USDT, and BTC/USDC) but we’re still very far from recovering.
Trading volume for the top traded pairs over the last three months
Key trading tokens over the last three months have remained consistent, with SOL trending on pace if not outpacing ETH, and BTC leading the charge. XRP still remains in the top 5 tokens, however with a hack of over $112 million against one of the Ripple co-founders, it’ll be interesting to see how the market reacts.
Decentralized Exchange (DEX) protocol from weeks 1/23/2024 and 1/30/2024
Overall DEX trading volume over the last 3 years
Echoing their centralized counterparts, DEX trading volume also has yet to reach the heights of 2022, but continue to grow on top of levels in 2021.
Top traded pools on DEXs over the last week and quarter
Interestingly, the WBTC craze has dropped off over the last few weeks and trading volume appears to be slowly fading away with the token volume dropping down to 4th most active trading pair.
DeFi Lending protocol comparisons from weeks 1/23/2024 and 1/30/2024
Total volume deposited and withdrawn across DeFi Lending protocols
With some aspects of crypto beginning to normalize after the chaotic start of the year, DeFi lending protocols have been fairly stable over the last few weeks with recent days showing a slight increase in daily withdrawals.
Total volume borrowed and repaid across DeFi Lending protocols
On the borrowing side, we saw last week's borrow volumes beginning to increase along with several airdrop opportunities coming to fruition across several networks. More recently, however, these loans are starting to come back to the platform.
DeFi Lending top borrowed tokens by volume’s daily address count
Most activity remains concentrated on WETH and stablecoins, however, GHO is an interesting standout, making the top five pools for borrowers based on address count. GHO is Aave’s new stablecoin created to help the protocol boost liquidity and improve utility while also providing some competition for MakerDAO’s DAI stablecoin.
Network comparisons from weeks 1/23/2024 and 1/30/2024
Network transactions over the last three months
Bitcoin transactions continue to outpace Ethereum despite the network’s jump in activity after the Bitcoin ETF approvals as liquidity moved back from Bitcoin to Ethereum (and BTC to ETH). Bitcoin Ordinals have also not slowed down in adoption or hype with several ordinal projects gaining traction not seen since the NFT craze in previous years.
Network transaction fees over the last year
Network fees have also been returning to more normal levels since the ETF approvals, despite expectations for an Ethereum ETF within the year.
Recent from Amberdata
Spot Market
Spot market charts were built using the following endpoints:
Futures
Futures/Swaps charts were built using the following endpoints:
DeFi DEXs
DeFi DEX charts were built using the following endpoints:
DeFi Borrow/Lend
DeFi lending charts were built using the following endpoints:
Networks
Network charts were built using the following endpoints: