ReadNOW

By James Van Straten (All occasions ET until indicated in any other case)

Bitcoin’s (BTC) flirt with a report excessive $124,000 on Thursday was adopted by a drop that led to it closing final weekend’s CME hole at $117,600 after hotter-than-expected PPI inflation information and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s obvious flip-flop on bitcoin purchases for a strategic reserve.

The hole happens as a result of CME hours for BTC futures do not match bitcoin’s 24/7 buying and selling. When the futures market is closed over the weekend, bitcoin’s actions can create a discontinuity in costs on the CME chart. Whereas filling the hole is a recurring sample in market conduct, there’s not assure it should happen.

Bitcoin has now set 4 all-time highs in 2025. Importantly, the magnitude of pullbacks following these peaks has been shrinking. After it hit $109,000 in January, BTC fell 30% to $76,000 by April. In Might, the $112,000 excessive was adopted by a 12% drop in June. July’s $123,000 peak led to a 9% decline. Most lately, August’s $124,000 excessive has to this point seen solely a 7% % pullback, although we’re solely sooner or later in.

Wanting forward, Friday’s U.S. retail gross sales report is forecast at 0.7% month-over-month, which might mark the strongest studying since March. A stronger-than-expected quantity may additional undermine expectations for a September charge minimize.

Additional out, consideration turns to the tip of August when $12 billion in bitcoin choices are set to run out on Deribit. The vast majority of open name choices are concentrated between the $120,000 and $124,000 strike costs, suggesting that if bitcoin trades close to these ranges, it might align with the positioning of many derivatives merchants. Keep alert!

What to Watch

• Crypto
  • Aug. 15: Report date for the subsequent FTX distribution to holders of allowed Class 5 Buyer Entitlement, Class 6 Common Unsecured and Comfort Claims who meet pre-distribution necessities.
  • Aug. 18: Coinbase Derivatives will launch nano SOL and nano XRP U.S. perpetual-style futures.
  • Aug. 20: Qubic (QUBIC), the quickest blockchain ever recorded, will endure its first yearly halving occasion as a part of a managed emission mannequin. Though gross emissions stay mounted at one trillion QUBIC tokens per week, the adaptive burn charge will enhance considerably — burning some 28.75 trillion tokens and decreasing web efficient emissions to about 21.25 trillion tokens.
• Macro
  • Aug. 15, 3 p.m.: U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska to debate potential peace phrases for the conflict in Ukraine.
  • Aug. 15, 12 p.m.: Colombia’s Nationwide Administrative Division of Statistics (DANE) releases Q2 GDP development information.
    • GDP Development Fee QoQ Prev. 0.8%
    • GDP Development Fee YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.7%
  • Aug. 15, 4 p.m.: Peru’s Nationwide Institute of Statistics and Informatics releases June GDP YoY development information.
    • GDP Development Fee YoY Est. 4.7 vs. Prev. 2.67%
  • Aug. 18, 6 p.m.: The Central Reserve Financial institution of El Salvador releases July producer value inflation information.
• Earnings (Estimates primarily based on FactSet information)
  • Aug. 15: Sharplink Gaming (SBET), pre-market
  • Aug. 15: BitFuFu (FUFU), pre-market, $0.07
  • Aug. 18: Bitdeer Applied sciences Group (BTDR), pre-market, -$0.12

Token Occasions

• Governance votes & calls
  • SoSoValue DAO is voting to allocate 5 million SOSO tokens for a Researcher Ecosystem Fund aimed toward boosting top-tier crypto analysis by means of competitions and incentives, bettering content material high quality, transparency and SOSO’s utility. Voting ends Aug. 18.
  • Uniswap DAO is voting to allocate $540,000 in UNI over six months to as many as 15 prime delegates, with as much as $6,000 a month primarily based on voting exercise, neighborhood engagement, proposal authorship and holding 1,000+ UNI. Voting ends Aug. 18
  • Aavegotchi DAO is voting on a Bitcoin Ben’s Crypto Membership Las Vegas sponsorship: a $1,000/month company membership (emblem on sponsor wall, group entry, publication function, one branded meetup/month) or a $5,000, 90-day Graffiti Wall mural with promo. Voting ends Aug. 23.
• Unlocks
  • Aug. 15: Avalanche to unlock 0.33% of its circulating provide price $41.84 million.
  • Aug. 15: Starknet (STRK) to unlock 3.53% of its circulating provide price $18.12 million.
  • Aug. 15: Sei to unlock 0.96% of its circulating provide price $18.94 million.
  • Aug. 16: Arbitrum to unlock 1.8% of its circulating provide price $49.95 million.
  • Aug. 18: Fasttoken to unlock 4.64% of its circulating provide price $91.6 million.
  • Aug. 20: LayerZero to unlock 8.53% of its circulating provide price $57.59 million.
  • Aug. 20: Kaito (KAITO) to unlock 8.82% of its circulating provide price $27.55 million.
• Token Launches
  • Aug. 15: PublicAI (PUBLIC) launches on Bitget, Binance Alpha, KuCoin and LBank.
  • Aug. 15: Pepecoin (PEP) launches on AscendEX.

Conferences

The CoinDesk Coverage & Regulation convention (previously often called State of Crypto) is a one-day boutique occasion held in Washington on Sept. 10 that enables common counsels, compliance officers and regulatory executives to satisfy with public officers accountable for crypto laws and regulatory oversight. House is restricted. Use code CDB10 for 10% off your registration by means of Aug. 31.

Token Discuss

By Oliver Knight

• The crypto market drop prior to now 24 hours sparked round $1 billion price of liquidations, with the bulk occurring on ETH buying and selling pairs, in accordance with Coinglass information.
• Ether is buying and selling again at $4,630 whereas numerous altcoins like TIA, CRV and OP all misplaced greater than 7%.
• One asset, nevertheless, stood out: AERO rose 4.5% regardless of relentless waves of promoting strain and liquidations.
• AERO is the native token of decentralized change Aerodrome, which lately benefited from integration with Coinbase, permitting the change’s buyer base to commerce instantly on the DEX by way of the Coinbase app.
• Buying and selling quantity on Aerodrome jumped because of this, with $1.1 billion price of crypto altering fingers to mark the DEX’s largest day since February, in accordance with DefiLlama.
• Aerodrome is the most important native a part of the Base ecosystem, with $612 million in whole worth locked (TVL).
• The one different protocols with a better totals are Morpho and Aave, each of that are distributed throughout a number of blockchains whereas Aerodrome is on Base alone.

Derivatives Positioning

• Open curiosity (OI) throughout prime derivatives venues stays elevated, with bitcoin sitting at $32.5 billion, simply shy of its all-time excessive. Bitcoin OI is led by Binance ($13.8 billion) and Bybit ($9.3 billion).
• The elevated open curiosity is supported by regular positive factors in BTC three-month annualized foundation, presently 8%-9% throughout all exchanges, in accordance with Velo information. In contrast with fourth-quarter 2024 ranges of 15%, there’s nonetheless room to develop.
• In choices, implied volatility (IV) throughout totally different choice maturities is upward sloping (contango), with near-term IV low at round 20% , Velo information present. The road rises towards 50% for maturities in mid 2026, an indication of accelerating uncertainty additional out.
• Wanting on the previous day’s flows for places vs calls, the ratio is 50:50, implying no excessive directional bias for the time being.
• Funding charge APRs throughout main perpetual swap venues are muted at round an annualized 5%-7%, pulling again from the elevated ranges seen within the run as much as bitcoin’s report excessive on Thursday.
• This sample means that the rally was largely spot pushed, with an inflow of shorts serving to offset lengthy demand. With funding now comparatively low, there’s room for contemporary leveraged longs to enter the market, probably including momentum to the subsequent transfer.
• Coinglass information reveals $960 million in 24 hour liquidations, skewed 85% in direction of longs. ETH ($342 million), BTC ($162 million) and others ($116 million) had been the leaders by way of notional liquidations. Binance liquidation heatmap signifies $117,091 as a core liquidation degree to watch, in case of additional value drops.

Market Actions

• BTC is up 0.68% from 4 p.m. ET Thursday at $118,739.67 (24hrs: -1.67%)
• ETH is up 1.9% at $4,622.44 (24hrs: -1.58%)
• CoinDesk 20 is up 1.33% at 4,257.98 (24hrs: -2.78%)
• Ether CESR Composite Staking Fee is up 1 bp at 3.05%
• BTC funding charge is at 0.0082% (8.9976% annualized) on Binance

• DXY is down 0.37% at 97.89
• Gold futures are up 0.16% at $3,388.50
• Silver futures are down 0.52% at $37.87
• Nikkei 225 closed up 1.71% at 43,378.31
• Hold Seng closed down 0.98% at 25,270.07
• FTSE is unchanged at 9,181.53
• Euro Stoxx 50 is up 0.42% at 5,457.44
• DJIA closed on Thursday unchanged at 44,911.26
• S&P 500 closed unchanged at 6,468.54
• Nasdaq Composite closed unchanged at 21,710.67
• S&P/TSX Composite closed down 0.28% at 27,915.99
• S&P 40 Latin America closed down 1.16% at 2,653.40
• U.S. 10-Yr Treasury charge is down 0.2 bps at 4.291%
• E-mini S&P 500 futures are unchanged at 6,493.75
• E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are down 0.2% at 23,883.00
• E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Common Index are up 0.64% at 45,283.00

Bitcoin Stats

• BTC Dominance: 59.4% (-0.42%)
• Ether-bitcoin ratio: 0.03901 (1.5%)
• Hashrate (seven-day transferring common): 908 EH/s
• Hashprice (spot): $58.40
• Whole charges: 4.33 BTC / $519,718
• CME Futures Open Curiosity: 140,870 BTC
• BTC priced in gold: 35.7 oz.
• BTC vs gold market cap: 10.08%

Technical Evaluation

• Bitcoin dominance lately fell under the important thing historic degree of 60%.
• Prior to now, such drops have typically preceded important altcoin rallies. Nevertheless, given the present lack of a powerful catalyst for a full-fledged altcoin season, the important thing query is the potential severity of the drop.
• The present degree suggests {that a} selective or minor ‘alt season’ is underway. It doesn’t but indicate a serious, market-wide shift in the way in which earlier cycles have.

Crypto Equities

• Technique (MSTR): closed on Thursday at $372.94 (-4.35%), unchanged in pre-market
• Coinbase International (COIN): closed at $324.89 (-0.65%), +0.11% at $325.25
• Circle (CRCL): closed at $139.23 (-9.1%), -1.61% at $136.99
• Galaxy Digital (GLXY): closed at $28.57 (+0.81%), -0.25% at $28.50
• Bullish (BLSH): closed at $74.63 (+9.75%), +1.73% at $75.99
• MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $15.75 (-0.69%), -0.13% at $15.73
• Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $12.25 (+5.69%), -1.14% at $12.11
• Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $13.84 (-0.11%), -0.61% at $13.75
• CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.95 (-0.2%), +0.3% at $9.98
• CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $26.97 (+5.76%)
• Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $35.13 (-1.24%), unchanged in pre-market
• Exodus Motion (EXOD): closed at $26.85 (-1.79%), +8.01% at $29
• SharpLink Gaming (SBET): closed at $23.49 (-0.13%), -0.17% at $23.45

ETF Flows

Spot BTC ETFs

• Each day web flows: $230.8 million
• Cumulative web flows: $54.97 billion
• Whole BTC holdings ~1.29 million

Spot ETH ETFs

• Each day web flows: $639.6 million
• Cumulative web flows: $12.75 billion
• Whole ETH holdings ~6.27 million

Supply: Farside Buyers

Chart of the Day

• The overall worth locked (TVL) on yield-trading platform Pendle has surged previous the $8 billion mark, representing a roughly 30% enhance this month and positioning it because the ninth largest protocol by TVL.
• The vast majority of the expansion has taken place on the Ethereum blockchain.
• A key issue driving development is its shut relationship with Ethena’s stablecoin. Some 68% of Pendle’s TVL is tied to USDe and sUSDe, making the protocol a direct proxy for the expansion of Ethena’s ecosystem and a guess on the continued growth of high-yield, stablecoin-based methods available in the market.

Whereas You Have been Sleeping

• Altcoin Season May Start in September as Bitcoin’s Grip on Crypto Market Weakens: Coinbase Institutional (CoinDesk): Investor rotation into altcoins may speed up in September, fueled by declining bitcoin dominance, higher liquidity for different tokens and bettering danger urge for food, Coinbase Institutional’s David Duong mentioned.
• Circle to Provide 10 Million Class A Shares at $130 Every (CoinDesk): The stablecoin issuer is promoting 2 million shares in a secondary providing, whereas insiders are offloading the opposite 8 million at over 4 occasions the value of the June IPO.
• Hong Kong Regulator Tightens Custody Requirements for Licensed Crypto Exchanges (CoinDesk): The SFC set minimal requirements for senior administration accountability, chilly pockets operations, third-party pockets options and real-time menace monitoring after discovering cyber and asset-protection weaknesses at some licensed platforms.
• Crypto Group Backed by Trump Sons Hunts for Bitcoin Corporations in Asia (Monetary Occasions): U.S.-based miner American Bitcoin, co-founded by Eric Trump, is reportedly pursuing listed corporations in Japan and Hong Kong to transform into bitcoin-treasury autos, searching for to spark demand by means of stock-market publicity.
• China’s Economic system Slows Broadly At the same time as Exports Maintain Rising (The New York Occasions): China’s statistics bureau linked July’s slowdown in retail gross sales, manufacturing unit output and fixed-asset funding primarily to escalating commerce frictions, which its chief economist characterised as protectionism and unilateralism.
• Japan’s Economic system Data Modest Development Regardless of Commerce Uncertainty (The Wall Avenue Journal): Second-quarter GDP rose 0.3%, however economists warn automakers’ extended absorption of U.S. tariff prices may squeeze income, curb wage development and dent family spending.

Within the Ether