Crypto Market

BTC and ETH Market Insight

Higher-than-expected CPI and PPI data signaled stronger inflation, triggering a mid-week market downturn. According to data from Glassnode, although Bitcoin's price remained stable over the week, investors incurred around $520 million in losses during volatile swings, marking one of the largest capitulation events of this bull market as prices fell to $93k. By January 2025, Pump.fun generated $116.72 million in revenue, surpassing Solana. Insiders launched new tokens to attract retail funds, but constant rotations caused many investors to incur losses before shifting profits to major altcoins.

Options Market

Following a higher-than-expected CPI, BTC dipped to $94k before another quick rebound back to $98k. This suggests a sentiment driven move rather than a shift of market risk appetite. Front-end skew also firmed this view as it flipped to favour calls with a more bullish view on BTC than ETH. 7-day realised volatility drifted lower on both BTC and ETH. The volatility carry for BTC nearly flattened whereas it narrowed down largely but still stayed over 10 vols for ETH. On the spot side, ETH/BTC ratio has been consolidating around the 0.027 mark with no clear sign of revival for ETH. 

Altcoins and Blockchain News

• Bernstein: U.S. Cryptocurrency Task Force to Promote National Bitcoin Reserve Plan.

• Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and Hong Kong Telecom Establish Joint Venture to Issue HKD Stablecoin.

• BC.GAME Launches 400 Million BC Airdrop for Solana Ecosystem Pump.fun Traders. 

• CMC Altcoin Season Index Drops to 36, Indicating Bitcoin Still Dominates the Market.

• RootData: SOSO to Unlock Tokens Worth Approximately $3.16 Million in One Week.  

• Analysis: Ethereum L1 and Solana Average Transaction Cost Difference Hits Record Low Over the Weekend.  

• MELANIA Team Tokens to Begin Unlocking on February 19-20, Releasing 3% of Total Tokens.  

• According to L2beat Data, Sony L2 Project Soneium Network's total value secured (TVS) Surpasses $50 Million.

Macro

The major indices finished the week with solid gains: the DJIA added +0.5%, the S&P 500 added +1.5%, and the Nasdaq added +2.6%. Chinese equities also moved to higher territory: the Shanghai Composite Index added +1.3%, the CSI 300 +1.19% and the Hang Seng index surged +7.04%.