Weekly Market Recap - Nov 30

Overview

Bitcoin (BTC) is back above $19k and ETH is currently above $600, bouncing back from recent lows seen over the holiday stretch. On Thanksgiving, BTC saw a correction down to a low $16k, with almost all other cryptos following suit. As of today, it is already back to nearing all-time highs.

Market Recap

Institutions continue to make headlines in the crypto space, as this week Guggenheim Funds filed an amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The suit is to allow its $5 billion Macro Opportunities Fund to invest 10% of its net asset value in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. This means that the fund can invest almost $500 million in GBTC, a publicly-traded financial product that works like an ETF for BTC. This is another example of BTC becoming more and more mainstream among leading asset managers, and it will be interesting to see who is next to enter the market.

ETH also continues to be the talk of the town in the crypto space, as the initial phase of ETH 2.0 launches tomorrow. The transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) model will also come with upgrades that will benefit both the Ethereum network as well as the DeFi space overall. ETH 2.0 brings greater network scaling, meaning more efficiency of the network and cheaper transaction fees.

This migration to PoS directly benefits the decentralized finance revolution. DeFi continues its expansion, rising above $14 billion in Total Value Locked today. With ETH starting its upgrades soon and leading DeFi protocols like YFI and AAVE outperforming BTC over the past day, it is hard not to be optimistic for DeFi’s long-term future.

Ripple (XRP), the third-largest crypto based on market cap, has also generated a lot of buzz recently. XRP saw a correction from $0.70 to $0.48 last Thursday, but bounced back like its older brothers BTC and ETH. However, one key difference with XRP is the upcoming airdrop and free distribution of tokens for all XRP holders. The smart contract platform, Flare Network, is giving away 45 billion “spark” tokens on December 12 and attempts to challenge Ethereum’s dominance in DeFi. As more and more investors eye a price target of $1.00, XRP will continue to be monitored closely over the next few weeks.

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