A blowout U.S jobs report on Friday sparked a delayed rally on Wall Street as the data revealed a strong economy with moderating inflation that helped set aside fears of higher interest rates that caused bond yields to soar. Cryptocurrencies have held quite well during the ongoing bond market, with the total market cap of all coins remaining at USD$1.09 trillion.

Bitcoin held steady above USD$27,000 while tokens like Toncoin, Trust Wallet, and Aave jumped by more than 5%. Other top performers were coins like ThorChain, Cardano, and Stacks. Shiba Memu, a meme coin that seeks to dethrone Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, is also thriving. Data shows that investors have poured over USD$3.65 million into its ongoing token sale.

Gold futures closed higher on Friday for the first time in 10 sessions, rising off early losses as the dollar turned lower after the US reported it added nearly twice the expected number of new jobs in September as the labour market continues to run hot despite high-interest rates.

The crypto winter hit fundraising in Q3, which fell to its lowest level in three years. The amount raised by Crypto firms in Q3 totalled just under USD$2.1 billion across 297 deals, the lowest on both counts since Q4 2020, from a peak of nearly USD$17.5 billion across over 900 deals in Q1 2022; the returns diminished throughout the year as conditions in the crypto industry worsened, coming to a head with the collapse of exchange FTX in November.

Gold Market

Gold prices gained on Friday, currently trading at USD$1,832, helped by a technical rebound after a nine-day losing streak, although robust U.S. jobs data raised worries over another U.S. rate hike and kept bullion on track for its second weekly drop. Investors continue to shun the metal as the dollar and yields rise. Since advancing above the key USD$2,000-per-ounce level in early May, gold prices have fallen nearly 12% as hawkish rhetoric on rates from the Federal Reserve has lifted bond yields to their highest level in 16 years.

Traders are pricing in around a 37% chance of another rate hike from the Fed this year, according to the CME Fedwatch tool. Gold is highly sensitive to rising U.S. interest rates as these increase the opportunity cost of holding it.

Crypto Markets

Over the past week, Bitcoin price has displayed notable bullish momentum. This comes after a prolonged consolidation phase during which the world’s largest digital cryptocurrency by market cap held above the key USD$25,000 level, which capped the price between May 2022 and March 2023. With the recent breakout and the resurgence of bullish sentiment in the market, experts are now predicting a potential surge that could propel Bitcoin’s price above USD$30,000.

Bitcoin whales and sharks, which hold between 10 and 10,000 BTC, have been amassing the most Bitcoin this year, taking advantage of the bearish market. According to analysis, Bitcoin whales have gathered 13.03 million BTC, equivalent to 66% of the total circulating BTC supply, anticipating a possible price surge. Data reveals that Tether whales are accumulating, maintaining a hefty sum of over 15,030 million USDT, the highest level reached in six weeks.

Ethereum’s price action has been relatively bearish in recent months, breaking below multiple support levels. However, investors can still be hopeful that an upward movement may be on the horizon. Ethereum is currently hovering around the USD$1,650 short-term support zone. If this level holds, the price is likely to initiate a new rally and potentially break above USD$1,750, aiming for USD$2,000 in the coming months.

Solana (SOL) kicked o the month with a remarkable price surge, surging by more than 10% and decisively breaking through the local resistance level of USD$22.

Crypto Project News

Ethereum Futures ETFs Go Live, First Day Trading Volume Less than USD$2M On Oct. 2, 9 new Ethereum Futures ETFs arrived on the market. Five of these ETFs hold exclusively USD$ETH futures contracts, while the other four track a mix of USD$BTC and USD$ETH futures contracts. Collectively, these USD$ETH Futures ETFs saw trading volumes total less than USD$2 million in their first day of trading. The single largest fund, the Proshares Ether Strategy ETF, saw a trading volume of USD$878,560. The first-day trading volume of USD$ETH Futures ETF paled in comparison to the first USD$BTC Futures ETF, which was launched in Oct. 2021 during the height of the bull market. That ETF recorded over USD$1 billion in volume on the first day of launch.

PayPal Stablecoin PYUSD Hits All-Time High Valuation Amid Fresh Minting Move PYUSD hits a USD$94,396,540 market cap two months after launch following the minting of USD$50M tokens. In a recent tweet, Julio Moreno, the Head of Research at the prominent data analytic firm CryptoQuant, spotlighted exciting developments about the recently launched PayPal stablecoin based on the Ethereum network, PYUSD. Moreno highlighted that PYUSD has achieved an unprecedented milestone by reaching an all-time high market valuation of nearly USD$100 million. In particular, the researcher mentioned that PYUSD now boasts a market share of USD$94,396,540.

Kraken set to acquire Dutch Exchange BCM, eyes European expansion. While financial details of the deal have not been disclosed, Kraken and BCM announced the coming acquisition following the European Union’s implementation of its Market in Crypto -Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework.

Cardano (ADA) witnessed a change in the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the DeFi ecosystem. The TVL experienced an increase of nearly 10% and surpassed USD$160 million. Cardano’s growth in DeFi contributed to a positive impact on protocols and tokens by increasing liquidity. According to the latest data from DefiLlama on October 6, there was a 9.26% increase in the weekly TVL of the Cardano network. The total locked value reached USD$161 million. Analysing the metrics, this indicates a 1.86% increase in the past 24 hours and a 0.67% increase monthly.

Regulation

The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried started on Oct.3, and the first day was jury selection with opening arguments to follow on Wednesday. The trial is expected to last up to six weeks. The case is being heard by Judge Lewis Kaplan, who has presided over many other high-profile cases, including ones involving detainees at Guantanamo Bay, the Gambino crime family, Prince Andrew and Donald Trump. On the first day of the trial, U.S. Government prosecutors told the court that no plea deals had ever been under consideration’s is charged with seven counts of conspiracy and fraud, and he has pleaded not guilty to all charges. If he’s found guilty of all seven criminal counts and is given the maximum sentence, SBF would face the prospect of 110 years in prison.

In an Oct.3 court order, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres rejected the SEC’s motion to appeal its loss against Ripple Labs, claiming that the regulator failed to meet its burden to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there were substantial grounds for di erences of opinion on the matter. In July, Judge Analisa Torres from the Southern District Court of New York ruled that Ripple’s programmatic sales and other distributions of XRP did not constitute o ers and sales of securities. In August, the SEC appealed this decision, arguing that there was “substantial ground for di erences of opinion” on the laws at hand.

UK Won’t Be ‘Copying’ MiCA: Crypto Parliamentary Group Chair

The UK won’t be “copying” the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation but will instead look to embrace a “bespoke approach for competitiveness” in crypto regulation, said the chair of the UK all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on crypto and digital assets. Speaking at CCDAS 2023, Dr Lisa Cameron MP said, “I don’t think there’s going to be any copying of MiCA,” adding that, “obviously where things are working, the UK doesn’t want to invent something entirely new—but we have to have what fits here.” She added that bespoke crypto legislation would give the UK a “competitive edge.”

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