Market Update - February 22, 2024

2月22日

1. Increase in demand for spot bitcoin ETFs pushes BTC price to its highest level since December 2021: A record 2.5B flowed into bitcoin (BTC) ETFs, with BlackRock's IBIT and Fidelity's FBTC attracting 1.6B and 648M over the past week respectively. These growing inflows suggest demand is heightening for spot-based ETFs, and if this trend continues, investors could be eyeing new all-time highs for BTC later this year.
   
   
2. Ether hits a short lived 3K amidst market speculation on an incoming ETH ETF approval: Ether (ETH) rose through the 3K mark for the first time since April 2022 as traders bet on the possibility of a spot ETH exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the U.S., a move that could significantly boost institutional appeal. Despite the swift pull back to the 2.9K level, the medium term outlook for ETH looks promising amidst market speculation on an ETH ETF approval with Franklin Templeton, BlackRock, Fidelity, Ark and 21Shares, Grayscale, VanEck, Invesco and Galaxy, and Hashdex having all submitted applications for an ETH ETF.
   
   
3. AI-based crypto projects trend higher as NVDA becomes the third-most-valuable publicly traded company: Nvidia (NVDA), a world leader in artificial intelligence computing, outperformed Amazon (AMZN) and Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) last week, making it the third-most-valuable publicly traded company in the world. NVDA also posted strong earnings results Wednesday. Related to this news, interest in AI-based crypto projects was high this week, with Render (RNDR) and Akash Network (AKT) trading at record highs.
   
   
4. OpenAI launches Sora, spurring interest in WLD, which saw a near 250% increase in the trading of its token: OpenAI’s launch of Sora, a text-to-video tool, appears to have encouraged trading in Worldcoin (WLD), the controversial crypto project that is also spearheaded by Sam Altman. Following the launch of WLD in 2023, Kenya suspended enrollments, and Hong Kong and French officials opened investigations into the project over privacy concerns. Investors seemed undeterred, despite these concerns, with the token trading up almost 250% from the start of the month to an all-time high of $8 on Monday.
   
   
5. China battles back against weakening economic growth with key rate cut: Despite a ban on crypto trading and mining in 2021, Chinese investors have historically made up a significant portion of the overall crypto market. China’s increasingly accommodative economic policies, including the recent reduction in the five-year loan prime rate this week, will be important to watch as it could impact local Chinese investors’ attitudes towards crypto.
   

🤖 Topic of the Week: The Convergence of AI and Crypto

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