Quick Take

• Ether reserves on crypto exchanges hit a nine-year low; Brazil approved the first spot XRP ETF; Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission announced the “ASPIRe” roadmap for virtual assets

• US spot bitcoin ETFs had a net outflow of US$482 million last week, 17% less than the week before. Spot ether ETFs saw a net inflow of $13 million last week (vs a net outflow of $26 million the week before).

• On the macro side, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates by 0.25% to 4.10%, the first time since November 2020. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand also cut interest rates by 0.50% to 3.75% and expects two more 0.25% rate cuts in April and May, subject to economic conditions. US Federal Open Market Committee Minutes suggested upside risks to the inflation outlook, which coincided with potential changes in trade and immigration policy. Fed members want to see further progress on inflation before adjusting interest rates. The latest CME FedWatch Tool showed a 94% probability of a March rate cut in the US (vs 97% last week).

• Notable updates: Hyperliquid (HYPE) announced the mainnet launch of HyperEVM, MakerDAO (MKR/SKY) Co-founder Rune Christensen shared a forum post on ‘Sky 2025’, Interchain Labs announced that IBC Eureka will be released towards the end of Q1 2025; the Crypto.com App listed Heima (HEI)

• Notable events in the coming week: US core personal consumption expenditures price index and China NBS manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMI

Weekly Market Index

All three indices showed a small drop last week; price, volume, and volatility indices were down by -1.83%, -4.62%, and -4.18%, respectively.

Prices saw a drop towards the end of the week before recovering, which coincided with cryptocurrency exchange Bybit facing a hack of over US$1.4 billion in ether-related tokens (liquid-staked ETH and ERC-20 tokens). It subsequently announced a bounty programme to reward contributors who help to recover the hacked funds.

Check price

Chart of the Week

Ether reserves on crypto exchanges hit a nine-year low of $18.5 million on 21 February, marking their lowest level seen since July 2016, according to data from CryptoQuant.

A lower supply of ether in exchanges may indicate a lower selling pressure as investors move their assets to cold storage. This is also generally interpreted as a positive price signal.

Weekly Performance

BTC decreased by -1.1%, while ETH increased by +4.9%, in the past seven days. Prices of other selected top market capitalisation tokens were mixed.

SOL (-11.43%) led the drop, which coincided with a recent reduction in Solana on-chain activities, with both total value locked (TVL) and decentralised exchange (DEX) volumes retracing from their peaks in January. DEX volumes, for example, dropped by 37% on a weekly basis, according to DeFiLlama.

Recent controversies related to Solana’s meme coins, including LIBRA and Bybit hacker’s involvement in Pump.fun, may have also contributed to SOL’s downtrend. LIBRA saw its market cap rise to around $4.5 billion before plunging 95% shortly after, which reportedly coincided with insider selling. In addition, the primary suspect behind Bybit’s hack may be related to previous meme coin scams on Pump.fun, according to on-chain investigator ZachXBT.

Key categories showed mixed changes in market capitalisation in the past seven days. The NFT category led the increase while the Meme category led the drop.

Notable Token Updates

Newly Listed Tokens in Crypto.com App

News Highlights

Investment Vehicles

• Brazil approved the first spot XRP ETF, the Hashdex Nasdaq XRP Index Fund. Official trading on the B3 exchange is yet to be announced. In addition, Braza Group, a player in Brazil’s interbank market, will launch a stablecoin, BBRL, pegged to the Brazilian real on the Ripple blockchain.

• Franklin Templeton launched Franklin Crypto Index ETF (EZPZ) on Cboe BZX, which provides exposure to price movements of bitcoin and ether on a market-cap-weighted basis. The asset manager also launched the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund in Luxembourg. It utilises the Stellar network and is available to institutional investors in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland. In addition, it also filed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to include staking in its proposal for a Solana ETF.

• Canary Capital’s spot Litecoin ETF was added to the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC), a provider of post-trade clearance, settlement, and custody. This is part of the preparation process but does not guarantee an ETF launch as it is still pending the US SEC’s approval.

• The US SEC acknowledged multiple ETF filings last week, including Cboe BZX’s request to list 21 Shares’, WisdomTree’s, and Canary Capital’s XRP ETF, as well as Nasdaq Stock Market’s filing for CoinShares’s Litecoin and XRP ETF. In addition, the SEC acknowledged Cboe BZX’s filing to seek permission to stake ether held by 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF.

• Nasdaq proposed Nasdaq Rule 5712 to permit the listing and trading of digital asset-based investment interests. These include securities issued by entities holding digital assets, as well as commodity-based investment interests derived from cash, derivative securities products, and others. It will also shift the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF to Rule 5712.

Adoption

• Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands and telecommunication company HKT will establish a joint venture (JV) for a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin. The JV will have to apply for a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and this initiative aims to look into crypto-native opportunities, including domestic and cross-border payments.

• The US state of Utah’s “H.B. 230” bitcoin strategic reserve bill advanced to the Senate standing committee. The bill aims to allow the state treasurer to allocate up to 5% of public funds into qualifying digital assets with an average market cap of over $500 billion in the past year or a stablecoin.

Regulation

• The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced the “ASPIRe” roadmap for virtual assets, representing a five-pillar strategy — access, safeguards, products, infrastructure, and relationships — to streamline market entry, optimise compliance and frameworks, expand products, and provide transparency.

Recent Research Report

• Research Roundup Newsletter [Jan 2025]: We present to you our latest issue of Research Roundup, featuring our deep dives into The Significance of Meme Coins and DeFAI.

• Alpha Navigator: Quest for Alpha [January 2025]: Most assets saw an increase, except ETH. BTC and Gold led the rise. Canada, Eurozone, and the UK reduced interest rates; China and the US kept rates unchanged; Japan increased rates.

• DeFAI: DeFi x AI: DeFi is witnessing a fresh wave of innovation, with one of the most exciting developments being the fusion of DeFi and AI — often referred to as DeFAI. In this report, we look into the DeFAI landscape and delve into Griffain and HeyAnon as case studies, both of which are notable examples in the abstraction protocol category.

Recent University Articles

• What Is DeFi Lending?: Learn how decentralised finance (DeFi) lending platforms can offer users potential passive income and access to loans without needing intermediaries.

• Bitcoin vs. Solana: Comparing a Pioneer to an Optimised Vision: Explore the differences between Bitcoin and Solana, comparing the original cryptocurrency’s reliability and scarcity with Solana’s speed, scalability, and innovation.

• Four AI Agent Tokens to Watch in 2025: Discover four of the most popular AI agent crypto tokens to watch in 2025, blending cutting-edge blockchain and artificial intelligence technology

Catalyst Calendar

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