Spot BTC and ETH ETFs Suffer Outflows Amid Economic Uncertainty, Bitcoin Dips Below $100K, and ETH Stablecoin Volumes Surge

Takeaways

• Spot bitcoin and ether ETFs posted combined net outflows of nearly $800 million on Tuesday, marking the largest single day outflow since August 1: Analysts blamed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish tone and the U.S. government shutdown for the risk-off move, though some say the longer-term bullish setup for crypto is still intact. The price of bitcoin dipped below $100,000 on Tuesday before pushing back above $101,000 by mid-day Thursday.
• Animoca Brands is seeking to list on the Nasdaq listing through a reverse merger with Singapore-based Currenc Group: The deal would create a publicly-traded digital assets conglomerate, designed to give investors in the US direct exposure to Animoca’s network of DeFi, GameFi, and token-related businesses.
• Sam Bankman-Fried this week asked the Second Circuit to overturn or order a new trial after his November 2023 conviction: The appeal argues the trial court wrongly excluded evidence. The court will issue a decision on the appeal in the coming months.
  
• Ethereum stablecoin onchain transaction volume surged to a new high of $2.82 trillion in October, marking a 45% jump from September: Some have attributed the surge to traders managing liquidity amid market uncertainty.
• DeFi platform Balancer suffered an apparent exploit on Monday which moved $110 million in assets to new wallets: The attacker drained large amounts of osETH, WETH and wstETH from v2 vaults and has begun consolidating funds across chains.

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Spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs Post Large Outflows Amid Market Uncertainty

Bitcoin ETFs led Tuesday’s outflows with close to $578 million, marking the largest single-day outflows recorded for the funds since August 1. Fidelity’s FBTC recorded roughly $357 million in outflows, and Ark & 21Shares’ ARKB recorded $128 million.

Spot ether ETFs posted similarly bearish activity, recording roughly $219 million in outflows. The withdrawals were led by BlackRock’s ETHA with around $111 million recorded. Solana ETFs went against the outflow trend, reporting nearly $15 million in net inflows. However, this was the lowest gain recorded by spot SOL ETFs since their launch last week. The Bitwise Solana Staking ETF (BSOL) remains the biggest in the US, recording nearly $70 million in net inflows on their debut.

Analysts have assessed that the withdrawals are a response to macroeconomic uncertainty, with Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s recent hawkish comments sowing market unease. The ongoing US government shutdown is also reportedly putting pressure on markets. Bitcoin and ether prices have slipped, logging a WoW loss of roughly 5% and 10.86% respectively.

Animoca Brands Set for Nasdaq Listing Through Reverse Merger With Currenc

Subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, the deal will see Currenc’s AI financial solutions and remittance platform divested and spun off to current shareholders before the merger.

Animoca has referenced the growth of its advisory arm as a driving factor in its ambitions to list on the Nasdaq, with the Hong Kong-based firm reporting $165 million in revenue for the unit last year, marking an impressive increase of 116% YoY. Co-founder and executive chairman, Yat Siu has claimed that the listing will make Animoca the first “publicly-listed diversified digital assets conglomerate.”

Currenc has shown strong performance, with its share price doubling over the five days leading up to the announcement on Monday. After the transaction, Animoca shareholders will reportedly own 95% of the company. The deal does not yet have an official closing date, but it is expected to wrap up in Q3 2026.

Ethereum Stablecoin Volume Breaks Monthly Record at $2.82 Trillion

That marked a 45% increase in volume from September, which generated 1.94 trillion in trading volumes. Stablecoins were also among the largest fee-generators in crypto, in part due to interest earned on reserves.

Despite having a smaller market cap than Tether’s USDT, Circle’s USDC led the pack in volume with $1.62 trillion in monthly activity recorded. USDT by comparison logged throughput of close to $896 billion, with MakerDAO’s DAI logging around $136 billion. With the price of both bitcoin and ether notably dipping over October, some analysts suggest that the surge in Ethereum-based stablecoin activity might be related to traders using stablecoins as a hedge.

Second Circuit Hears Sam Bankman-Fried’s Appeal for 2023 Conviction

Originally filed in September last year, the appeal seeks either to reverse the verdict of his 2023 trial or allow a new trial. His counsel argued that the trial court improperly barred evidence.

Speculators have suggested that Bankman-Fried’s appeal is unlikely to be successful, having been convicted on seven separate charges. Typically, a multitude of errors are required to be proven for a court ruling to be overturned. If the appeal fails, Bankman-Fried’s parents will reportedly push to receive a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump. The court is expected to issue an opinion on the appeal over the coming months.

Balancer Hit By $110M Drain Due to Smart Contract Flaw

The platform has a TVL (total-value-locked) of $750 million, and this marks the largest security incident it has ever suffered. The stolen assets appear to include 6,850 osETH, 6,590 WETH, and 4,260 wstETH, and the funds are reportedly being consolidated by the attacker.

Logic flaws in one of the protocol’s functions led to the exploit, allowing withdrawal requests to bypass security checks, per an analysis from security tool Decurity. It marked the third exploit suffered by Balancer since 2021. Protocols built on Balancer v2, the part of the platform exploited, still contain roughly $60 million in locked assets.

-Team Gemini