3Commas Weekly Crypto Industry Updates August 2nd, 2024

Let's discuss on what has happened in the crypto industry during the end of July following the beginning of August, 2024:

Bybit exchange shuts down operations in France

Popular cryptocurrency exchange Bybit announced it is stopping trading services in France and closing its services to the region in August. 

Bybit has notified its French users that their accounts will be "restricted to close-only" configuration, preventing new positions from being opened or new funds from being deposited across any Bybit’s services starting today, August 2nd, 2024.

Card services will also be suspended for the French users and all open positions that were not closed before August 13, will be automatically liquidated. Users will have the option of withdrawing their funds.

Why does it matter? Traders should be aware of this information and cautiously manage their funds accordingly to avoid being liquidated by closing out open positions prior to the end date.

BlackRock's BUIDL fund has paid $7M in dividends since launch

BlackRock's United States Dollar Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), has reportedly paid out $7M in dividends since its launch in March, 2024.

According to the asset tokenization firm Securitize, BUIDL, the tokenized investment vehicle holding United States Treasury Bills, cash, and repurchase agreements, paid investors $265,400 in dividends in March, $1.21M in April, $1.67M in May, $1.82M in June and $2.12M in July. 

Why does it matter? There is a healthy interest in asset tokenizations onchain and investors are getting dividends, a system which can potentially increase funds flowing into the sector.

USDC trading volume increased 48% in July, after the MiCA regulations. 

According to the CCData July report, the trading volume for USDC pairs on centralized exchanges increased to $135B while the market capitalization increased by 5.4% to $33.6B.

The trading volume of the Circle's stablecoin has spiked since the last known highs in April. The recent success comes with the implementation of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework.

Circle became the first stablecoin issuer to be approved by the regulators in the region on July 1. Stablecoins make up the biggest part of real world assets.

Why does it matter? EU traders can utilize the USDC pair adoption in the regions to pursue additional trading opportunities with 3Commas multi-pair bots.

Over $330M Liquidated on both long and short positions as BTC falls to $62K

According to Coinglass, 114,578 traders were liquidated. The total liquidation sits at $337.07M, $310M on long positions and $26.81M on short positions.

OKX's ETH-USD-SWAP recorded the highest single liquidation order valued at $4M. Coinglass started tracking  Bitcoin returns in 2013. Its data suggests that Bitcoin returns have historically averaged 2.24% in August.

While traders have anticipated a Fed rate cut that could potentially push Bitcoin prices up, Bitcoin has ignored it, which suggests that it's not enough to push the BTC price higher.

Why does it matter? Traders should be cautious at this time with their open positions to avoid liquidations.

Slovenia launches first digital sovereign bond in the EU through BNP Paribas

According to the Slovenia Finance Ministry, Slovenia's first digital sovereign bond is the first digital bond issued in the European Union. 

The bond was issued and placed by BNP ( Banque Nationale de Paris) Paribas, with a nominal size of 30M euros ($32.5M), a 3.65% coupon and maturity date of Nov. 25, 2024.

The bond was issued as part of ECB (European Central Bank) wholesale settlements experiments program. Digital bond issuance is gradually becoming a part of the digital financial system. 

The World Bank issued the first bond on a blockchain in 2019. The People’s Bank of China issued a bond on the blockchain later the same year worth 20B Yuan ($2.8B).

Why does it matter? This is an emerging financial instrument for the crypto industry and it's worth knowing to potentially maximize this opportunity.

Conclusion: 

We are seeing an increased interest in a new financial instrument in the market, particularly in the asset tokenization sector (real world assets). The growing interest and inflow of funds in this sector creates a new opportunity for crypto traders to diversify their portfolio and maximize this opportunity.