Crypto Market Daily Highlights – June 24 – SOL and XRP Lead the Charge

Key Insights:

• It was another bullish session for the crypto market on Friday, with Solana (SOL) and Ripple (XRP) leading the top ten.
• The crypto majors tracked the US equity markets, with improved market risk sentiment delivering the NASDAQ a 3.34% gain.
• After adding $48 billion on Thursday, the total crypto market cap rose a further $25 billion.

It was another bullish session for the crypto market on Friday. Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader market tracked the NASDAQ 100 to deliver a second consecutive daily rise.

Sliding commodity prices eased pressure on riskier assets within the week, with WTI crude falling back from $110 levels. The Bloomberg Commodity Index (BCI) ended the week with a 4.28% loss, reflecting a broad-based decline in commodity prices.

The weekly chart below reflects the inverse correlation between WTI and the NASDAQ 100 and bitcoin.

A sustained pullback in commodity prices could impact the Fed’s interest rate trajectory and support riskier assets.

The Total Crypto Market Cap is on Approach to $1,000bn

Following a $48 billion rise on Thursday, the total crypto market cap is heading for a $27 billion increase on Friday. A bullish Friday session saw the market cap hit a day high of $946 billion before easing back.

While headwinds remain, investors put aside sentiment toward inflation, central bank monetary policy, and the economic outlook.

Fed Chair Powell’s testimony and the Fed’s commitment to bringing inflation to target at any cost will continue to resonate. A sustained downward trend in crude oil prices would ease some headwind pressure.

Two bullish sessions leave the total market cap in positive territory for the week while down by more than $350 billion for June. Currently sitting at $937 billion, investors will want to see the total market cap head towards the $1.5 trillion mark to shift sentiment.

Friday’s bullish sentiment was evident across the crypto market top ten.

SOL and XRP are leading the way, with gains of 9.8% and 10.1%, respectively, with ETH up 7.1%.

ADA (+5.2%), BNB (+5.2), and DOGE (+6.3%) weren’t far behind, while BTC trailed (+1.2%).

From the CoinMarketCap top 100, Axie Infinity (AXS) was a front runner, up by 15.8% at the time of press. News of Axie Infinity beginning to reimburse Ronin Bridge hack victims, starting next week, delivered support.

Outside of the top 100, but likely to reemerge, is yearn.finance (YFI), which was up 46%.

Improving crypto market conditions have supported DeFi tokens this week. On Friday, Avalanche (AVAX) and Near Protocol (NEAR) were heading for gains of 13% and 12%, respectively.

While DeFi tokens found support, the total value locked continues to sit at March to April 2021 levels. At the time of writing, the total value locked stood at $76.7bn. While up 5.2% on Friday, the TVL sits well below a December peak of $254 billion.

As the dust continues to settle from the collapse of TerraUSD (UST) and Terra LUNA, DeFi tokens may find more investor interest.

Total Crypto Liquidations Inched Up, Highlighting Downside Risks

The recent downward trend in total crypto liquidations came to an end.

Going into Saturday, total liquidations stood at $192 million, up from a Friday morning of $126 million.

However, one-hour liquidations remained at a relatively low level.

According to Coinglass, one-hour liquidations stood at $7 million.

Daily News Highlights

• Solana (SOL) announced the Q12023 launch of Web3 Android phone “Saga”.
• Bentley Motors Entered the NFT space with a planned September drop on Polygon.
• SEC Chair Gary Gensler was back in the news, discussing plans to work with the CFTC to regulate the crypto market.
• Axie Infinity developer announced plans to begin compensating Ronin bridge hack victims from next week.