Gold rose to a record, cheering digital tokens backed by the metal traditionally seen as a safe-haven investment.
The largest gold-backed token by market value, rose to an all-time high of $4,425, while PAXG (PAXG) and Kineses Gold (KAU) also rose, raising the total market value of gold-backed tokens to $4.38 billion.
“The message is clear. Investors are still hedging macro uncertainty rather than aggressively tilting toward risk. That divergence continues to limit enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies, even as liquidity conditions improve,” BRN head of research Timothy Misir said in an email.
Bitcoin, which some followers refer to as digital gold, rose to $89,800, while the dollar index fell and technology stocks lifted Asian stock indexes. Notably, major chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Samsung Electronics won, helping to calm fears of an AI bubble. Futures linked to the S&P 500 advanced about 0.3%, pointing to a positive opening in the US on Monday.
While the price rally is encouraging, a sustained recovery will require renewed appetite for institutional investment vehicles, which currently appear to have cooled. Last week, digital asset investment products listed around the world recorded a net outflow for the first time in four weeks, losing $952 million, according to data source CoinShares.
Derived knowledge
- Market stability has yet to galvanize demand for renewed risk-taking. Futures are painting a mixed picture, with BTC, ETH, HYPE, and BNB seeing small increases in 24-hour open interest (OI). Other major cryptocurrencies have experienced capital outflows.
- BTC longs raised with borrowed money continue to rise on Bitfinex. Historically, this has been a feature of sustained bear markets.
- BTC’s 30-day implied volatility is holding steady at around 45%, pointing to dull trading as the year comes to a close.
- Ether’s 30-day implied volatility fell to 70%, the lowest since October 9.
- On the CME, open interest in BTC futures fell below 120,000 BTC for the first time since early 2024. That’s a sign of declining institutional participation.
- BCH, SHIB, WLFI, and TON are seeing negative funding rates in perpetual markets, indicating a bias towards short positions. Financing rates for large companies remain slightly positive.
- On Deribit, block flows paint a mixed picture, with BTC bid-ask spreads crossing the ribbon. In the case of ETH, traders chased calendar spreads.
- Overall, BTC and ETH puts continue to trade at a premium to calls, although the puts bias has weakened slightly since Friday.
symbolic talk
- Curve DAO rejected a proposal to send 17.45 million CRV tokens, worth around $6.3 million, to Swiss Stake AG, a company run by Curve Finance founder Michael Egorov, which handles core development of the decentralized exchange.
- The protocol’s CRV token is up around 4% in the last 24 hours, outperforming the broader crypto market. The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) rose 0.35% in the same period.
- The proposal, which aimed to fund the development of protocols, infrastructure and security work for the 25-person team at Swiss Stake, failed with 54.46% of votes against and 45.54% in favor.
- Wallets linked to Yearn Finance and Convex Finance, two major players in decentralized finance, cast nearly 90% of votes against the measure, according to on-chain data.
- Some DAO members raised concerns about the transparency of past expense reporting.
- “The DAO deserves a detailed and transparent list of expenses and should not be expected to authorize further funds until this requirement is met and the community has the opportunity to openly discuss whether those expenses are reasonable,” one DAO member wrote.
