Market observation

The Bitcoin market has shown strong growth recently. On December 16, the asset management scale of Bitcoin ETFs exceeded that of gold funds for the first time

Key Takeaways:

Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to hover above the $100,000 mark.

Bitcoin ETF asset management scale hits a record high.

Bitcoin 'whales' are making massive purchases.

Traders remain cautious despite the record high price, according to options data.

Bitcoin is now available on the Stacks mainnet, offering a 5% annualized reward.

1. Bitcoin price above $100,000 for the fifth day running

As of 09:25 HKT on December 18, the Bitcoin price index was $106,394.04, showing a daily increase of 1.47% and a year-to-date increase of 151.73%. According to the latest data from OKX, the daily spot volume was $67.13 billion.

In the past five days, the asset has maintained an upward momentum above the $100,000 mark, rising by 6.44%. Based on this trend, some analysts predict that the price may climb to $200,000 in the next few months. At the same time, traders are chasing this trend cautiously, according to options data.

According to Coin Metrics' "State of the Network" report, the 2024 Bitcoin halving event is having a significant impact on the landscape. The halving will reduce the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which may lead to a significant drop in miner revenue. At the present price, the halving will reduce miner revenue from about $1.4 billion per month to about $700 million.

In addition, recent data shows that Bitcoin 'whales' are making massive purchases. According to on-chain data analysis firm Glassnode, Bitcoin 'whales' have been actively purchasing BTC in the past few weeks, and their total purchase volume has reached $7 billion within 48 hours.

2. Bitcoin ETF sees capital outflows, while Ethereum ETF attracts capital inflows

According to ETF Trends, Bitcoin ETFs saw a net capital outflow of $119.29 million on December 17, while Ethereum ETFs saw a net capital inflow of $5.95 million.

In terms of performance, the top three performing Bitcoin ETFs on the day were the VanEck Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE Arca: BITO) (-$63.37 million), the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (NYSE Arca: PBIT) (-$33.83 million), and the Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (Nasdaq: BTF) (-$8.13 million). Among the top three performing Ethereum ETFs, the net capital inflows were as follows: the Global X Ethereum ETF (Nasdaq: ETH) (+4.83 million), the ProShares UltraPro Short Ethereum ETF (NYSE Arca: SEUR) (+390,000), and the MicroStrategy ProShares Long ProShares Long ProShares Long ProShares Long ProShares Long ProShares Long ProShares Long ETF (NYSE Arca: MSTR) (+260,000).

3. Stacks mainnet launches sBTC, offering 5% annualized reward

According to the latest official Stacks newsletter, Bitcoin (sBTC) is now available on the Stacks mainnet. Users can mint, trade, and hold sBTC through the Stacks 2.1.1 software update.

sBTC is a synthetic Bitcoin derivative token on the Stacks blockchain. It is pegged to the price of BTC at a ratio of 1:1. Users can mint sBTC by locking up BTC on the Bitcoin blockchain and then burning a small amount of Stacks (STX) tokens on the Stacks blockchain. After minting sBTC, users can trade it on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on the Stacks blockchain, such as Xverse and Arkadiko.

In addition, sBTC holders will receive a 5% annualized reward, which will be distributed in Stacks (STX) tokens. The reward will be adjusted dynamically based on the total amount of sBTC in circulation and the total amount of STX tokens used to mint sBTC. The higher the utilization rate of sBTC, the lower the annualized reward.

4. Big Time Studios announces $150 million Open Loot fund

NFT game developer Big Time Studios has announced the launch of a $150 million fund called "Open Loot" to support the development of modular NFT loot systems, according to Decrypt.

The fund will be used to fund projects building modular NFT loot systems, tools, and experiences. These projects will be integrated into Big Time, an upcoming free-to-play multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that will feature modular NFT loot.

Developers will be able to create, sell, and trade modular NFT loot systems and experiences within the