Uk Jin

According to crypto asset (cryptocurrency) data provider Alternative, on the 14th the crypto Fear & Greed Index recorded 38 points, the same as the previous day. As of 9:00 a.m. that day, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $115,354 on CoinMarketCap, up 0.02% from the previous day. Altcoins were mostly bullish. At the same time, Ethereum (ETH) and XRP (XRP) rose 2.24% and 2.97%, respectively. In addition, Solana (+5.98%), Dogecoin (+3.04%), and Cardano (+4.10%) also rose. The Fear & Greed Index is an indicator expressing market sentiment; values closer to 0 indicate extreme fear, and values closer to 100 indicate extreme greed. The index is calculated based on volatility (25%), trading volume (25%), social media (15%), surveys (15%), Bitcoin market cap dominance (10%), and Google search volume (10%).

Nasdaq-listed biotech company Endra Life Sciences (ENDRA Life Sciences, hereinafter Endra) said on the 13th (local time) that it will begin a new digital asset financial strategy together with digital asset manager Arca Investment Management. According to foreign media, Endra will start this digital asset financial strategy through a private placement of up to $14.4 million. The initial fundraising amount is about $4.9 million. It will raise funds through 744,340 pre-funded warrants and 1,488,680 warrants. The new share issue price is $6.57 per share, the warrant exercise price is $6.32, and the maturity is five years. Endra plans to invest the majority of the raised funds in digital assets. Specifically, Endra's investment targets are decentralized exchange (DEX) protocols and derivative tokens, such as Hyperliquid (HYPE). The remaining funds will be invested in ultrasound (TAEUS) imaging research related to lipid metabolic liver disease. In addition, for this strategy Endra plans to appoint Jeff Dorman, Arca's chief investment officer (CIO) and a former Merrill Lynch and Citadel executive, to the digital asset advisory board. Meanwhile, on the day Endra closed at $8.12 on the Nasdaq, up 25.31% from the previous day.

So far this year, usage of stablecoins (virtual assets whose value is pegged to fiat currency) has been on the rise. It appears that the number of stablecoin users within the Ethereum (ETH) network has reached an all-time high. On the 14th (Korean time), The Block reported that over the past two weeks the number of unique addresses that traded stablecoins on the Ethereum network surpassed 1 million, marking a record high. So far this year, the number of addresses that used stablecoins on the Ethereum network averaged about 720,000 per week. This is roughly double the weekly number of stablecoin-using addresses recorded from 2020 to 2024 (400,000). The outlet said, "Since August 2024, Ethereum's stablecoin senders have been increasing by an average of 1.7% per week, setting new weekly highs," adding, "This is an indicator that stablecoins are becoming established as a means of payment and settlement." They added, "Ethereum still functions as the central layer for onboarding, rebalancing, and reward payouts," and "absent policy shocks or a peg collapse, the number of stablecoin senders will remain on an upward trend."

Bitcoin (BTC) plunged last week and, after failing for the third time to break the key trendline extending from the 2017 and 2021 highs, analysts say it could fall below $100,000. On the 13th (Korea time), CoinDesk reported that analyst Omkar Godbole said, "Bitcoin has failed three times to break above the upper side of the long-term trendline connecting the 2017 and 2021 highs, reaffirming an intermediate-term bearish trend," and explained, "This trendline is acting as a key resistance in the current bullish cycle, and technically, 'three failures form a pattern.'" The analyst explained, "(As can be seen in the monthly chart above) the long upper wicks on the tops of the July, August and October candles indicate that buying pressure in those periods has been exhausted." He added, "The Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD) histogram also remains in positive territory, but at a lower level than during the December–January rally, indicating a weakening of upward momentum." Meanwhile, analyst Godbole pointed to $121,800 as an important price level for Bitcoin. He emphasized, "To turn bullish, Bitcoin must clearly break above $121,800." As of 2 p.m. that day, Bitcoin was trading at $114,750 on CoinMarketCap, up 2.82% from the previous day.

The USDe stablecoin (a crypto asset whose value is pegged to fiat currency) temporarily fell to 0.66 dollars on the 11th, experiencing a severe depegging event. The causes pointed to leverage liquidations, lack of liquidity, and Binance's withdrawal restrictions. On the 13th, Beonmo said on X (formerly Twitter) that USDE had rapidly grown since its listing on Binance last September by running a promotional annual 12% interest-rate promotion on loan products such as ▲VIP loans (3.5x leverage), ▲Easy Lending (3.5x), and ▲leverage trading (up to 5x), and that "however, during the major crash over the past weekend, depegging occurred and a cascade of liquidations was triggered." He added, "In this process VIP loan users did not suffer major damage, but there were many cases where leverage trading users suffered total losses." Beonmo explained, "The sharp drops in Bitcoin and Ethereum forced many whale accounts' positions to be liquidated, causing large-scale selling between USDe and USDT," and "thereby USDe's price fell below 0.91 dollars, then broke the 0.82-dollar liquidation zone for 5x leverage loans and plunged to 0.66 dollars." Beonmo also pointed out that "Binance restricted withdrawals at the time due to a surge in Ethereum network fees, blocking USDe's on-chain redemption (mint-redeem) path," and "this measure worsened liquidity depletion and triggered additional plunges." Beonmo said, "This incident shows that centralized exchanges' infrastructure constraints can spread into stablecoin system risk," and emphasized, "Exchanges should establish their own redemption mechanisms to prevent liquidity crises in the future."

There are claims that liquidation disclosures by centralized exchanges (CEX) are being underreported. On the 13th (local time), Jeff, founder of Hyperliquid, wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "Some centralized exchanges underreport liquidations," and pointed out, "For example, Binance may only publish a single case even when thousands of liquidation orders occur in the same second." He added, "In such liquidation-concentrated periods, reporting can be reduced by up to 100 times compared to the actual amount." Jeff also said, "Transparency and neutrality are essential elements of global financial infrastructure," and "I expect the industry as a whole to recognize the structural advantages of on-chain DeFi (DeFi) and follow it." He went on, "Hyperliquid has all orders, trades, and liquidations executed on-chain, and anyone can verify the system's execution and liquidation processes," adding, "The ability to verify the entire system's solvency (solvent) in real time is a key strength of on-chain finance." Meanwhile, Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, responded to these comments, saying, "The reason Binance Coin (BNB) is strong is clear," and argued, "Because core participants of the BNB Chain, such as Binance and Venus, have put in hundreds of millions of dollars to protect users." He emphasized, "Instead of others shirking responsibility or attacking competitors, we have a different value system that prioritizes user protection."

According to Token Mindshare, a Top Gainer indicator on Kaito, an AI-based Web3 search platform that quantifies the influence of specific tokens in the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market, as of the 13th the top five crypto-related keywords people are most interested in are Binance Coin (BNB), Monad (MON), Kaito (KAITO), Polymarket, and Etena (ENA). Binance Coin took first place as investor mentions surged over a series of incidents caused by extreme volatility at the world's largest exchange, Binance. In particular, the depegging of the stablecoin USDe issued by Etena, which ranked fifth that day, emerged as the biggest topic. On the 11th, President Donald Trump said, "I will impose 100% reciprocal tariffs on China," which triggered a crash in the crypto market, including the depegging of the USDe stablecoin from the dollar. Binance immediately took compensation measures. In a notice, Binance stated, "We will compensate users who suffered losses from last week's market crash and depegging event with $283 million," and explained, "The market crash occurred first, and the depegging was merely a phenomenon that followed due to subsequent liquidity shortages, not a systemic problem." Taking second place was Monad. Investor interest is thought to have focused on it as airdrop claims opened over the weekend. Third place went to Kaito. On that day, a Novastro non-fungible token (NFT) sale was conducted on the Kaito launchpad, drawing investor attention. Fourth was Polymarket. Interest in Polymarket grew after it secured large-scale investment last week, and as investors massively participated in Polymarket betting, it naturally climbed into the top ranks. On the 10th, Polymarket recorded spot trading volume of $176.7 million, setting an all-time high. Investors also showed interest in Sentient (sentient), Fuzzy Penguin (PENGU), Aster (ASTER), Solana (SOL), and Useless (USELESS).

Alphaton Capital said on the 13th (Korean time) that it had purchased an additional 300,000 TON (TON). As a result, Alphaton Capital's TON holdings reached 1.4 million. Alphaton Capital is a digital asset manager that aims to expand the Telegram ecosystem through TON purchases, validator operation, and investments in TON-based projects. Alphaton Capital said, "Despite market volatility, we are maintaining asset soundness and the debt ratio is at about 0.07," adding, "We are responding to market volatility through risk management and maintaining appropriate leverage. We will continue to capitalize on growth opportunities in the TON ecosystem."

On the 13th (Korean time), according to OnchainLens, Marathon Digital Holdings purchased an additional 400 Bitcoin (BTC) on FalconX about two hours ago. This brings Marathon Digital Holdings' total Bitcoin holdings to 52,850.

Amid a recent plunge in the virtual asset (cryptocurrency) market caused by US-China trade tensions, the Coinbase premium reportedly surged. On the 13th (Korean time), CryptoQuant contributor CryptoOnChain said in a report, "On the 10th, while Bitcoin (BTC) plunged from $123,000 to $110,000, the Coinbase premium rose to 0.182, reaching its highest level since March 2024," and analyzed, "The fact that the premium rose amid a price plunge indicates that large purchases by U.S. institutional investors had come in." The Coinbase premium index measures the spread (price difference) between Coinbase's Bitcoin price and Binance's Bitcoin price and is an indicator for assessing buy or sell pressure in the U.S. The contributor explained, "That the Coinbase premium index recorded its highest level in 19 months during this sell-off means that institutions were actively buying at low prices amid a market gripped by fear," adding, "In other words, while global markets were selling off, U.S. institutional investors took advantage of fear and increased liquidity to engage in large-scale accumulation." The contributor added, "This pattern was also observed in Ethereum (ETH) on the same day and reflects long-term conviction and strategic positioning in major asset classes," and "As a result, the area around $110,000 is likely to form a strong support zone due to institutional demand, and even if further price declines occur, active accumulation is likely to resume in this zone."

On the 13th, according to virtual asset (cryptocurrency) data provider Alternative, the virtual asset Fear and Greed Index rose 14 points from the previous day to record 38 points. As of 9 a.m. that day, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading on CoinMarketCap at 3.93% higher than the previous day, at 115,196 dollars. Most altcoins also showed strength. At the same time, Ethereum (ETH) and XRP (XRP) rose 10.98% and 6.24%, respectively. In addition, Binance Coin (+11.01%), Solana (+10.98%), Dogecoin (+12.04%), TRON (+2.33%), Cardano (+10.90%) all rose. The Fear and Greed Index is an indicator that expresses market sentiment: the closer to 0, the extreme fear; the closer to 100, the extreme greed. The index is calculated based on volatility(25%), trading volume(25%), social media(15%), surveys(15%), Bitcoin market cap dominance(10%), Google search volume(10%), and so on.

Parataxis Korea, the country's first institutional-investor-based Bitcoin (BTC) treasury and mining platform company, announced on the 13th that it purchased about 50 additional Bitcoin. With this purchase, Parataxis Korea's total Bitcoin holdings have exceeded 150.

Recently, due to US-China trade tensions, the leading altcoin Ethereum (ETH), which had relinquished the $4,000 level, is said to have the potential to rebound. On the 13th (Korean time), crypto asset (cryptocurrency) specialist media Cointelegraph reported that Ethereum recovered the $4,100 level over the past weekend and that Ethereum is showing signs of rebounding from the sharp decline. The outlet said, "According to Laevitas data, the funding rate of Ethereum perpetual futures fell to -14% last Saturday, but the monthly futures premium recovered to a neutral range within a short time," adding, "This indicates that leverage long demand temporarily weakened, and the bullish momentum was not impaired." The options market is also showing stability. According to Deribit data, call option trading volume was slightly higher than put option volume. The outlet explained, "Bullish betting predominates across the market." As of 8:21 AM, Ethereum is trading at $4,125, up 10.12% from the previous day according to CoinMarketCap.

Digital asset (cryptocurrency) asset manager Grayscale is reportedly planning to launch a BitTensor (TAO) trust product. On the 13th (KST), crypto outlet BeInCrypto reported that Grayscale recently filed the basic documents (Form 10) for the BitTensor trust with the SEC. Grayscale said on X (formerly Twitter), "We have filed the basic documents for the BitTensor trust product," adding, "This is a first step toward becoming an SEC-reporting company and will serve to take accessibility, transparency and regulatory status to the next level." If this filing is approved, the BitTensor trust product will, like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL), be required to file periodic reports (10-K, 10-Q) and audited financial statements with the SEC, and will be publicly traded on the over-the-counter market.