Market Update: March 2024 | Week 1
5 MAR 2024 | RESEARCH
Welcome to the inaugural Wintermute OTC Desk Market Update!
In this weekly commentary, we will provide color on the recent crypto market developments. We are also looking to launch more in-depth market insights, exclusive to our onboarded OTC counterparites.
Highlights
- Markets are experiencing a surge of optimism as we approach Bitcoin’s ATH, entering the ‘extreme greed’ phase for the first time since November 2021, according to the Crypto Fear and Greed Index.
- Spot ETFs have been purchasing an average of 4,101 bitcoins daily since their introduction in January, significantly surpassing the daily mining output of 900 bitcoins. This highlights a substantial supply-demand gap that is set to widen even further post-halving.
- Despite elevated funding rates and perpetual futures volumes compared to last year, leverage remains below the peaks observed in previous market cycles.
- While retail participation has seen an uptick in recent weeks, social media indicators indicate that there is still room for further growth in retail accumulation given comparisons to the last cycle.