Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) investments are showing signs of recovery, signaling a return of risk appetite following a record crypto market crash in early October.
US spot Bitcoin ETFs saw $524 million worth of cumulative net inflows on Tuesday, marking the highest daily amount since Oct. 7, according to data from Farside Investors.
The $524 million inflows mark the highest cumulative inflows since the crypto market crash on Oct. 10, which delivered a significant blow to crypto investor appetite.
The positive daily inflows are a welcome signal for Bitcoin (BTC) holders, as investments from ETFs and Michael Saylor’s Strategy were the two main vehicles driving demand for Bitcoin’s price this year, according to Ki Young Ju, founder and CEO of crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant.
Bitcoin ETF Flows, US dollars (in millions). Source: Farside Investors
The growing demand from ETF buyers came a day after the US Senate approved a funding package that brought Congress one step closer to ending the government shutdown. The legislation is now headed for a full vote in the House of Representatives, which may occur later today, according to a Tuesday report by CBS News.
The development inspired a repositioning for more upside among the industry’s most successful traders, tracked as “smart money” traders on Nansen’s blockchain intelligence platform.
Smart money traders top perpetual futures positions on Hyperliquid. Source: Nansen
Smart money traders have added over $8.5 million worth of net long Bitcoin positions over the past 24 hours, signaling a growing optimism. However, smart traders were still net short by $202 million on decentralized exchange Hyperliquid, according to Nansen.
Despite retail concerns over the end of the bull cycle, Bitcoin’s current correction remains in a “healthy” range, helping reset leverage and “paving the way for renewed institutional entry,” Lacie Zhang, research analyst at Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.
“Looking ahead, all eyes turn to the Nov. 13 CPI print, though a continued data delay from the government shutdown adds uncertainty.”
Cooling inflation data may ease geopolitical concerns and lead to a “liquidity-driven rebound” for the world’s largest cryptocurrency, the analyst added.
Meanwhile, sustained inflows from Bitcoin ETFs may signal that the “de-risking phase” of ETF holders is coming to an end, as investor demand for digital assets is returning after the crash.
Bitcoin ETFs have been mostly in the red since the October crash, with daily outflows reaching up to $700 million, which pointed to a “broader de-risking phase among ETF investors,” wrote crypto data platform Glassnode, in a Tuesday X post.
As for the other crypto ETFs, Ether (ETH) ETFs saw $107 million worth of outflows on Tuesday, while the Solana (SOL) ETFs extended their 11-day winning streak with $8 million worth of net positive inflows, according to Farside Investors.
Cryptocurrency-based yield products still lag far behind their traditional finance (TradFi) counterparts, but new blockchain sectors such as liquid staking tokens (LSTs) and real-world assets (RWAs) are steadily closing the gap, according to a new report co-authored by RedStone Oracles, Gauntlet, Stablewatch and the Tokenized Asset Coalition, shared with Cointelegraph.
Only 8% to 11% of cryptocurrencies offer passive yield-generating models, indicating a significant gap compared to 55% to 65% of TradFi assets, roughly a fivefold disparity, the report found. However, stablecoins, RWAs and “blue-chip” yield tokens are rapidly closing decentralized finance’s (DeFi) passive income gap.
Emerging regulations, such as the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, passed in July, are helping the industry catch up, resulting in a rising demand for both yield-bearing stablecoins and RWAs, the report says. The GENIUS Act established clear rules for stablecoin collateralization and mandates compliance with Anti-Money Laundering laws.
“As clarity emerges, yield-bearing stablecoins are exploding: market capitalization is up 300% YoY, with new protocols launching monthly to capture the opportunity.”
RWAs, which are tokenized versions of traditional assets such as bonds or funds, are also introducing new sources of passive income as major institutions recognize the efficiency of onchain settlement.
Blue-chip yield tokens, such as Ether (ETH) LSTs and Solana (SOL) LSTs, are also gaining traction by creating more capital efficiency for cryptocurrency stakers.
Ether Liquid Staking Tokens. Source: Redstone
ETH LSTs rose from six million to 16 million in the two years leading up to November, gaining $34 billion in notional value based on today’s prices.
LSTs, such as Lido’s stETH (STETH), offer crypto stakers an equivalent of the staked token, which can be traded or deployed in other DeFi protocols, thereby creating more capital efficiency.
Crypto yield-bearing assets poised for “exponential growth” in the next months
Crypto yield-bearing assets are poised for “exponential growth” in the coming months and are set to benefit from the gap between DeFi and TradFi, according to the report, which called it “crypto’s greatest opportunity.”
“As the ‘Crypto-as-infrastructure’ thesis gains traction and onchain finance proves its superior capital efficiency, yield-generating crypto assets are positioned for exponential growth,” as institutional capital will seek more “efficiency,” it said.
Yield-generating tokens, such as Solana LSTs, are also gaining traction among institutions, as they can earn a passive yield of approximately 4% on top of their holdings.
SOL Liquid Staking Tokens. Source: RedStone
Much like Ether, Solana LSTs doubled in supply, from 20 million in January 2024 to about 40 million at the time of writing, with a total of 67% of the Solana token supply now locked in staking smart contracts.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will reincorporate to Texas from Delaware, a move highlighting the respective states’ legal and regulatory environments.
In a Wednesday X post, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal said the crypto exchange would move its incorporation to Texas. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Grewal wrote that the climate in Delaware’s courts had become “rife with unpredictable outcomes,” while Texas offered “efficiency and predictability.”
“This decision was not made lightly, but we’ll always do what’s best for our customers, our employees, and our shareholders,” said Grewal.
Coinbase announced in 2021, as COVID-19 restrictions lessened in the United States, that it would close its physical headquarters in San Francisco as part of the company’s “remote-first” policy.
Although the crypto exchange has since opened another location in the city and maintains offices in New York, it was incorporated in the state of Delaware.
Grewal’s announcement followed Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong saying that the company would “hire about 1,000 people” in the US as a result of the country’s regulatory environment for digital assets.
Armstrong has been a regular visitor to Washington, D.C., since the inauguration of US President Donald Trump, lobbying for a market structure bill and attending a White House crypto summit.
Texas as a US crypto and blockchain hub
Several cryptocurrency and blockchain companies have offices or operations in the Lone Star State, notably miners like Riot Platforms, MARA Holdings and Bitdeer. The city of Austin, the state’s capital, is also home to local offices of Big Tech companies like Meta and Google.
Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase for comment on the Texas move, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
Thousands of job cuts at the NHS will go ahead after the £1bn needed to fund the redundancies was approved by the Treasury.
The government had already announced its intention to slash the headcount across both NHS England and the Department of Health by around 18,000 administrative staff and managers, including on local health boards.
The move is designed to remove “unnecessary bureaucracy” and raise £1bn a year by the end of the parliament to improve services for patients by freeing up more cash for operations.
NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the Treasury had been in talks over how to pay for the £1bn one-off bill for redundancies.
It is understood the Treasury has not granted additional funding for the departures over and above the NHS’s current cash settlement, but the NHS will be permitted to overspend its budget this year to pay for redundancies, recouping the costs further down the line.
‘Every penny will be spent wisely’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to make further announcements regarding the health service in the budget on 26 November.
And addressing the NHS providers’ annual conference in Manchester today, Mr Streeting is expected to say the government will be “protecting investment in the NHS”.
He will add: “I want to reassure taxpayers that every penny they are being asked to pay will be spent wisely.
“Our investment to offer more services at evenings and weekends, arm staff with modern technology, and improving staff retention is working.
“At the same time, cuts to wasteful spending on things like recruitment agencies saw productivity grow by 2.4% in the most recent figures – we are getting better bang for our buck.”
Image: Health Secretary Wes Streeting during a visit to the NHS National Operations Centre in London earlier this year. Pic: PA
He is also expected on Wednesday to give NHS leaders the go-ahead for a 50% cut to headcounts in Integrated Care Boards, which plan health services for specific regions.
They have been tasked with transforming the NHS into a neighbourhood health service – as set down in the government’s long-term plans for the NHS.
Those include abolishing NHS England, which will be brought back into the health department within two years.