Let's get to the big story breakdown.
While the week came in with a whale and could go out like a bull or a bear or some other creature in between.
Bitcoin and options worth over $14 billion are set to expire tomorrow, marking one of the biggest derivatives events of the year.
While the action is centered around Bitcoin put options, showing investors are still hedging for downside while Espositioning looks more balanced.
The massive options exploration combined with signals from the Fed Reserve. could help shape the next big move for crypto as we head into September.
Joining me ahead of the Labor Day holiday to look back to the summer of 2025 is Andy Beer, head of product and research at Coin Desk, and this is Andy.
Great to have you back.
Hard to believe that summer is almost over.
I know sunsets around 7:30.
Let's remain in denial.
Yeah, I'm also in denial, Andy, but when we take a look back to the summer months of June, July, August, plenty of market action here.
So would you characterize this as the summer of anxiety?
Oh, I think it was, I think it was a pretty good summer if you, if you look back at Bitcoin's price on Memorial Day at 109,000 and now out of pushing 113, you might have been accused of thinking that we had another sideways summer third in a row, yet we had all-time highs in Bitcoin, all-time highs in Ethereum.
We had the Genius Act passed, we had at least many big IPOs, but including Circle and our parent company, Bullish here on the. of the New York Stock Exchange and a tremendous amount of progress and a lot of volume.
So it was quite an exciting summer breaking the streak of the last two. pretty happy.
The biggest story of the year has been the rotation out of Bitcoin into ether and in fact the whale that you mentioned from last summer, many reports indicate that that was part of that process too.
So for us looking for E led rallies that lead to more breath, it's been a really exciting.
Yeah, and speaking of which, there's so many analogies, not just for crypto but the broader market and everything that we've seen in between.
So I understand that you're thinking about a washing machine and usually when we're talking about washing machines, we might be talking about tariffs or durable goods, right?
But break this down for us.
Well, I'm just thinking of how I do laundry, which is probably not the right way where everything gets pushed around by different currents.
There's so many things pushing around sentiment right now.
On the positive side, you have continued regulatory support.
You have good volumes in spot and perps.
You have continued good adoption, continued inflows of Bitcoin and ether into ETFs, a whole new slew of ETFs for single and multi-t token indices that hopefully get approved soon by the SEC and tradable.
You have adoption momentum continuing very strong.
You have a record size or a very big size, I should say options expiration tomorrow morning, and sentiments pretty positive.
On the negative side or on the cautious side.
Um, you do have this idea that Bitcoin is kind of not stalled out a little bit, but kind of looking for direction.
I was really amazed yesterday at how much of the crypto content was focused on Nvidia earnings, sort of like a tell us how to feel moment, right?
The other thing about Bitcoin that has been talked about this week is that options, sorry, action on the Bitcoin blockchain has decreased pretty significantly.
Fees are down and more and more blocks are going either unfilled or absolutely nearly empty.
We think that's a lot of the volume migrating over into EDFs.
It's not exactly the most healthy thing that Bitcoin is being held but not used, right?
So a lot of the Bitcoin community is trying to find ways to reinvigorate sort of trading or blockchain activity there so.
I would say the mood was very pinned on the mood coming out of Nvidia, a little bit hunting for direction right now.
We'll see how things feel after Labor Day.
Yeah, and Andy, I'm still in denial that summer is almost over and Labor Day is around the corner, but it's also back to school season here in the US, and that means going back to basics and ABCs.
So if you're new to the crypto market, you're thinking about getting in, perhaps you.
Thinking about funds that way you can set it and forget it, but it's not, what would you say to new incoming investors?
I think between last year, which was absolutely a Bitcoin led crypto market, and this year where we've, the biggest story has been the rotation from Bitcoin to ether and performance of other top names, it's really hard to pin security, or sorry, crypto selection, and it's very hard to pin timing.
Our indices have Done very well at gathering all of these stories coin desk 20 is up around about 30% on the year, which is on par with which is beating Bitcoin's performance and on par with ether.
So we say to new investors, look at Bitcoin, understand its store value properties, look at Ethereum and what it does for things like stablecoins, understand blockchain and how it will change how we do things.
But when it comes to allocating.
Try to think about whether you're going to have the time to devote to pick names and to pick timing.
Otherwise look for index products.
And before I let you go, Andy, we have about 60 seconds here.
So after Labor Day, people will be trickling back to the office and of course Congress will be coming back from recess.
So what are the key catalysts that you're watching for post Labor Day?
A lot of people are looking at rates and again, sort of like the in earnings, it's kind of How should I feel?
It was interesting to see how much a week ago in the Jackson Hole comments by Chair Powell that that Ethereum moves just as much as Bitcoin.
We think of Bitcoin as being much more of a macro asset and interest rate sensitive, but the market is hunting for feeling right now.
The crypto market is well supported and strong, but it's still a sentiment driven market.
So I think sentiment with respect to regulation, with respect to central bank policy, with respect to.
These are all the swirling things in the washing machine that are going to, you know, hopefully produce a nice clean set of outfits to wear.
Yeah, I really like that analogy and next time I'm doing my laundry, I think I'll think about this conversation because usually when we're thinking about the Jackson Hole symposium, it's a snooze fest, but we did see that record high over the weekend, so much going on.
Thank you so much for joining me and have a great holiday weekend.
Thank you.
