Crypto market review in August 2024: ETF Bitcoin spot, trading volumes and stablecoins
September 24, 2024
As they do every month, the OAK Research teams bring you an in-depth analysis of the cryptocurrency market through key fundamental metrics. In this August 2024 edition, we look at trading volumes on the various exchange platforms, spot Bitcoin ETF data, stablecoin capitalizations and BTC miners' revenues.
Stablecoins
The total amount of stablecoins in circulation increased significantly between July 2023 and August 2024, rising by nearly 8%. This increase, representing more than $51 billion, reflects growing demand for cryptocurrencies, despite a sluggish market this summer.
In terms of distribution, Tether’s USDT continues to dominate the stablecoin market with a share of over 70%, far ahead of USDC, which accounts for about 21% of the total supply. It’s worth noting that Tether continues to expand the reach of its stablecoin by integrating it with new blockchains, including Aptos since mid-August.
Additionally, the company has posted increasingly impressive results, with estimated profits of $5.2 billion in Q1 2024. A portion of these profits is reinvested in Bitcoin (BTC) but is also used to diversify the company’s assets, which recently announced a $100 million investment in the agricultural sector.
Regarding the stablecoin market, the trend observed last July (-17%) continued, with Ethena’s USDe losing ground, showing a valuation decline of more than 9% in August 2024.
Transaction Volume
Note: We have decided to focus only on the data from the 12 main centralized cryptocurrency exchanges (see graph above) to simplify the analysis.
The total transaction volume across all platforms increased by approximately 9.72% between July 2024 and August 2024. This confirms the trend started the previous month, following an inflection point observed in May 2024.
Among the platforms studied, the biggest winners are Crypto.com (+39%), ByBit (+14.5%), and Binance (+11%). On the other hand, the largest declines in transaction volume were recorded by Gate.io (-22.7%) and Huobi (-14.3%).
In terms of market share, Binance retains a dominant position (21%), although it has decreased since the beginning of 2023. This is due to several lawsuits filed by the SEC (U.S. regulator) against the platform and its founder, Changpeng Zhao.
Bitcoin Spot ETFs
In August 2024, Bitcoin spot ETF flows saw a significant decline (-102%). The trend completely reversed, going from a notably positive flow in July 2024 (+$3.17 billion) to a slightly negative flow in August 2024 (-$92.2 million).
As the cryptocurrency market experienced a sharp correction, led by an 8.75% drop in Bitcoin’s value, ETFs reacted accordingly, revealing massive sell-offs by U.S. asset managers. As usual, Grayscale’s GBTC experienced the largest withdrawals ($910 million), while BlackRock’s IBIT continued to attract capital (+$889 million).
The total assets under management (AUM) of Bitcoin spot ETFs fell by approximately $5 billion in August 2024, an 8.3% drop. The ETF with the most notable growth was Grayscale’s Bitcoin Mini Trust, launched on July 31 under the ticker "BTC." This ETF benefits from competitive fees of 0.15%, compared to Grayscale’s GBTC fees of 1.5%.
Bitcoin Miners’ Revenue
To start, it’s worth noting that the base rewards distributed by the Bitcoin network to miners remain the majority of total revenues, despite the halving that cut the block reward in half.
Bitcoin miners’ total revenue decreased by 6.69% in August 2024, falling from $906 million to $846 million. Bitcoin network transaction fees also dropped significantly (-17% in August 2024), despite a slight rebound at the end of the month, partly explaining this revenue decline.
Similarly, the amount of BTC accumulated by major miners decreased by 6.2% in August 2024. This marks the end of the growth recovery started in June and continued in July.
The biggest losers are Hut 8 Mining (-17%) and Core Scientific (-12%), while Iris Energy Limited (IREN) managed to increase its production by 10%, bucking the market trend. Meanwhile, Marathon Digital, the giant, maintained a 20% share of the global Bitcoin mining market.
Conclusion
In August 2024, the cryptocurrency market continued to show mixed signals. From a market perspective, Bitcoin (BTC) saw an 8.5% decline, dragging other cryptocurrencies into the red. Simultaneously, stablecoin capitalization—particularly USDT—continued to grow, indicating investors’ interest in positioning themselves in the market.
Centralized exchanges benefited from a rebound in transaction volumes in August 2024, continuing the trend initiated in June of the same year. Regarding their "regulated" competitors, Bitcoin spot ETFs, we observed notable negative flows marked by massive withdrawals, particularly from Grayscale’s GBTC.
Finally, Bitcoin miners saw their revenues decrease due to the ongoing drop in transaction fees—and therefore activity on Bitcoin. It’s worth noting that Marathon Digital continues to maintain a dominant position in the sector, also keeping its production relatively stable compared to competitors.
Thus, although the cryptocurrency market has gone through a period of slowdown, some positive trends are emerging, suggesting a more optimistic outlook for the end of the year.
