What Happened in Crypto Today ? ETH Options All-Time High | HSBC Takes Crypto to China

The global crypto market capitalization shrunk by $158 billion on June 11 2024, as investors take on a bearish outlook ahead of the next US Fed rate decision slated for June 12. Here are the key events that drove the markets on Tuesday. 

Global Crypto Markets Shrunk by 6%

On Tuesday June 11, the crypto sector faced intense volatility as bears seized control of the markets. After a fairly positive start to the week, which saw Bitcoin price break above $71,400 on Monday amid bullish comments by US Presidential Candidate Donald Trump.

Bulls failed to build on the positive momentum on Tuesday, as the upcoming US Fed rate decision took centre stage. With the disappointing Non-Farm Payrolls data published by the US Bureau of Labor statistics on June 7, analysts posit that the much-anticipated rate cut is now unlikely.

With less than 48 hours to the Fed Rate decision, the sentiment within the crypto markets grew pensive on Tuesday. Bitcoin fell 6% within the 24- hour timeframe, tumbling to a 20-day low of $66,100.  The bearish downtrend spread across other top ranked crypto assets.

Solana (- 7%), Ethereum (-5%) and XRP (-4%) all emerged biggest losers in the top 10 crypto rankings, all performing below BTC within the daily time frame.

Looking at the broader sector trend, the chart above shows that the global crypto markets shrunk 6.3%, shedding over $158 billion in valuation. This shows that while Bitcoin price struggled, the altcoin market did not fare any better on June 11, 2024.

All eyes are now on the US Fed Reserve’s monetary policy rate decision slated for Wednesday.

HSBC Becomes First Foreign Bank to Offer China’s Digital Yuan to Businesses

HSBC Bank’s Chinese subsidiary has started offering e-CNY services to corporate clients, granting businesses access to China’s central bank digital currency, the digital yuan or e-CNY, in a first for a foreign bank in the country.

The digital yuan is a digital version of the country’s fiat currency, the yuan (CNY), and is designed to partially replace physical cash in circulation. In a statement HSBC Bank (China) announced that corporate clients can now link their accounts to e-CNY wallets for asset management purposes.

The bank has already facilitated e-CNY payments for an education group across six of its branches in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Jiaxing, and Suzhou. The People’s Bank of China, the nation’s central bank, launched pilot programs for the digital currency in late 2019, gradually expanding them to encompass various regions throughout the country.

While the government has begun paying state employees in e-CNY within select cities, various users remain reluctant to pay with e-CNY over functional limitations and privacy concerns. In a bid to bolster e-CNY usage, Hong Kong recently announced that residents could establish personal e-CNY wallets for cross-border transactions.

ETH Options Volume on CME Reaches New All-Time High

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), has seen its crypto derivatives trading volume dip 7.42% to $115 billion in May, marking a second consecutive monthly decline.

Bitcoin futures trading bore the brunt of the decline, falling 14% to $86.8 billion while Ethereum futures defied the trend, surging 37.5% to $20.5 billion, marking the highest monthly volume since November 2021. The rise was accompanied by a staggering 115% jump in ETH options trading volume to $931 million, a new record for the exchange.

CME’s market share among derivatives markets edged up 0.4% to 3.11%, the highest level since 2021 amid a rise in Ethereum trading activity attributed to growing institutional interest in ETH over the SEC’s sudden approval of spot Ethereum ETF applications in the US.