Trakx Weekly Update: May 19

Key Crypto Market Figures

CTIs Weekly Performance

Last week saw digital asset prices consolidate after recent gains, as reflected in the 0.2% dip in our benchmark large cap Top10 Crypto CTI. On the week, the best performer was the Bitcoin-Ether CTI, after it rose a modest 1.1%, while at the other end of the performance spectrum was the AI Agents CTI. The latter has been on a tear recently, rallying over 60% since mid-April. The past week saw it give back some of these gains, dipping 7% as investors sought to book some profits.

Sticky US Inflation

US CPI inflation came out slightly lower than consensus estimates in April, with the headline measure declining by a tenth of a point to 2.3% y/y. The good news – and hence the positive impact on crypto prices – was tempered by the fact that on the core measure, which strips out the volatile food and energy components, inflation remained well above the Fed’s target rate, at 2.8% y/y. This elevated reading provides Chair Powell and his colleagues at the Fed plenty of political cover to rebuff President Trump’s repeated calls for them to lower interest rates, especially given the Liberation Day tariffs are widely expected to boost consumer price inflation over the next couple of months.

Hacks and Attacks

Crypto has been associated with criminality ever since it was chosen as the preferred medium of exchange for the Silk Road dark net market established in 2011 and shut down by the US authorities in 2013. This stigma of illegality faded significantly over recent years, concomitant with the surge in legitimate uses of crypto (latest estimates indicate that less than 0.15% of on-chain transaction volume was associated with illicit activity). However, following the rebound in prices since the November 2022 bear market low that has propelled the overall market cap of digital assets to more than $3.2tr, cryptocurrencies have once again attracted the attention of criminals—not as a potential tool to launder illicitly gained fiat money but as a valuable target in its own right.

For instance, last week alone saw two major hacks. The first involved the centralized exchange, Coinbase, where an estimated 1% of its customers had personal information stolen in the data breach. The second involved the decentralized platform Curve Finance, after its domain name service (DNS) was hijacked, sending users to a malicious website where their digital wallets could potentially be drained of funds. More concerning still was the attempted kidnap of the daughter of the CEO of the French crypto exchange Paymium. What these recent events underpin is the critical importance of security for those operating in the asset class. Stay safe!

Sources: Trakx, Coingecko, Alphavantage

Market Trends

• U.S. CPI Rose Less Than Expected 0.2% in April; Annual Pace Slips to Four-Year Low: CoinDesk
• Coinbase warns of up to $400 million hit from cyberattack: Reuters
• Curve Finance warns users after website and X account hacks: Protos
• Crypto exchange CEO’s daughter fights off brazen kidnappers in Paris: Cointelegraph
• Crypto investors are ramping up personal security as physical attacks surge: CryptoNews
• Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund Reveals $408 Million Investment In BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF: Bitcoin Magazine

Sources: Coingecko and AlphaVantage

*Return of bitcoin is calculated since 01/05/2020, while CTIs performances were calculated since their respective launch date.
**Includes simulated performance.
***The risk signal is determined according to the historical volatility level, the higher the riskier.

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Disclaimers: No Investment Advice. Index returns and statistics are for illustration only. Index returns do not reflect any transaction costs or expenses. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The information provided in this newsletter does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and you should not treat any of the newsletter content as such. Trakx.io does not recommend that any cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held by you. Readers shall conduct their own due diligence and consult their financial advisors before making any investment decisions.