Bitcoin Retakes $29.5K, WOO Impresses Among Alts as SUI Supply Schedule Draws Criticism

The first week of May coincided with the release of important economic indicators in the US, Europe and other major jurisdictions in Asia. Investors especially paid close attention to the picture in the US, starting with Federal Reserve interest-rate decision and Fed Chair press statement on Wednesday afternoon. The EU's industrial producer prices and domestic market (March 2023) data preoccupied investor minds on Thursday alongside the unemployment data released the day before.

US economic data summary Wk 1. Source: MarketWatch

Focus returned to the US market early Friday, given unemployment data which detailed that the US economy added 253,000 jobs in April – a notable increase from the US nonfarm payrolls rise of 165,000 in March. April's figure delivered by the Bureau of Labor Statistics topped analysts' forecast of 180K. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, the lowest so far this year against expectations of 3.6%.

Markets Watch

Fresh concerns about the US banking industry and other unfortunate events rocking the traditional finance space early this week helped propel Bitcoin (BTC) price towards $30,000 on Wednesday. The flagship cryptocurrency, however, failed to sustain the move and establish solid footing above $29K, adding to several unsuccessful attempts thus far.

BTC/USD price chart. Source: TradingView

In Thursday's trading, the BTC/USD pair put up a brief display of weakness, slipping below $29,200 resistance before recovering. The pair gained even more ground on Friday afternoon in contrast to the midweek's mildly volatile market action setting an intraday high of $29,670 as the market digested the US jobs report.

To learn more about Bitcoin, visit our Investing in Bitcoin guide.

Altcoins Roundup

The majority of altcoins are hovering slightly in the green, led by Ether (ETH) which was last tracked 6.20% up on the day and is on its way to closing in on $2,000. Woo Network's WOO has gained 7.85% during this period, making it one of the top gainers in the last 24 hours.

ETH/USD May price course

Meanwhile, Stacks (STX), one of the best performers earlier this week – soaring double digits on Wednesday – has cooled and is down 2.47% in the same period. Still, the STX token is trading 240% higher this year. The midweek gains follow a recent network upgrade meant to address a bug discovered in a previous version.

Trending tokens

SUI makes market debut, billed to challenge Aptos (APT)

The launch of the Sui mainnet on Wednesday welcomed traders to pay even more attention to the project's token SUI owing to its potential as the ‘first internet-scale programmable blockchain' according to its creator Mysten Labs. Several exchanges support trading of SUI, including Bybit, Kucoin, and OKX activated spot trading this week in line with earlier communication of listing the token.

Market data shows that the token has declined by 71.20% since its debut on centralized trading platforms. SUI has hovered around $1.30 for the better part of the day, with a circulating supply of 528 million and a shrinking trading volume of $649 million in the last 24 hours. SUI's current price yields close to 1300% to investors who bought the native token of the layer one blockchain in a public offering at a sale price of $0.1 at the end of April. SUI has also eclipsed Bitcoin SV, Optimism, and Zcash in market capital ranking.

To learn more about Sui, visit our Investing in Sui guide.

Supply distribution and centralization concerns

Mysten Labs, the developer of the layer one blockchain, raised $300 million in a September 2022 funding round that saw participation from several entities, including FTX exchange. Off the back of the midweek market launch, the crypto community has raised questions about SUI's supply schedule. The project roadmap shows that it has allocated 14% of its 10 billion SUI supply to investors. The Sui Foundation previously outlined that the circulating supply of SUI tokens is expected to grow by nearly 15% by the end of the year sparking debates in some sects.

Source: Sui Foundation

Contrary to promises of fast transaction speeds from developers promised, the network processed at a rate of around four transactions per second of 6 tps (Aptos averages 9tps) on Friday. Sui blockchain explorer tool shows that the network has 100 validators who have staked over 4.6 billion SUI tokens as of writing. The subject of decentralization has also been brought to the fore as the blockchain network encompasses more than 2,200 nodes across only 19 countries.

Stablecoins spotlight

Blockchain analytics platform Glassnode reported earlier this week that the volume of dollar-pegged cryptocurrencies stablecoins held on exchanges has slipped to two-year lows. Analysts noted that the balance of stablecoins in exchange wallets has extended its decline reaching the lowest level since May 2021.

Total stablecoin supply. Source: The Block data

For context, the exchange balances for stablecoin projects hit a record high of over 44 billion in mid-December.

USD Coin (USDC) and Tether (USDT)

Notable events like the depeg of USD coin (USDC) in March and regulatory action on Paxos, the issuer of BUSD, in February have contributed to the accelerated risk aversion towards stablecoins. Paxos complied with guidance from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to stop minting BUSD.

USDC supply

In April, the market capital of BUSD and USDC shrunk even more last month, while Tether (USDT) added to its dominance. Markedly, exchange depth data shows that trade denominated in Tether (Bitcoin-Tether pair) is the most liquid on Binance – the largest exchange by trading volume.

USDT supply

Last month, Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Circle, the issuer of USD Coin, said it had the USDC stablecoins offering was strengthened by the events around the US banking crisis in March. At the CoinDesk's Consensus event on April 26, Allaire reassured that the market infrastructure has been upgraded to make USDC the “strongest, safest digital dollar on the internet.”

To learn more about Tether, check out our Tether guide.

TrueUSD (TUSD)

TrueUSD (TUSD) enjoyed a terrific run in April after Binance introduced zero trading fees in the pair at the end of March. Trading volume in the BTC/TUSD pair surged across April, dethroning BUSD as the second-most liquid pair on the exchange, but its (TUSD) liquidity is yet to match that of the BTC/USDT pair.

Source: CoinMarketCap

On Wednesday, crypto analytics firm Kaiko observed that TrueUSD's borrowing rates rose to 100% as TUSD depegged and reached $1.20. In a newsletter, the firm noted that some traders rushed to Aave and Compound lending protocol to borrow large amounts of TUSD and profit from the swap for USD Coin (USDC).

Curve's crvUSD

In a related development, DeFi protocol Curve Finance deployed the smart contracts for a crypto collateral-backed stablecoin crvUSD this week. The Curve team failed in the initial attempt to deploy the crvUSD smart contract on Wednesday due to a mistake in the original deployment script. The contract was rereleased on Thursday, concluding the launch of the highly-anticipated stablecoin.

Share of total stablecoin supply

The decentralized stablecoin project arrives as a direct rival to MakerDAO's DAI and Aave's GHO owing to their similarities. The offering will allow for the minting of crvUSD against crypto collateral deposited in the protocol. Curve DAO native token (CRV) saw a modest price uptick in reaction to the news before retreating. The CRV/USD pair was at writing spotted back in the green, changing hands at $0.957 per CoinMarketCap data.

To learn more about Curve, visit our Investing in Curve guide.