Original author: BitMEX

Brief Overview

• AI-themed tokens and meme coins are surging, while most major cryptocurrencies are consolidating.

• We recommended $GOAT at 0.34 in last week’s report and we hope you benefited from it.

• The overall cryptocurrency market had mixed performance this week. Despite a pullback near $70,000, Bitcoin remained strong, with BTC market dominance hitting a new high. Ethereum continued to underperform relative to Bitcoin. Solana was the biggest winner among major coins, driven by the AI meme coin craze on its network. This wave of activity pushed Solana's on-chain metrics to new all-time highs.

• In our trading alpha section, we will explore a compelling trade idea: Long SOL/ETH - Why Solana's outperformance relative to Ethereum is justified.

Data Overview

Well Performing Tokens

• $APE (+55.9%): ApeChain launched on Sunday, bringing with it a variety of games and applications, causing ApeCoin prices to surge.

• $MEW (+31.6%): Cat themes are now a hot trend among memecoins.

• $JUP (+22.6%): Jupiter has emerged as the clear winner in the recent AI token frenzy phenomenon as most trades are conducted through the Jupiter aggregator.

Underperforming Tokens

• $FTM (-6.8%): Fantom is changing its name to Sonic - we are not sure whether the strong performance of the past two months will continue

• $SHIB (-6.7%): $SHIB is losing value relative to new narrative meme coins such as $POPCAT.

• $SUI (-6.6%): $SUI is still consolidating at a relatively high level after the sharp rise last month.

News

Macro:

• ETH ETF weekly outflows: -$5.4 million ( source )

• BTC ETF weekly inflows: +$595.6 million ( source )

• Crypto Detectives Arkham and ZachXBT say $20 million in crypto may have been stolen from the US government ( Source )

• South Korea reportedly plans to impose reporting requirements on “cross-border” cryptocurrency transactions ( source )

• Rich Rosenblum, co-CEO and CTO of cryptocurrency market maker GSR leave ( source )

• BlackRock pitches Binance, OKX and Deribit for derivatives trading using its BUIDL token ( source )

• Stripe acquires stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion, making it the largest acquisition in the crypto space ( source )

project

• ApeChain launches Pump.fun clone and "Top Trader" game ( Source )

• Microsoft lists "Evaluating Bitcoin Investment" as a voting item for its December shareholder meeting ( source )

• Coinbase believes AI agents and cryptocurrencies will drive economic prosperity, a day after CEO Brian Armstrong offered wallets to memecoin trading bots ( Source )

• GnosisDAO is launching a new $40 million venture fund ( source )

• Binance Labs invests in Web3 health responsibility application Moonwalk Fitness ( source )

• Uniswap’s permissionless cross-chain bridge is live on nine networks ( source )

• Pump.Fun plans to launch a token in the future ( source )

Trading Insights

NOTE: The following does not constitute financial advice. This is a compilation of market news and we always encourage you to do your own research (DYOR) before executing any trades. The following is not meant to express any guaranteed returns and BitMEX cannot be held responsible if your trades do not perform as expected.

SOL/ETH - Why it makes sense that SOL continues to outperform ETH

If you prefer trading token pairs to protect yourself from overall crypto market risk - consider going long $SOL and short $ETH.

Going long SOL looks quite tempting for two main reasons: its recent performance and the continued growth potential brought by the AI memecoin craze. Solana's weekly revenue (including transaction fees and MEV tips) has hit a new all-time high of $36.8 million. This wave of growth is mainly due to the new trend of AI memecoins like $GOAT, most of which are issued and traded on the Solana platform.

Although Solana is growing rapidly, its mind share (i.e. user awareness) indicator is still relatively low, which means there is still a lot of room for growth. Looking back at historical data, when Solana broke through 20% mind share twice in December 2023 and March 2024, its price subsequently soared by more than 60%. Taking these factors into consideration, coupled with the continued expansion of the Solana ecosystem and technological advancement, $SOL prices are likely to continue to rise significantly.

The rise of Solana could put pressure on Ethereum as the two compete directly for users in the L1 space. A key argument in support of this view is that the Ethereum network currently lacks major innovation, making it difficult to attract new users outside the crypto community.

Solana, on the other hand, has become the go-to network for launching and trading new narratives, such as AI-themed tokens, as exemplified by the popularity of $GOAT. This enthusiasm is attracting new users through the Solana ecosystem. Solana’s ability to capture new market opportunities and user interest gives it an advantage over Ethereum, which seems to be struggling to maintain its innovation lead in this bull run.