In the latest Coin Metrics State of the Network, the researchers take a data-driven look at the most important events that impacted the digital assets industry in Q1 2024.
The demand and strength of inflows into bitcoin exchange-traded products “have been unprecedented, catching many by surprise and making them the fastest growing ETFs in history,” the Coin Metrics report noted.
After a quarter since launch, “about $12B has flowed into these vehicles, holding ~4% of BTC’s current supply. Of the 11 issuers, BlackRock’s IBIT has been the clear winner, amassing close to 250k BTC (~$17B) since inception, with several other issuers gaining market share.”
Conversely, Grayscale’s GBTC has been “an outlier with large outflows, primarily due to higher fees and the repercussions of the Genesis and FTX bankruptcies,” the Coin Metrics report added.
Despite the occasional volatility in investment flows, “with some days experiencing exceptionally high activity, the introduction of spot bitcoin ETFs has undeniably been the foundation for the broader rally across digital asset markets.”
The Coin Metrics report further noted that Q1 provided us with “a glimpse of the strong market appetite for these products; however, participants will be keen to see the enduring appeal and the impact of derivatives-based ETFs entering the mix going forward.”
With the successful completion of the Dencun hard-fork on March 13th, Ethereum (ETH) has reportedly “achieved yet another crucial milestone in its roadmap, undergoing a major infrastructure upgrade to enhance the blockchains scalability.”
The Coin Metrics report pointed out that this event “was anticipated not only by Ethereum users, who’ve grappled with high transaction fees during periods of congestion, but also by layer-2 (L2) solutions that have faced elevated costs associated with storing or settling data that has been processed off-chain, down to Ethereum’s layer-1.”
However, the introduction of “blobs” through EIP-4844, has “alleviated these bottlenecks, setting the foundation to improve the economic feasibility of the network for all stakeholders involved.”
EIP-4844 addresses Ethereum’s scalability issues “by creating space for ‘blobs’ of data.”
As a more efficient form of data-storage compared to calldata, layer-2’s can utilize blobspace to settle transactions to Ethereum’s layer-1, which acts “as a data-availability and settlement layer. Since the upgrade, the network has processed over 209K blobs as of March 31st.”
This is brought to fruition through “blob-transactions,” a new transaction type involving the use of blobs which are “made available for periods of approximately 18 days—unlike calldata, which is stored permanently.”
The temporary nature of blobs “enable them to be priced at a lower cost, thus significantly reducing the data-availability costs (DA) costs for L2’s.”
Alongside the growth in digital asset market valuations, stablecoins resumed their expansion in Q1.
The Coin Metrics report further noted that the “supply of US dollar-pegged stablecoins surpassed $135B, growing by 13.5% over the quarter in aggregate.”
Tether (USDT), the stablecoin juggernaut, “crossed a $100B, with its circulating supply on Ethereum growing by 16%, while supply on the Tron network rose by 11%. Circle’s USDC had a strong start to Q1, expanding by 22% to $27B in supply—close to levels observed around the regional banking crisis of last year.”
While USDT has dominated centralized exchange volumes, USDC trading pairs “are gaining a larger presence across spot markets as liquidity improves.”
The Coin Metrics report also noted that the “increasing market share of the two leading stablecoins can also be partly attributed to the shutdown of BUSD issued by Paxos, in addition to an overall boost in demand for digital assets.”
As the year’s first quarter draws to a close, the digital asset landscape has experienced transformative growth and pivotal developments “that signal a maturing and increasingly diverse market.”
While speculation and exuberance has pervaded the market, progress has been made on several fronts, from “the launch of spot bitcoin ETFs, to infrastructure upgrades and adoption across layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems paving the way for greater accessibility and innovative use-cases.”
Q1 also marks a pivotal turn in market sentiment as we “leave behind the shadows that clouded over the industry, with the sentencing of Sam-Bankman Fried.”
Looking ahead, there are various developments “on the horizon that could shape the digital assets industry going forward.”
The report concluded that the “resumption of Coinbase’s case with the SEC, the potential introduction of Ethereum ETFs and Bitcoins fast-approaching 4th halving will undoubtedly keep participants on their feet.”