Here is a summary of the news discussed:

• Binance and Crypto.com, two of the largest centralised cryptocurrency exchanges (CEXs), have seen their market share decline year-over-year as smaller rivals such as Bybit and OKX gain ground. Binance’s spot trading volume fell 13% year-over-year from October 2023 to October 2024, while its crypto derivatives market share also shrank 8.4% over the same period. Bybit’s market share more than doubled, rising from 3.2% to 8.51%, while OKX saw its market share increase from 5.4% to 6.38%. Crypto.com experienced a significant decline, with its market share falling from 15% to below 4% between October 2023 and February 2024.
• This shift in market share is partly attributed to the rise of decentralised exchanges (DEXs), which have seen their trading volumes grow significantly over the past year. DEX trading volumes surpassed $250 billion in March and June 2024, reaching levels not seen since December 2021. As of October 17, 2024, DEX spot trading volume represented 13.6% of CEX trading volume. Despite losing some market share, Binance still processed over $22.5 trillion of the $54 trillion in total trading volume across the 22 largest CEXs over the past year.
• Institutional investors are increasingly embracing Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Since spot Bitcoin ETFs began trading in January 2024, institutional investors have accumulated $13 billion worth of shares. This surge in institutional interest is particularly notable given initial skepticism from traditional financial firms towards crypto assets. BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF has become the fastest-growing ETF in U.S. financial history, further highlighting the shift in institutional sentiment.
• Analysts believe that the growing institutional adoption of spot Bitcoin ETFs will likely drive a significant Bitcoin price rally. While short-term volatility is expected, long-term predictions remain bullish, with many analysts anticipating Bitcoin to trade above $100,000 by early 2025. Some, like MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, even forecast a potential Bitcoin price of $13 million by 2045.
• Chainlink has launched new privacy-preserving technology aimed at enabling financial institutions to use blockchain applications while ensuring data privacy. The new features, Blockchain Privacy Manager and CCIP Private Transactions, allow institutions to connect private chains to other public and private blockchains and encrypt sensitive data. This is particularly important for institutions seeking to comply with data protection regulations, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). ANZ Bank is among the first institutions to pilot Chainlink’s privacy-preserving capabilities, using the technology for cross-chain settlement of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) under the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian initiative.
• Analysis of recent inflows into spot Bitcoin ETFs suggests that institutional investors are moving away from traditional cash and carry arbitrage strategies and are instead making directional bets on Bitcoin's price appreciation. The mismatch between the $2.5 billion inflow into spot BTC ETFs and the $1.6 billion increase in open interest for CME bitcoin futures contracts indicates that a significant portion of the ETF inflow is not related to arbitrage but rather represents outright bullish bets. Further supporting this observation is the rising futures premium, which suggests a strong bias for bullish long trades.