Hola DD amigos! It’s been quite some days since our last issue. The market dipped amid the ritual September sell-off, like all previous years, but bulls still hold the high ground. Gains were trimmed, but the upward momentum is still strong. Let’s take a look at what’s happened and how things look for the future.
Here’s what we have for you in this issue –
- Ethereum’s one-upped Tron again
- Crypto treasuries easing their pace?
Ethereum leads USDT settlements. Again 😎
USDT supply on Ethereum has surpassed Tron, once again.
The shift isn’t retail-driven. It’s institutions that are pulling USDT back to Ethereum.
Source: @tokenterminal
USDT supply on Ethereum has surged by $17 billion since May. It is now sitting at $77 billion.
Tron is trailing just behind at $76.23 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
But Tron still leads in raw transaction count, whereas Ethereum averages 400K USDT (1.64 million total network transactions) daily.
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) accounts for 7.48% of the total USDT supply, with Plasma and Solana holding $4.37 billion and $2.1 billion worth of USDT supply.
Why Ethereum?
- Strong institutional preference—PayPal’s recently launched PYUSD stablecoin boasts $1.75 billion worth of supply.
- Liquidity gravity: More Ethereum-based stablecoin flows correspond to stronger cross-chain bridges.. DeFi liquidity levels are deep, and there are far more exchange integrations than any other chain.
- DeFi dominance: Despite higher fees than most chains, Ethereum’s ecosystem keeps attracting serious money.
Retail users appreciate Tron’s low transaction fees, but institutions require Ethereum’s robust infrastructure. That’s a fact.
As the U.S. regulatory framework solidifies, this institutional gravity may solidify Ethereum’s position as the preferred settlement layer for stablecoins.
And this further makes lean bullish on ETH. The rally may have taken a break, but the long-term upside trend is intact.
Bulls have already bought the dip. You can see it on the daily ETH/USD chart.
Crypto Treasury Exuberance Over? 🤷🏻
The very engines that fueled massive Bitcoin and ETH rallies in the recent past have come to a screeching halt.
Or so it seems.
Treasury buys of BTC and ETH have slowed by more than half since July.
Let’s see what the actual numbers look like:
- Bitcoin treasuries accounted for a 12,600 BTC buy in August and a 15,500 BTC purchase in September. But as per CryptoQuant, the accumulation pace was twice the aforementioned figure in July.
- As a result, prices dipped. BTC did a sub-$109K taking ETH and other major altcoins with it.
- Stock prices of crypto treasury-linked firms tanked in unison. Solana treasury Helius was down 38% last week, BitMine Immersion was down 13%, and Strategy and Metaplanet were down 9% each.
- Which in turn spurred this feedback loop amongst treasuries: slower buys → weaker prices → forced liquidations → even weaker prices.
What happens when the bull run’s very backbone weakens?
- Narrative Risk: “Balance sheet as strategy” (pioneered by Strategy/Metaplanet) only works if new buyers keep piling in continuously. A pause makes the story wobble.
- Market Exposure: Without steady treasury demand, crypto feels every macro shock harder—inflation prints, tariff chatter, or Fed moves.
- Equity Spillover: TreasuryCo stocks trade like leveraged bets on their crypto holdings. As they sink, it can chill fresh PIPE deals and new treasury launches.
But here’s the thing with institutions. They play the long-term game.
In this scenario, too, institutions are still keeping their powder dry.
Adoption hasn’t vanished—it’s just slowed. Which means the next wave of buys could hit like an avalanche in Q4.
But it is not wise to pin hopes on them. As a prudent trader and investor, you must scoop up profits whenever there is a significant upside in prices from your entry points.
Patiently waiting for the “to the moon” moment, or the market top could backfire.
And that’s all we will say for now. We’ll keep an eye out for signs of which way the market is headed. See you in the next one!
Ciao👋
