As tensions rise in the Middle East, commodities like gold and crude oil are seeing notable price increases, while Bitcoin has taken a downturn. This divergence has reignited debates over Bitcoin’s role as a safe-haven asset.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s new Bitcoin Friday Futures (BFF) launched with a record-breaking debut, achieving the highest first-day trading volume ever seen in crypto futures. On its launch day, September 29, more than 31,498 contracts were traded across two contract weeks.

Bitcoin mining companies saw a sharp decline in profitability in September, according to a report by JPMorgan Chase analysts Reginald L. Smith and Charles Pearce, who pointed out that the daily block reward gross profit dropped 6% compared to the previous month, marking the lowest point in "recent record."

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Bitcoin Price Tumbles Amid Middle East Tensions, Gold Gains as Safe Haven
• CME Group’s Bitcoin Friday Futures Debuts with Record Trading Volume
• Bitcoin Miners' Profits Hit Record Low in September
• MakerDAO Completes Rebrand to Sky

Bitcoin Price Tumbles Amid Middle East Tensions, Gold Gains as Safe Haven

As tensions rise in the Middle East, commodities like gold and crude oil are seeing notable price increases, while Bitcoin has taken a downturn in a drop that reignited debates over Bitcoin’s role as a safe-haven asset.

On Tuesday, gold surged by 1.4%, reaching $2,665 per ounce, close to its all-time high, while crude oil prices spiked by 7% to $72 per barrel. These gains came as Iran launched some 180 ballistic missiles against Israel in what Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps said was a retaliation for the assassinations of Hamas’s political leader and an Iranian commander.

 Bonds and the U.S. dollar also saw gains, further signaling investor anxiety. Contrary to its usual label as a "safe haven," Bitcoin dropped more than 3% over the same 24 hours, falling from an intraday high of $64,000 to a low of $60,315 before slightly recovering to $61,600. Coinglass data reported that around 154,770 traders were liquidated in that period, with total liquidations amounting to $521 million.

This isn’t the first time Bitcoin has reacted negatively to geopolitical conflict, as a similar drop occurred in April following an Iranian drone and missile attack on Israel.

Some analysts, like Jeroen Blokland of Blokland Smart Multi-Asset Fund, believe that investors are selling Bitcoin to buy gold. Meanwhile, others including Adam Cochran and Jesse Colombo have questioned Bitcoin’s reliability as a safe haven asset.

CME Group’s Bitcoin Friday Futures Debuts with Record Trading Volume

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s new Bitcoin Friday Futures (BFF) launched with a record-breaking debut, achieving the highest first-day trading volume ever seen in crypto futures.

On its launch day, September 29, more than 31,498 contracts were traded across two contract weeks, according to an October 1 announcement, which called this the “most successful CME Group cryptocurrency product launch”. Financial firms Galaxy and Marex executed the first block trade for this new product.

Sized at one-50th of a Bitcoin, the BFF contracts are cash-settled each Friday based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York Variant (BRRNY), which tracks Bitcoin’s spot price. The contracts are listed every Thursday after the close of Wall Street markets and allow traders to hedge or speculate on Bitcoin’s price movements over a short-term period without needing to hold longer-term futures positions.

Futures contracts like the BFF are frequently used for both hedging and speculative purposes, helping traders manage price volatility or profit from future price predictions. The launch of this smaller Bitcoin futures product comes amid increasing demand for BTC derivatives, as CME Group looks to provide a regulated and accessible way for investors to engage with the Bitcoin market.

Bitcoin Miners' Profits Hit Record Low in September

Bitcoin mining companies saw a sharp decline in profitability in September, according to a report by JPMorgan Chase analysts Reginald L. Smith and Charles Pearce, who pointed out that the daily block reward gross profit dropped 6% compared to the previous month, marking the lowest point in "recent record."

This was the third consecutive month of falling revenue and profits for miners, despite a modest rise in Bitcoin’s average price, in a decrease in profitability that’s linked to Bitcoin’s halving event, which took place in April.

Occurring every four years, the halving reduces the coinbase rewards miners receive per block found by 50%. Based on current Bitcoin prices, the halving could result in an annual revenue loss of over $10 billion for the mining industry.

The Bitcoin mining sector has expanded dramatically over the years, with 14 major U.S.-listed mining companies now holding a combined market capitalization exceeding $20 billion.

The impact on the mining industry is clear, as the stock prices of major U.S. miners MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms have plummeted by 36% and 54%, respectively, over the course of the year.

MakerDAO Completes Rebrand to Sky

The issuer of the cryptocurrency-backed DAI stablecoin, MakerDAO, completed its rebrand to Sky and introduced its new stablecoin, Sky Dollar (USDS) alongside a governance token, Sky, in late August.

Since USDS went live on September 20, it reached a circulating supply of $458 million (as of Sept. 24), with users voluntarily converting their DAI to USDS, whose holders can earn 6.25% in yield from the Sky Savings Rate module.

As a result, the market capitalization of DAI fell 2.83% to $5.1 billion in September, while the trading volume on centralized exchanges for DAI pairs fell 43.8% to $893 million as of September 24. 

Dig deeper into the stablecoin sector through CCData’s latest Stablecoins & CBDCs report.

State of the Crypto by Top Tier Exchange Volume

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