The great crypto crash of 2018? 37% loss in value last month

Hi, I'm Helene Braun, here to bring you up to speed on today's crypto market news.

June was a difficult month for cryptocurrency markets.

Last month, Bitcoin (BTC) saw its biggest monthly price drop since 2011, 37.3%. Ether (ETH) was down 45% at the same time.

Macroeconomic problems have made traders risk-averse, and that has caused a range of declines.

"This was one of the worst quarters on record pretty much everywhere across the equity market, across the bond market, and in a lot of different places," Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca Funds, told CoinDesk.

The price of goods and services, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), has risen steeply since early 2014. This is because of various factors, including the disruption of supply chains in Ukraine and Russia's invasion. Investors are concerned about these developments, which is justified.

A widely-followed tracker from the Atlanta Fed, reported on Thursday that real gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 1% in the second quarter. If this is sustained, it would be the second consecutive quarter of negative growth, which suggests that we might already be in a recession.

The crypto market was affected by a number of external factors, but it also suffered big drops last month, which were even bigger than the losses seen in major stock indexes.

In mid-August, the value of Celsius's CEL token dropped by over 50% after it announced that withdrawals would be suspended, although it managed to recover some of its losses by month's end and finished down 24%.

CoinFLEX, a crypto exchange that focuses on derivatives trading, also paused withdrawals. Its FLEX token fell over 65% in 24 hours.

"The story should be about the centralized finance counterparts like Celsius have blown up," Dorman said

A number of analysts believe that bitcoin will fall below the roughly $18,000-$21,000 support level it held throughout June.

"A successful retest appears likely at this time, and it could set the base for a gradual recovery that will spread over a few months," BitBull CEO Joe DiPasquale wrote to CoinDesk. "A breakdown from this range could see bitcoin trading between $13,000 to $15,000, and it could send the market into a spiral that may take longer for recovery."

The latest figures show

SEC Bitcoin ETF Rejection Leads to Wider Grayscale 'GBTC Discount'

The Grayscale discount, a key crypto market metric, is widening after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected an application by the CoinDesk sister company to convert its bitcoin fund, the world's biggest, into an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

The shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) are now trading at a 31% discount to the value of the underlying bitcoin, based on figures posted on the website for Grays

The widening in the discount is seen as a sign of waning optimism for a conversion soon - the opposite of what was happening last week, when some investors were buying GBTC, betting on the fund's chances, said Pablo Jodar, financial products manager at Storm Partners, a technology supplier for the crypto industry in Europe.

"With the news that the SEC is not approving the ETF, it is actually having the opposite effect," Jodar said.

This article will tell you everything.

Altcoin roundup

• Meta's Navdeep Singh said that Facebook has started to test Polygon- and Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFT) with a group of creators on the social media platform. The testing follows a series of pilot integrations on Instagram in May.
• Tether reduces commercial paper holdings: The stablecoin issuer has cut its holdings of commercial paper by 58% to $8.5 billion, with a further reduction to $3.5 billion expected at the end of the month as it seeks to tackle speculation about the quality of support for its dollar-pegged USDT token. Tether's market cap has fallen from $82.2 billion to $66.1 billion in two months' time, following this move and other similar steps towards transparency and stability in the cryptocurrency market. Read more here.
• Hxro tested the Solana mainnet: The crypto derivatives marketplace layer launched a test on the Solana mainnet. A few bitcoin futures contracts that use a dummy token as collateral were available for trading as developers stress tested the network. Learn more here.

Insight that is relevant

• In today's CoinDesk Markets Daily podcast, we discuss market movements and how firms can attract talent using Web3.
• Bitcoin Price Drops as June Ends: Bitcoin suffered a huge drop in value at the end of June, with investors worried about high inflation and Federal Reserve rate hikes. Some analysts say that the bitcoin price could fall even further.
• Ignite CEO Peng Zhong Announces Departure After Re-Organization: Zhong's departure comes weeks after the company's former CEO, Jae Kwon, said he is returning to the company as the CEO of spinoff New Tendermint.
• Bitcoin-Based Investment, Restructuring Suggested in Rescue Bid: The community investment platform put forward three proposals on Thursday night to try to save Celsius Network from going under.
• Web3 Advocates Are Cautiously Welcoming Europe's New MiCA Law: Crypto World is wary of the finer details in the EU's new law, but it must first resolve its paradoxes - for example, when is a non-fungible token fungible?
• DA Davidson: It's a Good Time to Invest in Crypto Mining Stocks: Trading will be restricted to dummy collateral as developers stress test their network.
• Ankr's two gateways were hit by a DNS attack on Friday, but Polygon said that there are no indications of any funds being lost.
• Bank of America: As the Crypto Market Slid, Crypto Activity by Bank of America Customers Slowed: The bank said that almost 70% of the U.S. population hasn't invested in or isn't interested in investing in cryptocurrencies.
• Investment Bank Houlihan Lokey to Advise Babel Finance on Restructuring: Sources say the financial institution is expected to sign a contract with the investment banking firm.
• BlockFi to Receive Up to $240M from FTX Unit BlockFi's CEO said that the agreement with the FTX unit has a total value of "up to $680 million."

Other markets, such as the

The Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS) provides a standardized system to classify digital assets. It is used by CoinDesk Indices to create the CoinDesk 20, which ranks the largest digital assets found on trusted exchanges.