Is the Bitcoin Market Reinvigorated? What is the impact of the sharp drop in NVIDIA stock on the virtual currency market? Funding projects are DeFi's Early projects tend to be re-evaluated ~TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service Industry Trends for August 2024 Announced~.

TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service operated by SIGMA Corporation (headquartered in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo), has summarized industry trends for August 2024.

From the end of July to the end of August 2024, the virtual currency market showed an overall downward trend: the market capitalization at the end of August was approximately 321 trillion yen ($2.22 trillion), down approximately 7.7% overall compared to the market capitalization of approximately 348 trillion yen ($2.41 trillion) at the end of July.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTC), the key currency that leads the entire virtual currency market and whose price movements are always watched closely, fell as well. From approximately $65,189, it remained at $59,069, a decline of approximately 9.38%.

Analyzing both figures, Bitcoin's decline tended to outpace that of the overall virtual currency market by about 1.68 percentage points.

Bitcoin's significant decline in early August was attributed to the Bank of Japan's interest rate hike as well as weak U.S. economic indicators. Carry trades did not work and investors pulled out, affecting the virtual currency market. Increased risk aversion among investors is believed to have contributed to the sharp decline in market prices.

In the U.S. stock market on September 3, after the Labor Day holiday, shares of NVIDIA, a major manufacturer of semiconductors for AI, fell sharply. We need to keep a close eye on how this will affect the market for AI stocks in the virtual currency industry in the future.

■ Market Dominance Trend The market dominance of "Bitcoin" stabilized at the end of August.

TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service, has compiled a detailed report on the market dominance trends (dominance trends) for each of the four categories of "Bitcoin (BTC)," "Ethereum (ETH)," "Top 50 excluding these two stocks," and "Other virtual currencies after Top 50 stocks. The report also summarizes the market dominance trends (dominance trends) for each of these categories and provides detailed reports.

The Bitcoin market dominance rate was 53.37% on August 1, but the following week, on August 5, it fell below 50% to 48.5%.

On the other hand, on August 8, bitcoin's market dominance rose to 60.86%, above 60%. Then, at the end of the month on August 29, it was 52.39%, settling at the 53.37% level recorded at the beginning of the month. the global stock market slump that occurred in early August had a significant impact on bitcoin price fluctuations, and this was reflected in the market dominance rate trends.

A breakdown of the market dominance on August 29 shows that Bitcoin (BTC) accounted for 52.39% of the market. Ethereum (ETH) was 13.66%. The Top 50 excluding these two stocks accounted for 24.63%. Other virtual currencies after the TOP 50" accounted for 9.32%, indicating that stocks other than Bitcoin also entered September with stable market dominance.

■ Major VC investments. Both the number of funded projects declined; trends from September onward need to be closely monitored.

TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service, compiles the investment results of major venture capital firms to examine the latest industry status and innovative technological advances.

The total amount of funding for the period from August 1 to August 31, 2024 was approximately 94 billion yen. Compared to the approximately 190 billion yen raised in the previous month, the total amount of funding was roughly half the size of the results.

On the other hand, the number of major fundraising projects was 92, a decrease of 16 compared to 108 in the previous month. Of these, 27 projects were funded by industry-known VC firms, down from 37 the previous month. The decrease in the total amount of funding also affected the number of projects.

The trend in the areas attracting investment did not change significantly compared to last July, with DeFi (decentralized finance) and infrastructure still accounting for the majority of the total.

In general, as VC funding declines, new as well as existing projects are less likely to grow, while competition for funding becomes more intense. This trend can also be a time when the market as a whole is re-evaluating itself, which can trigger companies to become more efficient. Therefore, we need to keep a close eye on this trend to see if it continues in September and beyond.

TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service, provides detailed reports on distinctive issues among projects that have raised funds, and in August we also focused on decentralized AI platform projects.

The SaharaAI project is a distributed AI network that provides customized autonomous knowledge agents for individuals and businesses. This network will enable even novice users to create AI applications using their knowledge, share them with other users, and monetize them.

The company is unique in that it leverages its customer relationships with major companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and MIT to enhance its credibility and competitiveness. However, by forming appropriate partnerships and further deepening our knowledge, we expect this project to expand our business further.

Independent Analysis of TSUDOI's Top Issues and New Issues: All Three Issues in the Spotlight Experienced Price Increases

On the other hand, TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service, picks up top issues (top 50 issues by market capitalization on a weekly basis, including Bitcoin). In August 2024, we announced three stocks to watch through the fourth week, and all three experienced price increases.

TSUDOI, a virtual currency information community service, also offers a weekly reporting service and promotes the use of information services to minimize risk as much as possible.

■Expert Comments

SIGMA Representative: Koji Muto

The drop in bitcoin prices in early August has been attributed to massive selling due to the liquidation of leveraged transactions. The sell-off in bitcoin triggered a chain reaction as U.S. interest rates fell and the Bank of Japan raised interest rates. In addition, the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) is tightening regulations on crypto assets and NFT-related companies, and major platforms are facing litigation risks. On the other hand, a reduction in the US interest rate in the future could encourage capital inflows into the virtual currency market and lead to a revitalization of the bitcoin market. In order to execute correct investment decisions for virtual currencies, we believe that the need for TSUDOI, one of the few virtual currency information services in Japan, will further increase.

TSUDOI Research Director: NAKAMORI

Despite a decline in total VC funding in August, old-school decentralized finance (DeFi) projects continue to grow solidly based on past performance, sustainable revenue models, and regulatory compliance efforts. As a result, these projects are being reevaluated by investors.

It is also expected that the re-evaluated projects will lead to more collaboration with existing financial institutions, especially with the recent impact of Ethereum's ETF approval on the market, which has further increased interest from traditional financial players, including institutional investors.

The trend toward greater integration between DeFi and traditional financial systems is likely to accelerate further, making it a very attractive option for long-term investors.

*In principle, this release is written in "yen" terms based on the dollar-yen rate at the beginning of the month in order to convey the market environment in a way that is easy for Japanese consumers to understand. (There are some exceptions.) For this reason, month-to-month comparisons are not shown here.

Therefore, when comparing the previous month's figures with those of the previous month, some differences from the actual figures may occur when comparing in "yen" terms.

If you need more accurate figures due to rate fluctuations, please contact us directly.

TSUDOI]

A virtual currency information community service operated by SIGMA Corporation. The service provides real-time information in Japanese in an easy-to-understand format, selected by professionals in the virtual currency industry. The service features news distribution, commentary on each issue, and project evaluations from a professional perspective. The site also publishes a number of study contents for beginners.

The virtual currency industry is said to be rife with scams and misinformation, making it difficult to keep up with valuable information in real time. Furthermore, most new information is based on English-language articles. The service was launched in October 2022 to promote the expansion of services to meet the needs of virtual currency investors in Japan.

Service Logo

Main Features

The service provides a report on about 10,000 stocks, picking up top-quality stocks of interest from three major perspectives: (1) analysis of top stocks, (2) analysis of mid-cap stocks, and (3) analysis of new stocks to be discovered.

The company is particularly strong in reports aimed at altcoin investment. It is the one and only virtual currency information community service that independently picks up and introduces hot stocks and big holes.

The service provides an environment where users can ask questions directly to experts in the virtual currency industry, as well as distribute information through "24-hour support chat," "research requests," "manual requests," "Zoom interviews," etc.

URL: https://tsudoi-community.com

Operating company: SIGMA Corporation

Location : Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Representative Director: Koji Muto

URL ： https://www.sigmainc.co.jp

Features of TSUDOI's report format (1) Analysis of top issues (2) Analysis of mid-cap issues (3) Analysis of new issue discovery

1 Top Issue Analysis

TSUDOI defines the top 50 stocks in terms of market capitalization as "Top Stocks." From approximately 10,000 stocks, TSUDOI determines the top stocks based on the rate as of Thursday of each week and analyzes them in weekly reports. 5 to 10 stocks tend to change weekly. From among these top stocks, a more in-depth look at the stocks whose token prices have soared the most during the period provides a clue to the latest developments in the virtual currency market.

2 Analysis of mid-cap stocks

Focusing on stocks in the top 51 to 400 in terms of market capitalization, this report picks out stocks to watch closely. The analysis is based on search trends, which can lead to the provision of information useful for identifying stocks that may lead the market in the future.

3 New Issue Discovery Analysis

In order to preemptively pick up stocks that have the potential to lead the market in the future, the report uses two analysis methods.

The first is "new stocks newly ranked between 51st and 200th in the market capitalization ranking.

The second is "new stocks in the portfolios of major VC firms that have risen in market capitalization during the period.

By reporting on these stocks from a relatively early stage and keeping a close eye on trends, we will be able to conduct ongoing research. This will reduce the risk of investing in new stocks as much as possible and provide information to secure stocks that will grow in the future.

Representative of SIGMA: Koji Muto

Koji Muto is one of the early adopters in Japan who entered the virtual currency industry in 2012.

In 2013, he was an early investor in a number of crypto assets, including Ethereum, currently the second largest crypto asset by market capitalization, and Cardano, currently the eighth largest. Since the early days, he has been educating the public about virtual currencies not only in Japan but also in China, Singapore, and other Asian countries, and has created many virtual currency chieftains.

With the revision of the Funds Settlement Law in April 2017, he founded Xtheta Inc. and became the third fastest company in the Kinki region to receive FSA registration in December 2017 of the same year. (In November 2022, he transferred the business to Binance, where he served as executive officer and head of new business development.

He then launched SIGMA and released the "TSUDOI" service, aiming to become Japan's largest crypto asset and membership information distribution platform.

Representative of SIGMA: Koji Muto

Head of "TSUDOI" research: NAKAMORI

With extensive experience in the blockchain industry, Nakamori leads TSUDOI's research department, and has been working in the virtual currency industry since 2014, initially involved in fundraising-related work for token-issuing projects. Later, in 2017, he started supporting virtual currency related startup companies. He has been involved in advisory and consulting work and has helped more than 10 companies with successful fundraising projects.

From 2020 onward, he helped launch staking provider businesses in anticipation of the transition to staking major virtual currencies such as Ethereum and Cardano. During the same period, he supported the development of decentralized wallets and promoted marketing strategies for the Japanese market, contributing to the company's performance as one of the top 10 staking providers in the world.

Recognizing the need to disseminate useful information to investors, he joined TSUDOI as the leader of the research department. He is committed to using his extensive expertise and experience to gather information with the goal of delivering reliable information to investors and supporting them in making wise investment decisions.

Head of TSUDOI Research: NAKAMORI