Crypto speculation at 2024 lows as TradFi leveraged ETFs hit record $239B

2 hours ago

Traditional concern leveraged concern products are astatine a grounds high, but the appetite for speculative assets remains muted successful the cryptocurrency market.

Speculative appetite is cooling among crypto investors, with memecoin dominance vs altcoins hitting a adjacent two-year debased past seen successful February 2024, according to crypto information level CryptoQuant.

“Memecoin markets are dead,” wrote CryptoQuant co-founder and CEO, Ki Young Ji, successful a Thursday X post.

In contrast, speculative appetite is soaring among equities investors, arsenic accepted leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs) deed a caller all-time precocious of $239 cardinal successful assets nether absorption during the 3rd 4th of 2025, according to Bloomberg information shared by Barchart.

The dynamic signals a waning enthusiasm for high-risk integer assets, arsenic speculative appetite is recalibrating to regulated, TradFi leveraged products successful little volatile equity markets.

The marketplace dynamic signals a maturation successful crypto and equities markets, arsenic risk-taking is “expressed done regulated, acquainted products with defined safeguards,” not memecoins that endure from “thin” liquidity and regulatory uncertainty, Lacie Zhang, marketplace expert astatine Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph.

”A revival would apt necessitate a beardown catalyst — specified arsenic a caller viral narrative, large speech listings, oregon decisive terms enactment — to reignite retail interest.”

Crypto capitalist sentiment yet to retrieve from October marketplace crash

The appetite of crypto investors remains muted for astir cryptocurrencies since the grounds marketplace clang astatine the opening of October, not conscionable for memecoins.

Crypto capitalist sentiment saw a tiny betterment from the “Extreme Fear” of 10 recorded connected Nov. 23, but the existent 29 speechmaking inactive signals “Fear,” and remains acold beneath the 62 “Greed” level from Oct. 7, earlier the $19 cardinal crypto marketplace clang occurred, according to CoinMarketCap's Fear & Greed Index.

Meanwhile, the crypto industry’s best-performing traders by returns, who are tracked arsenic “smart money” traders connected Nansen’s blockchain quality platform, are betting connected the diminution of the starring memecoins and astir cryptocurrencies.

Smart wealth was nett abbreviated connected Fartcoin (FART) for $3.5 cardinal and nett abbreviated connected the Pump.fun (PUMP) token for $1.5 million, Nansen information shows.

However, the cohort is betting connected much upside for Ether (ETH) and decentralized speech Hyperliquid’s (HYPE) token, signaling a penchant for tokens with existent revenue-generating blockchain protocols.

The positioning from this cohort whitethorn besides awesome capitalist fatigue with the memecoin launches of the past cycle, arsenic troubling information is emerging astir immoderate of these coins.

On Thursday, blockchain information from Bubblemaps claimed that astir 30% of the Pepe (PEPE) token’s genesis proviso was bundled nether an entity that sold $2 cardinal a time aft the coin’s debut, casting uncertainty connected the memecoin’s fair-launch premise.