Welcome to Deep Dive! This week we provide a Q2 update on crypto market liquidity, looking at the recent Tether depeg, a big buildup of a CRV position on Aave, and how the SEC’s rulings are impacting centralized liquidity.

What a week. Binance and Coinbase were each hit with major lawsuits by the SEC, causing heavy volatility and an altcoin sell-off. In other news, Tether invested in a BTC mining company, the Arbitrum network stopped for one hour, and Australia’s largest bank will limit crypto transactions.

This week we’ll examine volume and liquidity data related to the SEC’s charges against Binance, Binance.US, and Coinbase.

Bitcoin whipsawed over the past week, closing lower on Sunday after a mixed U.S. jobs report. In industry news, Binance appointed a possible CZ successor as regional director, Celsius has deposited $745 million of ETH into staking contracts since June 1, and Coinbase’s derivatives exchange will offer new BTC and ETH futures this week.

This week we’ll take our first in-depth look at Bid-Ask spreads on centralized exchanges, an under-appreciated indicator of liquidity. We’ll use some distribution analysis to examine which exchanges, stablecoins and pairs have the tightest and widest range of spreads in an environment where liquidity has become a premium in markets.

This quick analysis explores market depth and trade volume for the top 5 stablecoins: USDT, USDC, BUSD, DAI, and TUSD. The increasingly competitive stablecoin landscape is dominated by Tether on centralized exchanges, but USDC reigns in DeFi.

Bitcoin gained some ground early on Monday as U.S. lawmakers reached a debt ceiling deal in principle. Hong Kong confirmed it will allow retail traders to trade certain crypto assets starting June while the Digital Currency Group (DCG) closed its trade execution and prime brokerage units, citing bear market and regulatory uncertainty.

This week we are excited to reveal Kaiko’s brand new Asset Metrics product, which aggregates liquidity and volumes for all assets across all exchanges. Using LDO as a case study, we’ll show how this product is a game changer for understanding a crypto asset’s market structure.

Bitcoin lost some ground this week, down about 2%, as crypto trade volumes slipped to yearly lows. In other industry news, Digital Currency Group missed a $630 million payment owed to crypto exchange Gemini last week, the SEC responded to Coinbase’s lawsuit and Tether announced it would start buying BTC with 15% of its excess profits. In this week’s Debrief we explore:

After the events of 2023, Tether has become the dominant stablecoin, despite being the least trusted. In this week’s Deep Dive, we explore whether this is evidence that trust is a lower priority for crypto investors, who seem to prefer peg stability, liquidity and versatility more.

BTC and ETH erased most gains as the Dollar made a strong comeback. In industry news, the Ethereum network suffered technical issues, U.S.-based Bakkt de-listed 25 tokens under regulatory pressure, and Binance.US is reportedly trying to cut CZ’s dominant stake in the exchange.

This week we examine an upcoming change to Curve that has gone relatively unnoticed: its new TriCrypto pool.

Bitcoin closed the week in the red after network congestion led Binance to halt withdrawals twice over the past 48 hours, the U.S. Fed hiked rates but opened the door for a pause amid lingering banking turmoil, Coinbase reported smaller than expected loss in the first quarter while Bittrex filed for bankruptcy.

This week we’ll provide an update on all things crypto derivatives and look at how perpetual futures are increasingly driving price action in markets.

This week saw continued banking and regulatory fallout as JPMorgan Chase acquired First Republic, Binance.US withdrew from the Voyager deal citing regulatory uncertainty, and Coinbase sued the SEC demanding clear rules for crypto.

This week we’ll cover the evolution of top lending and borrowing protocols, Aave and Compound, as they battle for market share.