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First Mover Americas: VanEck’s ETF Volume Surges, Fairshake Raises Another $5M
The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for Feb. 21, 2024.
Updated Mar 9, 2024, 5:52 a.m. Published Feb 21, 2024, 1:40 p.m.
This article originally appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily newsletter, putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. Subscribe to get it in your inbox every day.
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Trading volumes of VanEck’s HODL, one of the 10 spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S., surged over 2,200% on Tuesday in a move driven by individual traders. More than $400 million of HODL changed hands on Tuesday, compared with its daily average of $17 million. The figures came a day ahead of VanEck's planned fee cut to 0.20% from 0.25%. HODL’s volumes were the third-largest after Grayscale’s GBTC and BlockRock’s IBIT, the usual leaders. The ETF held nearly $200 million worth of bitcoin as of Feb. 20, data shows.
Billionaire Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital (GLXY) has new coverage at Canaccord Genuity, which initiated the stock with a buy rating and a C$17 ($12.6) price target. Galaxy “represents one of the most diversified ways to play digital assets," wrote analyst Joseph Vafi, whose price target suggests 30% upside from the current C$13. Galaxy's institutional trading business is a "share gainer,” said Vafi, citing the upcoming launch of its crypto prime brokerage platform, Galaxy One. Combine that with the price gains surrounding the spot ETFs and the upcoming halving and trading should do well, according to Vafi.
Fairshake, a super political action committee (PAC) backing crypto-friendly candidates, has now received funding of a total of $4.9 million from billionaire twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, Bloomberg reported, citing the latest federal filings. The twins, who are co-founders of crypto exchange Gemini and heavyweight bitcoin investors, were initial investors in Fairshake, revealed in the first announcement on Dec. 18, 2023. They join a list of high-profile crypto investors backing the super PAC, including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and ARK Invest as well as crypto companies such as Circle, Ripple, Coinbase (COIN) and others.
Chart of the Day
- The chart shows the average trade size in the bitcoin market in U.S. dollar terms since February 2023.
- The average trade size has consistently topped the $1,000 mark since the start of this month, indicating increased institutional participation.
- Source: Kaiko
- Omkar Godbole
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Aptos drops 5% to $1.50 as volume spikes above monthly average
The token has resistance at the $1.53 and then the $1.64 levels.
What to know:
- APT fell from $1.59 to $1.51 over the 24-hour period.
- Volume jumped 23% above the 30-day moving average, signaling institutional participation.
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