CF Benchmarks
CF benchmarks logo

Sep 02, 2023

Monthly Market Recap - August 2023

This report aims to provide the reader with a quick overview of the blockchain economic categories influencing recent market performance, gain insights into institutional investors' capital allocation in digital assets, and understand how crypto is affected by the broader market landscape.

Key takeaways for the month:

  • Risk aversion characterized the majority of August's market activity. Bitcoin prices fell below the $28,000 support threshold for the first time since May. As the month drew to a close, renewed optimism received a lift from a highly anticipated court ruling. A court decision required the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review its previous dismissal of Grayscale's application to convert its Bitcoin trust into an ETF. The possible approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF is regarded as a pivotal step toward heightened institutional adoption, reigniting some optimism into a month otherwise dominated by risk-off sentiment.
  • Amidst this backdrop, our gauge for mega-cap tokens, the CF Ultra Cap 5 Index, showcased its resilience with a modest 6% decline. This was largely attributed to its higher allocation to Bitcoin and Ether, which played a major role in relative outperformance. In contrast, the CF DeFi Index led the other indices downward, witnessing a substantial drop of over 18%. Additionally, the CF Blockchain Infrastructure Index faced notable underperformance, posting a decline of 16%.
  • Open interest in Bitcoin and Ether futures both saw gains (+7.8% and +22.1% respectively). Heightened institutional interest in Ether has likely been bolstered by recent filings for Ether futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Monthly Index Performance

Source: CF Benchmarks, Bloomberg, as of August 31, 2023

To read the complete report, kindly click on the provided link. Additionally, please do not forget to subscribe to our latest news and research for the most relevant institutional insights on digital assets.


The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell any of the underlying instruments cited including but not limited to cryptoassets, financial instruments or any instruments that reference any index provided by CF Benchmarks Ltd. This communication is not intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. Please contact your financial adviser or professional before making an investment decision.


Note: Some of the underlying instruments cited within this material may be restricted to certain customer categories in certain jurisdictions.


Gabriel Selby
Gabriel Selby

Gabriel Selby

More on this subject

Factor Friday - July 24, 2026

Beta's four-week grind higher stalled this week as style leadership rotated again: Momentum took the top spot, last week's leader Value fell to the bottom, and Growth stayed July's weakest factor. Size remains the only style factor positive on the year; beta, not style selection, is setting returns.

Mark Pilipczuk
Mark Pilipczuk

Mark Pilipczuk

8 mins read
Changes to the Token Market Price Benchmarks Series - Market Prices – 21 July 2026

The Administrator has confirmed changes to the Token Market Price Family for the period 14 July 2026 to 21 July 2026.

CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks

CF Benchmarks

1 mins read
Softer CPI Reprices July Hike Risk & Lifts Digital Assets

Digital assets extended their recovery over the past week as cooler US inflation prints repriced Fed expectations; the bid was broad across the large cap indices, growth factor leadership returned, stablecoin funding repriced lower, and stress stayed isolated in names hit by token-specific news.

Mark Pilipczuk
Mark Pilipczuk

Mark Pilipczuk

10 mins read
More posts...

Footer

Legal

Subscribe to our newsletter

The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.

By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Already subscribed? Manage your preferences

© 2026 CF Benchmarks Ltd. All rights reserved.

CF Benchmarks Ltd (“CF Benchmarks”), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 11654816 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Information about us can be found on the Financial Services Register (register number 847100).

Registered Office: 6th Floor One London Wall, London, United Kingdom, EC2Y 5EB.

You agree not to, and have no rights to, use the CF Benchmarks Data to create, calculate, issue, settle, maintain, support or develop any financial instruments (including but, without limitation exchange traded products, certificates, warrants, contracts for difference, swaps, binary options, structured products), indices, products, services (including but without limitation, portfolio management services, pre- and post-trade risk management services, or valuation services) or any other derivative works without the express written consent of CF Benchmarrks.

You agree not to analyze, reverse-engineer or disassemble any CF Benchmarks data and not to insert any code or product to manipulate the Website content in any way that affects any user’s experience. Unless CF Benchmarks gives you prior written permission, use of any Web browsers (other than generally available third-party browsers), engines, scripts, software, spiders, robots, avatars, agents, tools or other devices or mechanisms (such as crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or other technology) to navigate, access, copy in bulk, retrieve, harvest, index, search or analyse any portion of the Website is strictly prohibited.

No part of this information may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of CF Benchmarks Ltd. Use and distribution of the CF Benchmarks data requires a license from CF Benchmarks or its authorized licensing agents.

All information is provided for information purposes only. All information and data contained on this website is obtained by CF Benchmarks, from sources believed by it to be accurate and reliable. Such information and data is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

CF Benchmarks, nor its directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors make any claim, prediction, warranty or representation whatsoever, expressly or implied, either as to the accuracy, timeliness, completeness or merchantability of any information or of results to be obtained from the use of the CF Benchmarks indices or the fitness or suitability of the same indices for any particular purpose to which they might be put. Any representation of historical data accessible through CF Benchmarks indices is provided for information purposes only and is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

No responsibility or liability can be accepted by CF Benchmarks nor their respective directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors for any loss or damage in whole or in part caused by, resulting from, or relating to any error (negligent or otherwise) or other circumstance involved in procuring, collecting, compiling, interpreting, analysing, editing, transcribing, transmitting, communicating or delivering any such information or data or from use of this website or links to this website.

CF Benchmarks and its respective directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors do not provide investment advice and nothing accessible through CF Benchmarks, should be taken as constituting financial or investment advice or a financial promotion. Charts and graphs are provided for illustrative purposes only. Index returns shown may not represent the results of the actual trading of any assets.

CF Benchmarks is a member of the Crypto Facilities group of companies which is in turn a member of the Payward, Inc. group of companies.
  • Payward, Inc. is the owner and operator of the Kraken Exchange, a venue that facilitates the trading of cryptocurrencies. The Kraken Exchange is a source of input data for certain CF Benchmarks indices.
  • Payward, Inc. is the owner and operator of the Staked, a venue that operates the block production nodes for decentralized PoS protocols on behalf of institutional investors. Staked.us is a source of input data for certain CF Benchmarks indices.

Please refer to the individual product family documentation for more information about applicable input data sources.

By clicking Accept, you consent to CF Benchmarks's use of cookies.

Visit Cookie Settings to learn how CF Benchmarks uses cookies and to adjust your preferences.

Cookie Settings