Nyheter
Big Tech, Liquidations, and an Outage: What happened in crypto last week?
Last week, Big Tech dominated the headlines with its earnings for the last quarter of 2023. In this report, we’ll talk about their correlation with crypto and how other macroeconomic indicators come into play. We’ll also shed light on liquidations the market is anticipating on the back of some bankruptcy proceedings. Finally, we’ll walk you through what we know about the Solana mainnet outage.
Earnings Week Spurs Optimism
Following the latest macroeconomic data, the Federal Reserve has opted to maintain interest rates within the range of 5.25% to 5.5%. In its recent statement, the central bank underscored the necessity for additional reassuring data before considering any reduction in borrowing costs. However, there are encouraging signs suggesting the U.S. economy is surpassing expectations. Notably, January witnessed robust job creation, with ~353K new positions added, exceeding the anticipated ~185K, holding the unemployment rate steady at 3.7% against the projected 3.8%. Moreover, wage growth surged annually to 4.5%, the highest increase in two years, while the U.S. manufacturing sector exhibited resilience and momentum, with the PMI index climbing from 47.1% to 49.1%.
Additionally, the U.S. economy experienced significant growth in the last quarter, expanding by 3.3% compared to an estimated 2%. Further, strong earnings reports from major companies like Meta and Amazon also bolstered confidence, with growth estimates surpassing expectations at 7.8% versus 6.4%, leading the SP500 to hit an ATH. Despite these positive indicators highlighting the U.S. economy’s resilience relative to others, the data suggests limited prospects for a Fed interest rate cut in March. Chairman Jerome Powell echoed this, emphasizing that “it is probably not the most likely case or the base case” for a March cut. Given Bitcoin’s recent mild recovery in correlation with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, shown below in Figure 1, it’s imperative to monitor economic indicators closely to gauge the potential spillover effects on the emerging asset. It’s also equally important to assess when the FED will cut interest rates as it’ll impact risk-on asset classes such as crypto since Quantitative Easing (QE) policies inject more capital and liquidity into the market while increasing investors’ risk appetite.
Figure 1: Bitcoin’s Correlation with Nasdaq and S&P 500
Source: TheBlock
Liquidations Anticipated as Part of Bankruptcy Proceedings of FTX and Genesis
After months of uncertainty, FTX will not relaunch its collapsed exchange and plans to pay its customers in total, which will be based on the prices of November 2022, when Bitcoin was priced at less than $17K as a consequence of the bankruptcy dollarization process. So far, FTX has recovered at least $7 billion in assets, which they are planning to liquidate to make their customers whole, which could take a toll on the market, similar to when FTX sold GBTC shares shortly following the approval of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S.
Additionally, Genesis is seeking court approval to sell $1.6 billion of its Grayscale Trust assets following a $21 million settlement agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Users of FTX and Genesis form the two most significant headwinds along Mt. Gox creditors. Thus, It’s essential to realize any source of external selling pressure that could impact the market.
Funds Marked Safe Amid Solana’s Outage
After a year of stability, Solana experienced an outage lasting five hours on February 6 at 09:53 UTC. While over $3B in assets under management were reported safe, the outage only resulted in failed transactions. To resolve the issue that caused the network to halt, engineers from various ecosystem sectors collaborated to release a new validator software containing a critical patch. Validator operators were promptly instructed to upgrade their systems to initiate the network restart. By 14:57 UTC, Solana mainnet beta resumed block production following a successful upgrade to version 1.17.20 and a cluster restart managed by validator operators. Solana assured stakeholders that its engineering team is closely monitoring the network’s performance during the restoration process. Additionally, a post-mortem report investigating the root cause of the outage is currently in progress and will be shared on Solana’s communication channels once finalized.
This Week’s Calendar
Source: 21Shares, Forex Factory
Research Newsletter
Each week the 21Shares Research team will publish our data-driven insights into the crypto asset world through this newsletter. Please direct any comments, questions, and words of feedback to research@21shares.com
Disclaimer
The information provided does not constitute a prospectus or other offering material and does not contain or constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy securities in any jurisdiction. Some of the information published herein may contain forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties and that actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. The information contained herein may not be considered as economic, legal, tax or other advice and users are cautioned to base investment decisions or other decisions solely on the content hereof.
• Global crypto asset adoption rates are significantly higher than previously estimated.
• The data generally suggest that both the US and Europe may be at the cusp of mass retail adoption – a situation often referred to as “Hyperbitcoinization” in the context of Bitcoin.
• Chances are that the growth of adoption will surprise to the upside due to the fact that we are most likely at the inflection point from ”Early Adopters” to ”Early Majority”.
Trump recently made a public statement implying that 50 million Americans already held ”crypto”. The most recent surveys among US consumers seem to support this number.
It is no surprise that cryptoassets have become a major topic during the US presidential election as the parties have become increasingly aware that cryptoasset users could play a significant role at the ballot.
Both Trump and Robert Kennedy Jr. are scheduled to deliver a pro-Bitcoin speech at the upcoming Bitcoin conference in Nashville over the weekend.
It seems as if cryptoasset users are not a small minority anymore that can be ignored.
Here are some recent US bitcoin and crypto adoption surveys for comparison (% of total population in brackets):
• Security.org: 93 mn (28%)
• Unchained: 86 mn (26%)
• Statista: 53.6 mn (16%)
• Morning Consult: 44.2 mn (13%)
• Finder: 38.4 mn (11%)
In general, cryptoasset adoption has been on the rise globally.
A recent global survey among institutional investors conducted by Fidelity even implies that 51% of surveyed institutional investors have already invested into cryptoassets such as Bitcoin.
Another recent consumer survey by Statista implies that approximately every 5th person (21%) worldwide has already invested into cryptoassets.
However, it’s important to highlight that among the top 10 regions with the highest adoption rates, 8 regions are developing countries.
So, cryptoasset adoption rates are even significantly higher among developing countries than in developed countries that often suffer from chronically high inflation rates and weak domestic currencies.
That being said, the data generally suggest that both the US and Europe may be at the cusp of mass retail adoption – a situation often referred to as “Hyperbitcoinization” in the context of Bitcoin.
The reason is that technological adoption in general tends to accelerate at the threshold from the so-called “early adopters” to the “early majority” which is around 16% adoption rate based on the model of technological adoption famously put forth by Rogers (1962).
Global adoption rates are already at 21% while adoption rates in the US and Europe are at around 16% and 14%, respectively. So, there is a strong case for an acceleration of adoption rates in these regions and globally over the coming years.
Recent political developments in the US also imply that Bitcoin and cryptoassets are gradually becoming mainstream.
Trump has recently endorsed domestic Bitcoin mining in the US and both Democrats and Republicans have started accepting crypto payments for campaign financing.
The big success of the spot Bitcoin ETFs this year and the fact that additional types of spot crypto ETFs are being launched marks a significant shift in sentiment among US regulators in this regard.
In short, chances are that the growth of adoption will surprise to the upside due to the fact that we are most-likely at the inflection point from ”Early Adopters” to ”Early Majority”.
Bottom Line
• Global crypto asset adoption rates are significantly higher than previously estimated.
• The data generally suggest that both the US and Europe may be at the cusp of mass retail adoption – a situation often referred to as “Hyperbitcoinization” in the context of Bitcoin.
• Chances are that the growth of adoption will surprise to the upside due to the fact that we are most likely at the inflection point from ”Early Adopters” to ”Early Majority”.
To read more about suitable investment solutions by ETC Group, please click the button below:
This is not investment advice. Capital at risk. Read the full disclaimer
© ETC Group 2019-2024 | All rights reserved
Are we about to enter “Hyperbitcoinization”?
Investera i Optimism med en börshandlad produkt
JPGH ETF investerar i amerikanska tillväxtaktier
Bitcoin as a hedge against geopolitical risks?
DFND ETF investerar i flyg- och försvarsindustrin
Vilka var juni månads populäraste EFTer?
Harwood Capital Management samarbetar med HANetf för att lansera sin första UCITS ETF
Att tajma marknaden är en förlorande strategi
Börshandlade fonder ser inflöden på mer än en halv miljon troy ounce platina
The Bitcoin Macro Investor
-
Nyheter4 veckor sedanVilka var juni månads populäraste EFTer?
-
Nyheter1 vecka sedanHarwood Capital Management samarbetar med HANetf för att lansera sin första UCITS ETF
-
Nyheter2 veckor sedanAtt tajma marknaden är en förlorande strategi
-
Nyheter3 veckor sedanBörshandlade fonder ser inflöden på mer än en halv miljon troy ounce platina
-
Nyheter3 veckor sedanThe Bitcoin Macro Investor
-
Nyheter4 veckor sedanInvestera i koppar med hjälp av börshandlade produkter
-
Nyheter3 veckor sedanCETH ETP en börshandlad produkt på Ethereum som ger staking intäkter
-
Nyheter4 veckor sedanSyntetiska börshandlade fonder: Vad det är, hur det fungerar
