In the latest edition of The TIE Quarterly (brought to you by eToro and The TIE), we delve into some topics of interest from the first three months of 2021. Not sure if you noticed, but it’s been an eventful start to the year in the world of all things crypto…
The TIE Quarterly is free to download and includes some of the most insightful industry analysis available online. Through eToro’s partnership with the TIE, the report includes exclusive insight into social sentiment on crypto (The TIE combs through 850M tweets per day), expert opinions on markets, and the shifting financial landscape.
Here’s a brief rundown of what we’re covering in our Q1 2021 report:
The Pathology of Hyperinflation: A Dollar Disease in the Making?
Much of the hype around Bitcoin (and cryptocurrencies in general) is its immunity to inflation, due to a finite coin supply. As we slowly emerge out of the pandemic-induced recession of 2020, the US dollar continues to combat concerns about devaluation as the Fed prints more and more money to stimulate the economy. But can US inflation reach hyperinflation levels? (Think of the Weimar Republic, where excessive printing of Marks drove up inflation past the point where a loaf of bread cost $700). We put the US dollar to the test to see how resistant it is to symptoms of runaway inflation, and to understand how it will impact the case for Bitcoin to replace gold as the ultimate store of value asset.
NFTs: Beyond the Hype
You didn’t think we’d get through a whole quarterly report without discussing non-fungible tokens (NFT’s), did you? While there are few three-letter crypto combos garnering as much buzz right now (with the exception of BTC and ETH), it’s wild to think that many retail investors likely had no idea what an NFT was last year — despite being used since the beginning of the Internet. But now, thanks to the popularity of collectibles like NBA Top Shot, CryptoPunks, and digital works of art (most notably a collage by Beeple that sold for $69M), everyone wants their hands on the next big NFT craze. We discuss the origin of these digital assets, and what the future holds as an influx of imitators flood the marketplace.
Sector Analysis: Which Category of Coins is Best?
Finally, we dig deep into the data to discern how digital coins (and tokens) are performing relative to each other, breaking them down into five different sectors: Payments, Infrastructure, DeFi, Data Services, and Media (NFTs). Our goal is to understand if there is any correlation from one digital asset to the next, and what impact social sentiment or press coverage has in driving costs and markets.
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