The cryptocurrency market went on a rollercoaster ride over the past week, with the majority of cryptos showing price swings reminiscent of the great crypto craze of late 2017. However, one crypto enthusiast is probably more excited than the rest of us: our very own CEO, Yoni Assia. Yesterday, Tron Founder Justin Tron invited Yoni to join him for a lunch with none other than Warren Buffet. Talk about a business lunch!
Today’s Highlights
- Crypto rattles the Capitol
- Fear & Greed in The Market
- More mainstream acceptance
Libra in DC
Much attention was directed towards Facebook’s Libra last week, as the company’s blockchain lead, David Marcus, testified before the US Congress. According to eToro US Managing Director Guy Hirsch, Marcus provided lawmakers with a clear and informed explanation of Libra’s role in the future of payments, and the regulatory compliance framework it aims to work within upon launch. Check out Hirsch’s full commentary on Bloomberg.
Ahead of Marcus’ testimony US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held an emergency press briefing speaking against crypto and particularly the Libra project, going as far as calling it “a matter of national security.” However, it seemed that the short-term effect of Mnuchin’s words went against his wishes, as Bitcoin prices surged 5% during and after his briefing:
Despite Mnuchin’s negativity, other US politicians sounded bullish on crypto. Around the time of the Libra hearing, Patrick McHenry, the Republican Leader of the House Financial Services Committee, said: “The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin whitepaper, envisioned and others are building is an unstoppable force.”
Fear & Greed
The week began with a change in sentiment towards Bitcoin. The Fear & Greed index tracks overall market sentiment using various volume, social, and price indicators on a scale of 0 (fear) to 100 (greed). The index fell to a level of 16 points on Monday, after reaching as high as 84 the week before.
A Miner Issue
Last Monday, there was an adjustment to Bitcoin’s mining algorithms. Every two weeks, the Bitcoin network adjusts itself to the computing power available on the network, changing the difficulty of mining new blocks. The change has made mining a new block harder than ever before:
The Week Ahead
Yesterday, a patent filing by Bank of America was made public, showing that America’s second-largest bank will be using Ripple’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) for a settlement system. It will be interesting to see how this piece of news impacts markets this week.
Over the next few days, we will be seeing quite a bit of action in the crypto space. Bakkt, a digital assets platform owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which also owns the New York Stock Exchange, will begin testing Bitcoin Futures. Bakkt will start testing today, giving the crypto space another mainstream seal of approval.
eToro USA LLC; Virtual currencies are highly volatile. Your capital is at risk.