Hi Everyone,
A great success was seen in India today as they have now launched a groundbreaking mission to the moon.
The pilotless rocket is scheduled to land on the moon’s south pole in approximately 23 days. The milestone is being hailed as a significant step forward for India but not necessarily one of ingenuity.
As we know, the country has been shunning innovation on many fronts. The one I’ve personally been watching is in regards to cryptocurrencies. One year ago, India’s central bank has imposed a blanket ban on all banks from dealing with any crypto-related companies. This ban is currently being contested in the high court but progress is very slow.
Additionally, the government has been working on a draft bill that would bring clarity to the market but that doesn’t seem too promising either. According to this leaked version of the bill, it includes a stipulation that will send cryptotraders to prison for up to 10 years.
The incoming Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman offers little hope that this status quo will change any time soon. Despite the frantic calls from India’s twitter community showing how much crypto can help the nation, it seems the government is determined to prolong their virtual monopoly in the banking and payments sector at the expense of her citizens.
Today’s Highlights
- Deal for the Debt
- Eurozone Data Print
- The Bermuda Circle
Deal for the Debt
The debt ceiling debate is usually a time of political wrangling in the United States so to see the President agree to a deal that will push it off the table for two whole years is simply shocking.
Needless to say, the markets have responded quite positively to this news. Here’s the Dow Jones yesterday with the approximate time of the news in the purple circle.
Euro Data Print
Tomorrow morning the EU will publish some critical PMI data that could move the markets quite a bit. The PMI reading is based on a survey of purchasing managers across the union and is designed to give a good indication of the strength of the economy.
This will be especially important ahead of the ECB’s rate decision on Thursday. The European Central Bank has been hinting to the possibility that they’ll be starting a new round of quantitative easing (read: money printing) shortly.
If the manufacturing numbers end up coming out weak, as economists currently expect them to, it will strengthen the case for further stimulus and could help push the markets higher.
What a time to be alive.
The Bermuda Circle
As you’ll recall, Circle are the owners of the Poloniex exchange and are currently owned by none other than Goldman Sachs. So it’s quite remarkable to see them taking crypto to a global audience.
Still, even with Bakkt’s test launch and all the other great news, it seems the market is simply not responding. At this point, volumes across the board are at their weakest levels in about a month, which creates a bit of a dangerous situation for prices.
Lower volumes usually mean less volatility but it could also mean greater price reaction should a whale decide to place a large buy or sell order.
This is something we discussed last night in our weekly interview with Molly Jane from CoinTelegraph. Make sure to catch that here.
Also, would like to note that the crypto lunch with Warren Buffett that we discussed yesterday has effectively been postponed as Justin Sun isn’t feeling well. He has however confirmed that the payment to charity has already been sent and that the Oracle has agreed to make the lunch at a later date.
Have an excellent day ahead!
Best regards,
Mati Greenspan
Senior Market Analyst
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