Markets Outlook

Is Bitcoin digital gold? In this episode of ‘On Purpose, With Tyrone Ross’, we dig into bitcoin narratives as financial advisors see them and explore the concept of bitcoin as a store of value.“Saying ‘Internet Money’… What else in my portfolio is like Internet Money? Hmmm…." said independent investment advisor and 'On Purpose' host Tyrone Ross, "but when you say 'Digital Gold', alright... Clients can wrap their heads around the digital part, they can wrap their heads around the gold part. They probably own gold in a portfolio already, and then you can get into asymmetric returns and uncorrelated to other assets in the portfolio… Bitcoin is mined and there’s gold mining…. You can start these basic frameworks for the advisor to understand and also make it accessible to clients.”A message from Tyrone:The greatest number of people living in poverty are children, we need to change that. If you can, get involved and give back to NoKidHungry.org. Love and Light. I appreciate you!

With BTC looking for a breakout as ether notches another all-time high, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories: First Mover: It’s ‘Dorsey’s Node’ as Bitcoin Marches Higher, DOGE Chokes Bitcoin breaks out, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sets up a bitcoin node and Bank of England warns on negative rates. Meanwhile, it's DeFi that's mooning.Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With ether breaching another all-time high and payments giant Visa expanding its digital currency roadmap, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories: First Mover: Ethereum, DOGE on Own Journeys as Inflation Bets Fuel Bitcoin Altcoins like Chainlink get a big boost from DeFi growth on Ethereum, while inflation bets boost bitcoin and dogecoin gets (Elon Musk) moonshot.Visa Signals Further Crypto Ambitions With API Pilot for Bank Customers to Buy Bitcoin Visa is working with Anchorage to allow customers at traditional banks to "buy and sell digital assets."Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With BTC trading in its recent range and a look at DeFi in a post-WallStreetBets world, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories:Crypto Bulls Are Back as Ether Hits All-Time High, Bitcoiners Hoard GameStop comedown shows appeal of social media-fueled trading. Dogecoin chatter in Reddit reveals cryptocurrency analogue.Bitwise Asset Management said Tuesday it's seeking U.S. regulatory approval to publicly trade shares of its bitcoin fund on the over-the-counter marketplace OTCQX. “There is significant growth in interest from professional investors in accessing bitcoin as a tool to hedge their portfolios against rising inflationary risk,” says Matt Hougan Bitwise’s chief investment officer.Grayscale Investments reopened its Ethereum Trust earlier this week to accredited investors. (NOTE: Grayscale is a unit of Digital Currency Group, which also owns CoinDesk.) Switzerland's 21Shares (formerly known as Amun) is launching the world's first exchange-traded product for the cryptocurrency polkadot (DOT), to be traded on the Swiss SIX Exchange under the ticker symbol PDOT. Prices for DOT have doubled this year, for a market capitalization of about $15 billion.The investment firm Accelerate Financial Technologies is seeking approval from Canadian securities regulators to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange, CoinDesk's Tanzeel Akhtar reported Wednesday. Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With BTC rising and a look at what could happen in a post-COVID economy, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories: Federal Reserve Soup Now Includes Bitcoin, DeFi, Silver, GameStopMarket news from crypto to Wall Street is all over the place. "It's pretty obvious that the WSB traders are applying the same principles of the digital/CryptoAsset world to the stock market and they are loving the fact that the old schoolers are hating it," billionaire Mark Cuban writes in blog post. (CoinDesk)Coinbase has reportedly tapped Nasdaq for its planned direct listing, according to The Block. Winklevosses' Gemini crypto exchange inks partnership with crypto lender Genesis to give customers option to earn up to 7.4% annual interest on holding, CoinDeskOKEx announces plans to integrate Lightning Network in Q1. (OKEx via Twitter)Robinhood has raised $3.4 billion from investors over the past several days, (CoinDesk)Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev is expected to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives' financial-services committee on Feb. 18, (CoinDesk)Even before the pandemic hit, global debt was at a far higher level than before the financial crisis of 2008, according to the International Monetary Fund. The figure reached $197 trillion at the end of 2019, for a debt-to-GDP ratio of 226%, according to an IMF blog post on Monday.Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With BTC stalling and the price of silver soaring to eight-year highs, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories:Silver Is the New GameStop as Musk's #Bitcoin Stalls As bitcoin trades in a range, traders are studying the "Grayscale premium" and watching traditional markets for clues to the next market move. The hedge fund Greylock is known for making bets on the government debt of troubled nations like Argentina, Lebanon and Venezuela. Now, according to Bloomberg, Greylock, led by and CEO Hans Humes, has filed for bankruptcy protection, apparently seeking the court's help to wriggle out of its own liabilities. The proceedings reportedly will allow Greylock to terminate its $100,000-a-month office lease in Manhattan. (Bloomberg) Reddit user "DeepF—Value" who helped direct WallStreetBets campaign on is a 34-year-old former insurance-marketing executive who has just made $20M from gains on GameStop shares and options (WSJ)  "Fundamentals have never mattered less" as GameStop saga "makes a mockery of the idea that markets provide an efficient form of capital allocation in the economy," James Mackintosh writes in column (WSJ)For public companies, there are benefits to having no supply caps: Data show a rise in "shelf" registrations for potential securities sales, as CEO prepare to take advantage of buoyant market conditions (WSJ) One of the biggest questions facing the crypto industry over the past year has been whether the companies and their new-tech platforms could "Zoom" – where suddenly everyone starts using the product. Last week showed there's plenty of progress still to be made on that front. The industry groaned under the newfound attention from ready customers, some of them ostensibly fleeing the trading platform Robinhood following a series of anger-inducing trading suspensions. Outages were reported at crypto trading venues including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and Voyager. New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell tweeted that, as the state's virtual-currency regulator, she was "actively monitoring market volatility."Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With BTC shooting back up above $37K and a look into the aftermath of the GameStop moment, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup. Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories: First Mover: Elon Musk #Bitcoin Moment Adds to Dogecoin, GameStop WackinessThe GameStop-galvanized "bear raid" by retail stock traders appears to have terrified Wall Street, but crypto-industry marketeers are salivating over the prospect of new customer leads, and more demand.Coinbase says in Web post it plans to become publicly traded company via a direct listing (CoinDesk) Iran tightens grip on crypto miners while looking to them as a potential source of revenue as international sanctions crimp economy (CoinDesk) Cathie Wood’s ARK estimates bitcoin could climb to $400K if the cryptocurrency were to replace 10% of the cash on corporate balance sheets: Silver surges as GameStop day traders move into other assets (WSJ) Retail traders sue Robinhood over restrictions on meme stocks GameStop, AMC Theaters and Blackberry (CoinDesk) Private-equity firm Silver Lake converts $600M of AMC convertible notes into equity after retail-fueled stock-price pump (WSJ)U.S. Congress plans hearings on GameStop market pumps (CoinDesk) American Airlines, Southwest Airlines post record losses for 2020 after coronavirus-related travel downturn (WSJ) Emerging-market borrowing boom – $847B in 2020, with another $100B of bonds sold so far in January – sparks concerns over debt loads (WSJ)European Central Bank’s head of banking supervision worries that lenders in the region might not be setting aside enough money for loan-loss reserves (WSJ)“Investors have been continuously conditioned to buy the dip, regardless of its cause. FOMO (fear of missing out) and TINA (there is no alternative to risk assets) have turbocharged this behavior,” Allianz Chief Economic Adviser Mohamed el-Erian writes in column (Bloomberg Opinion)  Although the U.S. economy shrank last year by the most since 1946, consumers have increased their spending on goods faster than before the coronavirus hit, as “resilient wages, buoyant stocks, low interest rates and stimulus gave most households ample spending power” while the pandemic limited payments for services, the U.S. Commerce Department reported Thursday (WSJ)Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With digital-market traders taking GameStop’s stock gyrations as a moment for self-reflection, CoinDesk’s Market Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories:What does GameStop mean for cryptocurrencies?Digital-market traders found amusement in the GameStop saga. They also saw an opportunity for self-reflection. Here's what Niall Ferguson, Caitlin Long, Mati Greenspan and Jonathan Mohan said. “Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino. Anyways, Tax the Rich,” U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez writes. (Twitter)Guggenheim CIO Minerd, who has predicted a bitcoin price of $400K, tells Bloomberg TV the base of institutional buyers is “just not there” to push bitcoin’s price above $35,000 (CoinDesk) Blockstream buys $25M of bitcoin mining machines from MicroBT (CoinDesk) Crypto’s young believers stoke craze for penny stocks in companies with exposure to bitcoin (Bloomberg) Riding on the coattails of crypto’s bull run, DeFi token UNI from Uniswap breaks $15 on Coinbase exchange, has nearly doubled in past seven days (CoinDesk)GameStop backlash could lead to curbs on “memetic disturbances,” or even “the squeezening,” Preston Byrne writes in op-ed (CoinDesk Opinion) Market chaos fueled by bands of retail traders reportedly leads to counter-measures from Wall Street firms TD Ameritrade and Wells Fargo, as a spokeswoman for U.S. President Joe Biden says the new administration is “monitoring” the GameStop situation (CoinDesk)U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission “actively monitoring the ongoing market volatility in the options and equities markets” (SEC) “What seems to be unfolding here is a crypto-esque farce combining volatile trading and chatroom-driven tips reminiscent of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and penny stocks, all in a market juiced by pandemic stimulus,” Lionel Laurent writes in column (Bloomberg Opinion) Goldman Sachs strategist joins chorus saying “buy the dip” in stocks (Bloomberg) Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With BTC breaking below $30K and the tether (USDT) saga gaining fresh attention, CoinDesk’s Market’s Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories:First Mover: Risks Nobody’s Ever Seen, From the Fed to Tether (and GameStop) Risks surrounding the stablecoin tether (USDT) have been known for years, but they're commanding fresh attention as the amount outstanding swells to $25B.Silver Lake’s Glenn Hutchins (until recently a New York Fed board member) says it’s “fundamentally wrong to say that Bitcoin is most used for crime” (Finextra)  Social networks turn to blockchain technology amid concerns over power wielded by centralized tech giants like Facebook, Google and Twitter (NYT)  Bitcoin is an incredibly dirty business, with a carbon footprint comparable to New Zealand’s (Bloomberg Opinion) ARK’s Cathie Wood says bitcoin ETF approval unlikely until market cap rises to about $2T (CoinDesk) Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says in interview re bitcoin: “If I were a regulator I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of it at the moment, and I’d be arming myself to deal with it” (CNBC via Twitter)  Colombia, Estonia upload Bitcoin white paper to their governmental websites (CoinDesk) “Price bubbles accelerate the growth of the bitcoin user base, the expectation of which then fuels the price bubble,” writes University of Southern California marketing professor in op-ed (CoinDesk Opinion) Retail traders are piling into viral options calls at all-time high levels, with massive buying of bullish contracts helping to fuel GameStop price pump (Bloomberg) China’s asset-bubble warning – and $12B drained from financial system on Tuesday via open-market operations – threatens stock frenzy in Hong Kong (Bloomberg) Blank-check companies are the talk of Reddit and TikTok as retail investors pour money into SPACs (Bloomberg Businessweek)Amid aviation-industry crisis, world’s biggest jet-leasing companies have issued $15B in bonds this month at yields from 2% to 3%, versus about 5% last summer (WSJ) Consumer confidence in U.S. improves more than expected on outlook for economy (Bloomberg) IMF estimates that close to 90M people are likely to fall below the extreme poverty threshold during 2020-21, with the pandemic wiping out some $22T in projected output through 2025 (Reuters) Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.

With bitcoin hovering around $32K for a fourth straight day and top Ivy League universities said to be accumulating crypto, CoinDesk’s Market’s Daily is back with the latest news roundup.Add Markets Daily to your Alexa Flash Briefing here.This episode is sponsored by Nexo.io.Today's stories: Smart Money Buying Crypto as Harvard Said to Be Holding The brain trust has blessed cryptocurrencies, with endowments for Harvard and other universities reportedly lapping up digital assets. For bitcoin marketeers, it's a new $600B money pot.Small-investor stock-trading activity on Robinhood, Charles Schwab and Morgan Stanley's online brokerage shows no sign of slowing (WSJ)GameStop short-sellers reload bets after $6B loss (Bloomberg) "With the U.S. increasingly reliant on foreign capital to compensate for its growing shortfall of domestic saving and with the Fed’s open-ended quantitative easing measures creating a massive overhang of excess liquidity, the case for a sharp further weakening of the dollar looks more compelling than ever," former Morgan Stanley Chief Economist Stephen Roach writes in op-ed (Bloomberg Opinion) Collateralized debt obligations make their way onto DeFi lending (CoinDesk) It's 'frothy squared' as crypto firms line up for IPOs to tap market mania (Bloomberg)Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital plans to launch Ethereum funds, from (Decrypt)  The market value of DeFi tokens surged to $45B, triple the amount at end of October, reported by (Decrypt, using CoinGecko data)Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io.