Frank Holmes
Crypto SWOT: Bitcoin has been beating equities following a surge in government bond yields
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Featuring views and opinions written by market professionals, not staff journalists.
Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Loom Network, rising 62.4%.
- The surge in government bond yields over the past few weeks saw Bitcoin beating equities by a wide margin. Should yields resume their advance, that could ultimately end up benefiting the largest digital token, writes Bloomberg.
- Stablecoin issuer Tether Holdings appointed its technology boss Paolo Ardoino as its new chief executive officer, following several years in which the executive had emerged as the company's main public figure, writes Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Mantle, down 18.22%.
- Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies fell back on Thursday, extending declines for a sixth day despite widespread advances seen in other risk-sensitive assets, with gains form a recent bullish trend fizzling out as cryptos returned to familiar trading ranges, writes Bloomberg.
- Hamas' lightning strike on Israel last weekend has left observers questioning how the group financed the surprise operation. One possible answer: cryptocurrency. Hamas received large amounts of funds through crypto, according to a review of Israeli government seizure orders and blockchain analytics reports, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- The owner of crypto exchange Bitfinex is exploring a $150 million share buyback that would provide it with greater control over the private company's dealings, according to Bloomberg.
- Decentralized finance is yet to pose a meaningful risk to overall financial stability, explains Bloomberg, but does require monitoring, according to the European Union's financial markets and securities regulator.
- Mastercard, in conjunction with the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre, revealed on Thursday the latest results of their CBD pilot project, writes BlockWorks. Notably, the pilot included a live transaction where an NFT was purchased on the Ethereum blockchain using a "wrapped" version of the CBDC.
Threats
- Caroline Ellison took the witness stand Tuesday afternoon and within minutes pointed to her former boss and boyfriend, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, as the man responsible for the loss of billions in customer funds. "He directed me to commit these crimes," she told jurors, according to Bloomberg reports.
- In the latest blow to Binance's global ambitions, a Brazilian congressional committee has recommended the indictment of four of the company's senior leaders including its founder and CEO CZ, writes Bloomberg.
- Caroline Ellison, on Wednesday, detailed how she worked with Sam Bankman-Fried to lie about the health of Alameda Research and FTX and deceive lenders and customers. She testified that she falsified Alameda's balance sheet, at the direction of Bankman-Fried, to conceal that the firm was taking in large sums of money from FTX customers, writes Bloomberg.
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