opinion

Crypto SWOT: Smaller coins led gains among crypto peers last week

Kitco Media
By Frank E Holmes
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Strengths

  • Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Render Token, rising 92.86%.

  • Smaller coins led gains among cryptocurrencies Thursday on the back of investor optimism that central banks in the U.S. and Europe will finally ease their aggressive interest-rate hiking. Altcoins, including Ether and Cardano, are climbing north of 2% on Thursday as Bitcoin pares back its strong advance, writes Bloomberg.  

  • The year kicked off with NFT trading volumes giving digital-asset enthusiasts a reason to cheer, writes Bloomberg. For the second consecutive month, transactions grew compared with the previous month. In January, Ethereum NFT marketplaces, led by OpenSea, totaled $796.3 million on a month-on-month increase of 47%.

Weaknesses

  • Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performing for the week was LEO, down 12.62%.

  • MicroStrategy, the enterprise software maker better known as the largest public holder of Bitcoin, registered an eight consecutive quarterly loss after writing down the value of its cryptocurrency holdings. The company had a net loss of $249.7 million in the fourth quarter, according to Bloomberg.  

  • Celebrities are facing lawsuits from investors who suffered losses on virtual assets, as well as scrutiny by regulators from allegedly duping the investing public, writes Bloomberg.

Opportunities

  • The cryptocurrency world has been suffering a crisis of confidence, but that's not stopping proponents of decentralized finance from going after the $7.2 trillion global currency market, explains Bloomberg. Researchers behind one of the largest DeFi marketplaces are courting traders of fiat currencies, arguing that moving them onto the blockchain would cut the cost of global remittances by 80% and eliminate currency risk.

  • Bitcoin has been oscillating in a tight range for the last two weeks after reaching its highest level since August earlier in the month. The token is on track to register its best January performance since the 51% jump in 2014. There is an important 'polarity' level that Bitcoin has mostly respected since the middle of last year, writes Bloomberg.

  • Financial advisers and lawyers welcomed the U.K. government's plans to regulate the crypto sector, which come amid turmoil in digital asset markets, writes Bloomberg.  

Threats

  • A court-appointed examiner blasted crypto lender Celsius Network and its former CEO Alex Mashinsky for lacking adequate risk management and misleading customers about its business practices and financial health. Examiner Shoba Pillay said in her 689-page final report published Tuesday that Celsius lacked the ability to accurately track its assets and liabilities and tried to erase misrepresentations made by Mashinsky in public statements, writes Bloomberg.  

  • U.S. prosecutors in the Justice Department's fraud unit are looking into Silvergate Capital Corp's dealings with fallen crypto giants FTX and Alameda Research. The criminal investigation is examining Silvergate's hosting of accounts tied to Sam Bankman-Fried's business, writes Bloomberg.  

  • Crypto trading venue Orion Protocol was set to pause operations Thursday after an apparent attacker drained millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency. The attacker deployed a fake token called ATK which was used to manipulate the Orion pools, writes Bloomberg.
Kitco Media

Frank E Holmes

Frank Holmes is CEO and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors, Inc., a boutique investment advisory firm based in San Antonio that manages domestic and offshore funds specializing in the natural resources and emerging markets sectors. The company’s no-load mutual funds include the Global Resources Fund (ticker PSPFX), the World Precious Minerals Fund (UNWPX) and the Gold Shares Fund (USERX).

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Frank Holmes
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