Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Bitget, rising 34.28%.
- Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy checks all the boxes for inclusion in the Nasdaq 100 Index, writes Bloomberg, a development that would trigger purchases of the shares by the $451 billion worth of ETFs around the world that directly track the benchmark.
- The world's largest asset manager says that Bitcoin does have a place in multi-asset portfolios. According to Blackrock a 1-2% weighting would produce a similar risk profile to the so-called Magnificent 7 stocks in a standard 60/40 portfolio, writes Bloomberg.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was World Coin, down 22.36%.
- Bitcoin fell to as low as $92,144 before rebounding to $99,500 as it appears to have been a mini flash crash of the token on December 5. Although it feels like there is still room to run, investors are taking profits, said Josh Gilbert, a market analyst at eToro.
- Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of retail brokerage Interactive Brokers, said investors should own some Bitcoin but not too much. He commented, “For example, we will not allow anyone to invest more than 10% of their assets into Bitcoin because I think that would be very dangerous,” according to a Bloomberg article.
Opportunities
- MicroStrategy purchased an additional $2.1 billion in Bitcoin, financing these acquisitions through a combination of equity and fixed-income securities sales. This marks the fifth consecutive Monday the company has announced Bitcoin purchases. According to Bloomberg, Michael Saylor has accumulated Bitcoin valued at over $41 billion over the past four years.
- Hong Kong has pledged to speed up the licensing process for crypto trading platforms, reports Bloomberg, as the region continues its drive to become a cryptocurrency hub. Joseph Chan, acting secretary for financial services and the Treasury, said at the parliament today that the SEC will facilitate a “swift licensing process” and establish a consultative panel that’s expected to commence early next year for licensed trading platforms.
- Coincheck, the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange in Japan, is listing on Nasdaq this Wednesday, reports Bloomberg. The firm is merging with Thunder Bridge Capital to become the second crypto exchange to go public in the U.S. Coincheck reportedly began working on its public listing in 2022 through a de-spac merger deal that valued the exchange at $1.25 billion.
Threats
- Australian operator of the Kraken crypto exchange, Bit Trade, has been ordered to pay A$8 million for unlawfully issuing a credit facility to more than 1,100 Australian customers, according to the Australian Securities & Investments commission.
- Crypto liquidations broke past $1.5 billion within the past 24 hours, Bloomberg writes, as the price of bitcoin retreated from the $100,000 level. Nearly 514,400 traders experienced liquidations, among them $1.38 billion were long positions with $137.7 million in short positions liquidated.
- An Austin, Texas, man received a two-year sentence for falsely under reporting capital gains earned from selling $3.7 million in bitcoin, marking the first criminal tax evasion prosecution centered entirely on cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg.
