🐂 Are the bulls out?

or is this just a sign of how irrational markets are?

January 16, 2023

Contents:

  • 🐂 Are the bulls out or is this a sign of irrationality?

  • 🧐 Reasons for the uptick

  • 💰 Coins of the week

  • 🌐 Around the WEB3 and Tech world this week

  • 🙏🏻 Grateful for…

🐂 Are the bulls out or is this a sign of irrationality?

At the time of writing Bitcoin was sitting at $21,129.11 after being stuck in the $17k range for several weeks. Ethereum has also seen a more than 22% jump over the last 7 days making this past week the best in the crypto space in two years. ETH currently trades at $1,568.30.

The recent uptick is impossible to pinpoint, nor does anyone know exactly if is a temporary or the expected return of the industry, but some of the reasons may be:

  • Debt ceiling: On Friday, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. is on track to reach the debt limit, or the cap on how much money the federal government can borrow, by Thursday. The ceiling was last raised by $2.5 trillion in December 2021 to a total of $31.4 trillion. In the past, Congress has avoided breaching the limit by simply raising it. But House Republicans said they will not support increasing the debt ceiling this time around — not unless they get spending cuts or other concessions. Negotiations can drag leading to economic uncertainty, another reason why certain investors may be opting to park investments in crypto as prices increase.

  • Inflation: US Inflation Rate is at 6.45%, compared to 7.11% last month and 7.04% last year. This is higher than the long-term average of 3.27% but lower than expected and pressure seems to start to ease. The FED has signaled that more interest rates increase are coming but at a much lower rate. Global inflation rates have dropped from 8.75% to 6.52% and is predicted to drop more.

  • Regulation: The Binance investigation has stalled because DOJ offices can’t seem to agree on how to proceed. And after the FTX fiasco, the LUNA debacle, Blockfi bankruptcy, liquidation of Voyager, and now the illiquidity of Gemini among other recent disasters regulation is still not as strict and clear in the crypto world as many of us were expecting.

  • Bottom?: Historically, bear markets have lasted 364 days and the current market has reached that length. We are also 470 days from the next and 4th halving, which may start pushing the price of BTC up.

  • External reasons that may push crypto valuations: Apple may be caving to pressure from regulators in Europe and open its operating system to third-party Apps. The move could be a boon for applications that include NFTs, as right now they're only able to be downloaded through Apple’s proprietary store and are subject to 30% fees. The implosion of FTX also made matters worse for miners, forcing many to shut down their rigs due to 'miner capitulation' leaving few profitable ones. The sentiment (the psychological aspect) is improving and FMO may be trickling in.

  • Futures: One quant analyst told The Block that Bitcoin’s recent surge might be driven by futures traders looking to exploit short-term liquidity gaps at a time when a number of big players have left the crypto market.

Not everyone is convinced Bitcoin’s upward momentum is here to stay, however. One analyst told Bloomberg that recent trading patterns suggest prices are unlikely to go past $21,500, pointing to “deeply overbought short-term readings [that] challenge positive momentum.”

The Stock market has also seen a huge uptick in 2023 mainly due to inflation numbers and the FEDs announcement of lowering the interest rate increase.

💰 Coins of the week

Decentraland (MANA) defines itself as a virtual reality platform powered by the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to create, experience, and monetize content and applications.

In this virtual world, users purchase plots of land that they can later navigate, build upon and monetize.

Recent surge in MANA came following the latest update which claims to improve social features in the game. This includes a new user profile, avatar highlight, differentiated name tags and more. In October 2022, the company announced the Genesis City project which will offer the users a birds eye view of the entire map

🌐 This week in the WEB3 and Tech world

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