Gm,
Bitcoin starts the week facing fresh hurdles to jump in the way of inflation running riot in the United States and mining debates happening in Congress. Despite this, there is the feeling that BTC is at an inflection point of producing a surprise where the majority of the economy least expect it. I’m not so sure about it though.
With little price action over the weekend, we have been seeing lower lows on the 1-week chart. Bitcoin managed to end the week on a close above $43,100 which is a good sign of confirmation for BTC to continue higher from here. On Monday morning, there was a significant dip to $42,336 with the cryptocurrency now exchanging hands at almost $43,000 at the time of writing.
After a 40% price drawdown, new data indicates that the sector has had very little retail investor interest in bitcoin for almost an entire year. Despite two new all-time price highs, new investor numbers have fallen and returned to levels typically seen after bull cycle peaks.
I’ve talked about the crypto fear and greed index on this newsletter before and the fear has definitely continued into 2022. Since late December, the index has signalled the market is experiencing ‘extreme fear; and so far, no price action shifts have managed to alter it.
Let’s get started.
Markets
As of 17th January 2022
(source: coinmarketcap)
Headline roundup
Natwest Markets unveils new blockchain unit (LI)
Payments giant Block to build open-source bitcoin mining system (CD)
Gap launches NFT collection (LI)
Goldman bullish on online broker’s Q4 earnings due to crypto activity (CD)
MoneyGram invests in cash crypto onramp Coinme (LI)
Coinbase buys FairX to launch crypto derivatives (CD)
PayPal is exploring creating own stablecoin (CD)
Billionaire invest Bill Miller now has 50% of his personal wealth in bitcoin (CD)
Coinbase announces “nearly the entire company will shut down” for four weeklong breaks in 2022 to allow workers to recharge (CT)
CBDC
SIX Digital Exchange CBDC trials include UBS, Credit Suisse Citi, Goldman (LI)
Visa targets central banks with CBDC solution partnering ConsenSys (LI)
Fed Reserve’s Powell says digital dollar CBDC report coming in weeks (LI)
Thai Baht CBDC pilot delayed (LI)
Coldwell Banker to use public blockchain to tokenise real estate (LI)
Central Bank of Bahrain oversees JPM Coin digital currency tests (LI)
VC
Animoca part of $40m fan controlled funding (LI)
Julius Baer participates in digital asset SEBA bank’s $120m funding (LI)
Blockchain data startup Lukka reaches $1.3bn valuation (LI)
FTX establishes $2bn find to invest in crypto startups (CD)
Pantera adds $46m in investments to the bitcoin feeder fund (CD)
Meme of the week
About Me
My name is Michael Burke, and I started working in the blockchain space about 4 years ago, firstly with Deloitte, now with R3, where I help our customers build enterprise solutions utilising the Corda platform. My interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency stems from the sheer potential of the technology to completely transform industries and value chains for the better.