Dogecoin is not a cryptocurrency you would expect to read about much in this column since it is not exactly an “institutional grade” asset. It has a market cap of over $8 billion at time of writing (less than 1/100th of bitcoin’s), no unique use case and no lively derivatives market. But bear with me while I explain why it embodies two key themes impacting institutional […]
Noelle Acheson
40 posts
With the wild journey that is bitcoin price swings so far this year, you might have missed the accelerating rhythm of companies announcing services to support bitcoin for payments. We’re not talking about small idealistic startups, either. A week ago, on Visa’s Q1 earnings call, CEO Al Kelly said the company may add cryptocurrencies to its payments network. He acknowledged that bitcoin is “not used as […]
Es difícil ser justo con el significado e importancia que ha tenido el escándalo de Reddit-Robinhood-GameStop ocurrido la semana pasada. Con esto no quiero decir que no haya sido sobreestimado en algunos lugares. He oído comparaciones con los disturbios del Capitolio. Y no es lo mismo: aquello se trató de una sedición; esto es rebelión, algo muy diferente. He visto peticiones para que los reguladores intervinieran […]
It’s hard to do justice to the symbolism and significance of the Reddit-Robinhood-GameStop drama of this past week. That’s not to say it hasn’t been overblown in some quarters. I’ve heard it compared to the Capitol riots – no, that was sedition, this is rebellion, very different. I’ve seen calls for the regulators to step in and shut down retail trading platforms, even though it’s not […]
Maybe it’s just that winter is dragging on, but I find myself getting increasingly irritated with mainstream reports about Bitcoin that say it was a result of the financial crisis. It wasn’t, and that matters. First, let’s look at why it wasn’t, and then I’ll explain why this misunderstanding bothers me. Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto started working on the Bitcoin white paper in early 2007, […]
To think that such a festive concept, one that evokes both sophistication and childlike wonder, could become so financially charged … Last week, Bank of America Securities chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett said in a note that bitcoin looks like “the mother of all bubbles.” Harnett seems to be using the strength and speed of bitcoin’s price rise as the base for his diagnosis, as if […]
One of the fun things about jigsaw puzzles, for those of you that haven’t tried them, is the satisfying snap of pieces fitting together to reveal part of a picture. Another is watching the whole picture emerge as more pieces join. In July of last year, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said that national banks could custody crypto assets. That was […]
If the 2020 Q1 was the quarter of market turmoil, Q2 the bitcoin halving and Q3 the explosion of stablecoins and decentralized finance applications, Q4 was the quarter of institutional FOMO for bitcoin and of Ethereum launching the first phase of its ambitious migration to a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The latest CoinDesk Quarterly Review looks at the data and timelines behind these two strong narratives, and […]
The first Crypto Long & Short of 2021 has a different format: Instead of the usual article, I’ve asked some leading industry analysts – from Kaiko, IntoTheBlock, skew.com and Arcane Crypto – to share their favorite charts with you. The depth and quality of metrics available to market observers has grown by leaps and bounds this year, and the work of these analysts and others goes […]
In a departure from our usual Crypto Long & Short format, in honor of the holiday season, I’ve written a poem that reviews the year and reflects some of the progress made in our industry. It’s not rigorous analysis, but I hope the change in rhythm lightens the festive period. Go ahead and laugh, but may I say in my defense that “good at rhymes” was […]
Earlier this week, JPMorgan published a global markets strategy note that points out that money has flowed out of gold and into bitcoin since October, and predicts that this trend will continue over the medium to longer term. The easy conclusion is that investors are finally understanding that bitcoin is a superior future store of value to gold, and are rotating out of one and into […]
It is frustrating. But at the same time, interesting. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve heard two well-respected investment managers say that they don’t believe in bitcoin’s supply limit. If it’s easy to spin up another Bitcoin, they claim, then there is really no limit. Most of you reading this will be rolling your eyes at this stage, but since it seems to be a […]
Today I want to talk about code. I know, this newsletter is for professional investors and not developers – why aren’t we talking about price? Don’t worry, we will further down. But things are evolving with Bitcoin technology that are worth keeping an eye on. While these changes have little to do with the short-term price movements, they are likely to play a significant role in […]
The chorus is getting louder. Adding his sonorous voice to the chorus of renowned investors talking about bitcoin recently, hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller stated on a CNBC interview this week that he believed bitcoin could perform better than gold. Here’s part of the quote: “I own many, many more times gold than I own bitcoin, but frankly if the gold bet works, the bitcoin bet […]
Of all of the many clever things Mark Twain is alleged to have said, one of my favorites, especially these days, is: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” In the turmoil that is 2020, many market “truths” have morphed into myths. And many trusted investment adages no longer make sense. One […]
The phrase “gradually then suddenly” has been overused in the crypto industry to emphasize the importance of each step towards regulatory support and institutional interest. But it’s not yet a case of “suddenly.” We are still in the “gradual” phase. Each month brings progress that seems momentous at the time, but in the grand scheme of market evolution we are still at the beginning. We have […]
In the world of financial regulation, it may seem like progress is slow and arduous. But then there are weeks in which a lot happens, and pieces fall into place with loud clangs and reverberations. This past week was one of those, and the pieces in question are being largely overlooked as they are settling into place in a relatively small corner of the crypto landscape. […]
The bigger you are, the bigger the splash when you jump in the water. And when it comes to mainstream payments companies, there are few bigger than PayPal. In case you’ve been totally avoiding the headlines over the past few days (and who could blame you), PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) this week confirmed its entry into the crypto asset industry with the announcement that it was enabling […]
This week saw more exchange drama rock the crypto markets. OKEx, one of the industry’s largest crypto-fiat exchanges, suspended all cryptocurrency withdrawals, saying one of the exchange’s key holders has “been out of touch” with the exchange because they are “currently cooperating with a public security bureau in investigations.” Coming hard on the heels of the BitMEX indictments from a couple of weeks ago, this surely […]
This week the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which regulates the country’s financial services, issued a ban on the sale of crypto derivatives and ETNs to retail investors. While this may not seem particularly material to crypto asset markets overall – U.K. retail investors weren’t that much into crypto derivatives anyway, and the market hardly reacted at all – it is worth paying attention to for […]
In such a fast-growing industry as crypto asset markets, it can be overwhelming to try to extract the main themes driving liquidity and investor interest. Yet, doing so helps to understand how relatively new markets evolve, and what the catalysts will be for the next big steps forward. The latest CoinDesk Research Quarterly Review focuses on three features that have exhibited astonishing growth in Q3 and […]
As if the ructions of the year aren’t giving us enough cause to re-examine things we thought we understood, now we find ourselves questioning what a company is for, and what role it should occupy in society and in employees’ lives. Earlier this week, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong published a post in which he stressed the company’s focus on the mission of creating “an […]
An unsurprising statement from a financial regulator is sending some welcome signals that point to a spurt of innovation ahead. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a statement earlier this week saying that national banks can provide services to stablecoin issuers in the U.S. This is not a surprise, as banks have been doing so for some time. But they have […]
Some say that meaningful change happens gradually. Others insist it erupts unexpectedly. This week, we saw that both are true. Earlier this week, the Wyoming Banking Board voted to approve the application from San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken for a Special Purpose Depositary Institution (SPDI) banking charter. Yes, one of the crypto industry’s oldest exchanges has become a bank. This is a big deal, one that […]
In a week in which we are yet again reminded how sharply sentiment can shift in crypto asset markets, it’s appropriate to look at the role volatility plays in our narratives, our portfolios and our psyches. I also want to examine what volatility is not, as its specter takes on a disproportionate influence in times of turmoil. This confusion is not unique to crypto markets – volatility […]
Bitcoin had a lackluster August while Ethereum “gas” fees are soaring. In 15 charts, CoinDesk Research’s Monthly Review for August looks at bitcoin (BTC) performance compared to traditional assets, its relationship to the dollar and other fiat currencies, and at Ethereum’s increasing congestion. Some of the key takeaways: Source link
There has been no shortage of epoch-changing twists so far this year. I mean, seriously, take your pick: even aside from the pandemic, we have riots on the streets of American cities, an alarming trade war, negative oil prices and gold briefly above $2,000/oz. These are just some of the loud, headline-grabbing changes that were once unthinkable but now form part of our new normal. […]
When the news came out last month that the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) had cleared banks to custody crypto assets, you may remember that I expressed surprise that the new crypto-friendly Acting Comptroller Brian Brooks had managed to get such a bold move through the channels of bureaucracy so fast. It turns out that he didn’t. Apparently the OCC had been […]
Every epic tale needs a tragic hero, and one of the top candidates for that role in this century’s dramatic passage so far has to be the hedge fund manager. Toppled from their masters-of-the-universe pedestal in the early 2000s, they now eke out meager gains, dodge investor recriminations about fees and occasionally attempt to stay relevant by explaining to the rest of us where the current confusion […]
An interesting op-ed by Leah Callon-Butler in CoinDesk this week got me to change my mind about something pretty fundamental. She asked: “Is crypto fintech?” My instinctive answer was “no!” For me, fintech is technology applied to finance, while cryptocurrency is a technology unto itself. That technology is giving rise to a new type of finance. You’re reading Crypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at […]
Every year has a handful of days that you’ll never forget. Sometimes for great reasons, sometimes for awful ones, and sometimes because a level of noise and action coalesces into an awareness that something big has shifted. Wednesday was one of those days, with the staccato of compromised Twitter accounts (including ours) escalating to reach prominent public figures including current and former heads of state. The […]
This week saw a 125% rise in the price of dogecoin, a cryptocurrency based on a popular 2013 internet meme, created in the same year as both a parody and a “let’s see if this sticks” experiment. Much to even the founder’s surprise, it has not only survived, it has accumulated a loyal following. Clearly. A group of teenagers on the extremely popular but recently beleaguered […]
Now, I have no idea how old you are, nor do I want to make any assumptions. I will assume, though, that since you are reading this, you have an interest in markets and/or crypto assets. And since this is a newsletter aimed at professional investors, I will assume that you care about a bit more than prices going up/down/sideways. That should put us on more […]
By this stage, pretty much everyone knows that bitcoin’s volatility is well above that of equity markets. This is still true, even after the ructions of March. What is less well-known is that the balance of power when it comes to volatility is shifting. Market data indicates that bitcoin markets are becoming less volatile, and equity markets more so. This seems to be unrelated to the […]
One of the things I most enjoy about working in the crypto sector (apart from my awesome colleagues and the constant flow of fascinating change) is the level of debate. I’m not being sarcastic – there are many takes I strongly disagree with, but when they are put forward by people with rational and inquisitive minds (which can be most of the time, depending on your […]
One underappreciated feature of crypto markets is the lack of centralization. I mean, people know crypto assets are decentralized and trade on exchanges all over the world. But what’s often overlooked is the relative ease with which people can change the venues they buy and sell their holdings on. If, for instance, Jeff Sprecher (chairman of the New York Stock Exchange) says something that upsets you, […]
The tensions that have spilled over into the streets of U.S. cities this week are a heartbreaking expression of a long-standing problem that has the whole world in its grip. Inequality is not specific to the U.S. Nor is it limited to a handful of relatively well-off geographies. It stratifies societies within borders, trapping the majority within a narrow income band while markets pour wealth into […]
There are many types of hockey-stick evolutions in new industries. Startups dream of the lying-on-its-back L shape for their sales growth. Entrepreneurs chase the “escape velocity” funding momentum. And a subsector can simmer along with a low hum of activity until boom, years of progress and feverish months of under-the-surface connecting explode in a series of announcements and launches that signal a new phase of development. […]
Famed Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) stirred up some discussion last week by dividing crypto history into cycles that look something like this: The price goes up, which leads to new interest, which triggers new ideas and use cases, which leads to new startups and funding, which leads to product launches that bring in more people. Rinse and repeat. This would pass […]
Well, it happened. Block 630,000 was processed on the Bitcoin blockchain (while we were on the air with our Crypto Long & Short show on Monday, how cool is that!), and the bitcoin subsidy paid to miners was cut from 12.5 bitcoins to 6.25. It felt momentous, as we all witnessed a pre-programmed economic system immutably do its thing. (Allen Farrington’s essay beautifully describes what it […]