Crypto Carnage
Nothing like a sharp correction across the crypto board to bring out all the pitchforks and ‘I told you so’ rhetoric.
When Bitcoin catches a cold, the cryptocurrency universe catches the flu. Jeff Gundlach (master of the bond universe / CEO of Doubleline) took to Twitter to mark the occasion:
Cryptocurrencies have rallied meaningfully off the lows. The dream ain’t broken… yet. The regulatory chatter has begun to amplify. Things will surely get a whole lot more interesting pitting the pro-crypto democracies of Japan and Canada against crypto-regulation/ban camps of South Korea and China.
South Korea
News that the government is planning an all-out ban on crypto trading in the country has roiled the markets, as it’s a central global hub for trading. A public petition has garnered more than 200,000 signatures against an outright ban of crypto trading in the country. This isn’t China. The public can and will push back; the developments over the coming months will be fascinating to say the least.
France/Germany
Reuters reported that “France and Germany will make joint proposals to regulate the bitcoin cryptocurrency at the next G20 summit in Argentina in March”. Germany’s Finance Minister Peter Altmaier stated: “We have a responsibility towards our citizens to explain and reduce the risks”. At the surface this public statement does not read well for the crypto market as a whole.
Bitcoin
An important week for the crypto market to flesh out the weak hands. It’s abundantly clear, irrespective of all the challenges Bitcoin faces (transaction speed, governance), that it remains the coin sale of last resort. Bitcoin outperformed the average 4 other large cryptos (ETH, XRP, BCH, ADA) by 10%. The sell-off in the market was an old fashioned risk shakeout, some in the market viewed the expiry of the futures contract as a trigger, however the volume of those contracts were far too small to inflict this.
Source: TradingView
Ripple
The corporate blockchain market darling YTD has been taken quickly to the woodshed since its dramatic run up to $3.30 in the first week of 2018. At the $1.59 level things get rather interesting. Given the substantial size of the addressable market, it’s worth a deeper look.
Neo
Neo (Chinese-based platform for smart contracts and apps — like Ethereum) was the sole crypto to finish the week in green (up 8.65% on the week) as they began to host ICOs from China. The market is taking a positive view that Neo can attract the same ICO demand on their platform as Ethereum — one such ICO that’s generating strong interest is DeepBrain (Artificial Intelligence using the blockchain).
Source: Coinmarketcap
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