Crypto’s story this week is one of sideways trading, but the future is self-custody education
The week in review
with Jason Deane
It’s been a story of relative sideways trading after XRP’s power-up at the end of last week, appearing to bring new money into the markets, or at least causing a short term reallocation.
Here in the UK, politicians celebrated the drop in the underlying inflation rate from 8.7% to 7.9%, appearing to miss the point that our money is devaluing faster than people are able to secure pay rises. Jeremy Hunt was even quoted demanding that “shops reduce prices immediately” in a series of comments that implied he didn’t understand how inflation works. But then, this was reported by the Express, so who knows what he actually said.
Just so we’re clear, prices don’t fall when inflation reduces. They just increase more slowly. Only in rare cases of deflation do prices actually fall, but that comes with its own set of economic consequences in any case.
If you prefer the luxury of eating, you’re still looking at 17.3% food inflation rates, which is still far in excess of the typical family household’s capability of matching. And things could be about to get even worse.
The Russians, still losing a war that they started over 500 days ago, have decided to inflict more misery on the world by pulling out the grain deal allowing Ukrainian wheat to be exported. This is a move which is akin to a publicly humiliated bully having a strop and taking their football back home when they’re losing, but it had the effect of immediately pushing up global prices of the commodity. The price of such an important staple always has a disproportionate effect on food prices, so regardless of what the Bank of England thinks it can do, sometimes market forces are just too powerful.
Broadly, the UK economy is not looking too good, but most of the rest of the world is not looking too clever either. One stat that caught my eye this week was the US’s debt spend numbers showing that its spend on debt is now higher than its annual spend on its military and still growing at a rate that will see it spending a TRILLION dollar a year (with a ‘T’) on interest payments alone by around 2025.
It’s tempting to just repeat the classic line “Bitcoin fixes this” ad nauseam but there is some truth to this, both in theory and, perhaps in practice.
While the US is certainly facing a number of disadvantageous financial challenges, there’s no question El Salvador’s reputation and financial position continues to improve, with its bonds mirroring the rise of Bitcoin’s price so far this year. So far, President Bukele has managed to disprove the negative commentary by the dollar-influenced international agencies who said the country’s adoption of Bitcoin would be a disaster, but, of course, there’s still a long way to go.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin on exchanges has continued to fall, and is now sitting at the lowest level since 2017, a number I personally link directly to the level of education about self-custody, but also about the sheer importance and rarity of the asset itself.
Education is key and that brings me nicely to a quick summary of some very cool Bitcoin education (not to mention just darn fun!) events happening over the next seven days.
This weekend, yours truly will be back in the driving seat racing (alongside my three co-drivers) at Snetterton with the Bitcoin Racing team competing in the Nankang Tyre CityCar Cup. You’re welcome to attend and support – or even meet – the team and tickets are here. If you can’t make it, you can watch the Bitcoin liveried cars in action via the live streams.
I’ll admit to being nervous as this will be the first time out after my rather bad crash last month at Anglesey and the car has only just been rebuilt. It has not been tested yet either, so my first time heading out will be at full throttle straight from the pits having been too late for testing entry. Could be interesting.
The team is attracting some real attention these days and working hard to bring the logo to a larger audience and get them asking questions about what Bitcoin is. Now fully teamed up with the BitcoinHODLers, a FREE (and rather fun!) educational Bitcoin community based on Telegram, there’s now a simple place for newbies – and experts – alike to share knowledge and drive education, something I’ve always been very passionate about.
But this weekend also sees the second Bitcoin Adventure at Avon, something I loved being a part of last year. This is a family orientated Bitcoin meetup/adventure/activity (call it what you will) which is, frankly, great fun and it’s a great family day out. Details and tickets are here.
Finally, if you’re in London next Thursday evening, you can join the Bitcoin Racing team at Sambrook’s Brewery in Wandsworth and try to beat our star driver in the professional racing sim. If you do, there are prizes from our fabulous sponsors and a free beer or two from the BitcoinHODLers! Details here.
But whatever you do this weekend, make sure it’s a great one!
Yesterday’s Crypto AM Daily
In the Markets
The Bitcoin Economy
*Data can be found at https://terminal.bytetree.com/
🌅Total crypto market cap
🔵 $1.2 trillion
What Bitcoin did yesterday
🔺 Daily high $30,408
🔻 Daily low $29,621
Bitcoin market capitalisation
🟠 BTC $578.812 billion
🟡 Gold $13.009 trillion
💳 Visa $501.86 billion
Bitcoin volume
🪣 Total spot trading volume $14.691 billion
SP500
🌅 24hrs -0.68%
Fear and Greed Index
Bitcoin’s market dominance
📊 49.83
Relative Strength Index (RSI)
💪 48
Values of 70 or above indicate that an asset is becoming overbought and may be primed for a trend reversal or experience a correction in price, while 30 or below indicates an oversold or undervalued condition.
What they said yesterday
Whether you’re a Bitcoin expert or a total newbie – or even somewhere in between – you can now join the new HODLers Telegram community to learn more… or share your insights with others!
Our goal is simple: to provide a safe place where people can ask any question they want about Bitcoin, even if they think it’s a daft one! Learning Bitcoin takes time and we generally have the same questions when we first encounter it, so we know from our own experience having somewhere to ask a real person a specific question can be of great value!
There’s also access to great learning resources and, to cap it all off, we run monthly competitions to win great prizes such as tickets for events, VIP passes, exclusive access to talks and webinars or even just some Sats to add to your stack, all courtesy of our partners!
Even better, the whole thing is completely FREE!
So, if you’re a beginner, or know someone who is, take our fun five question multiple choice quiz and join the group today. Of course, if you’re an expert, you’re also welcome to join and help others who are looking to understand Bitcoin as an asset and the industry as a whole.
T’s and C’s: Open to UK residents only. All ages are welcome in the community, but you need to be over 18 to enter competitions. No purchase required.
All feedback on Crypto AM Daily in association with Luno is welcome via email to James.Bowater@cityam.com 🙏🏻
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ChatGPT urges crypto conference panel not to become over-reliant on AI
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Sam Bankman-Fried: A tissue of lies soaked with fake tears?
Three-in-four wealth managers are gearing up for more cryptocurrency exposure
Crypto.com granted FCA licence to operate in UK
Q&A with Duncan Coutts, Principal Technical Architect at IO Global
Jamie Bartlett – on the trail of the missing ‘Cryptoqueen’
MPs are falling silent over potential of cryptocurrency
Erica’s ‘Crypto Wars’ handed honours in Business Book Awards
Crypto AM: Features
Crypto AM: Founders Series
Crypto AM: Industry Voices
Crypto AM: Contributors
Crypto AM: In Conversation with James Bowater
Crypto AM: Tomorrow’s Money with Gavin S Brown
Crypto AM: Mixing in the Metaverse with Dr Chris Kacher
Crypto AM: Visions of the Future, Past & Present with Alex Lightman
Crypto AM: Tiptoe through the Crypto with Monty Munford
Crypto AM: Taking a Byte out of Digital Assets with Jonny Fry
Crypto on the catwalk
Crypto AM: Events
Cautionary Notes
It’s definitely tempting to get swept up in the excitement, but please heed these words of caution: Do your own research, only invest what you can afford, and make good decisions. The indicators contained in this article will hopefully help in this. Remember though, the content of this article is for information purposes only and is not investment advice or any form of recommendation or invitation. City AM, Crypto AM and Luno always advise you to obtain your own independent financial advice before investing or trading in cryptocurrency.