David Fuller and Eoin Treacy's Comment of the Day
Category - Technology

    Bitcoin's Big Selloff Was a Long Time Coming

    This article for Bloomberg may be of interest. Here is a section:

    Felix Dian, founder of crypto investment fund MVPQ Capital
    “Looking at the previous bull cycle (2016/17), there have been quite a few occurrences when Bitcoin loses momentum and dips below the 100-day moving average. This one was overdue.

    “We are actually seeing record subscriptions into our fund this month, from institutional family offices, with many willing to use this as an opportunity to add. Ultimately, strong hands buying will meet the lack of available liquid supply of Bitcoin, triggering a squeeze and further down the road a new retail FOMO wave.”

    Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at OANDA
    “The threat of regulation, either directly in developed markets or indirectly via the taxman, has always been crypto’s Achilles’s heel.

    “Hopefully, we will hear as many ‘experts’ saying this is a sign of Bitcoin becoming a ‘maturing mainstream asset’ if it falls 10% this weekend, as we do when it rises, or a crypto-exchange chooses to IPO. In the meantime, don’t hate me for being bearish Bitcoin in the near term.”

    Nikolaos Panitgirtzoglou, strategist at JPMorgan Chase & Co
    “Institutional demand has indeed slowed. I’m not sure what could trigger a re-acceleration of institutional demand. You either need a big announcement like Tesla or simply a correction and clearing of retail froth to incentivise institutional investors to re-enter the market.”

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    Stocks Drop on Biden Plan to Lift Capital-Gain Tax

    This article may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    “Sticker shock over some of these tax figures will be hard to shake off for some investors,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp, wrote in a note. “Some traders are looking for an excuse to lock in profits and they might choose to use this tax story as their catalyst.”

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    Netflix Falls After Pandemic Boom Reverses to Rare Weakness

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Netflix has been warning for months that growth would slow after customers emerged from their Covid-19 hibernation, but few expected the company to stall so dramatically. The first quarter of 2020 was the strongest in its history, reeling in 15.8 million new customers, and Netflix’s pace was still brisk in the fourth quarter.

    “We had those 10 years where we were growing smooth as silk,” Executive Chairman and co-Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on a webcast for investors. “It’s a little wobbly right now.”

    Netflix added 3.98 million subscribers in the first quarter, compared with an average analyst estimate of 6.29 million and its own forecast of 6 million. That marked the weakest start of a year since 2013, when Netflix added about 3 million customers. If the company’s forecast for the current quarter holds, it will be the worst three-month stretch for Netflix since the early days of its streaming service.

    Netflix blamed a “Covid-19 pull-forward” effect, meaning the pandemic accelerated its growth in 2020 while everyone was stuck at home and needed something to watch. Now that surge is taking a toll on the company’s 2021 results.

    “It really boils down to Covid,” Spencer Neumann, the company’s chief financial officer, said on the webcast.

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    Just Like Price of ETH, Ethereum Usage Is Seeing Consistent Growth

    This article from bitcoinexchange.com may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Much like the price, the network fundamentals are just as bullish, with the hash rate on the network on an uptrend ever since December 2019.

    Unique addresses have also been only growing, now past 148.5 million. Daily transactions also hit a new ATH at 1.5 million this week versus 1.35 million on Jan. 4, 2018.

    Average gas fees on the network continuously keep above 150 Gwei with several significant upticks along the way, which first gained momentum during DeFi summer, as per Etherscan.

    While the high fees on the second-largest network continue to price out the smaller users due to high activity on the platform, it goes without saying people are still using it and paying the fees.

    “You pay high fees now because it’s the most useful chain by far. The catalysts coming will be the most obvious in retrospect,” said Kyle Davies, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital.

    The consistent growth in usage can further be seen in transactions settled by the Ethereum blockchain, which has reached $1.5 trillion in transactions in Q1 2021.

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    Why Is Bitcoin Tumbling and What Is the Outlook for Prices?

    This article by Emily Cadman for Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    As digital assets make further inroads with both retail and institutional investors, regulators across the world are taking a closer interest.

    On Friday, the Turkish central bank said it would ban their use as a form of payment from April 30 and would prohibit companies that handle payments and electronic fund transfers from processing transactions involving crypto platforms.

    There was also online speculation over the weekend that the U.S. Treasury is poised to crack down on money laundering carried out through digital assets. The Treasury declined to
    comment.

    Other sources of regulatory pressure include central banks’ plans to create digital currencies such as China’s for the yuan, and the ban of cryptocurrency mining in Inner Mongolia, long an industry favorite because of its cheap power.

    “We will see more regulation coming,” Eva Ados, chief investment strategist at asset manager ERShares, said on Bloomberg TV, warning investors to be “very careful.” “We think there is going to be even more volatility going forward.”

    * Overexcitement
    Any big rally offers potential for the market to get ahead of itself. That’s the view of Galaxy Digital founder and long-time crypto bull Michael Novogratz, who wrote on Twitter he sees the retreat as a healthy correction.

    Mike Novogratz @novogratz
    With hindsight it was inevitable????????. Markets got too excited around $Coin direct listing. Basis blowing out, coins like $BSV, $XRP and $DOGE pumping. All were signs that the market got too one way. We will be fine in the medium term as institutions coming to the space.
    Sent via Twitter for iPhone.

    * Idiosyncratic factors
    Other things could be adding to the mix. Industry news site CoinDesk reported Saturday that power outages in parts of China had knocked out a significant amount of Bitcoin mining capacity, which reduced the overall processing power of the cryptocurrency’s network.

    There’s also the timing.
    “Bitcoin goes crazy on weekends because it’s one of the few markets open to trade in,” Kyle Rodda, a Melbourne-based market analyst at IG said. “And it’s lost some buying support.”
     

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    How fintech companies are wrestling with commercial banks in Nigeria

    This article from Nairametrics may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section:

    Nevertheless, while banks have the customer base and staff numbers to tackle the disruptive potentials of fintech startups, their responses have been quite passive.

    Fintech companies like Paystack, PiggyVest, Kuda Bank and others are innovating past traditional institutions by making digital financial services like lending, savings, or investing readily available to people. They have been able to recognize the pain points for users, which have not been addressed by commercial banks.

    Other fintech startups have fueled the growth of alternative lenders which offer both higher yields to investors and faster, cheaper, more convenient loans for borrowers compared to traditional banks. Startups like Carbon and Branch offer lower loan rates than commercial banks and this is mostly because fintech companies are not subject to the operational costs involved in running a traditional bank with multiple branches.

    In an exclusive interview with Nairametrics, Femi Oshinlaja, the COO of Cassava Fintech, a pan-African Fintech Group that enables digital financial services for Africa’s mobile consumers, explained why digital solutions are fast spreading across the African continent by stating;

    “With the growth in smartphone penetration and greater pervasiveness of the internet, we see the convergence of the online channels with more consumers opting to use digital channels to send money home as they see the convenience of doing so from the comfort of their homes and not having to queue to make the transaction in addition to the affordability of the online option.”

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    Porsche's Electric Taycan Sales on Course to Eclipse Iconic 911

    This article from Bloomberg may be of interest to subscribers. Here is a section: 

    “Established models have supported this excellent result along with the latest additions to our product range, above all the new model variants of the all-electric Taycan,” Porsche sales chief Detlev von Platen said of the brand’s 36% first-quarter surge. “We can look back on a very positive start to the year.”

    The Taycan, which Porsche recently flanked with a more spacious version, is a litmus test for the carmaker’s costly shift to electric vehicles. Boosting EV sales with Porsche will be key to maintaining healthy margins as the division is VW group’s biggest profit contributor by far.

    Porsche’s total global deliveries rose to 71,986 vehicles in the first quarter, driven mainly by demand in China, its largest market. The compact Macan SUV was the brand’s best-selling model, ahead of the larger Cayenne. Porsche will launch a battery-powered version of the Macan next year that’s underpinned by a new platform for upscale electric cars co-developed with sister brand Audi.

    Porsche remains optimistic about business prospects this year even as a global shortage of semiconductor parts disrupts production plans across the industry. Order books “continue to develop very well,” Von Platen said.

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    Email of the day on COVID-19 as an endemic nuisance

    Some interesting points made such as the unlikelihood of attaining herd immunity; the virus becoming endemic in society; no phase 3 China vaccine data published as of yet; and the acknowledgement that if we do have to live with this virus, then the treatments for Covid, once you have the pneumonia, are still not very good.

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    Email of the day on electric vehicles and reshoring

    I came across this article (attached) about a new British company that has recently listed on the Nasdaq. Big questions about whether it can succeed, but it's an interesting take on the possible future of local manufacturing, and not just for vehicles. If successful, it could presumably have an impact on the issues of on-shoring, local community development and not to mention the ESG sector.

     

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