Morning‌‌ ‌‌Update—August 25th—Macro and Crypto Markets

It’s fascinating to see the exuberance continue, amidst traditional markets. Basically, ahead of a Fed meeting on their bond buying program (which most people assume will be very accommodating), investors bought equities en masse. The S&P rose to record highs and the Nasdaq gained over 1.5% to also reach record highs. While that’s happening, gold is losing again, falling below the $1,800 mark.

BTC, on the other hand, isn’t feeling too great. Alts aren’t either. On the session, bitcoin fell over 3.5%, currently back at $48,000. All things considered, this actually is still a very good place to be, after we spent weeks, nay, months in the 30K purgatory.

Alts lost ground. The worst performers are NANO, THETA and LINK falling 9%. AAVE, MATIC and LUNA aren’t doing better with 8% losses. Actually, just look at any coin and it’s probably doing worse than BTC.

Away from short-term considerations, a nice post from CryptoQuant highlights the kimchi premium, characterising it of the true ‘fear and greed’ index. From their perspective, the fact that we don’t see a pick-up in Korean prices for BTC shows it’s still under-appreciated and has room to grow.

It’s also very nice to see the open interest grow again. Traders are venturing again in the derivatives space and happy to take leverage bets. At the moment, this is a healthy behaviour and supportive of higher prices. Same with option’s open interest.

On the other hand, a Glassnode chart shows the funding rate pick-up which is very tame -maybe too much so. And they characterise it as maybe a symptom of just a relief rally, something that will fade quickly, as opposed to a strong -new- leg up.

Away from onchain data, it was great to hear of Riot’s earnings, especially with the acquisition of a Whinstone Texas facility. A reminder of the great transition of mining power, from China and its crack-down to now the US.

Lastly, it was interesting to hear about Kraken, seeking an EU license before the end of the year. Regulatory stuff probably never happens on time but this timeline as a baseline is good and positive for the space.

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