120,000 people donate $60m" in Bitcoin and Ethereum to Ukraine, institutions add their largest Bitcoin positions in four months, there’s a banking mass exodus and eBay could herald the next stage of mainstream adoption.
Europe is in turmoil and everyone reading this will know why. What we do need to discuss is the impact of technology on the geopolitical situation, and specifically blockchain, because there are some absolutely incredible things going on.
Crypto has a long history as a tool for oppressed people to finance their causes: it was true in Hong Kong in 2019 when HSBC cut off access to protestor funds, it was true in Belarus in 2020 when dissidents were fighting the regime and were enabled with Bitcoin grants, and even in Myanmar, pro-democracy anti-Junta groups made the Tether USD stablecoin an official currency as a way to fund their cause.
This time around, it’s not only NGOs and grassroots initiatives that are raising funds with crypto, it is a sovereign government itself. On 26 February the Ukrainian government posted on Twitter three wallet addresses: one for Bitcoin (BTC), one for Ethereum" (ETH), and one for Tether (USDT), and within 24 hours raised millions of dollars.
By 8 March that figure had reached $60m", with 120,000 people donating cryptoassets of one kind or another. They include Polkadot founder Gavin Wood, who sent $5.8m in DOT, while Art for Ukraine is using Tezos (XTZ) to send funds to these addresses near-instantly as soon as anyone buys one of their artworks, using a specially-designed smart contract. Each sells for around 3 XTZ ($6). The project has raised 6,000 XTZ.
Ukrainian suppliers of night-vision goggles are accepting payments directly in crypto, Coindesk reports.
It may take some time for the wider world to adequately process the idea that a sovereign nation has turned to a global community to crowdfund critical funds, using a novel technology, thereby validating the thesis for what cryptoassets do. They are a way to move and store money value cross-border and peer to peer, in a frictionless way that avoids censorship, seizure and other issues along the way.
Crypto regulatory compliance firm" Elliptic added data showing how a CryptoPunk NFT worth $200,000 was sent to the Ukrainian government’s Ethereum" address – displaying exactly how it is not just money, but any kind of tokenisable asset that can move cross-border onto public blockchains. Pressure group UkraineDAO has also auctioned off an NFT of the Ukrainian flag for $6.5m" in ETH, the tenth most expensive NFT ever sold. The proceeds are to be donated to the Come Back Alive NGO.
To the point that Russia’s sanctioned wealthy could use crypto in the same way to evade sanctions, we have written a lengthy rebuttal countering these assertions. For Crypto Minutes readers, here’s a short summary.
Public blockchain ledgers are terrible ways to launder large amounts of money: anyone can view a record of all transactions at any time. Coupled with the skill of forensic blockchain analysts like Chainalysis and Elliptic, and we are talking flows of money that are orders of magnitude larger than it would be possible to conceal.
If Russia wants a SWIFT alternative, it won’t use Bitcoin. Instead of a public, open network it cannot control, it is much more likely to use CIPS, the onshore yuan clearing and settlement system" offered by China. To this point, we hear that Sberbank and Alfa Bank will issue Mir cards with China’s UnionPay, after Mastercard and Visa stopped operating in the country.
Institutions pile $127m"/week into crypto: most since December
Despite accelerating geopolitical risks, and commodity markets like oil and nickel seeing vast spikes, institutions are pushing ever greater amounts of capital into cryptoasset ETPs.
Data via CoinShares shows that institutional investors moved net inflows of $127m" into Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, Tezos ETPs in the last week. That rounds up seven straight weeks of net inflows. It’s a dramatic turnaround from November-December 2021, which saw profit-taking on a huge scale after Bitcoin hit its $69k all time high. These figures bring the 2022 year-to-date net inflows to $218m.
Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling $127m" last week, an uptick on the previous week, suggesting investors remain supportive of digital assets despite the recent geopolitical events prompting a sell-off in risk assets,
wrote CoinShares head of research James Butterfill.
Bitcoin saw inflows totalling $95m", the largest single weekly inflow since early December. Ethereum saw inflows of $25m, the largest in 13 weeks, and follows a run of mixed to negative sentiment since early December.
Altcoins including Litecoin and Cardano also saw net inflows.
Crypto markets appear to have effectively split into two types of capital market allocators.
One is the speculator who is highly leveraged and who treats Bitcoin as a purely risk-on asset, riding the wave of liquidity flows and monetary debasement, but who sells at the first sign of central bank tightening.
The other is the risk-neutral investor who believes the generation-defining thesis that crypto is the greatest macro opportunity of our lifetime and that it will create more value than the internet.
Turning away from" the turmoil in Europe for a moment, we are seeing more ripple effects of the broad-scale adoption of crypto as a payment method.
eBay CEO Jamie Iannon told The Street in a 27 February interview that he wants to reposition the marketplace as the go-to home for Gen Z and millennials.
Despite the lack of an official announcement, eBay has already changed its policies to accept trading in NFTs, Iannon said.
So even without announcing anything or doing anything, people started trading NFTs on our platform". It reminded me of many years ago when people just started selling cars, when we didn't even have a vehicle business at that point. So we're seeing the same type of thing [with NFTs].
The $32.7bn market cap company could make an announcement on accepting crypto as payment methods as soon as an upcoming March investor presentation day, Iannon revealed.
We're not accepting crypto currently. On March 10, we're going to go deeper on all of these things, payments, advertising, our focus categories.
The masses don’t see adoption of new technologies coming in advance. That’s probably because human brains are really good at processing linear information, but terrible at tracking and understanding the effect of exponential curves.
Jeff Bezos famously quit a high-paying hedge fund job to start Amazon in his garage in 1994. His decision was based, in part, when he spotted a stat that made him sit up in shock: the internet was growing at 2,300% per year.
Crypto is following the same trajectory and is projected to reach 1 billion users sometime between 2023 and 2027.
By the same token, we are starting to see the early stages of what could be a mass exodus of bankers, analysts, FX traders and finance professionals into crypto.
FnLondon's recent interviews with six former bankers who all switched to crypto was illuminating.
My phone rings off the hook,
said Chris Perkins, who left Citigroup in September 2021 to become president of crypto investment firm Coinfund.
I realised I was advising on transactions with centuries-old financial services companies who could be significantly impacted if they didn’t adapt,
said Hazem" Shish, former head of financial institutions group banking at Barclays. He left the bank in November 2021 to found a blockchain startup.
17-year Morgan Stanley veteran Kyle Downey followed a similar path: “The dominant narrative around crypto has shifted from" it being a joke, for criminals and supporting the dark web, to a lot of people on Wall Street saying you should have 1-2% of your portfolio allocated to digital assets.”
In October 2021 Downey quit his senior technologist role to head up a firm" focused on digital asset risk management. “The bigger picture is that it is a new way to trade any asset. If you project forward 15 years, I think all assets will be tokenised and there will be no difference between the stock market and digital asset markets.”
Annabelle Huang of Amber Group, a 250-staff crypto trading firm" in Hong Kong, cut her teeth trading FX markets for Deutsche Bank and Nomura. “That was 24/5 and I thought it was pretty crazy, but now this is 24/7,” she said.
We’re getting resumes every day from" banks all over the world. I’m personally getting a lot of phone calls from people who I used to work with. Four years ago, they were mostly asking me, ‘What is wrong with you?’ and now, they’re asking me, ‘How can I be a part of it?
BTC/USD
Bitcoin’s performance was among the best of the cryptoassets in the two-week trading session, ascending 4.75% from" a $36,863 start to finish at $38,614. There was quite the variance in between those two points, as there tends to be in crypto markets, with a low of $34,329 found in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, before a storming 32.2% climb as high at $45,411. BTC has found some support above $40k, which will be a boon to bullish traders as this was a previous resistance point, but again found headwinds in the same $45k level it sought to breach three weeks earlier.
ETH/USD
Ethereum" followed a similar pattern to Bitcoin across the fortnight, albeit with less volatility. A $2,550 start was less than bulls had hoped for, given its run all the way from $2,200 to $3,200 as sentiment shifted to the positive in the late-January to early-February period. Still, a bounce at a higher low than was seen three weeks earlier provides positive momentum going forward, even if $3,000 has been rejected for the moment. In all, ETH ended the two-week session almost exactly flat, at $2,561.74.
LTC/USD
Litecoin has witnessed little price action of note in recent weeks, but it will be heartening to holders to see the that the tight $104-$112 range broke to the upside in the wake of the network’s MWEB extension block upgrade from" late January. Beginning at $102.84, Litecoin dipped less than some may have expected on the geopolitical news from 24 February, finding a bottom at $91.53, climbing 25.75% to $116.02, and then finishing almost exactly where it started, at $102.22.
BCH/USD
Bitcoin Cash developers have been showing off the chain’s DeFi credentials in recent weeks, as the chain attempts a pivot into the revenue-earning vertical and beyond its simple cross-border currency use case. That hasn’t been reflected in the price just yet, as BCH – like Litcoin and Ethereum" – traded flat across the two weeks. A low of $259.99 apes the bottom found in late January and the chain has traded at higher lows more recently, which will give bulls good cheer.
ADA/USD
Cardano appears to remain somewhat stuck in the macro downtrend that gripped crypto markets since the latter part of November, a frustrating experience for holders given that user adoption and revenue on the smart contract chain is soaring with its most recent round of tech updates. ADA began at $0.86, dipping to $0.75 before finding a relief rally push it nearly 35% higher to $1.01. That momentum" has not persisted, and ADA finished out the fortnight 7% down at $0.80. Cardano holders will be hoping that in the weeks ahead the market can digest precisely how much money the blockchain is now pulling in.
DOT/USD
Fortunes over at Polkadot have been markedly better in recent weeks, with Ukraine adding DOT to their wallet addresses and founder Gavin Wood’s international profile gaining a boost from" his near $6m donation. From a price perspective, DOT was one of the only top 25 chains to climb across the fortnight, adding 4.3% to finish out at $16.77. Bulls watching how swiftly things are moving on the technical side, with ever more parachain auction winners spinning up their blockchains on Polkadot, will be hoping to retry $20 again in the not too distant future.
SOL/USD
Solana’s two-week journey was characterised by relatively little volatility, and the Ethereum"-killer smart contract chain dipped far less than its rivals, finding hefty support at $75, and finishing the fortnight in the green. Rejection at the lower high of $106.56 mid-period saw SOL dip below the $100 mark, though, suggesting that there is much more to come from Solana when market fortunes are revived in the latter part of 2022.
XTZ/USD
In general, Tezos holders remain in something of a holding pattern. Most are collecting their staking yields and watching as the blockchain continues to sign impressive corporate partnerships, but the price of XTZ has not followed to date. XTZ began and ended the fortnight at exactly $3.01, with a low of $2.56 swiftly rejected and more support appearing in the $2.75-$2.80 region.
XLM/USD
Stellar broke to the upside in late January, taking out bears who had rejected $0.195 on three separate occasions, albeit with $0.250 marking the high-water point and too much for bulls to hold. Across the two-week session, XLM" slipped 10% from a $0.180 start to bottom at $0.162. From that low, XLM added 6.1% upside to close out the fortnight at $0.172.
AVIS IMPORTANT :
Cet article ne constitue ni un conseil en investissement ni une offre ou une sollicitation d'achat de produits financiers. Cet article est uniquement à des fins d'information générale, et il n'y a aucune assurance ou garantie explicite ou implicite quant à l'équité, l'exactitude, l'exhaustivité ou la justesse de cet article ou des opinions qui y sont contenues. Il est recommandé de ne pas se fier à l'équité, l'exactitude, l'exhaustivité ou la justesse de cet article ou des opinions qui y sont contenues. Veuillez noter que cet article n'est ni un conseil en investissement ni une offre ou une sollicitation d'acquérir des produits financiers ou des cryptomonnaies.
AVANT D'INVESTIR DANS LES CRYPTO ETP, LES INVESTISSEURS POTENTIELS DEVRAIENT PRENDRE EN COMPTE CE QUI SUIT :
Les investisseurs potentiels devraient rechercher des conseils indépendants et prendre en compte les informations pertinentes contenues dans le prospectus de base et les conditions finales des ETP, en particulier les facteurs de risque mentionnés dans ceux-ci. Le capital investi est à risque, et des pertes jusqu'à concurrence du montant investi sont possibles. Le produit est soumis à un risque intrinsèque de contrepartie à l'égard de l'émetteur des ETP et peut subir des pertes jusqu'à une perte totale si l'émetteur ne respecte pas ses obligations contractuelles. La structure juridique des ETP est équivalente à celle d'une dette. Les ETP sont traités comme d'autres instruments financiers.
Bitwise est l'un des leaders mondiaux dans la gestion de crypto-actifs. Des milliers de conseillers financiers, de family offices et d'investisseurs institutionnels globaux se sont associés à nous pour saisir et exploiter les opportunités offertes par les crypto-monnaies. Depuis 2017, Bitwise affiche un palmarès impressionnant en matière de gestion de solutions indicielles et actives pour les ETP, les comptes gérés séparés, les fonds privés et les stratégies de hedge funds, tant aux États-Unis qu'en Europe.
En Europe, Bitwise (anciennement ETC Group) a développé au cours des quatre dernières années l'une des familles de produits crypto-ETP les plus vastes et les plus innovantes, dont le plus grand et le plus liquide ETP Bitcoin d'Europe.
Cette offre de produits crypto-ETP est domiciliée en Allemagne et autorisée par la BaFin. Nous travaillons exclusivement avec des entreprises réputées du secteur financier traditionnel et veillons à ce que 100 % des actifs soient stockés en toute sécurité hors ligne (cold storage) chez des dépositaires réglementés.
Nos produits européens comprennent une gamme d'instruments financiers soigneusement structurés qui s'intègrent parfaitement dans tout portefeuille professionnel et offrent une exposition globale à la classe d'actifs crypto. L'accès est simple via les principales bourses européennes, avec une cotation principale sur Xetra, la bourse la plus liquide pour le négoce d'ETF en Europe. Les investisseurs privés bénéficient d'un accès facile via de nombreux courtiers DIY, en combinaison avec notre structure ETP physique robuste et sûre, qui comprend également une fonction de paiement.
Sélectionnez votre pays
Confirmez votre position pour que nous puissions vous offrir l’expérience du site la plus pertinente possible.
Confirmez votre position pour que nous puissions vous offrir l’expérience du site la plus pertinente possible.
Confirmez votre position pour que nous puissions vous offrir l’expérience du site la plus pertinente possible.
Les produits d’investissement domiciliés en Europe et présentés sur ce site sont des Exchange Traded Commodities (« ETC »), instruments financiers considérés comme des titres de créances complexes par l'Autorité des Marchés Financiers, présentant des risques difficilement compréhensibles par le grand public. À ce titre, leur distribution en France répond à des règles spécifiques. Il relève de la responsabilité des intermédiaires et investisseurs professionnels souhaitant offrir des ETCs à leurs clients de s'assurer que leur distribution auxdits clients est réalisée dans le respect de la réglementation française.
Veuillez lire attentivement ces conditions avant d'utiliser ce site web. En cliquant sur "Accepter" et en accédant continuellement au site, vous êtes réputé avoir lu, compris et accepté ces Conditions d'Utilisation du Site.
La distribution des informations et du matériel sur ce site peut être restreinte par la loi dans certains pays. Aucune des informations n'est destinée à, ni ne doit être distribuée ou utilisée par une personne ou entité dans une juridiction (en fonction de la nationalité, du lieu de résidence ou du siège social) où la publication, distribution ou utilisation de telles informations serait contraire à la loi locale. En cliquant sur "Accepter" et en accédant continuellement au site, vous attestez être un investisseur professionnel ou autorisé à accéder à ce site conformément à toutes les lois applicables.
Vous ne devez pas utiliser ou tenter d'utiliser un programme automatisé (y compris, sans limitation, tout spider ou autre crawler web) pour accéder à notre système ou en relation avec ce site. Nous pouvons modifier ces Conditions d'Utilisation du Site de temps en temps. Toute modification sera publiée sur ce site. En continuant à utiliser et accéder à ce site après ces modifications, vous acceptez d'être lié par celles-ci. Veuillez consulter cette page fréquemment pour voir les mises à jour ou modifications.
Si vous êtes au Royaume-Uni, aux États-Unis ou au Canada :
Les informations contenues sur ce site ne constituent ni une publicité ni une invitation à souscrire à une offre publique aux États-Unis ou au Canada, et ne doivent pas être accessibles par des personnes ou entités américaines ou canadiennes.
Aucun conseil
Aucune information sur ce site ne doit être considérée comme un conseil en investissement, juridique ou fiscal. Tous les investisseurs doivent consulter un conseiller indépendant.
Limitation de responsabilité
Ni Bitwise ni ses affiliés ne sont responsables des pertes ou dommages résultant de l'utilisation de ce site.
Avertissements sur les risques
Tous les investisseurs doivent lire le prospectus de base pertinent et les termes finaux contenus sur ce site web avant d'investir et, en particulier, la section intitulée « Facteurs de risque » pour plus de détails sur les risques associés à un investissement.
Général
Ce site web est la propriété de Bitwise Europe Management Ltd. et est exploité par cette société, enregistrée en Angleterre et au Pays de Galles sous le numéro 12165332, avec son siège social à Gridiron, One Pancras Square, Londres, Angleterre, N1C 4AG. Vous pouvez nous contacter par email à l'adresse europe@bitwiseinvestments.com.
Les références à « Bitwise », « nous », « notre » et « nos » dans ces Conditions d'Utilisation du Site Web font référence à Bitwise Europe Management Ltd. et à nos affiliés.
Tous les contenus et le design de ce site web sont la propriété de Bitwise ou de nos licenciés et sont protégés par des droits d'auteur et d'autres lois applicables. Toute copie du site web ou de son contenu nécessite le consentement écrit préalable de Bitwise. Bitwise respecte la vie privée des utilisateurs. Veuillez consulter notre Politique de Confidentialité pour des informations sur la manière dont nous traitons les informations personnelles collectées via le site web.
