The Wolf Den #601 - Do They Get It?
Welcome to The Wolf Den! This is where I share my ideas about the market, technical analysis, education and advice regarding trader psychology and emotional control. The newsletter is released every weekday and is completely FREE.
New promotion from Bitget!
Bitget is the best crypto exchange for both spot and leverage, world’s largest crypto copy trading platform, the official partner of Juventus Football Club and a top 5 exchange by volume as listed on CoinMarketCap!
Sign up using my link to Bitget and you will get a 15% discount on fees:
1. Sign up to get 10 USDT Trading Bonus
2. Make first deposit to get 20 USDT Trading Bonus
3. Deposit > 1,000 USDT to get 100 USDT Trading Bonus
4. Trade with volume > 100k to get 50 USDT Trading Bonus during campaign period
In This Issue:
Do They Get It?
Bitcoin Thoughts And Analysis
Legacy Markets
What’s Going On With Ethereum And OFAC?
Make Way For Mastercard
The Biggest Market In The World: Why We Need Interest Rate Swaps In Crypto | Simon Jones, Voltz
My Recommended Platforms And Tools
Do They Get It?
It has been a crazy month.
After spending a week in NYC for Mainnet and then another week in Singapore for Token2049, I was only home for 5 days. Then I went out to Vegas for W3BX, came home for 16 hours and left again on a family trip to Disney World.
I'm not complaining. It has been an amazing month and I am fortunate to have had the opportunities, especially during the slow bear market. Also, the new Star Wars rides at Hollywood Studios are incredible...
Having crossed paths with tens of thousands of gamblers donating their hard earned money to the craps and black jack tables in Sin City and another ten thousand tourists wearing Mickey ears and eating $20 sandwiches, a single question comes to mind.
Do they get it?
We get it. That's why we are here.
But I don't think that most people have a clue what is going on in the world. Perhaps my suspicion comes off as elitist and dismissive.
Ok.
But, like it or not, the world is drastically changing and the masses seemingly have no clue how or why.
For savvy investors willing to buy the dip and hold for decades, it’s an incredible time to be alive.
Prior to this current decade, investing in fringe technologies was extremely difficult. Right now, the playing field is evening out. There is more information available and access to investable assets than ever before.
The world’s wealth is being rearranged. Those that don't wake up are simply going to miss out.
Imagine if every person on earth had been able to invest in the internet boom, railway boom, or electronics boom. In the past, only the wealthy and connected were able to access these opportunities.
There are no excuses now. All you need is a phone and a bit of spare change to invest in the most compelling technology of the future.
Perhaps the tens of thousands of people that I confronted know more than I am giving them credit for. But I suspect that the world - outside of our bubble - actually knows very little and is vastly underprepared.
Either we are idiots or they are going to be left behind.
Only time will tell.
Bitcoin Thoughts And Analysis
DAILY CHART
If you had bumped your head while looking at a Bitcoin chart in June and fell into a coma... then woke up today, you would not know that you had been asleep.
NOTHING has happened except sideways price action in a range between roughly 18K and 25K.
As you can see, price is currently finding resistance at the blue 50 MA (as usual) and the 2017 bull market all time high.
Volumes are low and nothing is happening.
Go back to sleep.
Legacy Markets
Key events this week:
US industrial production, NAHB housing market index, Tuesday
Fed’s Neel Kashkari speaks, Tuesday
Euro area CPI, Wednesday
EIA crude oil inventory report, Wednesday
US MBA mortgage applications, building permits, housing starts, Fed Beige Book, Wednesday
Fed’s Neel Kashkari, Charles Evans, James Bullard speak, Wednesday
US existing home sales, initial jobless claims, Conference Board leading index, Thursday
Euro area consumer confidence, Friday
Some of the main moves in markets:
Stocks
Futures on the S&P 500 rose 1.4% as of 6:18 a.m. New York time
Futures on the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.7%
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%
The Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5%
The MSCI World index rose 0.4%
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed
The euro was little changed at $0.9843
The British pound fell 0.6% to $1.1289
The Japanese yen was little changed at 149.05 per dollar
Cryptocurrencies
Bitcoin was little changed at $19,528.25
Ether fell 0.2% to $1,326.85
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasuries was little changed at 4.01%
Germany’s 10-year yield advanced five basis points to 2.32%
Britain’s 10-year yield advanced seven basis points to 4.05%
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.1% to $85.36 a barrel
Gold futures fell 0.4% to $1,656.90 an ounce
What’s Going On With Ethereum And OFAC?
There are early signs of on-chain censorship on Ethereum.
Over 50% of the blocks produced in a 24-hour period this weekend followed the OFAC’s (Office of Foreign Assets Control) compliance recommendations.
The crypto community is up in arms, as this is an early warning sign of censorship.
The censored blocks would effectively screen out transactions associated with Tornado Cash. But does this mean that OFAC forced the hand of validators? Or is it possible that the validators independently agree with OFAC and have freely chosen to control what is allowed in the blocks?
Validators are mostly likely making decisions out of fear.
They still have the liberty to draw a line in the sand, so we will see what happens in the future.
I also want to present this article as a counter-argument to the "Ethereum is censored" crowd. Although the validators are compliant, nothing has actually been censored yet and a non-compliant ETH transaction will still be confirmed in 30 seconds. Technically, it only takes one non-compliant validator to include what would be a "censored transaction."
Maybe this is just FUD and not a real concern?
Make Way For Mastercard
The two largest hurdles for banks looking to break into the crypto space are compliance and security. To tackle these problems, Mastercard has teamed up with Paxos. Through partnerships like this, banks can legally and seamlessly offer crypto trading to their customers without having to build out their own systems.
Paxos has already established credibility through their partnership with PayPal, offering a road map for future cooperation. According to Mastercard’s Chief Digital Officer, “customers are ready to test the waters, but roughly 60% of respondents said they would rather test the waters through their existing banks.” As much as crypto builders want to see adoption through DeFi, it’s important to realize that everyday people want access to crypto through their banks and "trusted" platforms.
The Biggest Market In The World: Why We Need Interest Rate Swaps In Crypto | Simon Jones, Voltz
Interest rate swaps are a quadrillion-dollar market, making it the biggest market in the world. Thanks to Voltz, this market now exists in DeFi. I sat down with Simon Jones, the founder, and CEO of Voltz, at the House of Muse in New York, and discussed why Simon decided to build Voltz, how he discovered Bitcoin and crypto, and how he sees the future of decentralized finance.
In this episode with Simon, we discussed:
Interest rate swaps on DeFi
The key role of DeFi
Stage of DeFi development
Simon’s background
Discovering Bitcoin
What is Voltz?
Fixed rate mortgage on DeFi
Is DeFi the ultimate future of finance?
What drives the crypto interest rates market?
Replacing TradFi
My Recommended Platforms And Tools
Proud sponsor of The Wolf Den Newsletter. The world's biggest crypto copy trading platform, up to a $3000 bonus for signing up.
I use RoundlyX to buy small amounts of Bitcoin every single day. They automatically round up my credit card purchases (with 10x multiplier) and invest them in crypto. Absolutely brilliant. Passively invest money you don’t need without a thought.
Rewards Code: WOLF
Concierge Phone Service for Americans that protects your from SIM Swaps and other phone related hacks. I cannot stress enough how amazing this service is.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel for free daily content.
Follow me on Twitter at @scottmelker. This is where I am constantly updating my trades and sharing ideas.
On-chain and fundamental analysis, research, predictions and indicators, all in one place. Highly recommend.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own and should in no way be interpreted as financial advice. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision. I am not a financial advisor. Nothing contained in this e-mail constitutes or shall be construed as an offering of financial instruments or as investment advice or recommendations of an investment strategy or whether or not to "Buy," "Sell," or "Hold" an investment.
IF YOU HAVE ANY ISSUE WITH THE NEWSLETTER OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION, PLEASE CONTACT: PREMIUMSUPPORT@GETREVUE.CO