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Fintech CEO: Bukele Doubles Down on Dubious Bitcoin Dip Highlights Culture of Innovation

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As Bitcoin dipped, losing $10,000 over a 24-hour period, El Salvadoran President Bukele bought the dip. Publicly. On Twitter. Despite receiving pushback from folks like economist Peter Schiff. His announcement noted simply, “El Salvador just bought the dip! 150 coins at an average USD price of ~$48,670 #Bitcoin”

“What’s interesting about President Bukele is that he’s staked the entirety of his political future on his Bitcoin gambit. But, this dip doesn’t seem to be based on anything more than an overall fear of the new variant of the coronavirus. With that being the case, if you’ve already bet big on Bitcoin, it makes a lot of sense to double down when such an opportunity arises. History will decide how we view President Bukele, but it seems to be clear that he’s interested in building a culture of innovation around blockchain technologies, digital assets, and Bitcoin,” said Richard Gardner, CEO of Modulus, a US-based developer of ultra-high-performance trading and surveillance technology that powers global equities, derivatives, and digital asset exchanges.

“Culture is important in tech. There are a lot of ways to build that culture. One of them is through the press. But, most look beyond the headlines. What is the commitment in terms of regulatory or ancillary dedication to making their tech industry flourish? In this case, buying the dip carries political risk, and Bukele moved forward regardless. It is in line with his launch of a Bitcoin mining operation using geothermal power. The culmination of these efforts is probably why crypto investors from Europe made the trip out to El Salvador to learn more about what’s happening there,” said Gardner.

“We’re already in the green from our last purchase, in less than 24 hours. You know boomer, we have 44,106 oz of gold in our reserves. Worth $79 million, down 0.37% from a year ago. If we had sold it a year ago and bought #Bitcoin, it would now be valued at $204 million,” Bukele wrote on Twitter in response to a tweet from Peter Schiff, which labeled the recent purchase a “waste.”

“It is clear that digital assets are here to stay. Central banks around the world are racing to develop, beta test, and release their own digital currencies. El Salvador and Bukele are taking a different tack than many countries. It is certainly more aggressive than most. However, most of us in the industry expect that digital assets will truly transform the way we interact with the financial system. Even institutional investors, as well as former naysayers like Kevin O’Leary, are banking on cryptocurrency as part of their investment mélange. Building a tech culture, however necessary, may well pay dividends to Bukele’s country down the road, particularly in terms of international investment,” said Gardner.

Modulus is known throughout the financial technology segment as a leader in the development of ultra-high frequency trading systems and blockchain technologies. Modulus has provided its exchange solution to some of the industry’s most profitable digital asset exchanges, including a well-known multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange. Over the past twenty years, the company has built technology for the world’s most notable institutions, with a client list which includes NASA, NASDAQ, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Barclays, Siemens, Shell, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Cornell University, and the University of Chicago.

“Right now, one of the biggest concerns to manage in order to ensure a positive crypto future resides in the custody space. When there are providers with significant security flaws being given multi-billion dollar valuations, that’s problematic. I believe the custody situation will right itself in time. Eventually, a fintech firm with a history of innovation and security will emerge, giving investors and exchanges another option to safeguard their assets. That’s one of the final pieces necessary for cryptocurrencies to realize their true and full potential,” said Gardner.

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Bitcoin Holds Above $67,000 Amid Trump Win Bets

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Bitcoin is holding above $67,000 after yesterday’s correction after breaching the $69,000 level and rising to its highest level since late July.

Yesterday’s correction comes after an upward trend that investors are pushing to continue in light of a set of supporting factors, whether from the massive inflows into cryptoinvestment products or from more bets on Donald Trump winning the White House again.

Cryptocurrency investment products recorded massive inflows last week, reaching $2.2 billion, which represents the highest level since last July, with Bitcoin accounting for most of these flows that went to US spot ETFs, according to CoinShares. Net flows to these funds amounted to more than $294 million yesterday alone, according to SoSo Value.

This comes with two weeks left until the US presidential election. While the Polymarket betting market indicates that Republican candidate Trump is likely to win with a 63% probability, the betting site has sparked controversy over who is behind the significant increase in Trump bets. In contrast to Polymarket’s results, the poll average indicates that Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is ahead by 48.2% compared to 46.4% for Trump, according to FiveThirtyEight.

While this disparity and fluctuation in polls and predictions is likely to keep cryptocurrencies vulnerable to sharp volatility in the coming days, as the identity of the winner of the White House presidency might shape the future of the industry.

However, the futures market is presenting a mixed story and is questioning the sustainability of Bitcoin’s bullish trend. Bitcoin futures open interest regained its record level of more than $40 billion yesterday, according to CoinGlass, despite the price correction. This correction only resulted in a very small liquidation of the long positions of about $28 million yesterday.

Of that $40 billion, $12.5 billion was on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), which also represents a new record high for Bitcoin futures on the US’s largest futures exchange. This reflects the increasing involvement of institutional investors in driving price action.

What is concerning is the decline in the long/short ratio from 1.04 on Sunday to 0.94 today, which may reflect increasing bearish bets in futures market, which in turn may indicate a possible reversal of the bullish trend and a renewal of yesterday’s losses soon.

Written by Samer Hasn, Senior Market Analyst at XS

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Bitcoin Fails to Hold $63,000 Amid Weak Risk Appetite, Growing Selling Pressure

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Bitcoin remains below $63,000 after failing to hold above it over the past two days while Ethereum is also struggling to reclaim $2,440.

The crypto market has been trading sideways since the beginning of this week.

The cautious moves in the crypto market come amid uncertainty over a range of economic and political factors in the US and geopolitics in the Middle East.

Add to that the potential selling pressure that the US government may exert with its permission to sell around 70,000 Bitcoin.

The Supreme Court has allowed the US Marshals Service to proceed with the sale of 69,370 Bitcoins seized from the Silk Road online store, which would be the largest sale of its kind in history. While the nature and pace of this selling is not yet known, it will not necessarily put downward pressure on prices if it is done in over-the-counter (OTC)
transactions, according to Beincrypto.

As for the economic side, in light of the surprise labor market numbers that were much better than expected and Jerome Powell’s hawkish speech, hopes for a rapid continuation of interest rate cuts this year have diminished. While the relatively high rates remain for a longer period and the continued rise in Treasury bond yields will weaken appetite for risky assets in general, including cryptocurrencies.

Whereas, after the hypothesis of a half-percentage point cut at the next November meeting was the most likely, it has now become excluded in the Fed Fund futures market, and the probability of a quarter-percentage point cut has become 87%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. The remaining 13% is for the possibility of keeping current rates unchanged.

The state of caution may also prevail in the markets in the coming weeks, as we anticipate the presidential elections in the United States, which will begin next month. While the outcome of these elections could cause a structural shift in the crypto industry.

Far away, in the Middle East, markets are still anticipating the nature of the expected escalation in the region, especially regarding the nature of the Israeli response to the unprecedented attack from Iran and the nature of the counter-response. While one of the most prominent scenarios is targeting energy facilities, which would bring inflation back to the forefront, which in turn may require central banks to keep interest rates high.

 

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US Bitcoin ETFs Suffer Record Net Outflows Amid Global Market Uncertainty

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US Bitcoin exchange-traded funds have posted their longest run of daily net outflows since listing at the start of the year, part of a wider retreat from riskier assets in a challenging period for global markets.

Investors pulled close to $1.2 billion in total from the group of 12 ETFs over the eight days through Sept. 6, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The drop comes amid a rocky period for shares and commodities on economic growth worries.

Mixed US jobs data and deflationary pressure in China are both taking a toll on traders. The uncertainty is buffeting the cryptocurrency market, whose gyrations have become more closely tied to moves in stocks based on a rising short-term correlation between the two.

Bitcoin has struggled in September, posting a loss of approximately 7%. But the largest digital asset eked out modest gains over the weekend and climbed roughly 1% to $54,870 as of 1pm on Monday in Singapore.

“The small relief rally seems to be driven in part by some prominent influencers closing out their shorts,” said Sean McNulty, director of trading at liquidity provider Arbelos Markets.

He cited as an example a recent social media post from Arthur Hayes, co-founder of the BitMEX trading platform.

An improved showing by Donald Trump, the pro-crypto Republican nominee for the US presidential election, in polls and prediction markets may also be playing a role, McNulty said.

He reported greater demand for options hedges in case Tuesday’s debate between Trump and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris stirs volatility. Harris has yet to detail her stance on crypto.

The US Bitcoin ETFs investing directly in the original cryptocurrency debuted in January with much fanfare. Unexpectedly strong demand for the funds helped to drive the token to a record high of $73,798 in March.

The inflows subsequently moderated and Bitcoin’s year-to-date rally has cooled to about 30%.

The token will likely trade in its recent $53,000 to $57,000 range until the US releases consumer-price data on Wednesday, said Caroline Mauron, co-founder of Orbit Markets, a provider of liquidity for trading in digital-asset derivatives.

The inflation numbers may shape expectations for the pace of anticipated monetary easing by the Federal Reserve in the US.

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