Over the Weekend… Canadian digital asset investment manager 3iQ announced it will launch an Ethereum (ETH) fund on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its ticker is QETH.U. 3iQ maintains a focus on Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), and Ethereum.

This week, the prestige of the ‘top clicked link’ goes to Coindesk, who ran the story that Standard Chartered’s fintech investment unit, SC Ventures, and Northern Trust are to launch a U.K.-based cryptocurrency custodian for institutional clients.

It’s fascinating to see that, while traditional markets tend to go up on bad news (nowadays), the crypto space isn’t reacting to positive news anymore.

For traders, the primary motivation when trading is undoubtedly to earn a return on investment. Unnecessarily high transaction fees can, however, deplete trading account balances and erode returns, and so, serious investors will always look to minimize extra costs.

Some markets move up, blind to bad news and unstoppable in their ascension. We have seen that throughout the last few years, but it has become more pronounced in the past couple of months. Something has changed and the momentum that characterised BTC throughout October and November seems to have cooled down.

Yesterday was a very interesting session for the crypto space. No, we did not breach new highs, test support levels or move dramatically one way or the other. We did have a scare and a bounce up. While traditional markets turned risk-off (S&P down 1%, Nasdaq down 2%, gold down 1.7%), one could’ve assumed some contagion to affect cryptocurrencies.

Hear from our COO of Financial Services Neil Sheppard at the AIMA APAC Webinar, discussing the future evolution of the DigitalAsset Industry.

This year, Christmas day is on a Friday, which also happens to be the day a large amount of Bitcoin futures and options will expire. As we know, Bitcoin never sleeps and doesn't do public holidays. The December 25th expiry will likely be met with an unusually thin day of liquidity, which in turn could bring some Bitcoin sized volatility to Santa's stocking filler.

As they often do, markets switch from pessimism to optimism and vice-versa.

EQONEX has acknowledged the importance of key partnerships from inception and has sought to integrate its industry-leading solutions with conventional trading tools and platforms, in order to make digital assets and cryptocurrencies more accessible to a growing institutional investor base.

Bitcoin is beginning to form a new trading range at these elevated levels. As much as a rip-roaring rally is fun, a little time to acclimatize is a good thing. There would be no harm done if Bitcoin decided to track between $17,000 and $19,000 for a week or two — in fact, it would build a nice base for the next bout of price appreciation to blast off from.

The upward momentum we’ve seen recently seems to have slowed down somewhat, both in crypto and traditional assets.

Chi-Won Yoon, EQONEX Chairman, Michael Schwartz, Partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, David Gibson-Moore, Gulf Analytica President and CEO, spoke at the "SPAC to the Future - Wall Street's Hottest Product?" AIM Summit Webinar.

This is the third article of our Digital Assets Decoded series which aims to give you a fundamental understanding of the cryptocurrency space.

This weekend’s trading session saw Bitcoin head back above $19,000, with muted trading volumes. Today, we have made little headway as the market takes a breath before its next advance to break the $20,000 barrier.

Over the Weekend… Guggenheim Partners filed an SEC amendment to allocate $500 million of their Macro Opportunities fund to Grayscale’s GBTC. This would provide the company an indirect means of exposure to crypto.

The US jobless claims might have fallen for the first time in months, but investor enthusiasm only fell somewhat. Pfizer’s supply chain problems mean that the initial distribution of vaccines might be halved.

While traditional markets are digesting the Pfizer supply chain news (slowed and potentially affecting the time and quantities of the vaccine distribution), crypto shows some independence.

Traditional markets turned risk-on throughout yesterday, that’s typically supportive of higher prices in crypto. It’s also worth noting that with the dollar down and gold up (+2% on the session) Bitcoin should have been an obvious beneficiary.

Today, everybody in the crypto space is thinking: we’ve broken all-time highs.

Last week, traditional markets ended on a risk-on note. Equities and treasuries up, dollar and gold down. Crypto may have benefited from the tilt -or simply the dollar depreciation- over the weekend. I like to think bigger factors came in play, though.

Whether it’s because of Thanksgiving or just the inability to push through higher levels, traditional markets have been trading mostly muted. Comparatively, crypto markets seem to now be on investors' radar and experience much more activity. After a two-month-long rally and probably a lot of complacency, the bout of volatility yesterday shook many, triggering massive liquidations. Any opportunistic buyer would’ve been happy to pick up some coins.

The second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, Ethereum, has had the most significant update in its 5-year history. A major milestone has been achieved on the path to ‘Ethereum 2.0’, also known as ‘Eth2’, which represents a pivotal development in the evolution of the Ethereum blockchain.

While traditional markets traded muted most of yesterday, crypto markets are swinging wildly. Investors are torn between the euphoria of an incessant rally, the unbearably close 20K mark but, also, the risk of waiting too long before taking profit and the volatility that historically plagues Bitcoin rallies -and definitely altcoin rallies.

The party-poppers are on hold until the release of this evening’s FOMC minutes from the Fed’s November policy meeting. We all know the drill by now, another stimulus = another Bitcoin rally. But, is there a real risk that the Fed hints they have done enough? If the US dollar rallies hard post the release of the Fed’s thoughts, Bitcoin could have missed a great opportunity to register a new all-time high.

Last week, Bloomberg publicized Cornerstone Macro LLC’s evaluation that investors that are ‘looking to counter the wild volatility of the stock market, can now consider the stabilizing influence of cryptocurrencies’. Here’s our thoughts on the significance of this trend and what lies ahead

One of my favorite questions to the Bitcoin skeptics is: “Ok, but have we seen the all-time high in Bitcoin?”

The weekend trading session saw Bitcoin almost print a $19,000 handle. Sellers arrived just in front of our $19,050 resistance level as long term holders continued to take profits.

Over the weekend… The Albany Airport in New York tested a blockchain-powered cleanliness app. The app, called “Wellness Trace App,” lets travelers check the cleanliness of objects in real-time before touching them.

The best thing about hodling is ignoring price swings, with the resolute belief that Bitcoin is one of the answers to a financial system that is built on a pile of debt. Global debt stands at $272T, with another $5T expected to be added to the pile by the end of the year.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has confirmed what we already know: “The economy will never be the same again.”

This is the second article of our Digital Assets Decoded series which aims to give you a fundamental understanding of the cryptocurrency space. In our previous article, “What is Blockchain?”, we discussed what a blockchain is and how it stores data as a series of events.

"It’s dangerous not to be positioned in a diversified portfolio with something so differentiated like Bitcoin." An interview of our CEO Richard Byworth on IBS Intelligence.