Globalcoin arrives

Cryptocurrencies 5 minutes to read
Jacob Pouncey

Cryptocurrency analyst, Saxo Bank

Summary:  This week the entire crypto market cap rose by 7.5%, bringing the market cap to $260 billion. Ethereum also rose by 7.5% to a market worth of $28bn, while Bitcoin surged 14%, bringing this cryptocoin to more than $9,000 apiece, a level not seen since May, 2018.


Project Libra

This week Facebook revealed what is arguably the most important thing in the crypto sector since the ICO mania. Libra is Facebook’s digital currency project which has now been left in the hands of a Swiss Foundation under a similar name. The Libra Association aims to launch a stable coin backed by a basket of fiat currencies and low-risk assets, to enable users to transfer value globally at little to no cost. The project will be governed by members of the Swiss foundation, which includes Facebook, Visa, Mastercard, Paypal, and Uber. This currency will have massive implications for digital commerce, remittances, and monetary policies of nations. Regulators from the US to the EU are calling on Facebook to answer questions about the project, regarding intentions and privacy concerns. The world will be watching these discussions closely as this represents the most substantial foray into financial services in recent history. We’ll be publishing a longer article albout Libra on home.saxo insights soon.

Report suggests Bitcoin as a global hedge 

Grayscale Investments recently released a report claiming that Bitcoin ought to be considered a strategic position in any portfolio with a long investment horizon. The report states that financial crises are becoming more commonplace. To support its conjecture that Bitcoin could serve as a possible hedge in a global liquidity crisis, Grayscale cites five global events ranging from Grexit to Brexit to the US/China trade war and Bitcoin’s performance during those crises. Despite Bitcoin being a relatively new investable instrument, the firm believes, with the reinforcement of some in the investment management industry, that Bitcoin can serve well in the construction of more efficient portfolios as adoption increases.
Brexit Drawdown - Source: Grayscale Investments
Large Equity Drawdowns over the last 60 years  - Source: Grayscale Investments
Bloomberg adding more crypto indices

Bloomberg and Reuters are adding a new cryptocurrency index to their platforms. This index ranks the top 100 coins based on over 200 factors to derive a ranking. This index incorporates sentiments expressed on social media and news coverage to calculate the performance of the top 100 coins. The index is rebalanced monthly and is designed to spot artificially inflated volumes.

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