Main Takeaway: H2 Not Looking Good
As pointed out in last Friday’s update, Q2 was the worst quarter in Bitcoin’s history, and certainly one of the worst for crypto in general – however, Q3 actually tends to be BTC’s worst-performing quarter of the year. Although this is taking historical data from Bitcoin, this statistic may play out for the broader crypto markets in general as BTC generally leads the pack.
As the second half began on July 1st, there’s been sideways and downward prices for the majors such as Bitcoin (it’s broken below the $20,000 psychological level), but Ethereum has held the $1,000 price level. So H2 is not off to a great start. Traders and investors will need to watch for what US publicly listed companies do with their cryptocurrency holdings as well as July Fed inflation numbers.
It may also be useful to keep an eye on the Jeff Bezos — Joe Biden Twitter drama over inflation and gas prices.
Key Stories: 3AC Files For Bankruptcy
On Friday/Saturday, crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy, which will seek to protect its US assets while their British Virgin Islands business gets liquidated. 3AC will be represented by law firm Latham & Watkins.
The meme below summarizes the state of crypto at the moment, with a whole host of hedge funds, lenders, borrowers, brokers, and exchanges facing problems with their financial situation. The newest being crypto broker Voyager Digital suspending their trading, deposits, and withdrawals.
The takeaway is the same as before, the bottom may not be in until all these firms get cleared out, including and most importantly, Celsius.
Investor Insight: Is USDC Okay?
Over the weekend rumors began spreading about USDC being on the brink of collapse, which resulted in Circle’s CEO Jeremy Allaire having to put out a Twitter thread and public message on the company’s transparency. Jeremy stated that Circle is in the strongest position it has even been financially and that they will increase their transparency.
The takeaway is USDC is proving itself to be a reliable stablecoin, and is doubling down on its efforts to increase adoption (through EUROC/USDC), integrating more with exchanges, and increasing market liquidity.
Today’s Top Gainers
Day over day, the entire crypto market is up 0.22%, so that’s to say a sideways choppy market. But, there are coins that have skyrocketed, in particular Celsius as it continues paying off debt and lowering its liquidation price.
At the moment, the top five price gaining cryptos are: Celsius (CEL/USDT), Origin Protocol (OGN/USDT), Ceek Smart VR (CEEK/USDT), API3 (API3/USDT), and iNFTSpace (INS/USDT).
