Market Update: 2/17
Announcements
• Our poll is still open which gives you the opportunity to provide feedback on our content restructure. Check it out here if you haven't filled it out yet!
• We are releasing our Crypto & Securities Law - Not a Match? writeup here later today. Be on the lookout for a post in the Research section!
Price Movements
Overall a sideways day for the crypto market. There was a spike for BTC and ETH but was eaten up throughout the day to where now the coins are trading slightly below what they opened at. While writing this, it seems the market is dipping just a bit and there is a sea of red across the board. Nothing major - every coin in the top 20 market cap category is down by just a few percent. The Cosmos ecosystem, however, seems to be outperforming the market at his time. JUNO (+5.3%) and ATOM (+3.6%) are leading the top 100 coins.
Munger Calls Crypto a "Venereal Disease"
Charlie Munger, the legendary investor and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, was asked yesterday if he is "willing to admit that he missed something" in not investing in crypto. His response? That he's proud of never investing in crypto, that crypto is like a venereal disease, and that he admires the Chinese for banning it. We can't really fault him here - he's 98 years old, crypto is nowhere near his expertise, and it's still the earlier days of a somewhat-highly technical industry (Berkshire Hathaway has publicly admitted to being "late" to Google and Microsoft as well...not that crypto and those companies are at all directly comparable, but you get my point). However, it's apparent that he's pretty uninformed on it; he characterized crypto as being used for "extortions, kidnappings, tax evasion, and so on", which reminded me of the writeup on money laundering in crypto that we released just yesterday. If you're curious about how crypto is used to launder money (we're not going to sit here and say it never is - same with the US dollar), give that 3-page writeup a read by clicking on this link.
Canada Sanctions 34 Crypto Wallets Tied to Trucker 'Freedom Convoy'
Canadian law enforcement ordered all regulated financial firms to stop facilitating transactions from 34 crypto wallets tied to funding the trucker protests in the country. These protests were deemed illegal three days ago by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The truckers began the protests at the end of January due to the international travel restrictions imposed by the Canadian government. A GoFundMe was started in support of the truckers but was recently suspended after receiving more than $9M in donations. Cryptocurrencies were then used as an alternative to showing support, raising over 20 Bitcoins worth over $800,000. Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, stated that banks can immediately freeze or suspend bank accounts tied to the truckers without a court order. We will see how the process unfolds and keep you updated along the way.
• Crypto Market Cap: $2.04T (-1.6%)
• Bitcoin (BTC): $43,213.01 (-2.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $3,058 (-2.1%)