Crypto at center of world stage
What's being bought and sold*
TOP TRENDING ASSETS
*Trading activity in the past 24 hours on the Uphold platform, as of 8 a.m. 31st July 2024.
The combined total of buy and sell percentages can exceed 100% due to customers who engage in both buying and selling the same asset within the 24-hour time frame.
Don’t invest in crypto unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. This is a high-risk investment and you should not expect to be protected if something goes wrong.
What’s up
Russia, In Sharp U-Turn, Legalizes Digital Currency
Beset by an array of Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, Russia yesterday passed a law allowing for the use of crypto.
It's a bold step but one that seemed inevitable, explained Mati Greenspan, CEO of Quantum Economics, a crypto market research firm.
“Previously, Russia would not want to allow that kind of transactional freedom to its citizens," Greenspan. "But now we’re at the point that Bitcoin is used so often in everyday commerce that the opportunity cost for them not to allow it is simply too great,” he added (CNBC).
BTC, which on Tuesday afternoon sunk to as low as $65,500, had bobbed back above $66,000 by last evening. As of today 6:37 a.m. (EST), the largest crypto was about $66,070, per CoinGecko.
CoinDesk, citing Ria Novosti, Russia's state-owned domestic news agency, confirms that not one but two crypto-related laws passed Russia's lower house of the Federal Assembly, known as the State Duma. One law fully legalizes crypto mining in Russia starting in November.
The other law, described as experimental, allows, starting in September, Russia's central bank to authorize select companies to conduct cross-border settlements via digital currency and to conduct exchange trading.
What's down
SEC Seems To Soften Stance On Unregistered Securities; XRP Surges, Retraces
A new court filing reveals the SEC plans to amend its complaint against Binance. Some of the changes are said to be with respect to allegations involving "third-party crypto asset securities," which means the judge might not have to decide whether a slew of tokens are unregistered securities.
Traders took it as a sign that the dispute between the SEC and Ripple could be ending, CoinDesk said.
XRP, the token associated with Ripple, and one which the SEC claims was issued by Ripple unlawfully, shot to as high as $0.6572 last night. That's XRP's highest level since the end of March. As of today, at 6:54 a.m. (EST), XRP had lost a little ground, trading near $0.6459.
What's next
Fed Watchers Could Finally Get What They Want – But Not Until Later This Summer
No one expects the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates later this afternoon. But everyone is waiting on an indication that a rate cut is coming in September.
And anyone hoping for a clear-cut signal from Fed Chair Jerome Powell is going to be sorely disappointed, according to Ryan Sweet, economist, Oxford Economics.
"It'll be subtle," Sweet said of any potential dovish messaging.
Likely, Powell will say something vaguely positive, along the lines of "inflation has eased but remains above the committee's 2% objective," Sweet supposes.
Parthenon EY's economist Gregory Daco wrote in a research note that Powell is likely to express “greater confidence" that inflation is "sustainably moving toward 2%.”
But the market seems to crave something more than clever grammatical arrangements. If there is no express commitment by the Fed to start lowering rates, markets could be in for a "mild disappointment," said TD Securities.
Powell will have one more chance, later this summer, to hand markets a platter of perfect bluntness as to policy intentions.
Starting on August 22, the Fed will host its annual three-day Jackson Hole Symposium bringing together bankers and economists from around the world.
Stephen Brown, economist at Capital Economics, predicts it'll be in the Wyoming resort town that Powell "tees up the move more explicitly.”
