August 14, 2023

Markets Insights

Next FOMC meeting: Sept 20th 2023.

  • Probability of a 0bps hike → 88.5%
  • Probability of a 25bps hike → 11.5%

The News Room

Visa Pilots Innovative Solution to Pay Ethereum Gas Fees Directly with Visa Cards

Visa is piloting a potentially groundbreaking solution to allow users to pay Ethereum's on-chain gas fees directly with a Visa card, addressing the current hassle of maintaining adequate ETH balances in wallets for such fees. The system taps into Ethereum's ERC-4337 standard and the "Paymaster" smart contract for off-chain gas fee settlements.

When users initiate an Ethereum transaction, the web service calculates the gas fee and bills Visa. A digital signature is then generated and temporarily verified, after which the wallet attaches it to the transaction. The Paymaster then confirms this signature and settles the gas fee. This mechanism means users don't need to store ETH solely for fee payments. After successful trials on the Ethereum Goerli testnet, this approach might enhance the user experience in the blockchain domain and offer merchants or decentralized apps the ability to simplify gas fee payments using Visa cards.


FTX Founder Taken into Custody: Bail Revoked Amid Witness Tampering Concerns

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was taken into custody after a federal judge revoked his bail, citing concerns of witness tampering ahead of his October trial on multiple financial crime charges. The U.S. Department of Justice pointed to instances where Bankman-Fried allegedly contacted former FTX.US general counsel Ryne Miller and shared parts of Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison's diary with the New York Times as violations of his bail terms. Despite his defense team's arguments and plans to appeal the decision, the judge maintained the bail revocation. Bankman-Fried's conviction is yet to be determined in his upcoming trials.


PayPal Introduces Cryptocurrencies Hub for Direct Crypto Interaction

PayPal has unveiled the Cryptocurrencies Hub, a new feature that allows users to interact with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies directly within their PayPal accounts. This comes alongside the launch of the company's dollar-backed stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD).

The Cryptocurrencies Hub will enable users to buy, sell, and use cryptocurrencies for purchases through PayPal. Furthermore, it will act as a conversion point between PYUSD and other digital assets. Notably, balances in the Cryptocurrencies Hub reflect users' ownership of crypto assets, but they won't hold the actual digital assets. Access to this new feature will be limited, with eligibility based on account standing and user verification, excluding Hawaii residents for now. The introduction of PYUSD has sparked debate in the crypto community regarding its potential impact, with some pointing out centralization concerns due to "freezefunds" and "wipefrozenfunds" functions in its smart contract.

Trading Desk Insights

Stock futures traded lower on Monday as Wall Street seeks to navigate through the early August turbulence. This follows the market's challenges in maintaining its upward momentum during the latter part of the summer. Just last week, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite declined by 0.3% and 1.9% respectively, with the Nasdaq Composite marking its first back-to-back weekly decline for the year.

Looking at the S&P500, we can see that prices have broken below a rising trend channel on an intraday basis that was in place since mid-June, thus acting as a trend shift. Since then, we’ve noticed that prices have been trending within another consolidation channel since the yearly highs and are now trading right on the 50-day moving average. There’s a possibility that we witness a rebound back towards the 4510 - 4540 range.

Moving on with Bitcoin, the price range is getting tighter and tighter. The volume over weekends has come down quite significantly. Now that a fresh week has started, we should witness a boost of volatility especially with the open of the stock market. Prices pulled back towards our support level of 29,150 before rebounding higher to 29,530. The situation remains the same, we need to break and close above 30,400 to try and regain positive momentum.

In other news, Hut 8 Mining Corp, one of North America's largest Bitcoin miners, reported its 2Q earnings with revenues declining from $43.8M to $19.2M and a 58% drop in BTC mined YoY to 399 BTC due to an increase in average Bitcoin network difficulty.

Economic calendar:

MONDAY

TUESDAY

  • CAD CPI
  • US retail sales

WEDNESDAY

  • Crude oil inventories
  • FOMC meeting minutes

THURSDAY

  • US unemployment claims
  • US Philly Fed Manufacturing Index

FRIDAY

Technical Charts

Altcoin Watch

Solana has continued to gain more traction within the NFT market as sales in the last 24 hours reached $1,134,068 with 3,507 buyers. Ethereum remains king of the space with sales of $12,888,790.

Let’s take a look at a daily chart of SOLUSDT.

SOL recently broke out of a declining trend channel and then pulled back towards the breakout area, serving as a great entry point for those who missed the initial move. All moving averages are trending higher and the current price action is supported by a rising trend line, pushing for further upside.

As long as prices are trading above 22.25 and we break past 25.75, we should aim to reach the next targets of 29.15 and possibly 32.15 in extension.

Disclaimer

This research is for informational use only. This is not investment advice. Other than disclosures relating to Secure Digital Markets this research is based on current public information that we consider reliable, but we do not represent it is accurate or complete, and it should not be relied on as such. The information, opinions, estimates, and forecasts contained herein are as of the date hereof and are subject to change without prior notification. We seek to update our research as appropriate.

Any forecasts contained herein are for illustrative purposes only and are not to be relied upon as advice or interpreted as a recommendation. The price of crypto assets may rise or fall because of changes in the broad market or changes in a company's financial condition, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. Past performance is not a guide to future performance, future returns are not guaranteed, and a loss of original capital may occur. Fluctuations in exchange rates could have adverse effects on the value or price of, or income derived from, certain investments. We and our affiliates, officers, directors, and employees, excluding equity and credit analysts, will from time to time have long or short positions in, act as principal in, and buy or sell, the securities or derivatives, if any, referred to in this research.

The information on which the analysis is based has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable such as, for example, the company’s financial statements filed with a regulator, company website, company white paper, pitchbook and any other sources. While Secure Digital Markets has obtained data, statistics, and information from sources it believes to be reliable, it does not perform an audit or seek independent verification of any of the data, statistics, and information it receives.

Unless otherwise provided in a separate agreement, Secure Digital Markets does not represent that the report contents meet all of the presentation and/or disclosure standards applicable in the jurisdiction the recipient is located. Secure Digital Markets and their officers, directors and employees shall not be responsible or liable for any trading decisions, damages or other losses resulting from, or related to, the information, data, analyses, or opinions within the report.

Crypto and/or digital currencies involve substantial risk, are speculative in nature and may not perform as expected. Many digital currency platforms are not subject to regulatory supervision, unlike regulated exchanges. Some platforms may commingle customer assets in shared accounts and provide inadequate custody, which may affect whether or how investors can withdraw their currency and/or subject them to money laundering. Digital currencies may be vulnerable to hacks and cyber fraud as well as significant volatility and price swings.

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