The Friday Focus: Issue 7
Weekly happenings
US inflation numbers released - and they didn’t look pretty: Inflation came in at 6.2% - the highest level measured in 31 years. Bitcoin immediately surged almost 2% when the higher than expected inflation numbers were released - confirming the narrative of bitcoin as an inflation hedge.
Apple CEO Tim Cook Says He Holds Crypto: It’s been a constant stream of well-known persons entering crypto over the past year. This time it’s the Apple CEO, saying that he holds bitcoin and ether as part of a “diversified portfolio”.
Coinbase stock down 13% on weak Q3 report: The numbers in Coinbase’s Q3 report were nowhere near the expectations, and the stock plummeted when the report was released.
FTX US Reports 512% Increase in Average Daily Volume in Q3: While Coinbase had a weak Q3, their US competitor FTX is growing extremely fast thanks to a massive marketing campaign, and has now overtaken Coinbase’s spot as the most liquid crypto exchange in the US.
Twitter is launching a dedicated crypto team: Twitter will explore decentralized applications with a new dedicated crypto team. This initiative is not Twitter’s first in crypto, as, in September, they enabled a bitcoin tipping feature, allowing users to tip each other using the Lightning Network.
Bitmain launched its newest bitcoin mining ASIC: The new machine Antminer S19XP is the most powerful ASIC ever released. The first shipments will be sent out Q3 2022.
Coming up
Spot-based ETF deadline: A very important date for bitcoin is rapidly approaching. November 14th is the final deadline for the SEC response to VanEck’s spot-based BTC ETF. As we wrote in our weekly report, anticipations on the SEC decision could be the primary reason for bitcoin’s strength in the recent days, with traders seeking to front-run the response, leading bitcoin to reach new all-time highs this week.
Taproot activation: The Taproot upgrade is set to be activated on November 14. It’s the most significant Bitcoin upgrade since 2017, enabling increased privacy and better smart-contract capabilities.