MARKETS week ahead: January 8 - 13
Last week in the news
Markets are slowly heating up after a Holiday break and summary of last year's results. For the majority the year 2023 was a positive one, although with a glimpse of turbulence. Gold managed to finally break the $2K psychological line, ending the year above $2.050 level. The S&P 500 also managed to reach new highs at the end of the year, in expectation of interest rate drops somewhere in Y2024. On the same grounds, the 10Y US Treasury benchmark ended the year around 3.8%. For another year, the crypto market managed to beat the traditional ones, with significant yearly gain of more than 100%. The story related to the first spot BTC ETF is still holding the value of the whole market, especially the price of Bitcoin.
Previous year on markets, although the turbulent one, still managed to end on a positive note and significant yearly gains. The policy makers were certainly the ones in the center of market interest. After strong rate increases of more than 500 bps, the US Fed reached the point of a potential for a reversal. Inflation of targeted 2% is in the center of Fed's monetary policy, but the inflation has been resistant for some time. This imposed a discussion among market participants whether there will be a hard landing, soft landing or no landing at all in the US economy? However, the US economy showed a clear resilience for the strong interest rate hikes, surprising even the FOMC members. During Q4 2023 market slowly started to ignore Fed`s narrative, in expectation of a soon pivoting point. In Q4 the Fed gave up from further rate increases, which was the moment of celebration in markets. They were relieved to finally start positioning for a rate cut in the coming year. This was also a starting point for the Y2024.
Still, regardless of the US economy's resilience, not all industries were resilient to strong rate increases. During Y2023 we witnessed several bank collapses like Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, Heartland Tri-State Bank. Relatively bad asset and liability management, connections to the crypto industry and bank run-offs were some of the main reasons for these financial institutions to discontinue their businesses. Luckily, there has not been a high scale of contamination, in which sense, the rest of the financial system went through these crises intact.
The crypto industry was also in the center of market interest due to several reasons. First, there were several pledges and proceedings made by US authorities, especially the SEC. The most well known scandal over the FTX exchanger ended in November last year, when its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges of money laundering and fraud. Another news that spotted the market interest was a finalization of court proceedings against the founder of Binance exchange, Changpeng Zhao, who was found guilty of violation of several rules related to anti money laundering. Binance has settled charges by agreeing to pay $4.3 billion to the US regulators. Within the next five years, the Binance exchanges would most probably cease to exist. Although this was huge news, still, the market reacted positively to it, increasing the value of the crypto market. This actually came as a positive news for investors as they perceived that there will finally be some order within the crypto industry, so that the market would be able to further develop into a mainstream.
Another big news within the both crypto and main financial industries was that some of the biggest players on the Wall Street have filed with the SEC to start operations with a spot BTC Exchange Traded Funds. These names include BlackRock, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Fidelity and Wisdom Tree Investments, to name a few. It should be added that few asset managers like BlackRock and Ark Investment applied for first spot ETH ETF. Filings are still on the table, waiting for a final call from the SEC. This continues to be one of the main topics on the crypto market for Y2024. In case that ETFs are approved, analysts are betting on a further significant increase of the value of the crypto market.
Crypto market cap
The first half of the year 2023 was quite a challenging one for the crypto market capitalization. The market cap fell even below the $1 trillion mark, and many analysts were predicting its further move to the downside. However, in Q4 2023, something happened which the market is calling the “BlackRock effect”, when the largest asset manager in the world announced its filing for the first spot BTC ETF in the US. This was a huge breakthrough for the crypto market, when it bounces back, ending the year above $1.6 trillion. This is still below its all time highs, however, currently the market looks at a positive direction. On this road there are still some obstacles mostly related to the regulatory environment. It should not be forgotten that regulators still perceive this market in the gray zone when it comes to full compliance with regulation. While the market participants are calling for a clear regulation within a field of the crypto industry, the SEC and its Chair Gensler, continue to stick with the narrative that regulation already exists and that the vast majority of both coins and crypto products should fully comply with the US Law on securities. In other words, anyone who wants to offer any kind of crypto product, especially staking, should first file with the SEC for approval to offer security-like products. Challenges for the crypto industry within the regulatory framework will continue to be a high priority of the regulators all around the world. As per US regulators, they still perceive both altcoins and stablecoins as highly risky assets, with high potential of frauds and those not fitting into anti money laundering laws. On the opposite side is the whole crypto industry, which is still holding the view that they just need a completely new set of regulatory rules.
All challenges from Y2023 will stay in place for Y2024. Both promise and uncertainty will be in place for the crypto market during this year. Certainly increased adoption and continued institutional involvement could fuel further growth of this market. Still, the regulatory clarity and technological advancements will play an important role in shaping the future of the crypto market. Total crypto market capitalization ended the year at a level of $1.638 trillion, which represents its starting point for Y2024. This level also represents a yearly gain of 117% where the crypto market added $882B.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures market closely watched developments on the crypto spot market during the year 2023. Although the first half of the year was a bit shy when it comes to prices of long term futures, still, during the second half of the year there has been a record number of large open interest holders for both BTC and ETH futures. This was a promising sign that institutional investors are still not ready to give up on the crypto assets, especially BTC and ETH. As the market continued to express interest, the CME launched micro BTC and ETH futures, and made them available for smaller investors for investing or hedging purposes. However, it should be noted that such a move was additional support to increased trading volume and liquidity on the futures market. Long term BTC futures ended the year at levels above $ 48K, while ETH futures sustained a $2.5K level.
Markets are slowly heating up after a Holiday break and summary of last year's results. For the majority the year 2023 was a positive one, although with a glimpse of turbulence. Gold managed to finally break the $2K psychological line, ending the year above $2.050 level. The S&P 500 also managed to reach new highs at the end of the year, in expectation of interest rate drops somewhere in Y2024. On the same grounds, the 10Y US Treasury benchmark ended the year around 3.8%. For another year, the crypto market managed to beat the traditional ones, with significant yearly gain of more than 100%. The story related to the first spot BTC ETF is still holding the value of the whole market, especially the price of Bitcoin.
Previous year on markets, although the turbulent one, still managed to end on a positive note and significant yearly gains. The policy makers were certainly the ones in the center of market interest. After strong rate increases of more than 500 bps, the US Fed reached the point of a potential for a reversal. Inflation of targeted 2% is in the center of Fed's monetary policy, but the inflation has been resistant for some time. This imposed a discussion among market participants whether there will be a hard landing, soft landing or no landing at all in the US economy? However, the US economy showed a clear resilience for the strong interest rate hikes, surprising even the FOMC members. During Q4 2023 market slowly started to ignore Fed`s narrative, in expectation of a soon pivoting point. In Q4 the Fed gave up from further rate increases, which was the moment of celebration in markets. They were relieved to finally start positioning for a rate cut in the coming year. This was also a starting point for the Y2024.
Still, regardless of the US economy's resilience, not all industries were resilient to strong rate increases. During Y2023 we witnessed several bank collapses like Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, First Republic Bank, Heartland Tri-State Bank. Relatively bad asset and liability management, connections to the crypto industry and bank run-offs were some of the main reasons for these financial institutions to discontinue their businesses. Luckily, there has not been a high scale of contamination, in which sense, the rest of the financial system went through these crises intact.
The crypto industry was also in the center of market interest due to several reasons. First, there were several pledges and proceedings made by US authorities, especially the SEC. The most well known scandal over the FTX exchanger ended in November last year, when its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven charges of money laundering and fraud. Another news that spotted the market interest was a finalization of court proceedings against the founder of Binance exchange, Changpeng Zhao, who was found guilty of violation of several rules related to anti money laundering. Binance has settled charges by agreeing to pay $4.3 billion to the US regulators. Within the next five years, the Binance exchanges would most probably cease to exist. Although this was huge news, still, the market reacted positively to it, increasing the value of the crypto market. This actually came as a positive news for investors as they perceived that there will finally be some order within the crypto industry, so that the market would be able to further develop into a mainstream.
Another big news within the both crypto and main financial industries was that some of the biggest players on the Wall Street have filed with the SEC to start operations with a spot BTC Exchange Traded Funds. These names include BlackRock, VanEck, Valkyrie Investments, Fidelity and Wisdom Tree Investments, to name a few. It should be added that few asset managers like BlackRock and Ark Investment applied for first spot ETH ETF. Filings are still on the table, waiting for a final call from the SEC. This continues to be one of the main topics on the crypto market for Y2024. In case that ETFs are approved, analysts are betting on a further significant increase of the value of the crypto market.
Crypto market cap
The first half of the year 2023 was quite a challenging one for the crypto market capitalization. The market cap fell even below the $1 trillion mark, and many analysts were predicting its further move to the downside. However, in Q4 2023, something happened which the market is calling the “BlackRock effect”, when the largest asset manager in the world announced its filing for the first spot BTC ETF in the US. This was a huge breakthrough for the crypto market, when it bounces back, ending the year above $1.6 trillion. This is still below its all time highs, however, currently the market looks at a positive direction. On this road there are still some obstacles mostly related to the regulatory environment. It should not be forgotten that regulators still perceive this market in the gray zone when it comes to full compliance with regulation. While the market participants are calling for a clear regulation within a field of the crypto industry, the SEC and its Chair Gensler, continue to stick with the narrative that regulation already exists and that the vast majority of both coins and crypto products should fully comply with the US Law on securities. In other words, anyone who wants to offer any kind of crypto product, especially staking, should first file with the SEC for approval to offer security-like products. Challenges for the crypto industry within the regulatory framework will continue to be a high priority of the regulators all around the world. As per US regulators, they still perceive both altcoins and stablecoins as highly risky assets, with high potential of frauds and those not fitting into anti money laundering laws. On the opposite side is the whole crypto industry, which is still holding the view that they just need a completely new set of regulatory rules.
All challenges from Y2023 will stay in place for Y2024. Both promise and uncertainty will be in place for the crypto market during this year. Certainly increased adoption and continued institutional involvement could fuel further growth of this market. Still, the regulatory clarity and technological advancements will play an important role in shaping the future of the crypto market. Total crypto market capitalization ended the year at a level of $1.638 trillion, which represents its starting point for Y2024. This level also represents a yearly gain of 117% where the crypto market added $882B.
Crypto futures market
The crypto futures market closely watched developments on the crypto spot market during the year 2023. Although the first half of the year was a bit shy when it comes to prices of long term futures, still, during the second half of the year there has been a record number of large open interest holders for both BTC and ETH futures. This was a promising sign that institutional investors are still not ready to give up on the crypto assets, especially BTC and ETH. As the market continued to express interest, the CME launched micro BTC and ETH futures, and made them available for smaller investors for investing or hedging purposes. However, it should be noted that such a move was additional support to increased trading volume and liquidity on the futures market. Long term BTC futures ended the year at levels above $ 48K, while ETH futures sustained a $2.5K level.
