Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was Catin a Dog’s World, rising 36.37%
- A Bitcoin rally is grabbing the spotlight, writes Bloomberg, in part because some investors view the climb as a sign that markets anticipate a victory for pro-crypto Republican candidate Donald Trump in the U.S. presidential election. The digital asset is up about 13% in the past seven days, well ahead of a global stock gauge and gold. Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller cited crypto as among the indicators that markets are pricing in a win for the former president, the article continues.
- Crypto enthusiasts sent another $7.5 million in digital currencies to President Donald Trump’s campaign between July and the end of September, Bloomberg reports. The numbers show momentum among Trump supporters to part with their crypto holdings and send them to the Republican presidential nominee.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was MANTRA, down 6.30%.
- FTX’s former engineering chief asked a judge not to send him to prison for the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. Nishad Singh’s lawyers told a Manhattan federal judge in a memo filed that he deserves leniency in light of his limited role in FTX’s implosion, according to an article written by Bloomberg.
- Italy plans to raise the capital gains tax on Bitcoin to 42% from 26%, writes Bloomberg, part of efforts to finance expensive election promises while cutting the fiscal deficit. Italy’s announcement come as the EU is preparing to fully implement the bloc’s sweeping crypto regulations, a package known as MiCA, at the end of the year.
Opportunities
- Stripe Inc., the payments company founded by billionaire brothers Patrick and John Collison, is in advanced talks to acquire venture-backed fintech platform Bridge. Stripe has been in talks to acquire the San Antonio, Texas-based company, which is designed to allow businesses to create, store, send and accept stablecoins like Tether’s USDT and Circle’s UDSC, writes Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin bulls are setting their sights again on the record highs reached in March with optimism building around riskier assets and the looming U.S. elections. Bitcoin gained as much as 2.9% to $68,376 on Wednesday before paring the increase to trade around $67,800, writes Bloomberg.
- Crypto exchange Kraken launched its wrapped bitcoin token kBTC. The token will be available on both Ethereum and OP Mainnet and will be backed 1:1 with bitcoin. The bitcoin token will be custodied in Kraken Financial the exchange’s U.S.-qualified custody solution, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- Video-game developer FractureLabs filed a lawsuit against Jump Trading, accusing one of the cryptocurrency industry’s biggest market makers of “fraud and deceit” by manipulating the price of a token used in an online game. According to the suit, Jump concealed its true intent to use the initial offering of DIO as an opportunity to “pump and dump” the token along with HTX, writes Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin miner MARA is warning that AI mirrors 2000s Internet boom. In a recent interview with analyst at research and brokerage firm Bernstein, Fred Thiel the CEO of the bitcoin miner, said the current AI environment resembles the early 2000s internet boom, and many companies, particularly smaller players, risk overbuilding infrastructure without sufficient demand, Bloomberg reports.
- DeFi infrastructure must undergo significant evolution to effectively compete with traditional financial systems and achieve widespread adoption. Although decentralized finance holds great potential, current platforms lag in critical aspects such as liquidity, speed, and cross-chain compatibility, according to Bloomberg.