Market Polarization: Bitcoin's Surge, Gold's Rally, and the Crypto Economy Expansion

Intriguing developments are unfolding in the global financial markets, and a clear polarisation is materializing among investors.

On one hand, there are investors looking to take on risk; the S&P 500 is up 4.67% over the past month and just 5% shy of its all-time high. Bitcoin is surging more than 13% over the past week, and is currently trading above $41,500.

On the flip side, risk-averse investors are flocking towards gold. The precious metal staged a weekend rally, reaching an all-time high of $2,148 per ounce.

Bitcoin’s Price Hits Fresh Yearly Highs

December has started on a high note for Bitcoin, reaching a new yearly high of over $42,000. The last time BTC's price traded around this level was in April 2022, before the market crashed following Terra’s collapse.

As highlighted in one of my recent letters, this bullish momentum has mostly been fueled by the potential approval of a Bitcoin Spot ETF in the U.S.

I continue to believe the first approval will happen on January 10th, 2024, when the SEC faces the final deadline for a decision on the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF.

The Entire Crypto Economy Expands

The overall fundamentals of the crypto market have seen positive developments, with several significant metrics experiencing notable increases over the past month:

• Total adjusted on-chain volume surged by 29.8% to reach $255 billion (BTC: +21.2%, ETH: +43.9%).
• Legitimate CEX spot volume recorded a robust increase of 52.8%, reaching $445 billion.
• Other noteworthy metrics showing growth include open interest (BTC: +10.3%, ETH: +19.2%), monthly NFT marketplace volume on Ethereum, which saw a remarkable uptick of 109.5%, and the daily average volume of GBTC, rising by 30% to $119 million.

Industry Shakers

• Societe Generale issues its first RWA-tokenized green bond on Ethereum

  French banking giant Societe Generale completed its inaugural tokenized green bond issuance on the Ethereum network.

• Cristiano Ronaldo Faces a Class Action Lawsuit for Promoting Binance

  Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is facing a class action lawsuit seeking damages exceeding $1 billion for his involvement in promoting Binance. The legal action claims that Binance engaged in the sale of unregistered securities and operated unlawfully in the United States, with Ronaldo leveraging his celebrity status to attract users and investors to the platform. The plaintiffs contend that Ronaldo should have been aware of the potential illegality of his promotions and assert that he financially benefited from directing traffic to Binance.

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