Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #12 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world

This week didn’t bring any significant changes to the crypto market, which has been marked by a strong downtrend over the past weeks with little variation. The Crypto Fear and Greed Index is still showing extreme fear and Bitcoin has reached the €32,000 level, touching an all-time-low since July. Altogether, the global crypto market cap lost half a trillion dollars just between Friday and Saturday. While these market movements might be driving new crypto investors to the brink, more-experienced traders just see them as a standard market correction.

Crypto memes taking over Twitter

The massive volatility of the crypto market seems troublesome for newbies, but longtime crypto investors seem to be used to sudden drops and have adopted a special coping mechanism: humour. This week, crypto holders and enthusiasts took over Twitter and flooded the social network with memes and jokes about recent market developments. Some investors believe that this downtrend season is just a temporary stage of the crypto market and are holding onto their investments tightly, cracking a joke or two in the meantime. Are you hodling as well?

A crypto ban is proposed in Russia while El Salvador buys the dip

Russia and El Salvador showed us how different countries are approaching crypto. 

Russia’s central bank has proposed a ban on mining and using cryptocurrencies. According to the central bank, cryptocurrencies pose a threat to financial stability, monetary policies and citizens’ wellbeing. The proposal wasn’t welcomed by everyone: Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov criticised the potential ban on Twitter. 

On the other hand, El Salvador has been following the opposite approach as Bitcoin is now legal tender in the country. On Friday, El Salvador bought 410 bitcoins - the equivalent of $15 million at the time of the purchase. BTC fell almost 50% since its all-time-high back in November and went from €58k to €32k. El Salvador took advantage of the low Bitcoin price, a financial move also known as “buying the dip”. 

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Tesla Inc: January 26

• Boeing Co: January 26

• Whirlpool Corp: January 26

Stock market performance

The stock market saw yet another mixed performance during the past week: European stocks had seemed on their path to recovery, but then dropped at the beginning of the week, as the fear of a Russia-Ukraine war is still startling investors. US stocks saw a difficult week but recorded an upwards move on Monday, while major Asian indices are trading at low levels after a rollercoaster week. 

Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard

Last week, Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for no less than $69 billion. With Bethesda and Xbox already on its side, this deal has the potential to make Microsoft one of the biggest gaming companies in the world: Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Overwatch and even Candy Crush Saga would be under Microsoft’s wing in the scope of this deal. Investors are following the situation closely and can expect to be watching for a while, as Microsoft expects to close the deal within the end of the 2023 fiscal year.

Hard times for Netflix

Netflix stocks recently plummeted by 25% after the company fell short of its growth forecast for the first quarter of 2022. While analysts had been forecasting 5.9 million new subscribers for the first quarter of the year, Netflix only forecasted 2.5 million. This drawback doesn’t come alone, as Netflix reported fewer subscribers than had been expected in its last report of 2021. 

Disclaimer

This article does not constitute investment advice, nor is it an offer or invitation to purchase any digital assets.

This article is for general purposes of information only and no representation or warranty, either expressed or implied, is made as to, and no reliance should be placed on, the fairness, accuracy, completeness or correctness of this article or opinions contained herein. *Bitpanda Stocks are contracts replicating an underlying stock or ETF. More information and the PRIIPs key information document (KID) are available at bitpanda.com.