Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #13 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world

The past few months have been troublesome for crypto investors and many weekends have seen crashes and further dips. Surprisingly, last week took a different turn and many major cryptocurrencies have been showing signs of recovery. In the past seven days, Bitcoin has slowly been recovering, while altcoins such as Ethereum, Solana and Avalanche have seen growth of over 10%.

PayPal to launch its stablecoin

PayPal*, the online payment giant, recently confirmed its plans to launch a stablecoin. Speculation arose after a developer found hidden code in the PayPal app for iPhones referring to a potential PayPal coin. The developer, Steve Moser, stated that there were also references to different fiat currencies, which led to speculation that there could even be several stablecoins backed by different fiat currencies. PayPal explained that the code in question was created during an internal hackathon but didn’t make any further comment. 

Diem officially shuts down

Not every company trying to step foot into crypto comes out victorious. After three years of work, a company rebranding and a change of name, Diem, Meta*’s potential cryptocurrency formerly known as “Libra”, is officially shutting down. The project has never really been warmly welcomed, as governments, politicians and regulators struggled to see how Meta could have dealt with regulatory requirements and possible financial issues such as consumer protection and money laundering. Meta will be selling Diem’s assets and tech to Silvergate Bank for $200m.

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Amazon: February 3

• Activision Blizzard: February 3

• Ralph Lauren: February 3

Stock market performance

The stock market closed the week in a mostly positive way. Major European indices closed the week safely in the green, with the DAX, FTSE and CAC40 closing up by over 2%. US indices put in a more fluctuating but overall good performance, with some indices closing nicely in the green and others slightly in the red. Asian stocks haven’t had a positive week but have started the new one in the green. 

Spotify in trouble

Spotify* was recently pushed into the limelight for unfortunate reasons. The singer Neil Young pulled his songs from the streaming platform as a sign of protest over Spotify listing Joe Rogan’s podcast, claiming that it spreads misinformation about COVID-19. The criticism was reflected in the stock’s performance: Spotify’s stock began to drop, recently falling by 6% after it had already dropped by around 25% since the beginning of the year. Joni Mitchell has followed the protest and announced she would also be removing her music, and rumours about other artists and notable personalities abandoning the platform have started to spread.

Big gains for the tech stocks

After some hard times, tech stocks seem to be regaining ground in the stock market. Apple* and Microsoft* ranked among the biggest gainers on Friday, both surging by more than 4% over the past week. Tech software firm Atlassian Corp.* climbed to the top of the Nasdaq 100 index, with a whopping 13% rise over the past week. However, savvy investors know that past performances are not a fully-reliable basis to draw conclusions and don’t use them as such - they do their own research, as they should.

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.