Weekly Bitpanda Market Recap #14 - Insights from the world of investing

News from the crypto world

The crypto market closed the week mostly in the green, breaking the long streak of negative weekly performances. Bitcoin and major altcoins closed the week positively and started moving up. Most of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market cap have started the week in the green and have seen upward price movements during the past 7 days: Bitcoin went up by more than 9% in the past week, Ethereum over +16%, while Cardano, Solana and Shiba Inu also saw improved performances and have been showing positive trends in the past few days. 

Although the crypto market is showing signs of recovery, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index indicates that market sentiment is only neutral. 

Nike and the NFT lawsuit

Recently, Nike announced its grand entrance into the NFT world by purchasing a shoe company in the metaverse. Now, just a few months later, the reputable sportswear brand is already dealing with a lawsuit. It seems that StockX, a sneakers reseller, has been selling unauthorised pictures of Nike sneakers as NFTs. According to Nike, StockX has sold at least 500 Nike-branded NFTs, clearly indicating infringement of copyright in Nike’s opinion, which could both confuse the consumers and threaten Nike’s brand identity.

Cross-chain DeFi platform suffers from a $326 million hack 

Last week, the crypto market was shaken by news of a massive $326 million hack at the expense of Wormhole, a DeFi platform for cross-chain bridges, famous for linking the Solana and Ethereum blockchains. The Wormhole attackers employed an exploit to bypass verification and transferred the hacked funds to an Ethereum wallet address. The Wormhole team has offered a $10 million bounty if the funds are returned.

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Coca Cola: February 10

• Kellogg’s: February 10

• PepsiCo: February 10

Stock market performance

While the crypto market generally saw positive developments over the past week, the same can’t be said for the stock market, which reported a mixed performance. Major European indices closed in the red, while US and Asian indices saw more varied performances. Both Meta* and PayPal* closed the week in the red, with losses of -23% and almost 25% respectively.

Meta faces its largest-ever losses

Meta was in the headlines once again, though not on a positive note. Last week, Meta’s stocks suffered the largest losses ever recorded by a US company, losing $230 billion on Thursday. 

And that’s not the only news from the company formerly known as Facebook: it stated that some of its products, including Facebook and Instagram, may have to shut down in Europe. The issue behind the potential shutdown is related to European data regulations and Meta servers that are based in the US. Negotiations are intensifying as Meta later declared that it has no plans to leave Europe.

Europe is looking for new suppliers amid gas crisis

The recent growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine have raised various geopolitical concerns, along with gas prices, which is problematic for many European nations as Russia supplies 40% of the gas in Europe. 

Now, Europe is looking to source gas from other suppliers outside of Russia, such as Norway, the US and other countries, according to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. However, European gas storage levels are lower than usual and gas prices are unlikely to fall in the short term. 

Check out the price developments of your favourite cryptocurrencies, stocks*, ETFs* and precious metals on our app for iOS and Android or on our web app. Check our blog and follow our social media channels to always be up to speed. Don’t forget to subscribe to the official Bitpanda YouTube channel for our weekly recaps and video content. 

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.