News from the crypto world

The crypto market closed last week on a positive note, with both Bitcoin and Ethereum carrying the market up following a profitable weekend. ETH peaked at €2,690 on Friday, while BTC surpassed €38,000 and Cardano reached €0.80 on Saturday. ADA’s price has been hovering around €0.80 ever since, a significant improvement but still far from the €1.42 of January. Terra hasn’t seen as good of a weekend, but started the week positively as the price skyrocketed from €75 on Friday 18 to €88 on Monday. 

The Crypto Fear and Greed Index slightly improved, showing that crypto market sentiment is fearful at 31/100, but up from the 21/100 it touched last week. 

Cryptocurrencies: Two recent reports

Cryptocurrencies have once again been at the centre of controversy with rising fears that they could be used by Russia to evade sanctions. However, these concerns may be premature as two recent reports show that cryptocurrencies and covert business don’t go hand in hand as easily as some believe. 

The “2022 Crypto Crime Report” by Chainalysis found that only 0.15% of all crypto transactions in 2021 were illicit, decreasing from the 0.62% of 2020 and the 3.37% of 2019. Another report was published by the U.S. Treasury Department, the “National Money Laundering Risk Assessment”. The U.S. Treasury Department found that even though cryptocurrencies carry risks, among other things related to digital scams, they don’t really have a central role in money laundering, financial crimes or drug dealing. 

As it turns out, fiat currencies and more traditional systems are still far more commonly used for illicit purposes than cryptocurrencies. 

Malaysian Deputy Minister for cryptocurrencies legalisation 

On Monday, the Malaysian Deputy Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin, urged regulators to legalise cryptocurrencies and NFTs in the country. The Deputy Minister argued that allowing certain use cases of these digital assets would particularly benefit young people, among whom crypto and NFTs are already very popular, and who could become more involved in the industry if crypto was to be legalised.

News from the stock market

Recent earnings reports:

• Nike (NKE): March 21

• Adobe (ADBE): March 22

Stock market performance

Last week the stock market closed vastly in the green. Major European and US indices saw good performances, with the Euronext bourse closing with +6.24%. Asian indices managed to close the week safely in the green after plunging on March 14.

The Russian stock market reopened, only “internal” impact is expected

Since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Russian financial sector has been heavily sanctioned, the rouble has crashed and the country seemed on the verge of a debt default. As a result, the Russian stock market remained closed for three weeks, and just reopened this past Monday. Currently, the Moscow Exchange only allows trading of bonds issued by the Russian government and experts believe the impact of the Russian stock market reopening will mostly affect Russia, while the Asian and European markets won’t be impacted very much.

Egypt limits price of bread as wheat’s price soars

As covered in the past weeks, the Russian war in Ukraine has been having effects on financial markets and heavily impacted the price of oil, which soared to more than $110 a barrel. However, another resource that has spiked in price during the past weeks is wheat. Before the war, 12% of the world’s wheat supplies were coming from Ukraine. 

Shortage of wheat has become a serious liability for countries like Egypt, which was importing 80% of its wheat from Ukraine and Russia. Following the steep increase in price, on Monday the Egyptian prime minister Mostafa Madbouly decided to limit the price of commercially sold bread, capping it at 11.50 Egyptian pounds per kg, roughly equivalent to €0.57.

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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.