Emotionality in connection with investments is considered one of the main reasons for failure. However, in the current market phase, this already seems to override rational decisions for some market participants. This leads to increased volatility and often to risky positions in the market. Rationality should always prevail over emotionality!
Thought of the week
Digital Asset News
The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried will enter its final phase in the next few days. Prosecutors plan to make their closing arguments on Oct. 26, now that nearly 20 witnesses have been heard.
Prosecutors have questioned several witnesses over the past three weeks, including former FTX employees, customers, investors, and government and law enforcement officials. At the heart of the prosecution’s case is whether Bankman-Fried intentionally misled them all and was behind the decisions that led to the $8 billion gap between FTX and Alameda Research in November 2022.
A lawyer watching the trial told Cointelegraph that if the government were to go to trial, there is a 95 percent chance of indictment. This is a major challenge for the defense. However, the prosecution has the burden of proving the alleged crimes. In total, they face a prison sentence of 75 years!
Tether Holdings, the issuer of the world’s largest stablecoin Tether USDT, is preparing to disclose its reserves even more clearly soon, according to media reports.
Paolo Ardoino, the chief technology officer and future CEO of Tether, accordingly announced that the crypto company plans to publish its reserve data in real time starting in 2024, Bloomberg reported. According to Tether’s transparency page, the stablecoin issuer currently publishes and updates its reserve data at least once a day. Tether also publishes separate monthly and quarterly reports on its reserves.
While many crypto projects are experiencing a slump in 2023, the USDT issuing company has gained momentum over the past year. According to Tether’s Q2 quarterly report, the company’s assets actually increased by 5.7% to $86.5 billion. The company made more than $1 billion in “operating profit” in the process, a 30% increase from the previous quarter. Via this measure, Tether aims to continue building confidence and put to rest the long-running rumors that the stablecoin is not backed.
The personal lawsuits against two high-ranking Ripple executives Ripple chief Garlinghouse and co-founder Larsen were initiated in December 2020 and are now coming to an abrupt end without going to trial. Lawyers for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) have announced that they will drop their lawsuits against Ripple chief Brad Garlinghouse and Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen altogether.
As surprisingly revealed in a related filing with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, the SEC notified the court on Oct. 19 that it had “agreed with the private parties involved in its case against Ripple to drop the lawsuit,” suggesting that it is unlikely to proceed to trial. However, the filing did not indicate whether the SEC will also drop its civil suit against Ripple itself, which was first filed in 2020.
This again illustrates that the SEC has been far too harsh on digital assets in many cases and must now back down significantly with its position, which in turn fundamentally strengthens digital assets!
Digital Asset Market
From a chart perspective, Bitcoin is now finally above the $30,000 mark and is making great strides towards the high for the year at ~$31,800. Last week made it clear that the markets are eagerly awaiting the approval of Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the US. In the eyes of many market participants, this would represent a turnaround in SEC policy, weaken the position of Gary Gensler, and herald an end to the “politics of repression.” The news situation in this regard was very positive last week, causing a first “FOMO” (the fear of missing out) phase. Even a false report about ETF approval was interpreted as a “bullish” sign.
Currently, Bitcoin does not offer any risk-optimized entries in the short term. With a certain amount of risk appetite, any positive swing could be traded with a slightly wider stop loss or waiting for a stronger correction to trade the trend reversal that builds on it.
Many market participants are already starting to trade emotionally, which could cause some logical looking approaches to trading to miss their mark – keep this in mind when making decisions this week.
Weekly overview
As usual, we are also providing detailed videos for those who want to delve deeper into the subject.