Why do these Young Turks ladies dare to speak about a subject as complex as cryptocurrencies without doing ANY research? In the following video, both Ana Kasparian and Francesca Fiorentini read a New York Times article interpreting it as fact, while giving the most inane commentary you could imagine. To make things worse, they try to be sarcastic and humorous and fail completely at that too. 

Related Reading | Crypto Needs Regulation If It’s Going To Survive, Says SEC Boss

Their main thesis is that crypto lobbyists are influencing bills and legislation while at the same time trying to keep the industry deregulated. Is that what’s happening? Doesn’t that thesis contradicts itself? Let’s go through the Young Turks ladies’ points one by one to see if we can understand them better. But first, the video:

What Do The Young Turks Think They’re Saying?

To express coherent ideas while recording live is hard. So, to cut the Young Turks ladies some slack, let’s start with the text. The YouTube information box starts as follows:

“Crypto lobbies and lobbyists are gaining ground in their fight to profit from bills drafted with state legislators to keep the cryptocurrency market free of regulation, leading to an increase in profits for crypto executives and lobbyists.”

If a bill passes, that’s regulation. Isn’t that what those lobbyists are pushing? Regulation? Also, isn’t everyone in the United States looking to increase profits? It seems like the Young Turks are protesting about the lobbyists dictating what regulation looks like, but that framing wouldn’t drive the outrage clicks.

Later on, the info box says:

“Florida is the most recent state to adopt crypto-friendly legislation as the state recently signed a law that would make it much easier to trade and hold cryptocurrencies in the state in an attempt to draw investment into the industry in Florida.”

What’s the problem here, exactly? Regions all over the world are executing this geographical arbitrage play. Is it illegal? NO.

The info box closes with:

“Across the nation, crypto executives and lobbyists are helping to draft bills to benefit the fast-growing industry, then pushing lawmakers to adopt these made-to-order laws, before moving rapidly to profit from the legislative victories.”

Yeah, that’s what lobbyists do. Every industry under the sun is trying to influence regulation in its favor. Is it right? Maybe not, but it’s as common as bread. Crypto people didn’t create lobbying. 

What Do Ana And Francesca Think They’re Saying?

The Young Turks’ bosses did these women dirty by putting them in this position. It seems like they ordered a hit piece about one of the most complex subjects around without providing any training whatsoever. Do The Young Turks’ bosses have training themselves? Because it seems like they’re as confused as the ladies.

The video starts with Ana stating the confusing thesis, crypto lobbyists are drafting laws to make sure that the industry remains deregulated? If they’re drafting laws, they’re looking for regulation, but ok. Then, she criticizes Joe Biden’s now-famous Executive Order by saying it’s just the commission of studies. Well, it’s a complex subject, and the Young Turks could benefit from commissioning studies themselves.

Then, Ana says that the laws are being left up to each State. Isn’t the United States a constitutional federal republic? Federal means that the States are sovereign. After that comes the terrible “Tales From The Crypt-o” title card, in which they use a tweet from an NFT owner who got hacked as some kind of proof that the crypto space is spooky and treacherous.

Then, the New York Times articulates what the Young Turks couldn’t. According to it, a law presented in Florida eliminates “a threat from a law intended to curb money laundering.” So, what they’re actually against is that the crypto industry is getting rid of AML laws? They’re not being too successful, then, because, as far as we can tell, every exchange in the US has AML procedures in place.

ETH price chart on FTX | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com

The Young Turks Think That Cryptocurrencies Are Good For Criminals

It’s Francesca’s turn, and, with the eloquence of a first-time podcaster, she says that cryptocurrencies are a new way to “do corruption,” to “steal money that is not yours,” and for “paying 17-year-olds for sex.” A ten-minute read on cryptocurrencies would’ve told the Young Turks that the blockchain is an immutable ledger. There’s not a worse medium to finance the crimes that Francesca describes.

Then, Ana insists that financial institutions need to be regulated. That’s exactly what the lobbyist are trying to accomplish, but ok. Then, she says “You should want protection. You should want to ensure that cryptocurrencies aren’t used for money laundering.” Perfect, but the people should also want banks not to be used for money laundering, and they’re not getting that either. The only way to stop money laundering is for the financial authorities to do their job and stop it. Common citizens shouldn’t suffer.

Related Reading | Dubai World Trade Centre To Become A Crypto Hub For Regulation

Near the end, Francesca qualifies the whole industry as a slow-moving con or scam. As a contrasting opinion, we might qualify the industry as the most exciting development in finance in decades. And as a job-generating juggernaut that’s saving lives worldwide. Then, Francesca predicts that, in a few years, we’re going to be inundated with documentaries about the different cases in which people lost their savings and whatnot. She might be right about that. There’s too much money involved and the average citizen is as uninformed as the Young Turks.

Do your own research and commission your own studies so that you won’t become a victim. As in the traditional financial markets, laws aren’t going to protect you from scams. Information and due diligence will.

Featured Image: Ana and Francesca, screenshot from the video | Charts by TradingView

Bitcoin was rejected north of $40,000 after a short live rally push it into previous highs. Persistent selling pressure and uncertainty around the global situation, and an incoming shift in central banks monetary policy, seems to be taking a toll on the crypto market.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Falls Below $40,000 Trimming The Gains From US Crypto Order

As of press time, Bitcoin trades at $38,790 with a 1.2% loss in the last 24-hours.

Via Twitter, legendary trader Peter Brandt gave “Gen Z” life advice and talked about the importance of making monthly savings in Bitcoin, stocks, and solid companies. As the world enters a period of potentially further uncertainty, Brandt’s message to younger generations was just to simply “HOLD”.

With decades of experience trading the legacy financial system, Brandt also advice “Gen Zers” to think about the market as a “hobby”. In that sense, he advised them to “secure a good job”, to be “frugal”, to get a degree on an area which can provide jobs opportunities, and to stay active in the market while hoping for lower prices in solid assets.

As he advised younger generations to avoid student debt, the Legendary trader said:

Getting a university degree is HUGELY over-rated. Entering a skilled trade is a very legitimate career path. Have a friend whose child just signed a $200k bonus as high-tolerance computerized lathe engineer.

Current market conditions could turn unfavorable for new Bitcoin or crypto traders, the price of the benchmark crypto has been moving sideways, without clear direction, since the start of 2022. In that sense, other investment strategies could result more favorable.

Brandt added reiterating his, sometimes controversial, position in the crypto market as a whole:

I am also very favorable toward rental income property. Between quality stocks and crypto I prefer quality stocks. Crypto is still unproven IMO. Avoid 8hitcoins and jpgs. Hope for a bear market so that stocks can be bought cheaply.

Bitcoin Reacts To Macro Factors, What Could Break The Range

In the short, Bitcoin’s price action seems to have been influenced by events in the White House as U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order regarding cryptocurrencies. BitBank’s analyst Yuya Hasegawa believes BTC experienced a “sell the fact” event.

The upside momentum of the last week had a similar origin, as Hasegawa said:

The Treasury’s statement to the executive order had been temporarily leaked on Wednesday, which turned out to be a positive revelation for the crypto industry and sent the price of bitcoin from $39k to around $43k, but the president’s signature triggered rounds of sell orders as if short-term traders were waiting for that moment.

However, sellers were reinvigorated by a hike in inflation expectations, the analyst added. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) continues to trend higher alongside commodities:

The rising inflation and high commodity prices are pushing up inflation expectations, while pushing down real yields on treasury bonds, which is likely one of the reasons why bitcoin has been maintaining a range-bound move.

Related Reading | Bitcoin Outflows Spike As 30k BTC Exits Exchanges, Reserve Plunges Down

BTC’s price will continue to be affected by the performance in the stock market, and could benefit from a cease fire in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Srinagar: Are you scared of investing in cryptocurrencies and do terms like Bitcoin, Stellar and Dogecoin sound alien to you? Or, are you ready to invest in digital money after hearing stories of people having made a lot of money through cryptocurrencies?

Before making a decision, it is better for you to first learn about digital money or invest through a company that knows the business of cryptocurrencies.

Run by 25-year-old Peerzada Dawood ul Sultan Makhdoomi, ‘The Crypto’ located at Karanagar area of the city is one such group through which you can invest in cryptocurrencies and also get yourself enrolled in a course to know the nuances of the trade.

“We provide crypto education and have offline courses in risk management, futures trading, spot trading, etc. There was a time when nobody was interested in cryptocurrencies but now a good number of people in Kashmir have started investing. Our company has already enrolled 35 students in these courses and 370 other clients have invested in cryptocurrencies through us,” Dawood told The Kashmir Monitor.

Dawood said he had taken an interest in cryptocurrencies at a young age and his decision to invest in it had been opposed by all including his father.

“There was a time when there was no awareness regarding cryptocurrencies in Kashmir. When I entered into the field in 2015, people would tell me you are mad. Even my father was not happy with the decision. But now, I am happy over my decision as 80 per cent of our clients are from Kashmir. Earlier, people living in the UK or US only were aware of cryptocurrencies. But, people here didn’t know anything about it,” he said.

“Initially, I had started as a freelancer but later I started the office of ‘The Crypto’ at Karanagar in 2018,” said Dawood, who has a masters in marketing and management. He has also done a one year course in crypto trading and another six month course in risk management.

On the risks involved in cryptocurrency investments, he said it was there in other trades as well.

“If you want to achieve something in life, then one has to take risks. There will be either success or failure. Last year, a national television channel telecast a programme that the cryptocurrency will be banned. There was panic and people started withdrawing their money and the Indian market crashed. That time, my portfolio too crashed by 40 per cent. In 2017 too, there was a parabolic dump of Bitcoin that is considered the master of crypto currency.  But, when I started dealing with Bitcoin, its price was Rs. 15,000 then. And now, it is 35 lakhs,” he said.

• BlockTower Capital’s Michael Bucella is bullish on crypto, noting that volatility in Bitcoin and Ethereum or other crypto isn’t surprising at all.

As Bitcoin price plummets to lows last seen in July 2021, crypto investor and BlockTower Capital general manager Michael Bucella says retailers should use this as an opportunity to re-enter the market.

The entrepreneur also says that while volatility remains a key issue for some investors, it should not be a surprise to the market given the asset class is still maturing.

Despite a “blowout” in prices that has seen the benchmark crypto fall more than 50% from its all-time high; the investor says Bitcoin’s future outlook is bright.

In a previously recorded interview with CNBC, Bucella noted crypto is likely to see fresh momentum as broader markets look to bounce from the latest sell-off. He says the expectation of higher interest rates from the Fed and other central banks continues to weigh on investor sentiment.

However, with liquidity in crypto available 24/7, the BlockTower Capital executive sees an upside materialising to keep Bitcoin price above a long-term bullish trend. He said the flagship cryptocurrency was “firmly in growth mode” even as it trades alongside the trends in the risky assets market.

On the issue of volatility, Bucella points to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as “a young asset class.” In this case, wild price moves such as witnessed over the years should not be “too surprising.”

He also says the degradation seen over the last several months follows the sharp rise in Bitcoin and Ether in the first half of 2021. He says the price surge that catapulted the coins to fresh was more out of value creation and not fundamental growth.

However, he sees crypto accelerating upwards amid fundamental growth as market structures reestablish themselves.

The analyst also says crypto has held well in the face of the sell-off, compared to some traditional assets in the IPO and SPAC markets that are down as much as 80% over the past few weeks.

By coming together and setting up a single-purpose trust structure as the entity underwriting the deal, the investment banks can get around allegations that they’re involved in collusion.

This market response, of course, makes it even harder for the ACCC and the CDPP to justify continuing with their case.

But the fiasco surrounding ANZ’s $2.5 billion capital raising highlights an important question about the quality of the information flow to the market.

‘Disturbing’ silence

As Clime Asset Management’s chairman, John Abernethy, pointed out in an article published on the fund manager’s website in August 2015, there was a deafening market silence regarding the large shortfall on the $2.5 billion placement.

At the time, Abernethy penned an article speculating that there had been a shortfall, and the investment banks underwriting the deal had been left “holding some of the can”.

In an article published three years later, Abernethy argued that this silence was disturbing.

“We would suggest that the institutional or sophisticated market for Australian equities knew very quickly after the ANZ placement that there was a shortfall and therefore a possible overhang,” he wrote.

“The market for ANZ shares immediately traded below the placement price.”

But, he added, this raises question of why major banking analysts were silent on the obvious shortfall in the ANZ placement.

“How could any banking analyst who has any understanding of the market not warn their clients and readers that there was a probable overhang of ANZ stock that will affect its market price until cleared?”

Abernethy argued that there was probably a range of buyers for the ANZ shares, including index funds, active long-only funds, active long-short funds, international funds and highly geared and hyperactive hedged funds.

Hedge funds, he noted, are the biggest source of brokerage for stockbrokers, particularly those owned by investment banks. “They are huge generators of broking commissions because they are big traders, and they reward the delivery of good ideas and stock placements,” he wrote. “Hyperactive hedge funds are given access to all deals and are well looked after.”

It appears that younger investors are keen to play in markets where they believe system is less rigged against them.

In the case of the ANZ placement, he argued, it’s possible that hedge funds bid aggressively, which might explain the dearth of commentary on the overhang of ANZ stock.

“It seems to us that the information wasn’t made public because the major market players, commission agents and trading funds needed to protect each other from losses.”

This, of course, resulted in a big asymmetry in the market between the sophisticated professional players and the rest.

As Abernethy noted, “there is a swag of advisers and retail investors who – through lack of knowledge and experience – may have had no idea that an overhang existed in the market.

“Indeed, it was not only the shortfall held by underwriters, but the shares held by wrong-footed traders that would depress the ANZ price for months.”

ACCC focus on the wrong issue

But this raises a serious issue for Australian regulators as to how well-informed the market really is.

As Abernethy wrote: “The stock market has been gamed in so many ways, and the ACCC has chosen to focus on a part that is not the real problem. The most blatant rigging is in information flow.”

It is likely the widespread perception that stock markets are rigged in favour of well-placed Baby Boomers at least partly explains the huge interest that Millennials and Gen Z-ers are showing in alternative assets, particularly the 8800 cryptocurrencies now on offer.

As an asset class, cryptocurrency boasts a staggering market value of almost $US3 trillion ($4 trillion), or roughly the equivalent of a quarter of the world’s mined gold.

It appears that younger investors are keen to play in markets where they believe system is less rigged against them, and where they’re not dependent on analysts or advisers to decipher the market.

Eye-watering returns

Indeed, in these asset classes digital natives have an advantage over traditional investors because they’re able to profit from their ability to pick chat room trends quickly.

They’re able to monitor chat rooms and detect when particular cryptocurrencies – or meme stocks – are generating lots of mentions.

And the returns from these non-traditional assets have been eye-watering.

During the meme stock mania in January –where retail investors targeted stocks with high interest from short sellers, hoping to punish the hedge funds who had laid large bets that the company’s share price would fall – professional investors lost billions of dollars as the share prices of companies such as GameStop, AMC Entertainment and BlackBerry soared.

Rather than relying on analysts, young, newbie investors used platforms such as Reddit, Discord, Facebook and Twitter to exchange information, boast about their gains, and even organise concerted action to intensify the losses suffered by professional traders.

Hedge funds, in turn, complained that social media hordes were conspiring to manipulate markets.

The run-up in cryptocurrency values has been even more dazzling.

Dogecoin, a dog-themed cryptocurrency that started out as a parody less than a decade ago is now valued at $US34.4 billion.

Its market value was briefly eclipsed by the Shiba Inu coin, another dog-themed joke currency that reached $40 billion last week before it tumbled 20 per cent on Thursday. Shiba Inu’s price has since recovered, giving it a market value of $US34.5 billion.

Of course, not all cryptocurrencies are winners. Last week, the value of a Squid coin – a once red-hot cryptocurrency named after the Netflix hit series Squid Game – collapsed from a high of just over $US2860 to effectively zero in an apparent swindle.

Despite the danger and the volatility, however, younger investors prefer to take their chances with these cultish assets, rather than confine themselves to traditional markets, which they believe are rigged against them.