Bear box

Market Report: 8th Jan. 2019 — Subscribe to our newsletter.

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OUR TWO SATOSHIS

New year, new takes on Britain’s strangest news

The boredom of Brexit knows no bounds as a rehearsal traffic jam grabbed headlines yesterday. Whilst in other high tech news, the alleged ‘sonic weapon’ used against the US embassy in Cuba in 2017 might have been… crickets. Entomological warfare is nothing new, just ask this Virginia household when their Christmas tree had more than one unwelcome guest.

IT’S A FINEX DAY

People open windows. They leave their trading desks. Just want a short walk

The crypto market has fared relatively well in face of what some expected to be an eventful day. Prices are only down 1.5% on average over the past 24 hours after a major exchange completed around eight hours of maintenance, being offline during that period. This is good news as it signals large market players didn’t take advantage of the situation to influence prices, contrary to what happened in August on an equivalent day.

BEAR BOX

“When a mysterious force decimates the population, only one thing is certain. The survivors must now avoid coming face to face with an entity that takes the form of their worst fears.”

Now the important question is whether this is because taking advantage of such opportunities is more difficult these days — or just less appealing. Remember the US SEC cited market manipulation concerns in its many Bitcoin ETF rejection letters. Meanwhile, ether continues hovering below $150, after having failed to break the $160 resistance three times. @CryptoCred posits $140 is the critical level to watch out for.

All in all, is this a signal shorts will get their way, as Ramen keeps preaching given the “way too bullish sentiment”? @CryptoUB argues so. On the other side, Quijote is expecting an expansion this week. As it’s more likely you click on the bullish link, we urge you to also check @MoonOverlord’s comparison of the same analysis framed in both bullish and bearish ways — so you can reflect upon your biases and “listen to the birds”.

WHAT YOU CAN’T MISS TODAY

Don’t leave for the weekend what you should read today

▪ Ledger has gone wild in Las Vegas’s Consumer Electronics Show. It has announced a new crypto wallet with bluetooth to securely use it with mobile devices. Details here.

▪ In addition to Constantinople, the Ethereum community is debating whether to implement a new hard fork designed to block ASIC mining chips, as Eric Conner explains.

▪ Ethereum Classic underwent a 51% attack today. Emin Gün Sirer ‏goes through the major failure here.

▪ Anthony Sassano wrote a brief essay on “why ether is valuable”, arguing Ethereum’s native currency is used for more than transaction fees and has money-like properties.

▪ Do you want to win at least $1,150? Visit Paris and try to find Pascal Boyart’s latest graffiti. The mural honours the yellow vests movement and hides a Bitcoin puzzle!

QUOTE OF THE DAY

And you, what are you intrigued by?

“I am very intrigued by Bitcoin. It has all the signs. Paradigm shift, hackers love it, yet it’s derided as a toy. Just like microcomputers.”

by Paul Graham in a 2013 blog post on Y Combinator, the accelerator he co-founded