Crypto markets remain lower range-bound after major selloff 📉

Hey folks!

Hello, and welcome to your weekly update on crypto markets and investments, complete with a small personal finance discussion and a fun crossword.

The past week has been subdued on the crypto front, with the market finding a lower anchor level. But today’s newsletter isn't limited to cryptos. Read on to explore the new addition to the letter.

Mutual fund investments are on the rise. You might also be a mutual fund investor, but do you know the significance of mutual fund changes, expense ratio, exit load, and lock-in period?

If the answer is no, then this video is for you. Here, our host talks about the meaning and the impact of mutual fund charges on your mutual fund investment. Hit the play button to elevate your financial literacy to make the most of your investments.

We had promised to simplify investments for you. We take our promises seriously. Today, we bring you a brand new segment aimed towards demystifying money. In this segment, we will talk about all things vitamin M centered around how to save money, ways to grow it, and much more.

The easiest thing about money is – earning

The toughest thing about money – multiplying it

The most important thing about money is; you need to nurture it for it to grow. And for your money to grow, you first need to start saving. We all know the theory but find it hard to practice. Therefore, we will cut the ribbon for this session with a discussion about savings.

Savings are nothing but controlling your expenses to put aside a fixed amount of money every month towards building a nest egg for rainy days. How do you achieve this? By tracking your expenses and building a budget. The general idea is that your budget should not be very conservative, and at the same time, it shouldn’t be very liberal. It should be enough to cover all your monthly expenses and some splurges.

For example, if you earn Rs. 60,000 a month, and your expenses look as below:

• Rent - Rs. 12,000

• Food and Groceries - Rs. 10,000

• Conveyance - Rs. 5000

• Utilities - Rs. 2000

• Shopping and splurge - Rs. 3000

Your necessary monthly expense comes to Rs. 30,000.

This is a personal thing and can vary; you can work out a budget for yourself. Once you have it, the way to preserve your earnings is by transferring your monthly budget to a different bank account.

Maintain two bank accounts. Your expenditure account should be separate from your salary or earning account. This method will make it easier for you to track your expenses. Cultivating this habit will help you develop financial discipline in the long run. This is a method widely practiced by many people who have mastered money management. Try this technique for your next month’s salary.

Developing discipline is a long process; you might slip a bit, but don’t stop it because it works out 100% in the first month. Do share your experiences with us in the comments section. As we go along, we’ll share more with you on investing and personal finance.

For now, let's jump on to the market update section to see how the cryptos performed last week.

Crypto markets found a new lower anchor level, as global macro uncertainties continue to throw curveballs and add to the risk-off sentiment. Particularly worth highlighting are the major slowdown signals coming from China and even the EU.

At the Jacksonville conference, Fed Chair Powell's take on not ruling out possible future interest rate hikes, resulted in further decreasing "risk-on" liquidity.

We are now witnessing some of the lowest trading volumes of this cycle across CEXs, DeFi TVL, and even stablecoins in circulation. Most tokens remained rangebound in trading last week, with the overall crypto market cap remaining just below $1.1 trillion.

Market leaders BTC and ETH are now trading around $26k and $1.6k levels, respectively, only slightly down last week. There was a lot of speculation in the markets regarding a new BTC wallet amassing over $3bn in Bitcoin over the last three months, with many suspecting this to be BlackRock. However, Arkham Intelligence later tagged the wallet to Robinhood Markets Trading.

There was a lot of token-specific action that's worth highlighting, although most positive gains were lost over the course of the week.

The massive jump in NVIDIA quarterly earnings firmly established the growth prospects of AI and sent related token prices higher. The major beneficiaries included FET, GRT, INJ, RNDR, and AGIX. In terms of negative price action, it was meme coin PEPE, which came under selling pressure as on-chain sleuths noted troubling changes to the oversight of a key whale wallet, sending prices lower by 15%.

• BTC $25,921 ⏬ 0.46%

• ETH $1,639 ⏬1.95%

• RNDR $1.38 ⏬ 0.43%

• PEPE $0.0000008677 ⏬ 21.62%

(All data here is as of 2.00 pm, 28 August 2023.)

As an investor, you probably want to understand what’s causing market movements. So here’s some news to help you process all the action.

• Komainu, the cryptocurrency custody joint venture of Nomura, Ledger, and CoinShares, has received an operating license from the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai. Read more here.

• Friend.tech, a platform enabling users to tokenize their social connections, surpassed well-known players in the crypto space like Uniswap and Bitcoin by generating over $1 million in fees within 24 hours of its release. Read more here.

• Crypto exchange Coinbase released a framework known as the “Base Neutrality Principles” outlining its plans to pursue decentralization and neutrality for its new Base blockchain. Read more here.

Books are the ultimate source of knowledge, entertainment, and peace. The wealth hidden in words has the power to reset life. We will be reviewing books centered around investment and personal finance in this newly minted segment.

Today, we bring to you a book that talks about laying the personal finance foundation in your 20s and 30s.

GET A FINANCIAL LIFE: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties

By: Beth Kobliner 

20s and 30s are when you lay your financial foundation. Fresh out of college and new entrants to the workforce, young graduates lack financial knowledge as our schools and colleges are silent on the money-saving front. This book will help you gain practical financial knowledge that will help you get your finances in order.

GET A FINANCIAL LIFE covers a lot of ground - from navigating credit scores, credit cards, and various types of loans to investing in stocks and bonds, finding a bank institution that works for you, and addressing claims during tax filing.

While written for the American system, the book is fundamentally sound and thus easy to resonate for us in India, especially since credit cards and credit card debt are starting to become an issue amongst the Indian youth with the rise in the popularity of credit cards.

Invest in this easy-to-understand financial book to gain a deeper understanding of personal finance concepts. This will help you straighten your personal finance position.

Before you get on with your day, don’t forget to flex those brain muscles with our weekly crypto crossword.

That’s it for now. Thanks for sticking around.

See you later, folks! 👋

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