Regulatory support fails to lift investor spirits

Hello and welcome! It’s yet another day in the cryptosphere and the world of finance. And we’re back again to catch you up on all the developments this past week—from increased interest rates to more regulatory support for the crypto market. But first, a quick investment lesson for any middle-class souls out there aspiring to invest in a mutual fund.

Most of us who belong to the great Indian middle class probably know how hard it is to save. And setting aside money for investing may seem like an even more distant dream. But it doesn’t have to be like that—thanks to Systematic Investment Plans (SIPs). Investing in a mutual fund via SIPs is like taking a sip instead of chugging a whole pint in one go. Meaning, you can invest a (small) fixed amount regularly to build a corpus over time. And the best part is that it leaves you with a much larger corpus than saving the same sum would allow.

Want to learn more about them? Watch the episode below to understand how SIPs function, and why they make for a disciplined and convenient investment option.

Found this video useful? Make sure to check in here next week, and head to the CoinSwitch Money channel for many other informative videos!

The crypto markets largely traded sideways last week with prices remaining range-bound. The overall crypto market cap stayed above $1.2 trillion. Market leaders BTC and ETH saw compressed volatility as overall trading volumes remained low. Despite both falling slightly during the week, their prices have stayed near the $29K and $1.8K levels respectively.

DeFi trading was rather subdued—the lowest since the beginning of 2023—due to crypto native investors waiting for directional triggers.

A major macroeconomic event did, however, unfold in the US. The Fed hiked interest rates by another 25 bps, signaling it was ready to “keep rates higher for longer.” This could have a negative impact on risk-on assets, including crypto.

On a positive note, though, there was also something to cheer about from a regulatory perspective. The US House Financial Services Committee voted in favor of crypto and blockchain bills. This was the first time crypto-specific bills were advanced on their own merits rather than as part of broader legislation.

The crypto market saw lot of token-specific events that resulted in outliers on both sides of price action.

On the negative side of things, an exploit in Curve Finance’s liquidity pools led to widespread panic in the DeFi ecosystem. The CRV token thus fell by over 15% as a result. Ripple’s XRP token, which had shot up over the past few weeks after a US court ruled in its favor and against the SEC, came under brisk selling pressure. XRP’s price corrected by over 10% during the week.

On the positive end of the spectrum were DOGE and MKR. DOGE’s price soared following the decision to change Twitter's brand logo to “X” and the revelation of plans to offer financial services on the platform. Meanwhile, Maker DAO's MKR token surged as its token buyback scheme went live. The scheme is on track to remove some $7 million of MKR governance tokens from the market over the next month.

So to sum it up, here’s how things are looking:

• DOGE : 6.29% ⏫ $0.07

• MKR: 24.32% ⏫ $1,292.66

• CRV: 14.46% ⏬ $0.64

• XRP: 1.94% ⏬ $0.70

(All data here is as of 2.45 pm, 31 July 2023.)

It always helps to understand what’s making the market move. That’s why we highlight all the latest news to help you make sense of all the action.

• Japan PM Fumio Kishida reaffirmed Web 3.0 plans and highlighted its potential to transform the internet and kindle social change. Kishida made the comment as part of the keynote address at the WebX conference in Tokyo. Read more here.

• Sam Altman’s Worldcoin Protocol has launched the WLD token on Optimism Mainnet it migrated to. The Worldcoin milestone comes with World ID expansion and global Orb deployment plans. Read more here.

• The market cap of stablecoins has hit the lowest level since August 2021 after a 16-month long decline, a recent report from crypto analytics platform CCData reveals. The stablecoin market dominance has fallen to 10.3% of the total crypto market cap. Read more here.

• Ethereum tuned 8 yesterday. On 30 July 2015, Stephen Taul, the former CCO of Ethereum Foundation, announced the loading of the network’s genesis block via a blog. Read more here.

• Several stable pools on Curve Finance, a stablecoin exchange on Ethereum, were exploited on 31 July. The hackers used the Vyper programming language to launch the attack. Read more here.

• Twitter rebranding to “X” has fueled fresh speculation about CEO Elon Musk integrating payments directly with the platform, including crypto options. Musk during the first all-hands meeting in June had said the idea of bringing payments directly onto the platform would make sense. Read more here.

Now that you’ve got that headstart on Monday’s trading, take a minute to refresh your crypto memory with our weekly crossword.

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

See you later, folks!

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