Market Snapshot – Crypto Markets Correct Some of Their Weekend Gains

Cryto Markets Buoyant

The cryptocurrency markets have had a bullish weekend with several of the majors in the market showing some solid gains over the weekend. This is in contrast to some of the previous weekends where the markets had been jittery and which had led to more and more losses during the weekend with the liquidity being very thin during those periods. These solid gains over the last weekend have come about due to the settling of some of the fears that we have had regarding the regulations in South Korea and also regarding the hacks in a big exchange in Japan called Coincheck. These fears have been laid to rest more or less with the regulators in South Korea deciding to only tax the exchanges in line with other corporates over there and with the Japanese exchange agreeing to compensate the victims of the hack by around 80% of what they had lost. In addition to this, the NEM developers, the exchange wallets of which were hacked into, have decided to go after the hackers and block those wallets and coins which have been stolen. This decisive action from all sides has helped to strength the uncertainty around the crypto markets and though we are seeing some correction as of today, this is likely to only last for the short term.

Dollar On the Rise

The market is looking for further news and data during the course of the week as the stock markets around the world and the gold prices have also been correcting lower during the day. The strength of the dollar has been the theme of the day so far and it is likely to continue to be the same during the week as we await the end of the month and also look forward to the employment data, in the form of NFP, later in the week from the US. This piece of economic data is likely to sow the seeds for the rate hike which the market expects to arrive in March. The Fed is clearly dependent on the incoming data to guide its policy with regard to rate hikes and this piece of data assumes significance.