X Marks The Spot

The News From Planet Ruby—Friday, July 28, 2023

One of the leading Earth technologists, the ape known as Elon, has once again proved a staunch supporter of decentralized systems. He has already done more for the adoption of cryptocurrencies than any other human.

Now, his ambition is to decentralize social media, by driving users away from his "X" platform to as many competitors as possible. We await his next move with intense curiosity.

Has The Fed Threaded The Needle?

As things stand, the Fed seems to have achieved its near impossible aim of bringing down inflation without crushing the economy. However, the Soft Landing is in jeopardy. We don't know how, only that one of the most reliable indicators in existence is sounding its klaxon.

Elon Musk continues his plans to destroy/upgrade Twitter/X (delete as appropriate) by turning it into a WeChat-style "Everything App" that will include payments. X could, he says—if "done right"—account for half of the world's financial system.

Wednesdays FOMC meeting provided precisely zero surprises. The committee raised the headline interest rate by 25 bps to 525-550, which was expected with 99% confidence by the market. Accordingly, risk assets like stocks and bitcoin barely batted an eyelid.

Bitcoin Feels The Squeeze

Having closed last week just above $30,000, bitcoin promptly dropped $1,000 into its long-term support zone. While this seems a significant move in dollar terms, the market is showing low volatility and low trading volumes. Bollinger Bands on the weekly timeframe have narrowed to historic levels. This suggests that a large move is on the horizon, though whether that's up or down cannot be known in advance.

The Fear and Greed Index is neutral (52), and not even Jay Pow could convince BTC to wake up. $16 million in bids was positioned just below $28,000 on Binance, poised to take advantage of any Fed-induced crash. It wasn't tapped, though that could be about to change as bitcoin is heading lower, currently changing hands around the $29,100 level and sat on the 50-day moving average.

Altcoins have begun to stir, following the partial victory for Ripple, but even that is muted. Bitcoin Dominance is down 2% from its high above 50% a month ago.

1984 Calls

Price action has been relatively quiet but there have been some big developments in the crypto world. The Sam Altman-backed Worldcoin project formally launched, ushering in a world of eyeball-scanning AI-powered surveillance that could make 1984 look like the Wild West.

Dogecoin saw some action on the back of Elon's move to rebrand Twitter as X, but there is (as yet) no suggestion that cryptocurrencies might prove a meaningful part of his plan to turn the social network into a financial super-app.

A couple of weeks back, Standard Chartered stunned the crypto space by predicting that bitcoin would hit $120,000 by the end of 2024. It turns out that options markets are not nearly so optimistic. Futures markets estimate the possibility of ATH by June 2024 at around 1%. Meanwhile a survey of 29 financial experts have offered an average figure of around $40k by year end.

What's New In The SKALEVERSE?

There's some big news for Ruby.Exchange, as decentralized dollar-cost averaging (DCA) orders have launched—a first for the DeFi space! Check out our How-To guide and a special piece of in-depth analysis about What DCA Interval Is Best?

Meanwhile, Ruby's dual reward offer has ended. Thank you to everyone who participated. Make sure you claim any SKL and USDP rewards from Ruby's farming page. Active LP positions will continue to earn RUBY.

Finally, this exciting piece of news came in from the SKALE CEO:

That's all for this week!

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