📔 Weekly Journal: Storm has passed? ⛈⛅🌤
[6 min read] Your guide to getting ahead on the digital frontier (& the weekend!). Today, the usual market news as well what the settlement from Binance could mean for the market.
Welcome to this week’s Weekly Journal 📔, your guide to the latest news & innovation in emerging technology, digital assets, and our exciting path to the Metaverse. This is week 51 of the 520 weeks of newsletters I have committed to, a decade of documenting our physical and digital lives converge.
New subscribers are encouraged to check out the history & purpose of this newsletter as well as the archive.
Enjoy your weekend! 😎
Ryan
Here’s what you’re getting today:
📈 Market update: Binance CEO has stepped down and pleaded guilty to charges, Binance has agreed to pay about $4.3 billion to resolve the DOJ's investigations. A relief rally ensued.
🗞️ Interesting news: Singapore's MAS will tighten regulations on crypto service providers from mid-2024 to safeguard retail customers, and the Metaverse-themed ETF climbing again.
👓 Read of the week: Lyn Alden explores how Bitcoin and stablecoins are revolutionising the legacy money system, while warning about the vulnerable U.S. fiscal situation and its potential inflationary consequences.
🎥 Video of the week: A panel of industry leaders explore the shift in the metaverse narrative from a conceptual vision to mixed reality
🤖 AI: Explore the survey indicating that AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have become mainstream in 2023, but over 50% of tech professionals surveyed consider them overhyped.
✅ Weekly poll: Help choose the emerging tech topic for Wednesday’s showcase.
🤑 DCA with me: Follow my regular $50 weekly investing in an emerging asset class.
Market Update
While there is much wringing of hands about Binance news (more below), the consensus seems to be that this is now a storm that has passed allowing the market to move on. 2024 has many catalysts for the start of a bull market and getting this news out of that way is a move in the right direction long term. After a bit of volatility, overall the market responded positively.
In NZ, signs of winning the war on inflation. Westpac, the first major New Zealand bank to cut rates since the Reserve Bank paused cash rate hikes in July, is reducing longer-term fixed home loan rates. New Zealand wholesale interest rates falling suggest potential mortgage rate cuts. Kiwibank's chief economist anticipates lower mortgage rates next year, reflecting changing market conditions.
🔥🗺️ 7-day heatmap below shows an expected pullback after a ripping few weeks
🎭 Crypto Fear and Greed Index is based on volatility, social media sentiments, surveys, market momentum, and a few other bits and pieces. Still in low “greed” zone as we would expect
Interesting news from this week🗞️
Digital Assets News 🌐:
🤝🏻Binance's CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), has stepped down and pleaded guilty to charges involving violations of the Bank Secrecy Act as part of a settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. Binance has agreed to pay about $4.3 billion to resolve the DOJ's investigations. The case has been weighing over the market for a long time so this settlement will allow Binance to continue its operations and focus on its future growth.
🔐 Singapore's MAS will tighten regulations on crypto service providers from mid-2024 to safeguard retail customers. Measures include banning local credit card payments and incentives for trading. MAS emphasizes crypto's inherent risks and urges caution. Business conduct rules mandate policies, complaint handling, and dispute resolution. Previous supervision enhancements require statutory trust for customer assets.
ⓂThe Roundhill Ball Metaverse ETF (METV) is climbing back up again. The METV aims to provide investors with a curated selection of companies poised to shape the future of the Metaverse. With a focus on the Ball Metaverse Index, it provides exposure to the evolving digital landscape. The fund, listed on NYSE Arca, has an expense ratio of 0.59%, AUM of $436 million, and 46 holdings. Top holdings include Roblox, Apple, Meta Platforms, NVIDIA, and Microsoft. As of today the ETF has a 1-year return of 28.39% (But -37.04% return since inception!)
👓Read of the Week
This week’s read comes from the amazing Lyn Alden’s Nov Newsletter: “160 Different Currency Bubbles”. It’s a great read, here is the synopsis:
New monetary technologies: Lyn discusses how Bitcoin and stablecoins are disrupting the existing legacy money system and giving people more choice and access to better money, especially in developing countries with high inflation or financial authoritarianism.
Bitcoin vs stablecoins: Lyn explains the trade-offs between Bitcoin, which is decentralised, hard, and volatile, and stablecoins, which are centralized, inflationary, and less volatile. She also describes how Taproot Assets can enable stablecoins to flow more natively across the Bitcoin/Lightning network.
Bitcoin adoption and volatility: Lyn argues that Bitcoin is still in the early adopter phase and faces periods of mania, dilution, technical risk, and regulation risk. She suggests that Bitcoin will become less volatile as it reaches higher market capitalization, liquidity, and network effects.
U.S. fiscal situation: Lyn warns that the U.S. fiscal situation is weaker than any time in modern history, with structural deficits, rising debt, and low interest rates. She expects that this will manifest as above-target inflation during economic re-accelerations, unless there is a recession or near-recession.
🎥 Watch of the week
I really enjoyed this video, which explores the shift in the metaverse narrative from a conceptual vision to mixed reality. The guests highlight the increased demand for immersive experiences despite initial setbacks. The conversation delves into the role of AI, especially in asset generation, and the integration of web3 and decentralisation in shaping the metaverse's future. The importance of reducing costs and addressing regulatory concerns is also discussed. Highlight time stamps below:
02:16 A vision of the Metaverse
15:22 The integration of AI in the Metaverse
22:26 Web3 & Decentralization
AI 🎨🤖🎵✍🏼
A recently published Retool survey indicates that AI tools, such as ChatGPT, have become mainstream in 2023, but over 50% of tech professionals surveyed consider them overhyped.
While widely adopted, respondents express skepticism, with 23.4% deeming AI fairly rated. AI is expected to transform industries, but concerns about governance and ethics persist. Engineers rely less on Stack Overflow, attributing the shift to tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT.
Companies pursue AI for cost savings and trendiness, yet accuracy issues and data security remain challenges. OpenAI's ChatGPT dominates natural language offerings, but off-the-shelf solutions prevail over customisation. There is still plenty of value to discover in focused use cases, 2024 is going to be exciting to watch 🍿
Weekly Poll ✅
Help choose what you would like to learn about on Wednesday for my weekly emerging tech showcase:
That’s all for the free version this week! If you have any organisations in mind that could benefit from learning about emerging technology, be sure to reach out. Educational workshops are one of many consulting services I offer.
DCA With Me 🤑
Dollar Cost Averaging is an investment strategy in which an investor regularly invests a fixed amount of money into a particular asset/asset class at regular intervals, regardless of its current market price. By doing so, the investor can reduce the impact of market volatility and potentially earn a better return over time. Motto = time IN the market beats trying to time the market
To experiment with this, I invest $50 NZD into a Digital Asset every week. Each week I will choose an asset that seems underpriced in the short term and has positive long-term potential. My timeframe is 3-5 years. I don’t give financial advice but if you want to follow along with me you can use my easycrypto.co.nz referral link to support this newsletter. Let’s dive into this week’s pick:
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