Hello and welcome to another edition of Overbit News, where we at Overbit.com try and bring you some of the top headlines around the financial industry, both for emerging and traditional markets.
In the past, we've talked a lot about growing institutional support from groups like banks, investment groups and even governments. Still, there's another wave of support for Bitcoin coming from an unlikely place - the cult of personalities.
Several high-profile celebrities have rushed to the side of cryptocurrency as of late, ranging from rappers to entrepreneurs and everything in-between. Although long a member of this list, Elon Musk has now fully and declaratively come out supporting Bitcoin. After changing his Twitter bio last Friday to "#Bitcoin", Musk doubled down on his support on the popular audio chat app, Clubhouse.
"I've got to watch what I say here because some of these things can really move the market," Musk made sure to preface his statements with. He went on to say how many friends have tried to get him involved in Bitcoin for a long time, though he never really bit on the idea. However, he seems to realize his missteps now, saying that "he should have at least bought some bitcoin eight years ago — talk about being late to the party."
Musk went on to summarize his general feelings on Bitcoin as such: "I do at this point think bitcoin is a good thing, and I am a supporter of bitcoin," he said. Musk went even further, saying that it's "on the verge of getting broad acceptance by conventional finance people".
It wasn't good news for all cryptocurrencies, though, as Elon said he did not have a "strong opinion" on other virtual currencies, even DogeCoin, a currency that he often dabbles in sharing memes of. Although markets didn't really react to Musk's event, it seems clear that with each passing day, fewer and fewer people have a reason to be against Bitcoin.
In our second story of the Day, all eyes are back on Ethereum, as the world's largest digital asset manager GrayScale, reopens its Ethereum Trust to investors. The timing of this reopening is quite interesting as Ethereum nears another attempt to finally and formidably break its all-time high. A close above $1500 denotes a clear signal that ETH, the world's 2nd largest crypto is back and back in style.
GrayScale closed their Trust in late December, and the reopening of the Trust should signal that investors are willing to buy Ethereum, and are bullish long term. Some eye-popping predictions are for Ethereum to top out in this cycle around $10,000, placing it over a 600% increase from current prices, definitely something to watch for.
In our last story of the week, we're taking a look at traditional markets, explicitly covering the British Pound. As a whole, the Pound is trading on a combination of better market sentiment surrounding the UK's successful vaccination programme and optimism on the BOE's decision, but market conditions could quickly change if the Bank of England cuts interest rates this week. Robert Howard, a Reuters market analyst, stated plainly that the "Sterling could suffer if the Bank of England unexpectedly cuts interest rates by ten basis points to zero next week,".
All in all, it would be best to wait and see on the BOE's decision before any major moves. The global markets are always rapidly evolving, so it's a given how important it is to stay on top of the top news stories in the global markets. As always, Overbit.com will be here to assist with that task.