The Breakdown

The Coronavirus got really extra real today for markets. A two and a half week selloff was tipped to the next level by a major ratcheting up of action from the US government (which still seemed clearly to be not enough to calm markets).  In bitcoin, this meant a drop from around $8000 yesterday to under $6000 today - a head-spinning dump, especially for those who are more recent to crypto.  Still, in this episode, @NLW argues that there are 7 good reasons to keep calm and HODL on: It’s not just bitcoin  Correlation means infiltration Peak fear  Asia on the upswing  Buy order behavior  Bitcoin’s been dead before   And a bonus: this environment is exactly what bitcoin was built for

The week of February 12, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was reaching new all time highs. Meanwhile, China’s quarantine of the 11 million people in Wuhan was three weeks old and expanding to other parts of the country.  While the global equities markets have finally started to catch up to the fear of a global pandemic, the Coronavirus has been one a profound case study in the power of narratives to shape behavior. Even now, those seeking to contain the spread in the US are fighting against narratives from leadership that range from “it’s just the flu” to “it’s a hoax from the media.”  On today’s episode of The Breakdown, NLW speaks with Epsilon Theory co-founder and market theorist Ben Hunt, who makes it his business to understand how narratives are shape and shaped by the world around us.  Since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak, Ben has been a clarion voice in the chaos. This episode is no exception.

Whatever you thought of the uncorrelated or safe haven narratives a few weeks ago, it’s hard to deny that bitcoin and crypto are moving in lock step with equities - even mirroring a small bounce in the morning that retreated in the early afternoon.  On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at hot takes on the narrative from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and crypto investor Ari David Paul.  Not all the news is bleak, however. Also on this episode, we break down recent financings for  Argent’s de-fi friendly wallet  Horizon Games’ blockchain-based Hearthstone/MtG style game SkyWeaver Futureswap’s decentralized futures exchange and more

Bitcoin’s price has cratered, but it’s nothing compared to the broader market havoc. From the Coronavirus scare to an oil price war, a confluence of factors is aligning to make it a very rough Monday.  On this episode of The Breakdown, @nlw is joined by Delphi Digital’s Kevin Kelly to discuss: Why the stock market is just catching up to what the bond markets have been saying Why the bond markets have been a better reflection of potential economic pain  Why we need to pay attention to what happens in the credit markets  The role of the oil price war in today’s market drop  What the declining bitcoin price means for the safe haven and uncorrelated asset narratives Which assets are actually acting like safe havens

The full week's episodes in one convenient package The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham What Us Election Outcome Is Best for Bitcoin? Libra Plus? A New Global Digital Currency Strategy For Facebook Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants Riccardo 'Fluffypony' Spagni on How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy

As the Coronavirus took hold in China, officials in the Hubei province tracked potential patients by examining purchase records for cough and flu medicine for the previous month.  Welcome to the new frontiers of privacy. In this wide-ranging episode, @NLW chats with former lead maintainer of Monero and Tari co-founder Riccardo Spagni - aka @FluffyPony on Twitter - about privacy in the context of: The recent arrest of DropBit CEO Larry Harmon surrounding bitcoin mixer technology being used for illicit purposes  The US govt’s battle against end-to-end encryption  Central bank digital currencies  At home devices like Alexa and Google home  Clearview AI and facial recognition China’s response to Coronavirus  Why individual apathy is the greatest threat to privacy in the world

It was another good day for global crypto, as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies.  In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low cost energy with 7000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of US-based mining in 2020.  In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership between ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close.  Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin.

Yesterday, The Information reported that Facebook’s Calibra wallet would be abandoning the backed-by-a-basket-of-currencies Libra for a set of fiat-backed digital currencies for different regions. The company quickly amended that while they would be launching those fiat-based digital currencies, they weren’t abandoning Libra. In this episode, @NLW argues that these fiat digital currencies could be more readily adopted initially than Libra among Facebook’s existing user base.  Also on this episode, huge news out of India, as the Supreme Court reverses a decision by the Reserve Bank of India from 2018 to ban crypto banking. The move could breath life into an industry which has largely shuttered in India since the initial ban.  Finally, a news roundup including a lawsuit against Twitter around deplatforming and a new router from HTC that can also run a bitcoin full node.   

Today is Super Tuesday - the biggest day of the US primary election season. Increasingly, prediction markets and pollsters suggest it’s a two person race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders (although Mike Bloomberg has insisted he’s staying in).  In this episode, NLW breaks down each candidate in the context of their positions vis a vis cryptocurrency, as well as looking at the possible role of three other fallen contenders in the rest of the campaign.  As Bernie leads the Twitter poll, the question arises: do people think Bernie will be good for bitcoin because he shares the same values of prioritizing the little guy over big banks, or because they think his programs will demand so much QE it will send bitcoin to the moon?  Listen and find out.

When everyone wrote their 2020 crypto prediction pieces, China featured prominently in everything from the exchange business to enterprise blockchain to the potential impact of a forthcoming digital yuan.  Coronavirus erased those issues from focus. On this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by Matthew Graham, CEO of Sino Global Capital. For the past 7 years, Matthew has lived in China and for the past several years, his exclusive focus has been on crypto and blockchain.  In this episode, they discuss: What Chinese crypto and blockchain investors were focused on before Coronavirus The shift in the crypto and blockchain narrative in China post-Libra  What living through the Coronavirus has actually been live (and how it differs from the media narrative in the US)  Why enterprise blockchain is poised to be one of the most dominant focuses for China-centric investors this year