More than a few gasps were heard around the world when US Congressman Brad Sherman proposed a law to ban the purchase of all cryptocurrencies.
Brad has by far been the most outspoken anti-crypto US lawmaker, it's also no secret that most of his campaign financing comes from those who stand to lose most should the crypto movement succeed.
In his proposal, Congressman Sherman highlighted that the main advantage of cryptocurrencies is to aid in taking the power away from the US Government. Well, that's only partially true.
The reason bitcoin was created was to provide an alternative to fiat money, which is controlled by governments and banks. However, this is only a real advantage if the governments and banks aren't doing a good job of promoting a free and fair economy.
In the words of Saifedean Ammous...
As we know, crypto cannot be shut down, but in the off chance that Sherman does gain support for this ridiculous bill, it will only serve to strengthen bitcoin's use case.
Today's Highlights
Stocks Off the Highs
Uber (NYSE:UBER) Day
How Many Crytpo?
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of May 10th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Traditional Markets
Stock markets have retreated from their all-time highs on the news that...
What's most intriguing is that Chinese stocks (white line) seem to be bucking the overall negative sentiment in the markets and are actually up today.
Also, if we zoom out on the charts, we can see that even though this week started with some rough tweets, stocks haven't really declined all that much. Here we can see that the S&P500 index is only 3% off it's all-time highest level.
Obviously, different analysts have different ways of interpreting this.
Uber Day
Today the market will see it's most exciting public offering since Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) went live in 2012. Because this is a global brand that people already have a strong connection with, it makes the demand on the stock that much greater, no matter the price.
The price, however, has already come down significantly. After reportedly seeking a total of $100 billion it seems the underwriters are now looking to settle for about $82 billion. Not bad for a company that has never made a profit.
In any case, the appetite for these shares, I believe, will speak volumes about the current market conditions and overall investor sentiment.
How Much Crypto?
Bitcoin has been making some slow but steady advances over the last few days and is now trading firmly above $6,000... on all exchanges.
Even the Bitfinex premium that we've been talking about these last few days has begun to erode. Buying bitcoin on Bitfinex with USDT at the moment will only cost you about $75 more than it will elsewhere.
We also saw a major hack on the world's largest exchange, which has caused a bit of a stir on social media. As far as the price is concerned though, it's clear that cryptotraders remain unfazed.
By now it's clear to all that no matter what happens on global exchanges or with whatever stablecoin, bitcoin will be just fine.
With that in mind, we've also been discussing lately the question of how much crypto a rational investor should hold in their portfolio, and we do have some results to share with you.
This Forbes article asks some of the top investment analysts in the crypto space...
I must say, the answers from the "experts" are drastically different from those that I received on social media.
Let's have a fantastic week ahead!
eToro, Senior Market Analyst
Disclosure: This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation. Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you're prepared to lose.