Crypto Strategy

A ROUGH STRETCH AMID RISING UNCERTAINTY SKEWS RISKS TO THE UPSIDE The past five trading days have been challenging for the crypto market, marked by significant uncertainty stemming from various geopolitical and economic events. Among the notable sources of market distress are:GEOPOLITICAL TENSIONS: Iran’s missile attack on Israel has led to heightened anticipation of an Israeli response, with oil prices spiking to $74.NATURAL DISASTERS: A devastating hurricane in the Southeast...

PBOC ONE-UPPING THE FED This week, China’s central bank initiated what we believe are the first steps in a broader effort to stimulate the economy, which is struggling to meet its annual growth target of around 5%. These new measures are aimed at reviving economic activity and restoring confidence, especially in the real estate and equity markets, both of which are facing significant challenges. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC)...

OUR VERDICT: POWELL NAILED IT Yesterday, Powell did exactly what risk assets wanted him to do—their actions were dovish, with a 50-bps cut and guidance for two more by year-end, but their economic commentary remained reassuring. Many bears point to this as hawkish, and since it's hawkish, it's implicitly bad for risk assets (including crypto). In our view, if Powell had taken a significantly more dovish stance than he did,...

INITIAL THESIS – SENATE MORE IMPORTANT THAN MANY RECOGNIZE This week, we witnessed what was the first – and potentially final – presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. Anticipation for this event was high, with the public initially favoring Trump, as reflected in prediction markets. This preference was largely attributed to Harris's lackluster debate track record. However, the dynamics shifted during the debate itself, with reactions in prediction...

THIS WEEK’S ECONOMIC DATA SKEWS TOWARD HARD-LANDING For this week’s note, we will begin by revisiting our market map for the near-term outlook on crypto. Over the past few months, the market has oscillated between expectations of a hard landing, soft landing, and no landing. However, since Powells’s speech at Jackson Hole, market outcomes have narrowed, leaving only the two scenarios furthest to the left—hard landing and soft landing. Both...

LOWER VOLUMES PERSIST Earlier this week, we witnessed approximately $2B in open interest being unwound within a matter of hours—a significant forced deleveraging event for an otherwise uneventful Tuesday, lacking a clear catalyst. In our view, the selloff was largely technical and indicative of the negative seasonality we've been discussing recently. To backtrack, Monday and Tuesday followed a dovish Fed pivot at Jackson Hole, sparking a sharp rally in soft-landing...

GOVERNMENT SELLING SEEMS TO BE COMPLETE Last week, we highlighted the negative seasonality from mid-August through September but emphasized that macro trends and identifiable crypto-specific factors should take precedence in assessing risk. _Source: TradingView, Fundstrat_ Since last week’s CPI print, conditions have been favorable for crypto – yields and the DXY have fallen in a non-recessionary manner (more Goldilocks than risk-off), and rate-sensitive assets like IWM and RSP have rallied....

MACRO DATA POINTS TO A SOFT LANDING The global deleveraging event last week was driven by weakening economic expectations and rising fears of a potential policy error by the Federal Reserve. At the height of this uncertainty, the market priced in a 50 bps cut for September, as recession risks took center stage. However, in just a few days, the narrative has shifted. The market is now leaning back towards...

WHAT HAPPENED We won't spend time diving deeply into the events of the past few days as most are likely already familiar. In short, concerns about a potential domestic recession were ignited last Friday following a weak jobs report. This caused the dollar, particularly the USDJPY, to decline, triggering an unwinding of the yen carry trade and leading to widespread deleveraging across global markets. During such a global margin call,...

IDEAL FOMC OUTCOME This week's events have been a reminder that while macro factors can align favorably, idiosyncratic elements can sometimes complicate the picture. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates steady until September. Notably, the FOMC statement emphasized the Fed's dual mandate, a significant shift from previous communications. Fed Chair Jerome Powell expressed a dovish stance, indicating a potential openness to rate cuts in September, contingent...

POLITICAL PREDICTION MARKETS PROVIDE PARTIAL RATIONALE FOR PAUSE IN RALLY We see the recent pause in the July rally driven by two factors:General Degrossing Across All Asset Markets: The past couple of days have seen degrossing across all asset markets, including the crypto markets. This is less crypto-specific and more of a function of the market rotating out of strategies (like the long MAG 7) that worked in the first...