China crypto ban made the sell-off worse, but PBOC balance sheet growth matters more than posturing and is not the only key market driver - rally remains intact
In our crypto flash Monday night, we laid out 9 reasons we thought Bitcoin was close to a bottom around $40k.
But yesterday crypto markets went for a wild ride. We got yet another sharp move lower below $30k but have since bounce back and are now at $41k.
Part of this was due to leverage liquidations, but part of the move was also sparked by negative news of China banning crypto.
Source: Fundstrat, Google
This is not the first time China has made such a move. It happened back in December 2013 and September 2017.
In 2013 it marked the top of the bull market cycle. But in 2017 it preceded a massive move higher.
We can look at the timeline of these events in the context of Bitcoin’s prior market valuation cycles using the Grider Bitcoin Book Value multiple.
Source: Fundstrat, Coinmetrics
After the Bitcoin sell off we just had one question, could this China ban cause us to enter a new bear market or is this just a correction in a bigger move higher?
We think this China news headline posturing impacted the market, but we don’t think it matters as much for the cycle as the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) balance sheet growth.
We can see there is a strong relationship between PBOC year ov...Reports you may have missed
Caution in the Near-term Still Warranted, Q4 Setup Remains Compelling (Core Strategy Rebalance)
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...