August 2022 Crypto Market Update

This month’s snapshot reinforces the view that the majority of you are totally committed to the crypto rocketship. For the 2nd month running we are seeing 4 times as many buys as sells; yet again it seems that you all think this is a great time to buy.  

Having said that, there was a continuation of the trend for a much more balanced buy and sell order flow when you consider value with stablecoins yet again the most popular asset that people are selling.

This month’s bolter by volume was… Ethereum (ETH). We’re pretty excited by the merge and its progress, and it looks like you are too.

Related: What to expect after the Ethereum merge.

What people are buying

Let’s look at  what you are all buying. It looks like the shift to layer 1, or potentially less speculative assets, continues with our most popular assets being BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, ADA as well as Stablecoins.

Again this differs slightly to global trends which seem to have a much stronger preference for BNB and SOL.

Want to see how the coins above performed last week? Check our crypto live rates.

View the latest rates: Check our crypto live rates here.

Buying crypto with credit cards in NZ

In terms of how you guys are buying, we are pleased to see that the launch of our Stripe backed Credit Card service has been widely used, with a rapid shift of around 10 % of our orders using this service. 

This was one of our most customer requested features, and for us a bit of a coup to get off the ground, so we are stoked that you like it. 

Related: Read all about our partnership with Stripe.

Obviously, there was a bit of a blip toward the end of the month in asset prices. This has some analysts calling the bottom, while others are saying it’s too early and there’s just too much macro uncertainty?

As we said last month – only time will tell.

What’s been happening in the crypto space?

There’s been quite the activity this month in the crypto market at the moment. Below are some of the highlights that we’ve curated.

1. Bitcoin Miners are having to sell as the winter sets in, a trend that is looking to continue.
2. The fall-out from the collapse of 3 Arrows Capital continued as they went into Liquidation.   
   1. Unfortunately, it looks like they have taken down quite a few other players on the way – Voyager, Vauld and Blockfi have all been mentioned.
   2. Celsius looked like it was righting its ship and paying down its obligations particularly in the DeFi space.  However it eventually succumbed and filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. This means it’s continuing to operate, however according to BNC, withdrawals are still paused. 
   3. Finally, it looks like Digital Currency Group – owners of Coindesk, Grayscale Trust and Genesis Trading could be the latest party affected.
   4. The hope is that 3AC contagion may now have run its course, but only time will tell. Here’s hoping. 
3. These collapses are driving a really interesting narrative about the strength of the DeFi ecosystem.  On the face of it, it’s pretty hard to argue with.

• In a really long article, Bitmex’s Arthur Hayes wades in and gives us his view of the whole 3 Arrows Collapse and subsequent contagion. The TLDR is that these centralised venues aren’t transparent, so we don’t know how they deploy people’s assets, and unlike DeFi, people are involved so risk creep happened. The other key takeaway, DeFi (ie software) worked perfectly throughout the whole period. 
• Coindesk takes this slightly further and says we made all the mistakes of TradeFi to get here. 

4. There has been a big jump in Stablecoin holdings across the market, some people think this is a sign of people getting ready to buy back in to the market   
5. There has also been a move away from exchanges holding people’s crypto due to the current trend of companies freezing their withdrawals.
6. In South Africa, their Regulator, the Reserve Bank, has finally ruled on Crypto as a Financial Asset.
7. The Ethereum Merge (when they merge the Beacon Chain – currently in testnet, with the mainchain and move to Proof of Stake) appears to be getting closer with another successful merge of a testnet happening, this time Sepolia.  
   1. The pervading narrative in the ETH community is that post merge, ETH too will become deflationary, in that it Burns more tokens than it issues.  The calls for a  flippening of Bitcoin will become louder and louder. Watch this space.  
   2. And it looks like institutional investors are starting to take notice of this which could be the reason why the ETH price responded so well this month
   3. This investor excitement was followed up by the announcement of a “ SOFT” date for the Merge in September.

Missed last month’s market update? Read last month’s crypto updates.

That’s it for our August update! Keep in mind, when in doubt, remember to zoom out and observe things with context!

We hope you found something useful for your awareness of what’s happening out in the crypto space.

If you enjoyed reading this, let us know what type of stuff you want to see more of – please drop a comment on our Facebook or LinkedIn!