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Today’s Stories:
OpenAI Ousts Sam Altman From CEO and Board Roles; Worldcoin Drops 12%
Javier Milei Wins Argentine Presidency; Bitcoin Gains Nearly 3%
Crypto Exchange Bullish Completes Purchase of CoinDesk: WSJ
Fidelity Wants to Create an Ether ETF, Joining BlackRock in Doubling Down on Crypto
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This episode was hosted by Noelle Acheson. “Markets Daily” is executive produced by Jared Schwartz and produced and edited by Eleanor Pahl. All original music by Doc Blust and Colin Mealey.
Audio Transcript: This transcript has not been edited and may contain errors.
It’s Monday, November 20th, 2023 and this is Markets Daily from CoinDesk. My name is Noelle Acheson, CoinDesk collaborator and author of the Crypto is Macro Now newsletter on Substack. On today’s show we’re talking about crypto moves, Argentina, Worldcoin and we have a surprise announcement about CoinDesk for you. So you don’t miss an episode, be sure to follow the podcast on your platform of choice, and turn on notifications. And just a reminder, CoinDesk is a news source and does not provide investment advice.
Now, a markets roundup.
Crypto markets ended the weekend on an up note, with bitcoin enjoying a sharp jump yesterday evening, at one point passing above 37,500 dollars. The price has since settled back a bit, but as we head in to record, it seems to be holding on to most of the gains. According to CoinDesk Indices, at 9 a.m. Eastern time today, bitcoin was up 1.8% over the past 24 hours, trading at 37,128 dollars. Ether was up 3.4%, trading at 2,019 dollars. Elsewhere, Synthetix and the NEAR token were up 15%, the Lido DAO token was up 10%, and Hedera was up 8%.
Worldcoin, which goes by the symbol WLD, had a volatile weekend, starting with the surprise announcement on Friday that Worldcoin’s co-founder Sam Altman had been fired from his role as CEO of OpenAI. You may recall that OpenAI is the developer of the ChatGPT app.
At first Worldcoin dropped 25%, then it bounced back as apparently investors got excited that Altman might be able to spend more time on the project. Then it seemed like he was going back to OpenAI, then he wasn’t, and earlier today the news came out that Altman had been hired by Microsoft to develop a ChatGPT competitor. Worldcoin is now down 2.6% over the past 24 hours. What a rollercoaster.
If you thought crypto was crazy at times, and it is, we can take some comfort perhaps from seeing that the AI field can be pretty crazy as well.
In macro indicators, we go over to Argentina, where the libertarian candidate Javier Milei beat the continuity candidate Sergio Massa by an astonishing margin. You may be wondering what this has to do with the global economic outlook and liquidity conditions – it doesn’t much, to be honest. Rather, it’s a very loud statement that an electorate can get so disillusioned and angry that it is willing to take on a significant amount of risk at the polls.
Milei is a risky bet – a former media presenter and economics professor with only two years in Congress, he has very little governing experience of any type. His economic policies are radical, and involve dissolving the central bank, replacing the Argentinian peso with the U.S. dollar, unwinding capital restrictions, and eliminating most government ministries. He has also talked about cutting off all ties to China, Argentina’s second largest trading partner and a key lender. He has said he will not speak to other Latin American countries he labels communist, such as Colombia, Chile and Brazil, which happens to be Argentina’s largest trading partner. And he has vowed to hold a referendum on the right to abortion, as well as to wage a cultural war against socialism and feminism.
Obviously, campaign promises do not always survive even a winning election, and we can hope that once in office he focuses on practical yet brave measures, such as slashing the budget deficit and restoring the world’s faith in Argentine credit.
Meanwhile, the recent and pending currency chaos serves as a strong reminder of the value of hard assets not dependent on the monetary policy of any one nation. In Argentine peso terms, bitcoin is up almost 400% over the past year.
In stocks, the main U.S. indices were largely flat on Friday as traders recalibrate rates expectations. Tomorrow we get the minutes from the last FOMC meeting, which might give some insight as to the degree of conviction around the latest decision to pause, and how long this pause might last. This morning, futures are pointing to a soft opening.
In Europe, investors were feeling slightly more optimistic than their US counterparts on Friday, with the FTSE 100 and the Eurostoxx 500 up more than 1%, and the German DAX up eight tenths. So far this morning, sentiment is weaker, with the main indices down between one and three tenths on the day. In Asia, sentiment was mixed today. Japan’s Nikkei index dropped six tenths, while China’s Shanghai Composite rose half a percent, and the Hong Kong Hang Seng index climbed a solid 1.8%.
In commodities, oil prices jumped around 4% on Friday, as OPEC+ representatives suggested that they were considering making further production cuts at the scheduled meeting this coming weekend. So far today, prices have continued climbing, with the Brent Crude benchmark up almost 2% on the day, trading at 82 dollars and 69 cents a barrel.
Gold is retracing today after gaining more than 2% last week. Earlier this morning, it was trading down six tenths on the day, at 1,968 dollars per ounce.
Stay with us – after the break there’s some big news about CoinDesk to share. I also welcome another spot ether ETF filing.
Welcome back!
In this section, we’re going to share an announcement that you may have already seen on CoinDesk and other media sources. CoinDesk is being purchased by cryptocurrency exchange Bullish in an all-cash deal. Bullish launched in November 2021, and is backed by investors such as Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and hedge fund manager Louis Bacon. The CEO of Bullish, Tom Farley, was formerly president of the New York Stock Exchange.
CoinDesk will be run as an independent subsidiary of Bullish, and an editorial committee will be formed to ensure journalistic independence. This will be headed by former Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Matt Murray, who has over 15 years of media leadership experience.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Farley said that the exchange was planning to invest in CoinDesk’s growth, for example expanding the Consensus conference to Asia, where Bullish has a strong presence. The exchange said that CoinDesk’s senior management will remain in place.
In other news, Fidelity has filed a proposal for a spot ether ETF, joining BlackRock and others. By my count, there are now seven spot ether ETF proposals, counting Grayscale’s proposal to convert its ethereum trust. On Friday, I talked about which asset would benefit more from the listing of spot ETFs, bitcoin or ether. If you haven’t heard it, I encourage you to have a listen.
We asked our community on Twitter which asset they thought would be best served by these new products – new for the U.S. crypto ecosystem, anyway. The answers leaned more towards bitcoin, but good arguments were made for both. It’s not too late to jump in and leave your opinion as well!
