“War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty” —Clausewitz
The unspeakable violence and aggression that Russia has unleashed against Ukraine and its people is the first all out “hot war” invasion in Europe since WWII. Fallout is being felt across the global economy, roiling markets and causing many investors to seek relative shelter amidst the volatility. As with any global crisis, it is also a moment of uncertainty and unease for many market participants. There are three key themes crypto investors should be paying attention to over the coming weeks:
1: The power of decentralization of crypto comes into focus
Since its debut in 2009, Bitcoin has been heralded as a self-sovereign alternative to government controlled fiat. Citizens of countries with hyperinflationary environments, capital controls and monetary policy that negatively impacted the populace (ie, India’s demonetization in 2016 which deemed certain notes illegal practically overnight) have often turned to Bitcoin as a relatively safe haven for their assets. In the United States, the COVID crisis and ensuing monetary policy highlighted the benefit of holding Bitcoin as a self-sovereign store of value and hedge against inflation. The decentralization that is at the core of cryptocurrency has come into sharper focus over the past weeks. Yesterday, Infura, a cloud -based node network for Ethereum, cut off access for wallets in Venezuela and quickly reversed course blaming the outage in code that was (Read more...)