Market Analysis Report (02 Feb 2022)

India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the country is planning on launching a digital version of the rupee as early as this year in an annual speech, she also outlined plans for a 30% tax on income from digital assets.

The Financial Times, in partnership with Wilshire and CryptoCompare, has launched an easy-to-use data platform for pricing and offering insights into the digital assets markets, utilising the FT Wilshire Digital Asset Index Series.

The hackers who stole bitcoin from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 have moved a total of 64,643 BTC worth around $2.5 billion to unknown wallets in a series of transactions that included various amounts of BTC each.

NFT was Collin’s Dictionary word of the year in 2021, and the market doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, 2022 has already seen a record month for NFTs, with monthly NFT trading volume reaching a record high of over $6 billion in January alone.

Invictus suite of funds offered commendable performance in a quarter marked by heightened volatility in the Bitcoin and broader cryptoasset market. All five of the Invictus funds registered positive returns for the quarter, with the vast majority outperforming their benchmarks. 

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Financial Times Launches Cryptocurrency Pricing Dashboard with Wilshire & Data from CryptoCompare
• India to Launch Blockchain-Based Digital Rupee
• Bitfinex Hackers Move $2.5 Billion in Bitcoin from 2016 Hack
• NFT Spotlight: January In Review
• Sponsored: Invictus Capital continues to deliver an uninterrupted path of growth across all its funds

Financial Times Launches Cryptocurrency Pricing Dashboard with Wilshire & Data from CryptoCompare

The Financial Times, in partnership with Wilshire and CryptoCompare, has launched an easy-to-use data platform for pricing and offering insights into the digital assets markets, utilising the FT Wilshire Digital Asset Index Series.

The FT Wilshire Digital Asset Index Series was researched and developed by Wilshire with underlying data provided by CryptoCompare. It provides genuine price discovery derived from highly rated digital asset exchanges – those ranked AA in consecutive CryptoCompare Exchange Benchmarks – and offers a high level of data transparency.

The FT Digital Asset Dashboard is accessible to all users including non-FT subscribers and gives readers institutional-quality information to make better-informed decisions when researching and investing in the emerging class of digital assets. Readers can explore and dissect digital asset data, identify global trends and compare the value change of an initial 10 major digital assets and the broader aggregate market in near real-time.

The dashboard features the FT Wilshire Digital Asset Index Series, part of a series of new indices researched and developed by Wilshire with underlying data provided by CryptoCompare. Explore the dashboard for yourself below via the link below.

India to Launch Blockchain-Based Digital Rupee

India’s finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said the country is planning on launching a digital version of the rupee as early as this year in an annual speech, she also outlined plans for a 30% tax on income from digital assets.

The country’s plan to tax income from digital assets would put profits from non-fungible token (NFT) and cryptocurrency-related activities in the country’s highest tax band as the country plans to launch its official central bank digital currency.

The digital currency would be a digital version of the rupee and would be launched using “blockchain and other technologies.” Sitharaman said:

“Introduction of a central bank digital currency will give a boost, a big boost to (the) digital economy.”

India’s finance minister added the currency will also lead to a “more efficient and cheaper currency management system.”

Bitfinex Hackers Move $2.5 Billion in Bitcoin from 2016 Hack

The hackers who stole bitcoin from cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex in 2016 have moved a total of 64,643 BTC worth around $2.5 billion to unknown wallets in a series of transactions that included various amounts of BTC each.

Six of the 21 transactions moved a total of 60,000 bitcoin, with each transaction carrying 10,000 coins. The remaining transactions were made to move 4,643 BTC, and all of the funds were moved to unknown wallets.

Bitfinex notably lost 119,756 BTC in 2016, at the time worth around $66 million, but at currently prices worth nearly $5 billion. With these recent transactions, 99.95% of the stolen funds have now been moved.

The exchange has been working with law enforcement agencies, other exchanges, and wallet providers to recover the stolen funds, and has to date recovered 50 BTC.

NFT Spotlight: January In Review

NFT was Collin’s Dictionary word of the year in 2021, and the market doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. In fact, 2022 has already seen a record month for NFTs, with monthly NFT trading volume reaching a record high of over $6 billion in January alone.

The surge in volume is, in part, due to the launch of a competitor NFT marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain – LooksRare – which has accumulated nearly $2 billion in volume alone since launching on January 10th.

Since launching, LooksRare has been positioned as the ‘decentralised’ competitor to OpenSea – gaining a large audience following a token airdrop and rewards scheme. However, despite the new competition, and a widely covered UI issue that led to a user selling an NFT for 99% below the floor price ($1,800 vs $200,000) OpenSea volumes also surged in January.

The top collection by volume in January was Yuga Labs Bored Ape Yacht Club as it continues to garner mainstream coverage (most recently via Justin Bieber who purchased Ape #3001 for 500ETH), followed by the recently launched collection Azuki – which has already surpassed $225m in volume.

Invictus Capital continues to deliver an uninterrupted path of growth across all its funds

The Invictus suite of funds offered commendable performance in a quarter marked by heightened volatility in the Bitcoin and broader cryptoasset market. All five of the Invictus funds registered positive returns for the quarter, with the vast majority outperforming their benchmarks. The simple average return across our suite of funds was 10.7% for the quarter, which is equivalent to an annualized return of 50%.

• The Crypto10 Hedged (C10) fund offered the greatest returns over the quarter at 23.91%, far outstripping its benchmark of 1.66% and Bitcoin at 12.36%. 

• Crypto20, the flagship fund, had a stellar year registering a return of 334.98%, it significantly outperformed its Top 20 equally weighted benchmark, which rose 261.92%.

• The Invictus Bitcoin Alpha (IBA) fund  managed to outperform Bitcoin throughout the fourth quarter, marking a total return of 14.56%, accompanied by significantly less volatility.

• The Hyperion venture capital fund continued on its impressive run, appreciating a further 5.05% off the back of a Quantfury dividend and Syntropy revaluation. The large dividend received by Quantfury will allow for a healthy level of buy-and-burn activity on the IHF token over the coming months.

• Invictus Margin Lending (IML) Fund registered a 2.48% net return for the quarter against its 1.48% benchmark hurdle.

Invictus Capital is now on the cusp of a historic migration into a fully-regulated fund structure that will place us at the forefront of innovation within the asset management space. It should also bring our investors the peace of mind that comes with additional, 3rd-party oversight of our operations.

Disclaimer:

Cryptocurrency trading involves high risk, and is not suitable for all investors. Before deciding to trade cryptocurrencies, tokens or any other digital asset you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite.

Its content does not constitute financial advice. Please remember that the value of investments, and any income from them, can fall as well as rise so you could get back less than you invest. If you are unsure of the suitability of your investment please seek advice.

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