One President’s Executive Order and another’s election victory could be the start of something much, much bigger

The crypto-based executive order brought much-needed clarity to regulation in the US yesterday. Additionally, another inflation update is due later today. Meanwhile, South Korea elects a crypto-friendly president, and Binance looks to transform into a diversified behemoth.

All this and more in today’s Crypto Brew!

• What Biden’s executive order says
• Incoming CPI update
• Market update – BTC and Terra 
• Major crypto news
• Notable Events 
• Newbie Term of the Day: Algo-Trading

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Executive Order recap

The much anticipated presidential executive order turned the market sentiment bullish yesterday. If you need a quick recap, the six major objectives of the executive order are:

1. To protect consumers, investors, and businesses
2. Protect the US and global financial stability
3. Address Illicit Finance
4. Reinforce US financial Leadership
5. Access to Safe and Affordable Financial Services
6. Support Technological Advancement

Jack Niewold does an excellent job of summarizing it in the following thread:

Alright, I did it so you don't have to.

Here's a thread on what Biden's executive order sets out for the industry.

And what that might might mean for crypto investors like you and me.

🧵 pic.twitter.com/BAcIgrJ5qw

— Jack Niewold 🫡 (@JackNiewold) March 9, 2022

Incoming CPI update 

CPI numbers are set to release today at 0830 EST, with the market forecasting at 7.9%, a significant rise from the previous 7.5%. Some predict the inflation tear to further depress the worst US inflation in 40 years.

BLOOMBERG ECONOMICS DROPPING AN INFLATION BOMB: "We now project the February CPI to show an increase of 8.0% year over year and top out in the vicinity of 9% in March or April." But if energy prices continue to rise "CPI could rise above10%."

— Robert Burgess (@BobOnMarkets) March 9, 2022

Check out these rising commodities prices over the last year. The macroeconomic tensions are rising thoughts of a global recession with investors.

Commodity price increases over the last year
Heating Oil: +102%
Wheat: +92%
WTI Crude: +81%
Nat Gas: +79%
Brent Crude +78%
Aluminum: +75%
Coffee: +74%
Gasoline: +71%
Corn: +38%
Cotton: +33%
Lumber: +31%
Palladium: +25%
Sugar: +18%
Gold: +18%
Soybeans: +16%
Copper: +16%
CPI: +7.5%

— Charlie Bilello (@charliebilello) March 8, 2022

On a lighter note, did Elon Musk suggest that anonymous Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto took their name from a combination of tech companies? Weird. And possible. 

pic.twitter.com/e3kFCmREaC

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 9, 2022

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Market update – BTC and Terra

Bitcoin (BTC), alongside the broader crypto market, climbed a significant 8.37% to 41.9K today. Bitcoin Dominance (BTC.D) jumped +1.47%, signaling new money entering the crypto markets. Bitcoin is typically the preferred choice of new crypto investors.

Terra (LUNA) has quickly ascended 86% and reached new highs versus Bitcoin (BTC) (Chart Below). Terra USD (UST), the algorithmic stablecoin behind Terra, now has a whopping $14.1B market cap.

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/v7j9tiND/

Notable Gainers

• THORChain (RUNE) $5.55 +36%
• Waves (WAVES) $28.42 +26%
• Synthetic Network (SNX) $4.76 +22%
• Near (NEAR) $11.53 +18%
• Arweave (AR) $38.10 +17%
• Terra (LUNA) $99.43 +16%
• ICON (ICX) $0.083 +34%
• Mirror Pro. (MIR) $2.01 +33%
• AIOZ Network (AIOZ) $0.24 +25%

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Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index: 28  Fear (+7)

“Bitcoin” Google Trends: 46 (+3)

“Crypto” Google Trends: 32 (+2)

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Major crypto news

Conservative crypto-friendly Yoon Suk-Yeol has been elected president of South Korea. Yoon promised to deregulate the crypto industry in South Korea in an election where crypto was a prominent subject.

We would like to congratulate President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol (@sukyeol__yoon) on his victory in the Korean elections today! 🇰🇷

This is an exciting development for the Korean crypto space, as @sukyeol__yoon has often spoken in favor of crypto deregulation 👇

— ICON – Connecting Blockchains 🌐 🔀 (@helloiconworld) March 9, 2022

Crypto ecosystem giant Binance discloses a plan to purchase various traditional companies and transform them into crypto-based ventures to diversify its business.

Binance purchased a $200M stake in Forbes magazine in early February.

Binance looking to scoop up businesses that operate in traditional markets following its investment in Forbes: FThttps://t.co/IUoRGHhvso

— db (@tier10k) March 9, 2022

The EU will sanction over 160 Russian businesspeople and senators that throw crypto-related assets on the chopping block.

The EU will sanction 160 Russian businessmen and senators, EU Commission head Ursula von der Leyen said https://t.co/67VWPUT6bw

— The Moscow Times (@MoscowTimes) March 9, 2022

American Tech news website The Verge published a bombshell article accusing Tron Founder Justin Sun of various illegal activities, including fraud, pyramid schemes, exit scams, and pump-and-dumps. Justin replied to the allegations calling them “fabricated storytelling.”

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Notable events

• Crypto.com airdrops “Moment of Truth” NFT collection featuring Lebron James to 5,550 random Super Bowl ad viewers.

• Ethereum L2 protocol zkSync upgrades to version 2.0 that support paying gas fees with any ERC-20 token.

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Newbie crypto term of the day

Algo-trading aka bot-trading

• An automated trading method of executing buy/sell orders with preprogrammed trading instructions and variables.

• Algo-trading can exacerbate moves in the market in either direction.

• A large majority of trades in modern markets are predicted to be algo-trading systems.

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Banter wisdom

The US executive order brought some peace to the markets yesterday, but keep an eye on the CPI print this morning. Ran covered what the inflation number could mean for crypto. (Also keep an eye out for our article later today about why CPI might not be such a useful indicator in light of the Russian/Ukraine situation.) Meanwhile, Binance looks to engulf sectors beyond crypto-land. 

Thanks for reading fam!

• Gabri 

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