Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship cryptocurrency, is up nearly 13% in the past 24 hours. It’s trading at around $37,800 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH), the second-largest crypto by market cap, is up around 30% in the last 24 hours and is trading at just over $2,500.
Chart: User growth on the BTC network.
No-coiners are taking this opportunity to buy the dip.
In case you're wondering, the bull market is very much intact.
Data: @glassnode pic.twitter.com/4KtlscCs43
— Willy Woo (@woonomic) May 24, 2021
Commenting on these recent price movements, crypto analyst Willy Woo had pointed out “no-coiners” (or people who never held any crypto-assets before) are “taking this opportunity to buy the dip.”
According to Woo’s analysis, the bull market is “very much intact.”
He also said that recent crypto and Bitcoin market price action is not really looking like “a 2013 double pump.” He claims that “so far it’s structurally playing out like a COVID white swan where people on the sidelines took the opportunity to come in.” Woo further revealed that other on-chain charts “point to the same structure” as well.
PlanB, another widely-followed Bitcoin analyst, has pointed out that the BTC price was actually at the lower bound of his S2F (stock-to-flow) model. PlanB also says he’s not too concerned right now and that he’s now expecting the Bitcoin price to recover in the coming days (or weeks).
Actual #bitcoin price is at the lower bound of S2F model. Am I worried? No. Lower band is ~/2, upper band ~*2:
– upper band: $120k
– model price: $60k
– lower band: $30k
It is not OK if we stay at $32K for multiple months, but I expect BTC price to bounce back next days/weeks. https://t.co/XvQybWBNds— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) May 23, 2021
Interestingly, the researchers at Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) have now said that Bitcoin should be taken a lot more seriously as an investable asset.
Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs’ Global Head of Digital Assets, has noted in a research paper:
“Bitcoin is now considered an investable asset. It has its own idiosyncratic risk, partly because it’s still relatively new and going through an adoption phase. And it doesn’t behave as one would intuitively expect relative to other assets given the analogy to digital gold; to date, it’s tended to be more aligned with risk-on assets. But clients and beyond are largely treating it as a new asset class, which is notable—it’s not often that we get to witness the emergence of a new asset class.”
While Goldman Sachs appears to have made some positive comments about Bitcoin, HSBC (HSBA.L) has clarified that it does not intend to offer a crypto trading desk.
As reported by Reuters, the bank also stated that it will not provide any digital coins as an investment to its clients. That’s because they’re highly volatile and lack transparency, according to CEO Noel Quinn.
Europe’s biggest banking institution’s stance on crypto-assets has come as the Bitcoin price had fallen almost 50% from this year’s high. The sharp decline came almost right after Chinese authorities announced that they’re again launching a crackdown on the BTC mining sector. Elon Musk’s Tesla had also announced earlier this month that they would not take Bitcoin payments because mining the digital currency was bad for the environment. As soon as the announcement was made, the BTC price fell sharply.
Even while competitors like UBS (UBSG.S) might consider offering the cryptos as an investment option, Quinn told Reuters:
“Given the volatility we are not into Bitcoin as an asset class, if our clients want to be there then of course they are, but we are not promoting it as an asset class within our wealth management business. For similar reasons we’re not rushing into stablecoins.”
While commenting on central bank digital currencies, Quinn said:
“CBDCs can facilitate international transactions in e-wallets more simply, they take out friction costs and they are likely to operate in a transparent manner and have strong attributes of stored value.”
He revealed that HSBC is holding discussions with government agencies regarding their CBDC projects. Some of the countries the bank is talking to right now about these initiatives reportedly include the UK, China, Canada and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).