I Think I’m Turning Japanese
Japan is the unorthodox monetary policy guinea pig. A future of tentacle porn and massive money printing awaits all developed nations. After over two decades of print and pray (maybe try just the tip?), Japan has arrived at the final solution: helicopter money.
Helicopter money, or basic income as many governments label it, is an attempt to jump start spending by handing cash directly to consumers. Instead of enriching only those who hold real assets (stocks, bonds, and real estate) via central bank bond buying, Japan will hand out vouchers to low-income young people so they may purchase “daily necessities”.
Helicopter money is nothing new. Some European countries have experimented with this flavor of money printing as well. The difference is that Japan has the world’s largest government debt load as a percentage of productive output. The BOJ puts other central banks to shame in their attempts to reflate a dying economy and country.
Japan produces some of the world’s most delicious produce (make sure it’s not from Fukushima), but imports virtually all of its energy needs. Abe-san and Kuroda-san’s policy of massive money printing trashed the yen, and made life for ordinary Japanese citizens very expensive. First it will be young poor people, soon it will be most able-bodied adults who will receive some form of government handout. The only result will be a cheaper yen, and rampant energy and food inflation. Even though Japan has a healthy farming sector, farmers still need to consume imported energy to grow and transport their crops.
Japanese housewives are renowned for their penchant to speculate in foreign exchange. What happens when they discover Bitcoin and other digital currencies? They can be bought over the internet (Japan has the world’s fastest internet after South Korea), and instantly they can protect and store their wealth. While the USD is the cleanest dirty sheet, it will get trashed as well vs. gold, digital currencies, and other real assets once Grandma Yellen goes negative.
Most of you aren’t Japanese; however that doesn’t mean BitMEX doesn’t have a way for you to profit from Kuroda-san’s freebasing habit. In the next few weeks, in cooperation with Quoine (the largest Bitcoin / Yen exchange), we will launch a daily Bitcoin / Yen futures contract: XBJ24H. Japanese traders will have direct access to XBJ24H through their account with Quoine, and BitMEX will also offer the product via our platform.
Brexit Maybe?
The odds of Brexit are climbing, averaging 35% across various betting platforms. Some unofficial polls put the “Leave” vote above 40%. The referendum will be held on June 23rd.
Brexit would be catastrophic for the EU project. EU skeptic parties continue to poll better and better. If one of the richest countries in Europe leaves the EU project, the calls for Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain (the PIGS) to exit from their citizens will gain force.
All of the PIGS have massive debt problems. Either they continue suffering from high unemployment, or devalue and accept their old domestic currency. These are the only options to regain competitiveness vis-a-vis ze Germans. After 7 years of “austerity” the plebes are fed up. However, they have been sufficiently scared about the possible post-EU apocalypse to vote themselves out of the Euro. That all changes if Brexit occurs.
The Bitcoin rocketship will ignite if the odds increase further. To gain an appreciation for the positive price effect, chart Bitcoin during the Grexit saga last summer. Brexit is still too far in the future and the odds too low to be on many traders’ radars yet. It is the perfect time to go Bitcoin volatility if one believes that the likelihood of Brexit will increase.
The BitMEX Bitcoin / USD September futures contract, XBTU16, is the ideal product to trade. It settles well after the referendum date. If Brexit does occur, the whole of Europe will decend into chaos over the summer. Greece is out of money again, surprise surprise. They will be back at Merkel’s feet begging for more cash this summer. Maybe this time around the population will follow through on their threat to leave the Euro, and redonominate their debt into Drachmas. These fears will multiply and cause a bid for safe-haven assets like Gold and Bitcoin if Brexit occurs. The aftermath will be more wild than the Brexit vote itself. These fears will be priced into markets if the odds of Brexit increase. That is why a contract like XBTU16 that expires in the fall will be bid up if the odds of Brexit increase.
XBTU16 currently trades at a 62% per annum (PA) premium. Historically, three and six month BitMEX contracts have traded between 40% to over 100% PA premiums. If the Brexit odds increase, XBTU16 is poised to trade at the upper end of that range. In order to isolate the XBTU16’s premium, buy XBTU16 vs. short selling spot Bitcoin.
Brexit Referendum Betting Odds
NYT Kneels At The Alter Of Ether
I wanna get down on my knees and start pleasing Jesus, I wanna feel his salvation all over my face!
— Faith +1
Ethereum is on the warpath and is zeroing in on Bitcoin.
A recent article published by the New York Times (NYT) describes it as a Bitcoin 2.0, a new currency that can overcome obstacles which Bitcoin can’t. Having risen by nearly 1700% in the past three months from trough to peak, it is clear that Ethereum is a serious contender and is now the 2nd largest Cryptocurrency available, overtaking the likes of Litecoin.
Is this exponential rise going to continue? The price has been plateauing lately, almost taking a breather; however no doubt there are a lot of traders with fingers twitching over that buy button, myself invcluded. Anyone who was trading Bitcoin back in 2011 and 2012 must surely feel some sort of déjà vu.
Why has it come to this? The article highlights a few reasons, some of which the Bitcoin community are highly aware of already. Firstly, this tedious battle on the future of Bitcoin between Core and Classic has led to a number of startups and traders lacking the confidence to invest further into the currency and look for alternative virtual currencies. We can all agree that trading Bitcoin over this period has been lacklustre and boring, and until we have a clear answer on what is going to happen I don’t think we are out of this rangebound yet.
Furthermore, Ethereum provides a way to create smart contracts easily. Personally I think this is huge – already the finance community are looking into this and has gained a lot of attention from companies such as JPMorgan, Microsoft and IBM. Smart contracts can save a whole lot of time and money, especially in finance and banking where traditional contracts (such as in inventory financing) can take days if not weeks to execute. Backoffice functions benefit as well, which have a number of different databases and clutter in which a number of things can and will go wrong (being told you are short $5 bucks of an illiquid stock on settlement day and you’re going to enter a ‘buy-in’ was never a fun thing to hear from your backoffice).
Given the fact that the NYT is almost ‘pumping’ ETH, I would suggest to get on board the gravy train. We should witness further news forthcoming about it if discussions between Core and Classic do not go anywhere and Bitcoin remains in a deadzone. This all points to one way ticket for ETH. I recommend buying the dips – anywhere below 0.024 Ether / Bitcoin is attractive. BitMEX is the only exchange to offer a 25x leveraged Ether / Bitcoin futures contract, ETH7D, so get your bids in early and enjoy the ride.