This is not the time to ignore cryptocurrencies, why betting on a May rate hike can be a little premature, and some bad news about the private jet on your Christmas wish list. These are some of the things we have been thinking about this week in Australia. .
In the era of $ASS Coin and JRR Token, is it so surprising that Australia’s views on cryptocurrencies are somewhat mixed when a person can purchase a quintillionth of an ether or a reserve Smooth Love Potion?
“We have to acknowledge that this is not a passing fad,” Financial Services Minister Jane Hume said this week, while Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn reiterated his view that one of the greatest risks of cryptocurrencies (for institutions, anyway) is being lost. The overall outlook for the A$3.3 trillion pension fund industry appears to be untested. For Joe Longo, chairman of ASIC’s corporate regulator, the cryptocurrency boom is too big to ignore, but investors need to remember that they are largely “on their own”.
These investors already represent around 8% of the Australian public, according to CBA estimates. A somewhat less formal People I’ve Had a Chat With Lately also says you don’t have to search that hard to find 20-60 year old Australian mechanics, musicians or farmers with skin in this game. particular. And the ASX-listed Crypto Innovators ETF broke records when it launched earlier this month, yet another reason to believe that the Web 3.0 bluffer’s guide might come in handy in the near future.
Of course, for most of us, the big downside to cryptocurrencies is volatility: Bitcoin hit a new high in early November, but the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index fell 14% this month and is down. 2.7% at time of writing. However, the Australian crypto universe is growing and as more and more people pile up, the suburbs are likely to get weirder. This scale also means a deeper hold over the general public, whether or not policymakers and captains of industry want to think of Blessed Santa Coin and DumpsterDoge or not.
Elsewhere in the world, India is preparing a bill to oversee cryptocurrencies, and US regulators are providing more information on their political plans for digital currencies. El Salvador has announced that it will issue the world’s first bitcoin government bonds and build a tax-free “Bitcoin City,” and the Bank of England is concerned.
Rate Wait
Markets currently expect the Reserve Bank of Australia to raise rates as early as May. Governor Philip Lowe, meanwhile, is aiming for 2024, saying the chances of an increase over the next six months are “not zero, but close to zero.” Rate hikes in New Zealand and South Korea this week could affect bond investors, but as my colleague Swati Pandey points out, the RBA now wants real inflation data to come back “permanently” to 2.5 more early. . is set). This language suggests that bond investors will wait more than six months for this rate hike. In the United States, meanwhile, traders valued a first Fed rate hike in June after Jerome Powell was confirmed as central bank chairman for another four years. – Alyssa McDonald
