Greetings fellow DailyCoiners!

Today is another good day!

The charts are a sea of green and 2023 seems to be smiling at us.

But, can we say “Good Riddance” to the drama of 2022?

Billie Joe seems to think so, so let’s take a look.

So, what’s changed?

Analysts are still getting things wrong, hacks/exploits are still happening and the FED is well..still being the FED.

A wise person once said:

 “There are three sides to every story, the two opposing views and, somewhere nestled between them…the truth”

Ok, so I’m paraphrasing quite heavily, but you get the idea…the real story, as always, is written between the lines. 

So, hodl on tight and come with me on today’s journey into the grey area of hints, suggestions, and extrapolation.

Topics on the menu today:

• FOMC meeting and Jerome Powell…Doveish or Hawkish?

• Bonq Exploit.

• Michael Burry…oops!

The FOMC, Interest Rates, and Jerome Powell’s Tone

The Federal Open Market Committee (

FOMC

) is the branch of the Federal Reserve System that “

determines the direction of monetary policy by directing open market operations”.

Allow me to put this into some sort of context that is both, not a mess of nonsensical jargon and relevant to us.

Through raising interest rates, the FOMC is trying to slow down and ultimately reduce inflation in the US.Throughout 2022, the stock and crypto markets fell heavily, the root cause was rampant inflation and the subsequent interest rate hikes by the FOMC

1. Raising interest rates makes it more expensive for people to borrow money and encourages saving. 

2. This results in people spending less.

3. Less spending equals less demand,

4. Which ultimately (hopefully) leads to the cost of things rising more slowly.

Once this starts working, the FOMC can then pause and start reducing interest rates. This results in the markets becoming more “risk on”; i.e. people will start spending more on stuff like crypto.

So, back to business.

Yesterday Jerome Powell (chairman of the FOMC) announced a further 0.25% interest rate increase. He had already hinted at this in his previous announcement and therefore was widely expected.

Following the announcement, both the crypto and stock markets pumped.

Why? 

Well, because he did what everyone already expected and nothing more.

It’s still going up though…

Powell followed the announcement

up with a rambling spiel of rhetoric, within which we are forced to look for breadcrumbs…clues as to where we go next. 

Here are some choice quotes we picked out and our translation as to what we think he’s actually saying.

• “Ongoing increases will be appropriate”

  • We’re not finished raising rates yet.

• “Consumer spending…expanding at a subdued pace”

  • Raising interest rates is working and we are seeing results.

• “We’re talking about a couple more rate hikes…probably neccessary”

  • We’re very nearly done but I don’t want to say it outright as i’d effectively be saying to the markets…it’s party time…go “risk on”!!

In short, he sounded doveishly hawkish (or hawkishly doveish). Well, the markets liked it, so it can’t be that bad!

Bonq-ed on the Head!

BonqDAO

, a small “self-sovereign DeFi platform”, was exposed to an oracle hack yesterday, in which the guilty party made off with a sizeable US$120million.

The $120 million comprised of $108 million (98.65 million BEUR stablecoins) and $11 million (113.8 million wrapped-ALBT (wALBT) tokens). 

Most of the transactions took place on the Polygon blockchain.

Blockchain security and data analytics company; Peckshield, commented that the thief (

can we stop calling them exploiters or hackers…they are thieves!)

was able to maniupulate the price oracle for their benefit.

One of the first people to notice the exploit, on-chain security observer “Spreek”, commented that the root cause was probably “using absolute shitcoin as collateral”.

While brutally honest, Spreek’s observation tells a larger truth. There’s still a lot of rubbish in the market still and a lot of players who won’t be around for the long term. 

So, as always, do your own research and stick to the old adage: 

if it looks like poop and smells like poop, it’s probably poop!

Even the Greats Get It Wrong. Michael Burry Made an Ooppsie!

Played by Christian Bale in the (awesome) film about the 2008 housing market crash; The Big Short, Michael Burry was depicted as the savant-like hedge-fund manager who was the first to realize it was all going to spectacularly fall apart.

However, after tweeting to his 1.3 million followers “Sell” on Tuesday, he

less than a day later after the markets pumped, in what can only be assumed as an embarrassment-based rage quit!

The moral of the story; everyone screws up. 

Do your own research, think fundamentals not hype, and make your own decisions.

DailyCoin Meme

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That's you all up to date. But if you're hungry for more crypto news and insights, there's always more on our website.And feel free to reach out to us at [email protected] with any questions or comments.Until next time,DailyCoin Team