Donald Trump’s Taxes Worrying Investors While Crypto Keeps Calm

Over the weekend, market watchers turned their collective eye towards Donald Trump’s tax returns. According to a New York Times investigation, the President paid just $750 in federal income tax in 2016 and 2017, and no income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years. 

While markets were closed for the weekend, gold’s price has been slipping in early trading. The investigation also highlighted Trump is responsible for $421 million of loans, which are due to be repaid in the next four years. 

US investors have been at the sharp end of Trump's actions recently. Just last week, they were spooked by Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he were to lose the upcoming US election. 

Foreign-exchange markets moved quickly, and traders spent the remainder of last week pricing in volatility ahead of what’s expected to be a bumpy winter, says a spokesperson from AAX, the world’s first digital asset exchange powered by the London Stock Exchange.

With the first debate due to take place between the President and Democrat challenger Joe Biden on Tuesday, markets will be watching with a sharp eye.

Crypto keeps calm 

Asian markets meanwhile were buoyed by China posting better than expected profits this month suggesting the global slump may not be as bad as people feared. Early trading in Europe is also taking the news well. 

In crypto, fears over the expiration of $1 billion worth of Bitcoin futures contracts on Friday did little to move market prices. 

Bitcoin’s price went up 1.1% over the weekend, climbing another 1.91% in the past 24 hours. 

Elsewhere, crypto prices across the community remained resilient, even after hackers stole nearly $200 million worth of Ethereum based cryptocurrencies from the KuCoin exchange. 

Typically, hackers dump their horde after the event but projects caught up in the crime acted quickly, freezing $130 million before it could be moved. 

Ethereum’s gas prices meanwhile, fell to their lowest in six weeks as the DeFi craze - in particular, yield farming - seems to have quietened down, for now. Yesterday, transaction fees were $2.248, down from $14.6 on September 2. 

There could be several reasons for this. DeFi activity could be starting to wane - reducing the number of transactions going through the Ethereum blockchain. DeFi traders could be looking to other blockchains in search of high yields but lower transaction fees. Alternatively, layer 2 solutions built on top of Ethereum’s could be soaking up excess activity, helping to keep transactions from clogging up the blockchain. 

Whatever the reason, crypto looked surprisingly calm while Wall Street is worried.