Politicians Debate Bailouts While DeFi Continues Its Slide South

By Matt Hussey

Another day, another swing in sentiment. As we edge closer to the US Presidential election, what American politicians say about the economy has an increasing impact on how the markets are feeling.

After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she would be open to passing a bill to provide relief to airlines, and President Donald Trump offered a lifeline to the stimulus package, stock futures ticked higher. 

All three major indices closed at their highest levels in more than a month as traders continue to hope aid will eventually come out of Washington. 

“It’s becoming increasingly likely traders are using the comments from leading politicians as an indicator that whatever the outcome of the election, there will be a cash injection into the economy this year,” said a spokesperson from AAX, the world’s first digital asset exchange powered by the London Stock Exchange.

Crypto's rabbit and hare  

It was another mixed day for crypto, with most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies seeing a drop in prices. But again, Bitcoin has proved to be surprisingly resilient, moving just 0.12% in 24 hours. Other top 20 cryptocurrencies like EOS and Tezos, for example, saw 4% swings over the same time period.

It seems investors are heeding the advice of people like Chamath Palihapitiya, billionaire venture capitalist and chairman of Virgin Galactic, who told CNBC yesterday people should invest in Bitcoin, they shouldn’t fixate on its price movements since it will only lead to frustration. The same can’t be said for 2020s most hyped side hustle, DeFi. 

While on average, cryptocurrency has lost 2.9% in the last week, DeFi assets have been hit harder. The top 10 DeFi assets have an average loss of 23.4% over the last week. Zooming out further, these DeFi assets have performed even worse, having lost an average of 27.44% in the last 30 days.

Yearn Finance (YFI) is currently the worst performer over the 7-day timeframe, having lost 36.93% of its value in this time to reach its current price of $14,525. UMA, on the other hand, is the worst performer on the 30-day chart, having lost 58.7% in this time to reach $6.04—its lowest value since August.

Conversely, stablecoins are having their turn in the spotlight, after a slew of blockchain execs discussed their growth potential to a remote audience in LA. 

Stablecoins are set to expand the reach of crypto markets and have the potential to increase business-to-business efficiency in the coming years said projects leads from MakerDAO Fidelity Labs and USDC. 

Looking at stablecoin’s performance over the past 12 months, they might be onto something. 

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