Bitcoin Tops $50,000 Level

Today is Monday, August 23, 2021

Bitcoin Reaches $50,000 Level Again

Investors watched the price of Bitcoin top $50,000 on Sunday, a critical level for the cryptocurrency.

History: After reaching an all-time peak of $63,000 in April, the price of Bitcoin plummeted to $29,000 in July.

Alternative Coins: Looking back at the past week, the prices of Etherum and XRP are down. The price of Cardano is up.

Resistance: Konstantin Anissimov, executive director at CEX.IO crypto exchange, told Bloomberg that $50,000 is the next major resistance level and more buyers could push the price.

Final Thoughts: Investments in Bitcoin have always come with lots of volatility.

Notables

Notable Earnings Today: JD.com (Nasdaq: JD), Madison Square Garden Entertainment (NYSE: MSGE), Ituran Location and Control Ltd (Nasdaq: ITRN).

Notable IPOs Today: Frontier Investment Corp Class A Ordinary Shares (Nasdaq: FICV), Good Works II Acquisition Corp. Common Stock (Nasdaq: GWII), FAT Brands Inc. Class B Common Stock (FATBB).

Notable Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns Ending Today: The Hot Dog Box (MainVest), S.I. Container Builds (StartEngine).

Notable Economic Events Today: Chicago Fed National Activity Index (8:30 a.m.), Markit Manufacturing PM (9:45 a.m.), Existing Home Sales (10:00 a.m.).

PayPal Expands Crypto Services to the U.K.

PayPal (Nasdaq: PYPL) said Sunday night that it will offer its cryptocurrency services this week to customers in the United Kingdom, marking the first international expansion of the company’s crypto services.

What This Means: PayPal customers in the U.K. can buy or sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Litecoin this week.

Bigger Picture: Jose Fernandez da Ponte of PayPal told CNBC that the company’s cryptocurrency service has been doing well since it launched in the United States in October.

Regulations: U.K. authorities have clamped down on cryptocurrency in the past year, including a ban last year on the sale of crypto-derivatives.

Britcoin: Similar to other countries, authorities in the U.K. have considered creating their own national currency. Britcoin, as it might be called, would coexist with cash and will not replace it.

Final Thoughts: PayPal’s stock is down 11% in the last month.

SPACs: A Good Bet?

A special-purpose acquisition company (or SPAC) is a shell company that lists on a public stock exchange and acquires a private company to take it public.

Data: SPACs are among the hottest investment trends in the past year. In fact, there have been more SPACs in 2020 and 2021 than every year before that combined.

Bigger Picture: IPOs are still popular, but there are benefits to going public via a SPAC. It is quicker and there is less scrutiny and transparency required.

The Good: Several SPAC companies have seen soaring stock prices. Golden Nugget Online Gaming (Nasdaq: GNOG) is up 93% and Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE) is up 150%, just to name a few.

The Bad: For all of the SPAC stocks succeeding, a few are also tanking. Electric vehicle company Lordstown Motors Corp (Nasdaq: RIDE) is down 46% since debuting last year. Doma Holdings (NYSE: DOMA) is down 27%.

Final Thoughts: Similar to companies going public via IPO, investors need to do their due diligence for SPACs.

Trend to Watch

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