Last Week in Review: Institutional investors are ready for crypto, and Bitcoin HODLers do what they do best

by Team Luno
· 3 minute read

The highlights from last week’s headline grabbers. All the important news, numbers and events from the crypto industry in easy-to-read, digestible news bites. 

News from the block

A record number of Bitcoins haven’t moved in 6 months

  • Research by Morgan Stanley showed that 78% of Bitcoin remained idle in the last six months. 
  • This may point to investors holding on to their investments in expectation of the Bitcoin price going up. 
  • Estimates suggest that a Bitcoin price of $22,500 may be the point at which these investors break even on their initial Bitcoin investments in the last few years. The remaining 22% of ‘active’ Bitcoins are seemingly held by short-term traders. 

Google steps further into cryptocurrency with cloud-based Ethereum node 

  • Google will offer customers a cloud-based Ethereum node service, a “fully managed node-hosting service that can minimise the need for node operations.”
  • This removes the legwork for companies that want to run an Ethereum node but don’t have the capacity to monitor and run the computers. 
  • A node is a computer that helps validate the Ethereum network and keeps a copy of the entire transaction history. 

Fidelity research reveals that institutional money is ready for crypto

  • 58% of institutional investors surveyed by Fidelity said they owned digital assets, a 6% increase from last year. 
  • The  Institutional Investor Digital Assets Study also showed that 74% of surveyed institutions said they plan on buying digital assets in the future.
  • “While the markets have faced headwinds in recent months, we believe that digital assets fundamentals remain strong and that the institutionalisation of the market over the past several years has positioned it to weather recent events,” Fidelity Digital Assets President Tom Jessop said in a statement. 

Rishi Sunak is England’s new PM, and he’s positive about crypto 

  • In a whirlwind week for UK politics, Rishi Sunak replaced Liz Truss as England’s Prime Minister, and, yes, there is a crypto angle to this story. 
  • Sunak, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, has in the past made clear his intentions to turn the UK into a crypto hub.
  • Last week, the House of Commons also gave the nod to proceed with the Financial Services and Markets Bill, which aims to improve cryptocurrency regulation in the UK. 

TL;Did read

Who does what in crypto? 

Sure, the crypto industry is a lot to take in, but it is vital that every crypto investor knows exactly who does what to better understand who’s in charge of their coins, and, more importantly, what they are doing with them. 

In this deep dive, we line up the main players in cryptocurrency and see how they’re involved. Let’s dig in. 

Crunching the numbers

14 – It’s been 14 years since the publication of the Bitcoin white paper on 31 October 2008. 

2,736 – The length (in words) of the entire Bitcoin white paper. 

35% – Pending house sales in the US are down 35% in the last year. This may be a direct result of rising interest rates amid rampant inflation.  

$44 billion – The Elon Musk vs. Twitter saga finally culminated last week in him buying the social media giant for $44 billion. 

The crypto time capsule

Hal Finney, one of the original Bitcoin collaborators, musing on Bitcoin’s use cases a few months after the release of the Bitcoin white paper in October the previous year. 

Crypto trivia

A closer look at the Bitcoin white paper

Pete Rizzo, CEO at Bitcoin Magazine, reveals 14 not-so-hidden facts about the Bitcoin white paper. 

Worth a watch 

Do Kwon on the run? 

Crypto journalist Laura Shin talks to Do Kwon, the controversial founder of the collapsed  Luna Terra stablecoin ecosystem, about the charges against him and his message to investors who lost everything when Luna went bust. Watch here.

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