The first quarter of 2023 has ended, and in this review, I will go over some of the significant events that happened during these first three months of the year.
Sec war on crypto
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One of the crucial events that happened this quarter, which will likely continue throughout the year, is the attack of the SEC on crypto exchanges, crypto-friendly banks, and stablecoin issuers. We saw this happening with Binance, Paxos, Kraken, Coinbase, among others. It seems that they are finally realizing that they cannot regulate crypto, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hive, etc., but they can regulate and control the outflow of money from crypto to dollars. By making it harder for people to get their money out of the blockchain, they believe that people will stop buying cryptocurrencies. However, I believe the opposite will happen, and soon the adoption of crypto as a payment method will increase.
Banks collapsing
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Another significant event that occurred in the first quarter of 2023 is the collapse of some banks. One of the oldest Swiss banks almost collapsed, and this collapse led to a merge with another Swiss bank. Also, three US banks collapsed in an instant, taking only two days for this to happen. Although everyone says that a domino effect will not occur because the banks are not so much intertwined, it is still a matter of concern.
Bitcoin
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From the beginning of the year, BTC has been on the rise, and it seems that nothing can stop this upward trend. On January 1, BTC was trading at 16500, and today it is at 27900, representing a 70% rise. The macroeconomics appear to be really grim, and the future of the world economy does not seem good for at least the next six months. This rise in BTC is a glimpse of hope, and I hope it strengthens.
De-dollarization
I think that the most significant danger the world is facing is the de-dollarization of the world. More and more countries are trying to settle their transactions in their currencies or something else aside from the dollar. The dollar is the true power that the US has, not its army, technology, aircraft, or weapons, but the power they have being the issuer of the world reserve currency. After the astronomical printing and the war on Ukraine, more and more countries like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, India, Pakistan are making deals to not trade in dollars. I am afraid of the lengths to which a declining economy and power will go to keep its power. I will provide more analysis in a stand-alone post about this.
