One of the most baffling cryptocurrencies was hacked last night.
Tether (USDT) is a cryptocurrency that is pegged in value to the US Dollar. Many large cryptocurrency exchanges use USDT as a way for clients to store their funds on the platform without putting it on crypto.
A few hours ago, Tether announced that it was hacked and approximately $31 Million was stolen. Some of the details of the hack are extremely suspicious and many are calling foul play. Of course, the Tether System has been under intense scrutiny from the online community for weeks already.
It seems that Tether isn't giving up on this one and are currently in the process of enacting an emergency hard fork in order to retrieve the stolen coins. As we've seen before, these type of forks can sometimes have unintended consequences.
Bitcoin dropped below $8,000 per coin for the first time ever reaching as low as $7,750 before a strong rebound.
Mixed Directions
Germany Situation
Turkish Breakout
Please note: All data, figures & graphs are valid as of November 21st. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.
Market Overview
Markets are struggling to find a direction this morning. President Trump's latest escalation with North Korea is already being seen as 'business as usual' and investors seem happy to wait, see, hope and pray for tax reforms to be enacted shortly.
Janet Yellen has also decided that she will be leaving the Fed once Jerome Powell is sworn in, which basically paves the way for President Trump to completely reshape the Federal Reserve as he wishes.
But the Fed and US Taxes seem far from the minds of European investors today. The main focus remains on German politics. It may seem a bit funny that given the level of uncertainty the Dax 30 is actually up. In fact, most European stocks are holding up pretty well given the tangled circumstances.
It seems that Germany is, in fact, gearing up for a re-election. Already some have imagined the scenario where Merkel and her opposition will be strengthened at the expense of some of the smaller parties. The extreme far-right party has not been performing well either and speculation is that they could get kicked out if we go to round two.
I even heard one analyst this morning talking about the positive spin that this political upheaval in Germany will have on the Brexit Negotiations.
Turkish Breakout
For those of you who love volatile currencies, check out the Turkish Lira today. The USD/TRY has reached an all time record high of 3.9772 and according to some analysts is preparing for a strong breakout of the psychological resistance at 4.00
If the politics in Germany are tangled, you can think about Turkey as one big dreadlock. The Supreme leader Erdogan has stated that he does not want to lift interest rates any higher, which at this point seems to be the only real tool that the Turkish Central Bank has in order to stop the slide.
It's certainly going to be an exciting day ahead!
eToro, Senior Market Analyst