As Asian investors piled into cryptocurrencies, the correlation between the performance of the region’s equity markets and crypto assets has increased, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
In an Aug 21 post, the IMF noted that the returns and volatility correlations between bitcoin and Asian equity markets were low before the pandemic but have increased significantly since 2020. Using its spillover methodology, the IMF found that the rise in crypto-equity correlations in Asia has been accompanied by a sharp rise in crypto-equity volatility spillovers in India, Vietnam and Thailand.
“This indicates a growing interconnectedness between the two asset classes that permits the transmission of shocks that can impact financial markets,” they add.
Credit: IMF
Over US$100 million worth of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were publicly reported as stolen through scams between July 2021 and July this year, according to analytics firm Elliptic. In its “NFT Report 2022”, the firm said over 4,600 NFTs were stolen in July this year — the highest month on record, indicating that scams have not abated despite the crypto bear market.
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The report also found that 5,000 NFTs have been stolen through social media compromises, with the practice remaining highly profitable. Between the first and second quarters of 2022, the value of NFTs stolen through such compromises jumped by 386% from US$3.2 million to US$15.4 million.
Chart: Elliptic
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Payment protocol Ripple is now listed as one of World Economic Forum’s (WEF) official partners. On the WEF’s website, Ripple is described as “dedicated to creating powerful gains in financial efficiency, equity and inclusion”. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse previously spoke at the panel discussion of WEF 2022.
Ripple is the company behind cryptocurrency XRP. As at Aug 29, XRP is trading at 32.3 US cents apiece. This is 90.5% lower than its all-time high recorded on Jan 7, 2018 at US$3.40 apiece.
XRP 1-year price performance. Chart: CoinGecko
