Category Archives: Silver

(Bloomberg) — Russia may face a longer and deeper recession as the impact of US and European sanctions spreads, handicapping sectors that the country has relied on for years to power its economy, according to an internal report prepared for the government.The document, the result of months of work by officials and experts trying to assess the true impact of Russia’s economic isolation due to President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, paints a far more dire picture than officials usually do in their upbeat public pronouncements. Bloomberg viewed a copy of the report, drafted for a closed-door meeting of top officials on Aug. 30. People familiar with the deliberations confirmed its authenticity.Two of the three scenarios in the report show the contraction accelerating next year, with the economy returning to the prewar level only at the end of the decade or later. The “inertial” one sees the economy bottoming out next year 8.3% below the 2021 level, while the “stress” scenario puts the low in 2024 at 11.9% under last year’s level.All the scenarios see the pressure of sanctions intensifying, with more countries likely to join them. Europe’s sharp turn away from Russian oil and gas may also hit the Kremlin’s ability to supply its own market, the report said.Beyond the restrictions themselves, which cover about a quarter of imports and exports, the report details how Russia now faces a “blockade” that “has affected practically all forms of transport,” further cutting off the country’s economy. Technological and financial curbs add to the pressure. The report estimates as many as 200,000 IT specialists may leave the country by 2025, the first official forecast of the widening brain drain.Publicly, officials say the hit from sanctions has been less than feared, with the contraction possibly less than 3% this year and even less in 2023. Outside economists have also adjusted the outlooks for this year, backing off initial forecasts of a deep recession as the economy has held up better than expected.Export DropThe document calls for a raft of measures to support the economy and further ease the impact of the restrictions in order to get the economy recovering to pre-war levels in 2024 and growing steadily after that. But the steps include many of the same measures to stimulate investment that the government has touted over the last decade, when growth largely stagnated even without sanctions.Asked about the Bloomberg report early Tuesday in Vladivostok, Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov called the forecasts “analytical estimates that we used to calculate what would happen if we don’t resist, don’t do anything,” according to Tass.What Bloomberg Economics Says…“With diminished access to Western technologies, a wave of foreign corporate divestment and demographic headwinds ahead, the country’s potential growth is set to shrink to 0.5%-1.0% in the next decade. Thereafter, it will shrink further still, down to just above zero by 2050. Russia will also be increasingly vulnerable to a decline in global commodity prices, as international reserves no longer provide a buffer.” -Alexander Isakov, Russia economistOver the next year or two, the report warns of “reduced production volumes in a range of export-oriented sectors,” from oil and gas to metals, chemicals and wood products. While some rebound is possible later, “these sectors will cease to be the drivers of the economy.”No, Yale – Sanctions Have Not Triggered a Collapse in RussiaA full cutoff of gas to Europe, Russia’s main export market, could cost as much as 400 billion rubles ($6.6 billion) a year in lost tax revenues, according to the report. It won’t be possible to fully compensate the lost sales with new export markets even in the medium term.Oil Sector HitAs a result, output will have to be reduced, threatening Kremlin goals for expanding domestic gas supplies, the report said. The lack of technology needed for liquefied natural gas plants is “critical” and may hamper efforts to build new ones.Europe’s plans to stop importing Russian oil products — about 55% of exports went there last year — could trigger sharp cuts in production leaving the domestic market short of fuel, as well.Metals producers are losing $5.7 billion a year from the restrictions, the report said.If the world economy slips into recession, the report warns, Russia could see exports cut further as it becomes the “swing supplier” on global markets, with demand for its products disappearing first. That could trigger a plunge in the ruble and a spike in inflation.On the import side, “the main short-term risk is the suspension of production due to lack of imported raw materials and components.” Over the longer term, the inability to repair imported equipment could permanently limit growth, the report said.‘Critical Imports’“There are simply no alternative suppliers for some critical imports,” it said.Even in the farm sector, where the Kremlin has touted its efforts at replacing foreign supplies, dependence on key inputs could force Russians to reduce their food consumption as supplies dwindle, according to the report.Restrictions on access to western technology may push Russia a generation or two behind current standards as it’s forced to rely on less advanced alternatives from China and Southeast Asia.The report warns that sanctions will also force the government to revise a range of the development targets that Putin had set before the war, including those for boosting population growth and life expectancy.On a sectoral basis, the report details the breadth of the hit from sanctions:Agriculture: Fully 99% of poultry production and 30% of Holstein dairy cattle output depends on imports. Seeds for staples like sugar beets and potatoes are also mostly brought in from outside the country, as are fish feeds and aminoacids.Aviation: 95% of passenger volume is carried on foreign-made planes and the lack of access to imported spare parts could lead the fleet to shrink as they go out of serviceMachine-building: only 30% of machine tools are Russian-made and local industry doesn’t have the capacity to cover rising demandPharmaceuticals: About 80% of domestic production relies on imported raw materialsTransport: EU restrictions have tripled costs for road shipmentsCommunications and IT: Restrictions on SIM cards could leave Russia short of them by 2025, while its telecommunications sector may fall five years behind world leaders in 2022.(Updates with economy minister comment in eighth paragraph.)Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek©2022 Bloomberg L.P. Continue reading →

As we round out August in the COMEX, gold delivery was strong and silver was dominated by the odd mechanizations of Bank of America.Gold: Current  Delivery MonthDelivery volume in the August gold contract started strong and then continued to see net new contracts delivered throughout the month with house accounts setting a record in net delivery inflows.September gold has also shown promise with First Notice showing the third highest open interest in a minor month going back to November 2020. Actual deliveries have started out slow with only 404 contracts delivered on the first day, but this could be more signs of strain in the physical market (more on this below).Figure: 1 Recent like-month delivery volumeThe countdown chart below shows the activity in September gold leading up to First Notice. After a dip mid-month, open interest recovered and stayed elevated into First Notice with a slight uptick on the final day.Figure: 2 Open Interest CountdownThe slight uptick can be seen more clearly in the chart below as the difference between the green bar and blue bar. Also noticeable, is the large amount of open interest still outstanding.Figure: 3 24-month delivery and first noticeThe chart below shows the percentage of contracts delivered on the very first day of delivery. As shown, only 15% of contracts were delivered on the first day which is the smallest amount going back to at least November 2019. Short contract holders dictate the delivery timing which means the shorts have delayed delivery at the outset.Figure: 4 Delivery Volume After First NoticeAre the shorts delaying delivery due to a lack of physical available? Pressure has been mounting in the physical market with massive physical withdraws from the Comex vaults. This can be seen below as 7.3M ounces of gold have left the Comex system since May 1. Inventory stood near 36M ounces on May 1, so the gold exiting represents almost 21% of total inventory in 4 months.Figure: 5 Recent Monthly Stock ChangeGold: Next Delivery MonthOctober gold is an odd month. It is ten times larger than the typical open interest seen in minor months (38k vs 3k) but is also one-tenth the size of major months which tend to be near 400k. Current open interest is almost exactly at the same spot as October 2021.Figure: 6 Open Interest CountdownMajor months have been seeing strong delivery volume in recent months with a strong trend upwards starting in October last year.Figure: 7 Historical DeliveriesFinally, the October to December spread is showing the strongest contango since at least April 2021. Contango generally signals a market that anticipates higher prices in the future.Figure: 8 SpreadsSilver: Recent Delivery MonthSeptember silver has shown a rebound from the very disappointing July. Major months have been on a steady decline since the peak in July 2020. Aside from December 2021 and March 2022, delivery volume has been on a downward trend.Figure: 9 Recent like-month delivery volumeThat being said, the countdown into close showed a very modest decline versus what is typically seen. September went from the bottom of the pack to the middle of the pack on the final day.Figure: 10 Open Interest CountdownThe final day drop can be seen as the difference between the blue and green bars below. This was the smallest drop seen going into First Notice since at least July 2020.Figure: 11 24-month delivery and first noticeUnlike gold, nearly all the open interest was delivered on the first day with only 632 contracts remaining open. Almost 90% of contracts were delivered on the first day, which towers above the second highest month in March 2020 with 73% on the first day.Figure: 12 Delivery Volume After First NoticeLooking at the bank house accounts shows that BofA is the biggest net loser of metal by far. They have delivered out 5,199 of the 5,244 (99.1%) of the contracts delivered thus far! On the flip side, the remaining house accounts have been net receivers of 3,276 ounces which is their largest inflow ever! This was driven primarily by Citigroup (2607) and Morgan Stanley (579).What is going on here? BofA has been a horrendous trader of silver over the last 9 months, accumulating when the price is high and delivering out when the price is low. BofA delivery out exceeds the final amount from December, but they also spent most of December opening net new contracts to recover the metal they delivered out on the first day and continued that activity in January.Figure: 13 House Account ActivityThe chart below shows BofA’s accumulation of silver since November 2020. As shown, they have accumulated during higher prices and sold out during lower prices. Furthermore, the current contract has wiped out nearly 85% of the total BofA house accumulation over almost two years.Figure: 14 BofA Cumulative DeliveryAdding to the murky story is the continued outflow of Registered silver. Current Registered silver represents a total of 10,130 contracts. This means that 58% of total Registered has just stood for delivery! If that metal starts to get pulled out of Registered, the stock will fall dramatically.If BofA repeats December and starts buying back metal mid-month, it’s very possible total delivery volume for September could exceed total Registered.Figure: 15 Recent Monthly Stock ChangeSilver: Next Delivery MonthOctober silver is starting off sluggish with current open interest well below average.Figure: 16 Open Interest CountdownSimilar to major months, minor months have seen a pretty steady decline downwards.Figure: 17 Historical DeliveriesAll of this is happening while the silver spot market stays in strong backwardation, indicating that the current spot metal is being valued more highly than futures contracts.Figure: 18 Spot vs FuturesWrapping upGold and silver are both showing strength this month but in different ways. Gold has seen strong open interest into the close but with a very small fraction being delivered so far. Silver showed a very small decline of open interest into First Notice, but then saw a record percentage of contracts delivered on the first day, almost entirely from BofA. The activity in BofA is potentially the biggest outlier of all the data points. It looks like they are trying to contain the market during big delivery volumes and are willing to take a loss to do so.Inventory data is also different between the two metals with gold seeing steady depletion in both Registered and Eligible where the activity in silver is concentrated in Registered falling. In both metals, Registered is falling rapidly which leads to less metal available for delivery in future months.There is no doubt that futures contracts are not capturing this movement going on under the surface. The technical picture in the paper market has been looking weak, while the physical market is showing record strength. Eventually, these two markets will converge, or else the paper market could break down. Likely, the paper market will eventually catch up to the futures market as the shorts struggle to find metal to deliver. When this happens, the movement in price could be extremely fast.Figure: 19 Annual DeliveriesData Source: https://www.cmegroup.com/Data Updated: Nightly around 11PM EasternLast Updated: Aug 30, 2022Gold and Silver interactive charts and graphs can be found on the Exploring Finance dashboard: https://exploringfinance.shinyapps.io/goldsilver/Get Peter Schiff’s key gold headlines in your inbox every week – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today! Continue reading →

(Kitco News) China has significantly stepped up its gold purchases from Russia amid a Western ban on Russian gold following its invasion of Ukraine.
China imported $108.8 million worth of Russian gold in July. That is a 750% jump from the previous month’s total of $12.7 million and an increase of 4,800% from $2.2 million reported during the same month a year ago, Russian media RBC reported citing Chinese customs data. The data listed included raw and semi-finished forms of gold.
More buying from China comes after the U.S., Britain, Canada, Japan, the EU, and Switzerland banned Russian gold exports following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier in August, it was reported that Russia is looking into its own international standard for precious metals after getting banned by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA). And it could have a fixed price in national currencies. 
The country’s Finance Ministry said it was “critical” to create the new Moscow World Standard (MWS) to “normalize the functioning of the precious metals industry” and have an alternative to the LBMA.
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the LBMA also suspended its accreditation of Russian precious metals refiners, barring them from selling new products in London. The suspension was made official on March 7.
According to the Finance Ministry, Russia was the second highest gold producer by volume in 2021, with gold output rising by 9% to 343 tons. The precious metals industry in Russia accounts for around $25 billion a year. Continue reading →

Physical silver bars continue to drain from COMEX and London warehouse stockpiles. Lower spot prices are contributing to this.

Larger investors who hold deliverable bars aren’t throwing in the towel and dumping them back into the market. Instead, they continue to stack, much like retail investors buying the smaller coins, rounds and bars.

An attempt by Reddit users to create a “silver squeeze” in early 2021 marked the beginning of the year-and-a-half long trend of steadily declining bar inventories. The grassroots movement was an attempt to break the crooked price discovery scheme in silver.

Buyers were encouraged to purchase silver and take possession. The hope was that the tiny inventory supporting a mountain of paper derivative metal would disappear. Shorts would have to bid more and more for available bars in order to exit their positions and end the pain.

The buzz around the “silver squeeze” faded from the headlines over a year ago, but the draining of inventory continues.

As available stocks decline, the prices paid for deliverable bars in the cash market keep getting higher versus paper silver futures.

The mismatch in prices between the two markets is way outside of normal and should serve as a warning.

Buyers are paying up to get physical metal, and they are bearing the cost of storing large bars.

So far, traders on the short side don’t seem bothered by these troubling underlying fundamentals.

The past few months have been profitable for those making leveraged bets on lower prices.

What makes this setup interesting is that it is the speculators, not the commercial banks, who are heavily short. (Perhaps traders went to the Hamptons this summer and the trading algorithms they left on autopilot aren’t programmed to watch inventory levels.)

Futures market speculators are also not too quick on the uptake — generally speaking. Bullion bankers have a long history of total domination against them in futures trading.

Normally it is bankers and commercial hedgers who are short and specs who are long. The current positioning may be backward, but you can expect the winners will be the same people – those classified as the large commercial traders.

Commercial traders tend to position themselves correctly ahead of the next trend – and right now they are positioned for the silver market to turn up. Continue reading →

The price of silver hit a peak over $26.50 on March 8. It spent about a month and a half breaking down, and then the bottom fell out. It’s currently down from that peak almost 8 bucks.

Breaking Down Fundamental Silver Prices

However, the opposite has been happening to silver’s scarcity. First, let’s look at a chart of the silver market price and the silver fundamental price.

The market price is down a lot since that peak, but the fundamental price has moved sideways (ignoring the two spurious drops) and is now the same as on March 8.

Now let’s look at what the silver basis and silver cobasis are showing.

There has been a big run up in the cobasis (i.e. the measure of scarcity), since August 8. It has hit almost zero, which is the line of demarcation of backwardation.

This chart, by the way, shows the continuous basis and cobasis. This is not the near contract (i.e. December, which hit a cobasis near 1% on Thursday). The continuous basis is a smooth 6-month average duration synthetic contract, not subject to the volatility caused by contract expiry, which often manifests as temporary backwardation.

Our remarks? We haven’t seen a cobasis like this, in at least 7 years.

LIBOR Rates and Silver

But it’s bigger than that. Much bigger. That’s because the interest rate is higher now, than it has been since November 2008. Now, LIBOR is on a tear. Then, it was collapsing.

            Source: securitybenefit.com (who uses data from the Federal Reserve System)

To carry metal, a bank’s first step is to borrows dollars. Then it buys the metal and sells it forward. So, the basis is closely tied to the interest rate (we are still using LIBOR as an indicative rate).

When the interest rate is moving, we may find it more useful or more revealing to look at a chart which takes interest rates into account. It turns out that we do have such a chart. It is the lease rate*, which is LIBOR – forward rate (forward rate is a different way of looking at the basis).

*Note: Not to be confused with Monetary Metals’ true gold and silver lease rates, which are the rates investors earn when they lease gold and silver with us.

Here is the silver lease rate graph.

The lease rate, which is another way of looking at scarcity, is higher than at any time since the thick of the global financial crisis, in October 2008.

At that point, silver was trading under $10. And 2 ½ years later, its price quintupled to about $50.

The lease rate, LIBOR – GOFO, is based on arbitrage in the commercial bullion markets, again it has nothing to do with the interest rate Monetary Metals pays silver owners on their silver.

Silver Scarcity and the Future

Will that happen again soon? We don’t know (and neither does anyone else). But we can say with certainty that its scarcity has become serious.

This could be resolved two different ways. One, there could be selling of physical metal combined with a let up in buying. Two, the price could shoot up.

We think this is a good time to place a bet on silver.

Bet or no bet though, you can always earn interest on silver, (and gold) by opening a Monetary Metals account.

We will continue to keep a close eye on silver as the current situation unfolds.

© Monetary Metals 2022 Continue reading →

August 25, 2022  by SchiffGold  0   0Gold: Recent Delivery MonthGold has seen the largest delivery volume in 2022 with 33,593 contracts delivered so far and 244 remaining in open interest. Since 2020, only December and February last year recorded larger volumes.Figure: 1 Recent like-month delivery volumeUnlike past months, the large volume was not really driven by mid-month net new contracts. Activity was well below recent months with only 1,935 contracts opened for immediate delivery. It should be noted that this figure was negative up to 8 days past first notice so there was definitely still strength mid-month.Figure: 2 Cumulative Net New ContractsFrom a dollar volume perspective, this month was more than $1.1B larger than last August but still well below the records from summer 2020.Figure: 3 Notional DeliveriesAnother major event this month was the record net delivery of contracts from the banks. The previous record was set in April in the wake of the Ukraine/Russia conflict. This month is nearly 30% higher with 8,340 contracts in net delivery volume. BofA is still a big player as they buy back about half of the metal they delivered out last month.Figure: 4 House Account ActivityIt’s very possible that banks are becoming more active as their inventory dwindles. As noted in the stock report, gold has been leaving Comex vaults at an unprecedented pace. While the last few days have seen inflows into Eligible, the removal from Registered is striking. Since May 1st, 4.17M ounces have left Registered. Nearly 13% of that occurred in the last two days alone as 540k ounces left (see below).Figure: 5 Recent Monthly Stock ChangeGold: Next Delivery MonthJumping ahead to September shows elevated open interest. It is currently below both March and May of this year, but those months showed exceptionally high open interest at this point in the contract. Furthermore, both March and May were influenced by the conflict in Ukraine. The elevated open interest this month does not (yet) have a clear driver.Figure: 6 Open Interest CountdownThe chart below shows deliveries for the last several minor months. Delivery volume has been quite elevated. The action in minor months can be heavily influenced by mid-month activity. Thus, regardless of the open interest at First Notice next week, it will be a few weeks before the full delivery volume will be known.Figure: 7 Historical DeliveriesSpreadsJumping out to the October contract shows the market in strong Contango, higher even than the August contract at a similar point. The current spread between October and December is nearly $10.Figure: 8 Futures SpreadsThe strong contango in the futures curve is one reason the spot market flipped from backwardation to contango at the beginning of the month (shown below). The analysis last month highlighted the market in strong backwardation for an extended period. Once August went into delivery, the futures contract went from August to October. The spot market flipped but the spread is already coming down quickly. The backwardation last month could be one reason for the heavy physical activity noted above. It will be interesting to see if the spread for October drops into negative territory over the next few weeks.Figure: 9 Spot vs FuturesSilver: Recent Delivery MonthSilver is still not seeing the same strength as gold. Delivery volume in August is the smallest for a minor month going back to January 2021. With only 74 contracts open, August will finish well below average.Figure: 10 Recent like-month delivery volumeLower mid-month activity is one reason for this drop. As shown below, only about 330 contracts were opened for immediate delivery. This is about 25% of the volume seen in February contract of this year.Figure: 11 Cumulative Net New ContractsThe banks are also not nearly as active. BofA restocked its delivery volume out last month (606 vs 600), but the other banks combined are only delivering 235 contracts this month.Figure: 12 House Account ActivityThis August will be the weakest dollar volume since August 2018 with only $105M delivered, less than half the amount from last August.Figure: 13 Notional DeliveriesOne area where silver continues to impress is the drain on Registered. Outflows continue from Registered with 2.77M ounces out on the most recent day. Registered is down more than 65% since the all-time peak in December 2020. At the current pace, Registered will be empty within a year!Figure: 14 Recent Monthly Stock ChangeSilver: Next Delivery MonthSeptember silver is starting to show signs of life! With 4 days to go, September has at least entered the pack. A lot will still happen in the next few days, but recent activity could be a good sign given where the contract stood a few weeks ago.Figure: 15 Open Interest CountdownLast month finished quite weak so it would be good to see a turnaround.Figure: 16 Historical DeliveriesThe market is still in strong contango but has been dipping down as the contract approaches First Notice.Figure: 17 Roll CostWhile the futures market remains in contango, the spot market is in solid backwardation. The market is in the strongest backwardation since silver first saw its massive price spike back in summer 2020.Figure: 18 Spot vs FuturesWrapping upThe gold price clearly does not reflect all the activity going on under the surface. The demand for physical is really starting to materialize with no clear catalyst (e.g., Covid lockdowns or Ukraine/Russia war). The Comex data is important because it will likely be the first place to show stress in the gold/silver market.The price is currently contained by an unlimited paper supply that can always be created to meet paper demand. The COTs report shows that this isn’t even needed as Managed Money has gone cold on gold. Things start to change when physical supply cannot be found to meet physical demand. The data is pointing to this as a real possibility in both gold and silver. The outflow of metal combined with the increased delivery volume in gold points to something happening underneath the surface while the paper futures market still plays the same old game. Buckle up! Things could get very interesting in the months ahead!Figure: 19 Annual DeliveriesData Source: https://www.cmegroup.com/Data Updated: Nightly around 11PM EasternLast Updated: Aug 24, 2022Gold and Silver interactive charts and graphs can be found on the Exploring Finance dashboard: https://exploringfinance.shinyapps.io/goldsilver/Get Peter Schiff’s key gold headlines in your inbox every week – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today! Continue reading →

(Kitco News) The U.S. dollar has been the main culprit holding gold back this summer, but Wells Fargo still projects the precious metal to end the year above $2,000 an ounce.
Despite this week’s gains, gold is still trading below $1,800 an ounce as markets await Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s keynote speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday. At the time of writing, spot gold was trading just above the $1,752 an ounce level, up 0.22% on the day.
If not for the U.S. dollar index at 20-year highs, gold would be around $150 higher than its current trading levels, Wells Fargo’s real asset strategy head John LaForge told Kitco News.
“I’m still shocked that gold doesn’t want to move. The U.S. dollar is what’s holding gold back. Gold would have been closer to $1,900 if not for the move in the dollar,” LaForge said on Wednesday. “Gold is still that chameleon asset. For six months, it’s moving with real rates. And just when you figured that out, it’s moving with the dollar. And just when you figure that out, it’s moving with some crisis. For something so muted, it’s amazing how often it switches teams.”
Wells Fargo’s year-end target remains $2,000- $2,100 an ounce, but if the U.S. dollar keeps surprising on the upside, that target could be unachievable.
Over the summer, the dollar has become the popular safe-haven play as other economies struggle with more problematic inflation and growth concerns. And the U.S. dollar could hold on to its strength for the next six months, according to LaForge.
“Our base case is that the U.S. will enter a recession somewhere in October or November, which will last until the middle of next year. Typically the dollar loses strength when signals say we are coming out of recession. So, if our base case is correct, you could see the dollar start acting weaker in Q1 of next year in anticipation of that,” he described.
Until then, the dollar will keep acting as that defensive asset.
For gold, a recession doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. But it all depends on the kind of recession the U.S. will see. A mild one could be beneficial for the gold price, LaForge noted.
On the inflation side, Wells Fargo does not see price pressures falling back to the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Longer-term inflation looks closer to 3%-4%.
Following Jackson Hole and the Fed’s September meeting, the U.S. central bank will stick to much more measured rate hikes of around 50 basis points, following a set of 75-basis-point jumps. But its overall priority will remain with battling inflation, LaForge said.
“They are not going to change much. You might hear a word or two at Jackson Hole. But no doubt that the number one concern will be inflation. We only had one print that showed that maybe we peaked,” he stated.
Another asset play on LaForge’s radar is the crypto space after its fourth bear market. “I’d argue we reached the point with crypto where it has matured enough to prove there is value there,” he said.
The last major speed bump for this market is regulation. And that could clear up within the next year, which will impact the price. “At this juncture, regulation is the number one thing. There are systems that the government wants to control. And money is a big one. There’s a bit of a fight going on,” LaForge said.
Regulation needs to be light enough to allow critical characteristics like independence and decentralization to remain at the core of crypto.
“What’s looming in the next couple of years is the government coming in and regulating. The question is, how much? Do they take a light-glove approach as they did with the internet or a heavy-handed one? You have the example of the internet being regulated lightly. But that was with information and communications, which is important, but arguably not as important as money,” LaForge highlighted. “If regulation is light-gloved, this is a whole new asset class. And we’ll know that within the next year, and we’ll start seeing it in the price.” Continue reading →