🚀 Gold Jumps Over $2,150/oz To a New Record High!

🐺 Hi pack-mates,

This is Howling Markets, the only priceless newsletter that shines bright like gold!

Today we will be covering:

• Education: What Is a DePIN? 🌐

• Io.net Raised More Than $30 Million in Series A Funding 💰

• Gold Jumps Over $2,150/oz To a New Record High! 🟡

• Equity and Debt Markets Daily Update ⚖️

• And more!

Market Watch 👀

What is a DePIN?

Over the past decade, the world of cryptocurrencies evolved from a single token with the function of a ledger to a series of networks interlinked by advanced functions and capabilities.

However, most of our current day tokens only have unique and useful features in the digital space and are not yet fully implemented in real life. For example, NFTs are based on an extremely valuable protocol that guarantees uniqueness and certifies past ownership by encrypting data on the Ethereum blockchain, but how relevant are they on our day-to-day life?

Well, unfortunately not much yet, together with many interesting dApps and DeFi applications. However, a relatively new invention has started to increase in popularity by bridging the gap between decentralized finance and our physical world.

These solutions are called DePIN, an acronym that stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks. DePINs are decentralized applications built with the intent of creating a community to build real-life infrastructures.

Additionally, being dApps, DePINs are entirely based on cryptocurrencies and built on a network, benefitting from all the main advantages of this digital niche.

These new types of decentralized apps have the potential to create the most important crypto-related evolution ever. Had you ever heard of these new interesting crypto projects?

Io.net Raised More Than $30 Million in Series A Funding

We have shortly discussed how DePINs are trying to bridge the gap between interesting digital projects and the real-life applications of them. Currently, the most promising DePIN project is called Io.net and it based on finding the solution to the problem that has been driving Nvidia share prices through the roof: the shortage of GPUs suitable for AI computing.

Io.net was first introduced in November 2023 as a decentralized application based on the Solana Network that provided GPU computational power and Machine Learning services for companies developing generative AI, at a lower cost and faster delivery times than traditional solutions.

Additionally, Io.net’s services were also enhanced by their unique characteristic of being on a blockchain and being able to provide a transparent account of every computation ever carried out on the network.

On top of this, Io.net has also programmed on the 28^th of April the launch of their native token which will be called IO and will provide further functionalities to their services.

In recent years, the shortage of GPUs suitable for the development of generative AI has been a fundamental bottleneck that has strongly benefitted companies such as Nvidia which had significant expertise in the field. Because of this, Io.net has already gathered more than $30 million in Series A funding thanks to the increasing demand in GPU computational power.

Today’s Howling Question

And now, it is time for our howling question!

Gold’s price has recently set its new record high by gaining more than +7.5% in less than a week, but what about other precious metals? Do you know how silver has performed since the beginning of March?

1. -10%

2. -5%%

3. +2%

4. +7%

5. +12%

Try to answer the question by yourself, and then check the correct answer after the last interesting news!

Gold Jumps Over $2,150/oz To a New Record High!

Right when Bitcoin has been taking out its long-standing all-time record at $69,000, also another key asset has been doing the same. Since the last day of February, gold has been benefitting from an unusual amount of volatility which has pushed the price significantly higher, beating its previous record high.

In an unexpected turn of events, after a strong rejection in the first half of February, gold’s price has managed to summon an especially strong rally that was able to break probably its strongest resistance level at around $2,070/oz.

Gold’s price had first reached this level during the summer of 2020 and over the following four years it tried to move past this resistance 7 times without any success. However, on the first of march the precious metal was able to breach this barrier and in less than a week it rallied more than +7.5%.

The aspect that most strikes analysts about his situation is the fact that both Bitcoin and gold are setting record highs together despite being defined as the polar opposites in the spectrum of money.

Gold is deemed the safe asset whose price rises during periods of uncertainty, and it tends to maintain its value even during crises and economic downturns.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is the most volatile type of money whose price is entirely driven by speculation as it does not carry any intrinsic value. Because of this, as soon as some uncertainty starts to shine through the market, Bitcoin’s price usually falls.

However, the reason behind this double rally lays in the fact that these two sides of the market are currently affected by their own set of greats news and are generally not really affected by the broader market.

As Bitcoin is jumping higher due to its spot ETFs and the future halving, gold is climbing higher due to the expected Fed rate cuts, the geopolitical uncertainty due to the wars, the presidential election and China’s troubled economic situation.

Did you ever expected to see Bitcoin and gold rally together, especially considering this complex economic situation?

Equity and Debt Markets Update

And now, our daily markets update!

Wednesday has been a trading day characterized by a relatively high volatility due to Powell’s interview about the economic situation and the Feds view of the market. Powell began by saying that he expected the Feds to start cutting rates this year, but he continued by stating that the Feds are in no rush to make the first monetary policy change.

Finally, Powell concluded on a high note by saying that despite an increase in inflation the Feds were noticing “green flags across the globe”. This rollercoaster of a statement sent the markets for a wild ride, first opening higher, then dropping lower and finally recovering, closing the day +0.51% higher.

On the other hand, the bond market moved in a much linear way because, despite Powell making a mixed statement, it became pretty clear that the Feds would like to start cutting rates, boosting the markets’ expected probability of a rate cut.

Because of this, most yields dropped during the trading session with the benchmark 10-year US government bond yield closing -1.16% lower.

Answer

The correct answer is 4) +7%.

Despite not having performed as good as gold did on a longer-time horizon, the past week has been exceptional also for silver, which has gained +6.62% since the beginning of March.

Howl-Worthy Memes 😂

🐺 See you next time!

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