October's hot issue is whether or not “Spot Bitcoin ETF” will be approved.

Nice to meet you all.

My name is Masamichi Matsushima a.k.a. “Marin” and I am a crypto asset analyst at Monex, Inc.

I have decided to write a series of articles on the Bitcoin market and my outlook for the future as part of a series of articles in Iolite magazine. I will also introduce individual stocks that I am currently paying attention to under the title of “Marin's Noteworthy Issues".

I will do my best to provide as much useful information as possible to our readers!

August Bitcoin Market Review

In August, Bitcoin was soft amid rising U.S. interest rates. Robust economic indicators and persistent inflation in the U.S. increased concerns about additional interest rate hikes before the end of the year. The BTC dropped sharply to the 3.7 million yen level when the last FOMC meeting summary revealed divergent opinions among participants and increased uncertainty about the interest rate outlook.

Also, reports that aerospace company SpaceX had sold some of its bitcoins led to speculative selling due to the company's association with Elon Musk, who is the CEO of SpaceX. The market then turned its attention to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's speech at the Jackson Hole meeting, which was in line with market expectations and led to a buying back of bitcoin.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Grayscale, an asset management company, won a lawsuit against the SEC in the U.S., and the price recovered to the 4 million yen per BTC level due to expectations for a physical bitcoin ETF. However, on August 31, the SEC announced that it would delay its decision on the applications filed by several companies, including BlackRock, until October, and disappointing sell-offs pushed the price down again to the 3.7 million yen per BTC level.

In addition, a series of other concerns in August, such as the downgrading of U.S. banks and the real estate bubble in China, spread a risk-off mood throughout the financial markets. Hacking incidents at major DeFi projects such as Curve Finance and uncertainty over crypto asset regulations in the U.S. also weighed on the market, and the bitcoin price fell about 9% from the previous month.

While this is a larger decline than equities in a single month, it is still the largest since the beginning of the year with a performance of over 70%.