Bitcoin pulls back after South Korea martial law lift
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is in focus as President-elect Trump reportedly considers crypto enthusiast Paul Atkins to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The cryptocurrency pulls back after peaking when South Korea declared martial law, only to lift it hours later. Kraken head of strategy Thomas Perfumo joins Seana Smith and Madison Mills on Catalysts to discuss bitcoin's function in investors' portfolios amid global political turmoil headed into Trump's second term in the White House. "A geopolitical event taking place and bitcoin trading up or down, to me, isn't necessarily validation that it's reacting to that news. Specifically, when I think about bitcoin's movements more recently, it's very much tied to capital net inflows," Perfumo says, explaining, "I'm looking at ETF flows. I'm looking at any kind of buying practices coming out of MicroStrategy (MSTR) ... and also options activity on [the iShares Bitcoin Trust] IBIT itself has been picking up pace since it launched a couple of weeks ago." He notes, "Those, to me, are kind of accelerants to big price action movements," adding, "When it comes to geopolitical events, what you really have to look at is the relative activity with respect to other macro markets." Perfumo says, "What I saw more of with respect to that event was more of like a risk drawdown in risk assets in general, rather than crypto reacting a specific way to that event." "I think the long-term trend really speaking with crypto, at least for the next couple of years, is going to be around the story of like a pro-innovation agenda and what crypto can deliver on that." To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Catalysts here. This post was written by Naomi Buchanan.
