(+) The Damage Done

The total damage from the WannaCry virus has been counted. See, the thing most people don’t know about Bitcoin is that it’s only pseudo-anonymous. The nature of the blockchain allows everyone to see all transactions clearly, that’s what makes it effective.

So when the WannaCry pirates asked for ransom in bitcoin, they actually had to publish their wallet ID being used to receive the transaction. Overall, three wallets were used. For your convenience, I will publish them here. Please don’t send any money to them!!

13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6NgaEb94
12t9YDPgwueZ9NyMgw519p7AA8isjr6SMw
115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNXj6LrLn

You can see every transaction made to and from these wallets on blockchain.info. The folks at bitinfocharts.com were kind enough to compile this graph showing the total balance of all three.

Needless to say, cybercrime fighters around the world will be watching these wallets very closely and if these hoodlums ever try to convert their ill-gotten gains to real money there will be jail time in their future.

The law can be very forgiving to white collar criminals. The people responsible for the 2008 crisis are still walking free. Hackers, not so much. When you add that these guys interfered with hospital operations and government offices… dun dun dun.

Stay safe people. Don’t click any links unless you know exactly what it is.

-Mati

Please note: All data, figures graphs are valid as of May 18th. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you can afford to lose.

Market Overview

The damage done to the stock market by President Trump, on the other hand, is still being assessed.

The Trump-appointed deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, has selected Ex-FBI director Robert Mueller to act as a special investigator into the alleged Trump-Putin connection.

For those wondering if Trump tried to have Russia interfere with the US elections, this video should make it perfectly clear. What you’re seeing there is candidate Trump publicly asking Russia to hack into the then Secretary of State’s personal Email.

Sure, those Emails were probably reeking with abuse of power and corruption to the highest degree, but I digress.

The latest drama in Washington was too much for even the stock markets to ignore. The sound of the opening bell on Wall Street yesterday was met with a 180 point drop in the Dow Jones and by the end of the day, the damage totaled about 1.78% for the big index.

Virtually all sectors got smashed…

Volatility is finally up off the floor with the VIX index closing at 15.50. It’s far from the 22 points we saw during the US election and the 25 points seen on the night of the Brexit referendum but at least we’re off the all-time record low, which was set last Monday, May 8th below 10 points.

Oil seems to have lost control of this market. The inventories did in fact show supplies in the US declining slightly, which caused a nice spike up on Crude Oil. However, the price has already returned to about the same place it was before the announcement and as we saw in the pie chart above, the energy sector was down by the end of the day as risk off sentiment prevailed in the market.

In addition to the stocks, commodities, currencies, and bonds that have been damaged by the White House, the expectation of a speedy rate hike has dropped as well.

For the past two weeks, the market was pricing in a 90 to 100% chance that the Fed will hike rates on June 15th. This morning, that number was down to 82%.

Now, 82% is still enough for the Fed to make a move, but certainly if Trump doesn’t improve his image and quick, that number along with the US Dollar could certainly move lower.

Eye on Cryptos

The pace of growth for the cryptocurrencies has remained steady. Over the past 10 days, the total market cap of all digital assets has risen on average by $1 Billion per day.

Until yesterday, most of that new money was going straight into Ripple. In this next chart, we can see the market cap of Ripple rising from $5 Billion to a peak of more than $16.5 Billion yesterday.

However, over the last 12 hours, it is coming down fast and allowing room for other assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum to take some of their market-share back.:)

Let’s keep an eye on it over the next 6 to 8 hours to confirm or reverse the trend.

Have a spectacular day ahead.

This content is for information and educational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice or an investment recommendation.
Past performance is not an indication of future results. All trading carries risk. Only risk capital you’re prepared to lose.