The show Macro Markets, hosted by crypto analyst Marcel Pechman, which airs every Friday at 12 pm ET on the Cointelegraph Markets & Research YouTube channel, explains complex concepts in layman’s terms and focuses on the cause and effect of traditional financial events on the day-to-day crypto activity.
In today’s episode, Pechman discusses the housing crisis, especially after the United States Case–Shiller Index dropped for the seventh straight month. Increased mortgage rates certainly played a part, considering 15-year financing rose to 5.6% from 3.7% in March 2022.
However, Pechman explains why commercial properties represent a much more immediate risk, as business rapidly decreases during recessions. Moreover, corporate layoffs usually cause a cascading effect as fewer companies compete for commercial properties.
At the same time, delinquency naturally increases as businesses are forced to refinance their debt at a much higher cost. The video explains how the commercial property crisis could spill into regional banks and cites two multibillion-dollar defaults that occurred over the past couple of months.
During a brief recap, Pechman explains how cryptocurrencies relate to the housing market and why the sector does not provide reliable inflation protection.
The Macro Markets’ next segment focuses on the France–China liquid natural gas (LNG) trade settled directly in yuans, bypassing the U.S. dollar as a global settlement layer. However, Pechman points out how inefficient and unreliable this system is, as commercial banks and companies based in France are not allowed to carry yuans.
The show concludes by showing how Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrencies resemble broader commodities trading, as most of its volume happens in USD. Thus, even if a small part of the trade goes through other currencies, the USD markets retain the indicative price rates.
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