Week 49 Wrap: Bitcoin hits US$100K after 16 years; De Grey buyout; South Korea chaos echoes France

Jonathon Davidson
jonathon.davidson@themarketonline.com.au

06 December 2024 15:27 (AEDT)

Bitcoin represented as an actual coin which it is not

What an interesting week it’s been. But let’s start off with the Grandfather cryptocurrency Bitcoin – which, fun fact, has now been around for 16 years.

The experimental asset has finally hit the long awaited USD$100K, a vindication for true believers everywhere. Regular readers will know I get a kick out of questioning the fundamental value proposition of Bitcoin, but there’s also the fact it’s survived quite a lot through the early 21st Century.

I will put down in writing right here and right now: Perhaps I am too hard on Bitcoin.

Wall Street to make or break

While 16 years mightn’t be too long on the grand scale, it’s starting to look like Bitcoin will easily carry on past the twenty year mark as we head into the late 2020’s. That, surely, is at least a footnote for the history books.

It’s also made a lot of people very rich, so that’s pretty impressive too.

Crypto’s fanbase has long been contagiously enthusiastic for the ‘digital gold.’ After a stellar run in the lockdown years and yet another ‘crypto winter’ that followed, it looks like the asset has finally gone truly mainstream – especially as Wall Street is now trading options on Bitcoin ETFs.

The question now is: Will Wall Street’s proclivity for Bitcoin ETFs – and now options trading on those ETFs – harm its reputation among the OG userbase who saw Bitcoin as a way to take finance and capitalism back from American investment banks?

Hemi deposit to finally move ahead

You can watch our latest HotCopper Highlights (presented by yours truly!) to get an idea of what stocks were popular on the website this week, but the big one to note is Northern Star’s buyout of De Grey Mining.

There’s chatter the stock could face yet another buyout, evidenced perhaps by the company’s 1W returns retaining +26% on Friday.

A former De Grey geologist once told this finance journalist he should invest because the price was about to hit $2/sh. That hasn’t happened yet – but hovering just below that threshold, the news has been a net win for shareholders.

South Korea’s 6 hours of martial law

But more globally significant was news out of South Korea this week, and it was a doozy.

Far-right-leaning South Korean President Yoon told the country North Korea had infiltrated its government and then declared martial law. The South Korean won immediately tanked against the USD and South Koreans took to the streets to protest. So did politicians, especially when soldiers effectively stormed the parliament.

But it would be short lived.

South Korea’s martial law lasted six hours, and Yoon is now dealing with the fallout you’d expect. It was enough to help tank sentiment down under when it happened; on Friday, the won had only recovered around half of its losses against the U.S. dollar.

(Worth noting, South Korea seems almost cursed to have questionable leaders.)

France’s no confidence vote

Talking of government goings on: France also passed a no-confidence vote in its government this week as both far-right and far-left parties put pressure on the Macron-led administration.

What exactly that means for European markets remains to be seen, if it means anything at all – which it mightn’t, because the CAC 40 ended green anyway.