Weekly Smart Pills #69
Financial Markets
Cryptocurrency Market
This week, the cryptocurrency market experienced a significant downturn, with Bitcoin (BTC) posting a notable decline. After reaching record highs in December, BTC fell below the $100,000 mark, registering a major correction around the $80,000 level.
Geopolitical and macroeconomic events played a crucial role. The imposition of new trade tariffs by the Trump administration increased global market uncertainty, prompting investors to reduce exposure to riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies.
Traditional Financial Markets
Traditional financial markets showed volatility this week. European stock exchanges posted declines, influenced by ongoing concerns over trade policies.
In addition, rising gas and oil prices contributed to the climate of uncertainty, while the euro showed signs of weakening against the dollar. Despite these turbulences, the real estate market demonstrated resilience, with some real estate companies listed on Borsa Italiana delivering positive performance.
Economy & Regulation
President Donald Trump announced a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, effective March 4, 2025, citing concerns over fentanyl trafficking. He also plans to double existing tariffs on Chinese imports from 10% to 20% starting in April.
The stock market reacted negatively to these developments, with the S&P 500 falling by 1.6%. Economists warn that these tariffs could lead to increased inflation. Consumer confidence also fell sharply, raising concerns about economic instability.
Mexico and Canada are seeking negotiations to avoid the tariffs and have threatened retaliatory measures if they are imposed.
The European Union has expressed its willingness to respond if the U.S. enacts a 25% tariff on EU steel and aluminum imports, planned for March 12. High-level talks between the EU and the U.S. are ongoing, with both sides discussing trade deficit figures and stressing the importance of fair trade.
EU officials emphasize that trade barriers hurt both sides and have prepared a list of potential countermeasures if needed. The situation remains fluid as negotiations continue to ease growing trade tensions.
Blockchain & Innovation
This week, we take a closer look at Monad, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed to address the scalability limitations of existing networks like Ethereum. Monad offers full compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), allowing developers to easily migrate existing decentralized applications (dApps) without needing to modify their code.
One of Monad’s most notable features is its ability to process up to 10,000 transactions per second (TPS), compared to Ethereum’s 15–30 TPS. This increase is made possible through parallel transaction execution, which enables more efficient and faster network operations.
Trends & Statistics
Consumer Prices in Italy – February 2025
In February 2025, the national consumer price index (NIC) increased by 0.2% month-over-month and 1.7% year-over-year (up from 1.5% in January).
Energy prices showed significant variation:
Regulated energy rose from 27.5% to 31.5%
Non-regulated energy improved from -3.0% to -1.9%
Core inflation remained stable at 1.8%, as did inflation excluding energy (also at 1.8%).
Goods inflation rose to 1.2% (from 0.7%), while services inflation declined to 2.4% (from 2.6%), narrowing the inflation gap.
