By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 20th, 2024
It is still unclear how the news will affect the biggest coins on the crypto scene due to the current uncertainty in the finance world.
The British pound bounced back after falling against the US dollar overnight in tumultuous trading after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, who ruled as the country’s longest-reigning monarch for seven decades.
The pound was trading up 0.6% at US$1.1578, which dropped to as low as US dollar $1.1488 following the news of the death of the British monarch.
The euro rose 0.16% against the pound to 86.04 pence, after a jumbo 75 basis point rate hike from the European Central Bank on Thursday.
The pound earlier in the global trading session had been falling on the back of hawkish comments from Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell which offset British policies introduced by new British Prime Minister Liz Truss aimed at lowering surging energy costs.
Speaking at the Cato Institute conference, Mr. Powell stated that the Fed must continue working until it gets the job done and that it is “strongly committed” to bringing inflation down.
His comments pushed the US dollar higher across the board overnight, including against the pound.
In the early stages of Friday however, the US dollar index fell 0.25% to 109.25, barely off its 20-year high of 110.79, as the US currency took a break from its rapid rise.
Mr. Amo Sahota, director of San Francisco-based foreign exchange consulting firm Klarity FX, speaking on the latest development stated that the news will have no significant impact on the pound.
“The Queen was clearly an icon in British culture, but politically of very little significance,” Sahota said. “There are going to be questions around the prime minister. It is a government that is in transition anyway. But it won’t have any bearing on the economy.”
The funeral which is estimated to take place 10 to 12 days will include an official bank holiday which will see the stock exchange closed for the entirety of a day along with many businesses.
It is still not clear what impact the latest development will have on the stock exchange although financial markets and experts are set to largely look through the death of the Queen, as many believe that the pound and shares in London may weaken slightly given investor uncertainty over the smooth transition of power in the Royal Family.
While the news of the British monarch’s demise was met with sadness by people all around the world, cryptocurrency scammers took advantage of the occasion to launch dozens of meme coins with Queen themes on Ethereum and Binance‘s BNB Chain.
The crypto market has seen over 40 meme tokens invoking the Queen’s namesake just hours after her passing.
Among the new crypto coins that were introduced are “Queen Elizabeth Inu,” “Queen Doge,” “God Save The Queen,” “London Bridge Is Down,” “Queen Grow,” “Rip Queen Elizabeth,” “Elizabeth II,” and “Queen Inu II.” Other tokens with the name of the next king, King Charles III, have also appeared.
It is still unclear how the news will affect the biggest coins on the crypto scene due to the current uncertainty in the finance world.
Bitcoin at press time was trading at $20,698, up by 7.83% in the last 24 hours. Ethereum was also up by 5.77% within the same period, taking its price to $1,708. BNB, XRP, Cardano, Solana and Polkadot were all up by 4.68%, 5.95% 5.01%, 9.02%, and 8.47% respectively.