Author: Bloomberg
Michael Novogratz, the billionaire cryptocurrency investor who heads Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., cautioned against assuming that Bitcoin’s recent outperformance to stocks suggests the digital token is becoming an uncorrelated asset. “If in two or three weeks, you see Bitcoin higher than $45,000 with stocks here or lower, then you’ll say something really special is going on,” Michael Novogratz said during KBW’s fintech conference Thursday. “One week is not enough to call a breakdown in correlation.” Bitcoin fell Thursday for the first time in four trading sessions as speculation eased that more people would turn to cryptocurrencies to better control their wealth…
China’s central bank said Thursday that Bitcoin transactions originating from the country have plummeted to 10% from 90% of the total worldwide. The decline is in part due to Beijing’s intensifying crackdown on cryptocurrency trading and mining over the last decade. The country banned trading in Bitcoin as early as 2013, and outlawed centralized crypto exchanges in 2017. The nation’s supreme court threatened those involved in fundraising through crypto sales with up to 10-year jail sentences last month. China used to be the world’s cryptocurrency hub. Major crypto exchanges such as Huobi were founded in China, while the Bitcoin miners…
There is no alternative to the world’s reserve currency despite any concern or wishful thinking to the contrary. If the last dozen years or so has taught us anything about markets and the economy, it’s that anything can happen, no matter how unlikely. The U.S. housing market was considered as solid an investment as there ever was because prices never fell nationally — until the subprime crisis came along. The idea that the European Union would ever come close to breaking apart and taking the euro with it was unthinkable — until Greece defaulted. And everyone knew that inflation like that of the…
Bitcoin, the oldest and largest cryptocurrency, has asserted itself over rival coins as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent convulsions through asset markets. Since crypto tokens started rallying on Monday, Bitcoin’s 16% advance over the past four days beat smaller coins like Ether, XRP and Litecoin by a wide margin. “Bitcoin enjoys a special status in the current juncture as it represents the only cryptocurrency that is perceived as a substitute to gold and thus as a hedge to a catastrophic scenario,” said JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou. Read full story on Bloomberg
It was supposed to be a triumph. Sotheby’s first ever standalone live, in-person auction last week devoted to NFTs—104 of the famous CryptoPunk series, grouped into a single lot that carried an estimate of $20 million to $30 million—was trumpeted to be historic. It was enough to get an expectant crowd to trek to Sotheby’s York Avenue salesroom on Manhattan’s far East Side to bear witness to an auction that might last just minutes. “It doesn’t get bigger than this,” the auction house tweeted about the sale, writing in a further post that “CryptoPunks were experimental, but are now antique masters. Owning…
When Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, cryptocurrency fans appeared to be trapped in a decadent fantasy. A batch of CryptoPunk NFTs (blockchain collectibles) had just been yanked from auction at Sotheby’s amid fading enthusiasm and a broader market sell-off. The seller tweeted Drake memes to laugh off the canceled event, but considering the glitzy marketing campaign, it was a humbling moment. A week later, another CryptoPunk is sitting in a Ukraine government account as part of a $51 million fundraising drive. Kyiv is using its tech-savviness to appeal for all sorts of assets that it can sell to finance the war effort. Like the New Zealand lamb donated in the First World War, or chunks…
Finance ministers from the Group of Seven and European Union are working on preventing Russia from using crypto money to circumvent sanctions, according to German Finance Minister Christian Lindner. While unwilling to reveal any details, Lindner said the issue is being discussed. His country currently holds the presidency of the G-7, whose finance chiefs and central bank governors held virtual meetings on Tuesday together with Ukraine Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko. “The problem is known and we are working on it,” Lindner said in an interview with Welt TV on Wednesday. “It’s about maximally isolating Russia at all levels” and having…
A group of key Senate Democrats wants to know more about what the Treasury Department is doing to ensure digital currencies aren’t being used to bypass sanctions against Russia. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, lawmakers including Elizabeth Warren and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown raised concerns that some crypto firms may not be complying with new rules, and asked for more details about how regulators are monitoring and enforcing restrictions that the U.S. has imposed on Moscow in response to its invasion of Ukraine. “There are growing concerns that Russia may use cryptocurrencies to circumvent the broad…
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing creators of NFTs and the crypto exchanges where they trade to determine if some of the assets run afoul of the agency’s rules, according to people familiar with the matter. A focus of the probe is on whether certain nonfungible tokens, digital assets that can be used to denote ownership of things like a painting or sports memorabilia, are being utilized to raise money like traditional securities, said the people. Over the past several months, attorneys in the SEC’s enforcement unit have sent subpoenas demanding information about the token offerings. The inquiry is the latest…
Russians seeking ways around financial sanctions is not a “crypto-specific issue,” Binance Holdings Ltd.’s chief executive said, refuting calls to restrict all Russians from using the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao said Binance has complied with international government mandates to restrict sanctioned individuals, but that to expand that further would be “unethical for us to do.” The crypto industry follows the “same rules” as banks, he said. “Binance follows sanctions rules very strictly. Whoever is on the sanctions list, they won’t be able to use our platform, for whoever is not, they can,” Zhao told Bloomberg TV in…