Author: Bloomberg
Cryptocurrencies continued to pull away from stocks as the intensifying war in Ukraine prompts investors to look for safe havens. Bitcoin advanced as much as 2% in early trading in Hong Kong before giving up some gains. It has jumped 17% over the past three days — a period during which President Vladimir Putin stepped up shelling of Ukrainian cities and other nations responded with additional sanctions against Russia. The MSCI AC World Index has fallen for nine of the past 10 days, including the last three. “This geopolitical environment is certainly a tailwind for crypto,” said Jonathan Cheesman,…
Salesforce.com Inc. is holding “listening sessions” with employees who are opposed to the software giant’s reported efforts to launch a new cloud-based service to support the creation and release of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, according to a top executive. The San Francisco-based company is building a competitor to NFT marketplaces like OpenSea, CNBC reported last month. The decision elicited push back from some employees who believe the effort violates Salesforce’s broader commitment to sustainability. Leadership is holding sessions with those workers who have concerns to understand their reservations, according to Chief Revenue Officer Gavin Patterson. “We take what our employees feel about things very seriously,” Patterson…
The Federal Reserve Board is taking a fresh look at how financial firms get coveted access to the U.S. central bank’s payment system — a controversial question that’s weighing on President Joe Biden’s pick to be Wall Street’s top bank regulator. The Fed on Tuesday proposed a plan that it said would help ensure the fairness of the process for evaluating new requests. The framework, which builds on a proposal from last May, would set up a tiered system that’d make it easier for federally-insured lenders, while asks from entities not already supervised by Washington regulators would face more scrutiny. “With technology driving rapid…
The crypto sector goes from one conundrum to the next as it matures. This week’s surge is the latest example. Why is it rallying? It’s not because stocks are, for once: The S&P 500 plunged almost 2% Tuesday. Another explanation is that digital assets will gain favor amid sanctions in Russia, perhaps as an alternate currency. Yet another is that after weeks of tracking equities, it has suddenly caught on again as an inflation hedge. The fact that Bitcoin can perform in line with equities on one day and be impervious to them the next might be logically difficult, but it’s…
Bitcoin extended a two-day rally, leading broad-based gains in cryptocurrencies as digital assets reasserted themselves as haven assets — and emerged as a potential vehicle for getting around sanctions — amid the intensifying war between Russia and Ukraine. The largest digital coin by market value rose as much as 8% to $44,964 in New York trading hours, with its rally over the past two sessions adding 20% to its market value at one point and its total market capitalization crossing above $840 billion once again. Other cryptocurrencies also advanced, with Ether crossing above $3,000. It also broke above its average…
Circle Internet Financial’s Jeremy Allaire said Russia’s attack on Ukraine highlights the paradox of cryptocurrencies for both participants and regulators. Allaire, co-founder of the payments and financial infrastructure company behind the USDC stablecoin, said the situation is similar to the early days of the internet. While disinformation campaigns during conflicts can be conducted online, the internet is also being used now for actions such as crowd funding for Ukraine. “People are celebrating that,” Allaire said during an interview with Bloomberg News in New York. “But it also allows people to evade things. The open internet is a…
Authentic Brands Group Inc., the owner of licensing and marketing rights to names like David Beckham and Juicy Couture, plans to expand clothing offerings and add NFTs and crypto payments to kickstart Reebok following its purchase of the brand. With the acquisition of the athleticwear brand complete, Authentic on Tuesday said it signed about a dozen distribution partners operating in more than 80 countries, including Foot Locker Inc., Farfetch Ltd.’s New Guards Group and luxury goods maker Falic Group. The $2.5 billion purchase of Reebok is Authentic’s largest yet, and Chief Executive Officer Jamie Salter has comparably big plans. He expects…
Following a year when startups raised record amounts of venture funding and cryptocurrency prices hit historical highs, Palo Alto-based Electric Capital has raised $1 billion to place bets on crypto startups. That total includes a $400 million fund closed last year (unannounced until today) to make equity and crypto token investments, plus a $600 million fund closed last month to make token-only purchases. Prior to these, Electric had raised just $125 million across its first two funds. Electric was founded by entrepreneur Avichal Garg, 39, and software engineer Curtis Spencer, 40. In 2001, while he was still in high school,…
One of the buzziest metaverses today is Decentraland. Visitors enter the virtual space through a web browser, choose an avatar, and are transported to a vibrant digital hub where they can tour a replica of Sotheby’s London art gallery, attend a virtual Paris Hilton concert, or visit a JPMorgan Chase & Co. lounge featuring a portrait of Jamie Dimon. As it turns out, though, the place people most frequently visit in Decentraland is the casino. Inside, hundreds of people dressed in streetwear and sunglasses sit around (or hover above) poker tables, all rendered in graphics that would have looked cutting-edge two decades ago on…
The number of blockchain wallet addresses with hoards of more than 1,000 bitcoin — around $43 million — surged on Monday as Western nations stepped up sanctions on Russia’s government and wealthy elite. The figure increased by nearly 5% to a total of 2,226 on February 28, according to data tracked by analytics site Coin Metrics. It has not been that high since June 2021. The number of addresses with more than 100 bitcoin stored has also risen, albeit more modestly, with a 1.3% bump taking the total to 15,953, per Coin Metrics. The Block Research’s own data also shows…