Author: Bloomberg
Bitcoin approached a closely watch price level as the slide in the largest cryptocurrency from its all-time high extended into a fifth week. The digital asset dropped as much as 6% to $46,971 on Monday in New York trading. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index slumped as much as 4.9% to its lowest since early October, while popular DeFi tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polkadot also slipped. “The idea that as it matured, the volatility would ease has not really materialized,” said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. “The volatility is deadly and its other supposed attributes,…
Digital currencies are an increasingly popular refuge, but how effective they are depends on what you fear the most. I began my Wall Street career in the early 1980s, and that’s the last time I remember investors being as concerned about inflation as they are today. Back then we understood inflation had been triggered by the abandonment of the gold standard in 1971, supply-side shocks such as the 1973 oil embargo, misguided monetary policy and perverse government policies like controls on interest rates, wages and prices. The message for investors was clear: abandon stocks and bonds for gold and hard assets…
Bitcoin weakened to the lowest levels of the day as the slide in the largest cryptocurrency from its all-time high extended into a fifth week. The digital asset dropped as much as 3.5% to $48,198 in New York trading. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index slumped as much as 1.2%, while popular DeFi tokens such as Solana, Cardano and Polkadot slipped. “The idea that as it matured, the volatility would ease has not really materialized,” said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex. “The volatility is deadly and its other supposed attributes, like a hedge against inflation,…
A parallel government led by the supporters of Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi recognized Tether as an official currency for local use after the group began fundraising for a campaign that seeks to topple the military regime. The National Unity Government officially accepts Tether, a cryptocurrency meant to be a dollar proxy, for “domestic use to make it easy and speed up the current trade, services and payment systems,” NUG Finance Minister Tin Tun Naing said Sunday in a Facebook post. No other details were given. NUG’s cryptocurrency adoption underscores its defiance against the Central Bank of Myanmar, which decreed all…
Binance Asia Services Ltd., the Singapore affiliate of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has withdrawn its application to run a bourse in the city-state, ending an effort that started last year to win approval from Singapore’s authorities. The fiat-to-crypto trading platform Binance.sg will wind down operations and close by Feb. 13, Binance Asia said in an emailed statement. The company was among some 170 firms that applied to the Monetary Authority of Singapore for a permit to provide cryptocurrency services. The withdrawal from the Singapore process is likely to end speculation that the Southeast Asian city-state would become the global…
The metaverse is a virtual universe that blends aspects of digital technologies including video-conferencing, games like Minecraft or Roblox, cryptocurrencies, email, virtual reality, social media and live-streaming. Quite how these pieces will fit together is a work in progress, but some tech giants already see it as the future of human communication and interaction. It’s “the next frontier,” Mark Zuckerberg said when he changed his company’s name from Facebook to Meta Platforms Inc. 1. What will it look like? It may be easier to grasp the concept by first saying what it isn’t: It’s not a single product, it’s not a…
The Philippine central bank is looking into complaints that some clients of BDO Unibank Inc., the country’s largest lender by assets, lost money to an online fraud in which funds were channeled to accounts at Union Bank of the Philippines. “We are in close coordination with BDO as well as UBP on this incident to ensure that remedial measures are being undertaken, including reimbursement of affected consumers,” central bank Governor Benjamin Diokno said in a statement on Sunday. The regulator has been monitoring a surge in complaints posted via social media since the early part of this week, he said.…
Swiss federal councilor Alain Berset was the victim of a data breach that made his address, private email and home phone number public after a company he used to buy cryptocurrency was hacked, Swiss newspaper Le Matin Dimanche reported. French tech firm Ledger SAS, which offers services including the purchase, storage and security of cryptocurrencies, suffered a cyberattack in June 2020 and Berset was among the customers whose data was compromised, the newspaper said. Berset’s address and phone number in the canton of Fribourg could be found on the dark web, a part of the Internet where stolen personal data is sometimes sold,…
The U.S. is actually only a minor player in cryptocurrencies and the removal of regulatory uncertainties could help the nation grow its influence on the industry, according to Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder and chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Bankman-Fried, 29, testified to Congress Wednesday about how the space should be regulated. He and FTX US President Brett Harrison joined Bloomberg’s “What Goes Up” podcast to elaborate on their discussions in Washington and to talk about other hot topics in the industry. Below is a condensed and lightly edited transcript of their conversation with Bloomberg. Click here to listen…
After a meteoric year, investors are relocating to Puerto Rico for its savings on individual and corporate taxes. The St. Regis Bahia Beach Resort in Puerto Rico boasts a golf course and oceanfront residences in a 483-acre nature reserve, set along azure waters and lush rainforest. But what’s perhaps most appealing to those who are now rushing to this property is the section on its website explaining tax benefits for island residents. That was the case for Anthony Emtman, who left Los Angeles behind and bought a condo at the resort in March. The chief executive officer of Ikigai Asset Management is now…