Author: Bloomberg

Investors in cryptocurrencies could be cut out of Britain’s compensation program when companies go bust, according to a proposal by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority. The regulator said in a discussion paper on Monday that particularly high risk or alternative investments, such as cryptoassets and unlisted securities, could in certain circumstances be excluded from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. The FCA doesn’t authorize most firms selling crypto investments, meaning traders would not have access to compensation anyway, yet the proposals mark a hardening of rhetoric and a fresh sign that crypto is largely operating beyond the grasp of global regulators. The FSCS…

Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. is considering a platform that will allow the tens of millions of users of its mobile wallet to invest in cryptocurrencies and local and global equities, its CEO said on Monday.  The company known as Mynt, valued at more than $2 billion after its latest fund-raising round, will grow its financial-service offerings and “double down on lending,” CEO Martha Sazon said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Rishaad Salamat and Yvonne Man. A venture of Globe Telecom Inc. and Ant Financial Services Co., Mynt’s growth hinges on making its electronic wallet, GCash, a gateway toward other services like loan and investments for…

A brutal bout of selling that wiped billions of dollars from profitless growth companies, IPO stocks and SPACs has now caught up with Bitcoin, further stressing risk tolerances and brokerage balances among small-time traders. Retail dip-buyers, whose willingness to stand firm amid turmoil has helped power the S&P 500 to a 21% gain in 2021, are nursing some of their worst wounds of the year as losses pile up in speculative corners. A hawkish turn from the Federal Reserve and the omicron variant have erased more than 10% off the market value of cryptocurrencies, $50 billion from newly public companies and 14%…

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance is working to build its U.K. business after the country’s regulator told it to halt operations earlier this year, the company’s chief executive officer told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper. Binance aims to become a registered crypto asset firm in the country in six to 18 months, CEO Changpeng Zhao told the newspaper. The move would allow the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange to offer a wider array of products if it can overcome British anti-money laundering standards that have stymied the industry. The effort follows a rebuke by the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority on Binance’s British entity in June amid a crackdown on the…

Bitcoin plunged along with other cryptocurrencies on Saturday, in another indication of the risk aversion sweeping across financial markets. The largest digital token fell as low as $42,296 before paring some of the tumble. It was trading at about $47,600 as of 1:50 p.m. in Singapore on Saturday, a drop of about 11%. Ether, the second-largest token, fell as much as 17.4% before trimming the retreat to about 10%. The overall crypto sector has shed around a fifth of its value, sliding to $2.2 trillion, according to tracker CoinGecko. The swings in cryptocurrencies come amid a volatile period for financial…

Speaking at a Bloomberg event Friday in Miami, Sternlicht said Bitcoin is a smart hedge for investors in a world that just “prints money.”  “If it goes to zero, it won’t hurt me,” he said. Sternlicht also said he expects to see inflationary pressure on commodities from the U.S. stimulus package, exacerbating a housing shortage and driving up rents. Miami Beach-based Starwood has about $100 billion under management in real estate, debt and energy assets. Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who said earlier last month he would take his next paycheck “100% in Bitcoin,” is seeking to expand the use of…

New technology promising to solve Ethereum’s growing pains is gaining traction, increasing bets that some day most of the network’s transactions might not actually take place on its own blockchain. For years slow speeds and high transaction fees have plagued the network underpinning the $550 billion cryptocurrency Ether — home to the most popular blockchain applications. Its weaknesses have allowed new competitors such as Solana and Avalanche to gain ground. However, help from so-called Layer 2 technologies, or rollups, could be a solution. Digital ledgers like Ethereum are designed to slow down and become more expensive as their popularity increases.…

The latest financial disclosure from Tether, which serves as a controversial foundation for much of the cryptocurrency market, didn’t shed any more light on where its reserves are held. Tether Holdings Ltd. had assets totaling at least $69 billion as of Sept. 30, according to an assurance from Cayman Islands-based Moore Cayman. That includes $30.6 billion in commercial paper and certificates of deposit, $7.2 billion in cash, almost $1 billion in money market funds and $19 billion in Treasury bills. The disclosure showed that Tether shifted about $1 billion in “reverse repo notes” holdings to money-market funds. However, they don’t specify in which countries…

A hypothetical iteration of the internet called the metaverse appears to be the hottest trend in cryptocurrencies this year, beating even the world’s largest digital asset.  That’s what U.K.-based research firm Macro Hive’s crypto indexes show, with meta-related coins up 37,000% this year compared to Bitcoin’s nearly 100% gain. They also show the growing performance gap between Bitcoin and still-proliferating alternative tokens. “The clear outperformer this year has been the metaverse,” Macro Hive’s team including Dalvir Mandara and CEO Bilal Hafeez said in a newsletter published Thursday. “Returns appeared to be turbocharged by Facebook’s decision to rebrand to Meta.” Macro…

With U.S. regulators still opposed to exchange-traded funds that directly hold cryptocurrencies, asset managers and fund issuers are finding workarounds for financial advisers clamoring to offer clients exposure to the booming sector.  Ritholtz Wealth Management teamed up with WisdomTree Investments Inc. to unveil the RWM WisdomTree Crypto Index — backed by cryptocurrencies held in storage by Gemini Trust Co. — on Friday, which advisers can funnel client cash into via Onramp Invest’s technology platform. The Fidelity Advantage Bitcoin ETF, which can invest in the cryptocurrency directly, began trading in Canada on Thursday. Both products are an offshoot of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s reticence…