Author: The Financial Times
Ark Invest’s flagship fund has dropped 9 per cent so far this year, following a sharp fall in 2021, as a strong shift by investors out of the unprofitable technology stocks that powered its extraordinary rise dealt it a fresh blow. Investors have pulled more than $300m this year on a net basis from fund manager Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation exchange traded fund, known by its ticker ARKK, as its bets on riskier tech companies have soured, according to Bloomberg data. The $14.4bn vehicle, which combines an ETF structure with an ability to pick stocks, has now tumbled about 45…
The departing Andreessen Horowitz partner Katie Haun aims to raise at least $900m for a pair of cryptocurrency investment funds, in what would be one of the largest debuts for a new venture capital firm. Haun planned to raise $300m for a fund making early investments in cryptocurrency start-ups and $600m for another fund investing in larger companies and digital tokens, said three people briefed on her plans. Andreessen had committed $50m to the funds as an anchor investor, two of the people said. Some people familiar with Haun’s new funds said she planned to set fresh, higher targets after…
Bitcoin traders suffered their worst day in a month after turbulence in traditional markets spilled into digital asset trading and caused almost $900m worth of bets to turn sour. The liquidations that hit leveraged traders come after the US Federal Reserve signalled that it could tighten monetary sooner than many investors had expected to combat rising inflation. The prospect of rising interest rates has caused prices to tumble in equity markets and pushed yields higher on government bonds. The shift in stance also unleashed a sell-off in bitcoin, which shed 10 per cent of its value in the last 24…
The battle for supremacy in cryptocurrency trading has intensified as some of Wall Street’s largest players start challenging digital asset specialists that already handle billions of dollars’ worth of transactions every day. The most active traders and market makers in the nearly $3tn digital asset space include Alameda Research, B2C2, Cumberland and Genesis Trading, none of them well-known names in traditional financial markets. But swiftly rising valuations this year have now drawn in trading houses that already dominate mainstream markets such as equities, currencies and futures. Jump Trading, Jane Street, Tower Research and Hudson River Trading, relative newcomers to digital…
Sony late last year announced it had joined forces with the Manchester City football club to develop a digital recreation of the team’s Etihad home stadium for fans around the world to visit virtually. It was a quiet announcement, investors said, but the sound of football being sucked into the metaverse was deafening. Companies participating in the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week will be hoping for a similarly epic interpretation of their offerings. The aspirants include Samsung, which will give consumers the chance to decorate imaginary homes with digital versions of its household appliances. “It’s no longer…
The emergence of the much-ballyhooed “metaverse” has provoked a lot of enthusiasm, as well as cynicism. For its most evangelical and powerful promoters at Meta (previously known as Facebook) and Microsoft, our next universal computer interface will add an extra dimension to reality, allowing users to live, work and play in alternative virtual worlds. To its detractors, the metaverse is a manipulative attempt by corporate giants to rebrand their underwhelming virtual-reality technology, colonise virgin tracts of the internet and outrun the regulators. For the writer David Chalmers, the metaverse offers exciting, fresh perspectives to our understanding of identity, consciousness and…
Mainstream banks outside the U.S. are sampling cryptocurrencies, offering customers ways to invest and store bitcoin and other digital assets. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA BBVA 1.36% —Spain’s second-largest lender by assets, with operations in Latin America and Turkey—allows customers to hold, buy and sell bitcoin and ether through a digital account. Australia’s largest bank, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, has also launched a pilot program to offer similar services. In Germany, a group of savings banks, which together serve 50 million of the country’s 80 million people, said it is considering offering cryptocurrency wallets. If the group proceeds, the move would be a significant step…
At the beginning of 2021, only a niche group of crypto enthusiasts knew what non-fungible tokens (NFT) were. But by the end of the year nearly $41bn had been spent on NFTs, according to the latest data, making the market for digital artwork and collectibles almost as valuable as the global art market. “This year witnessed the NFT market explode from a sub-billion-dollar market to a multi-decabillion industry,” said Mason Nystrom, research analyst at crypto data group Messari, adding that buyers were rushing to uncover art that aligns with their “digital identities”. NFTs are essentially digital ownership certificates registered on…
Near the edge of Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts have launched a new experiment in city building — just don’t ask who is going to be mayor. The collective, CityDAO, has no official leader. Its members organise themselves using the chat app Discord. Every major decision must go up for a vote. Nonetheless, the group of 5,000 successfully mobilised in under four months to purchase a 40-acre plot of land in Park County, Wyoming, near the Montana state border. Members are still debating what comes next, but the DAO’s lofty goals include widening access and…
An artificial intelligence company contracted to develop military intelligence and navigational capabilities for the US Department of Defense will now be used by Facebook to build the metaverse. Facebook, which recently rebranded as Meta, acquired synthetic data start-up AI. Reverie in August, and consolidated it into its Reality Labs division dedicated to constructing a shared virtual world. In January, the start-up signed a three-year contract to provide services worth up to $950m to the US Air Force, to develop an advanced battle management system and enhance its command-and-control systems using AI. The contract was terminated in August when the company…