Author: Forbes
Equities and digital assets rose Wednesday as the U.S. and its European allies announced a range of sanctions against Russia after Moscow’s recognition of two separatist regions in Ukraine as independent entities. An initial set of measures targets Russia’s sovereign debt, its elites, and two major banks. Additionally, Germany has halted the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, an $11 billion project meant to ferry natural gas directly from Russia to Germany. As of 7:08 AM E.T., bitcoin is changing hands at $38,866 after dropping to a multi-week low of $36,350 yesterday. Cryptocurrency analytics firm Glassnode noted in its report this week that “bitcoin investors appear…
Markets remain in a slump, sparked by Russian president Vladimir Putin’s Monday decision to recognize the independence of two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine, the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic, and order troops into the territories. Moving in lockstep with stock indices, bitcoin dropped to a more than two-week-low overnight, touching $36,350. It has since slightly recovered and is trading at $37,596 as of 7:19 AM E.T. Notably, bitcoin’s price relative to gold has dropped to the lowest level since the middle of 2021, according to Bloomberg, suggesting that the asset is still far from challenging gold as a preferred store…
Who hacked The DAO in 2016, diverting 3.6 million ether? We identify the apparent hacker — he denies it — by following a complicated trail of crypto transactions and using a previously undisclosed privacy-cracking forensics tool. Ethereum, the second biggest crypto network, is worth $360 billion. Its creator, Vitalik Buterin, has more than 3 million Twitter followers, has made videos with Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, and has met with Vladimir Putin. All the most popular trends in crypto over the last several years launched on Ethereum: initial coin offerings (ICOs), decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and decentralized autonomous…
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have gone into free fall after Russia escalated the crisis in Ukraine and deployed Russian troops to eastern regions of the country. The bitcoin price fell to lows of $36,370 per bitcoin last night before rebounding slightly, down almost 20% on this time last week. Ethereum and other top ten cryptocurrencies including BNB, solana, cardano and XRP all fell even more sharply, with cardano and XRP leading the market lower with 15% declines over the last 24 hours. The latest crypto price crash, coming on the heels of a slump in crypto and equity prices across…
The bitcoin price has dropped from almost $50,000 per bitcoin at the beginning of 2022, falling to lows of just over $30,000 last month before regaining ground. Ethereum, its rivals BNB, solana, and cardano as well as Ripple’s XRP have also seen extreme volatility as traders panic—though some remain convinced the crypto market will recover. Now, amid a fresh bitcoin and crypto price crash sparked by the escalating situation in Ukraine, outspoken bitcoin and crypto bull Tom Lee has said he expects a portion of almost $100 trillion worth of wealth to eventually flow into crypto markets—citing the fast-changing regulatory landscape as…
Yat Siu is exhausted. The 49-year-old Austrian-born, Hong Kong-based exec isn’t sleeping more than a few hours a night these days but can’t stop himself from jumping into high gear when asked about his blockchain gaming business, Animoca Brands. Sporting a hooded black jacket and half-rimmed glasses, he wildly gesticulates as he expounds on the glorious destiny he sees for gaming decentralization and digital property rights. “Maybe we can even reshape how people think about classic forms of capitalism,” he says. Already this future—ruled by non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology—has been this Siu’s salvation. Just over four years ago, Animoca…
As originally reported in the Toronto Star last Monday, February 7, Greg Foss, a Canadian and former hedge fund manager, was identified as one of five ‘multi-signature’ key holders of the Bitcoin raised for the ‘Freedom convoy’ trucker protests in Canada. When GoFundMe froze the funds from a “Freedom Convoy 2022” page – with donations totaling $7.9 million dollars – an opportunity presented itself to demonstrate how the censorship-resistance feature that bitcoin might work in real life. Foss was reported as saying that same Monday night, “This is just gonna explode. And you know, this is what Bitcoin was made…
In a press release today, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the appointment of Eun Young Choi to serve as the first Director of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team (NCET). Choi, a seasoned prosecutor with nearly a decade of experience at DOJ, assumes her duties full-time effective immediately. NCET was announced by the DOJ last October to help meet the challenge of the criminal misuse of cryptocurrencies and digital assets. Specifically, the new team will “…identify, investigate, support and pursue the department’s cases involving the criminal use of digital assets, with a particular focus on virtual currency exchanges, mixing and…
Fresh off a record year for crypto funding deals, storied venture capital firm Sequoia Capital announced Thursday it has launched a crypto-focused fund with between $500 million and $600 million in capital, becoming the latest Silicon Valley giant to plow money into the burgeoning cryptocurrency space. KEY FACTS The Sequoia Crypto Fund will primarily invest in cryptocurrencies traded on third-party exchanges, serving as a complement to the firm’s flagship Sequoia Capital Fund, which has invested in cryptocurrency companies like derivatives exchange FTX Trading and custodial platform Fireblocks. Though the Menlo Park, Calif-based firm didn’t disclose the tokens its new fund…
Crypto has entered a new phase of its existence: It’s gone mainstream. As investors, that means we need to start asking different—and sometimes harder—questions. Here’s what I mean. For much of the past decade, crypto stayed at the fringes of the investment universe. It was a joke, or worse. Many in the traditional financial community assumed it would just go away. Others, being more open-minded, shrugged and said, “I don’t get it.” Crypto was small enough, weird enough, and exotic enough that you could get away with that. As a professional investor, you could ignore crypto and be just fine.…