Author: The Wall Street Journal
Coinbase Chief Executive Officer Brian Armstrong is the buyer of a $133 million Los Angeles estate, according to people familiar with the deal. The transaction, which closed in December, is one of the priciest single-family home sales ever completed in the L.A. area. The seller was a limited liability company tied to Japanese entrepreneur Hideki Tomita, which bought the property for $85 million in 2018, records show. The home is located in Bel-Air.PHOTO: JIM BARTSCH The Bel-Air estate was formerly owned by the daughter of billionaire Seagram heir Charles Bronfman, The Wall Street Journal reported. At the time of the 2018 sale, it spanned…
As cryptocurrencies go mainstream, prices for bitcoin and other digital tokens are often displayed on cable-news tickers and finance apps as though they were just like regular stocks, bonds or oil futures. They aren’t. And that makes them a challenge for U.S. financial regulators. Oversight of cryptocurrencies, which came into existence in 2009, is spotty. Regulators in the Biden administration are working to clarify rules for a market that roughly tripled in value in 2021 to more than $2 trillion, drawing in millions of American investors and increasing concerns about financial stability. Here are some of the key questions around…
The Bank of Mexico plans to put its own digital currency in circulation by 2024 to use the latest payments technology to foment financial inclusion in an economy that relies on cash for most transactions, according to the Mexican government. The central bank considers it important “to use these new technologies and latest-generation payments infrastructure as valuable options to advance financial inclusion in the country,” the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said in a tweet late Wednesday. The Bank of Mexico has said it is studying the development of a digital currency in several phases. It will use…
Opaque regulations remain a top challenge for the cryptocurrency industry, according to Elena Hughes, chief compliance officer of cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust Co. She joined New York-based Gemini in May 2020 after more than a decade of compliance work for traditional financial institutions such as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Gemini was launched in 2015 by twin brothers, Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss. Ms. Hughes said she found navigating the evolving regulatory landscape at Gemini similar to the process of financial firms implementing the Bank Secrecy Act, an anti-money-laundering rule, and its amendments in the early 2000s. Ms.…
When BTS unveiled plans last month to break into the NFT business, the South Korean boy band’s supporters revolted online, threatening boycotts and lodging environmental concerns. In its first public comments after the fan backlash, BTS’s management agency HYBE Co. said it wouldn’t bow to the pressure, vowing to move forward with plans for nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The initial endeavor will center on digital photo cards of BTS members and will launch within the first half of 2022, said John Kim, project lead of HYBE America overseeing the NFT business, in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “We believe…
In a 24-hour experiment with a virtual reality headset, Wall Street Journal personal tech columnist Joanna Stern described the metaverse last month as fractured, freaky, sometimes frightening, but also kind of fun. All in a (virtual) day’s work, she traveled, exercised and played games. As a “legless torso that glides as a ghost,” she even met with her editor. In real life, she nursed a headache. For the consumer, the metaverse doesn’t seem ready for prime time. But given its fabled promise, maybe it is these nascent shortcomings that make this piece of the so-called “Web3” especially attractive for investors to dive into…
It was another crazy year in the crypto world, but traders didn’t seem to mind. Millions of new investors decided to try their hand at cryptocurrencies in 2021. Crypto has been many things in its short history. 2021 was the year it became part of the mainstream. Elon Musk tweeted about it, often. It was parodied on “Saturday Night Live.” Collins Dictionary dubbed “NFT,” the acronym for nonfungible tokens, its word of the year. Institutional investors looked for ways to get in, and the first bitcoin ETF started trading. Individual traders bought crypto on their phones when they weren’t snapping up GameStop Corp. GME -1.21%…
The op-ed by former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton (“America’s Future Depends on the Blockchain,” Dec. 17) is staggeringly ironic, given the SEC’s abject failure under his leadership to embrace the innovation and potential of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies. Mr. Clayton stifled the crypto industry while in office, yet now he calls for the government to facilitate the adoption of the technology. The director of national intelligence wrote to Mr. Clayton at the time, urging that regulatory certainty would allow U.S. companies to compete against Chinese rivals. A bipartisan group of members of Congress wrote to Mr. Clayton…
Singapore-based cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com will run its first Super Bowl commercial in February as it seeks to become a household name. It is the latest in a string of moves from Crypto.com to get its name on the map. The company last month agreed to pay $700 million for a 20-year deal giving it naming rights on the Staples Center in Los Angeles, which will become the Crypto.com Arena on Saturday. It said Tuesday that it will sponsor Los Angeles-based women’s soccer team Angel City Football Club. And it tapped actor Matt Damon for a commercial that was released in October. As…
Sens. Pat Toomey and Cynthia Lummis, members of Senate Banking Committee, say their cryptocurrency experience gives them crucial expertise Sens. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) and Cynthia Lummis (R., Wyo.) sit on the powerful Senate Banking Committee and have been advocates for a light government touch toward the growing—and largely unchecked—cryptocurrency market. They also own cryptocurrency assets. Ms. Lummis’s roughly $250,000 of bitcoin makes her the most heavily invested U.S. lawmaker in the digital asset. Mr. Toomey has smaller holdings in crypto-related investment vehicles. Together they are the only two senators with such investments, according to a Wall Street Journal review…