Welcome to Trade Secrets. Now that the global banking crisis is definitely over, no worries there, we can go back to looking at cheerier subjects. Today I’m asking if the rash of sovereign debt crises involving China as a creditor are going to get fixed soon, and whether a non-binding declaration attached to an EU
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Despite being touted as the possible panacea, decentralized finance (defi) still faces obstacles which greatly diminish the prospects of mainstream adoption, asserts serial entrepreneur and CEO of Radix DLT, Piers Ridyard. Ridyard added that while defi is seen as “a fantastic proof of concept,” widespread adoption of this alternative to traditional finance is only possible
While Xi Jinping was being received with great pomp and ceremony in Moscow last week, Fumio Kishida was 500 miles away in Kyiv. The fact that the president of China and the prime minister of Japan paid simultaneous and competing visits to the capitals of Russia and Ukraine underlines the global significance of the Ukraine
Vaccine maker BioNTech has forecast a worse than expected slump in revenues this year as demand for coronavirus immunisation wanes, underlining the scale of the challenge facing companies that enjoyed windfalls from the pandemic. The German biotech company, Pfizer’s partner for the Covid-19 vaccine, said on Monday that revenues from Covid vaccines would drop to
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues expanding its global reach by setting up a new blockchain hub in crypto-friendly Georgia. Binance announced on March 26 the opening of its brand-new blockchain hub in Georgia, aiming to promote further adoption of crypto in the country. Referring to the hub as a “Web3 outpost,” Binance intends to attract talent to the
Jan Nieuwenhuijs, a gold market analyst, has predicted that gold might exceed prices of $8,000 during the next decade, as the current Ukraine-Russia war, and the worldwide battle against inflation, shift the preference of central banks for foreign currencies to gold. The proposed long-term price model shows that each troy ounce of the metal might
The chair of Saudi National Bank, Ammar Alkhudairy, has resigned citing personal reasons after the kingdom’s largest lender was thrust into the limelight amid turmoil at Credit Suisse. The chief executive, Saeed Al Ghamdi, will replace Alkhudairy as chair, the bank said on Monday. Talal Al-Khereiji becomes acting chief executive. In a television interview this
There’s a growing sense that Switzerland probably didn’t have a rock-solid legal foundation to wipe out Credit Suisse’s $16bn of AT1s — at least on a narrow interpretation on the bond documentation clauses. Not everyone agrees of course, but even the ECB, BoE EBA came out and pretty explicitly criticised it. That’s presumably why FINMA
Bitcoin (BTC) enters the last week of March in uncertain territory as a strong weekly close still keeps $30,000 out of reach. The largest cryptocurrency has sealed seven days of practically flat performance despite some volatility in between as the market seeks fresh direction. Where could it go next? In what was a week of
European equities rose at the open on Monday, led by financial stocks such as Deutsche Bank, as investors grew more reassured over the health of the banking industry. The region-wide Stoxx 600 rose 0.9 per cent, Germany’s Dax and France’s Cac 40 each added 0.8 per cent and the UK’s FTSE 100 gained 0.6 per
Crypto firms setting up in Hong Kong ahead of a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges in June have reportedly found some unexpected allies in the region — Chinese state-owned banks. According to a March 27 report from Bloomberg, Chinese banks including Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, the Bank of Communications Co., and Bank of China Ltd. have
Israel’s president Isaac Herzog has implored the government to halt a bitterly contested judicial overhaul, warning that the polarisation it had caused had put “our security, economy, society” under threat. Mass protests erupted across the country overnight with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sacked his defence
The number of irretrievably lost bitcoins has now reached 6 million, which leaves 13.3 million as coins that remain in circulation, Timothy Peterson of Cane Island Alternative Advisors has said. Peterson added that out of the 1.7 million bitcoins that will be mined in the next 100 years or more, one million coins will be
Optimism-based lending protocol Kokomo Finance has been suspected of a $4 million “exit scam” that has seen user funds plucked out from the platform via a smart contract loophole. Blockchain security firm CertiK alerted its followers to the “exit scam” in a March 26 Twitter post, noting that the Kokomo Finance (KOKO) token has plummeted
Single men have long been more likely than single women to own a home, but that gap narrowed sharply in recent years, nearly closing in 2021. However, a recent survey shows that it widened again last year, shining light on the home buying challenges single women face, including lower salaries and a more volatile workforce
Conventional wisdom tells us the technology boom is over. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has sent a chill through the investment community, and the tech sector has seen a correction as interest rates have risen. But I’d argue we may be about to enter a new golden age of technological innovation and investment. The
A “Swiss finish” was traditionally the description given to the extra layer of financial safeguards demanded by Switzerland’s bank regulators — reflective of the high quality the country has traditionally been famed for, from its watches to its banking sector. The demise of Credit Suisse has lent the term an unfortunate new meaning. But the
When the Islamic regime called, hundreds of thousands rallied. In cities across Iran, women, mostly in traditional black chador body cloaks, joined huge crowds of men carrying banners, portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and national flags to celebrate the 44th anniversary of the 1979 revolution. The mass gatherings last month offered a chance
Over the past century, the number of American banks has significantly decreased, dropping from 30,000 banks in 1921 to 4,997 U.S. banks in 2021, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Recently, the U.S. central bank denied Custodia Bank of Wyoming, a financial institution that holds $1.08 for every dollar deposited by customers. Although there
U.S. law enforcement has seized 18 cryptocurrency ATMs that were purchased using fraudulent loans from the Small Business Administration (SBA) meant to assist small businesses financially harmed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The loans were also used to purchase bitcoin from a New York-based cryptocurrency exchange, said the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Coindawg’s Crypto ATMs
Crypto exchange Coinbase sees inflation-pegged “flatcoins” as one of four “critical” innovations that should be built on its recently launched layer-2 network Base. The other three include an on-chain reputation system, an on-chain limit order book (LOB) exchange, and tools that make the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem safer. The trading platform outlined the four areas