The S&P 500 Index (SPX) closed the week with a nominal loss of 0.29% but Bitcoin (BTC) is on target to finish the week with a deeper cut of more than 5%. The weakness in Bitcoin pulled several altcoins lower, indicating weakening sentiment. A silver lining is Bitcoin’s solid bounce on May 12. Several analysts
In the past week, the Bitcoin network has made progress in resolving its congestion issues. On May 7, 2023, the number of unconfirmed transactions reached an all-time high of over 500,000 transfers, causing a major backlog. However, as of today, that number has been reduced to 263,406. Currently, 184 blocks need to be cleared to
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has shared what he calls a “massive incentive” to get money out of bank accounts, noting “bank depositor flight will accelerate to extreme levels, even for banks that are ‘too big to fail.’” Personal finance coach and author Dave Ramsey, for his part, thinks that de-dollarization fears are overblown. In crypto
Bitcoin (BTC) has rallied nearly 60% to around $27,000 in 2023 amid anticipations that the Federal Reserve would pause its quantitative tightening amid the U.S. banking crisis. Still, BTC price has failed to move beyond $30,000 decisively. Buying exhaustion at this key psychological level led to a price correction toward $25,000 over the past week. Interestingly, the
Despite not being mainstream payment solutions yet, cryptocurrency-based payments (also known as Web3 payments) already bring benefits such as lower transaction fees, Robert Miller, the vice president of growth at Fuse, a layer 1, EVM-compatible blockchain for launching dapps, has asserted. For merchants, Web3 payments come with the added benefit of what Miller called protection
Sir Keir Starmer has scaled back a 2020 pledge to extend voting rights to all EU nationals, instead restricting the policy to long-term residents, according to Labour party officials. During his leadership campaign three years ago the Labour leader promised to give all EU citizens with “settled status” in the UK a vote in general
Technology-focused hedge fund Tiger Global is exploring options to cash in a piece of its more than $40bn portfolio of privately held companies, according to people familiar with the matter. The New York-based investment group is working with an adviser to tap the so-called secondary market to help return money to some of its investors,
Howard Marks, the co-founder of $172bn investment group Oaktree Capital Management, has warned that the boom in private credit will soon be tested as higher interest rates and slower economic growth heap pressure on corporate America. The 77-year-old billionaire told the Financial Times that big asset managers had competed aggressively to lend to the largest
The sale of the UK water industry in 1989 is the most controversial of all Margaret Thatcher’s privatisations. Critics argue that it has been little more than a rip off: the privatised companies have failed to eliminate leaks, been permitted to dump vast quantities of untreated sewage into our waterways and used clever financial engineering
Just a few hundred people of Chinese heritage still live in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown. Many have been pushed out to cheaper and safer areas. Noah Sheidlower | CNBC Penny and Jack Lee, now married, grew up in the 1960s and 1970s among the thousands of people of Chinese heritage who lived in apartments lining the
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) said it’s working closely with Ukraine to help it trace crypto transactions of Russian sanctions evaders. The agency is providing the Ukrainians access to a Chainalysis tool as well as specialized training to Ukrainian law enforcement. IRS Offers Ukraine Tools From Chainalysis to Trace Russian Blockchain Transactions The criminal
Voters are heading to the polls in Turkey’s most consequential election in two decades as longtime leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeks to fend off a united opposition led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Polls opened at 8am Ankara time on Sunday in presidential and parliamentary elections that offer two widely divergent paths for Turkey. Erdoğan, who first
Russian lawmakers intend to soon approve four bills designed to regulate various aspects of cryptocurrencies, a high-ranking member of the Russian parliament announced. Meanwhile, Russian companies are already using digital assets in cross-border settlements, the official noted. Russian Legislature to Vote on Crypto Laws by End of July The State Duma, the lower house of
Memecoins’ security and dependability as a medium of exchange remain a topic of debate in the cryptosphere. Memecoins are said to be safe and decentralized, but some are concerned about their volatility and lack of oversight. Memecoin proponents claim that because they are decentralized, users have more control over their money and are protected from
A recent Gallup Poll reveals a significant decline in the percentage of Americans favoring real estate as their preferred long-term investment, despite its continued popularity. Conversely, the Gallup survey indicates that the perception of long-term investments in gold has experienced an almost twofold increase compared to the previous year’s poll on the same topic. Gallup
While human portfolio managers fret over economic uncertainty and the health of the US banking system, some algorithmically driven hedge funds have been buying stocks at one of the fastest rates in a decade, according to bank trading desks. Quant funds have been piling into US stock markets in response to falling volatility, helping to
Shipping groups are increasingly seeking break clauses in contracts with Chinese businesses that would make it easier for them to walk away from deals if western governments impose sanctions on Beijing. Senior lawyers at four maritime law firms, who declined to be named, told the Financial Times that vessel owners were regularly asking for bespoke
This week I went to Germany where I discovered they have a word for being excessively fond of abbreviations. The word is abkürzungsfimmel and it makes sense in a language with words of such dire length that they look as if they’ve been typed on a keyboard with no space bar. But the mania for
More than decade after bailouts and austerity measures pulled Greece from the brink of bankruptcy and a eurozone exit, the country has rebounded and is on the cusp of regaining its investment-grade rating. S&P recently changed its outlook for the country from stable to positive. A full upgrade would put Greece at triple B minus,
The G7 and EU will ban Russian gas imports on routes where Moscow has cut supplies, according to officials involved in the negotiations, the first time pipeline gas trade has been blocked by western powers since the invasion of Ukraine. The decision, which is to be finalised by G7 leaders at a summit in Hiroshima
The South African currency’s exchange rate versus the U.S. dollar plunged to a new all-time low of ZAR19.51:US$1 on May 12. The rand’s latest fall came a day after the U.S. ambassador to South Africa accused the country of secretly supplying weapons to Russia. Banking giant JP Morgan said it now projects South Africa’s gross