Aurelia Butler

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Exclusive: Bit Digital CEO discusses Biden vs. Trump, ETFs, Bitcoin price outlook

    In an interview with Investing.com, Bit Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BTBT) CEO Sam Tabar shared his insights about the positive reception of the 10 recently approved spot Bitcoin ETFs. He also discussed the upcoming U.S. election, Bitcoin price forecast, and much more.The chief of sustainability-focused bitcoin mining firm (BTBT) said he was “generally pleased” that these ETFs have enabled a new subset of individuals and entities to gain exposure to the underlying assets. “They’ve been some of the most successful ETF launches in history and have accounted for the majority of new ETF flows in 2024,” said Tabar. “It shows that there was a huge appetite for digital asset exposure for entities that were previously constrained for whatever reason.”Strong inflows are occurring as Bitcoin came under heavy selling pressure from multiple sources, including repayments related to the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox and the German government transferred hundreds of millions worth of BTC to exchanges. Some investors might see this dip as a buying opportunity.Leading the inflows was BlackRock (NYSE:BLK) IBIT, which saw $121 million added, bringing its total net inflows to over $18 billion. Fidelity FBTC followed with $91 million in inflows, increasing its total to $9.5 billion. ARK’s ARKB received $43.3 million, raising its total net inflows to $2.5 billion. However, Grayscale GBTC had an outflow of $37.5 million, and Bitwise saw an outflow of $4.7 million. Overall, the total inflows into Bitcoin ETFs now stand at $15.3 billion.On the topic of the Biden vs. Trump presidential race and its implications for cryptocurrency regulations, Tabar mentioned that Trump is generally perceived as the pro-crypto candidate, which could be more favorable for the industry.Tabar pointed out the differing stances of the two candidates. “I think the general consensus is that Trump is the pro-crypto candidate and would ultimately be the more favorable policymaker towards crypto,” he explained. “In politics, it’s often difficult to predict what campaign issues will ultimately come to fruition if a particular candidate is elected. It’s worth noting that crypto wasn’t even addressed during the first debate.”Tabar also highlighted the contrasting approaches of the current administration and Trump. “The Biden administration has previously proposed a potential tax on bitcoin mining, which could devastate the domestic industry, while Trump has said he wants all future Bitcoin to be mined in the U.S.”The presumptive Republican presidential nominee promised to loosen cryptocurrency regulations if elected in November and to “get out of the way of innovation”.Trump has shifted from being a crypto skeptic to a crypto supporter, capitalizing on the frustration within the crypto community. This change appears to be gaining him support among the small but vocal crypto advocates.However, in a 90-minute debate, neither Biden nor Trump mentioned cryptocurrencies, despite massive fundraising by crypto lobbyists for this election cycle.Despite three crypto-backed super political action committees (PACs) raising $202.8 million from industry backers and spending $93.6 million to influence the 2024 elections, the crypto sector received no attention in the CNN debate.Interestingly, crypto billionaire Michael Novogratz joined a coalition of top business leaders in a campaign urging President Joe Biden to reconsider his re-election bid.Experts vigorously debate Bitcoin’s long-term prospects, considering three drivers: its role as a store of value, a currency, or a technology. Discussing the realistic Bitcoin price target by the end of the decade, Tabar explained that he believes “the long-term trend is higher. We expect cyclical gyrations in the short term but see long-term structural upside given the generational normalization of the asset.”Interestingly, Tabar expects that investors will soon prefer trading digital gold over the real thing. “I believe Bitcoin will eventually surpass the gold market in value,” he said.He mentioned that while he wouldn’t be surprised to see Bitcoin reach $1 million, predicting the exact timeline and trajectory is challenging. To mitigate the volatility risk, Bit Digital has installed an HPC business that is uncorrelated to the price of Bitcoin. “Now we have a steady cash flow-producing business that allows us to enjoy the structural upside of Bitcoin long-term without waking up in a cold sweat every night when the Bitcoin price dips to a certain level,” Tabar concluded. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Polkadot Decoded 2024: Uniting Innovators in Blockchain Technology

    Network with Top Developers and Investors at Brussels’ Premier Event VenueThe flagship event of the Polkadot ecosystem, Polkadot Decoded, returns and will take place in one of Brussels’ most renowned event venues, The Sheds at Tour & Taxis on July 11th and 12th, 2024. Polkadot Decoded brings together developers, investors, enthusiasts, and industry leaders to explore the latest innovations in blockchain technology.Polkadot is the secure and powerful core of Web3, providing a shared foundation that unites some of the world’s most transformative apps and blockchains. It enables Web3 innovators to bring their ideas to market quickly with low start-up costs and a highly flexible development environment. Polkadot prioritizes decentralization and as the first modular, resilient, and interoperable blockchain governed by its users, Polkadot also operates as the world’s largest DAO.Attending Polkadot Decoded provides a platform to connect with industry leaders, developers, investors, and enthusiasts from around the world, fostering collaboration and partnership opportunities. Decoded also offers an opportunity to explore the latest developments, trends, and use cases within the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems through engaging talks, panels, and workshops. Attendees can learn how NFTs support Marine Research and Conservation through projects like DOTphin, experience the most cutting-edge Web3 games coming to the ecosystem via Mythical Games, discover exciting new partnerships with industry leaders such as Ledger, and even get a peek at how blockchain will change the future of content creation, monetization, and media with Kinera.Decoded will also feature a keynote speech by Polkadot creator Gavin Wood, who will detail the future of Polkadot as he discusses the forthcoming Join-Accumulate Machine (JAM) – which moves Polkadot toward a world of synchronous composability, helping to reduce fragmentation and consolidate activity. JAM will build on the momentum of “Polkadot 2.0,” a community-dubbed collection of network advancements such as Agile Coretime, Elastic (NYSE:ESTC) Scaling, and Asynchronous Backing, designed to enhance the scalability, flexibility and efficiency of the Polkadot network. Attendees and virtual viewers can catch Wood’s speech on Thursday, July 11th at 11:40 AM local time (Brussels) / 5:40 AM ET.Decoded Highlights include:Whether a seasoned blockchain professional or entirely new to decentralized technologies, Polkadot Decoded offers valuable insights and networking opportunities for all. Join us in Brussels for an immersive experience, or participate virtually from anywhere in the world. Secure a spot for Polkadot Decoded 2024 today – More

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    in Economy

    Germany orders ban on Chinese companies from its 5G network

    Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $85 per monthBilled Quarterly at $199. Complete digital access plus the FT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Zero Hash Integrates Sui Blockchain Accessibility

    Zero Hash, the leading crypto and stablecoin infrastructure platform, today announced that its platform customers can now enable the SUI token from Sui, the Layer 1 blockchain in permitted jurisdictions.Sui was designed with the objective of providing unparalleled speed, security, and scalability. It achieves near instant transaction finality and supports up to 297,000 transactions per second. Utilizing the innovative Move programming language, Sui enables developers to build advanced, secure smart contracts. The Sui blockchain has already processed over four billion transactions, showcasing its capability to support large-scale applications and services. Zero Hash’s full stack technical and global regulatory infrastructure facilitates the compliant movement of value of fiat, crypto, and stablecoins. Zero Hash’s APIs and SDKs enable businesses to seamlessly embed blockchain technology, including Sui, with minimal friction. With access to over 65 digital assets and 22 blockchains, now including Sui, Zero Hash powers businesses to build highly connected and interoperable crypto and stablecoin products, for the new era of money movement and value transfer.Sui is a first-of-its-kind Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed from the ground up to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible to everyone. Its object-centric model, based on the Move programming language, enables parallel execution, sub-second finality, and rich on-chain assets. With horizontally scalable processing and storage, Sui supports a wide range of applications with unrivaled speed at low cost. Sui is a step-function advancement in blockchain and a platform on which creators and developers can build amazing user-friendly experiences. For more information about Sui, users can visit https://sui.io. About Zero HashZero Hash is a B2B2C crypto-as-a-service infrastructure platform that allows any platform to embed digital assets natively into their own customer experience quickly and easily through a matter of API endpoints. Zero Hash’s turnkey solution handles the entire backend complexity and regulatory licensing required to offer crypto products. Zero Hash Holdings, through its subsidiaries, powers neo-banks, broker-dealers, payment groups as well as non-financial brands to offer crypto and stablecoin-powered products.Zero Hash Holdings is backed by investors, including Point72 Ventures, Bain Capital Ventures, and NYCA.Zero Hash LLC is a FinCen-registered Money Service Business and a regulated Money Transmitter that can operate in 51 US jurisdictions. Zero Hash LLC and Zero Hash Liquidity Services (NASDAQ:LQDT) LLC are licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the New York State Department of Financial Services. In Canada, Zero Hash LLC is registered as a Money Service Business with FINTRAC.Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd. is registered with AUSTRAC as a Digital Currency Exchange Provider, with DCE registered provider number DCE100804170-001. This registration enables Zero Hash to offer its crypto services in Australia. Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd. is registered on the New Zealand register of financial service providers, with Financial Service Provider (FSP) number FSP1004503. A FSP in New Zealand is a registration and does not mean that Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd. is licensed by a New Zealand regulator to provide crypto services. Zero Hash Australia Pty Ltd.’s registration on the New Zealand register of financial service providers does not mean that Zero Hash Australia is subject to active regulation or oversight by a New Zealand regulator. Zero Hash Europe B.V. is registered as a Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) registration by the Dutch Central Bank (Relation number: R193684). Zero Hash Europe Sp. Zoo is registered as a VASP by the Tax Administration Chamber of Poland in Katowice (Registration number RDWW – 1212).Users can connect with Zero Hash on LinkedIn, or visit www.zerohash.com for more information.*DisclosuresZero Hash services and product offerings may not be available in all jurisdictions. Zero Hash accounts are not subject to FDIC or SIPC protections, or any such equivalent protections that may exist outside of the US. Zero Hash’s technical support and enablement of any asset is not an endorsement of such asset and is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any crypto asset. The value of any cryptocurrency, including digital assets pegged to fiat currency, commodities, or any other asset, may go to zero.ContactSui [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More

  • 113 Shares159 Views

    in Economy

    Why has Japan not intervened yet to support yen?

    SINGAPORE/TOKYO (Reuters) -The yen has been sliding to fresh 38-year lows day by day, with market participants on alert for Japanese authorities to step in again, as they did in March, to defend the currency.But a few factors might explain their restraint.THE BOJ IS SLOWLY RAISING RATES Massive interest rate differentials between the U.S. and Japan have been weighing the yen down, putting monetary policy at the centre of the currency’s woes.With the Federal Reserve signalling it is close to cutting rates and the Bank of Japan intent on slowly raising its rates from near zero this year, the wide 5 percentage point spread between dollar and yen interest rates should shrink eventually, helping arrest if not reverse the yen’s depreciation.     Any respite for the yen could be limited, however, as rate hikes in Japan are expected to be small and delivered at a gradual pace. The BOJ wants to support economic growth underpinned by solid gains in wages and sustainable inflation.THE CARRY TRADE Slow monetary tightening will help cement the yen’s popularity for ‘carry’ trades – where a currency with low interest rates is borrowed to invest in a currency with higher yields.Yen-funded carry trades in U.S. Treasuries, for example, yield nearly 6% – a mighty incentive for market participants that is hard for Japan to counter.Net short speculative positions in yen are at a 17-year high of 184,223 contracts, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission shows.An inverted U.S. yield curve has also fuelled dollar investments into Japanese bonds and that carry trade could also unwind when the Fed cuts rates.KING DOLLARThe flipside of the yen’s weakness is the dollar’s stubborn strength on the back of a robust U.S. economy. Nary a week goes by without the release of blockbuster figures for U.S. jobs or inflation casting a long shadow over markets. The ever-present risk of a surprise sending the dollar higher is an uncomfortable environment for currency intervention.MUTED POLITICAL IMPERATIVE Although the weak yen remains deeply unpopular with the Japanese public – featuring regularly as a topic on TV news shows and newspaper front pages – the pain it induces may be blunted somewhat by record highs for local stocks and the fastest wage growth in 33 years.It’s also harder to find the sort of anger that in late 2022 triggered Japan’s first dollar-selling intervention since 1998. Instead, it has been largely replaced with a grudging acceptance that a super soft currency is part of the country’s current reality.Additionally, Tokyo wouldn’t make another massive foray into the market without getting the nod from Washington first. This is particularly true after getting put back on the Treasury’s watchlist for potential currency manipulators.That said, the domestic impetus to act may rise as the ruling party’s internal leadership election approaches in September. MIGHT NOT BE WORTH ITWhile markets know Japan has the firepower to move again – foreign reserves stand at a whopping $1.23 trillion – two interventions since September including the $62 billion-odd outlay for the latest March round of dollar selling – have had little impact.Finance ministry officials have been repeating warnings that they stand ready to act and, for now, the jawboning has kept yen movements relatively small, slow and steady. More

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    in Economy

    Explainer-Charting the Fed’s economic data flow

    U.S. central bank officials remain uncertain about the timing of a first rate cut and say they want to see more data confirming that inflation will fall, even if slowly.Among the key statistics they are watching: INFLATION (CPI released July 11; next release PCE July 26):Consumer prices fell in June by 0.1%, with drops in both volatile energy items and core consumer goods like vehicles, and weakness in housing costs that Fed officials have long been waiting to see. The 0.2% rise in shelter prices was the slowest since August of 2021, just as home prices and rents were beginning a pandemic-era rise.The data pushed the annual rise in consumer prices down to 3% from 3.3% the month before, with the more volatile core index, excluding food and energy, falling to 3.3% from 3.4%.Actual declines in the inflation index are not common, and the outcome – the weakest CPI print since May of 2020 – could build the case for the Federal Reserve to cut rates. Traders boosted bets on a September rate reduction to more than 80%.The separate personal consumption expenditures price index, used by the Fed to set its 2% inflation target, has also been easing. It fell in May to a 2.6% annual rate, from 2.7% in the prior month. Core PCE prices, stripped of volatile food and energy costs, dropped to 2.6% in May from 2.8% in April.On a month-to-month basis, the PCE index was flat, and officials have begun to pay closer attention to signs of weakening demand in the economy as a precursor to a slowed pace of price increases. EMPLOYMENT (Released July 5; next release August 2):U.S. firms added a greater-than-expected 206,000 jobs in June, but revisions to the prior two months knocked 111,000 positions from the previously estimated number of payroll jobs. That pushed the three-month average total payroll growth down to 177,000, below the level typical before the pandemic and a development likely to be taken by the Federal Reserve as further evidence the job market is slowing. The unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.1%, the highest since Nov. 2021. Fed officials have become more comfortable with the idea that continued job growth could still allow inflation to fall, especially if the supply of labor keeps growing and wage growth eases – as it did in June.The number of people in a job or looking for work grew, and fewer people dropped out of the labor force – both healthy signs that nevertheless pushed up the unemployment rate. Average hourly wages meanwhile rose 3.9% compared to a year ago, versus a 4.1% annual increase in May. The Fed generally considers wage growth in the range of 3.0%-3.5% as consistent with its 2% inflation target.JOB OPENINGS (Released July 2; next release July 30):In a sign of the job market’s continued strength, the level of job openings rose slightly in May, while the number of open jobs available for each unemployed person remained around 1.22, near where it was in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has kept a close eye on the U.S. Labor Department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) for information on the imbalance between labor supply and demand, and the pandemic-era jump to more than 2 to 1 in the number of open jobs for each available worker was emblematic of the time. Things have cooled substantially. Other aspects of the survey, like the quits rate – unchanged at 2.2 since November – have edged back to pre-pandemic levels in what Fed officials view as an emerging balance between the supply and demand for workers. More

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    in Economy

    Wall Street set for stronger open after inflation print; airlines slump on Delta forecast

    A Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index fell 0.1% on a monthly basis in June, versus the 0.1% increase forecast by economists polled by Reuters. Annually, it increased 3%, lower than the expected 3.1% rise. The core figure, which excludes volatile food and energy components, rose 0.1% on a monthly basis, against an expectation of a 0.2% advance. Annually, it gained 3.3%, versus an estimated 3.4% increase. At 8:32 a.m. ET, Dow e-minis were up 73 points, or 0.18%, S&P 500 e-minis were up 13.25 points, or 0.23%, and Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 64.5 points, or 0.31%. More