Aurelia Butler

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    in Economy

    Vietnam flag carrier at risk of insolvency if govt-backed loan is not extended

    The airline, which received 4 trillion dong ($157 million) in low-cost loans from commercial banks that were refinanced at a zero interest rate by the central bank in 2021, is grappling with financial difficulties due to the impact of the pandemic, the government said in a statement. It has not completed refinancing efforts, such as restructuring non-core investments and sales of new shares due to regulatory approvals, the statement added. According to the government, Vietnam Airlines may face significant risks, lawsuits and reputational damage in case the loan repayment was not extended.”It is just one of the solutions to help Vietnam Airlines overcome difficulties, but is the most feasible and appropriate solution at the moment,” the government said.The government recommended the lawmakers allow loan repayment extensions through Dec. 31, 2027 to give the airline time to complete its restructuring, the statement said.($1 = 25,455.0000 dong) More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Cryptopia Announces Increased Airdrop Allocation and Beta Tester Rewards

    Cryptopia has plenty to celebrate this month thanks to the crypto community’s phenomenal response to its Airdrop. Not only did the campaign surpass the team’s expectations with over 50,000 participants completing an impressive 137,000 missions, but it also helped Cryptopia secure exchanges and Tier 1 Launchpads. Cryptopia understands that more people means a diluted prize pool. To show Cryptopia gratitude for its growing community’s overwhelming support, Cryptopia is thrilled to announce a doubling of the Airdrop allocation, pumping it up from a cool 25 million $TOS to a whopping 50 million $TOS. This translates to a prize pool value jump from $87,500 to $175,000 USD. Even with new recruits joining in on the fun, this ensures every Airdrop participant gets their fair share of the bounty.Enhanced Referral RewardsCryptopia continues to emphasize community growth. Currently, members earn Power Points through direct and indirect referrals. To further incentivize participation, Cryptopia will introduce new milestones to enhance referral rewards. Detailed information on these updates will be shared on Cryptopia’s social media platforms in the coming weeks.Recognition for Beta TestersAcknowledging the efforts of its beta testers, Cryptopia has allocated 4% of the Airdrop pool, approximately $7,000, exclusively for these contributors.Summary of Airdrop EnhancementsAbout CryptopiaFree to earn: Accessible to all players without the need for prior NFT purchases.100% decentralized: Operates on the blockchain with a node network.Engaging gameplay: Offers flexible play options.Official Links: Website | Wiki | Discord | Facebook | X | YouTube | Instagram | CoinMarketCap | Twitch | Spotify (NYSE:SPOT) | Telegram Community | Telegram Announcements |For Investors: Early-access NFTs | Cryptopia RoadmapContactCo-FounderHans LeekCryptopia [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    $42 Billion Volume Boom Triggers Epic Bitcoin (BTC) Price Resilience

    This triple-digit surge underscores a growing but subtle bullish sentiment in the price of Bitcoin. While this positive sentiment is not showing yet, it is vital in printing a recovery from the current bearish onslaught. In recent times, the Bitcoin price has not traded as low as it currently is, with the spot ETF market providing the much-needed cushion up to now.At the moment, the massive rally in Bitcoin trading volume is entirely retail-driven considering how spot BTC ETF products have continued to record outflows. Also, the ongoing recovery in the altcoin ecosystem might complement the revival in the near term. Ultimately, the Bitcoin price is poised to hit bottom, wherein the price will print the long-awaited rebound.The major takeaway is that many Bitcoin whales and addresses are still in profit, and this will help keep the recovery in check when short-term holders start taking profits on revival.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    in Economy

    Fed’s Bowman: need steady policy rate ‘for some time’ to beat inflation

    (Reuters) -U.S. Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman on Tuesday reiterated her view that holding the policy rate steady “for some time” will probably be enough to bring inflation under control, but also repeated her willingness to raise borrowing costs if needed. “Inflation in the U.S. remains elevated, and I still see a number of upside inflation risks that affect my outlook,” Bowman said in remarks prepared for delivery in London.During a question and answer session following her speech, Bowman concurred when asked to confirm she had not penciled in any reduction in borrowing costs for the rest of this year.”Yes, that is still my view. I have not written in further rate cuts in my statement of economic projections for the bulk of this year,” Bowman said, referring to the forecasts Fed officials each anonymously gave at the central bank’s latest policy meeting earlier this month. “I have shifted those into future years … right now with the uncertainty of the economic outlook and what the data is telling us, we are in a good place right now to understand how that might evolve.” Supply-chain improvements and a surge in labor supply from immigration, both of which helped push down inflation last year, are unlikely to continue, she said. Regional conflicts could put upward pressure on energy and food prices; looser financial conditions or fiscal stimulus could stoke inflation as well, she said. Immigrants’ housing needs, along with continued labor-market tightness, could also push up on prices, she said. “Should the incoming data indicate that inflation is moving sustainably toward our 2% goal, it will eventually become appropriate to gradually lower the federal funds rate to prevent monetary policy from becoming overly restrictive,” she said.However, Bowman said, the economy is “not yet” at that point, adding that she will “remain cautious” in her approach to monetary policy, and predicted that central banks in other countries may loosen policy sooner or more quickly than the Fed.Bowman is one of the Fed’s most hawkish voices, and her remarks on Tuesday were no exception. The Fed earlier this month kept the policy rate in the 5.25%-5.5% range where it has remained since last July. Fresh projections showed no Fed policymaker expected to raise rates from here, and their median prediction was for just one rate cut before the end of the year. “Looking ahead, I will be closely watching the incoming data as I assess whether monetary policy in the U.S. is sufficiently restrictive to bring inflation down to our 2% goal over time,” Bowman said. So far this year there has been just “modest further progress” on inflation, she said. “I expect inflation to remain elevated for some time.” More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Bitcoin price today: flat at $61k amid regulatory jitters, inflation angst

    The world’s largest cryptocurrency traded unchanged in the past 24 hours at $61,212.1 by 08:30 ET (12:30 GMT). It had fallen as far as $59,215 in overnight trade.Selling in cryptocurrencies was driven by a storm of different regulatory factors, which, coupled with angst over U.S. interest rates, drove broader prices lower. Crypto investment products were also seen logging two straight weeks of heavy capital outflows. Bitcoin was nursing steep losses through the past week amid reports that the German government was selling Bitcoin confiscated from a piracy website. Reports said the German police had sold about 3,000 tokens of the 50,000 initially confiscated. Reports of the German sales were accompanied by other reports that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission was investigating market maker Jump Trading over its crypto trading activities. Jump President Kanav Kariya also said he was leaving the firm. The reports added to a broader risk-off sentiment in crypto markets, as traders pivoted into the dollar ahead of key U.S. inflation data due this Friday. PCE price index data, which is the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, is widely expected to offer more cues on interest rates this week. Rising fears of high rates had battered crypto markets through the past week, and showed little signs of clearing. Strength in the dollar also diminished crypto’s appeal.Data from digital asset manager CoinShares showed on Monday that crypto investment products saw outflows totaling about $584 million, with a bulk of these being directed towards U.S. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds. Bitcoin products saw outflows of $630 million, while altcoin products saw mild inflows as investors saw recent price slumps as a buying opportunity. Broader crypto prices rose on Tuesday, with major altcoins rebounding from steep losses seen over the past week. World no.2 token Ether rose 1.6% to $3,372.49, after relinquishing a bulk of its gains made on hype over a spot Ether ETF.ADA and SOL climbed 5% and 7%, respectively, while XRP slipped around 0.1%.Among meme tokens, SHIB and DOGE added 3% and 4.5%, respectively.In a Monday note to clients, analysts at brokerage firm Bernstein said Ether ETFs are expected to attract similar demand sources as their Bitcoin counterparts, though on a smaller scale.“ETH should not see as much spot ETH conversion due to the lack of an ETH staking feature in the ETF,” analysts wrote.They added that the basis trade, which involves buying the spot ETF and selling the futures contract simultaneously, should gain traction over time and contribute to healthy liquidity in the ETF market.Spot Ether ETFs are nearing availability for U.S. investors following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of key regulatory filings from issuers last month.“ETH as a primary tokenization platform is building up a strong use-case, both for stablecoin payments and tokenization of traditional assets and funds,” the analysts continued.Ether and other digital assets require a “more improved regulatory regime,” and Bernstein anticipates that the regulatory narrative will improve closer to the U.S. elections, especially with the increasing odds of a Republican victory and Trump’s pro-crypto stance.Despite recent declines in the crypto markets, the “structural adoption cycle remains intact,” the report noted. More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    ENSO secures $4.2 million in funding to launch intent-centric blockchain

    The fresh capital injection will be used to develop ENSO’s platform, expand its community and go toward the launch of its L1 Cosmos-based blockchain scheduled later this year.The funding round saw participation from Ideo Ventures, Hypersphere, and over 60 angel investors from organizations like Safe, Socket, Titan, Essential, Sygnum, TheGraph, Alchemix, Biconomy, Yearn, Squid, Liquity, Pendle, Everclear, Flashbots, and Dune.ENSO, which describes itself as the connectivity layer of crypto, highlights that its platform handled over $11 billion in on-chain settlements in 2023, serving more than 35 projects currently in production. The company plans to expand its infrastructure capabilities and support further adoption across decentralized finance (DeFi) and blockchain applications.”We’re thrilled to have the support of Ideo Ventures, Hypersphere, and an exceptional group of angels as we embark on our next phase of growth,” said Connor Howe of ENSO. “This funding validates our vision to transform blockchain interactions and underscores the confidence in our technology from both institutional backers and the angels involved.”With Enso, developers can interact with a single source that abstracts all the complexities of dealing with smart contracts. This is achieved through a shared network state that stores and manages all smart contract interactions across blockchains, rollups, and rollapps for execution.Before using Enso, the company claims that developers had to manually integrate blockchain frameworks, write smart contracts to interact with other smart contracts, understand each smart contract’s nuances, and build customized infrastructure to maintain these integrations. This process was time-consuming, error-prone, and required a deep understanding of the underlying blockchain framework where the smart contracts were deployed.By turning user requests into intents and mapping every smart contract interaction along with their relationships to other smart contracts, Enso inherently connects all of crypto into one unified platform, making it easily accessible for users and developers. More

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    in Economy

    Fed’s Bowman: Don’t see any rate cuts for 2024

    At its most recent gathering earlier this month, the Fed left the benchmark federal funds rates unchanged at a more than two-decade high range of 5.25% to 5.5% and signaled that it would roll out just one cut this year, as it looks to cool price growth back down to its 2% target. “Should the incoming data indicate that inflation is moving sustainably toward our 2% goal, it will eventually become appropriate to gradually lower the federal funds rate to prevent monetary policy from becoming overly restrictive,” Bowman said in remarks prepared prior to a speech in London.But Bowman — typically seen as one of the Fed’s more hawkish voices — flagged that it is not yet “appropriate” to lower rates, adding that the policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee should keep in mind a range of possible scenarios. Moving too quickly to bring down rates, Bowman warned, could result in a rebound in inflationary pressures. As a result, Bowman noted that she remains “willing” to raise rates even further should progress on inflation stall or reverse.”Given the risks and uncertainties regarding my economic outlook, I will remain cautious in my approach to considering future changes in the stance of policy,” she said. Bowman later said she does not foresee any Fed rate cuts in 2024, and instead expects potential reductions to come next year.Her comments come after San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said on Monday that recent “bumpiness” in inflation has “not inspired confidence” in policymakers and muddied the Fed’s path toward achieving price stability. More

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    in Economy

    China welcomes US dairy firms expanding in the country, vice minister says

    Wang made the remarks when meeting with U.S. Dairy Export Council President Krysta Harden, the ministry said in a statement.The visit came days after the ministry said China may impose provisional anti-dumping measures on pork imports from the European Union as part of a year-long probe that began on June 17. China has opened an investigation into EU pork and its by-products, a step that appears mainly aimed at Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, after the bloc imposed anti-subsidy duties on Chinese-made electric vehicles.In Tuesday’s statement, the commerce ministry said China and the U.S. exchanged views on economic and trade relations, cooperation in dairy products and other agricultural products. More