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    Key Fed Inflation Rate Released, Here’s Crypto’s Reaction

    The personal consumption expenditures price index increased 0.2%, seasonally adjusted for the month, while the 12-month inflation rate was 2.1%, in line with Dow Jones projections.The PCE data serves as the Fed’s primary inflation gauge, while policymakers also monitor some other measures. Fed policymakers aim to keep inflation at 2% per year, a level it has not reached since February 2021. The headline rate for September fell by 0.2 percentage points from August.However, the core inflation rate was 2.7%, up 0.3% from the previous month. The data comes as markets bet heavily that the Fed might lower its benchmark short-term borrowing rate when it meets next week.As investors digest the latest economic data, cryptocurrencies have broadly traded in the red, with significant losses reported across the board. Bitcoin, Shiba Inu, Pepe, Chainlink, Bonk and WIF had losses ranging from 1.7% to 7% in the last 24 hours.The selling has resulted in a wave of liquidations worth around $136 million, according to CoinGlass data.Inflation rates have been a major concern for crypto markets, particularly because they could influence the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions. A lower inflation rate may indicate a looser policy stance, causing optimism among crypto investors, who see it as a potential driver for price increases, whereas high inflation rates remain unfavorable for risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.In the coming days, the market will likely pay close attention to any hints from the Fed regarding its next policy measures. Policymakers are currently in a “blackout period” before the Nov. 6-7 meeting, which means they will not be providing remarks based on data releases or about their overall policy and economic expectations.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Parents to be hit by ‘nanny tax’ after national insurance changes

    Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Parents who employ nannies could see their annual childcare bills jump by more than £1,000 from April under measures announced in this week’s Budget.The chancellor’s key tax-raising policy will see employers’ national insurance contributions increase from 13.5 per cent to 15 per cent next year, with the salary threshold at which employers pay contributions dropping from £9,100 to just £5,000.While this move was aimed at businesses, parents who employ nannies for their childcare arrangements will also be impacted.Jenni Bond, managing director of Nannytax, a payroll service for parents, said the extra NI charges would add more than £1,000 to the annual cost of hiring a nanny, based on the average salary of £46,228 for nannies in London.The additional costs could be higher still, said Bond, if the number of hours the nanny was working placed their hourly income below the level of April’s new national minimum wage.Although the chancellor extended protection to small businesses by boosting the employment allowance to enable them to offset higher payroll costs, employers of domestic staff including nannies, cleaners and gardeners are exempt from using it. The rules exclude workers who are being employed in a personal capacity to support the running of a household. “The cost of childcare is astronomical, and domestic employers should absolutely be included [in the employment allowance],” said Bond.Joeli Brearley, founder of the charity Pregnant Then Screwed which campaigns for more affordable childcare, said the NI increase would “hit working parents hard, particularly mothers, who still bear the brunt of childcare costs”. “For many, employing a nanny isn’t a luxury but a necessity to keep their careers going. With this added expense, we risk pushing more parents — especially single parents and mothers — out of the workforce.”Bond said that increases in the minimum wage, announced on Tuesday, would also pile “on top of those increases parents would have expected”. The national living wage for over-21s will rise from £11.44 to £12.21 in April 2025.199The number of children’s nurseries forced to close in the year to September 2024, according to the National Day Nurseries AssociationThe NI hit to parents with nannies comes as parents grapple with the costs of childcare after a surge in nursery closures and a push for workers to return to the office after the pandemic. The yearly salary for nannies outside London rose by 12 per cent year-on-year to £40,326 in 2023-24, according to Nannytax’s annual salary index report. In London, annual salaries for nannies rose by 8 per cent to £46,228.In the year to September 2024, 199 nurseries were forced to close, according to the National Day Nurseries Association, a charity representing nurseries across the UK.“A lot of this comes down to chronic underfunding, particularly for three and four-year-olds,” said Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of NDNA, in September.The Treasury declined to comment. More

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    Chorus One Introduces TON Pool: The First Institutional Solution for Scalable TON staking

    Chorus One, a leading provider of staking infrastructure for over 60 networks, today announced the launch of TON Pool (NASDAQ:POOL), a new staking solution designed to simplify and optimize Toncoin staking for institutions and investors. With a focus on addressing the limitations of current staking models on the TON blockchain, TON Pool offers a flexible, cost-effective, and scalable staking solution that meets the needs of custodians, exchanges, wallets, and institutional investors.A solution to Toncoin’s current staking limitationsThe TON blockchain is gaining traction as a powerful platform for decentralized applications, but existing Toncoin staking mechanisms—such as the Nominator Pool and Single Nominator contracts—present significant limitations for institutional players.According to the team, high minimum staking requirements, limited delegator capacity, and the operational complexity of managing multiple pools are key challenges that prevent large institutions from efficiently staking Toncoin at scale.Currently, they add, the Single Nominator contract requires a minimum of 300,000 TON, limiting accessibility for many institutions. Moreover, both staking models restrict the number of delegators and require manual management, resulting in higher transaction fees and reduced yields due to complex pool monitoring.Recognizing these limitations, Chorus One developed TON Pool, a solution specifically tailored for large-scale staking operations that eliminates inefficiencies and provides a more seamless staking experience.Key benefits of TON PoolAbout Chorus OneChorus One is a leading institutional staking provider, operating infrastructure for over 60 networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, Chorus One has been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001-certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, users can visit chorus.one or follow them on X (formerly Twitter), and LinkedIn.ContactHari Iyerstaking@chorus.oneThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

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    ‘Thank You, Satoshi’: Michael Saylor Reveals Epic $21 Billion Move

    This is not the end of the story, as his farewell caption was accompanied by a screenshot of MicroStrategy’s stock prospectus supplement, which implies raising $21 billion in capital through the sale of Class A common stock.The news that the software producer is looking to raise $42 billion over the next three years broke yesterday in the midst of MicroStrategy’s earnings report. Specifically, half, or $21 billion, will be raised through the sale of MSTR stock. There is symbolism here, a sort of homage to Satoshi and Bitcoin, as the initial total supply of the major cryptocurrency is exactly 21 million BTC. This is also what Saylor seemed to be referring to in his message to Satoshi today. The company plans to use the funds raised by this offering to buy more Bitcoin. MicroStrategy has currently invested nearly $10 billion to acquire 252,200 BTC. With the new offering, the software maker could double its previous investment, bringing the total to $30 billion once the deal is closed.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Satoshi Nakamoto Mystery Takes New Turn in Bitstamp’s Tweet

    This tweet was published on the 16th anniversary of Satoshi releasing the Bitcoin whitepaper.The recent release of the HBO movie made ripples throughout the cryptocurrency world, and the director faced major backlash for naming an early Bitcoin developer, Peter Todd, as Satoshi.Another Satoshi candidate, Adam Back, along with his former colleague and now the CEO at JAN3, Samson Mow, believes that the world will never find out who Satoshi was. Bitcoiner and VC investor Anthony Pompliano has publicly stated that the world is better off not knowing who he was or is.Over these 16 years, Bitcoin has come a long way from trading at less than $1 to changing hands at $72,000 and becoming the “digital gold” and a store of value now embraced by Wall Street.Yesterday, one of the leading corporate Bitcoin holders (and a pioneer in betting on BTC), MicroStrategy, announced that within the next few years, it plans to raise $42 billion to add more Bitcoin to its stash that is growing regularly.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    The perfect storm for European automakers

    Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The auto industry supports 6 per cent of the EU’s jobs, and Volkswagen is its biggest carmaker. So when the German group warns it must close three plants at home and axe thousands of workers, that is a sign of the stress Europe’s carmakers are under. European sales have yet to regain pre-pandemic levels, just when the industry is engaged in an epochal shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles — and has allowed Chinese rivals to leapfrog ahead in the new technology. Slow off the starting line, Europe’s carmakers face a restructuring as wrenching as the US auto industry after the 2008 financial crisis. But policy needs to play a more constructive role, too.Despite two profit warnings in three months, Volkswagen is not in such desperate straits as the biggest US carmakers 15 years ago. It says it needs to raise operating margins in the core VW brand from 2 per cent in recent quarters to 6.5 per cent by 2026 to fund investments in its future. Targeting three plant closures may be its opening gambit in talks with Lower Saxony, which has 20 per cent of voting rights, and the unions. But VW and Germany are not alone in having to slash overcapacity and costs. Italian politicians are pushing Stellantis, which owns Fiat, Peugeot and Opel, to keep open its Fiat plant in Turin despite falling sales. Some French assembly lines are already being shifted offshore.Germany’s big carmakers, in particular, were too complacent in assuming that the lucrative Chinese market could tide them over the tricky EV transition. Chinese manufacturers have stolen a march technologically and are supplanting foreign rivals in a market where, in July, half of all vehicles sold were EVs or plug-in hybrids. China’s upstarts benefited from huge state subsidies and lower labour costs, and started from a cleaner slate. They grasped more quickly, though, that EVs’ value lies more in snazzy software and electronics than in mechanics. In Europe, the cheapest new EV last year cost almost double the cheapest ICE car; in China, it cost 8 per cent less. China’s EVs are not only more affordable than foreign ones, they are often better.Fearing a flood of subsidised imports, the EU this week imposed higher tariffs on Chinese-made EVs. But protectionism is not the answer. Europe’s auto industry has to face up to the need to cut costs by reducing capacity and jobs. With fewer moving parts, EVs were always going to need fewer people to build them. Though there will be social costs that must be mitigated, governments need to accept that keeping surplus or lossmaking plants open will only delay or derail a successful transition to new technology. As well as making EVs more cheaply, Europe’s carmakers have to speed up model development, and find partners or outsource areas where they lack expertise. Tie-ups with Chinese counterparts they can learn from make some sense — though China’s newcomers might also use these to plug gaps in their own prowess, and gain access to ready-made distribution networks.Smarter policy must also play a role. The EU has banned the sale of new ICE cars from 2035, and its tightening emissions standards will force automakers to sell fewer of them over time. But as Mario Draghi’s report on competitiveness noted last month, the EU decreed targets without a proper industrial strategy to achieve them. It needs a comprehensive approach to developing the entire supply chain, including raw materials and the battery technology that lies at the heart of EVs, and of China’s EV success. Investment in charging networks and financial incentives are needed to encourage consumers to switch, so higher volumes start to cut production costs. It is not yet too late for Europe’s auto industry to narrow the EV gap. But China has opened a substantial lead. More

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    Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polkadot dip as Wall Street selloff mood hits risk assets

    Bitcoin (BitfinexUSD) seems to be taking a bit of a pause as October wraps up, trading around $70,600 in early US trading, down about 2.35% in the past 24 hours. ETH/USD lost 4.7% while Polkadot was down about 5%. Despite today’s slump, the original cryptocurrency have climbed over 8% this week. Moreover, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw strong inflows, pulling in $893 million on Wednesday for its second day in a row above the $850 million threshold. Most of this demand was led by BlackRock (NYSE:BLK)’s IBIT, which alone brought in $872 million.With earnings season underway, traders are also gearing up for the U.S. presidential election and key economic reports, like next nonfarm payrolls numbers, looking for hints on rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.”Stocks are sliding in the US this morning for a variety of reasons, including underwhelming mega-cap tech earnings Wed night (META had some warnings about elevated costs while MSFT provided Dec Q revenue guidance that fell short of expectations),” Vital Knowledge analysts said.Wall Street slipped on Thursday as Microsoft and Meta’s warnings about rising AI expenses cooled the excitement around megacap stocks.Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) shares dipped 2.8%, and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) fell 5.1%, even though both topped earnings expectations in their Wednesday reports. Adding to the pressure, the United States 10-Year edged up past 4.3%, weighing further on stocks.Bitcoin has been closing in on its all-time high this week, rising from around $71,000 to past $73,500 by Tuesday. This upward momentum comes just a few days before the U.S. elections—a time many traders view as bullish for the markets regardless of the results. Polls show a tight race between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, stirring up market speculation as Bitcoin nears its all-time high of $73,798, last seen in March. The recent surge has brought the most-traded cryptocurrency within striking distance of this peak, adding to the pre-election excitement in the market. More