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    Michael Saylor Issues Bitcoin Statement Amid Ongoing Crypto Market Turmoil

    Despite the tense atmosphere, Saylor maintains that investors must wear a hard hat as the market suffers, which could be a momentary crash.Notably, workers stay safe on a construction site by wearing a hard hat to protect themselves from crashing objects. Saylor appears to have the same advice for Bitcoin investors to protect themselves.Analysts suggest that investors could use stop-loss orders, hedge with derivatives or monitor market sentiments in a crashing market. However, the Bitcoin advocate would rather stay calm and stick to his Bitcoin accumulation plan for Saylor.When Bitcoin hit $100,700 after suffering a momentary dip, Saylor rejected the idea of selling for profit-taking in an interview. He maintained that the Bitcoin community would never trust MicroStrategy should it decide to sell BTC. This highlights Saylor’s and MicroStrategy’s holding strategy.Meanwhile, Saylor has hinted at changing MicroStrategy’s fundraising approach to add more intelligent leverage. Having achieved targets faster than anticipated, Saylor says the company will continue to raise capital primarily via fixed-income markets.He believes the company needs more leverage to compensate for its increasing deleveraged position.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Colombia’s central bank delivers smaller rate cut than expected

    BOGOTA (Reuters) -Colombia’s central bank on Friday cut its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 9.50%, a smaller move than expected by markets, as it slowed the pace of its easing due to domestic fiscal uncertainty and decisions by its peers around the world.All 25 analysts in a recent Reuters poll said they expected the central bank’s board to deliver a 50-basis-point cut in borrowing costs. Five of the board’s seven policymakers voted for a 25-basis-point cut, one for 50 points and another for 75 points, Leonardo Villar, the board’s director, said in a press conference.”There is room to continue to lower the interest rate,” Villar told journalists, adding that the central bank is confident Colombia’s inflation will converge toward its 3% target next year.The Andean nation’s 12-month inflation rate through the end of November was 5.20%.However, the bank’s technical team expects movement towards the inflation target will be slower than it previously expected due to exchange rate pressures and how they affect prices, Villar said while presenting the board’s statement.”This reduces the room for maneuver to maintain the pace of interest rate cuts,” the statement said.The economy has grown 1.6% through September, the board added, compared to the same period in 2023, and the labor market has remained relatively stable.”Uncertainty about the situation of public finances in Colombia has generated volatility in the exchange-rate and public debt markets,” the board added.President Gustavo Petro’s leftist government has faced fiscal troubles that threaten its compliance with the country’s so-called fiscal rule, which is designed to impose limits on spending to prevent deterioration of public finances. Colombia’s Congress earlier this month rejected a $2.7 billion fiscal reform proposed by the government to finance 2025 spending.On Thursday, Colombia’s Autonomous Fiscal Rule Committee said the Andean country would need to cut spending this year by 40 trillion pesos ($9.1 billion), followed by a subsequent cut of 52 trillion pesos next year.Colombia and other emerging market nations also are keeping a wary eye on the U.S. dollar, which could be bolstered next year by potentially inflationary policies of the incoming Trump administration and a shallower Federal Reserve rate-cut path.Colombia’s central bank has cut its benchmark rate by 350 basis points since December of 2023.($1 = 4,394.50 Colombian pesos) More

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    Expert Trader Predicts When Bitcoin (BTC) Bulls ‘Will Try to Make a Stand’

    That is why it is worth paying attention to the sentiment of the most popular and established public traders in the cryptocurrency space right now. For example, in his post, DonAlt discusses that the painful drop of the Bitcoin price to almost $90,000 has led to a major liquidation of altcoins, bringing many of them back to bear market valuations. At the same time, the trader offers a vision where a price range between $85,000 and $90,000 per BTC is likely – where bullish investors might try to stabilize and push the price further, indicating a potential support zone for Bitcoin. As can be seen on the attached chart, the next major trading range, if the above is breached, will be the $85,000-$71,500 area. Interestingly enough, this is also the area where the unclosed gap for Bitcoin on the CME is located. Thus, at first glance, it is all doom and gloom. What brings enthusiasm is that the area outlined by DonAlt is almost there, so we can hope for a bullish reaction there. However, considering the year-end tendencies on the crypto market, the roller coaster ride may last for quite some time.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Mystery 666 BTC Transfer Leads to Half Billion Bitcoin Puzzle

    According to Whale Alert, this transfer took place from an unknown wallet under the address “3NVeX” to the address which, according to the tracking service, belongs to Antpool, which is one of the largest mining pools in the industry.Interestingly, at the same time, data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the transfer was made not to the address of the mining pool but to the custodial account of Cobo’s, which is a popular Web3 wallet platform.This address, however, was not the last stop for the Bitcoin (BTC) data, when another 17 BTC and a transfer of 683 coins was made to an unknown address, “3BHXy.” This Arkham address is also suspected to belong to Cobo, and its balance right now contains 5,435 BTC, which is equivalent to $511.53 million.Such transfers excite the crypto public because they are often associated with the sale or purchase of cryptocurrency by a major player.However, here, it is likely that this is not the case, and it is most likely just a transfer of Bitcoin from one pocket to another. Thus, it can be concluded that the only sinister thing here is the initial amount of the transfer.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    DOGE Founder Reacts to Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ethereum Sell-off

    The listed prices show a significant drop in BTC, DOGE and ETH. This reflects the huge bearish sentiment that has affected the coins. As a result of these sell-offs, Bitcoin ETFs have registered the largest outflows as the bears dominate the market.Despite this massive decline, Markus’s tone has a hint of humor, best described as sarcastic. Many consider the post to have a deeper meaning of preparing to take advantage of the decline in the price of the assets. Markus could be preparing to buy the dip in anticipation of a price rebound, which is likely to result in profit-taking.The Dogecoin founder’s post has elicited reactions from his followers and many users of the different coins. Some users believe the price drop is a great opportunity for investors to accumulate ahead of the next bull wave.Bitcoin crossed the psychological price level of $100,000 for the first time and soared to over $108,200. Many investors were engaged in profit-taking, particularly early traders who purchased when BTC traded below $80,000.DOGE’s price crashed by 20.49% to $0.289 within 24 hours. Dogecoin’s market volume has soared by 107.95% to $13.58 billion. Ethereum has also registered a surge in market volume by 47.64% to $75.88 billion, even with a notable price decline of 12.33% to $3,230.49.Analysts say all three coins have continued to soar in market volume, signaling investors’ confidence in the assets. These investors might be positioning themselves for future market rebounds.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Bitcoin Comeback? Ex-Binance CEO CZ Teases New All-Time High

    Few would have thought the situation could change so much by Friday, but there is one person in the crypto market who planted the seed of such an idea.We are talking about Changpeng Zhao, or CZ as he is better known in the crypto space, the former head of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance. In a tweet dated Dec. 17, CZ stated in one of his tweets that he was waiting for headlines as the price of Bitcoin dropped from $101,000 to $85,000 and also quite ambitiously asked to “save this tweet.” Fast forward three days, and here we are. The concerned crypto public did not fail to call out the former Binance CEO for such predictions, to which he responded with a more bullish post. Zhao stated that we should expect to see more headlines discussing Bitcoin hitting an all-time high, and moreover, it will continue “again, and again, and again,” according to CZ.Zhao mentioned the cyclical nature of the cryptocurrency market earlier. Based on what he said, it was assumed that similar to previous market events, a real bull market could occur in 2025, while this year is more of a recovery phase after a bear market.Whether CZ’s expectations come true or not, and whether Bitcoin will update its all-time high, we will find out in the very near future.This article was originally published on U.Today More

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    Goldman Sachs sees modest growth impact from EU defense spending

    “Market participants have grown increasingly focused on a potential EU fiscal policy response via higher defence spending,” analyst said.Defence budgets have already risen since the Ukraine invasion but remain below NATO’s 2% of GDP target in several member states. Potential funding options include national fiscal deficits, repurposing Next (LON:NXT) Generation EU funds, or creating a multilateral defence funding facility.The most likely approach involves a mix of national deficits and the European fund, but early implementation faces hurdles, including political uncertainty in Germany, France, and EU institutional approval. Any significant changes are unlikely before 2025, Goldman noted.Raising defence spending to 2.25% of GDP or 2.5% by 2026 would increase the structural deficit by 0.3%-0.5% annually over the next three years, note added.The economic impact is expected to be modest, with defence spending multipliers estimated at 0.6 due to high import and short-lived effects compared to investment.Goldman estimates the fiscal impulse from higher defence spending would add not much significant annual growth until 2027, up to 0.2 percentage points.A larger boost could occur if spending leads to reduced foreign input dependence and an expansion of Europe’s defence industry. More

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    Mandelson slammed as ‘moron’ by Trump adviser after being named US ambassador

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