DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

April 18 (Reuters) - Beleaguered bitcoin miners are finally feeling the spring sunshine after a cold, hard crypto winter. At the current bitcoin price, these companies' cash flows have substantially improved and most of them should have no problem paying their obligations," said Jaran Mellerud, analyst at bitcoin mining services company Luxor. Bitcoin mining is the process by which a network of computers validates a block of transactions on the blockchain. "The bitcoin price increase has bought these companies time, but it would be detrimental for these companies if it were to fall back down to $20,000," he said. A rapid rise in power prices or a fast fall in bitcoin could usher in a new cold spell.

WASHINGTON — Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler faced a barrage of criticism from House Republicans on Tuesday over his agency's crackdown on cryptocurrency trading platforms. In more than four hours of testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Gensler stood firm on his view that crypto trading platforms and exchanges should abide by strict U.S. securities laws. "All of these companies should come into compliance with the law, and until they do, we will continue to pursue them as the cop on the beat, and investigate and follow the facts and law," Gensler told the panel. Gensler, however, rejected the notion that crypto trading platforms don't know how to interpret U.S. securities laws. Facing the House committee on Tuesday, Gensler showed little sympathy for the challenges faced by crypto exchanges operating in the U.S."We have a clear regulatory framework built up over 90 years," he said.

☆ SEC's Gensler in congressional hot seat today over climate change and crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The House Financial Services Committee will hold a hearing on oversight of the Securities and Exchange Commission this morning. That's because SEC Chair Gary Gensler has aroused the ire of many in corporate America over his 50+ list of new regulatory proposals the SEC is scheduled to vote on this year. "Chair Gensler has identified a range of 50-55 regulatory priorities since the start of his tenure, and has already proposed twice as many rules as his predecessor in just half the time." "The vast majority of crypto tokens are securities," Gensler declared in his written testimony to the House Financial Services Committee. "SEC Chair Gensler is long overdue to testify before the House Financial Services Committee," Rep. French Hill (R.-Ark), Vice Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in a statement released to CNBC.

☆ SEC Sues Bittrex Crypto Exchange and Former CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Dave Michaels | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Farrah Skeiky for The Wall Street JournalThe Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit accused Bittrex of operating an illegal securities exchangeWASHINGTON—Securities regulators on Monday sued Bittrex, a crypto exchange that once ranked as the biggest U.S.-based platform for trading digital assets. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s lawsuit, filed in Seattle federal court, accuses Bittrex Inc. of operating an illegal securities exchange, broker-dealer and clearinghouse. The lawsuit hinges on the claim that Bittrex listed digital assets that qualified as securities, which would have required the company to register with the SEC and follow its rules.

☆ Jack Teixeira's alleged Discord leaks show why the US should not give Top Secret clearances to 21-year-olds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Mattathias Schwartz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

Nevertheless, that looks to be the US intelligence community's approach to handling classified information. The tangled views of Jack Teixeira, who was indicted Friday in connection with leaking hundreds of classified documents to a private Discord server, are still coming into focus. There are classified phone systems, email systems, fiber optic cables, and a Wikipedia clone. Aside from the question of how many people have access to secrets, it's also worth considering how many of those supposed secrets belong on classified systems at all. Who was tracking the whereabouts of the volume of secret files he appears to have sent to the printer?

[1/2] U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler testifies before a House Financial Services and General Government Subcommittee hearing on President Biden's budget request for the Securities and Exchange Commission, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2023. Many in the industry have said existing securities regulations are inappropriate and the sector needs fresh rules. Some DeFi platforms may fall under the proposed definition, but others may already be considered exchanges by the existing one, SEC officials said this week. "Make no mistake: many crypto trading platforms already come under the current definition of an exchange," SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in prepared remarks published on Friday. Most crypto trading platforms meet that definition, regardless of whether they call themselves decentralized, Gensler said.

☆ SEC Targets Bittrex, Fallen Giant of U.S. Crypto Exchanges
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Dave Michaels | Mengqi Sun | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

WASHINGTON—Bittrex Inc. once ranked as the country’s biggest platform for trading digital assets. Its rocky history at home is coming to an end with a regulatory threat and a decision to leave the U.S. for good. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement staff told Bittrex in March it would recommend that the agency sue the company over alleged violations of investor-protection laws, according to David Maria , the company’s general counsel.

☆ Trump made a bundle of cash selling NFTs, financial filings show
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Former President Donald Trump made at least six figures of income selling NFTs last year, his new financial disclosure showed Friday. NFTs, short for nonfungible tokens, are unique digital assets that have their ownership recorded on a digital ledger called a blockchain. Trump has made between $100,001 and $1 million in income from NFTs, according to his 2022 financial disclosure form published by the watchdog group CREW. But the series of 45,000 NFTs sold out in less than a day, according to the website that listed them. Trump also made more than $5 million in income from speaking engagements through a similarly named company called CIC Ventures LLC, the disclosure shows.

☆ Blockchain and digital assets are here to stay, Wave Digital Assets says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailBlockchain and digital assets are here to stay, Wave Digital Assets saysMatteo Dante Perruccio, president international at Wave Digital Assets, discusses the latest jump in crypto and how investors see bitcoin as an alternative to traditional markets.

☆ Wave Digital Assets discusses ethereum upgrade to unlock $33 billion
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailEthereum upgrade to unlock $33 billion won't pressure price that much: Wave Digital AssetsDavid Siemer of Wave Digital Assets says there is a queuing system that will take a "pretty long time" to clean out, and "it's not like it all got unlocked in a nanosecond."

☆ LSE teams with digital trading platform to offer bitcoin futures and options
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Huw Jones | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters) - London Stock Exchange Group has teamed up with Global Futures and Options (GFO-X) to offer Britain's first regulated trading and clearing in bitcoin index futures and options derivatives, the companies said on Thursday. GFO-X, which is licensed by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority, is a start-up platform aimed at global institutional investors who want to trade digital asset derivatives. LSEG's Paris-based LCH SA clearing unit will introduce a new, segregated clearing service, DigitalAssetClear, for cash-settled dollar-denominated digital assets traded on GFO-X. "GFO-X is taking the first steps to extracting efficiencies from new technologies within a traditional market structure, with the goal over time of delivering 24/7 trading to global regulated digital asset markets," GFO-X said in a statement. Frank Soussan, head of LCH DigitalAssetClear, said bitcoin index futures and options are a rapidly growing asset class, with increasing interest among institutional investors.

☆ Binance.US to delist digital asset tokens TRON, Spell
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SINGAPORE, April 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. arm of cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it will remove digital asset tokens TRON and Spell from its trading platform, sending the prices of both down sharply on Wednesday. The TRON token fell nearly 5% against the U.S. dollar after the announcement, which was posted on Twitter and the Binance.US website, while the much smaller Spell token fell more than 5%, based on data from CoinMarketCap. Justin Sun, founder of the TRON token, told Reuters in a text message that the impact would be "relatively small". "Binance.US trading volume is less than $1 million per day. TRX's current trading volume is $400 million," said Sun, using the token's ticker symbol.

Companies Deutsche Bank AG FollowNEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - A former Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) investment banker has been charged in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday with misappropriating funds from investors whom he wooed with promises of big returns from cryptocurrency trading. Rashawn Russell, 27, of Brooklyn, solicited investments from friends and colleagues but used the funds for gambling and other personal expenses, federal prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Russell was an investment banker from July 2018 through November 2021 at a financial institution that was not identified in the document. His LinkedIn profile states that he became a Deutsche Bank investment banking analyst in July 2018 and was promoted to associate in July 2020. Deutsche Bank said in a statement that while it would not comment on an ongoing legal proceeding, it "regularly supports law enforcement and regulatory oversight efforts, including appropriately responding to and cooperating with authorized investigations and proceedings."

☆ Crypto execs have complaints about the SEC and CFTC. Here's how Chainalysis' policy head believes the industry can find common ground with US regulators.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The US may not embrace crypto, but it needs clear regulation, Chainalysis' policy head told Insider. The CFTC recently sued Binance, whose compliance head critized regulators at an industry event. Chainalysis' policy head says Congress needs to pass crypto-specific legislation. Similar complaints abounded throughout the Links conference, an industry event recently held by Chainalysis in New York. She pointed to other areas, including Dubai and Switzerland, that have created policy frameworks specifically for digital assets, including crypto.

☆ Ex-Deutsche Bank investment banker charged in U.S. with crypto fraud
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - A former Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) investment banker has been charged in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday with misappropriating funds from investors who he wooed with promises of big returns from cryptocurrency trading. Rashawn Russell, 27, of Brooklyn, solicited investments from friends and colleagues but used the funds for gambling and other personal expenses, federal prosecutors said. According to the indictment, Russell was an investment banker from July 2018 through November 2021 at a financial institution that was not identified in the document. His LinkedIn profile states that he became a Deutsche Bank investment banking analyst in July 2018 and was promoted to associate in July 2020. U.S. prosecutors and regulators have been working to crack down on fraud involving digital assets.

Bitcoin peaked at $30,438 in Asian trade and was last up 1.4% at $30,070. It has gained nearly 6% since the start of the month, after rising 23% in March. This brings digital asset flows back into positive territory for the year, the report showed. "If (bitcoin) can survive the week over $30,000, we are going higher." While Shapella is not likely to directly drive sell pressure on ether, there could be heightened volatility around the event, Bank of America strategist Alkesh Shah said.

☆ Crypto stocks rally after bitcoin breaks above $30,000 to hit a 10-month high
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Crypto-related stocks rose Tuesday after bitcoin broke above $30,000 to hit a 10-month high. Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms also edged higher in early-morning trading, having logged double-digit gains the previous trading session. Amplify's Transformational Data Sharing ETF, which tracks crypto stocks, has outperformed in 2023. The crypto stocks logged gains Monday even as the Nasdaq Composite — which tracks the tech sector more broadly but tends to move in lockstep with bitcoin — closed 0.03% lower. Read more: Bitcoin's nearing a breakout moment — prices topped $30,000 for the first time since June 2022

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File PhotoApril 11 (Reuters) - Investors are finally set to gain access to more than $33 billion of ether this week under a planned revamp of the blockchain. A new software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, dubbed Shapella, will let market players redeem their "staked ether" - coins they have deposited and locked up on the network over the past three years in return for interest. About 15% of all ether is staked, totaling $33.73 billion in market value, according to data from Dune Analytics. "It seems unlikely, therefore, that much of the staked ether will be sold," Rangar added. Following the upgrade, staked ether will no longer be locked up on the blockchain, so investors may be more willing to stake coins.

☆ Failed crypto exchange FTX's spectacular collapse was due to 'hubris, incompetence, and greed,' says first debtors' report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

On Sunday, its debtors released their first report on the collapse of the crypto exchange. The report alleged a lack of controls including in management, governance, and accounting. Read further for the three key allegations from the debtors' report. The report alleged the management and governance of FTX were largely limited to Bankman-Fried, Singh, and Wang. The report also alleged FTX failed to put in place "basic, widely accepted" security controls to safeguard its crypto assets.

☆ US stocks face a 50% crash, a 'crypto apocalypse' is coming, and the economy is entering a 'doom loop.' Here are the 10 wildest predictions over the past quarter.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-10 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

From stocks to commercial real estate, several parts of financial markets are on shaky ground. Here are the 10 wildest predictions about asset prices and the economy over the past quarter. Grantham said the prices of stocks, bonds, real estate, fine art, and other investments surged to unsustainable highs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Crypto: an 'apocalypse' is coming for digital assets"Dr. Doom" economist Nouriel Roubini isn't hopeful about the crypto industry. "I think it will spread into commercial real estate as banks become more reluctant to lend," Cooperman said.

April 4 (Reuters) - Even as bitcoin flies high, investors are keeping their options open, judging by a record race to derivatives. Most options traders are betting on bitcoin prices jumping higher, with open interest in call options at 206,979 contracts on Deribit, more than double the bearish put options of 93,857. "We have reached the same levels of open interest as 2021 at half the prices, which means we have doubled." Options contracts give their buyers the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a fixed price in the future. Open interest in ether on Deribit features 1.7 million call options versus 656,158 puts.

☆ Brazil's BTG Pactual launches own dollar-backed stablecoin
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SAO PAULO, April 4 (Reuters) - Brazil's BTG Pactual said on Tuesday it will launch a stablecoin priced in U.S. dollars at a parity of one to one, as it seeks to position itself in the digital assets market. The stablecoin, called BTG Dol, will be available on Mynt, the bank's crypto-asset platform, and through BTG Pactual's own investment system. A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that is pegged to a stable asset as a way to reduce volatility. Now we have our own stablecoin," said Marcel Monteiro, Mynt's head of operations. Reporting by Paula Arend Laier; Editing by Paul SimaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary breaks down his latest crypto bet as regulators look to crush 'rogue' operators
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

I caught up with Shark Tank investor Kevin O'Leary, an active crypto investor and market veteran, to get his take on the digital asset sector and recent regulatory action. Since November, he's moved his holdings to Canada, where he uses WonderFi, a name he's backed as an investor. They told regulators 'go get them,' and all of a sudden we have a mountain of enforcement action." The SEC said it's "neutral" about the technology at hand, yet "anything but neutral when it comes to investor protection." I bet if you looked at who's managing these companies 36 months from now, all the current guys are gone."

Niche cryptocurrency dogecoin spiked more than 30% on Monday after Twitter CEO Elon Musk replaced the blue bird on his company's website with an image of a shiba inu, the digital coin's logo. After the Twitter logo was altered to a shiba inu image, Musk shared a meme about the change to his 133.5 million followers on Twitter. But Musk's public endorsement of the coin goes further than social media messages. In January 2022, when Musk announced on Twitter that dogecoin payments were live, the cryptocurrency jumped as much as 15%. "We have not sold any of our dogecoin," Musk said on an earnings call last year.

☆ Stocks finished the quarter surprisingly strong. What’s next?
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-02 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The tech-heavy Nasdaq made a remarkable resurgence, soaring nearly 17% in its best quarterly gain since the fourth quarter of 2020. The labor market has remained red hot, despite the Fed’s aggressive tightening campaign. The number of job openings fell in January , signaling a slight cooling but still hot labor market. The March jobs report. Friday: March jobs report and February consumer credit.

Search resuls for: "Digital Asset"

25 mentions found