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☆ Binance pulls out of Canada amid new crypto regulations
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

May 12 (Reuters) - Binance said on Friday it was withdrawing from Canada, weeks after the country issued a series of new guidelines for cryptocurrency exchanges including investor limits and mandatory registrations. Canada has tightened regulations for crypto asset trading platforms in recent months, with the introduction of a pre-registration process. The companies that do not adhere to the rules will face potential enforcement action, according to the website of the Ontario Securities Commission. "Unfortunately, (the) new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits provided to crypto exchanges makes the Canada market no longer tenable for Binance at this time," crypto exchange Binance said in a tweet. Binance said it does not agree with the latest guidance and hopes to engage with the Canadian regulators to create a comprehensive framework for crypto operations in the country.

☆ Bitcoin rises slightly after key inflation data comes in better than feared
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bitcoin prices have been under pressure in 2022 after the collapse of algorithmic stablecoin terraUSD and subsequent bankruptcy filings from lender Celsius and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. Bitcoin rose about 2% to $28,174.29, according to Coin Metrics, after starting the week with a sharp drop. Investors grew optimistic after the CPI report showed the inflation rate eased on an annual basis to 4.9% in April, which was slightly less than what economists polled by Dow Jones expected. "When it comes to inflation data, bitcoin embraces its identity as a riskier asset," said Callie Cox, an analyst at investment company eToro. "Inflation is coming down, just as the Fed intended, and that's easing fears about the economy's future," she added.

☆ De-dollarization and global reserves dominance, explained by a top currency economist and the inventor of the 'dollar smile' theory
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Phil Rosen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Stephen Jen, CEO of Eurizon SLJ Eurizon SLJStephen Jen is a leading economist, the cofounder and CEO of Eurizon SLJ, and inventor of the "dollar smile" theory. Phil Rosen: You pointed out recently that the dollar saw a steep erosion in 2022 as a global reserve currency. More likely, we will evolve from a unipolar reserve currency world to a multi-polar world. Here's what he said on a potential "tripolar" reserve currency setup if the dollar loses dominance. And here are the top stories from markets this week:Lauren Simmons, a trader at the New York Stock Exchange.

Bitcoin officially launched in 2009, and now, 14 years later, over 15,000 digital coins make up the cryptocurrency market, according to crypto.com. Although the industry was once valued at around $3 trillion, the crypto market lost a little over $2 trillion in value in 2022 in what has been dubbed "crypto winter." Last year, a string of high-profile crypto companies filed for bankruptcy, and FTX, a crypto exchange platform that was once valued at $32 billion, collapsed. As of April 25, its price hovered around $28,000, far below the $68,000 it reached at its peak in November 2021. Test your knowledge with CNBC Make It's Crypto 101 quiz.

☆ 31% of new crypto buyers influenced by friends. Here’s why that can be 'a horrible idea,' advisor says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

"I don't imagine friends are talking about when they lost money," said Lee Baker, a certified financial planner and founder of Apex Financial Services in Atlanta. "The sexy sells," added Baker, a member of CNBC's Advisor Council. On one hand, crypto can be an on-ramp to more traditional investing — which is generally a good outcome, Mottola said. There's some evidence of this happening: 36% of new crypto investors said their purchase made them more interested in investing in the stock market, the study found. However, "the friends recommending [crypto], the sources of information on social media, may not be reliable," Mottola said.

☆ This beaten-up bitcoin proxy should rebound 35% as the cryptocurrency reclaims the spotlight, Berenberg says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Bitcoin is back in a bull market by many accounts and is poised to continue its 2023 rally as the rest of crypto comes under regulatory scrutiny. Equity investors interested in riding bitcoin's current uptrend should consider buying shares of Microstrategy , the enterprise analytics firm and bitcoin proxy, according to Berenberg Capital Markets. Microstrategy offers "the most attractive means" through which investors can express a view on bitcoin, Palmer said, citing its correlation of 0.90 to the crypto asset for his stance. The mandates of many institutional investors preclude them from purchasing bitcoin directly. "MSTR's stock offers a leveraged means through which investors can take advantage of that event."

☆ Crypto winter is over — and bitcoin could hit $100,000 by the end of 2024, Standard Chartered says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Bitcoin's value could jump to as much as $100,000 by the end of 2024, Standard Chartered said in a note published Monday. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and other mid-tier U.S. lenders has solidified the case for bitcoin as a "decentralised, trustless and scarce digital asset," Standard Chartered analyst Geoff Kendrick said in the note. "We see potential for Bitcoin (BTC) to reach the USD 100,000 level by end-2024, as we believe the much-touted 'crypto winter' is finally over," Kendrick said in the report, titled "Bitcoin — Pathway to the USD 100,000 level." "Given these advantages, we think BTC's share of total digital assets market cap could move into the 50-60% range in the next few months (from around 45% currently)." The woes of Circle's USD Coin and other so-called stablecoins, which aim to achieve a 1-to-1 peg to the U.S. dollar, has also benefited bitcoin, Kendrick said.

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Top cryptocurrency bitcoin could reach $100,000 by the end of 2024, Standard Chartered (STAN.L) said on Monday, saying that the so-called "crypto winter" is over. "While sources of uncertainty remain, we think the pathway to the USD 100,000 level is becoming clearer," Kendrick wrote. Bitcoin has rallied so far this year, rising above $30,000 in April for the first time in ten months. It gains represent a partial recovery after trillions of dollars were wiped from the crypto sector in 2022, as central banks hiked interest rates and a string of crypto firms imploded. A Citi analyst said in November 2020 that bitcoin could climb as high as $318,000 by the end of 2022.

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.

☆ Signs of pain as easy cash era ends are growing
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

LONDON, March 30 (Reuters) - The easy-cash era is over and markets are feeling the pinch from the sharpest jump in interest rate in decades. Since late 2021, big developed economies including the United States, euro area and Australia have raised rates by almost 3,300 basis points collectively. Japanese, European and U.S. banks stocks, while off recent lows, are still well below levels seen just before SVB's collapse. Reuters Graphics2/ DARLINGS NO MOREAs the SVB collapse showed, stress in the tech sector can quickly ripple out across the economy. Reuters Graphics4/ CRYPTO WINTERHaving benefited from an influx of cash during the easy-money era, cryptocurrencies have felt pain as rates rose last year, then gained on recent signs that tightening could end soon.

☆ Meet Changpeng 'CZ' Zhao, the CEO of Binance, which is being sued by the CFTC over claims the exchange lacked 'basic compliance to prevent terrorist financing'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Marielle Descalsota | Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Changpeng Zhao is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. With a net worth of $16.4 billion as of November 9, he's the 87th-richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His real-time estimated net worth is a far cry from the peak of his personal wealth: His net worth peaked at $95.9 billion earlier this year, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows. Zhao founded Binance in 2017 and powered it to become the biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The exchange handles some $76 billion in daily trading volume, according to Protocol.

☆ Binance 'could be in big trouble' as the CFTC lawsuit alleges the crypto behemoth dodged regulators and breached laws
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-28 | by ( Zahra Tayeb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Binance is being blow-torched from all angles as US regulators close in on the world's largest crypto exchange. The CFTC sued the exchange this week for violating US financial laws, whilst some reports suggest Binance has engaged in secret fund transfers. On Monday, the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance and Zhao himself, for allegedly breaching US financial laws. Following the shocking implosion of Sam-Bankman Fried's FTX exchange late last year, concerns have risen whether Binance faces similar risks. If US authorities decide the links meant the crypto exchange had control over the US platform, it could expose the company to enforcement action.

Seoul/Atlanta CNN —Interpol says a man arrested in Montenegro is Kwon Do-hyeong, also known as Do Kwon, the disgraced founder of a collapsed crypto company who is wanted in South Korea and the United States on fraud and other charges. Kwon, a South Korean national, founded the blockchain platform behind the TerraUSD stablecoin and its sister coin Luna. Kwon’s identity was confirmed through a fingerprint match, Interpol’s national central bureau in Seoul told CNN on Friday. Seoul prosecutors told CNN in December that the crypto entrepreneur was believed to be in Serbia, where he was in hiding after leaving Singapore via Dubai. Kwon has been charged with fraud and breaches of South Korea’s capital markets law.

The retailer had been working to steer itself back to profitability, and got there in part by cutting costs. Selling, general and administrative expenses came in at $453.4 million for the quarter, or 20.4% of sales, compared to $538.9 million, or 23.9% of sales, in the year-earlier period. GameStop did not provide financial guidance and has not done so since the early days of the pandemic. For the quarter ended Jan. 28 , net sales dropped slightly to $2.23 billion from $2.25 billion in last year's fourth quarter. "GameStop is a much healthier business today than it was at the start of 2021," he said.

☆ Tether Becomes Unlikely Crypto Winner in Banking Crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Vicky Ge Huang | Caitlin Ostroff | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Turmoil in the dollar-backed cryptocurrency world has helped tether, the largest stablecoin, to increase its lead. So far this year, tether’s market cap has risen 10% to $73 billion while that of its chief rival, USD Coin, fell by more than 11% to $39 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. Binance USD has fallen by almost half to just over $8 billion.

☆ SVB collapse a sign of pain coming from end of easy-cash era
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

LONDON, March 10 (Reuters) - The easy-cash era is over and its impact is only just starting to felt by world markets yet to see the end of the sharpest interest rate hiking cycle in decades. European banks slid on Friday after JPMorgan (JPM.N) and BofA (BAC.N) shares fell over 5% on Thursday. BofA noted European banks' bond holdings have not grown since 2015. And with defaults rising, the focus is on the less visible private debt markets, which have ballooned to $1.4 trillion from $250 billion in 2010. Reuters Graphics5/FOR SALEReal estate markets started cracking last year and house prices will fall further this year.

☆ Crypto investors could be about to lose a big tax loophole as part of Biden's new budget proposal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Biden administration seeks a tax change on crypto transactions, The Wall Street Journal said. The change is part of Biden's 2024 budget proposal could raise $24 billion. Biden's 2024 budget proposal was slated for release on Thursday, and the president is targeting a cut of about $3 trillion to the US deficit in the next 10 years. The proposal comes after crypto prices tumbled last year amid the market's persistent "crypto winter." Bitcoin fell by more than 60% in 2022, and the broader crypto market's valuation fell below $1 trillion after reaching $3 trillion in 2021.

☆ Crypto's go-to bank collapsed. What now?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN —Yesterday, the financial world witnessed a classic run on the bank when Silvergate Capital, the go-to US lender for crypto companies, said it would wind down its operations and voluntarily liquidate. ICYMI: Silvergate was, for most of its existence, a traditional Southern California regional bank. In the same period, the global crypto industry has lost two-thirds of its value, falling from a $3 trillion market cap to $1 trillion. I’ve heard the “don’t blame crypto” argument a thousand times. And it was the same story nearly a year ago, when the Terra/Luna crash last spring wiped out billions overnight — don’t blame crypto; those were toxic algorithmic stablecoins, you can’t trust those.

☆ Wells Fargo says buy Signature Bank, the 'last game in Crypto-town'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

With the demise of Silvergate Bank, investors should turn their attention to New York-based Signature Bank ( SBNY ), which has a big opportunity to pick up business from the crypto market, according to Wells Fargo. Late Wednesday, Silvergate Capital said it would shut down Silvergate Bank, which had become the go-to bank for crypto businesses in the past few years as larger banks steered clear. Businesses still have Signature Bank, however. "Signature [is the] last game in crypto-town," said Wells Fargo equity analyst Jared Shaw, adding, "It's the only larger bank remaining with a functional on-ramp for institutional crypto investors. Wells Fargo has an overweight rating on Signature with a $185 price target, implying almost 95% upside from where shares traded Thursday afternoon.

☆ More pain for the crypto industry means a chance for startups to pivot
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

After an awful 2022 that saw one of the industry's high-profile figures implode, the crypto market is looking for a bounceback. McDermott laid out to Insider's Bianca Chan and Dakin Campbell how tough times for crypto startups mean more realistic valuations and, in some cases, a reevaluation of the business model. Once of the most common critiques I hear about crypto is "It's a solution looking for a problem." The most recent crypto winter could force startups to be a bit more pragmatic about the specific problem they are looking to address. "If you can solve fraud in crypto, you can solve fraud in basically any part of finance," Meier told Insider.

☆ Here's how a serial founder and former US diplomat raised $25 million to create a crypto superapp — and why it's gotten backing from investors like JetBlue and the Winklevoss twins
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Kresus, which is building a crypto superapp, has raised $25 million led by Liberty City Ventures. Traina's company, Kresus, has raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Liberty City Ventures, the company's first round of financing, to bring that vision of a crypto superapp to fruition. JetBlue Ventures, Craft Ventures, Franklin Templeton, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and Gemini cofounders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss also participated in the round. That track record helped win over Liberty City Ventures, whose portfolio includes the Web3 companies Animoca Brands, BlockApps, BitGo, and The Sandbox. James Lang, a managing director at Liberty City, told Insider that the quality of Kresus' team stood out among similar companies he'd reviewed.

☆ Why Silvergate’s post-FTX financial woes could spell trouble ahead for crypto
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Tanaya Macheel | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Further, the spillover into a traditional bank and its stock price could fuel regulators' arguments that crypto poses a systemic risk. The big problem in crypto is that to buy bitcoin, you eventually have to interact with the traditional banking system. Silvergate's crypto bet worked for the bank, particularly in bull markets. A big part of Silvergate's crypto banking efforts was the Silvergate Exchange Network, better known as SEN, a platform that institutions used to move money to crypto exchanges. Custodia is a Wyoming-chartered special purpose depository institution designed to bridge the crypto and traditional banking systems.

☆ The push for a bitcoin ETF is going to court. Here's what you need to know
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Jesse Pound | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The years-long push for an exchange traded fund that tracks bitcoin will finally get its day in court this week. Several different firms tried to bring a spot bitcoin ETF to market in the U.S. without success, but Grayscale Investments is taking it a step further for the future of its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) . The largest of those funds, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) , now has nearly $800 million in assets under management. Over the past year, the market price of a GBTC share has fallen by roughly 60%, according to Grayscale's website. Crypto winter The excitement around a bitcoin ETF has cooled considerably along with the prices for crypto markets in general.

☆ Revolut's 2022 revenues grew by 33% despite crypto winter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Stefania Spezzati | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"We have built a strong momentum," the 31-year-old executive said in an interview at Revolut's headquarters in London. Revolut will retain accounting firm BDO for the 2022 audit, it said. Revenues from its crypto business shrank in 2022 as the crypto-downturn hit the firm. In 2020, it made a loss of 223 million pounds, according to Revolut's accounts. The fintech company expects to publish its 2022 accounts by June, but it might take longer.

☆ How two high schoolers from Denmark built an NFT marketplace and secured funding through a DAO backed by Bessemer Venture Partners
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Bessemer Venture Partners has invested in the NFT marketplace OWND, which it found through its DAO. Better yet, this DAO had the backing of one of Silicon Valley's blue-chip venture firms, Bessemer Venture Partners. Bach Ryhl read all the crypto-related articles he could find on Medium and took a Web3 course on Udemy. Lunau Liechti, in particular, had been following the efforts of brands such as Nike and LVMH to launch NFT versions of their physical products. "We want to make it as easy to buy a Nike NFT as it is to buy a Nike sneaker online," Lunau Liechti said.

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