There were no good spots for investors to hide yesterday amid a global market rout as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies joined the selloff.
Bitcoin, the largest digital currency, tumbled as much as 7 percent to its lowest since the middle of August, then pared its losses to 4.8 percent as of 9:30am in London, according to prices compiled by Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index slid by more than 11 percent, in a third day of losses. Rival coins Ether, XRP and Litecoin also retreated at least 10 percent.
“The global sell-off in equities has indeed spilled over to the crypto-space,” said Ryan Rabaglia, head of trading with cryptocurrency dealing firm OSL in Hong Kong. “The days of crypto being the safe-haven play and having a high degree of detachment from the rest of the world are seemingly diminishing.”
Increased institutional attention on the cryptocurrency space has led to greater correlation with traditional assets, although this trend is not expected to last, he said.
“With the 2018 low of [US]$5,800 being tested a number of times, our sights are set at that level for all further sell-offs,” Rabaglia said.
Cryptocurrencies have wiped out more than US$600 billion in value from a January peak as the boom in initial coin offerings last year fades further into memory.
Mainstream adoption of digital currencies has failed to materialize this year amid a series of exchange hacks and increased regulatory scrutiny.
“It is clear by now that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies represent the mother of all bubbles,” Nouriel Roubini, chairman at Roubini Macro Associates and a professor at NYU Stern School of Business, said in prepared testimony for a US Senate Banking Committee hearing on cryptocurrencies and blockchain scheduled for yesterday in Washington. “No asset class in human history has ever experienced such a rapid boom and total utter bust and implosion.”
Roubini wrote that the blockchain technology that underpins Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is “the most over-hyped and least useful technology in human history” and is “nothing better than a glorified spreadsheet or database.”
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
‘MAKE OR BREAK’: Nvidia shares remain down more than 9 percent, but investors are hoping CEO Jensen Huang’s speech can stave off fears that the sales boom is peaking Shares in Nvidia Corp’s Taiwanese suppliers mostly closed higher yesterday on hopes that the US artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer would showcase next-generation technologies at its annual AI conference slated to open later in the day. The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) in California is to feature developers, engineers, researchers, inventors and information technology professionals, and would focus on AI, computer graphics, data science, machine learning and autonomous machines. The event comes at a make-or-break moment for the firm, as it heads into the next few quarters, with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s (黃仁勳) keynote speech today seen as having the ability to
RSS