Signs of a widening embrace across the financial services industry sent bitcoin to new heights, with the cryptocurrency closing in on US$50,000 for the first time before falling back.
A week after Tesla announced its US$1.5 billion investment in bitcoin, the digital asset continues to make inroads into traditional finance, including news that an investment unit of Morgan Stanley is considering whether to bet on bitcoin. Canada also approved the first North American bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
And there is evidence that more companies are beginning to add services for cryptocurrencies — an asset class that is still lightly regulated and controversial among policymakers. On Thursday, BNY Mellon said it formed a new team that is developing a custody and administration platform for traditional and digital assets. Mastercard Inc has said it will begin allowing cardholders to transact in certain cryptocurrencies on its network.
The combination of luminaries like billionaire Elon Musk and powerhouse banks is adding fresh ammunition to bitcoin’s meteoric gains. The cryptocurrency neared US$50,000 in weekend trading before retreating. Prices are up 40 percent this month, and were at about US$46,800 as of 11am in Hong Kong yesterday.
“The key for bitcoin’s path higher is to win over more corporate endorsements,” Oanda Corp senior market analyst Edward Moya said. “Bitcoin is no stranger to massive weekend moves and the next several days could easily see some wild swings.”
There remains a fierce debate over whether bitcoin is a legitimate asset with any real purpose or value. The token has been derided for its role in money laundering and scams, and recently Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan, said he is getting rid of his bitcoin. A currency is never supposed to be more volatile than what you buy and sell with it, Taleb said on Twitter, adding that you cannot price goods in the cryptocurrency. “In that respect, it’s a failure (at least for now).”
Even so, the price trend has been up, and bitcoin stands as another example of the speculative excesses that are defining this bull market — along with penny stocks and cannabis companies.
There are hints that more Wall Street heavyweights could dip into the crypto market. In an interview with CNBC, JPMorgan Chase & Co co-president Daniel Pinto said that client demand is not there yet on bitcoin, but he’s certain that’ll change.
Bloomberg reported that Counterpoint Global, a unit of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, is exploring whether the cryptocurrency would be a suitable option for its investors, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Moving ahead with investments would require approval by the firm and regulators.
“With each major announcement like the one BNY Mellon made, other institutions are spurred to more rapid adoption and deployment of digital assets,” Patrick Campos, chief strategy officer at Securrency, a developer of blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology, said on Friday.
“Tesla’s recent announcement will embolden other large corporates and institutions to accept crypto as not just a worthy asset class, but perhaps even an essential one,” he said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS