Web 3 News
A group of former FTX and Alameda Research employees has raised $17 million to build out a crypto exchange called Backpack, per Bloomberg
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is seeking a prison sentence of between 5¼ and 6½ years for overseeing a huge financial fraud at FTX and Alameda, per CNBC
Debtors’ attorneys in the bankruptcy case of FTX and Alameda said that “customers and creditors who can prove their losses are expected to get back all of their money”
SBF is due to be sentenced on March 28th
Coinbase COIN 0.00%↑ services went down during major price action in crypto markets this week
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said it was due to a large surge in traffic to their app and website
Gemini announced Earn Users can expect to receive 100% of their digital assets back in kind if the proposal from Genesis is approved in bankruptcy court
The expectation is that users will get 97% of assets back within 2 months, with the remaining amount received within the next 12 months
The Nigerian government is demanding $10 billion from Binance, citing the exchange profited from its "illegal transactions"
Blackrock BLK 0.00%↑ launched a spot BTC ETF in Brazil this week
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz to introduce legislation to restrict the Federal Reserve’s ability to create a CBDC
Cruz: “Congress must clarify that the Federal Reserve has no authority to implement a CBDC"
The IRS is hiring two former digital-asset executives, including one who worked at Binance’s U.S. unit, to help beef up its crypto expertise, per Bloomberg
The Texas Blockchain Council's lawsuit has successfully stopped the Biden administration from data collection on Bitcoin miners
The Government agreed to destroy the data already collected
Eight state AGs in U.S. challenge SEC's authority in Kraken lawsuit with joint amicus brief, per The Block
States include: Montana, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas
They “Oppose the SEC's regulation of crypto assets absent an investment contract because Congress hasn’t delegated this authority to the SEC” and "The SEC's enforcement action exceed its delegated powers"
Bitcoin has reached the highest price levels in $USD terms since November 2021
The all-time high was ~$69,000 in November 2021
At current Bitcoin prices, Satoshi Nakamoto is a top-30 wealthiest individual in the world (if they are an individual)
Satoshi would be #1 at a Bitcoin price ~$212,000
Bitcoin has reached all-time highs any many more countries/currencies this week including South Korea, India, China, South Africa, New Zealand, the Euro, and more
February 2024 ended with Bitcoin increasing just under $20k, which is the largest single $ gain in a month in Bitcoin history, and one of the highest % gains in Bitcoin history
The price went up 44%, which increased the market cap for more than $350 billion
Ark and 21Shares to disclose spot Bitcoin ETF reserves via an integration with Chainlink, per CoinDesk
Blackrock’s IBIT 0.00%↑ surpassed $10 billion in AUM this week, and was the fastest ETF to hit this mark ever
Spot BTC ETF trading volume hit $7.5 billion on 2/28, the largest for a single day so far
Bank of America’s BAC 0.00%↑ Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo WFC 0.00%↑ to offer Bitcoin ETFs to clients
Morgan Stanley MS 0.00%↑ officially filed to buy spot Bitcoin ETFs with 12 funds, per SEC filings
For the 7 day period of 2/24-3/1, 30,029 Bitcoin were purchased by spot BTC ETFs in the U.S., while only 6,160 new Bitcoin were mined
Michael Saylor announced that MicroStrategy MSTR 0.00%↑ acquired 3,000 Bitcoin for ~$155 million at an average cost of $51,813per BTC
MicroStrategy holds 193,000 BTC at an average cost of $31,544 per BTC
MicroStrategy ended this week at 52-week highs, and with a market cap that puts them in the top 500 largest U.S. companies by market cap
They are just outside the top 400 now
Michael Saylor at Bitcoin Atlantis this week: “We don't have enemies. What we have are people that need Bitcoin that don't yet know why they should be our friend."
Riot Platforms RIOT 0.00%↑ intend to triple their operations, aiming to mine more Bitcoin by year-end compared to its current output, even amidst the halving
Presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. on CNBC this week: “Transactional freedom is as important as freedom of speech, and you only get that from Bitcoin.”
Robinhood HOOD 0.00%↑ and ETH Layer-2 Arbitrum have team up to offer swaps to users, per CoinDesk
Ethereum Foundation: The Dencun network upgrade has successfully activated on all testnets
It is now set for deployment on the Ethereum mainnet and will activate on the network at epoch 269568, occurring on March 13, 2024
Most notably the introduction of ephemeral data blobs with EIP-4844, also known as "protodanksharding", which will help reduce L2 transaction fees
VanEck has launched NFT marketplace and digital assets platform called SegMint
Macroeconomic News
Chinese President Xi has called for the mass production of humanoid robots by 2025
Jack Ma’s Ant Group has outbid Citadel Securities for Credit Suisse’s China unit, per Bloomberg
Taiwan Semiconductor has opened their first Japanese factory as it diversifies away from Taiwan amid U.S.-China tensions, per CNBC
South Korea's birth rate, already one of the lowest in the world, has plunged by nearly 8% compared with last year to a new record low
Japan's population declined by a record 831,872 people in 2023
Sony Interactive Entertainment to cut global headcount by 8%
Disney DIS 0.00%↑ and Reliance Industries have signed a binding pact to merge their media operations in India, per Bloomberg
The U.S. used AI to identify targets hit by air strikes in the Middle East this month, per Bloomberg
The DOJ has launched an antitrust investigation into UnitedHealth UNH 0.00%↑, per WSJ
The SEC is investigating internal communications of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman "to determine if investors were misled"
This comes after the OpenAI board fired and then rehired Altman 2 weeks later in November
At the time, the board said Altman hadn't been "consistently candid in his communications”
The FTC sued to block the Kroger KR 0.00%↑ Albertsons ACI 0.00%↑ merger, arguing deal would raise grocery prices and hurt workers
Kroger and Albertsons had struck a deal to divest over 400 stores and other assets to try to overcome antitrust concerns
U.S. durable goods orders decrease by 6.1% in January, the largest monthly drop since April 2020
The second reading of U.S. Q4 2023 GDP comes in at 3.2%, below expectations of 3.3%
This would mean a $334.5 billion increase in nominal GDP
Over the same time period, the U.S. added $834.2 billion of debt
2.5x debt to GDP growth
January PCE inflation fell to 2.4%, in-line with expectations of 2.4%
Core PCE inflation fell to 2.8%, in-line with expectations of 2.8%
This is the lowest Core PCE inflation number since April 2021
U.S. continuing jobless claims: 1.905 million, 1.862 million previous
Consumer Confidence fell to 106.7 in February, missing expectations of 115.0
January consumer confidence was revised even lower from the initial reading
Consumer Confidence has fallen for 4 straight months
For the first time in 2024, the national average price of gasoline is above its year ago level, $3.333/gal is now 1.3c above a year ago, per GasBuddy
The Russell 2000 closed at its highest level since March 2022 this week
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 both closed at all-time highs this week
Super Micro SMCI 0.00%↑ and Deckers DECK 0.00%↑ will be replacing Whirlpool WHR 0.00%↑ and Zion Bancorporation ZION 0.00%↑ in the S&P 500 before the markets open on March 18th
The S&P 500 is statistically expensive on 19 of 20 metrics and is trading at a 95th percentile price to trailing earnings ratio based on data back to 1900, per BofA
Tim Buckley to step down as CEO of $7.2 trillion asset manager Vanguard
The delinquency rate among large banks has hit 3%, the highest in 11 years
The delinquency rate among small banks has hit 7.80%, the highest on record
New York Community Bank NYCB 0.00%↑ fell more than 25% in a day this week after disclosing "material weakness in internal controls”, and the CEO departing
Fitch downgraded them to a junk rating
Walmart’s WMT 0.00%↑ total store count dropped by 102 to 4,615 in January 2024 from 4,717 in January 2023
Walmart's average customer is a suburban baby boomer who spent $3,578 there last year, per BI
Starbucks SBUX 0.00%↑ has said it agreed with the union representing its workers to start talks on a framework to achieve collective-bargaining agreements and resolve lawsuits between the two sides, per Bloomberg
Wendy’s WEN 0.00%↑ is planning Uber-style “surge pricing” where burger prices fluctuate based on demand
After facing backlash online, Wendy’s appeared to retract some of their intentions
Northrop Grumman NOC 0.00%↑ to layoff around 1,000 employees in Southern California
Lockheed Martin LMT 0.00%↑ is looking to acquire spacecraft maker Terran Orbital LLAP 0.00%↑ for nearly $600 million, per CNBC
Boeing BA 0.00%↑ is in talks to buy Spirit AeroSystems SPR 0.00%↑, per WSJ
Expedia EXPE 0.00%↑ to layoff 1,500 employees (8% of workforce) primarily in their product and technology division
Bumble BMBL 0.00%↑ to layoff 350 employees
EA EA 0.00%↑ cutting 5% of its workforce, 670 employees per CNBC
Macy’s M 0.00%↑ announced that they will close roughly 30% of their stores (150) over next three years, will result in the total reduction of about 28,500 employees over this time frame
Best Buy BBY 0.00%↑ to eliminate ~2,500-3,500 employees, close an additional 10 to 15 locations
Apple AAPL 0.00%↑ is looking to expand its offering of wearable devices, per Bloomberg
Apple is cancelling their decade-long effort to build an electric car, per Bloomberg
Some employees will be laid off, others will shift focus to AI
Micron Technology MU 0.00%↑ has started mass production of its high-bandwidth memory semiconductors for use in Nvidia's NVDA 0.00%↑ latest chip for artificial intelligence, per Reuters
Nvidia is now the third largest company in the world by market cap, surpassing Saudi Aramco
Humanoid robot startup Figure AI valued at $2.6 billion as Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, and Nvidia join funding, per WSJ
Elon Musk has sued OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman for breach of contract, citing the company as no longer open source and non-profit
Musk: “Open AI has...transformed into a closed source defacto subsidiary of the largest technology company in the world...it is not just developing but refining AGI to maximize profits for Microsoft”
Payments company Stripe valued at $65 billion in an employee share sale, per WSJ
Stripe was valued at $50 billion nearly a year ago
Investors include Sequoia Capital and Goldman Sachs Growth Equity
Reddit is preparing to IPO this month and will target up to a $6.5 billion valuation, per WSJ
They are aiming for a starting price of $31-$34 per share in the IPO
Reddit will allow some employees to sell shares in the IPO
Honda will introduce a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle that can also be recharged, becoming the first Japanese automaker to bring the technology to market, per Bloomberg
Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ CEO Elon Musk said the company intends to start shipping its Roadster sports car next year, per WSJ
The SEC charged Lordstown Motors with fraud, alleging it misrepresented its order book and the timeline for delivering its flagship electric truck
Lordstown will pay $25.5 million in disgorgement
New car inventory hit its highest level since in February since June 2020, with 80 days of new car supply available
The average reserves at JPMorgan Chase JPM 0.00%↑, Bank of America BAC 0.00%↑, Wells Fargo WFC 0.00%↑, Citigroup C 0.00%↑, Goldman Sachs GS 0.00%↑, and Morgan Stanley MS 0.00%↑ have fallen from $1.60 to 90 cents for every dollar of commercial real estate debt on which a borrower is at least 30 days late, per FT
Home prices in America's 20 largest cities jumped 6.1% year-over-year in December, per Case-Shiller
This was the 11th straight monthly jump in home prices despite new all-time lows in housing affordability
The recent drop in rates from ~8% to ~7% has attracted some new buyers, but existing homeowners still have a financial disincentive to move
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home fell 10% for the week and were 13% lower than the same week a year ago, per CNBC
Disclosures:
I am not a financial advisor, and whatever I post should not be taken as financial advice. It is for education and entertainment purposes only. Anything I post does not constitute an offer to sell or trade, a solicitation to buy, or recommendation for any security, cryptocurrency, digital asset, or related product, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advice or other related services by myself or Minerva Digital Asset Education, LLC. I and/or Minerva Digital Asset Education, LLC may have a financial investment with the cryptocurrencies/digital assets discussed. In preparing the content created, no individual financial or investment needs of the viewer have been considered nor is any financial or investment advice being offered. Any views expressed in the posted content were prepared based upon the information available at the time such views were written. Changed, new, and/or additional information could cause such views to change.