Only one of the following news items is real, but someday, all will sound equally comical. Headline, 1896: The owner of Wagoneer & Sons, a leading horse-drawn carriage maker, has announced the adoption of a new machine called the “internal combustion engine” to improve its manufacturing process. “Gas engines are powerful but dangerous,” the owner said. “We will use them to make better wagons. Headline, 1918: The American Association of Candle Makers has announced a new initiative to electrify its wax-making process. It believes that electricity is too dangerous to use for lighting but can be utilized to make cheaper candles. Headline, 1989: The United States postal service will adopt a new technology called “the internet” to speed up the sorting and delivery of letters and postcards. H...
A sequence of macro warnings coming out of the Goldman Sachs camp puts Bitcoin (BTC) at a risk of crashing to $12,000. Bitcoin in “bottom phase?” A team of Goldman Sachs economists led by Jan Hatzius raised their prediction for the speed of Federal Reserve benchmark rate hikes. They noted that the U.S. central bank would increase rates by 0.75% in September and 0.5% in November, up from their previous forecast of 0.5% and 0.25%, respectively. Fed’s rate-hike path has played a key role in determining Bitcoin’s price trends in 2022. The period of higher lending rates — from near zero to the 2.25-2.5% range now — has prompted investors to rotate out of riskier assets and seek shelter in safer alternatives like cash. Bitcoin has dropped by almost 60% year-to-date and is...
Crypto lending platform Celsius Network has an approximately $1.2 billion gap in its balance sheet, with most liabilities owed to its users. In addition, the firm has filed for bankruptcy protection, so its future looks bleak. Still, Celsius Network’s native utility token CEL has soared in valuation by over 4,100% in the last two months, reaching around $3.93 on Aug. 13 compared to its mid-June bottom of $0.093. In comparison, top coins Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) rallied 40% and 130% in the same period. CEL/USD daily price chart. Source: TradingView Takeover rumors behind CEL explosion? Technically, the price rally made CEL an excessively valued token in early August when its relative strength index (RSI) crossed above the 70 threshold. Takeover rumors appear to be behind CEL̵...
Celsius (CEL) has repaid a substantial amount of its outstanding debt to Maker (MKR) protocol since the beginning of the month, signaling that the troubled crypto lending platform was trying to stave off a complete collapse amid credible rumors of insolvency. Since July 1, Celsius has repaid $142.8 million worth of Dai (DAI) stablecoins across four separate transactions, according to data from DeFi Explorer. The crypto lender still has $82 million in outstanding debt owed to Maker. Out of $1.8 billion in lifetime investments, the firm’s losses currently stand at $667.2 million. With the loan repayments, Celsius’ liquidation price on its Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) loan has dropped to $4,966.99 Bitcoin (BTC). The liquidation price reportedly fell by nearly half since Celsius posted a...
Coinbase has long been considered an important bellwether of the cryptocurrency market. Last year, when the company was expanding its workforce, adding institutional clients and issuing stock, crypto prices were hitting record highs. Now, in the depths of crypto winter, Coinbase finds itself slashing a fifth of its workforce, losing retail trading volume and contending with downgrades of its credit and stock. This week’s Crypto Biz dissects Goldman Sachs’ latest downgrade of Coinbase and also looks at the latest developments surrounding Three Arrows Capital. Goldman Sachs downgrades Coinbase stock to ‘sell’ After a promising debut on the Nasdaq stock exchange in April 2021, it has been nothing but down for Coinbase shares. The company, which once had a fully diluted market capitalization o...
United States-based insurers are the most interested in cryptocurrency investment according to a Goldman Sachs global survey of 328 chief financial and chief investment officers regarding their firm’s asset allocations and portfolios. The investment banking giant recently released its annual global insurance investment survey, which included responses regarding cryptocurrencies for the first time, finding that 11% of U.S. insurance firms indicated either an interest in investing or a current investment in crypto. Speaking on the company’s Exchanges at Goldman Sachs podcast on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs global head of insurance asset management Mike Siegel said he was surprised to get any result: “We surveyed for the first time on crypto, which I thought would get no respondents, but I was surp...
Goldman Sachs, one of the leading investment banks in the United States is reportedly trying to onboard some of its derivatives products into FTX.US crypto derivatives offerings. Goldman Sachs has been in talks with FTX over regulatory and public listing help, and aims to expand into crypto derivatives offering by leveraging some of its own derivatives tools and services, reported Barron’s. FTX.US, the U.S. subsidiary of global cryptocurrency exchange FTX is currently seeking to offer brokerage services for its derivatives offerings. This would allow the crypto exchange to handle the collateral and margin requirements internally rather than depending on “futures commission merchants” (FCMs). FTX.US president Brett Harrison said: “We have multiple FCMs already committed to integrating ...
Elwood Technologies aims to invest in infrastructure rather as opposed to injecting funds into short-term initiatives The company’s latest funding pushed its valuation to $500 million Crypto trading software provider Elwood Technologies has secured a $70 million investment that pushed the company’s valuation to half a billion. According to a report published by Financial Times on May 15, Goldman Sachs and Barclays have teamed up to finance the crypto trading platform founded by British billionaire Alan Howard. The report detailed that venture capital firm Dawn Capital as well as the venture divisions of Germany’s Commerzbank and Galaxy Digital, also took part. The move comes as the crypto scene contends with the top 500 of leading digital assets losing over 50% in value as the crypto ...
Bitcoin (BTC) and the broader cryptocurrency market rallied on Thursday, as the total value of digital assets crossed $2 trillion for the first time in over three weeks amid signs of a clear shift in market sentiment — headlined by Goldman Sachs, no less. BTC printed an intraday high of $44,253, having gained more than 3% during the session, according to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has now recovered over 33% from its January low. The total crypto market cap has gained over 7% since Monday to reach nearly $2.1 trillion, according to Coingecko data. The market capitalization figure also reached $2 trillion on CoinMarketCap. While not bullish, Bitcoin’s Fear & Greed Index has escaped “extreme fear” and is n...
Here are the top headlines from the cryptocurrency space that you might have missed this week: Multinational bank Goldman Sachs wants to offer new OTC crypto options Goldman Sachs is now among several Wall Street banks looking to offer crypto options. The financial services and investment bank revealed this week it has intentions to soon start availing over-the-counter bilateral crypto options for enterprise clients. A recent report by Bloomberg, citing a person familiar with the matter, detailed that the American banking giant is looking to sink its claws deeper into cryptocurrencies. The news outlet said that the individual, who preferred to remain anonymous, observed that Goldman Sachs isn’t the only Wall Street bank exploring bilateral options. The said options enable crypt...