Free Republic

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Bitcoin hit a two-year high on Tuesday on signs of large players buying the cryptocurrency, while smaller rival ether topped $3,200 for the first time since 2022. Bitcoin has rallied more than 10% in two sessions, helped by a Monday disclosure from crypto investor and software firm MicroStrategy that it had recently purchased about 3,000 bitcoins for an outlay of $155 million. The original and largest cryptocurrency by market value has also been buoyed recently by the approval of bitcoin-owning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. On Monday, trading volumes in several of the funds spiked and...

SINGAPORE, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency bitcoin hit a two-year high above $57,000 in Asia trade on Tuesday on signs of heavy institutional buying, while smaller rival ether topped $3,200 for the first time in two years. Bitcoin has rallied more than 10% in two sessions, helped by a Monday disclosure from crypto investor and software firm MicroStrategy (MSTR.O), opens new tab that it had recently purchased about 3,000 bitcoins for an outlay of $155 million. The original and largest cryptocurrency by market value has also been buoyed recently by the approval of bitcoin-owning exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United...

Last week, Bitcoin broke the $52,000 mark, underscoring a double standard in the U.S. financial system. A gaggle of federal financial regulators largely known by their abbreviations (the FRB, FDIC, OCC, NCUA, SEC, FHFA, CFTC, CFPB and FSOC) and an array of regulators in each of the 50 states expend precious resources competing with one another to regulate every aspect and movement by banks. However, financial companies that are not banks but engage in bank-like activities — and make up most of the financial services market — are barely regulated when it comes to their financial health and strength. Bitcoin...

2024 has unfolded as a flourishing year for bitcoin’s valuation, as its market capitalization breezed past the $1 trillion milestone, positioning the cryptocurrency as the world’s tenth-largest asset by overall market valuation. This uptick in price has significantly boosted the net worth of Bitcoin’s mysterious creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, elevating the value of the inventor’s holdings by almost $9 billion within the last two months. Bitcoin Creator’s Wealth Reaches $51B, Stash of Bitcoin Climbs Nearly $9B Higher in 2024 It is believed that upon the inception of the Bitcoin network, its founder, Satoshi Nakamoto, also mined the digital currency, amassing between...

Kiyosaki mentioned in an X (formerly Twitter) post that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 by June 2024. However, he didn’t mention what will propel this massive price surge. The finance expert is known to be a huge advocate of the foremost crypto token and, at different times, given his opinion on its potential. Related Reading: $400 XRP Price Point: Analyst Breaks Down The Future Surge Date Before now, Kiyosaki, who authored the best-selling book ‘Rich Dad, Poor Dad,’ said that Bitcoin was going to rise to $150,000 and singled out the Spot Bitcoin ETFs as what would drive this parabolic move....

BitcoinBTC 0.0% and the wider crypto market have pulled off a dramatic recovery over the last year, with the bitcoin price up 100%, ethereum up 60% and XRPXRP 0.0% up 35%. In early 2021, the world's largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), flew past $50,000 per coin for the first time. After falling about 75% from its all-time high in the inflation-powered crisis of 2022, the cryptocurrency had a lot of ground to make up. But on Feb. 12, Bitcoin finally surged past $50,000 once again. The price of Bitcoin is rising at an incredible pace. As of this writing, it's...

On February 14, 2024, a significant development unfolded in the financial regulatory landscape as four leading financial associations—the Bank Policy Institute (BPI), the American Bankers Association (ABA), the Financial Services Forum (the Forum), and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)—jointly addressed a letter to Gary Gensler, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This letter represents a unified request from these influential bodies for the SEC to consider targeted modifications to Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 121 (SAB 121), a directive that has significantly impacted U.S. banking organizations’ ability to engage with digital assets since its issuance...

JPMorgan Chase and institutional investors BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors announced Thursday that they are quitting or, in the case of BlackRock, substantially scaling back involvement in a massive United Nations climate alliance formed to combat global warming through corporate sustainability agreements. In a statement, the New York-based JPMorgan Chase explained that it would exit the so-called Climate Action 100+ investor group because of the expansion of its in-house sustainability team and the establishment of its climate risk framework in recent years. BlackRock and State Street, which both manage trillions of dollars in assets, said the alliance's climate initiatives...

I imagine life can often feel pretty difficult for today’s high school students. On top of dealing with classic teenage drama like homework, hormones, pimples, parents, driving, dating, university selection, and more, students these days have to contend with a host of new challenges. They suffered long periods of brutal Covid lockdowns. Active shooter drills are a normal part of student life. And, of course, there’s the nonstop anxiety and peer pressure of social media. Plus, on top of everything else, students today have also been force-fed some pretty bizarre ideas. Classical literature, advanced mathematics, and hard sciences have taken...

"Demand for spot-bitcoin ETFs remains robust, with net inflows of $1.1 billion over the past week and $2.8 billion since their launch," he added. "On Friday alone, ETFs acquired 12,000 bitcoin, significantly outpacing the daily creation rate of approximately 900 new bitcoins."

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Wednesday approved the first U.S.-listed exchange traded funds (ETFs) to track bitcoin, its Chair Gary Gensler said, in a watershed for the world's largest cryptocurrency and the broader crypto industry. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 applications, including from BlackRock (BLK.N), Ark Investments/21Shares (ABTC.S), Fidelity, Invesco (IVZ.N) and VanEck, among others, according to a notice on its website. Some products are expected to begin trading as early as Thursday, kicking off a fierce competition for market share.

The SEC’s long-standing three-part mission—to protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitate capital formation—remains its touchstone. The core principles the agency has applied over the past 88 years to carry out this mission are timeless: requiring issuers raising capital to make full and fair disclosures to investors on a regular basis; placing heightened responsibilities on key market participants; and using SEC examination and enforcement resources to bolster those requirements and protect investors.

Alarm! In another episode of “Government Gone Wild” we see that total Federal debt just broke through the $34 trillion mark. Some context: US debt increased by… $1 trillion in the past 3 months $2 trillion in the past 6 months $4 trillion in the past 2 years $11 trillion in the past 4 years The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is flashing the alarm. Reckless spending in Washington DC by the administration and Congress is projected to drive US Debt to GDP to rise like the nuclear reactor in the film K-19: The Widowmaker. Today the crypto market flash-crashed this...

Critics are accusing the DOJ of sweeping additional charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried under the rug, after prosecutors said he would not face a second trial for campaign finance violations following his conviction last month. In a letter filed on Friday night in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the 'strong public interest' in a prompt resolution of the case outweighed the benefits of a second trial. In his letter to the court, US Attorney Damian Williams noted that prosecutors introduced evidence about all of the dropped charges during Bankman-Fried's monthlong first trial, where he was found guilty on...

The founder of FTX used executives as cut-outs for donations, prosecutors allege... That Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that recently filed for bankruptcy, was aggressively using campaign donations as part of a campaign to woo Washington toward his vision of cryptocurrency regulation was no secret — nor was it a secret that other FTX executives quickly became some of the country’s biggest political donors to both Republicans and Democrats, especially those who work on financial regulation. But a new federal criminal indictment alleges that things may have been even simpler than they...

As a deadline to approve a spot bitcoin ETF nears, the marketing war has begun as issuers seek to win a share of a market some experts say will be worth billions of dollars. On Monday, Bitwise Asset Management kicked off the race to market to potential investors by showing its first video advertisement on X (formerly Twitter) featuring Jonathan Goldsmith, who tells the audience, “You know what’s interesting these days, Bitcoin.” The dialogue is a reference to Goldsmith’s notable role as the “Most Interesting Man in the World” in commercials for Dos Equis beer. About a dozen firms have...

Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, pleaded guilty to money laundering violations, the government said on Tuesday, a stunning blow to the most powerful and influential figure in the global crypto industry. Binance itself also pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $4.3 billion in fines and restitution [and much, much more]

This chart tracks Gold vs Bitcoin performance from a $1 investment on 6 Oct 2009 when Bitcoin first had a market price.I humbly dedicate this chart to @PeterSchiff in honour of his tireless promotion of Bitcoin to his audience of gold bugs, we are forever grateful. In it for less than 14.1 Years? Here ya go... BTC PriceGold PriceTodays value from $1 investedBuy 1 yr ago$20930$1674Bitcoin: $1.67 | Gold: $1.19Buy 2 yrs ago$61490$1802Bitcoin: $0.57 | Gold: $1.10Buy 3 yrs ago$15550$1941Bitcoin: $2.25 | Gold: $1.02Buy 4 yrs ago$9357$1486Bitcoin: $3.74 | Gold: $1.34Buy 5 yrs ago$6455$1232Bitcoin: $5.43 | Gold: $1.61Buy 6 yrs...

Something intriguing is happening with bitcoin. What started as a series of perplexing data “inscriptions” containing classified files from the U.S. government has now been confirmed by Bitcoin Magazine as an ongoing effort to cement information in the public record beyond the reach of government censorship. An anonymous guardian of free speech has begun using bitcoin to republish all of the information originally published by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks back in 2010. Codenamed “Project Spartacus,” the operation seeks to take advantage of several inherent bitcoin attributes: (1) It utilizes bitcoin’s Ordinals protocol that allows users to add personalized data to units...

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a crypto licensing bill on Friday, set to take effect in July 2025. Considered California's answer to New York's "BitLicense," the Digital Financial Assets Law faced heavy industry criticism but was passed by the U.S. state's Assembly in September 2022. The law requires California's Department of Financial Protection (DFPI) and Innovation to create a regulatory framework for crypto. The framework includes a licensing regime and gives the department enforcement and rulemaking authority over the sector. The DFPI also gets an 18-month implementation period to ensure "the adopted regulatory framework can be thoughtfully tailored to address...