37 Burst results for "Dubai"
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from ATTACK AGAINST CRYPTO! (The WORST Is Yet To Come)
"Hey, what's up, everyone. Welcome to Discover Crypto. My name is A .J. Wright's crypto. And I really don't want to talk about this, but I have to get into this because you guys need to know things are probably about to get pretty messy in crypto. I mean, it's already been, you know, with the SEC going after Binance and Coinbase and this going to security this don't give up. But my message here is that the coordinated attack against crypto, you know, Operation Choke Point 2 .0 is alive and well. And in fact, I think Coinbase and Binance was just the beginning. Just today, the head of cryptocurrency assets and cyber unit of the SEC, David Hirsch, issued a serious warning that, you know, Binance and Coinbase, that was just the beginning. In the near future, they are going to be coming after not only similar platforms, similar exchanges, but also DeFi. I mean, you know, basically, if they can't control it, they they want to destroy it. It's the American way. Crypto is straight up a threat to the legacy system and everybody knows it. And this is why they're coming after the next thing so hard. You know, they've been taking losses in court. You know, SEC didn't fare well against Ripple. They just got denied an emotion in the Binance case today. But it doesn't matter to them. It's just fuel to the fire to go after the next person with more intensity. It's like as long as there's negative headlines about crypto in the news, they are winning maybe in the court of public opinion. Not everyone that knows about crypto is well informed and watches videos like this. You know, there's just people that see it on the news and will never invest because all they've heard is bad things from the news. And this is hurting the cause. This is hurting mass adoption. And this is by design because they are scared to death of the implications of what could happen to the legacy system, the status quo and even the dollar. If crypto wins this war, this is personal to them. Their jobs are seriously on the line here. And this is why exchanges like KuCoin, like BitGet, you know, remove themselves from the American equation because they wanted to stay out of hot water. I mean, can you blame them? I mean, you know, the spiel crypto is a threat to national security. Crypto is rife with fraudsters and hucksters. Answer me this. Everybody answer me this. Who uses the word hucksters? And also answer me this. Does the S is the SEC doing this because they really want to protect investors? Or is the SEC doing this to protect the American dollar? I mean, with the rise of the BRICS nations, the American dollar is becoming less and less relevant on the global scale with every passing day when money goes in the crypto that it goes away from the dollar, away from the fiat system. I mean, right now, we're 33 trillion dollars in debt. And because, you know, we keep hiking up the interest rates, that money just gets more and more expensive to pay back over time. And it's exponentially more expensive because the interest rates are hyped. It is evident, it is evident that our government is terrified of losing the crown of having the world reserve currency. I mean, if America loses the world reserve currency, I don't even know what that looks like. And this is why they are spending millions of taxpayer dollars every day to attack crypto. It goes against the legacy system. It goes against the status quo. But you know, it's not all bad. Like there is, you know, as this story came out, Hester Piris is still in the back telling crypto firms to not give up the fight, to keep fighting back because people like Hester Piris, they see the silver lining. She sees what is possible with crypto and how it can help in more ways than one. Elizabeth Warren, Gary Gensler, David Hurst, they don't want to see that. They are focused on keeping things the way they are. And the only thing that matters to them is power. And let's not forget that. I mean, why do you think crypto is such a hot topic right now? It's a hot button issue, especially at the polls with the upcoming election. They are on purpose politicizing crypto. You know why they're politicizing it? Because politics are polarizing. Politics turn family members against family members. Politics make friends stop being friends. They want to fuel that fire and make people think, oh, if you're one of those crypto people, I can't talk to you. Cancel culture. Like they're going to mix that in. I mean, they've mixed financial disparity in with crypto. They've mixed race in with crypto. They are trying to, you know, equate crypto to other hot topic, hot button issues to polarize people against each other. This is what they do. And this is why the SEC is going to keep coming after similar firms like Coinbase, like Binance and every firm under them. DeFi, they're going to do this. So negative crypto story stay in the headlines. It's that simple. And New York is leading the way. Like the green list for New York was pretty bad, but at least there were some coins on there. Now, just after the news that just came out, there's Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a bunch of stable coins. That's all you can get into if you are in New York. They just recently dropped over two dozen coins, including Litecoin, Dogecoin, and guess who? Ripple. Even though Ripple was deemed not a security in court on the secondary market, New York still dropped it. You know, it's kind of like they're on the same team as Gary. It's kind of like they're on the same agenda that wants to keep negative crypto stories in the news. It's like they're a part of Operation Chokepoint 2 .0 because they are. New York is leading the way with the regulation. New York has always led the way with financial regulations like they have in the past for the past however many years. It's been like this forever. And the thing is, is like, let's think about this. Let's really think about this. Do you think New York is doing this to protect investors or do you think New York is doing this to protect Wall Street? I mean, we all know the answer. It's pretty cut and dry to me. And at the end of the day, you know what this tells me? You know what this tells me? This tells me how powerful crypto really is. If crypto wasn't a threat to them, they would not be spending the taxpayer money that they're spending to go this hard in the paint against crypto assets. It is that cut and dry. We are on the precipice of cutting edge technology that could change the financial future for our kids and our grandkids and everything after that. And we are literally standing at the turning point. And we are, you know, this is a very, we're going to look back at 20 years and think like, wow, we didn't even realize what time we were living in. This is the turning point between which direction America is going to go. We've seen examples like how Singapore and how other countries like that are positively like Dubai, positively, you know, growing crypto. But you know, they're incentivized to do it. They want to grow the economy. It's like America wants to keep the world reserve currency, but they're cutting their own foot off by not adopting crypto out of fear of losing the world reserve. I mean, obviously you can see that I could heat it up about this. I'm very passionate about this, but listen, I don't want to talk in circles, but I want to know down below in the comments, if the SEC gets their way, what does that look like? What does crypto in America look like? If the SEC gets their way, I want to read what you think down below in the comments below, and have yourself a great day. Get season tickets at brewers .com slash post season.
BTV Simulcast
Fresh update on "dubai" discussed on BTV Simulcast
"Of global free trade. on However the other side we also acknowledge that first of all it is extremely positive that the United States launches a program of several hundred billion dollars that will help progress the cause of decarbonizing our economy and achieving climate neutrality and therefore putting their money where their mouth is right just like Europe is doing and if I compare the economic size of the United States of America and the European Union and if I compare the amount that the United States of America is spending to progress that aim through direct support fiscal of different industries it's not like the sheer size the size of what the US is doing is larger than what the European Union is doing. I mean this year alone Germany is passed we just passed the budget where Germany next year will invest 112 billion euros into the decarbonization of our economy through support to citizens through support to companies through projects which is pretty similar to what in principle the US is doing on the Inflation Reduction Act. So In that sense, given that we have the fiscal power and the fiscal willingness to do similar things in size as the US with the Inflation Reduction Act and as I said qualitatively it's not that different I think we shouldn't be too nervous about what the US is doing with the Inflation Reduction Act. I think Europe has to wake up in a sense to the policy design that the Inflation Reduction Act is making instead of the European approach. Thank I'm Jeremy Chance, Olaf Scholz, Chief Economic Advisor speaking at an Atlantic Council forum in Berlin. Let's Now have a look at some of the other geopolitical stories we're watching. The People's Liberation Army's urged Chinese military personnel to be careful about who they associate with. The state -run PLA daily says cadres should purify their social circle warning that some leaders have been removed after socializing with the wrong people. The commentary follows the removal of Qing Gang as a foreign minister in late July. And also Defence Minister Mr. Lishang Shangfu's disappearance from a public view. Armenia slammed the lack of support from regional allies and security blocks in its conflict with the neighbouring Azerbaijan. The Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said in a televised address his country is no longer being protected by allies without directly naming Russia. It remarks coming days after Moscow decided not to intervene in Azerbaijan's military operation. to take control of the disputed Nagorno -Karabakh region. A top confident of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he thinks a landmark deal which would normalize relations with Saudi Arabia will be agreed on within a few months. Bloomberg's Abir Abu Omar is in Dubai and what did we learn from the Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister? Good morning Grish so yes this is Ron Dermer who is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Minister of Strategic Affairs and he said in an interview that we had earlier that listen this deal with Saudi Arabia between Israel and Saudi Arabia is very close to happening he said within months he said either by the end of this year or shortly after the end of this year. Now this comes after the interview Benjamin Salman had with Fox News last week where he said every day we're getting to normalizing deals with Israel but the this deal is hinging on a couple of things that Saudi Arabia is asking of Washington those include security pacts those include possibly uranium enrichment program but but the Israeli confidant of Benjamin Netanyahu who said that listen we're aligned with the US on this we know that this is what Saudi Arabia want but that deal is still close to happening. Now at the same time we've got Washington really going to put pressure on its allies in the Gulf here to actually be it to on actually cooperate Yemen. What's this really all about? Yes so again this is an interview that we had with the special envoy to Yemen Tim Lenderking who said that listen this war has been going on for six seven years now it needs to end there seems to be some genuine allies effort from of the US in the Gulf to see this war ending those are Saudi Arabia and the UAE we did report earlier that there's a rift happening between those two countries that is sort of standing in the way of the Yemeni war ending but talks are still happening the US is still in talks with its allies Saudi Arabia and the UAE to see some kind of deal happening between the rivaling group that they're both supporting in Yemen so this is what we have you know we've we've seen some genuine effort over the past couple years to stop this war from the UAE and from Saudi Arabia but now it looks like it might actually materialize thank you so much for that they've got a lot more still to come on the program and just taking look a at look some of those stories making headlines and also look at the markets head of the European in open this is the would you say it's more important to gather information fast or to have it first or to be the most accurate they can really needle when it comes to programs is the level of support you get from companies what if you don't have to choose it also has enormous importance for the labor market how do they get ahead of different corporations we see this move towards digital currencies Bloomberg Radio the Bloomberg Business App and bird radio .com Bloomberg the world is listening we used to take our freedom of movement
Crypto Curious
A highlight from 96 - Token2049 Highlights, Binance's SEC Showdown, Yuga Labs Update & Friend.tech on roids!!
"One of the big questions is - What is money? For practical purposes, it exists in a series of heterogeneous databases, very different databases. Do you believe in crypto? Digital currency may be an answer, but it is a highly respectable disaster. I'd go on Bitcoin. There is no second best. Welcome to the Crypto Curious podcast, proudly brought to you by the Bamboo app. Crypto Curious is your go -to source for all things cryptocurrency. Whether you're a seasoned pro or new to the world of crypto, we've got you covered. Each week, we'll break down the top news stories of the past seven days, giving you the information you need to stay on top of the latest trends and developments. Plus, we'll share quick bites of news and insights that you won't want to miss. If you're new to crypto, we recommend starting in our early episodes, where we break down the basics and give you a solid foundation to understand the crypto world. Join us as we explore the ever -evolving world of cryptocurrency and educate ourselves along the way. On today's episode, we'll give you a complete rundown on the token 2049 event that Blake and I attended in Singapore last week. Sneak peek, it was pretty amazing. Then we'll get into a number of big stories over the past few weeks, including Yuga Labs producing a movie, Binance are in hot water again, the Friend Tech field day, and we can't miss out on more FTX shenanigans. So stay tuned. My name's Tracey, and I'm joined by my pals, Blake and Craig, as we catch up on the crypto news. Hey guys, how are you going? Very well, Trace. Back in the swing of things this week. How are you? Yeah, good. After a week off. Did you miss us, Craig? Yeah, sure. No. That convincing. was I got an extreme FOMO from the group chat photos that you were sending and the talks that you guys went to that looked like a lot of fun, and I wish I went, but maybe next year. Yeah, definitely. Definitely next year. Maybe we should just dive straight in then and talk all about the token 2049 conference, which is the largest annual digital asset events in Asia and Europe. And this year it was bringing together the leading voices and the most sensational projects in Web3. And we did. We had an awesome time. Singapore is amazing. It was my first trip to Singapore. And Blake, give us your initial impressions and what you loved about the event. Yeah, so this is probably the biggest crypto conference in Asia, really. And I think about 10 ,000 people came to the main event itself, but then there were also about 400 side events, more than you could pick, or even too many, too many, really. And really, I think it's an industry focused event. You know, there weren't that many retail investors coming along. Tickets were priced accordingly. And yeah, it was an incredible event. They brought the who's who of the crypto industry to speak, talk about where the other projects are at and what the future looks like, the state of regulation and where we are in the market cycle. And it was fascinating to be there learning and hearing about how everyone else in the industry is thinking. And there was certainly no indication of us being in a bear market. My God, no, it was money, wasn't it? It was out of control. You know, the big exchanges were, were splashing cash around. The Formula One was on at the same time. So lots of people added a bit of excitement, didn't it? Yeah, we're coming over for that. And yeah, we could probably, you know, maybe give us your high level thoughts, Trace, and then we can get into a couple of the interesting things that we learned. Yeah, look, I think it was a really vibrant atmosphere. There were some excellent speakers. I was impressed with the setup. And the event ran really smoothly trying to get 10 ,000 people in over two days. You know, you'd expect a few hiccups, but there wasn't. I thought it was pretty, it was pretty well done. You know, there was a real big emphasis on, on building. And like you said, you certainly didn't feel like you were in a bear market at all. There was just money being splashed everywhere. Lots of giveaways, you know, certainly went trying to get a bit of merch to make Craig feel jealous. Definitely got a few to pop into the chat. What about the talks, guys? Like, which one was your most impressive project, most impressive person that you saw? Yeah, there's a couple that really stood out for me. Firstly, there was a talk on stablecoins, looking at the data and the adoption rate. What was really interesting is that you're even through this bear market, the stablecoin adoption rate has is increasing as you know, the crypto prices go down and less activity happens on chain and on exchanges. And this is really pointing towards the utility of stablecoins and what they're going to mean for the future. And importantly, what was recognised in that talk was that in the US, US -based stablecoins are being used less and less and offshore and algorithmic stablecoins are being used more and more. And this is really because of the regulatory pressure in the US market. People don't want to interact with US businesses, essentially. And, you know, probably the second most interesting talk that I saw was, you know, the founders Yeah, that was my favourite. Yeah, that was interesting. I didn't think I'd love it as much as I did. But I think me and you both sat there and was like, this is really interesting. Yeah, we had the founder of Polygon, the founder of Arbitrum and the founder of ZK Sync. You can see that the ZK Sync group, probably the most technologically advanced and that's a scaling solution that uses zero knowledge protocols on top of Ethereum. And yeah, definitely the most advanced, you know, scaling solution on top of Ethereum. Secondly, your Arbitrum is very focused on research and creating a really great product that anybody could use. And of course, Polygon's focus is on business development and getting adoption from web two companies. So coming at it from three very different angles there, but all for the same purpose of increasing adoption and scalability of the layer ones. I really like that layer two talk, but much like a music festival, you had to pick who you wanted to see because they're all overlapping. There was, you know, there was a main stage upstairs, another one downstairs. There's a few different talks. I ended up stumbling into the Neo founder, do his chat, which was really interesting. I quite liked that one. And for everyone's information, Neo is a layer one blockchain that was founded in China, very much focused on, you know, being an Eastern kind of competitor to Ethereum or so on. You guys remember the Chinese Ethereum narrative and it pumped Neo like 200X? Been around for a long time. Yeah. So you just kind of, but there was a lot of stans, a lot of people, you know, shilling a lot of different things and, you know, you could kind of get lost there for a while. There was a strong push for mainstream adoption through Web3 and gaming. And I think that was on a lot of panel discussions and a lot of side events were also pushing that. I know Animoca Brands had a lot of big events as well. So I think that was a big focus also. I think we didn't get to see him, but Robbie from Immutable was over there speaking as well. Now, was there one project that you didn't hear of that sort of came across a token at the conference? Like, was there a project that you put into your watch list? Not really. Just the big dogs just reinforcing there. Yeah. Just talking about where the innovation is moving, you know. And one thing that really stood out to me is that, you know, the regulation conversation just isn't that prominent in Asia because the regulation in Asia, the regulation in Asia, there's no issues. And, you know, I think that we can easily have a US -centric point of view sometimes. But in Asia, they're ready to do business there. You know, there's lots of investment happening. There's lots of deals happening. There's lots of growth happening. And some of those stories we'll talk about in today's episode. All in all, the event was memorable one for us and worth attending for our team. And it really did reinforce, you know, our love for the industry and just how far we have all come. And so if anyone's referenced token 2049, the next event will happen in Dubai in early 2024, in April, I believe. So you can check that one out. In April? That's only like six months away. I know. I did say to Blake that I thought that was quite soon. I think they have multiple events. You know, they have them in different regions. There you go. Well, I'll go to that one for the crypto curious community. I'll fly the flag. Cheers. Now, folks, we're going to mix it up a little bit this week, and we're going to cut out our short, sharp news bites at the end, and we're going to go to a few biggest stories because, as you know, we missed our show last week. So we're going to cover off a few biggest stories, starting with Franklin Templeton, a large asset manager who has joined the race for the holy grail, the Spot Bitcoin ETF. As we've previously reported, the aim of many of these leading institutions applying for ETF is to attract large institutional investors, which could potentially bring trillions of dollars into the crypto industry. So Franklin Templeton's ETF will be based on a mix of crypto exchange Bitcoin prices to deter price manipulation. So just another big boy entering the space and solidifying the general thesis that it is inevitable that this Bitcoin Spot ETF will happen. There you go, boys. What else are we going to catch on that's happened in the last few weeks, Craig? Yeah. So last week Vitalik, the Ethereum founder, he had his Twitter or X account hacked, and he shared a malicious link, and it actually led to just under $700 ,000 that was drained from people's wallet. So it was just a scam. People connected their wallet, got drained. But it was coming from his official Twitter. Right. Okay. This was due to a SimSwap attack. Right. These big dogs, even they get hacked. So stay on it. Stay safe, everybody. Yeah, we had that story a couple of weeks ago where your people's private keys were being stolen from their password manager, which had a vulnerability. So even when you're doing best practice activities, you know, sometimes you're still not safe. Can't trust anything. All right. Next up, we have a story that came out on the 13th of September. So received FTX approval from the US bankruptcy court to sell and hedge its crypto holdings valued at $3 .4 billion. That's a lot of bloody crypto. This is when everyone was freaking out about where they were going to drop their salon. Yep. Yeah. So we talked about Galaxy Digital was engaged to help, which is a big crypto focused asset manager to help the liquidators or the administrators sell down these assets. So what they have is $1 .16 billion worth of Solana and they have $560 million in Bitcoin and the rest in other tokens. So, you know, this is a little bit concerning. I think the Bitcoin market could probably absorb, you know, the sell down of $560 million of Bitcoin over, you know, a period of time. But what's the market cap, Craig, of Solana? Well, Solana is still, you know, in the billions. Let me just fact check. They can't sell all the Solana at once or it's going to be $9 .2 million of Solana released for them to sell every month, which I think is fine. So not all the Solana will be dumped in the market, but they have an $8 billion market cap. Yeah. And Solana did take a bit of a dump. I think it dumped around 5 % off this news. It's about 20 % of 15 to 20 % of Solana's market cap. But if they're smart, they're going to do this strategically over time anyway. Yeah, well, the three biggest holdings are Solana, Bitcoin and Ethereum. And then the other ones I've got is APT, Updos, Doge, Tron, Matic, Ripple and BNB. Very minuscule amount of BNB. So, yeah, this caused a bit of a shakeout, didn't it guys? Yeah. But, you know, I'm sure that they'll work on a strategy to release those tokens back into the market over time. I will potentially suppress price, but, you know, hopefully not for too long. Next one. This has happened over the last four or five days. The SEC has gone after the Stoner Cats project. I remember this one from a few years ago and mainly for its connection with Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher because it was, you could buy the rights to, it was a TV show, a cartoon Stoner Cats show. I think they only produced a couple of episodes and Mila and Ashton were the voices of the Cats. I think Jane Fonda was also one of the voices. So the SEC has charged a project for conducting an unregistered NFT offering that raised $8 million and one of the arguments the SEC used was that the entire, the entity promoted the potential for its NFT prices to increase in the secondary market, similar to all NFTs. So Stoner Cats agreed to pay a $1 million penalty and to destroy all NFTs in its possession, but they did not have to admit that it was guilty of the charges. So setting precedent there, so I'm not sure if that was the best way to go for them. And the SEC, you know, are really going for different projects at the moment. This wasn't the first one in recent weeks. So one to watch here, I know Elliot from our marketing team, who you guys see sometimes on our Instagram page, sent an article around talking about the SEC going after NFT projects and Guy from the Coin Bureau also made a big statement about it recently that he's slightly concerned. What are your thoughts, Blake? Well, I think there's a big lesson here. Don't sell cryptographic assets to Americans. Stay the hell away and you'll be fine.
This Week
Fresh update on "dubai" discussed on This Week
"% of our cases settle prior to hearings adr .org resolve my simple solution to the problem was remove people from the scene and and help help them feel safer in response to attacks against Asian Americans Maddie Park raised over $50 ,000 to donate cab rides to the Asian community there is so much more work to be done. We really to need come together and tackle this issue as a community support the Asian community learn learn how at love has no labels dot com brought to you by love has no labels and the ad council. This is Bloomberg Daybreak weekend our global look ahead at the top stories for investors in the coming week I'm Tom Busby in New York up later in our program we preview the second Republican presidential debate minus Donald Trump but first the World Aviation Festival is billed as one of the biggest biggest annual events for the industry and it's taking place this week in Lisbon for more let's head to London bring in Bloomberg Daybreak Europe anchor Caroline Hepker Tom global aviation faces quite a few passengers soaring crude oil prices at a time when airfares are already high labor costs squeezing profit margins a sluggish supply chain and growing emphasis on the environmental impact of the industry now I discussed some of these with Bloomberg's aerospace reporter Kate Duffy she has the lucky job of reporting from Lisbon in the next few days on the plans from commercial airlines means airports and all the other businesses that supply and support them including more than a hundred ups I began by asking her who she thinks is going to be attending the World Aviation Festival there'll be a whole host of attendees at the World Aviation Festival this year from major airlines airports suppliers and other aviation groups really so the biggest names from airlines are Emirates CEO Tim Clark, IAG CEO Louis Gallego and Ryanair's Eddie Wilson and but a range of other airlines are also attending well -known names including easyjet British pathways tap and the new riad air I've also counted around 30 airports across the world older on the list speaking on panels and roundtables and then there are the suppliers the data providers travel agents and other aviation groups speaking and attending so I'm expecting acting some good debates to come up over the two days on there there's a lot moving for the industry what do you think the focus is be going to this year so looking at the agenda many airlines will be discussing the hurdles they've faced over the past year and also how they're looking to overcome those future challenges for example tap CEO Rodriguez has an interview with Bloomberg Sky Johnson about difficulties and re -emerging stronger and there's also a panel on foreseeable headwinds for aviation in 2024 and it's worth mentioning also that it's not long before the Dubai air show kicks off and accepts like Tim Clark may give an insight into what we can expect further down the line of course sustainability and the environment with the scaling up of sustainable aviation fuel will play a part as well as supply chain challenges post Covid recovery demand now heading into the winter and of course air traffic control disruption which we've seen a lot of this summer yeah what do you think the biggest issues though are going to be when it comes to the actions you mentioned a few of them that have really rattled the industry and we haven't even touched on the supply chain overhang yeah for many airlines the air traffic control disruption and strikes in Europe were a massive frustration as they caused deletions and delays and not a good look when you're stranding you know passengers around the world too and the recent technical failure at nats in the uk sent airlines into turmoil and it took them days companies to recover which some bosses like Ryan Ayers, Michael O 'Leary and EasyJet CEO have really criticized so I think some of the discussions will be on how the industry can and should avoid these problems in the future and whether the ramping up hiring or installing better tech systems is the way forward and as you mentioned another issue which widespread is across the aviation industry at the moment is this sluggish supply chain backlog you know manufacturers are lacking spare parts for aircraft and therefore airlines are having to wait much to longer fill up their fleets and it's frustrating for those airlines which are now having to deal with some the of recently discovered engine issues that require some engines to be removed and those are the Pratt and Whitney engines over the next three years so there will be concern about the demand and as well for the for the next travel season you know summer was a blowout airlines for with many reporting better than expected results but the next focus is on how they can sustain the demand in this winter in this winter season yeah especially as oil prices are going up and see that has a huge impact on the industry yeah oil is the single biggest expense for an airline so many have struggled to cope with the high oil prices recently you know some u .s carriers slashed their profit outlooks for the third quarter they blamed one one of of the factors on on being a jump in oil prices but when oil prices jump so does inflation and this means that the costs can be passed on to the customers and at a time of the cost of living crisis you know it's taking a toll with mortgages groceries and energy prices and more price -conscious passengers might be thinking twice about spending on a lavish holiday or a plane ticket abroad so it's clear oil volatility is a big pressure point aviation in at the moment as the outlook for travel post summer remains quite uncertain yeah what is the passenger experience then out of all of this what has it been like for travelers recently is it the end of kind of revenge travel that we saw post the pandemic yeah so covid 19 posed it's a huge challenge for airlines and of course passengers were severely disrupted by this and this year has been probably just as bad with the air traffic control disruption and strikes that we've seen in terms of revenge travel there is this sense that passengers are spending you know maybe more on on some passengers spending more on luxury tickets but there is a concern about whether price hikes will will happen further and whether this will put customers off in the future from buying plane tickets yeah technology wise then this event has all the suppliers so what sort of things do you think they're going to be demonstrating or discussing as the kind of solutions for for the industry there's lots on airport technology how to make the passenger experience more seamless lots on customer experience AI just making the process for passengers more smooth when flying and cutting out the old -fashioned manual ways of doing things we've sometimes seen this go wrong in the past some airlines have trouble with their apps you know passengers have to complain on social media about the accessibility of an airline's app so there seems like there will be panels on how the industry can make the digital side more for the passengers and there'll be lots of airport leaders there as well I mean about sixty percent of the festival is made up of sort of European players but also quite a lot from the Middle East and the rest of the world there will be airports represented Dubai Hong Kong Winnipeg they're all speaking at the event what sorts of things do you think they're going to be thinking about? so from what the agenda says airports will be discussing how to make their operations more digital how to improve the airport experience for passengers through tech and sustainability some airports have have had a rough ride this summer whether having to cater for passengers who've experienced delays and installations or having to deal with natural flooding disasters extreme weather events others such as Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport have struggled with handling luggage and that's led to a lot of passengers not getting their bags on time so I think how airports are going to go forward with the tech and help passengers make their travel more smooth is what is going to be discussed at the festival yeah that was Bloomberg's aerospace reporter Kate Duffy talking to me ahead of the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon she'll be there along with Bloomberg TV's Guy Johnson I'm Caroline Hepker here in London you can catch us every weekday morning for Bloomberg Daybreak Europe beginning at 6 a .m. in London that's 1 a .m. on Wall Street Tom our thanks to Bloomberg Daybreak Europe banker Caroline Hepker and coming up on Bloomberg Daybreak weekend the second Republican presidential candidates debate takes place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California and we will get a preview with Bloomberg's Kaylee lines I'm Tom Busby and global market news changes in an instant so don't miss a minute listen to Bloomberg Radio anytime anywhere around the world on the iHeartRadio app tune in the Bloomberg business app and bloomberg .com this is a Bloomberg money minute tick talk may be getting more than it's bargaining for as the social media and e -commerce giant gets ready to offer holiday bargains on its new tick tock shop app will be banning tick tock former vice president Mike Pence among those eyeing tick tocks US activities tick tock is a platform of
Crypto News Alerts | Daily Bitcoin (BTC) & Cryptocurrency News
A highlight from 1406: Bitcoin Will Hit $4 Million, Rising 100x - Peter Thiel
"In today's show, we'll be discussing Bitcoin Bollinger Bands hitting a key zone as Bitcoin price fights for $27 ,000. In breaking news just in, Bitcoin hash rate hits a new all -time high. Let's go. And quoting Stacey Herbert, Bitcoin is pumping on the news of President Bukele's speech to the UN tonight. Can't wait. We'll also be discussing Bitcoin Adoption Fund launched by Japan's $500 billion Nomura Bank. That's right. The Bitcoin Adoption Fund will have long -only exposure to Bitcoin and be available to institutional investors. We'll also be sharing Sam Bankman, Fried's father, dragged his mother into an FTX US salary dispute. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Also in today's show, Bitcoin gearing up for a post -having parabola, according to crypto analysts. I'll be sharing his very bullish all -time high target. We'll also be discussing crypto asset market cap should explode 5 to 10x during the next bull cycle, according to investor Raoul Pal. I'll also be sharing Peter Thiel's $4 million Bitcoin price prediction, and we'll also be taking a look at the overall crypto market. All this plus so much more in today's show. Yo, what's good crypto fam? This is first and foremost, a video show. So if you want the full premium experience with video, visit my YouTube channel at cryptonewsalerts .net. Again, that's cryptonewsalerts .net. Welcome everyone just joining us. This is pod episode number 1406. I'm your host JV. And today is September 19th, 2023. We have lots to cover as usual. Massive shout out to everyone today in the live chat. Please let me know where you're tuning in from. And at the end of the show, I'm going to be reading everyone's comments out loud. Let's kick off today's show with our market watch as we do each and every day, the entire crypto market back in the green with Bitcoin back above $27 ,100 and checking out coinmarketcap .com, the current crypto market cap on the climb at $1 .08 trillion with roughly $27 billion in volume for the past 24 hours, Bitcoin dominance at 49 .2 % and the Ether dominance at 18 .4%. And checking out the top 100 crypto gainers of the past 24 hours, we have TonCoin leading the pack up 5%, trading at $2 .57, followed by GMX up about 5%, trading just under 36 bucks, followed by Conflux up 4%, trading at $0 .12. And checking out the top 100 crypto gainers of the past week, virtually 95 out of the top 100 cryptos are in the green. Some of the top gainers include GMX, GRT, as well as CRV and NEO. And checking out the crypto greed and fear index, we're currently rated at 46 in fear, same as 37 in fear. So there you have it. How many of you are pretty stoked for this most recent pump? And how many of you agree with Stacey Herbert that this pump is due to Bukele's speech scheduled for this evening? Let me know, fam. And now let's dive into today's Bitcoin technical analysis. Check out the charts and what's popping with the king crypto. Bitcoin could see fresh upside volatility as the price action and the strength revisits a key level according to a classic metric. In a new post, John Bollinger, creator of the Bollinger Bands volatility indicator, says Bitcoin was positioned for a breakout decision. That's right. After hitting new September highs the day prior, Bitcoin has been challenging resistance levels out of reach since mid -August, according to data from Cointelegraph and TradingView. Now for Bollinger, the signs for Bitcoin are encouraging. Bollinger Bands use a standard deviation around the simple moving average to determine both the likely price ranges and volatility. And as Michael Saylor once said, volatility equals life force. Now, currently Bitcoin is putting in daily candles that touch the upper band. And when this happens, it can signal an imminent reversal back to the center band, or conversely, an inbound fit of upside volatility. Now narrow Bollinger Bands seen on Bitcoin recently lend weight to hopes that the latter scenario will now play out, quitting him here. And then there is the first tag of the upper Bollinger Band. After the new set of controlling bars were established at the lower band, he commented alongside this chart, the question is now, can we walk up to the upper band or is it too early to answer? What are your thoughts, chat? Let me know in the comments below. Now Bollinger characterizes the current mood among seasoned Bitcoin traders and analysts on the short -term timeframes. Despite the strength seen this week, caution abounds as various trend lines previously acting as support remain above the spot price. Now discussing the situation, we had on -chain monitoring resource, material indicators share the following. We have heavy technical resistance overhead at the key moving averages and support at the lower low. It is quite possible that we round trip the range. And with any luck, we'll see a legit test of the RS levels that will give us some clarity on where Bitcoin goes from here before the end of the week. And they also shared here in update number two, as noted earlier, it appears the Bitcoin bulls are gaining some momentum, but things are not always as they seem and goes on to share that sometime after last night's candle and close open, we've seen a new trend precognition signal develop on the daily chart and it seems to be bullish. I mean, we are breaking out. We are above 27 ,000. So let's freaking go. And also more strong foundation on the technicals. You can see Bitcoin hits yet another all -time high, which virtually means the network has never been this strong and this secure. Now I'm pretty stoked to tune into President Bukele's speech to the UN this evening. What do you think he has to share besides? I told you so. Let me know, fam. And again, welcome to everyone just joining us for the live show. Lots to continue to cover. So let's continue breaking it down. Next, let's discuss this adoption fund, which is a pretty big deal coming out of Japan. Let's go check this out. Japan's largest investment bank, Numura's digital asset subsidiary, Laser Digital Asset Management, launched the Bitcoin adoption fund specifically for the institutional investors. Bring it. The official announcement noted the Bitcoin -based fund will be the first in a range of digital adoption investment solutions that the firm plans to introduce. Now Numura is a Japanese financial giant with over $500 billion worth of assets, which basically that's half a trillion, baby, offers brokerage services to leading institutional investors. The Bitcoin fund launched by its digital asset arm will now offer investors direct exposure to BTC. The Laser Digital Bitcoin Adoption Fund offers long key exposure to Bitcoin. The financial giant has chosen Kamanu as its regulated custody partner. The Bitcoin fund is a portion of Laser Digital Fund's segregated portfolio company that has been registered as a mutual fund in accordance with the Cayman Islands regulatory authority. Now, Laser Digital Asset Management head Sebastian said the Bitcoin is one of the enablers of this long -lasting transformational change and long -term exposure to Bitcoin offers a solution for the investors to capture this macro trend. Now, the Bitcoin adoption fund might be the first of its kind launched by Numura and the digital asset arm, but the Japanese investment banking giant has been investing in the digital asset ecosystem for quite some time already. In fact, September of last year, the firm launched its digital asset venture capital arm to stay at the forefront of digital innovation. And also won Dubai's virtual asset regulatory authority license to operate in the country. The long -only Bitcoin adoption fund for investors in Japan comes amid a growing discussion around Bitcoin -based investment products from regulated and mainstream financial giants. The United States SEC approved two Bitcoin ETFs, even though there is a delayed decision specifically on the spot. Bitcoin ETFs. What's up with that, Mr. Gensler? Just saying. And apart from the US, Canada and focused investment products over the past couple of years. So there you have it, mass adoption, let's freaking go, especially on the institutional level. How many of you are in Japan? I know we have some in our audience out there. Let me know. And have you ever heard of this company before? Any plans in investing through them? Let me know how you guys feel. And now let's break down the latest. It gets more surprising and shocking every day with what all is going on with Bankman -Fried and FTX. Now his parents are involved. His parents are being sued by FTX. And it's just a nightmare of a mess, to say the least. So let's break down this latest story regarding SBF. Now, Joseph Bankman, the father of the former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman -Fried, complained to his son about the salary he was receiving during his employment at FTX US, turning the issue into a family matter. In a September 18 filing with the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, FTX debtors filed a complaint against Bankman and Barbara Fried, alleging that SBF's parents misappropriated millions of dollars through their involvement in the exchange's business. And according to the court documents, Bankman's contract with FTX US should have provided a $200 ,000 annual salary following a leave of absence from the Stanford Law School in December 2021. However, Bankman seemed to express ignorance about the terms of the contract, claiming to both FTX US and his son that he was expecting a $1 million annual salary. What about all that property in the Bahamas, fam? What about all that? Hundreds of millions worth of properties? Just wanted to throw that out there. The complaint states that Bankman was putting Barbara on this, suggesting that SBF's mother may have been able to persuade her son to follow through with the salary change. Things get even more interesting. So according to the complaint, Bankman's influence paid off, with SBF later providing his parents $10 million from Alameda Research. Can you talk about commingling? A 16 .4 million property in the Bahamas, funded by FTX Trading, the ability to expense roughly $90 ,000 to FTX Trading on the island nation in the Bahamas, and options to purchase company stock. Now, when reached out to the legal team representing Bankman and Fried, but did not receive a response at the time, unfortunately, the legal action brought by the debtors was the latest in the bankruptcy case involving FTX and many of its subsidiaries filed in November of last year. Bankman Fried also faces 12 criminal charges to be spread across two trials, starting in October of 2023, which is right around the corner, fam, and March of 2024, right before the halving, scheduled for April of next year. And since the federal judge revoked his bail in August, Bankman Fried has been largely confined to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Where's Brooklyn at? Before the start of his October trial, then on September 19th, a three -judge panel heard an appeal from SPF's legal team requesting the former FTX CEO to be released from jail in order to prepare for the trial, citing the lack of internet access and first amendment issues. All I got to say is this, I mean, how many people realistically have access to the internet in jail? Why should he? Million dollar question right there. But what are your thoughts, fam? How do you think this is likely to play out? And do you think that Bankman Fried's parents are just as guilty as SPF himself with the commingling and the fraud of going up north of $30 billion, making it the biggest scam in history that we're aware of? Hence why we call him Mini Madoff, because he made off with billions of dollars worth of investors' money, and Gary Gensler and the SEC was protecting him behind closed doors. So it's going to be very interesting to see how all this is likely to play out. Now let's discuss post halving. We all know there is a halving scheduled roughly six months out. We all know post halving, the price action is most likely going to reach a new all -time high and enter price discovery mode. Well, this analyst shares a very intriguing target. So let's break this down, shall we? And welcome to y 'all just joining us. Say hello in that live chat. Let me know where you're tuning in from. I stream live here seven days a week from Puerto Rico. Synonymous analyst Rhett Capital tells his followers on X that Bitcoin can rally above $80 per ,000 coin in the months following next month's event. For the halving, send it. Let's go. The Bitcoin halving cuts the Bitcoin miners' rewards in half, as we all know, expected to take place in April of next year. And while Rhett Capital is a long -term bull on Bitcoin, he notes that it is possible for Bitcoin to continue its downtrend before the halving, putting him here. Hang in there and make the most of any deeper downside in this pre halving period. You won't see the post halving parabola in the outlines here in this chart. It shows you in the yellow, the pre halving period, then in the pink, the post halving resistance, and then in the green, you can see the post halving parabola when we hit those new all -time highs. Now, Rhett notes that Bitcoin may repeat its 2019 bear market cycle when it traded within a triangle pattern before breaking out and starting off the bull market, as he shares here, if Bitcoin continues to form lower highs, could Bitcoin fill the CME, which is the Chicago Mercantile Exchange gap, at $20 ,000 later this year or in early 2024? So it makes a good point. There is currently a gap sitting at that $20 ,000 psychological level. And he continues, if so, the possible path could be consolidation to the apex of the black triangle before finally breaking out to close the halving. And you can see that triangle right here in this chart. Now, looking at the chart, he seemed to suggest that Bitcoin will confirm the triangle breakout in April of 2024, followed by a rally towards his long -term target. Now, let me know your thoughts, chat. How many of you agree that Bitcoin is likely to break out to a new all -time high, entering price discovery mode in 2024, the year of the halving? Let me know. And what are some of your targets? I'd also like to point out that the Stock the Flow model and Plan B, creator of that model, he suggests a $100 to $1 million range price for the King Crypto post halving. We also have some very other bullish predictions, which I cover on a daily basis here on the channel. But I'd love to know your personal prediction. I think we reached the cycle peak personally sometime in 2025, but I think 2024, we enter that price discovery mode. But I'd love to know your thoughts and your opinions in the comments right down below. And now let's break down our next story of the day and discuss the latest from the macro guru, Raoul Pal, who is suggesting that the Bitcoin market cap and crypto market cap as a whole does something between 5 and 10x for this upcoming bull cycle. Now, you do the math. We have a crypto market cap right now. I'm going to ballpark it at a trillion. We have a Bitcoin market cap. I'm going to ballpark it at a half a trillion, which is 500 billion. So hypothetically, if we were to 10x Bitcoin in and of itself, we're talking about a 5 trillion dollar Bitcoin market cap, which would be half the current market cap of gold. Now, with the entire crypto market cap, we can potentially hit 10 trillion. Now, also note, back in November of 2021, when we hit that all time high of 69 ,000 in November of last year, the total crypto market cap was just north of that 3 trillion dollar market cap. So he's so let's break this down and shout out to Raoul Pal. Here we go. Former Goldman Sachs executive Raoul Pal says the next bull cycle can bring an explosion in the market cap of all of the digital assets. That's right. In a new interview with Altcoin Daily, the macro expert says he expects a huge increase in the adoption of digital assets, and that can cause the total market cap of crypto to skyrocket as much as 900 % from its current value during the next bull market. Quoting the analysts here, obviously, I think we'll go well through new all time highs. I think the whole ecosystem of crypto will go from 425 million users where we're at today. And I think at the end of this cycle, there'll be a billion users by that kind of use cases in which we have talked about. And let's not forget, we have got central bank digital currencies that are known as CBDCs and stable coins. There is a lot going on still. So if this entire space is going to grow 2 .5 X in the number of users, well, the market cap of the entire space is five or 10 X. Send it. Let's go. Pal also says he is closely watching development of layer two Altcoin projects for new use cases, which could boost the value of their individual market cap, quitting him again. And then let's see how people value layer twos in this. We don't really know how layer twos accrue much value. Do we have to have a massive amount of transactions in which case then you need stuff like Ticketmaster with millions and millions and millions of transactions to drive value to those chains because they batched them and batched them down to Ethereum. So there you have it. And to watch this interview, he did Raul Pal, the macro guru with Altcoin Daily entitled best cryptocurrency investing strategy into 2024. Check the show notes, blow the video in the description and let me know your thoughts on his personal prediction. Do you feel post having that the market cap for the entire crypto market can likely 10 X from the current valuation along with Bitcoin surging 10 X to roughly a five trillion market cap? And hypothetically, if the macro guru is correct, where do you think that would likely take the Bitcoin price? Well, let's run some hypothetical math. Bitcoin was the 10 X from the current price action of 27 ,000. Well, that's $270 ,000 per coin. Take that. And as we all know, Bitcoin rises like that, the entire crypto market cap would go along for the ride, including the altcoin. So please let me know in the chat, fam, which altcoins, if any, are you most bullish on in the crypto market? And what are your thoughts surrounding Raul Pal being so bullish on Solana? A few months back, I read in an interview he shared that 80 % or more of his portfolio was specifically in an altcoin called Solana. So I'd love to know your thoughts. Obviously, he has a high risk tolerance as I look at that particular cryptocurrency to be very risky, especially with all that went in with the venture capitalists and SPF and FTX exchange pumping that particular all. So I'd love to know how you feel regarding all of that. And with that being shared, fam, now let's discuss Peter Thiel and his $4 million price prediction, as well as rumor has it, and I'll be covering this as well, that he dumps most of his Bitcoin position at the top of the market practically 30 days before the crash. So let's break this down because Peter Thiel was actually one of the keynote speakers at the Miami Conference for Bitcoin. And here's what he had to share as I transcribed his speech, and then we'll discuss him reportedly making $1 .8 billion cashing out on his eight -year bet around the time he was touting these all -time high predictions. So here we go. He says, the enemy's list is a list of people who I think are stopping Bitcoin. He says there is a lot of them. They tend to have nameless, faceless bureaucratic perspectives, which of course is one of the ways they hide. He goes on to share, we are going to try to expose them and realize that this is sort of what we have to fight for Bitcoin to go up, 10x or 100x from here. Now, just FYI, to give you some perspective, at the time he made this prediction on stage at the Bitcoin Miami Conference, Bitcoin was trading at roughly $43 ,000 per coin. So you run the math. 43 ,000 times 100x is over $4 million per Bitcoin. So you know that? Let's continue with what he had to share. The central banks are going bankrupt. We are at the end of the fiat money regime. How many of you agree with that statement? I agree there 100%. The first person on the list is Berkshire Hathaway CEO, Warren Buffett. Thiel put up a picture of Buffett with two of his most famous quotes about Bitcoin. One was rat poison and the other, I don't own any and I never will. I also like to point out now since then, Warren Buffett has much indirect exposure to Bitcoin through Bitcoin mining stock companies and etc. So go figure. If you can't beat them, join them, right? And he goes on. He opined, I think the direct in it. Yeah, and I say also Charlie Munger goes along with him. Now, feel further noted that Buffett has a bias and makes him long on fiat money system and money managers who follow the Berkshire Hathaway executives advice will pretend it's complicated to invest into Bitcoin. I think we call that FUD. Fear, uncertainty and doubt. Now expect nothing less from one of the wealthiest people in the fiat money matrix Ponzi scheme. You know what I mean? So just saying. The next person on the list of Bitcoin's enemies is the one and only JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon, or as Max Kaiser calls him, Jamie the tapeworm. They'll put diamonds picture up with the following quote. I don't call them crypto currencies. I call them crypto tokens because currencies have rules of law behind them, central banks and tax with authorities. Now you guys already know how I feel personally about JP Morgan Chase CEO, Jamie Dimon. So I won't go any deeper there. But anyways, we know he's an enemy of Bitcoin and always has been. The next picture he put up was of the BlackRock CEO, Larry Fink, with the following quote. I see huge opportunities in a digitized crypto blockchain related currency, and that's where I think it is going to go. Now just FYI, Larry Fink is the CEO of the largest asset management firm in the entire world, which owns a large share in virtually all the companies in the S &P 500, and that is BlackRock. They currently have over $10 trillion in assets under management. And for a long time, he was spreading FUD regarding Bitcoin. But guess what? Like I mentioned earlier, if you can't beat them, join them because they just most recently, a few months ago, they submitted their application for a spot Bitcoin ETF, which ultimately means they're going to be introducing this to the institutions which have trillions upon trillions of dollars as there's currently north of $700 trillion in total addressable market, and they want their piece of the Bitcoin pie. So he goes on to share, the PayPal co -founder added that Fink's quote is somewhat representative of the whole genre of Bitcoin attacks that need further context, stating that pro -blockchain is an anti -Bitcoin term, very typically. Feel then brought up the environmental, social, and governance, ESG standards, elaborating the following, the label they have come up with, and perhaps the real enemy is ESG. I think that ESG is just a hate factory. Also like to throw out there, Elon Musk, he stopped taking Bitcoin payments for Tesla, and he says it's because of the FUD regarding this ESG, and we all know it's not more than FUD, and it's already been proven that Bitcoin is more than 50 % clean energy. So the million dollar question, when will the world's supposedly wealthiest man, Elon Musk, when will he start accepting Bitcoin payments again for Tesla? Isn't that a great question, and wouldn't you love to know the answer to that? Maybe you should ask Elon and tag him on X and see what he says. Anyways, feel stressed. You can always ask the question, what's the difference between ESG and the CCP, the Chinese Communist Party? Well, when you think ESG, you should be thinking of CCP per H. Now, he also goes on to share, it is the finance gentocracy that runs the country through whatever silly virtue signaling or hate factory to them, just like ESG, the billionaire concluded. This is what I would call and what you have to think of as a revolutionary youth movement, and we have to just go out from this conference and take over the world. So there you have it, fam. What are your thoughts surrounding Peter Thiel's prediction that we are likely to 100X, and along with his enemies list, as it seems, a lot of the enemies have come around and now have direct exposure to BTC, but it doesn't stop there because around that time he was making this $4 million Bitcoin price prediction. He allegedly dumped most of his position cashing out and with over a billion dollars in profits for his fund. So let's also break this down as this is also very relevant. How many of you were able to watch the speech he gave at that Bitcoin conference? It was epic, to say the least. I recall it now. So here we go. Check it out. Peter Thiel's venture capital firm reportedly made $1 .8 billion closing out its crypto positions around the time when he was an early Bitcoin bull, still predicting the token's price to surge by 100X. And again, from 43 ,000 price action, 100X means over 4 million. Founders Fund had cashed out almost all of its bets on digital assets by March of 2022, according to the Financial Times report that cited people familiar with the matter. But Thiel was still backing Bitcoin, obviously, when he spoke at the crypto conference in Miami the following month. He went on to share where at the end of the fiat money regime, he said, adding that the token's price could increase 100 fold from its level at the time, which was reported at $44 ,000 per coin. That prediction was proven false and as rising interest rates and failures, the high profile firms like Celsius Network, Three Arrows Capital, FTX, Terra Luna dragged the crypto sector into the prolonged bearish winter. Now Bitcoin plummeted by over 60 % in 2022 and was trading at under 17 ,000 by the end of the year. And I believe the bottom currently for the cycle is 15 ,700. How many of you feel that that bottom is in? Let me know, chat. Founders Fund first started pouring money into crypto all the way back in 2014, when Bitcoin was only trading at roughly $750 per coin. So by the time Bitcoin reached its all time high in November of 2021, it had surged 8 ,500 % from that particular level. Not too shabby for a seven year run, wouldn't you say? Now Thiel has a long track record as one of Silicon Valley's most prominent tech investors. He took early stakes in startups, which include Facebook, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and ride hailing app Lyft, and even co -founded PayPal back in 1998. Thiel is also a high profile supporter of the Republican Party and continued to voice his support for Donald Trump since the former president left office in January of 2021. The fund held around two thirds of his portfolio in Bitcoin at one time, but now not has significant exposure to crypto according to FT's sources. So there you have it. Fam, what are your thoughts surrounding his prediction and him cashing out at around that time he was making those all time high predictions of 100X? Let me know, fam. And don't forget to check out cryptonewsalerts .net for the full premium experience with video and to participate in the live Q &A. And I look forward to seeing you on tomorrow's episode. HODL.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Anti-CBDC Bills Advance in Congress
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Monday, September 18th, and today we are talking about anti -CBDC legislation being advanced. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or, if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello, friends. Happy Monday. Welcome to another week, another frankly weirdly quiet week right now. I don't know. There's something out there. There's some bad juju. I guess it could just be another example of this weird period of the cycle that we're in that's sort of past the worst, but definitely before the good stuff starts again, but I'm excited. But we are not going to dwell on that. Instead, we are going to hop, skip, and jump through a number of things that have happened over the last few days, kicking it off with what has become a surprising political issue this election cycle, which is central bank digital currencies. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a markup section on Wednesday, which will include two bills aimed at preventing the issuance of a US CBDC. The first bill is Tom Emmer's CBDC Anti -Surveillance State Act, which would prevent the Federal Reserve from offering any products or services directly to individuals. Fed branches would also be prohibited from keeping accounts for individuals or issuing a CBDC or similar digital assets. Emmer's bill was recently reintroduced during last week's CBDC hearing and now boasts 49 co -sponsors. On September 14th, the House Majority Whip tweeted, A governmental tool for financial surveillance is un -American. We must urgently develop a digital financial system that is 1. Open and freely accessible to all. 2. Without requiring permission from the government or anybody else. 3. Private safeguarding the user's identity. In a separate tweet, he had said, If not open, permissionless, and private, like cash, a CBDC is nothing more than a CCP -style surveillance tool that can be weaponized to oppress the American way of life. The second bill is sponsored by Alex Mooney and is called the Digital Dollar Pilot Prevention Act. That bill is structured as an amendment of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 that would prevent Federal Reserve branches from even conducting CBDC testing and development. Now, of course, senior Fed officials have gone on the record to say they have no plans to issue a CBDC without the approval of Congress. In May, Minneapolis Fed President Neil Kashkari even questioned the need for a CBDC given the existence of instant payment fintech services. He noted that CBDCs would be a powerful financial surveillance tool and could enforce negative interest rates, but questioned why the U .S. government would have any interest in constructing such a system. Now, all that said, some Fed branches still do seem to be interested in the development of CBDC technology. The San Francisco Fed, for example, recently advertised a position for a crypto -architect for a CBDC project, and Project Hamilton was concluded and wound down in December after two years of collaboration between the Boston Fed and MIT. Now, in terms of where this legislation actually is, the markup process allows committee members to comment on the drafting of bills. A vote is then taken on whether or not to approve legislation for a full House vote. Both bills are only a few paragraphs long, so shouldn't drag out to an all -day, contested affair as we recently saw with the stablecoin bill. Instead, the bills could act as a bellwether for congressional sentiment around CBDCs. Multiple Republican presidential candidates have made opposition to a CBDC a part of their campaign. For example, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a July event, If I am president, on day one we will nix central bank digital currency. Done. Dead. Not happening in this country. Outsider Democrat candidate Robert F. Kennedy has also been outspoken on the need to oppose the issuance of a CBDC. So given all that, if either of these bills progress to a vote in the House, they could be an opportunity to put members of Congress on record about their support for a CBDC coming into election season. Now, we could spend shows and shows and shows talking about why this seemingly small issue, at least to the rest of the world. Obviously, I'm not talking about for our audience and our community. But this issue, which is for all intents and purposes very small to most people, has become such a central piece of the opposition narrative heading into this election cycle. I think there are probably a few different elements of it. One, I think it feels to many like an extension of government power. And as we've seen and discussed, it is quite clear that how much power governments have is going to be a major issue. And of course, while that's coming from the Republican side of the House, it's also coming from Democrats. And this is perhaps not surprising. It's not surprising because we're still coming off the COVID period, which brought up major questions of how much authority the government has to be involved in people's lives. And so in many ways, this is an extension of that conversation. I think there is also a little bit of nervousness around technology in general. This is something that we've seen in crypto. It's certainly something that we see in AI as well. And while this is technology in the hands of the government, not technology in the hands of big tech companies, it still has that feeling of lots of data, lots of power, lots of information, big black holes, and not a clear way for citizens to exert influence when it comes to this important domain of their lives. Anyway, right now, there's no one who's really actively arguing for a CBDC, which could frankly be another reason why it's a nice political issue. It gets to stay a little bit, at least in the realm of metaphor for some of these larger topics, but it's still something that can be legislated upon with lower stakes than going after government power directly. Anyways, it's one we're going to keep an eye on to see just to what extent it continues to be an issue in elections or whether it's just part of this early narrative testing process at this very nascent point in the election cycle. Next up, we go halfway around the world to Hong Kong, where the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued a warning to crypto users that unregistered crypto firms could be presenting themselves as banks. The HKMA, which serves as the region's banking regulator, said that firms which use language associated with the banking industry could be in violation of recently implemented Hong Kong crypto regulations. The regulator said it had become aware of firms using terms including crypto bank and offering quote banking services. They even went so far as to call out firms that use the word deposits or promote their quote savings plans as low risk with high return. The HKMA said in a statement that quote, The regulator noted that these firms advertising themselves as crypto banks were not supervised by the HKMA and are not covered by the region's deposit protection scheme. Now, Hong Kong's crypto regulations coming into force in June was one of the big stories of this year. The rules were intended to permit retail crypto trading on regulated exchanges and they're being administered by the local securities agency rather than the banking regulator. Since then, only a small handful of firms have been granted licenses. This includes HashKey and OSL, who were licensed to provide retail trading exchanges, as well as Swiss -based crypto bank Ciba, which has received in principle approval to offer over -the -counter derivatives trading and asset management services. Now, enforcement of Hong Kong's crypto regulations has also begun in earnest. Last Wednesday, the securities regulator issued a warning against Dubai -based crypto exchange J -PEX. They alleged the firm had been promoting its products and services in Hong Kong without applying for a license. A press release from the securities regulator included allegations that J -PEX were advertising their services using the prohibited terms deposits, savings or earnings. They noted that many J -PEX products had quote, The regulator also accused influencers and local OTC desks of making false and misleading statements on social media that J -PEX had applied for licensing. Following the warning, J -PEX employees seemingly disappeared from their booth at the Token 2049 conference in Singapore, where they were a platinum sponsor. And on Sunday, the exchange ramped up withdrawal fees to $999 and also implemented $1 ,000 withdrawal limits, essentially being a withdrawal halt. Now, J -PEX addressed this on Sunday, blaming quote unfair treatment by relevant institutions in Hong Kong towards J -PEX. They said that quote, J -PEX said they were currently negotiating with these market makers to resolve liquidity issues. The exchange promised to quote, They claim that emergency withdrawals are still being dealt with manually and also announced that trading on their earned trading platform would be halted on Monday. Now, adding something to the story, on Monday, the South China Morning Post reported that local police had received at least 83 complaints about J -PEX involving assets worth around $4 .3 million. They say the securities regulator had escalated investigations to the Commercial Crime Bureau on suspicions of fraud. Follow -up reporting said that lawyer turned crypto influencer Joseph Lamb -Chalk had been arrested on Monday in connection to promotion of the exchange. Sources also said an office building had been raided on Monday morning. Now, there's a lot that's actually really worth watching here. Hong Kong creating this licensing regime is not just relevant for citizens of Hong Kong, although it certainly is for them. This has been seen, rightly so, as a marker of slightly shifting Chinese attitudes towards crypto in general. When these rules were first announced as forthcoming at the end of last year, it was widely anticipated that it would include a retail trading ban. Remember, crypto trading has been banned in China for the last few years. However, in the wake of FTX, and in particular the US's aggressive response to it, it appeared that the Chinese authorities might be reconsidering their position and in so doing using Hong Kong as a vehicle for testing the waters on the market without changing any policy in mainland China. In that light, I don't know exactly what this enforcement action around J -PEX actually signals. Arresting an influencer certainly sends a signal, but to what the ends of that signal are, I'm just not sure. I do think, however, it's probably worth weighting this issue as a little bit more significant than just a regional crackdown, as it may have bigger implications given the unique role Hong Kong plays relative to China when it comes to crypto. Next up, we move back to bankruptcy proceedings in the US where Gemini have slammed the proposed settlement between DCG and their subsidiary, Genesis, calling it misleading at best in a court filing on Friday. Now you'll remember that earlier last week, DCG had filed a proposed deal which would settle approximately $630 million in outstanding loan payments to Genesis. DCG said the deal could result in 90 % recoveries for unsecured creditors and recoveries as high as 95 % to 110 % for Gemini Earn customers who form the largest creditor entity in the Genesis bankruptcy. Gemini said in their court filing, however, that, quote, DCG touts proposed recovery rates that are a total mirage, misleading at best and deceptive at worst. Make no mistake, Gemini lenders will not actually receive anything close in real value terms to the proposed recovery rates under the current agreement in principle, end quote. DCG had proposed a repayment schedule for $1 .65 billion in total loans over seven years. Although the agreement had a substantial payment in the first year, criticism of the deal noted that recovery calculations were contingent on crypto -denominated payments becoming more valuable over time. I think the numbers were something like Bitcoin going to $85 ,000 and ETH going to $8 ,500. Gemini customers are owed around $1 .1 billion and it appears that taking on long -term risks associated with crypto prices and the continued solvency of DCG are simply not acceptable to them. Gemini said in their filing, quote, receiving a fractional share of interest in principal payments over seven years from an incredibly risky counterparty is not even remotely equivalent to receiving the actual cash and digital assets owed today by Genesis to the Gemini lenders. They added that, quote, DCG's proposal is markedly parallel to an attempt to satisfy its significant obligations through the issuance of IOUs instead of paying any real cash and digital assets. Gemini lawyers also slammed DCG's negotiation tactics, claiming they had made efforts to suggest that they would become desperate enough to take a significant haircut just to move on. On their creditors update blog, Gemini put it even more pointedly, stating that, quote, DCG is gaslighting creditors and testing earned users' resolve by baiting them with false promises of high recoveries. Now, hanging over the current state of the Genesis bankruptcy is the firm's right to exclusively propose recovery plans. The judge had granted a 30 -day extension to the exclusivity period through to early next month. That order was contested by Gemini and ended up falling short of the 60 -day extension requested by Genesis. After the exclusivity period has elapsed, creditors will be able to organize their own proposed deal to bring the bankruptcy to a close. Finally, separately on Friday, Gemini updated their lawsuit against DCG and CEO Barry Silbert. They now include four direct allegations that intercompany loans between DCG and Genesis were designed to, quote, make the market believe it had actually fixed Genesis's cratering financial condition. So there you have it. There are a number of other things that happened over the weekend or around the end of last week that we may touch on in conversations later. Mark Cuban got fished for almost a million bucks, for example. The New York Times leaked parts of a 15 ,000 -word Sam Bankman -Fried ramble that amounts to a very self -pitying reflection on the state of affairs. And Google's head of Web3 is begging the industry to build something actually useful. For now, though, we are going to wrap it there. We're going to get to the hard work of building back this industry from the ground up. I appreciate you hanging out here with me as we go about that work. So until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
The Breakdown
A highlight from How Impactful Will FTX Estate Selling Be on Crypto Markets?
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Friday, September 15th, and today we are talking about how much pressure FTX selling will put on the crypto markets. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello friends, happy Friday. We have lots to catch up on today, starting with what has emerged as a key narrative. That is, of course, that FTX has been granted approval to begin selling their crypto assets. On Wednesday, the bankruptcy judge ratified the sale plan, which was filed in late August. Galaxy Digital has been appointed as the selling agent. At last count, FTX said it had $3 .4 billion worth of liquid crypto assets to sell. Galaxy has been authorized to sell $50 million worth of crypto this week and next week, then $100 million per week after that. Creditors can agree to increase this amount to $200 million per week on a temporary basis before seeking court approval. Galaxy has also been given permission to hedge their sales using Bitcoin and Ethereum derivatives without sizing limits and at their sole discretion. Staking of assets will also be allowed if Galaxy deems it necessary. During the hearing, the judge questioned the need to sell crypto rather than distribute it directly to customers. FTX lawyers explained that there was no meaningful segregation of customer assets and balances held didn't line up with customer accounts. They said, quote, it's all part of one pool. There are assets that are associated with the exchange we call the dot com customer pool and the US pool, but they don't necessarily match customer entitlements. So when we dispose of this, we'll be turning it into cash effectively and the cash will be available for distribution pursuant to the plan. Now, all parties appeared concerned with getting this liquidation moving quickly while also limiting the price impact on the portfolio. A lawyer representing the ad hoc creditors committee said, the sooner we can get this process rolling, the better. Now, the speculation all over Twitter has of course been that this would lead to incredible downward price pressure across the crypto markets with any asset that was being sold. However, Jeff Dorman, CIO of ARCA pushed back on notions that this liquidation will be an uncontrolled dump. Here's a summary of his Twitter thread. He pointed out that Galaxy Asset Management, not their trading desk won the bid. They must act as a fiduciary and sell gradually and opportunistically. He pointed out that Galaxy is receiving massive amounts of reverse inquiry already, some from real funds and some fishing expeditions, but over the counter sales will dominate the buying. In other words, we're less likely to see a lot of selling on exchanges or via TWOPS. As good bids come in, they will engage. Hedging, he points out, will be opportunistic, i .e. long puts to offset a large drop in the portfolio. And he points out that people thinking that Galaxy will rush to sell $3 billion in futures right away is crazy. The goal, he points out, is to outperform a static portfolio, not turn the estate into a long short fund. He reminds that Galaxy cannot front run the sales and profit internally, that that is very illegal and that their asset management business is completely walled off from their prop desk. Finally, he points out that this is not some half -baked plan. It involved months of working with the courts to win this business, and that the point of bankruptcies is to maximize the upside of the estate, not speed of distributions. In other words, this may be capped short -term gains due to opportunistic sales and to strength, but it is not a fire sale into weakness. Now getting even more granular, much of the speculation in recent weeks has specifically surrounded how sales of the hefty FTX Solana portfolio will impact that market. In their most recent accounting, FTX said they hold $1 .1 billion worth of Solana, which is able to be sold. That would be around 14 % of the current market cap. It was previously believed that much of this supply was staked and would be unlocked between 2025 and 2028, although the latest FTX filing threw this into question by lumping all of the Solana holdings in together. FundStrap published a report earlier this week detailing the FTX crypto holdings and claimed that less than $150 million worth of Solana is liquid and able to be sold off. Now, ultimately, no matter what people say, it's going to be very, very hard to get people away from the concern that this amount of selling will impact the market. Liquidity is incredibly thin right now, and probably the best that we can hope is that some of the negative price action over the last few weeks has been in anticipation of this and trying to front run it. But ultimately, the only way out is through, and so we just have to deal with this as the next thing we have to deal with. Now moving over to that other big exchange, two more Binance US executives have joined the exodus from that embattled company. The head of legal, Krishna Juvadi, and the chief risk officer, Sidney Majalia, are leaving the company according to WSJ sources. Juvadi was one of the firm's main contacts for communicating with the SEC, which is currently in active litigation with Binance. This makes three executives reported to be jumping ship from Binance US in less than a week. Remember on Tuesday, sources said that Binance US CEO Brian Schroeder had left his position. Now, Schroeder has not been active on social media since February, leading some to speculate on whether reporting was simply catching up on events that had quietly transpired much earlier. According to a company spokesperson, chief legal officer Norman Reed has stepped in as interim CEO. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Safart said the obvious thing when he tweeted, well, this cannot be a good sign for whatever is going on at Binance. On the flip side, crypto has at this point, I think, written off Binance US as a going concern. The Flow Horse writes, why does anyone care about Binance US employees leaving? They don't have a job to do. The exchange is a placeholder and no one uses it. Proof of Talent founder Rob Hayon writes, Binance US doing $9 million in 24 hour volume right now. At what point do they shutter the doors? Gotta be soon, right? Now, staying on the Binance train for a moment more, the SEC have accused Binance US of refusing to cooperate during the discovery process of their ongoing lawsuit. A court filing made on Thursday noted that only 220 documents had been produced by the exchange. Binance US had signed a consent order regarding the scope of discovery in June, but the SEC are claiming that many of the documents produced in accordance with that order, quote, consist of unintelligible screenshots and documents without dates or signatures. The SEC noted that Binance had refused to produce essential witnesses for depositions, including former CEO Brian Schroeder. Instead, they unilaterally limited the list of witnesses to just four employees. The SEC said that Binance US quote, has responded to requests for relevant communication with blanket objections and has refused to produce documents kept in the ordinary course of its business, claiming those documents do not exist only for the SEC to later receive such documents from other sources. Now the bulk of the SEC's filing related to SEFU, the wallet custody system at Binance US, which is provided by Binance International. The regulator called attention to contradictory statements about Binance's involvement in the management of US customer funds. They argued that the usage of SEFU violates the terms of a prior agreement that Binance US customer funds would not be diverted offshore. The heavily redacted filing also included information obtained by the SEC with the cooperation of a former Binance US auditor who has provided over 6 ,500 documents related to Binance's accounting. The SEC are treating the lack of disclosure of these documents from Binance US directly as evidence of a lack of transparency. Now continuing on the cleanup theme, three Eros Capital co -founders, Kyle Davies and Suzu have been slapped with a nine year ban from the regulated financial services industry in Singapore. The pair have been prohibited from taking part in the management of or being a major investor in any regulated firm involved in capital markets. Now MAS, the Monetary Authority of Singapore handed down the ban after concluding its investigation into the collapse of the once high flying Singapore based crypto fund. They found that 3AC had failed to notify the regulator of the appointment of a new fund manager, falsely claimed that this manager wasn't conducting regulated activities and failed to have in place appropriate risk management. MAS assistant managing director of policy payments and financial crime said in a statement, senior management of fund managers are required to implement robust risk management measures to protect the interests of investors. MAS takes a serious view of Mr. Zou and Mr. Davies flagrant disregard of MAS's regulatory requirements and dereliction of their directors duties. MAS will take action to weed out senior managers who commit such misconduct. Now, alongside spending much of the last year ignoring requests to engage with the 3AC bankruptcy process, Zou and Kyle launched a new offshore exchange based in the Seychelles. However, that crypto and bankruptcy claims marketplace was recently reprimanded by Dubai authorities for advertising within the emirate. They were issued a $2 .8 million fine, which big surprise remains unpaid. Moving on to yet another hanging chat on Wednesday, Digital Currency Group formally proposed their Creditor Agreement as part of the Genesis bankruptcy. The agreement seeks to refinance a $630 million intercompany loan owed by DCG, which fell due in May and remains unpaid. According to DCG, the plan could offer, quote, all unsecured creditors a 70 to 90 % recovery with a meaningful portion of the recovery in digital currencies. DCG claimed the repayment of loans over time using crypto would allow creditors to, quote, capture the appreciation of cryptocurrency up to $85 ,000 for Bitcoin and $8 ,500 for ETH. We'll come back to that in just a moment. DCG called the deal a, quote, remarkable outcome for any liquidating Chapter 11 case, let alone one in the volatile cryptocurrency industry. Now, the deal will, of course, require the agreement of creditors before moving forward. DCG have secured the consent of the unsecured creditors group. However, the major creditor, Gemini, have so far been silent on the deal. Gemini claims to be owed approximately $1 .1 billion in the bankruptcy on behalf of hundreds of thousands of their customers. The Gemini claim is in a much stronger position than unsecured creditors, as Genesis posted about 31 million GBTC shares as collateral when taking loans from Gemini customers. This collateral has appreciated significantly since the bankruptcy and represents about 60 % of the total balance owed to Gemini. DCG indeed claimed that Gemini customers could see an excess recovery of up to 110 % under the new agreement. They wrote in their filing, at current pricing, the Gemini user collateral is worth approximately 607 million. If Gemini agrees to provide 100 million to Gemini earned users under the proposed agreement as it previously did, or to distribute even a small portion of the Gemini user collateral to Gemini earned users, there would be little doubt Gemini earned users would receive a full recovery. DCG then contended that Gemini is failing to, quote, put its money where its mouth is. The filing stated that Gemini, quote, is not contributing a single penny to provide Gemini earned users a better recovery. Now, the crypto community was not as convinced as DCG made it out that this was a great deal. Lumina Wealth CEO Rama Lawalia writes, The deal between DCG and Genesis reeks of self -dealing at worst and incompetence at best. The deal presumes an $85 ,000 for Bitcoin and $8 ,500 for ETH. The defaulted party should make the creditors whole, not speculate yet again on a risky gamble on behalf of creditors. Creditors lent money expecting credit risk, not volatile equity -like risk. If DCG truly believes those numbers, they should ensure that outcome for creditors through an options contract. Genesis creditors should seek the removal of the Genesis CEO, who was conflicted in a party to the alleged fraudulent balance sheet statements, petition the judge to have a new trustee, pressure Genesis to focus on the turnover motion and resume litigation. What a mess. Now, speaking of Genesis, Genesis will also cease all trading services according to a company spokesperson. If you're surprised to hear that Genesis's trading services were continuing, you're not alone. Although the crypto lending arm of the firm declared bankruptcy in January, many other DCG subsidiaries which shared the Genesis branding continued to operate throughout this year. Earlier this month, the Genesis company which handles US -based over -the -counter trading announced it would be shutting down throughout September. At the time, it was believed that Genesis would continue providing offshore OTC trading from their British Virgin Island companies, but with this announcement, Genesis has signaled their exit from OTC and derivatives trading globally. A spokesperson for the firm said, this decision was made voluntarily and for business reasons. With this termination of services, Genesis no longer offers trading services through any of its business entities. Now, while this was highly expected, it still marks something of a big moment. Wayne Vaughn tweeted, the former largest OTC crypto trading desk is officially closed. Genesis announced today that they are no longer offering trading services through any of its business entities. Seems like a juggernaut falls with every cycle. In this cycle though, friends, I think we can agree that numerous juggernauts have fallen, but perhaps it is just to clear out the way for companies who will use that juggernaut status a little more responsibly. Anyways, friends, that is going to do it for today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening as always. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other.
Daily Crypto Report
A highlight from "SEC Chair Gary Gensler reiterates tough stance on crypto" Sep 14, 2023
"It's 8 a .m. Eastern, September the 14th, and this is your daily crypto report. Bitcoin is up slightly at $26 ,496, ETH is up slightly at $1 ,625, and Binance Coin is up slightly at $212. SEC Chair Gary Gensler reiterated a tough stance on the crypto industry during a conference, emphasizing that much of the crypto space is non -compliant with securities laws and Gensler expressed concerns that issues in the crypto industry could affect the broader economy by eroding investor confidence. He described the crypto economy as relatively small but potentially impactful. Gensler also highlighted the prevalence of misconduct in the industry and criticized attempts to circumvent regulations, notably he didn't call for new legislation in the sector. Well, crypto services provider Paxos has been identified as the entity responsible for paying an unusually high fee of 19 .89 Bitcoin or around 500k for a Bitcoin transaction involving around just $200. The company acknowledged the error, describing it as a bug on a single transfer, and stated that it had been resolved. Paxos is in contact with the miner in an attempt to recover the funds. With crypto exchange, Hobi has rebranded internationally as HTX and is focused on expanding. The aim is to apply for more licenses in various jurisdictions over the next decade, according to Justin Sun, an advisor to the firm. HTX will serve the English -speaking user base, and the exchange has already obtained seven licenses in different countries, including Lithuania, Dubai, Australia, Argentina, and Brazil. The rebranding aims to make the name more accessible to Western users. HTX plans to involve users in the listing process by holding votes on which crypto projects to list, making it more democratic. Okbank, Thailand's second largest bank, has created a $100 million fund to invest in Web3 and AI startups. Within Web3, it will consider various tech startups, including those involved in ZK proofs and liquid staking derivatives. The fund aims to invest in over 30 startups and funds worldwide, focusing on the U .S., the EU, Israel, and AIPAC. And finally, crypto exchange OKX is aiming for long -term partnerships with sports giants McLaren and Manchester City. Their deal with McLaren is currently in four or five years, and they aim to extend it for a decade. OKX's global chief marketing officer expressed the company's commitment to forging lasting partnerships in the sports world. Well, that's all for us today. Visit us at dailycryptoreport .io for sources and links. And listen to us everywhere else you podcast under Daily Crypto Report. Hey, my name is Lo van Ruemf, and I've been working my ass off as a celebrity stylist by day and a podcast host by night. At the Low Life podcast, it's all about keeping it real. We're talking fashion, beauty to religion, sex, drugs, mental health. I mean, there's no topic off limits here, and vulnerability is mandatory. You can find my podcast, The Low Life, that's L -O, no W, everywhere and anywhere you listen to your podcasts. New episodes are out every Thursday. We'll see you then. It's pretty eerie, you know, you're in a place that no human's ever been before. This is Armchair Explorer, where the world's greatest adventurers tell their best stories from the road. And four of us were swept down the side of the mountain, and then I knew there was no way out of this thing. From the heart pounding to the inspiring and the downright insane. Find Armchair Explorer, a part of APT Podcast Studios, wherever you get your podcasts. Go and find what it is in the world that matches that worldness in yourself.
The Crypto Overnighter
A highlight from 668:SECs AI Dragnet and Ripples Courtroom Win
"Why do tacos get their own day of the week? Is it because Mondays are so rough, we need a Tuesday filled with beefy tortillas shared with good friends? If so, why don't we have Wellington Wednesdays stroganoff Saturdays, and heck, beefball Mondays? Then Mondays would just be another reason to enjoy our favorite beef with our favorite people. Together, we bring more. Beef, it's what's for dinner, funded by beef farmers and ranchers. Good evening, and welcome to the Crypto Overnighter. I'm Nick Ademus, and I will be your host as we take a look at the latest cryptocurrency news and analysis. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. And remember, none of this is financial advice. And it's 10 p .m. Pacific on Wednesday, September 13th, 2023. Welcome back to the Crypto Overnighter, where we have no sponsors, no hidden agendas, and no BS. But we do have the news, so let's talk about that. Tonight, we dig into the SEC's AI surveillance plans led by Gary Gensler. What does that mean for privacy and regulation? Ripple scores a point in court, but what's the real cost? OneCoin's co -founder faces 20 years behind bars, a reminder to always do your due diligence. Craig Wright dodges criminal sanctions, but raises questions about legal loopholes in crypto. North Korea's Lazarus Group makes another appearance, this time targeting Coinex for a cool $55 million. And finally, Coinbase is lighting up Bitcoin transactions by integrating the Lightning Network. Gary Gensler confirmed the U .S. Securities Exchange Commission uses artificial intelligence for financial surveillance. This revelation came during a Senate oversight hearing on September 12th. Gensler stated that the SEC uses AI technologies to monitor the financial sector for signs of fraud and manipulation. The SEC has not issued a formal public declaration detailing the use of AI. Gensler also faced criticism for the SEC's rulemaking pace and duration of comment periods. He remains adamant that crypto trading platforms should adhere to rigorous U .S. securities regulations. The SEC chair argues that most crypto tokens will likely pass the investment contract test. Gensler cited noncompliance with securities laws in the crypto industry, leading to the agency's enforcement approach. He also mentioned that the SEC has filed approximately 750 enforcement actions in the last year. Gensler warned that AI's ability to generate deepfake content poses a genuine threat to financial markets. He defended the SEC's key rulemaking initiatives amid heavy pushback from lawmakers. The SEC aims to bring DeFi under its jurisdiction, stating that existing rules also apply to the crypto sector. The SEC's adoption of AI for financial surveillance is a significant development. It's a clear signal that the regulatory body is doubling down on its efforts to monitor and control the crypto space. This move aligns with Gensler's consistent stance that the crypto industry should fall under the same regulatory frameworks as traditional financial markets. The use of AI could potentially tighten the noose around crypto activities, making it more challenging for traders and investors to operate freely. While the technology can be a powerful tool for detecting fraud and manipulation, it also raises concerns about privacy and the extent of government surveillance. Gensler's warning about the potential for AI -generated deepfake content adds another layer of complexity. It suggests that the SEC is not only looking to regulate, but also to protect the market from new types of threats. However, Gensler's approach has not been without its critics. The pace of rulemaking and the lack of clarity have drawn ire from both the crypto community and lawmakers. The SEC's aggressive enforcement actions, totaling around 750 in the last year, indicate a strategy of regulation by enforcement, which many find to be problematic. Now, if you're worried about Big Brother and C3PO teaming up to watch your every move, don't forget to hit that like button and subscribe. So now, let's pivot from surveillance to legal battles. Ripple is scoring in court. What does that mean for crypto and regulation? Ripple is in the midst of a legal battle with the SEC. The SEC initially accused Ripple of violating federal securities laws by selling its native cryptocurrency, XRP, without registering it as a security. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and President Monica Long have been vocal about their intent to fight the SEC all the way through. The company has already spent over $100 million defending the case. A significant ruling came in July when US District Court Judge Analisa Torres stated that XRP was not necessarily a security. This opened the doors for Ripple to expand its business not just in the US, but globally. The SEC requested permission to file an interlocutory appeal against this ruling, but as for now, the request has yet to be decided upon. Ripple is also focusing 80 % of its hiring efforts outside the US, targeting markets like Singapore, Hong Kong, the UK, and Dubai. The ongoing Ripple vs SEC case is a test for the crypto industry's relationship with regulators. Ripple's refusal to back down sends a strong message to the SEC and other regulatory bodies that the crypto industry will not be bullied. The SEC's actions here are part of a broader crackdown on the crypto industry. Frankly, I see it as an overreach of authority. The recent court ruling in favor of Ripple has not only given the company a legal upper hand, it also provided a glimmer of hope for the broader crypto ecosystem. It challenges the SEC's narrative and could set a precedent for other cases. The fact that Ripple is planning to focus its hiring outside the US is a clear sign of how regulatory uncertainty is driving crypto innovation away from the US, a point that should concern US policymakers. The case is shaping up to be a defining moment for crypto regulation in the US. It could have far reaching implications for the industry at large. And really, this whole thing is about the future of crypto regulation and the limits of governmental oversight. A point for Ripple, but at what cost? Make sure you're following us to stay updated on this legal thriller. But speaking of costs, some people are paying dearly. From courtrooms to prison cells, let's delve into the dark underbelly of crypto scams with OneCoin's co -founder, Carl Greenwood.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 00:00 09-14-2023 00:00
"Interactive brokers clients earn up to USD 4 .83 % on their uninvested instantly available cash balances rates subject to change visit ibkr .com slash interest rates to learn more here's the full conversation on the latest edition of the masters in business podcast subscribe on Apple Spotify and anywhere else you get your podcasts plus listen anytime on the bloomberg business app and bloomberg .com broadcasting 24 hours a day and the bloomberg business app this is bloomberg radio this is bloomberg daybreak at least in Africa our top stories this morning US headline inflation rises by the most in more than a year while core CPI accelerates on a monthly basis for the first time since February I pick up in gas prices piling more pressure on already strained household budgets is a great decision from the ECD markets have completely changed their view in recent days on what is likely to happen highlighting just how much uncertainty surrounds the decision we're live to Frankfurt this hour the IEA warns that oil supply cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia will create a significant supply shortfall threatened with new surge in price volatility and Citigroup is preparing for a wave of job cuts as CEO Jane Frazier launches the biggest restructuring of the Wall Street giant in two decades we'll have the details just gone 8 a .m. across the Emirates exam a few Johannesburg I'm using a Medellin in Dubai we're seeing a little bit of cautious upside in u .s.
The Breakdown
A highlight from The IMF Finally Realizes You Can't Ban Crypto
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, N .L .W. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Friday, September 8th, and today we are wrapping up the week with a little bit of discussion of some new guidance about how crypto is not going to be successfully banned, as well as a new paper on privacy that's generating a lot of conversation. But before that, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it. Give it a rating, give it a review. Or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello friends. Happy Friday. Today we are rounding out the week with a number of different stories across the industry and we're kicking off with something that I think everyone who is in this industry knows intuitively, but which is finally being recognized from the outside in as well. The International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board have just released a new paper called Policies for Crypto Assets. The abstract reads, crypto assets have been in existence for more than a decade and have displayed significant volatility. Alongside their volatility, crypto asset activities have also grown in complexity. So far, direct connections between crypto assets and systemically important financial institutions, core financial markets, and market infrastructures have been limited. Nevertheless, they have the potential to emerge as a source of systemic risk in specific jurisdictions if they gain traction for payments or retail investments. This is something we've heard from this set of international institutions quite a bit. Basically that crypto isn't that risky now because it's not really fully integrated into the existing financial system, but that should it get integrated into that system, it could indeed create a number of risks. We've seen this language, for example, quite a bit from the Bank for International Settlements and particularly around areas such as stablecoins. Now, this is a big overarching paper. Back to the abstract again, it reads, at the request of the Indian G20 presidency, the IMF and the FSB have developed this paper to synthesize the IMF and the FSB's policy recommendations and standards. The collective recommendations provide comprehensive guidance to help authorities address the macroeconomic and financial stability risks posed by crypto asset activities and markets, including those associated with stablecoins and those conducted through so -called decentralized finance. As you heard from that, the paper was commissioned by the G20. Currently, the leadership of that organization is India and is set to be presented at a meeting of the G20 this weekend. The headline taken away by CoinDesk and many of the other crypto outlets out there is that the paper basically says that blanket crypto bans just will not work. According to the report, quote, imposing blanket bans that make all crypto activities, including trading and mining, illegal in one jurisdiction is not only expensive and technically challenging, but could also lead to activity migrating to other jurisdictions, creating spillover risks. This is, again, something that we know really intuitively. When you ban mining in one place, you're really just saying you're banning companies in your jurisdiction from mining. Now, this language echoes things that we've heard from the IMF before. In June, in a blog post about central bank digital currencies in Latin America and the Caribbean, the IMF wrote, Now, hold aside any cynicism. I do think the world would look a lot better if governments were recognizing why people wanted to get out of their monetary systems and try to address those issues. And yet I believe many of us here don't really think that that is a particularly plausible thing to happen. So what does this new report suggest instead of these blanket bans? Well, it says that the first line of defense against the macroeconomic and financial risks posed by crypto assets are robust macroeconomic policies, credible institutional frameworks and comprehensive regulation and oversight. That said, quote, Coinbase sums up the IMF and FSB say jurisdictions might consider targeted and temporary restrictions to manage some risk factors in stressful times or while countries find better internal fixes. The examples that the paper gave included targeted restrictions on privacy coins in places like Dubai, as well as a ban on Nigerian banks servicing crypto firms. Now, once again, as we've seen before, these international institutions are really concerned about stable coins. The paper says rapid capital flight or reversals could materialize if foreign currency denominated stable coins became easier and cheaper to hold in large quantities relative to foreign currency bank accounts. They say that global stable coins that are adopted by multiple jurisdictions, quote, may transmit volatility more abruptly than crypto assets and may cause significant risk to financial stability. So overall, there is nothing shocking or crazy new in this paper. Instead, I think it's a reflection of where the discourse is with these big international institutions right now. Grudgingly, they are accepting that crypto is here to stay and are recognizing that their time is probably better spent trying to help member governments figure out how to mitigate the worst risks rather than entertaining some fantasy of blocking it out entirely. Now, of course, as you heard, one of the ways in which they might look to do that, or at least one of the examples that was given, was targeted restrictions on things like privacy coins. Privacy in the crypto asset space has been particularly contentious, especially as global regulations and the fad of travel rule get more deeply implemented. And in general, the more that crypto comes into the Bank Secrecy Act sort of regulatory apparatus. Obviously, one of the things that we have talked about a huge amount on this show has been the tornado cash sanctions and then criminal accusations against the founders. And I think that that's part and parcel of this process of figuring out how crypto integrates with the larger system. On that front, a really interesting paper came out this week that was notable in part for who wrote it. One of the authors being Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, and for its exploration of this particular question, i .e. whether you can bring privacy to a protocol without it just becoming another tornado cash. The paper was titled Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance, Towards a Practical Equilibrium. Its authors include Vitalik Buterin, who I just mentioned, Jacob Ilham of Chainalysis, as well as supporting authors including Fabian Schar, and Matthias Nadler, as well as Amin Soleimani. It proposes a similar system to existing mixers like tornado cash, but that have built -in protections against money laundering. The proposed protocol would allow users to deposit funds to be mixed within a shared pool. Users could then withdraw funds to a fresh wallet, severing the link between wallets — in other words, basic mixer functionality to provide privacy to users. The twist is that the protocol would use zero -knowledge proofs to allow users to prove that their funds came from a particular set of deposits. By restricting the ability to deposit into these pools to users who can provide a known legal source of funds, the protocol can ensure that no illicit funds are mixed. The paper's abstract says that The paper goes on to explain that Now, the proposal builds on prior comments from Vitalik where he stated that tornado cash was a good privacy solution, but had limited options to disassociate between deposits from good actors and bad actors on the network. Vitalik's opinion is that the regulatory crackdowns on the illicit use of crypto networks are inevitable, and so the industry should be proactive in demonstrating that compliant privacy tools can be built. The paper argues that if the privacy -enhancing protocol enables its users to prove certain properties regarding the origin of their funds. Introducing the paper, Amin wrote, The importance of this paper is difficult to overstate. As crypto builds toward a world where financial intermediaries are optional, it is also our responsibility to engage regulators and implement new compliance tools designed for self -custody. So what were people's responses to this? Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi says, They could still generate low -quality or stale whitelist proofs. Is that enough to satisfy the DOJ's bar for compliance? Note that tornado cash had a compliance tool that allowed any user to prove their chain of custody to a third party, such as to an exchange or law enforcement. They also blocked sanctioned addresses from the front end. Even when blocking OFAC -sanctioned addresses from the front end and implementing this ability for depositors to prove their provenance, the DOJ concluded that they were nevertheless liable for how tornado was being used by Lazarus Group. All that said, obviously there are other facts to the tornado case. And I'm not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice. And there are a lot of cool ideas in this paper. But I'm not sure this is going to be a sufficient improvement from the perspective of the DOJ. So basically Haseeb is saying lots of cool stuff in here. But if the question is whether the US government is cool with this, he remains skeptical. Interestingly, Austin Campbell responded and said, Now, another line of conversation is that this is way too much compromise when it comes to critical issues of privacy. Matt Corallo tweets, Now, Matt's post did a great job of pinpointing a key critique and getting people to respond to that. A lot of the discussion in the comments then becomes about what compromise people should be willing to take. Masari's Ryan Selkis responds, Scott Lewis writes, I think it makes more sense to go halfway first. The next best competitor is a CBDC run on one computer by the government. Isolating crypto too aggressively will leave the entire global citizenry in a much worse place. We have to be pragmatic if we want to win. Rainier Stiles Grant toes a middle line saying, Now, there is a ton to debate in here, and debate the community certainly has. Some questions are extremely political. Whether one thinks there should be any compromises in this area, or whether cypherpunks need to keep fighting for true privacy when it comes to transactions. Some are really excited and engaged that there are pragmatic solutions being offered by people from within the industry. Others are pointing out specific technical problems, and in some cases recommending different approaches. Ultimately, I find myself agreeing with Bill Hughes when he writes, However, that is going to do it for today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening as always. Until tomorrow, be safe and take care of each other.
The Crypto Overnighter
A highlight from 662:Ripples SEC Battle and ARKs Ether ETF Gamble
"Good evening, and welcome to The Crypto Overnight -er. I'm Nick Ademus, and I will be your host as we take a look at the latest cryptocurrency news and analysis. So sit back, relax and let's get started. And remember, none of this is financial advice. And it's 10 p .m. Pacific on Thursday, September 7th, 2023. Welcome back to The Crypto Overnight -er, where we have no sponsors, no hidden agendas, and no BS. But we do have the news, so let's talk about that. Tonight we delve into Ripple's clash with the SEC and what it means for the U .S. as a global blockchain leader. We'll explore the ambitious bid made by ARK Invest for an Ether ETF and why the SEC can't keep dodging the issue. We're also breaking down FASB's new accounting rule change, a potential game changer for institutional crypto adoption. And don't miss our take on Visa's strategic partnership with Solana, a move that could blur the lines between traditional and decentralized finance. Plus, we'll discuss Vitalik Buterin's latest venture to bring privacy and compliance together. And finally, we'll examine a lawsuit that could send shockwaves through the crypto lending space. All that and more, so stay tuned. Chris Larsen is the co -founder and current CEO of Ripple. He recently spoke about the state of cryptocurrency regulation in the U .S. He expressed concerns about the U .S. losing its status as a global blockchain leader to cities like London, Singapore and Dubai. Larsen stated that the Securities Exchange Commission lost on all key issues in the ongoing XRP case. He criticized Chair Gensler for his enforcement -first regulatory approach. Larsen noted that many crypto entrepreneurs are considering moving their operations outside the U .S. Larsen highlighted that the SEC lost on everything important in its case against Ripple. He mentioned that the SEC's request for an interlocutory appeal could extend the legal battle. Larsen also criticized the U .S. government for its hostile crypto policies, which he believes have forced crypto -related businesses to move their operations overseas. He emphasized that the U .S. screwed up on crypto and blockchain policy. Larsen's comments are a scathing indictment of the SEC and the U .S. government's approach to crypto regulation. It's a glaring spotlight on the SEC's flawed tactics. Larsen's critique of Gensler's enforcement -driven approach echoes a sentiment that many in the crypto community share. The lack of clear legislative guidelines has led to exactly what Larsen called it, regulation by enforcement, a method that stifles innovation and drives businesses away from the U .S. Larsen's observations about the U .S. losing its edge in the blockchain sector to cities like London, Singapore and Dubai are particularly damning. These cities have managed to create a regulatory environment that not only protects consumers but fosters innovation. The U .S., by contrast, has been pushing the industry offshore, a move that could have long -term repercussions for its technological leadership. The SEC's loss in the Ripple case is a symptom of a larger issue. The U .S. needs to rethink its approach to crypto regulation and fast. Otherwise, it risks not only losing businesses but also its position as a global leader in blockchain technology. The time for Congress to act is now, lest the U .S. continue to fall behind in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape. As Larsen calls out the SEC's failing crypto policies, ARK Invest is testing the waters with its Ether ETF bid. The SEC can't kick this can down the road forever. Stay tuned and don't forget to hit that subscribe button for more deep dives like this one. ARK Invest and 21 shares have filed for the first ever U .S. exchange -traded fund that will directly invest in Ether. If approved, this ETF would be a historic milestone in the cryptocurrency investment landscape. Unlike recently proposed Ether futures ETFs, this offering would hold Ether itself. The ETF is poised to trade under the ticker symbol AKRE. The custodian of the trust would be Coinbase custody. The SEC has yet to approve any Ether ETFs, with potential applicants hesitant due to the asset's greater price volatility and regulatory uncertainty compared to Bitcoin. James Saffert is a Bloomberg ETF analyst. He estimates that the SEC's final deadline to approve both ARK and VANEX filings would be May 23, 2024. ARK Invest's move to file for a spot Ether ETF is a bold step in a regulatory landscape that's been anything but friendly to crypto. This is a direct investment in Ether, sidestepping the futures market entirely. The choice of Coinbase as custodian is another strategic move. Coinbase is already a trusted name in the crypto world. Its involvement lends additional credibility to the ETF. But let's not forget the SEC's historical reluctance to approve spot ETFs, especially for cryptocurrencies. The SEC has been more comfortable with futures ETFs, citing investor protections that they claim cannot be met by spot markets. ARK's filing comes at a time when the SEC is already under pressure from Grayscale. Grayscale won a lawsuit against the SEC, challenging the agency's reasoning for not approving spot ETFs. This puts the SEC in a tight spot. They can no longer hide behind vague justifications. Now, here's what I think. If ARK's ETF gets the green light, it could set a precedent for other crypto ETFs, particularly those who aim to invest directly in cryptocurrencies rather than in futures. It's a potential game changer, not just for Ether, but for the entire crypto market. And for a government and regulatory bodies often viewed as obstacles rather than facilitators, this could be a chance to change the narrative. But will they? That's the million Ether question. From one SEC hurdle to another, let's pivot to the FASB's new accounting rule. It's a shift that could grease the wheels for institutions eyeing crypto. So smash that like button if you're all for seeing big money into the crypto world.
The Breakdown
A highlight from How Big A Deal Are The Changes to Crypto Accounting Standards?
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, N .L .W. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Friday, September 8th, and today we are wrapping up the week with a little bit of discussion of some new guidance about how crypto is not going to be successfully banned, as well as a new paper on privacy that's generating a lot of conversation. But before that, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it. Give it a rating, give it a review. Or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Hello friends. Happy Friday. Today we are rounding out the week with a number of different stories across the industry and we're kicking off with something that I think everyone who is in this industry knows intuitively, but which is finally being recognized from the outside in as well. The International Monetary Fund and the Financial Stability Board have just released a new paper called Policies for Crypto Assets. The abstract reads, crypto assets have been in existence for more than a decade and have displayed significant volatility. Alongside their volatility, crypto asset activities have also grown in complexity. So far, direct connections between crypto assets and systemically important financial institutions, core financial markets, and market infrastructures have been limited. Nevertheless, they have the potential to emerge as a source of systemic risk in specific jurisdictions if they gain traction for payments or retail investments. This is something we've heard from this set of international institutions quite a bit. Basically that crypto isn't that risky now because it's not really fully integrated into the existing financial system, but that should it get integrated into that system, it could indeed create a number of risks. We've seen this language, for example, quite a bit from the Bank for International Settlements and particularly around areas such as stablecoins. Now, this is a big overarching paper. Back to the abstract again, it reads, at the request of the Indian G20 presidency, the IMF and the FSB have developed this paper to synthesize the IMF and the FSB's policy recommendations and standards. The collective recommendations provide comprehensive guidance to help authorities address the macroeconomic and financial stability risks posed by crypto asset activities and markets, including those associated with stablecoins and those conducted through so -called decentralized finance. As you heard from that, the paper was commissioned by the G20. Currently, the leadership of that organization is India and is set to be presented at a meeting of the G20 this weekend. The headline taken away by CoinDesk and many of the other crypto outlets out there is that the paper basically says that blanket crypto bans just will not work. According to the report, quote, imposing blanket bans that make all crypto activities, including trading and mining, illegal in one jurisdiction is not only expensive and technically challenging, but could also lead to activity migrating to other jurisdictions, creating spillover risks. This is, again, something that we know really intuitively. When you ban mining in one place, you're really just saying you're banning companies in your jurisdiction from mining. Now, this language echoes things that we've heard from the IMF before. In June, in a blog post about central bank digital currencies in Latin America and the Caribbean, the IMF wrote, Now, hold aside any cynicism. I do think the world would look a lot better if governments were recognizing why people wanted to get out of their monetary systems and try to address those issues. And yet I believe many of us here don't really think that that is a particularly plausible thing to happen. So what does this new report suggest instead of these blanket bans? Well, it says that the first line of defense against the macroeconomic and financial risks posed by crypto assets are robust macroeconomic policies, credible institutional frameworks and comprehensive regulation and oversight. That said, quote, Coinbase sums up the IMF and FSB say jurisdictions might consider targeted and temporary restrictions to manage some risk factors in stressful times or while countries find better internal fixes. The examples that the paper gave included targeted restrictions on privacy coins in places like Dubai, as well as a ban on Nigerian banks servicing crypto firms. Now, once again, as we've seen before, these international institutions are really concerned about stable coins. The paper says rapid capital flight or reversals could materialize if foreign currency denominated stable coins became easier and cheaper to hold in large quantities relative to foreign currency bank accounts. They say that global stable coins that are adopted by multiple jurisdictions, quote, may transmit volatility more abruptly than crypto assets and may cause significant risk to financial stability. So overall, there is nothing shocking or crazy new in this paper. Instead, I think it's a reflection of where the discourse is with these big international institutions right now. Grudgingly, they are accepting that crypto is here to stay and are recognizing that their time is probably better spent trying to help member governments figure out how to mitigate the worst risks rather than entertaining some fantasy of blocking it out entirely. Now, of course, as you heard, one of the ways in which they might look to do that, or at least one of the examples that was given, was targeted restrictions on things like privacy coins. Privacy in the crypto asset space has been particularly contentious, especially as global regulations and the fad of travel rule get more deeply implemented. And in general, the more that crypto comes into the Bank Secrecy Act sort of regulatory apparatus. Obviously, one of the things that we have talked about a huge amount on this show has been the tornado cash sanctions and then criminal accusations against the founders. And I think that that's part and parcel of this process of figuring out how crypto integrates with the larger system. On that front, a really interesting paper came out this week that was notable in part for who wrote it. One of the authors being Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin, and for its exploration of this particular question, i .e. whether you can bring privacy to a protocol without it just becoming another tornado cash. The paper was titled Blockchain Privacy and Regulatory Compliance, Towards a Practical Equilibrium. Its authors include Vitalik Buterin, who I just mentioned, Jacob Ilham of Chainalysis, as well as supporting authors including Fabian Schar, and Matthias Nadler, as well as Amin Soleimani. It proposes a similar system to existing mixers like tornado cash, but that have built -in protections against money laundering. The proposed protocol would allow users to deposit funds to be mixed within a shared pool. Users could then withdraw funds to a fresh wallet, severing the link between wallets — in other words, basic mixer functionality to provide privacy to users. The twist is that the protocol would use zero -knowledge proofs to allow users to prove that their funds came from a particular set of deposits. By restricting the ability to deposit into these pools to users who can provide a known legal source of funds, the protocol can ensure that no illicit funds are mixed. The paper's abstract says that The paper goes on to explain that Now, the proposal builds on prior comments from Vitalik where he stated that tornado cash was a good privacy solution, but had limited options to disassociate between deposits from good actors and bad actors on the network. Vitalik's opinion is that the regulatory crackdowns on the illicit use of crypto networks are inevitable, and so the industry should be proactive in demonstrating that compliant privacy tools can be built. The paper argues that if the privacy -enhancing protocol enables its users to prove certain properties regarding the origin of their funds. Introducing the paper, Amin wrote, The importance of this paper is difficult to overstate. As crypto builds toward a world where financial intermediaries are optional, it is also our responsibility to engage regulators and implement new compliance tools designed for self -custody. So what were people's responses to this? Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi says, They could still generate low -quality or stale whitelist proofs. Is that enough to satisfy the DOJ's bar for compliance? Note that tornado cash had a compliance tool that allowed any user to prove their chain of custody to a third party, such as to an exchange or law enforcement. They also blocked sanctioned addresses from the front end. Even when blocking OFAC -sanctioned addresses from the front end and implementing this ability for depositors to prove their provenance, the DOJ concluded that they were nevertheless liable for how tornado was being used by Lazarus Group. All that said, obviously there are other facts to the tornado case. And I'm not a lawyer, so this is not legal advice. And there are a lot of cool ideas in this paper. But I'm not sure this is going to be a sufficient improvement from the perspective of the DOJ. So basically Haseeb is saying lots of cool stuff in here. But if the question is whether the US government is cool with this, he remains skeptical. Interestingly, Austin Campbell responded and said, Now, another line of conversation is that this is way too much compromise when it comes to critical issues of privacy. Matt Corallo tweets, Now, Matt's post did a great job of pinpointing a key critique and getting people to respond to that. A lot of the discussion in the comments then becomes about what compromise people should be willing to take. Masari's Ryan Selkis responds, Scott Lewis writes, I think it makes more sense to go halfway first. The next best competitor is a CBDC run on one computer by the government. Isolating crypto too aggressively will leave the entire global citizenry in a much worse place. We have to be pragmatic if we want to win. Rainier Stiles Grant toes a middle line saying, Now, there is a ton to debate in here, and debate the community certainly has. Some questions are extremely political. Whether one thinks there should be any compromises in this area, or whether cypherpunks need to keep fighting for true privacy when it comes to transactions. Some are really excited and engaged that there are pragmatic solutions being offered by people from within the industry. Others are pointing out specific technical problems, and in some cases recommending different approaches. Ultimately, I find myself agreeing with Bill Hughes when he writes, However, that is going to do it for today's episode. I appreciate you guys listening as always. Until tomorrow, be safe and take care of each other.
CoinDesk Podcast Network
A highlight from MONEY REIMAGINED: The Thrilling Frontier of Tokenized Assets and Their Impact on Bitcoin
"Hello, and welcome to Money Reimagined. I'm Michael Casey here this week with my co -host Sheila Warren. You can listen to us weekly on the CoinDesk Podcast Network or wherever you get your podcasts. We would love to hear from you. So tell us what you think in an email at podcasts at coindesk .com using the subject line Money Reimagined. All right. Well, Sheila, that's it. Summer's over. Labor Day weekend done. Get down to work. All right. This is it. We're sort of diving in here. Bit of news going on around the place in the regulatory world, which of course is a major interest of yours. But I think today I'd really like to dive into the conversation around tokenization. It seems as if the word that was a buzzword for a number of years has become an even bigger buzzword. There's a lot going on in this RWA, real -world asset concept. Some sort of seeing it as the mainstream, or at least the trad -fying killer app almost for crypto. But I got a lot of thoughts, a lot of different ideas on it. But before we go into that, what's going on? We've got news out of Australia. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a roundup on the sort of the global regulatory front. Yeah. Well, there's always a lot going on. I mean, I'm not going to do the full global rundown. But two things I thought were kind of interesting that got some press were what happened in Australia. There was a bill that have been introduced to basically think about some regulatory parameters around crypto that got rejected. I think that's my view on this is it's less of the headline maker than it's kind of being touted to be. It's just a slowing down of the function. And so the prime minister in Australia had put out this really interesting token mapping consultation exercise February, in I believe. And that was supposed to lead to this consultation around how do you actually regulate and license crypto asset service providers. The legislature basically said, let's wait until that work is done, essentially is how I read the rejection of this bill. But it got some press worthy of mention. And of course, you with your Australian roots, might have some interesting comments on politics in Australia's general matter. The other thing that happened in region, I'll just kind of stay in that region, is Singapore. Singapore, of course, has a new has new leadership. The new president, who used to be a central bank chair, has expressed a view around crypto, you know, calling it, I believe the quote is slightly crazy. You know, I, for one, do not think that is an inaccurate assessment of the crypto ecosystem. Relatively reasonable assessment of the overall. It's also modified slightly somewhat. You know what I mean? But also, I don't think we should be surprised that a central bank chairman is going to have a view that is, you know, influenced by the focus that that individual and anyone in that position is going to have on monetary policy, on fiat, on M0 and M1, you know, etc. So, again, something that made some headlines, I didn't read too much into that. I found it more entertaining than anything else. And I think just a healthy sense. I think that the industry does need to have a healthy sense of humor about some of these things and recognize, you know, that our reputation perhaps precedes us. And that isn't always, you know, it isn't always that we're seen as the most calm, rational, sober actors, you know. And who would want it to be anyway? Ecosystem. Right, exactly. So, I'll stop there. Crazy is kind of what draws me into something. Isn't that, you're not above, right? Yeah. And I thought it was actually, yeah, as you said, like pretty accurate. It's slightly crazy. Yep. Well said. True. Correct. Look, I think that the reason why maybe they got some headlines, both of these things, is they because run a little counter to the narrative that, you know, we talked about. They, hey, the rest of the world is embracing this stuff, you know, that Japan's moving forward and Hong Kong is now all into it and Dubai, et cetera, et cetera. And like, you know what? Yeah, there's still hesitancy out there. And look, I think, as you said, yeah, a former central banker, like, should we be surprised? I think, you know, the fact that - I don't think so. Seems on brand.
Crypto Banter
A highlight from The U.S. Just BANNED DeFi (What It Means For Crypto)
"The US has just tried to kill DeFi, and it could take a lot of other cryptocurrencies down. Now, this video isn't clickbait. So if you clicked on this video expecting me to spin some sort of other narrative, I'm not even joking. The US has just released a new document, a new proposal from the BINDED Administration, which outlines its plan to regulate cryptocurrencies. And honestly, some of the lines in this document are absolutely shocking. And if this goes through, it's going to have major ramifications, not only for the entirety of DeFi, but crypto itself. And I want to talk about exactly what the ramifications can be. Without further ado, let's get straight into what exactly this proposal was, what they're trying to do with crypto, and give you the step -by -step breakdown of what this could actually mean for cryptocurrency. So what you need to know is that essentially the US Treasury and the IRS, which is their tax department, just introduced a tax proposal that I think could effectively kill DeFi as we know it, especially in the US market. And we know this is still the biggest market for finance and cryptocurrency worldwide. Essentially, they just released a proposed cryptocurrency regulation proposal. You know, the BINDED Administration has been working on their updated proposal that may deem applications like Uniswap, Metamask, that's right, even crypto wallets, even Etherscan to be brokers and thus be forced to implement KYC. And that would obviously have huge ramifications for cryptocurrency and also all the tokens related to this. And I'm not just fearmongering. I'm going to give you my take and I'm also going to tell you exactly what's happening. Now, let's read exactly from the news article as it first broke here. They said the proposed rules would also apply to other digital assets such as NFTs. They would also apply to DeFi finance platforms which use software to link crypto buyers and sellers directly rather than routing their orders through a company such as Coinbase. Obviously, what the US government wants is they want all transactions to happen through exchanges which they order, which they regulate like Coinbase. They want to get their hands, of course, on every single cent of tax dollars that they can. And they will also use that as an excuse in order to overregulate or overreach in the DeFi sphere. Now, DeFi by nature is decentralized, right? The US shouldn't be able to touch it. But they're really trying here with these proposed changes to make tweaks to the law which enable them to force a lot of these applications to implement KYC or essentially face major sanctions like we saw with tornado cash. I think the problem DeFi is facing at the moment is that a lot of the founders just don't really feel comfortable operating the US in the US because even if technically they aren't doing anything wrong, they don't want to face DOJ action over money laundering and all sorts of crazy claims in case they are viewed to have overreached or overstepped past the law in the eyes of the US jurisdiction. So a lot of these guys are going to really back off and maybe even stop offering their products in the US if they feel threatened. But without getting too carried away with some of the impacts here, let's just go through some of the proposed tax rules and read through the official document that we did get from the US Treasury and IRS today. So essentially to recap, the proposed tax rules. Metamask is considered a broker and has to KYC and report all its users unless it removes the swap function. Uniswap is a broker and is required to update its UI to a new KYC version. Anything with a multi -sig is also a broker and would be required to add KYC. We can see here that the latter exclusion does not therefore exclude wallet softwares like Metamask from the definition of a facilitative service if the software also provides users with direct access to trading platforms. What they're saying is, look, if you can essentially trade on an application, even if you're a wallet, if you have swaps, we're going to consider you to be a broker and brokers have to KYC their customers. That's essentially the TLDR on what they're saying here. Reading the second part again, I actually think it's worse, says Spreak. They're saying that Uniswap and anyone else that can change the fees on their contracts are going to be required to increase fees to maximum to force users to stop using their platform slash move on to the new KYC version of the platform. This is only phase one. Next, they will come for unhosted wallets and force all the brokers to share your info between each other to create a consolidated 1099. Of course, any activity outside of regulated brokers, your 1099 basis will be wrong. Have fun getting audited. That is pretty crazy. Now, Adam Cochrane breaks this down and gives his take on what he thinks this means for crypto. He highlights one specific line here from the filing that says operators of websites that interact with wallets. Given that a wallet seems to be defined as the actual blockchain account rather than using the software, this technically means that this would find everything including Etherscan and tax software to be brokers. This isn't just heinous overreach. This is a failure to fundamentally understand the technology of crypto. It's like requiring every browser company to get a postmaster license just because they deal with email. And we can't complain about ChokePoint. Sorry, we can complain about ChokePoint all we want, but it's not. It's a regulatory capture because brokerages will be able to offer their services through wallet, through walled gardens that defeat the entire point of the DeFi system. What he's saying here is, look, as I said before, the US would rather just have all the centralized exchanges under their purview and be able to capture essentially the upside to cryptocurrency because if there's more trading volume, they directly capture that for disincentivizing users to use DeFi and use CFI instead. This treasury administration is attempting to declare that viewing or broadcasting public information without custody, profit, or control of that information makes you a broker like Etherscan, like MetaMask. That's about as close to thought gram as you can get. Get the fuck out. P .S. regulation is going to happen and some isn't bad, but this industry wants reasonable regulation that understands the technology and doesn't hand DeFi back to the plutocracy of middlemen who have effed over generations of this economy. This is what we asked and I 100 % would side with Adam Cochrane here in his take. If you don't want to read the full document, you can read it. I did link it in my tweet if you want to check out my tweet, but these are basically the main points that you need to know. They're essentially trying to implement KYC on websites or DeFi applications that they consider brokers. But by nature of this, you could consider MetaMask to be a broker. You could consider any crypto bridge to be a broker. Any DeFi application that has any sort of interaction with tokens and swapping, that could be a broker. So all of your DEXs, etc. So is this going to kill crypto? What does this mean for DeFi? Well, to be honest, DeFi is immutable. So I guess this is the beautiful thing about what decentralized finance is. It's essentially built for this, right? It's built so it can't be like regulated in this manner. It's built so no one centralized party, even be it the US government, can step in and stop it. It is built for this. So DeFi exists for this very purpose. It is owned by the people. It's controlled by the people. That's why tokens act as governance. So the people or the holders of the tokens have control over the applications. But what saddens me to see is the overreach of the Biden administration. It saddens me to see that these proposals can be so overzealous and like ill thought through because they didn't even think through a lot of these claims. And it just makes me sad that the US is going down this path, especially in the context of the DOJ action against the tornado cash founder who, look, he just created an app, right? All this guy did was create a platform. If money launderers were going to use it to money launder, that's their prerogative. But the fact that he's being sanctioned for money laundering, it's absolutely crazy. And as I said, this may disincentivize project founders from offering infrastructure in the US. So what does all this mean? Well, the lucky thing is this hasn't officially been approved yet. These are proposed regulations from the US, but they aren't official regulations. A lot still needs to happen from a legislative perspective for this to actually come into action. And you've got to remember, this is just in the context of the Biden administration. If someone else gets elected next year, well, it's going to be a completely different ballgame in terms of how crypto is regulated. The other thing is with cases like tornado cash and even the Binance and the Coinbase cases, these still have to go through the courts of law. And like we saw with the SEC versus the XRP case, oftentimes the court of law does hold the truth. And the key to the truth could very well mean that the US doesn't have jurisdiction to regulate in such a manner. And in that case, it would be a big win for crypto. So the US hasn't completely killed crypto yet, but today it did take a huge step in the wrong direction because obviously forcing KYC upon users essentially eliminates the purpose of DeFi. Like why have DeFi if everyone has to be KYC, if every single thing needs to be monitored and tracked and audited, I mean, that's just basically CFI, right? So I do think effectively the US wants to kill DeFi, but it's not even just the US, it's mainly just the current administration. And if that changes, then I think also the approach to regulating crypto changes, but DeFi being immutable, I don't think this will knock it down. And the other thing is, you know, across multiple jurisdictions in the world, like Europe has its own MICA regulatory framework for these kind of assets. Australia is building their own, Hong Kong's building their own, Dubai is doing their own, you know, Singapore is doing their own. All of these countries are having their own take on how they want to regulate crypto and regulate DeFi. So even if the US does somehow pass some crazy sanction or some crazy limits or KYC order upon every single DeFi protocol, crypto will still survive. Will it take a hit? Yes, because the US users are obviously a massive part of the market, but it will still survive. I just feel sorry for all the project founders in the US right now that are having to deal with such a gray area from a regulatory perspective. So that's all I have to say on that for now, but I will keep you updated. But for the rest of this video, we still have a lot to talk about. We just had Jackson Hole, which was Jerome Powell's presser, which I want to break down and talk about how this is affecting the market because Bitcoin is moving right now. And then I also want to discuss Pepe. I want to talk about the Pepe crash this morning and give my take on whether I think Pepe is dead, whether I think, you know, this is a good buying opportunity, what I think you should do with Pepe and what I'm doing with Pepe. So those are the two major conversations I want to have now to wrap up the show. Let me know what you think of the first segment in the comments below in relation to the US sanctions. Now, before we get into the presser summary and then the Pepe stuff, I want to give a shout out to one of our official show partners, OpenX. I actually just wanted to give you a quick update, to be honest, on what I did today. So basically, I staked 200 ,000 of my OX tokens and I made a bold move. I decided to lock them for a year. I don't know necessarily like how this is going to pan out. It's a little bit of an experiment, but basically the logic behind staking it for a year is I earn $400 in weekly rewards. By the way, 200 ,000 tokens is around $10 ,000 of the tokens. And essentially that comes out to around a 200 % yield per annum, which means I would theoretically break even in six months if it maintains a $400 weekly reward. The major caveat being over time, this could drop if the token value changes, and I don't expect to break even that quickly. If I do, amazing. If I don't, it's okay. I'm still going to get access to the airdrops. So the whole reason behind why I staked and locked is so I can get boosted rewards on their airdrop programs for their justice tokens, for their duties tokens, and for their FMT tokens as well. They're doing lots of kind of these airdrop launchpad style rewards for stakers of the OX token, which is obviously the governance token of the OpenX exchange. So just want to give you a little update there because I did say in past shows that I would stake just was updating you that I did decide to stake for an entire year. So I guess I'm committed to this for the long term. Let's hope I can keep cashing in these $400 weekly rewards for the foreseeable future. I do think it'll drop. But if the token can hold up in value and even go up over time, which I hope it does, then I should do well off it. Not financial advice. I'm not saying you should buy, you should stake. They are a show partner. So just want to give full disclosure there. But just wanted to give you a little update in what I'm doing. You want to learn anything else about OpenX or even use the actual exchange, which by the way, is a great exchange to trade on. There is a link in the description if you want to check it out and use it. But yeah, just give me an update. So speaking of updates, let's talk about what happened at Jerome Powell's Jackson Hole speech. Kabisi let us summarize this by saying, number one, they're prepared to raise further if needed. We all know Jerome Powell would say that. Number two, the Fed would not change the 2 % inflation target. We all knew that he would say that. Three, they will proceed carefully on whether to hike again. That's not really news, is it? Four, lowering inflation will require softer labor markets. Obviously, five, above trend growth, it could warrant more rate hikes. We all know this higher for longer stances. Still the one he's taking. It seems like a long pause is coming, Kabisi said. Kabisi also said that the odds of a 25 bps rate hike in September more than doubled to 21 % after Powell's speech. Odds of an additional rate hike this year just hit a two -month high. So people are anticipating now after the speech, we will get more rate hikes. And that's why Bitcoin did respond. We'll get into that in a second. Rate cuts are now not expected to begin until June 2024. So it delayed the rate cut cycle slightly. The Fed wants 2 % inflation and will do whatever it takes to get there. The rollercoaster ride continues. However, none of that was really a shock with Alex Kruger saying the speech was a major non -event. Markets reacted positively for a moment as there were concerns he may talk higher terminal rates, which didn't happen. Equities flat, bonds flat, crypto asleep. Just noise. Crypto was asleep, but we did see Bitcoin starting to decline and drop below this 26k level. On the smaller timeframes like the one hour and the four hour, the 26k level is super, super important. But on the daily and the weekly timeframe, which for me are more important for my long -term buyers and my longer -term swing trades, we are still holding above this zone with the key support level on some exchanges, which we wicked into being 25k. And you can see even clearer on the weekly chart that the 25k level is also super important. If we look at the I'll show you EMA 200 and also the QEMA, which we did break down below, but we are now touching. So very, very important to see how Bitcoin reacts to this zone. We are on support on this EMA on the weekly. However, we also have to keep in mind we have that horizontal support as well at the 25k zone. So that is really what I'm looking at for Bitcoin. No updates there, but I will be doing a live stream on Sunday where I'll be doing live research. We'll be doing a Q &A. I'll be telling you what I bought this week because I did make some big market moves. But I'm saving those buys and my trades for Sunday because I'm going to make this a thing. Every weekend we get together, we do a live stream, we discuss trades, etc. Now, one trade I may be making that I haven't made yet, but I do want to talk about now is Pepe because I'm getting a lot of questions. Is Pepe dead? What should I do with Pepe? Will Pepe ever recover, etc.? I want to discuss that right now. So look, seeing looking at the Pepe chart, we can see that it did have a huge correction of around 25 % this morning. Reason for that being a lot of FUD started to occur around Pepe. And this wasn't FUD that was based in complete fiction. A lot of this was fact. And I'll explain what the facts are. The facts are the team via their multisig cashed out $15 .7 million worth of Pepe to exchanges. So this was across, I think, OKEx, Binance, Bybit and some other minor exchanges as well. That's just natural profit taking, right? I mean, I know it's not good when you see the team selling tokens. But at the end of the day, they kind of have the right to sell tokens when you think about it. Like they made the project. I know it's not a good sign and the market, of course, reacted accordingly. But it is also the prerogative of the team if they want to take some profits. I think that's normal, especially if they want runway. However, the very weird part about this was they reduced the multisig requirements from five out of eight to two out of eight. What does that mean? Well, whenever you approve a transaction and you're a crypto project, typically you want more than half of your executive team to vote on transactions before they occur. This is stopping one rogue employee or director from ragging the entire project, right? So if they have eight people on the multisig, so eight, you know, let's say executives. Previously, they required five of the eight, so more than 50 percent to approve a transaction. This might be a sell. This might be a buy. This might be selling Pepe to exchanges. This could be a, you know, some sort of major tokenomics tweak, et cetera. But they actually lessen the requirement from five out of eight to two out of eight. And this started to raise a lot of question marks. I mean, was there an internal dispute? Why was none of this communicated on the socials? Will the selling continue? Like, why did they decline it? The really weird thing for me is the Pepe coin each Twitter account didn't post about this. And in fact, if you go into their Twitter account, I'll get up their account now. You can see they haven't posted for days. And I think this sale comes at a really bad time because people are saying, look, they haven't posted since August 12th, which is over 13 days ago, almost two weeks. They haven't actually done any reply since August 13th, which is about two weeks ago. Yet they're dumping tokens and they're changing their multi -situ requirements. And it caused a lot of fun and panic. And I do think that these questions alone do justify a repricing to the downside. Of course, Pepe is going to be worth 20 percent less after this FUD because there was a fundamental knock on the project. And that was a trust knock. And although meme coins don't typically have the most trust in the market, to become like a solidified meme like Doge or Shib, you need some sort of trust in the team. This eroded some of that trust. So publicly, it was definitely bad for the project. And they went about this the wrong way if you ask me. They really should have at least come out in front of it and said, look, we're reducing the multi -situ. This is why. Even lie to us. Tell us something. Tell us there was an internal dispute. Be honest. Or just say, you know, these are the reasons why we do it. Or even just tell us we're going to sell because we want to, I don't know, develop new products and we want to keep runway for the team. And blah, blah, blah. Even that's better than just selling and not saying anything, right? So it definitely just justifies the repricing to the downside. And it did raise some red flags.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Tornado Cash Arrests: Attack on Terrorism or Attack on Privacy?
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, August 24th, and today we are talking about tornado, cash and some big announcements of arrests yesterday. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on the Breakers Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Well, friends, a bit of a big announcement yesterday. On Wednesday, the Justice Department unsealed charges against two tornado cash co -founders. Roman Storm, who lives in Washington state, has been arrested and Roman Semenov, a Russian citizen, remains at large and is believed to be currently residing in Dubai. In addition to the charges, Semenov has been added to the Office of Foreign Asset Control Specially Designated Nationals list, which is the list of sanctioned companies and individuals. The pair are charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money -transmitting business. A third co -founder, Alexey Pertsev, you will remember, was arrested in the Netherlands in August of last year, and Pertsev is currently awaiting trial on money laundering charges from home detention after spending over six months in jail. Ofack said in a statement that, quote, tornado cash has been used to launder funds for criminal actors since its creation in 2019, including to obfuscate hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual currency stolen by Lazarus Group hackers. Alongside Semenov being personally added to the sanctions list, eight Ethereum wallet addresses were identified as belonging to him. According to Elliptic, these addresses have processed more than $11 .5 million in crypto transactions. Now, the DOJ claims that tornado cash has, quote, facilitated more than $1 billion in money laundering, including, quote, hundreds of millions for North Korea's Lazarus Group. The key to the case, according to U .S. Attorney Damian Williams, is that the pair here charged, quote, knowingly facilitated money laundering. He said in a statement, while publicly claiming to offer a technically sophisticated privacy service, Storm and Semenov in fact knew they were helping hackers and fraudsters conceal the fruits of their crimes. Today's indictment is a reminder that money laundering through cryptocurrency transactions violates the law and those who engage in such laundering will face prosecution. Now, Storm's lawyer claimed that the case hinged on a novel legal theory. He said in a statement, Now, let's take a step back and put this in the context of what happened last year. In August of last year, tornado cash was placed on the sanctions list. The use of sanctions to prohibit the use of anonymizing services was controversial within the crypto industry. Both Coin Center and a group of individuals backed by Coinbase have sued the Treasury Department over the sanctions, with each lawsuit claiming that the sanctions impinge on U .S. protections around the execution of computer code. In addition, they claim that autonomous smart contracts cannot be the subject of sanctions law as they are not the property of a sanctioned individual or group. Last week, however, the Coinbase lawsuit was dismissed, with the judge writing in their decision that smart contracts are analogous to vending machines in the way they carry out their predetermined task. The judge wrote that, Now, let's dig into the charges a little bit. The newly unsealed charges explain the functionality of tornado cash and how Storm and Semenov established a token system around the protocol in order to profit from its operation. Tornado cash allows users to deposit ETH to be mixed with other depositors. Users receive a secret note, which can be redeemed for the deposited ETH at a new, unrelated address. In order to facilitate the withdrawal of ETH to fresh wallets that could not pay gas fees, tornado cash established a system where users could use relays to process withdrawal requests using the smart contract. Relays would take a fee for providing this service. This process makes private transactions possible on the Ethereum network, breaking the ability to trace funds through blockchain analytics. Storm and Semenov, the government accused, would frequently give instructions on how to maximize the anonymity provided by the service, including waiting several days before withdrawing to ensure that transactions couldn't be linked. Nine months after the launch of tornado cash in August of 2019, the developers updated the smart contract to remove their private keys. This made it impossible for the code to be further modified and relinquished any ability to control its operation. In December 2020, the founders created the tornado cash DAO to make governance decisions around the protocol. The DAO issued torn tokens and distributed them with 8 % of the supply going to each founder and 6 % going to venture capital backers. The DAO then used these tokens to create an incentive scheme to encourage relay to compete to process transactions and to incentivize users to deposit funds to increase the anonymity set for the protocol. The indictment alleges that the founders profited from the price appreciation of the torn token, ultimately cashing out for $2 .6 million each in August of 2022. Now where the nuance in this case comes in is the question around were these charges for writing code or were they charges for some other type of activity that the government sees as beyond the pale. Obviously, when we're talking about something where the implications are the big thing that matters, these sort of details are essential to really understand. And indeed, in this case, the charges against Storm and Semenov go deeper than just writing and publishing the code underlying tornado cash. In fact, the DOJ appears to be much more focused on the actions taken by them to support, promote and profit from the protocol after its initial deployment. The indictment claims that the developers were aware and indifferent to the use of tornado cash to launder the proceeds of crime from the beginning. As far back as November 2021, the government says the developers considered whether they should implement KYC and anti -money laundering features into tornado cash and chose not to. This consideration became more serious after the $552 million Ronan Bridge hack in March of 2022, given that the following month the attack was attributed to the Lazarus Group, which had been on the sanctions list since September 2019. The stolen funds were very publicly identified as being laundered using tornado cash. According to encrypted chats disclosed in the indictment, Storm sent a message to his fellow developers as the news broke in April stating, Guys, we are effed. The tornado cash team then implemented some perfunctory controls on the protocol's front end, such as the website used to access tornado cash would now block deposits from wallet addresses on the sanctions list. However, in encrypted chats, the developers acknowledged that these controls would be quote easy to evade by interacting with the smart contract directly. The indictment also introduces evidence that the developers were aware of just how rampant money laundering was on tornado cash. In encrypted chats, they shared an article which claimed that more than 90 % of transactions through the service were related to criminal acts. In the three months that followed the Ronan attack, as much as 15 % of volume was attributed to the laundering of those funds. The key allegation in the indictment is that, quote, Throughout this time period, the Tornado Cash founders continued to operate the Tornado Cash service and facilitate the Lazarus Group's money laundering and sanctions evasion, including by paying the U .S.-based web hosting service to continue to host the Tornado Cash website, continuing to maintain and keep the UI accessible to customers, and promoting the Tornado Cash service in public statements. Moreover, they maintained the Relayer algorithm and the Relayer registry, which allowed them to profit financially from the continued use of the Tornado Cash service by the Lazarus Group. As to the charges, the developers have been charged with three counts each. Conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit sanctions violations, and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. As you might imagine, the crypto legal community has a lot to say about whether the facts alleged in the case established that Tornado Cash or the system of relays around it legally qualify as a money transmitting business. Peter van Valkenburg, the director of research at CoinCenter, said, The factual allegations of unlicensed money transmission are in conflict with FinCEN's longstanding guidance that a, quote, anonymizing software provider is not a money transmitter. In an accompanying article, Valkenburg says that the only part of the indictment that indicates the developers were operating an unlicensed money transmission business is that they, quote, engaged in the business of transferring funds on behalf of the public. According to Valkenburg's analysis of the law, this falls short of the legal definition which requires acceptance of funds from a customer for the purposes of transmission. The implication is the same one that Tom Emmer has been putting forward in his blockchain regulatory certainty bill that, quote, if you don't custody consumer funds, you are not a money transmitter. However, Preston Byrne, a lawyer at Brown and Rudnick, noted that there is some legal nuance in the way the DOJ went about charging the developers. He said, The feds don't need to show that they accepted or received funds because defendants aren't charged with the underlying offense, they're charged with conspiracy. Preston expanded that thought, There is a huge difference, he wrote, between a, merely publishing code for discussion purposes which could be used unlawfully, and b, running an unlawful business which monetizes that code. After reading the tornado cache indictment, if things are as alleged, it was the latter. For the purposes of 18 USC 1960, the publication of protocols on GitHub isn't the same thing as operating a whole damn system, including hosting a UI and bolting on a shitcoin to it, where the returns from the coin are linked to the provision of liquidity for the system. I think it is that involvement with the essential functionality of the system which makes it not subject to the network access carve -out from the definition of money transmitter. Do we need privacy in crypto? Absolutely. Are there ways for people to run code that does this lawfully? Yes. Was tornado cache the way? No. Now of course, as much nuance as there might be in the specifics of how the defendants were charged, one of the big concerns is the chilling effect on privacy norms in open source development that it might have no matter what the charges actually are. In a rare moment of speechlessness, Jake Travinsky, the chief policy officer of the Blockchain Association said, I'm struggling to think of something, anything, useful to say about the tragic mistake that is the DOJ's decision to treat privacy in speech as crimes. I'm blank. Later, he followed up, Privacy is normal. Code is speech. The right to anonymity is essential to a free society. These are fundamental principles embodied in the U .S. Constitution. In time, I'm confident they will be confirmed by the judiciary, even if today they were ignored by the executive. Chris Bleck wrote, The arrest of Roman Storm and Roman Semenov of Tornado Cache isn't about money laundering. This is an attack on privacy. It's an attempt to chill the open source community into compliance. The government does not want you to do anything that it's unable to observe and judge. Dystopia Breaker writes, Take a moment to consider the broad and absurd implications of writing software that is used in a bad way makes the author legally responsible for every bad use would mean. No signal. No privacy tools. Total handover of power to centralized orgs and illegalization of privacy. Ultimately, this position is so absurd that it seems unlikely to be accepted. It's remarkable that they went with it. Masari's Ryan Selkis said, We are so far from our founding principles, we just jailed a software developer for building encryption tech and daring to empower citizens to transact freely. Utterly disgusting. We need a total evisceration of our political police state and D .C. No reform. Mass layoffs. And Udi Wertheimer really summed up many people's feelings when he said, Today is a sad day for America and for freedom. Privacy is for everyone, and it is crucial that as an industry we keep fighting for it, no matter the setbacks. No one else is going to. At this point, I think in crypto, we're almost anesthetized to more government actions against the industry. But I think this one is worth holding aside and putting in a slightly different category. The conversation here isn't really about cryptocurrency, except in so far as it was used as a reward mechanism for people who are promoting this protocol. Obviously, the much bigger questions are about the nature of privacy, about the rights of software developers, about the responsibilities of software developers, about the tools that the government uses to fight money laundering and terrorism. They are, in other words, emblematic of bigger concerns and bigger questions. It's reasonable to have contradictory feelings about this, but that's exactly why we need regulatory clarity, not just for crypto, but for software development. And guess what? In a world of AI, these questions are coming up all over again. The question in particular of whether the developers of software can be held accountable for how it's used is becoming an even bigger question than it ever has been in the past. In other words, this one is worth considering for far more than the implications for just this industry, but for the very basis of the technology -driven society that we live in. Anyways, guys, that is going to do it for today's breakdown. I will, of course, keep you updated as the situation evolves. Until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from XRP Will Be Bigger Than You Think! (Here's Why)
"There's a whole bunch of things in the judge's ruling that make it very clear about XRP. The SEC has been clear about Bitcoin also. Now, the unfortunate reality is right now, there's clarity for two, Bitcoin and XRP. On December 22, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple and two of their executives, Brad Garvin and housing Chris Larsen, alleging that crypto asset XRP was an unregistered security. Nearly three years and $200 million of legal fees later, Judge Analisa Torres ruled that although the initial sale of XRP may be construed as a security offering, secondary sales of XRP do not constitute securities offerings. Hey, get some, baby! Get some! This is a landmark moment in crypto. But where does that leave us? What's going on with XRP and Ripple? And most importantly, what does all this mean for the XRP Army? As we look to the future and the next crypto bull run. In this video, we're taking a more detailed look into the XRP ecosystem and everything that makes it one of the most formidable forces in the financial universe. If you're in the BitSquad or the XRP Army, this is a video you can't afford to miss. And that's in direct order from the supreme commander of the XRP Army. Let's get it. Welcome to BitBoy Crypto! Home of the BitSquad. My name is Ben. Today, we're going to do a deep dive in the XRP ecosystem and swimming our way through the waves of Ripple. There will be nets and on -demand liquidity, so if I think of any fishy puns, I'll make sure to let you know immediately. But first, go ahead and smash that like button and turn on channel notifications. It puts you in the BitSquad and makes sure you get the latest and greatest about all things crypto. In order to understand why XRP is so important, we have to begin with the problem that XRP was initially created to solve, namely expensive and lengthy cross -border payments. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication was launched in 1973. Since then, SWIFT has provided financial payment services between banks worldwide. They do this through a messaging network which allows international payments. Right now, over half of all international wire transfers are done via SWIFT. The catch is SWIFT does not serve the purpose of clearing or settling transactions. This means they still rely on third parties for this crucial piece, which adds a lot of time, expense and inefficient complexity to the whole process. So let's say you want to send $100 from the United States to one of your crypto bros in Dubai, like Chris from MooM Crypto or Carl from The Moon, in exchange for them giving you a private lesson on how to make crazy reaction faces for YouTube thumbnails. Well, in order to do that, you just send the money via year bank, and it updates on the user interface almost immediately. But that's just what the user sees. It can actually take three to five business days to settle. That's a long time in the world of finance. Not so SWIFT after all, am I right? And while your bank is waiting, they could be losing a lot of money in conversion fees to swap between currencies or paying banking fees to move the value through any number of different intermediary networks. And finally, they could end up losing a lot of money because the exchange rate between the currencies might have shifted against them since you initiated the transaction. Now, for $100 between crypto bros, this might not be such a big deal, but the global foreign exchange market commonly referred to as the Forex or FX is the global marketplace for the trading of one nation's currency for another. It has a daily global volume that ranges between $5 and $9 trillion of value. That's trillion with a T per day every single day. Suddenly, all these little delays in fees and conversion costs turn into a multi -billion dollar cost of doing business. As I'm sure you can imagine, banks aren't happy about this, and you can be sure as Satoshi that they're going to find a better solution. Now, I want to explain this in detail because it's important that you understand the scope and scale of what's at stake here. Crypto is a lot bigger than just meme coins and fun NFTs. We're talking about a major international banking problem that digital assets are uniquely poised to solve. Ripple is aiming to be the solution that gets adopted by banks and institutions around the world for this. But with so much money and power at play here, it's important to remember why the SEC went after them in the first place. It's never been about investor protection. It's always been about protecting their power and preventing you from getting out from under their control. So, by all means, have fun in crypto, but pay attention and remember why we're in the XRP Army. Go ahead and smash that like button and turn on notifications if you support the XRP Army, and the awesome content we bring on this channel every single day. Okay, so now we know what the problem is and why it's such a big deal to the banks. But how does Ripple solve this? And how does that involve XRP? In 2012, Ripple developed a public blockchain infrastructure in response to Bitcoin, RippleNet. The resulting payment network was designed to provide banks and other financial institutions with a faster, more cost -effective and streamlined alternative to the notorious slow SWIFT for conducting cross -border transactions. RippleNet, as it's known, is a real -time settlement system, a currency exchange and a remittance network, all rolled into one. Initially, Ripple's products included xRapid, a liquidity product, xVIA, a payment application and programming interface, and xCurrent, a real -time settlement system. In 2019, xCurrent and xVIA were combined and rebranded to RippleNet. And at the same time, xRapid was renamed On -Demand Liquidity or ODL. ODL speeds up the transfer and exchanges of fiat between currencies and exchange of fiat currencies between countries. If you look on Ripple's website today, you'll see they advertise three products and services, cross -border payments, on -demand crypto liquidity, and a third product, a central bank digital currency platform. They even include a quote from the president of Plow about building their nation's CBDC on Ripple. Always nice when happy customers leave you a good review. Okay, so those are the products from Ripple, but how does XRP work itself? XRP is the native cryptocurrency of the XRP Ledger, a public blockchain that uses something called Fenerate Consensus to validate transactions. A big difference between XRP and other public blockchains is that participants in the Ripple network are known and trusted by each other. As of July 2023, there are more than 150 validators on the network and over 35 on the default unique node list, or D, U and L, a list of nodes that are trusted network participants. In 2020, I appointed myself as the Supreme Commander of the XRP Army because it sounds cool and because I trust myself to participate a lot in this awesome community. Transactions in XRP settle in about 5 seconds at a negligible cost. You know, there's no stronger appointment than a self -appointment. Sorry. XRP can't be mined, and no new tokens will ever be created. Founders issue the entire supply of 100 billion XRP tokens at launch. It will transfer at $55 billion of its 80 billion XRP tokens into an escrow account in 2017, for which you can sell a maximum of 1 billion tokens per month. That was done to improve the transparency of XRP sales for the rest of the market. XRP is fast, efficient and can handle 1500 transactions per second. The result is that their cross -border currency payment system has attracted partnerships with more than 100 financial institutions, including Santander Bank, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of America, and over 55 countries have signed on to use it with over 120 fiat currency trading pairs. Ripple also bought a 40 % stake in a cross -border payments firm called Tranglo to expand its ODL offerings in Southeast Asia. If you love learning deep dive details about crypto, make sure to go check out Billab Academy, by the way. Make sure you're educated to capitalize on the next bull run. Now, after winning the initial rolling in the SEC case, Ripple is wasting no time capitalizing on the hard -won regulatory clarity they received. Just days ago, they announced they joined ISDA. And when it comes to organizations with four -letter names, ISDA best won. ISDA is actually a prestigious trade organization. The International Swaps and Derivatives Association or ISDA orchestrates and standardizes contract agreements and other important legal frameworks in the derivatives and swaps market. They have serious international influence and a presence in 79 countries. The website also looks like it's from the early 2000s, so you know they're too important to care about being cool. Ripple joining ISDA could be a harbinger of big things to come, and it marks Ripple's strategic entrance into the world of derivatives. It also further cements XRP status as the favorite crypto of the TradFi big boys. It shows that Ripple intends to continue to integrate its blockchain technology into every aspect of the legacy financial markets. Simply put, they want the whole world's banking system to use RippleNet and ODL for everything. No big deal. Now, we're talking about what Ripple is building and some of the multi -trillion -dollar problems they're trying to solve, but there's a lot more being built with XRP than just what Ripple is working on for bankers. The XRP community is really engaging with XRPL, XRP Ledger, and building a lot of interesting projects. Global XRP Ledger community, a diverse set of developers, server operators, users and businesses maintains a ledger. Any changes that would impact transaction processing or consensus need be approved by at least 80 % of the network. Ripple is a contributor to the network, but its rights are the same as any other contributors. In fact, the XRPL Foundation is currently collaborating with community members to define their shared vision statement. So reach out to them if you'd like to get involved. The XRPL brings governance, accounts, tokenization, decentralized finance, and even NFTs to XRP and it was a much wider range of community -driven use cases than Ripple ever imagined or would be capable of creating on their own. In my opinion, this is what crypto is all about. Decentralization, innovation, community ownership. The XRP Army is truly setting an outstanding example for the rest of the space in this regard. You can check out a more in -depth look at some of the use cases for XRPL on their website. This cool project you can check out on your own are Soligenic, which is a trading platform that seeks to bring tokenized asset trading to institutions, Xpecter, a metaverse project built on the XRPL, and XRPL Punks or XPunks, which is pioneering NFTs on XRPL as well. My point here is there's a lot going on in the XRP ecosystem beyond just what Ripple is building for the bankers. The XRP Army is one of the strongest communities in crypto, and they've been building all bear market long. And this is something I've said time and time again, but it's something you really have to understand. I can't predict the future. There are no guarantees here. Regularity houses are right, and XRP does seem to have a unique advantage for the moment given the recent ruling that declared a secondary sale of XRP on securities. That's a huge win for Ripple and for XRP because it means that they have regulatory clarity in the United States, which is a jurisdiction that no other digital assets besides Bitcoin have, and that's actually a little fuzzy, too. So when they build things around XRP, they're building something that has a unique regulatory standing in the American market, and that standing could make what they're building very attractive to investors and users alike. But as we go forward in the next bull run, it's important to keep yourself educated. Watch what happens. Swim with the whales. Pay attention to who's building what and how much adoption they're getting. There's going to be a lot of strong competition. But Ripple has made it very clear that they intend to be a leading contender in this space for years to come. Yes, stablecoins like USDC might give them a run for their money in certain areas, but there's a lot more to XRP than just cross -border payments. Stablecoins and CBDCs cannot replace everything that XRP and Ripple are building by themselves. XRP missed out on a lot of gains in the last bull run due to market suppression following the SEC lawsuit dropping. I've long predicted that XRP will be one of the biggest gainers, if not the biggest gainer, in the upcoming bull run. But just because they won the initial ruling does not mean the fight is going to stop. The SEC is doing everything they can to appeal or overturn the decision. But don't let any of that noise rattle you. As Supreme Commander of the XRP Army, my biggest message to everyone in the XRP Army is get educated. Understand what XRP is. Understand what's at stake. Also, visit bitboycrypto .com slash take. Guys, make sure to understand what is coming. Stay focused. Stay ready. And stay crypto, my friends. That's all I got. Be blessed. BitBoy out.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from FIRST CRYPTO FRIENDLY REPUBLICAN DEBATE! BINANCE US FIAT ON RAMP, STELLAR LUMENS XLM, & COREUM
"Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto Podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, please hit that subscribe button as well as the thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify, Apple or Google, please leave a five star rating and review. It supports the podcast and it doesn't cost you anything. Well, folks, I want to give you an update on the Grayscale versus SEC lawsuit. There was supposed to be a decision today, but unfortunately there was no decision. This is according to the Grayscale chief legal officer. Everyone is waiting in anticipation. What is the ruling on this? We're hoping Grayscale mops the floor with Gary Gensler and the SEC and gives the SEC another major loss. We're also hoping that Coinbase, they can get their lawsuit dismissed or at least beat the SEC in court as well. We've seen the court has been the balance of power where the SEC corruption and nonsense and illegal activity or unlawful activity has been getting exposed. Judge Sarah Netburn in the Ripple lawsuit said the SEC lacked faithful allegiance to the law and how many CEOs and folks in the industry have said the SEC is acting shady. They asked you to come in and it seems like they're doing and working with you in good faith, but they're looking to stab you in the back. So I'm hoping Grayscale wins this. I'm not the biggest Grayscale fan, but with regards to this situation, they filed for a Bitcoin spot ETF in addition to about 20 other people. And they've been trying to get an ETF for a very long time, but the SEC has denied these ETFs. And I think that's because they want their wall street buddies like BlackRock, specifically Gary Gensler's buddies like BlackRock and all these folks to come in and take over the market, to have them have the ETFs. How dare these crypto startups try to supplant these tradfi incumbents, right folks? That's the game that's been going on and we need the SEC and Gary Gensler to take more losses. I'm not saying the SEC doesn't have a job to do. Of course they do, but they have fallen far from that core mission to protect investors, to look out for bad actors. Instead, they're going after good actors in a very politically themed move, right? We see Gary Gensler, he has made the SEC very much about politics. We know he's Democrat appointed and it's unbelievable that he's doing that. He's not doing his job and he should be fired and kicked out. So this is why we need Grayscale to get a victory, we need Coinbase to get a victory. And obviously we had a big victory with the Ripple lawsuit where XRP was declared intrinsically not a security and secondary market sales, not securities offerings. That was a huge win, not just for XRP, but for the entire crypto market. So let's see if we hear anything by Friday or next week, but I'm hoping this comes soon folks, because Congress is going to be back in a couple of weeks where they're going to reconvene and try to push them crypto regulation bills through. And if the SEC is taking more losses, they're going to want to take action. So I think you need that catalyst. It seems that's the catalyst, because we started seeing a ramp up in efforts from Congress as soon as Ripple's ruling came through and it was positive for XRP and Ripple. The SEC took a big loss there. Trust me when I tell you, even though it was like a split decision for the most part, Ripple took the biggest share of the pie from a victory standpoint. So let's see what happens folks. Now everyone I think pretty much knows tomorrow is the first Republican presidential debate to feature pro -crypto candidates. You have Florida governor Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who are both pro -crypto. They've specifically Ron DeSantis has talked about CBDCs and the need for regulations. So I'm not here to endorse either of these candidates. I'm just stating the facts. We are entering a new era where crypto adoption is growing and even our political candidates and politicians can't ignore crypto anymore. And on the Democrat side, you have RFK Jr. who's very much into Bitcoin and also it's calling for crypto regulations. So this is very bullish folks. And this is why I'm sharing with you that you are aware that crypto is seeping into the mainstream, into politics, into pop culture, right? It is a growing asset class in technology and folks, this is part of the adoption. People understanding what's happening here, talking about it in different circles and different walks of life. And if you understand adoption of technology and new things, you go back and you look at the internet, this is part of it, right? In order for more people to come in and to adopt the technology, invest in it and do much more, they need to start hearing about it and seeing it, right? There's marketing principles here that many times people need to see things two to three times or hear about it two to three times before they're interested or they make a decision to purchase and so forth. So don't take this news lightly. It is certainly very important. So candidates for the Republican nomination for the 2024 United States presidential election who have publicly expressed their support or disdain for certain crypto related policies will be meeting for a debate for the first time. The August 23rd event will be the first time many of the Republican candidates will be in the same room amid a political campaign that has seen them targeting their rivals, though it's unclear if cryptocurrencies and blockchain will be mentioned at the debate. Some of the candidates have explicitly mentioned plans to include the technology and policies should they win the party nomination on and the presidential election. Florida governor Ron DeSantis is trailing by double digits to Trump, according to several polls will be leading. It will be the leading candidate among the eight contenders in July. The Florida governor promised to ban central bank digital currencies in the US should he be elected president, citing concerns about giving the government authority over consumer payments. He previously signed a bill aimed at largely prohibiting the use of a federally issued digital dollar in Florida. Rama Swamy, who at 38 years old is the youngest candidate in the running, has advocated for the 2024 election to be a referendum on fiat currency. He spoke at the Bitcoin 2023 conference in Miami to announce his campaign would be accepting Bitcoin donations later receiving praise from ex CEO Elon Musk as a promising candidate. Now Miami mayor Francis Suarez, and many of you may recall my interview with him back in 2020, who gained popularity in a space for promoting pro -crypto policies in the city entered the presidential race in June. During this time as mayor, he announced he would accept certain paychecks in Bitcoin and was involved in the Miami coin token project for Miami residents. Suarez said in a now deleted post on X, formerly Twitter, on August 18 he had qualified to appear at the Republican debate. However, this claim was contradicted by GOP officials on August 21st following an announcement regarding the debate participation list, which included eight names with Suarez not among them. So Suarez didn't make it. We know he's super pro -crypto. I had interviewed him and they were looking to potentially put Bitcoin on a balance sheet in Miami as well. So folks, once again, this is not to endorse any specific candidate or party, but rather just step back, put aside politics for a second and just look at what's happening in the landscape of adoption of crypto. And part of it, like I said, is the recognition in mainstream and politics and much more. And you know, the folks who are running for president, who are going to take policies or help create policies around crypto and turn it into law. So this is significant. And I'm so bullish when I see things like this. Once again, I got in in 2016 and I couldn't imagine this happening. You have pro -crypto candidates and we'll see if it becomes a topic. It will be very interesting if it comes up, folks, giving crypto prime time coverage in the mainstream media. Now let's move ahead. Really interesting news around Binance US. So Binance US renews banking push with MoonPay deal. Binance US is pushing into fiat support again via a MoonPay partnership. Now, many of you may recall they turned off fiat on and off services with Binance US, you know, getting sued, of course. But it looks like they're like, OK, whatever the dust is settled, we're going to try to get fiat on and off RAMs again. So Binance US has been working on integrating new US dollar on RAM solutions, such as partnering with third party payment provider MoonPay. The company told customers in an email on Monday, which was reviewed by BlockWorks. It wasn't immediately clear what crypto currencies would be supported for buying and selling in dollars via the MoonPay partnership. One indicator pointed to Tether's USDT as being the sole supported asset at launch. Representatives for Binance US and MoonPay did not immediately return a request for comment. MoonPay supports debit and credit cards, as well as ACH transfers. The exchange before the US SEC's lawsuit earlier this year previously supported buying most crypto assets via dollar deposits and in turn selling those currency, crypto currencies in a dollar conversion, which would then be withdrawn by customers of Binance's platform. An update listed for Binance US's app on the App Store or Apple App Store at the end of last week said users could now buy and sell USDT with USD in app via MoonPay. So folks will see, you know, I'm still hesitant here with Binance US, not because I don't trust CZ or whatever, but rather I think Binance is in the targets of a lot of regulators. You know, there is a macro political play here that, you know, Binance is often associated with China as a Chinese company. So from the folks I've been talking about who do a lot of advocacy and lobbying in DC, they said a lot of people don't like Binance. So I wouldn't be surprised if the regulators come down really hard on Binance US. I don't think they can really do anything to hurt Binance .com, but Binance US being a US company, it's an easy target, right? So I would probably avoid Binance US. I was using Binance US before, I'm not using them right now. Once again, it's not because I hate Binance or I have a problem with CZ or something like that, but rather something is cooking up here with the regulators. Now, a great exchange that I do use and I trust and I've been using them since 2018 is Uphold and they're a sponsor of the podcast. And once again, I'm a user of the platform, so I'm not promoting something I don't use. I've been using it for years. That's why I selected them as a sponsor. They have 10 plus million users, 250 plus cryptocurrencies, and they're available in 150 countries. I recently interviewed the CEO of Uphold and they offer precious metals as well and equities so you can trade both. And yeah, if you'd like to learn more about Uphold, please visit the link in the description. All right, let's move ahead. Chinese government officials sentenced to life in prison for operating Bitcoin mining enterprise. Now, the headline here is a bit misleading because it wasn't just that that he went to jail for, but he was doing a whole bunch of other things. So, you know, it's not just crypto, but just corruption in general. So a court in China has handed a life sentence. Wow. Life sentence to Yi Zhao, a former member of the Chinese Communist Party for corruption charges, including facilitating crypto mining operation. Zhao was vice president of the Xianzi provincial committee of the People's Political Consultive Conference. Wow. Try to say that five times fast. The court also found Zhao guilty of power abuse. He has been convicted of accepting more than 125 million yuan, which is about 17 .1 million dollars in bribes between 2008 and 2021. So this guy had a lot of stuff going on, but he was trying to help. He helped companies that were engaging in crypto mining. And this was during the period where China had banned crypto. We know they unbanned it, of course. So and they're doing obviously China did a 180 on crypto. Hong Kong is all in. China's trying to create a Silicon Valley for crypto. I think in Shanghai, if I'm not mistaken, they had released a, you know, Web3 white paper all about this. But interesting news here. And we got some more news of someone else going to jail. So former OpenSea, which is the NFT marketplace manager, Nate Chastain, has been sentenced to three months in prison and a 50K fine for charges related to NFT insider trading. So it looks like he was doing some some sort of insider trading. But, you know, obviously this is not anything crazy. Three months in prison, a 50K. I think he got off easy there. You know, I don't have all the details into how much money and all that, but just said FYI, he's the former OpenSea manager. Now, we got some interesting news around Stellar Lumens, the Stellar blockchain. And recently I interviewed Tomer Weller, who is a VP of product at Stellar. If you haven't seen that interview, be sure to check it out, folks. It's a good one. And Stellar is looking to launch smart contract technology on a blockchain. So Stellar joins Bytecode Alliance to help develop EVM alternative WASM. Stellar joined the industry group developing WASM, an alternative computation engine for running smart contracts. WASM is a competitor to the Ethereum virtual machine, also known as EVM, used by the Ethereum ecosystem. It is also used in non -blockchain browser -based applications. EVM is a virtual machine or computation engine used to execute smart contracts. It is used by most blockchain networks, including Ethereum, BNB, Smart Chain, Avalanche, and many others. But a few networks use WASM instead, including Polkadot, Multiverse X, formerly Elron, and Internet Computer. Stellar began as a payments network in 2014, but in 2022, it implemented smart contracts to provide more functionality to the network. In April 2022, Stellar developers chose WASM as their computation engine. They argued that despite the popularity of EVM, it's stored and execution models are expensive and challenging to paralyze, which gets in the way of scalability, making transactions more expensive. I love this, folks. I think more competition in the market is healthy, that is beneficial to innovators, builders, investors, and much more. We need a lot of competitors, and we need not just Ethereum having the monopoly on smart contract tech and EVM and so forth. So this is really great. I like that they're doing this. Stellar also argued that WASM was perfect for extremely adversarial environments like as it was originally developed for browser applications. This was another reason the team chose WASM over EVM. So interesting news here from Stellar. I do hold some Stellar Lumens, XLM, in my portfolio. Not a lot, but I do have it in there because we've often seen that XLM moves with XRP when there's price movements. But I'm still on the fence a little bit about XLM. Once again, I have some of my portfolio. I'm diversified, but I'm not actively accumulating it to be fully transparent. Now let's move ahead. Comanu becomes latest crypto firm to gain full license in Dubai. The crypto custodian is set to offer institutional staking and collateral management in the region via its Comanu Connect platform. Smart move on their part. They serve institutional investors, and they're going to an area where there's a lot of institutional investors, a lot of wealth, a lot of sovereign wealth funds. So we are seeing, folks, across the globe, the setting up of the infrastructure, on and off -ramps, custodians, and much more. And a lot of it's catered to not just retail, but just institutional investors, to a lot of family offices, investment firms, hedge funds, and much more. So very, very bullish news. The crypto custodian is among the first to receive a full virtual asset price provider, VASP in short, in a region that various companies in the segment have sought to set up outposts. Crypto firms interest in Dubai accelerated after the Emirates established Vara in March 2022. Vara has created a robust regulatory framework, allowing firms like ourselves to innovate whilst operating safely and exploring the future potential of digital assets, which includes tokenization and DeFi services. Khomeini's strategy lead, Sebastian Wittenman, told Blockworks in an email. Folks, do you see what's happening, right? Building and expansion merges acquisitions. This is what you want to see in this growing asset class, that this is continuing. People are bullish. They're expanding services globally. And this, despite the headwinds we're facing here in the United States with scumbag regulator Gary Gensler, and the lack of crypto regulations, the rest of the world is moving ahead. And when you have a huge market, once again, a lot of wealthy folks, we know Dubai is, I mean, come on, the wealth, the building, the expansion that's been happening there is incredible. There's a lot of capital there. So building this on and off rams for institutional players, that's very bullish for the future adoption of crypto and the prices, of course. Now, finally, I want to give some update around Quorium, which is, of course, a partner of the channel. And here it looks like BitPanda, the crypto exchange is going to be listing Quorium. They said, yes, Quorium, our newest BitPanda spotlight countdown is live. Subscribe to get some free Quorium so you can subscribe and get some free Quorium guys. The listing date will be August 28th. They said here, Quorium is a third generation layer one enterprise blockchain built to serve as the core infrastructure of future blockchain applications made to be an interoperable modular and fast ecosystem that lets businesses of any size launch DeFi applications and protocols in the metaverse gaming and banking remittances area. So they said here, please note that the ticker for Quorium on BitPanda will be Quorium as core corresponds already to core DAO. Are you best VIP already? If you are, you will receive some giveaway tokens. So, folks, go check it out. You can probably get some free tokens there. But, you know, if you want to check out Quorium on your own, you can visit their Twitter profile and also check out their website. But that's the news, folks. Thank you for watching, listening. Appreciate your support. Please hit the thumbs up button. Leave a comment on YouTube. Please hit the five star rating and leave a review on the podcast networks. Check out the merchandise store already. Thank you all and I'll talk to you all later.
Elevation with Steven Furtick
A highlight from The God Of A Way
"Hey, this is Steven Furtick. I'm the pastor of Elevation Church, and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Let's praise the name of Jesus together. Come on. Lift up every voice to the great I am. If you know God is great and greatly to be praised, come on, lift your voice right now. That's it. That's it. A great God deserves a great praise. Let's give him a great praise. That's an okay praise, but he's not an okay God. Let's give a great God a great praise. Open your mouth and give him praise. If he walks you through, give him praise. If he's been good to you, give him praise. If he kept you, if he blessed you, if he led you, if he fed you, if he's been by your side, give him a great praise. A great I am. Let's lift up one more shout. Come on, corporately. Let's lift up one more shout. For the King is among us. It is such a powerful thing to call him the Great I Am. It means there is nothing you need in your life right now that he cannot provide. Nothing. We have come together today to worship his great name all over the world. We're joining now as a global church family. Let's welcome our eFam all over the world right now. Where are you joining from? Put it in the chat and let me know. Turn to your neighbor and tell them where you came from today to come to church. Do that in the room too. Tell them, I drove four miles. This gas is expensive. I'm checking on YouTube. Y 'all stay standing. God is going to speak a word to us today. Do you believe that? Do you believe it? This is fun to do every once in a while just to put it in perspective. I just told them in the chat, let us know where you're joining from. If you don't believe this is a global ministry, listen to some of this. South Africa? West Virginia? Well, those are different. Don't you feel sorry for me I have to preach a message that applies to South Africa and West Virginia? Thank God that the Word of God can travel through time zones, accents, backgrounds. All right. Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. How do you make it stop? I can't stop it. I'm trying to put my thumb on it. It won't stop. God is unstoppable. Phoenix, Arizona. Alabama. Dubai. Buffalo. Brazil? Did you say Brazil or Rock Hill? Welcome, Brazil. I was watching some UFC this morning getting ready for church. I recorded it so I could get a good night's sleep, then I played it so the Lord would fire me up to fight his battles when I was praying this morning. It was a good one too. Barbados, Uganda. If you would have told me… I'm just trying to put this in context. Just 20 years ago, one day you'll be preaching, and you'll be standing a few miles from your home looking in the camera, touching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world. I would have said, no way, but God, who is amazing and incredible and superfluous. You know how we call people extra, but we mean it like we're kind of putting them down. We're like, man, she's kind of extra. God is extra in a good way. He does exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all we can ask or imagine, and he has made a way for me. In fact, that's what I want to preach to you about today. I'm going to go to Isaiah 43, 16 through 19. Holly was trying to do a spoiler, but I wouldn't let her. She said, are you giving us another installment in this series, this God of series? We talked about how God is the Great I Am. We spend the rest of our lives filling in the blank, because when God told Moses his name, he said, My name is Yahweh, which is I Am. That's what the name means.
The Crypto Overnighter
A highlight from 643:Ripples Legal Dance, CFTCs Crypto Focus, and Shibarium Stumbles
"To those who visit Mickey D's for their favorite breakfast item and then go somewhere else for coffee, give this Mickey D's brew a second chance. The glow up was real. Try any size iced coffee brewed with 100 % Arabica beans for just 99 cents until 11 a .m. and pair it with a savory Sausage McMuffin with Egg for $2 .79. Prices and participation may vary, cannot be combined with any other offer. Good evening, and welcome to The Crypto Overnight -er. I'm Nick Ademus, and I will be your host as we take a look at the latest cryptocurrency news and analysis. So sit back, relax, and let's get started. And remember, none of this is financial advice. And it's 10 p .m. Pacific on Thursday, August 17th, 2023. Welcome back to The Crypto Overnight -er, where we have no sponsors, no hidden agendas, and no BS. But we do have the news, so let's talk about that. First, though, I need to let you know my anniversary is coming up. My wife and I are going to be heading out of town, so I would not expect any new episodes on Monday the 21st through Wednesday the 23rd. Tonight, however, we delve deep into Ripple's courtroom battles with the SEC. We'll explore the shifting regulatory roles as the CDFTC targets crypto scams and witness the turbulence surrounding Shaberium's launch. Bittrex Global makes a significant shift in their regulatory stance, while PayPal ventures further into the crypto realm with Ledger. Finally, Dubai's Vara puts a damper on OPNX's operations as the platform faces heavy fines. A federal judge has permitted the U .S. Securities Exchange Commission to argue its right to appeal against a ruling. This ruling stated that Ripple did not breach securities laws when making XRP accessible to retail traders via exchanges. Judge Annalisa Torres of the U .S. District Court for the Southern District of New York approved the request. The SEC has until Friday to file the motion. Ripple then has until September 1st to respond, and then the SEC can reply by September 8th. If the SEC's motion succeeds, they can then seek permission from an appeals court to file the actual appeal. Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Alderati, expressed the company's opposition to this request. The price of XRP remained relatively stable despite that order, with a minor 4 % drop over the last 24 hours. The SEC's decision to appeal is significant. It indicates the agency's determination to set a precedent in how digital assets like XRP are going to be classified and regulated. The outcome of this case could have far -reaching implications for the cryptocurrency industry. The SEC's persistence in this matter underscores the regulatory challenges facing the crypto space. It's a clear sign that regulatory bodies are keen on establishing guidelines and rules for digital assets. Bill Hughes, senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters at Consis, commented on the SEC's uphill battle. He mentioned that the legal standard is tough to meet, and the specifics of this case do not favor the SEC's argument for an appeal. Dave Rodman is the founder and managing partner of the Rodman Law Group. He added that even if the SEC wins appeal from both Judge Torres and the Second Court of Appeals, the circuit court might halt all proceedings until the appeal is resolved. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple's CEO, in a recent interview expressed confidence in the ongoing legal process. He believes the SEC would face a lengthy appeal process and remains optimistic about Ripple's position. The broader crypto community is closely watching the developments in this case. The final outcome could set a precedent for how other cryptocurrencies are viewed and regulated in the U .S. The case underscores the need for clear regulatory frameworks for digital assets, ensuring innovation thrives while protecting investors. While Ripple stands firm against the SEC, another regulatory body, the CFTC, is stepping up its game against crypto scams. Hit that follow button to stay updated on the regulatory dance between the CFTC and the SEC.
Daily Crypto Report
"dubai" Discussed on Daily Crypto Report
"In response to a suspension within the country, WorldCoin has temporarily paused its services in Kenya. Kenya had been a significant market for the project. The pause aims to mitigate crowd volume and the team will work on more robust crowd control measures while collaborating with regulators to resume services. There's apparently some debate among Kenyan politicians about WorldCoin's legal status, with some saying it had in fact sought clearance to operate in the country. Well, bankrupt crypto exchange FTX is seeking to exclude its Dubai unit from the US wind down proceedings. FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US last November and included 102 associated entities, including FTX Dubai in the proceedings, but FTX Dubai didn't operate before the bankruptcy in the UAE and has no likelihood of rehabilitating its operations according to the filing. The state argues that a voluntary liquidation procedure in the UAE would allow for a timely distribution of the positive cash balance after paying outstanding liabilities and liquidating assets. A hearing on the matter is set for the end of August. Australia's regulator ASIC has sued eToro's Australian entity for alleged breaches related to its leveraged derivatives product CFDs. ASIC claims that eToro's target market was too broad and its screening tests difficult to fail, resulting in almost 20,000 clients losing money between October 2021 and June of this year. eToro Australia is considering the allegations and will respond accordingly, but claims there is no impact on clients or its global business. ASIC is seeking monetary penalties in court. Libby co-founder Jun Du has purchased 10 million CRV tokens from Curve founder Michael Egorov. Egorov had been selling CRV to offset his large loan position, which could impact multiple DeFi protocols if it's liquidated. Du confirmed the purchase and locked up the tokens as VE Curve. Egorov continues to sell CRV to strengthen his loan position, but there's a risk of liquidation if Curve's price falls much further. So far, Egorov has sold $72 million Curve to various parties. Well, the developer says they accidentally locked up $9,000 worth of ETH for 100 years while testing a token, thinking it was on the Ethereum testnet. This caused their test token to surge in value, reaching a $6 million market cap before dropping. Critics believe it might have been a deliberate ploy for attention. The developer posted for help with their test token, but mistakenly used the Ethereum mainnet, locking up real funds for a century. Screenshots of the conversation spread on Twitter, causing the token's price to pump. Some users see it as a meme, while others are skeptical about its authenticity. And finally, a report by the Network Contagion Research Institute says Twitter bots were used to pump the prices of crypto tokens linked to Alameda Research after they were listed on FTX. Early reports showed Alameda's insiders profited from insider information ahead of listings. But that's all for us today. Visit us at DailyCryptoReport.io for sources and links. And listen to us everywhere else you podcast under Daily Crypto Report.Play that episode and join the collective. Don't miss out. Follow Gravy wherever you get your podcasts.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
"dubai" Discussed on The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
"Well, guys, welcome to BitBoy Crypto. My name is Ben. It's official. I am at the airport right now. And I have officially decided I am leaving America. There's no question about it. There's a lot of stuff that is oppressive here. There's other places that it's much better, much more calm, much more relaxing, much more free time. And, you know, we've been talking about Dubai. We've been talking about the benefits of leaving the country. And so, anyways, guys, I'm leaving the country for 8 days, going to the Caribbean on vacation, on a cruise. Is that necessary, sir? That loud? Really? Sorry. For 8 days, I'm leaving America. I'll be back there. Don't worry, guys. At least for now. And I want to tell you guys a little bit about Dubai Coin. By the way, Crypto Wolfie. I am Crypto Wolfie on Twitter. I don't know if I've dropped the link to the post yet about the sale for Dubai Coin and stuff like that. I want to reiterate, I have nothing to do with the coin, but I am getting a little more involved with the events that they're going to be doing. And what I mean by that is I'm the host of this yacht party, as you guys know, and forward, going there's going to be a lot more events, live events, okay? And so when I say I'm getting more involved, it doesn't mean that, you know, I'm joining another coin team or something. I wouldn't do that. Bencoin is my sole focus. However, by doing these networking events, and I'm the host, and everybody, a lot of people are there to see me, the networking that we're going to be able to do for Bencoin is going to be absolutely insane. I'm already, of course, as you guys know, heading over to Dubai for the yacht party, but definitely going to be moving part of my business for real over there. One of my employees has volunteered to be the first one to go. And so he's coming with me to Dubai for the yacht party. Is this necessary? I'm going to go yell at this guy. Let me find this horn honker while I'm trying to make a video. I'm going to go yell at the guy. He stopped. He drove on. It's so hard to make a video at an airport. I'm inside the announcements. They're literally making announcements to let you know that there may be people asking outside if you need a ride. I can't with these people. So anyways, point is, these live events, this networking, and I can tell you there is a very important person from Dubai who approached the team about getting involved. So this is already having the hallmarks of something that I believe is going to have some staying power and is actually going to go somewhere. So the link's down below if you want to check it out. I do want to see you guys there. And, Bencoin holders, what kind of benefits are you getting from me getting more involved with the live events other than just the networking? Well, we're still working out the final details of that, but I can tell you that we're going to make sure that Bencoin holders who are loyal Bencoin holders that not are just buying it for a day to be able to get to go to an event, but we're looking at a way to make it where Bencoin holders get to go to all these events as well. But obviously, there's not going to be a way to game the system. We're going to come in, buy Bencoin, go to the event, then sell it the next day. We're going to honor long -term holders of Bencoin, and they're the ones that are going to get to go to these live events. Starting in Dubai, there may be more events down the road in other cities around the world, but for right now, that's the focus. That's where the big money is. That's where my focus is. And it's just, it's pretty exciting. So I'm really looking forward to this. My wife is going to go to Dubai for the first time for this party, so she's going to be out there as well. And instead of working with, you know, I'm Crypto Wolfie, he's a guy I like. I like this guy a lot. He's a very serious businessman. He is the, he's a very high ranking executive, hit a major bank, which people don't know. It's very interesting. He's not just somebody who is just a crypto DJ. Like, this is a real business guy. So, you guys take note. I'm not sure how much longer we're going to be taking. You know, people are going to be able to do the 3E to get on the yacht, but they're flying off the shelves. I tell you that. There are, there's a lot of interest in this, and, you know, there's also a lot of interest in Stake. If you guys didn't know, that's our No. 1 sponsor here on the channel, our major partner. They would allow us to do what we do here. We don't have to do other types of sponsorships and coin reviews and projects for money and stuff like that. We don't have to do that because of Stake. If you want to check out Stake, bitboycrypto .com slash stake if you're in the US, sign up on the left. I'm about to be international now for a week, so I can sign up on the right if I want to. So, while I'm in the Bahamas, we can make sports bets. How about that? That'd be pretty fun. What should I bet on? I don't know. It's a great question. I'll have to figure it out. You guys know I am rocking the Bitcoin merch. You guys want to get Bitcoin merch, you can check it out at hitmerch .com, obviously. Guys, this is the tank. Look at that. That's a fit right there. That's a fit. I got the Burberry glasses in my bag. I guess I took them off. The Bitcoin tank top with the Bitcoin matching shorts. This is the first time in my entire life. I'm not kidding you. This is the first time in my entire life that I've worn a matching thing like this. I would never do that. But for Bitcoin, for y 'all, for the BitSquad, for Ben Nason, I'd do anything. That's all I got. As a contractor, I choose hardy fiber cement because I've seen it outperform wood -based siding and other hard siding materials. The high -quality craftsmanship translates into beautiful and durable results that leave our customers at G -Fidel extremely satisfied. Using hardy siding has significantly reduced my callbacks and warranty claims too. At James Hardy, we're here to support you from training materials to resources that can help you generate a greater profit. Learn more about growing your business with us at jameshardy .com. As a contractor, I choose hardy fiber cement because I've seen it outperform wood -based siding and other hard siding materials. The high -quality craftsmanship translates into beautiful and durable results that leave our customers at G -Fidel extremely satisfied. Using hardy siding has significantly reduced my callbacks and warranty claims too. At James Hardy, we're here to support you from training materials to resources that can help you generate a greater profit. Learn more about growing your business with us at jameshardy .com.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
"dubai" Discussed on The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
"As a contractor, I choose Hardee fiber cement because I've seen it outperform wood -based siding and other hard siding materials. The high -quality craftsmanship translates into beautiful and durable results that leave our customers at G -Fidel extremely satisfied. Using Hardee siding has significantly reduced my callbacks and warranty claims too. At James Hardee, we're here to support you. From training materials to resources that can help you generate a greater profit. Learn more about growing your business with us at JamesHardee .com. Introducing a new offer from Xfinity. It's unlimited internet with gig speed and supersonic Wi -Fi. And get this, there's no annual contract required, no equipment fees, and a two -year internet rate guarantee. It even comes with a free Flex 4K streaming box. It's all just $50 a month when you add Xfinity Mobile with unlimited data. The supersonic bundle. Go to Xfinity .com slash gig, call 1 -800 -XFINITY or visit a store to learn more. Limited time offer, restriction supply, requires paperless billing and auto -pay. New gigabit internet customers only. Xfinity Mobile requires post -pay Xfinity internet. After 24 months, regular rates apply to all services and devices.
The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"dubai" Discussed on The Passing Shot Tennis Podcast
"This week, we've got Marseille, and we've got Doha, which are both two 50 events, we've also got the 500 out in Rio and for the women, it's mostly the WTA 1000 in Dubai. There's also a two 50 out in Mexico that Merida open. But Andy Murray has already been providing entertainment and drama as usual. Funnily enough against Lorenzo sonic, who has spent more than one second on a tennis court because they actually played each other and was two and a half hour long match. Andy Murray saving three match points, Joel big Murray fans. Are we ever just going to get an unproblematic Andy Murray victory because it doesn't feel like we're going to get one any time soon? Yeah, I was curious to see how this was going to go because you got a wildcard had a very wild Australian open, very memorable Australian open, so it was keen to see him continue that form. Looks like he has been able to in the same Andy Murray vain that we know fighting to the bitter end. And it's also great to see Liam Brody as well come through qualifying. He's in the second round and we've got Murray versus zverev and we've got Liam broady, Daniel Medvedev. So I thought, yeah, that could be quite an interesting one. I mean, Daniel Medvedev, that's a Rotterdam Rotterdam to Doha rather than Rotterdam to maybe Marseille was a bit of an interesting one to me, but yeah, be curious to see how that goes. Probably more money in Doha, I would imagine. I mean, the field actually in Doha is pretty tasty, 'cause I was looking at it compared to the Rio open, which is a 500. I mean, the drawers in Doha and to be honest in Marseille, they are stronger than what has been served up in Rio if I'm gonna be honest. Yeah, often happens. A lot of players don't really want to go and play the clay court event salmon. It's hard to convince people I feel to go play that 500 if you haven't already played the build up two 50s out in South America. Yeah. I mean, I suppose all eyes really, especially on the women's side, the big event out in by the 1000 event. If you look at the first round drawers, I mean, it's like the semifinals finals of Grand Slam really start some of the match ups that you kind of got. It's such a stacked fill. But, you know, we were saying that about Doha last week and then look what happened. She on tech wins very comfortably. But Chris, do you have your eye on any particular match ups that are due to hopefully take place in Dubai. And any definitely more looking at the burrito open. Yeah, I'll throw you a bone up saying I'm very much looking forward to we've got some tasty section of the drawer there, which is Garcia, keys, and it's over and Azarenka. One of those is going through to make, I think that would only be a quarterfinal. So that does shows you how stacked that field is. And then if you look a bit further down in some of the less high profile tournaments, I'm obviously a Mexico. Where Joel and I, I think, will be glued to this. We've got his favorite magdalena don'tt is back in action as the number one seed. And my favorite Sloane Stephens, the number two seed, and also throw in an elysia parks. And I think that's Joel's dream tournament. I think we might be over in Mexico. And Chris parks and Stevens are playing with each other in the doubles. So everyone caught crying out right now. I'm gonna have to set an alarm on my phone for those matches. The meeting, the metaphorical meeting of two thirds of the tennis weekly podcast happening right now. They just need to Caroline Garcia down the other end. I think we would have booked a flight then. I'm pretty sure we would have booked it. We would have gone there for subway intermediate, yeah, definitely. We can expense it. No, we can't. Sorry. But yeah, on that note, I mean, we'll be back next week to talk about how Sloane Stephens got on in Merida. Doubles only. Doubles only, of course. I'm also curious to see if cam norrie is just going to play alcaraz again in the final of Rio and lose as has happened last week. I feel like that could be quite a likely outcome. But yeah, we'll be back next week to round up all of those events as usual. And we'll also catch up on how Joel enjoyed his pancakes and inside the crate work or not. I've got to go follow through now, haven't I? I'm going to go to the shops right now and get stocked up now. Yes. I hope you enjoyed our latest episode of the tennis week podcast. Remember to subscribe to us to stay up to date on all the action to come from the ATP and WTA tours. We're on Apple podcasts, Spotify, and every major podcasting platform out there. And if you like what you're hearing, and that means if you like the pancake chat, then make sure to leave us a rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. You can also follow us on social media or email the show as well. We're on Facebook Instagram and Twitter at tennis weekly pod, or you can email the show at tennis weekly pod at Gmail dot com and don't forget to check out our website WWW dot tennis weekly dot co dot UK.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Show in over four years in Dubai on Saturday as part of the launch of the new Atlantis royal hotel, the event was invitation only with the singer performing for over an hour, which included a duet with daughter Blue Ivy Carter. I'm Chris coraggio. Google is the latest tech company to lay off thousands of workers. It continues a trend in the tech industry that has seen many people receive pink slips as there are fears the economy will slip into a recession. Google is laying off 12,000 workers while Amazon is letting go of more than 18,000 employees for its part Microsoft will cut 10,000 jobs. The Justice Department is conducting a formal investigation into Abbott Laboratories nearly a year after the baby formula shortage, Julie Ryan is more. And Abbott spokesperson said the company is fully cooperating in the probe. The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday investigators are focusing on Abbott's plant in Sturgis, Michigan, Abbott shut down production at the huge plant last February after infants who consumed formula made there became sick. The closure led to a nationwide shortage of infant formula. I'm Julie Ryan. A celebrity hunting couple charged in a poaching investigation in Nebraska is avoiding jail time, the Justice Department announced that Josh and Sarah of Iowa have been sentenced to three years of probation and they must pay fines and restitution. The social media stars pleaded guilty in one of the largest poaching cases in U.S. history, which centered around baiting hunting tours. Along running spin off of NCIS is coming to an end, CBS announced Friday that NCIS Los Angeles will come to a close at the end of its 14th season. The crime drama starring LL Cool J Chris O'Donnell and Linda Hunt is scheduled to arid 322nd episode and series finale on May 14th. The CBS studio series premiered back in 2009 and is the second longest running show in the franchise. Mattress Mac is placing a huge bet on the Dallas Cowboys, the retail furniture store owner, put down $2 million in cash at seizure sportsbook in Louisiana in favor of America's team. Should they win against the forty-niners Sunday in the playoffs, he'll pocket 3.35 million in addition to the 2 million he put down. I'm Chris grazio
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"The landscape as you arrive in Dubai. The building's architect says sustainability was his main driver in designing it. His name is Sean Keller. He is the design partner at killer design. How are you? Good to have you with us. Very good. Thank you. This building was a group. Over every year that I've been here for the past 5 years, it evolved. It grew every time I arrived in and out of Dubai. I'm much did that building because it's spectacular. We're going to see some images for anybody who hasn't seen it. How much did it push the boundaries of architecture? It pushed to the boundaries of architecture far beyond where architecture is literally today. Not in terms of design. In terms of the way that we had to design it and the software that we were using, we were literally using software that was used for airplanes and aeronautics. We were working with people like Boeing in terms of how to create a stainless steel on the facade and create a facade that was permeable with light throughout the entire facade. Other GRP using robotic arms to make every single panel, which is there's over a thousand panels which are completely unique. The bonding and the way the double curvature worked, it's all pushed the technologies into even the steel structure and how well that was done. And I think the story of Sheik Muhammad's personal involvement in terms of the calligraphy on the outside of the building is very well known. It's very well fed. We're here to talk in many ways about sustainability. Yes, I did drive past it many times there are many people working on it. I used to look at it and go, I haven't seen that kind of material before. I sustainable is that. It's not just in the building of it, but it's in there. It's a longevity. It's in the archon. It's in the entire systems within that building. Just taught me through the sustainability. So throughout the entire museum, first of all, it's Pre. lead certified platinum and we'll also we have solar panels on the roofs around the car parks of Emirates towers, as well as the car parks next to the World Trade Center. So that's contributing directly. It's direct cable straight to the transformer rooms, which is producing about 30% of the energy for the building. There's recovery systems in cooling and lighting. There's heat sensors throughout the building, CO2 sensors throughout the building. So it's constantly there's a BMS system building management system that is constantly monitoring where people are, where the heat signals are and constantly adjusting. So it's almost like a symphony where it's adjusting to how people are moving around the building. In the design of that and the development of that in the group development of that, did that did not push your boundaries as an architect as a designer going, my gosh, I didn't know that this had evolved to this extent. Will you pushed? Partially, I actually started my sustainability crusaders that were more than 20 years ago when I designed the Bahrain World Trade Center, which 18 years ago I designed that and that was the first building ever to have a large scale wind turbines between two buildings in an urban environment. So pushing the technology of something that has never been done before like that. And obviously pushing the sustainability regime within that building is being a continuum where we are designing projects which are now zero energy zero water zero waste. Zero cooling. And there is the barrier there is the borrowing that you're referring to. So you were at the front of this sustainability movement, perhaps you saw from Prince Charles where our King Charles were joined at the hip a long time ago. When I think about sustainability and I see that building and I live here and I live in the Middle East. How much influence will your design of the museum of the future have on other architects here that want to emulate sustainability? Is it now very much part of the zeitgeist of design in this emerging market? Well, divine inspiration is already pushing very hard to do with the green buildings council and all of the sustainability elements within that. And there's a great encouragement by the Dubai government to let people push that. So the point is that architects today are looking for low energy buildings. And clients today are looking to have lead gold or lead platinum certification. So there is a general move towards that, pushing beyond that boundary and really aiming for renewables within buildings to the level of going half energy
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Very much. Context as always, chief economist at lumbar. On the show, setting the agenda this Monday morning from Singapore and Dubai right here on Bloomberg. When you reorganize and declutter, we're probably the first thing you decide to keep. Is there any serious contemplation of sanctions against China detailed financial and business reporting? Tell us more about your customers and how they're doing now. Expert analysis. You're basically just changing a $5 bill into 5 ones. Definitely essential. Looking at high yield, where does that take you these days? Bloomberg radio, the Bloomberg business app and Bloomberg radio dot com. Bloomberg, the world is listening. The composer Joseph Haydn famously said, I listened more than I studied. It sounds like a law school hypothetical. Here in Bloomberg, it's the same thing. Do you maintain that low rate regime? Can you see out two years? How do you build a strategy with that eventuality in mind? Experts, information, news. The push sets up a potential fight. What do we know about how it will go public? Bloomberg radio, the Bloomberg business app and Bloomberg radio dot com. Bloomberg, the world is listening. The only way to start the morning is with optimism. Jobs recovery was sluggish. A lot of people agree on that. Bloomberg surveillance with Tom Keene, Jonathan farrow and Lisa Abramovich. Finally, we got some abramowitz gloom to get in there. The ultimate south signal might be when Lisa capitulates. Bloomberg surveillance. Must watch. Lisa, your data point, go. Tom, you're great. Never change. We three mornings at 7 eastern on Bloomberg radio and Bloomberg television. Saudi Arabia's energy
What's the 311
"dubai" Discussed on What's the 311
"Welcome to song you travel podcast on my travel podcast is the vine. I have never been here, but I hear so many people. I know my daughter's friend has been here. And everybody who's been to buy loves to buy. And they said, it's very gorgeous out there. I'm not going to say I'm going to take a trip because I'm not sure I don't really like the deserts too hot for me. I don't like heat. But it depends. So I'm never going to say never. It depends. So here is what you can do in Dubai Dubai desert four by four Campbell ride show dinner. You could go on air dinner adventure and divide. You can do it the bar Marina yacht tour breakfast and barbecue. You can do the buy red down to desert safari camera set, sandboarding and barbecue, you can do Dubai. Apparently. That's actually the show. Atlas aquaventure that's like a water park. You can do a full day tour to burji Khalifa. You can also do a desert safari. Camel ride. You can go to the burji Khalifa. The biomarker dinner cruise. It has live music. You can also go to the premier red dance, you can also go to the bird G Khalifa is the observation deck. You can also go to. Abu Dhabi, they also have jet skis, you can take a helicopter tour in Dubai. They have this frame that you can actually take pictures by. You can do a 90 minute speedboat tour. You can go to the buy arbuda aquarium. They also have a 30 minute jet ski tour that you can actually do. They also have more than desert safari game. They also have Derby luxury can. You know, Dobby luxury dinner cruise. They have Dobby a Latin tour. They have hot air balloons and Dobby with breakfast and camera rods. They have the. Very beautiful, they got the arbor Derby city toy Gran, mosquito, palace with museum interests. Yeah, this is gorgeous. It's really gorgeous. I'll be posting like I said, I never been here. My daughter has my daughter front been here. And she says very beautiful. It's very lovely. And I know, you know, seeing the stars be there. And I'm like, yeah, it looks beautiful. I'd just be thinking about the heat though I don't want the heat. But it does look really beautiful. To actually the place of self look gorgeous. Like really, really gorgeous. They also have like you can go tasting. They have a taste in place in the bar with private food tours. And you can actually taste different food. They have a three hour out Arab guy dine and experience can actually go there, but that's expensive. That's like $265. But if that's something you want to do, go do it. They have a 5 star Marina dial cruise dinner. So you can eat there. They get afternoon tea. You can eat it as expensive too. That's $298 and 51 cent. They have a yacht trip. You can go on, that's $568. But you're in Dubai so you're gonna pay a lot of money. Yeah, these are the things you can do on Dubai. They got the deserts of our Campbell barbecue dinner. That's probably like the cheapest dinner you want to get. No, but that's not the cheapest thing. The cheapest dinner. You're gonna get us the luxury dial cools international buffet dinner. So, like I said, I'll be posting. And like I said, I've never been here. But who's to say when I will be there? And I like to thank you for listening to us on your travel podcast, please get a 5 star review on speakers, anchors, iHeart..
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Let's get you a bit of an overview of how Middle East markets feared remember that Dubai and Abu Dhabi were offline because it was the second day of the weekend. So they only come back just like the rest of the world, but you had some indexes that were open with a little bit of downside on the Saudi index down about 6 tenths of 1% going into trade. It's going to be about earnings. It's going to be about oil prices. I'm looking at adnoc distribution. It reported profit for the second quarter that beat the average analyst estimates. And that's going to provide an important floor for sentiment as we count down to the open in Abu Dhabi and a few other important stories that we're going to get to with Farah later on. Yeah, I mean the oil market has come back by over 10%. This is a small bunch in that this morning, but that backdrop to giving us a kind of immunity in the Middle East has been one of our saving graces to the bond markets focused in on the sovereign bonds. You've seen Australian rates Japanese raise the belly of the curve rising in tandem with that explosion of the short end in the United States of America, Aussie rates up by 13.2 basis points in the belly of the curve. Is that translating into the Aussie dollar? Well, it's up a quarter of 1% this morning, but you can see, as well as that, the dollar is relatively flat at this juncture. Again, it's really scorched earth by Bond burrs, which is driving these markets this morning. Yeah, I mean, you think about what the labor market delivered and what the inflation data might show us later this week. Maybe it's time to start thinking about an intermediate rate hike by the fed. I mean, I know it sounds contentious. I know there's all a historical precedent, but
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Is a Dubai based logistics company that has been sponsoring the final torment of the season the race to Dubai since 2009 The Giants finally giving up on off injured cornerback Sam Beale as New York released the 2018 third round supplemental draft bank Be a missed his entire rookie year at the shoulder injury before playing just 6 games his second season The lofted out last year due to COVID before playing just two defensive snaps this season in three games Former browns wide receiver Odell Beckham junior has cleared waivers and is free to sign with any team The three time pro bowler has said he wants to spend the rest of the season with a playoff contender On the year the 29 year old has 17 catches for 232 yards with zero touchdowns in 6 games Finally the Washington football team has released kicker Chris blue and after having three kicks blocked in two games and have signed Joey sly who has kicked for both the forty-niners of the Texans this year I'm Dan Schwartzman that your Bloomberg world sports op day Markets headlines and breaking news 24 hours a day At Bloomberg dot com The Bloomberg business app and at Bloomberg quick take This is a Bloomberg business lash Okay we are looking at a bit of a mixed bag for Asian stocks Big headwind of course is that the U.S. shares snapped their longest winning streak since a 2017 We've got futures in Japan steady well those for Hong Kong on the way down having a little market switch are open We've had about 17 minutes of trading down there in Sydney and we're pretty much flat just off by about three points on 7131 We've got China investors in for big day to today We got producer price inflation as well as a consumer numbers but the former factory gay prices expected to be up at the highest in 26 years the question is how does that feed through to the global inflation story We had China once being called the country which was exporting disinflation or deflation around the world Could it be doing quite the reverse now Financial shares and worth watching in this neck of the world that this is also after they did help the S&P.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Opening its new Central Europe Middle East and Africa headquarters right here in Dubai The employees will return to work after almost 20 months They have these president for the region is Andrew Tori he joins me now Andrew Welcome to the show good news story for Dubai You're going full ball and all in why not Why Dubai and just how much space are you going to take Thank you man It's wonderful to be here today So we have actually been in Dubai and this has been our regional headquarters since late 2012 We decided that we were going to build a new custom built headquarters actually prior to the pandemic actually So it was in 2018 And the benefit we've had is we've built this almost entirely during the pandemic And this will be the first major office that these opens in the pandemic error where we've been able to learn what to preserve from the old way of working but also to accommodate what we've learned during the pandemic So it really is a headquarters dedicated to the vision of how we see people working going forward Which is both being able to work from home I'm home today In the morning but I'm going to be going in the office in the afternoon So we bring state of the art technology into this office to allow for connection collaboration and community which is so vital to us and those that we support in our industry to further digital economies and consumer value propositions So obviously conceived pre-pandemic built during pandemic So what's the right balance for Visa in terms of flexibility for staff You've got a shining new building You want to get the staff back in What is what's the proposition to Visa staff Is it three in the office two High flexible will you be Or is it come I want you back in the office Yes so you know right now our staff in Dubai have the ability to work from home whenever they want But what we consistently heard talking to our staff during the pandemic And even though when we worked in the pandemic we were incredibly productive Our staff missed were being together and being with our clients We are in an incredibly client focused business So we've heard from them consistently that they want to be able to come back and collaborate and the office offers these spaces There are spaces that look like a cafe where you can sit and have these moments of serendipity to innovate and solve We've got to state of the art innovation center that supports the region and we've got a Visa university where we can offer classes digitally for our employees and for our partners but also face to face as well So it is we're returning to a mix of both And we're going to learn as we go along Let's get to the business We're just showing you some graphics in terms of the volume of transactions that you do as a business globally But give our viewers a sense Where are we on spending relative to pre-pandemic for the region Let's say GCC just give us a flavor of recovery in transactions Yeah so the pandemic was incredibly disruptive on many many accounts That said what we have been bringing out new solutions and services for a long time And it's been about changing habits And what we've seen during the pandemic was a great acceleration in consumer behavior and merchants had to adapt to that as well So when we look at most of our markets as you talked about pre-pandemic we think about the world pre 20 in 2019 And in the GCC markets the spending is in excess of 2019 levels And it's fueled by a couple of things It's fueled by a significant acceleration of ecommerce spend So there were many consumers that were using ecommerce previously They continued to use it and they found new outlets So for example they started shopping more online online fashion for example We've seen a lot more consumers using grocery and food delivery In fact cash cash on delivery is almost vanished It reduced by 75% in the UAE and 85% in Saudi Arabia We've seen many many small and media merchants out there also start to adapt to be able to support contactless payments any ecommerce and our studies have shown that in the UAE a 94% of smaller businesses have tried and have invested in supporting new different types of payments whether it's contact with their ecommerce and 81% of those said that those investments have already paid off Okay so we're moving that transition to a cashless transaction is more than evolved I'd love a little bit more detail inside of you say overall in GCC we're spending more now with you on my Visa card than I was pre-pandemic I know I am But what about inside Saudi Arabia Are they spending 5% more 10% more Let's see what started first of all So the numbers have increased There's been significant growth in the Saudi market especially in the consumer payment space for example We've seen I'll give you an example is a couple of years before the pandemic contactless transactions are where you can tap your phone or tap your card There were about 4% of face to face transactions That number has increased to now 94% So 94% of transactions in Saudi Arabia that are face to face are contactless Whether it's with a.
Places I Remember with Lea Lane
"dubai" Discussed on Places I Remember with Lea Lane
"It's thicker than glass but it see through floor as well and you're suspended up and hits a preset meal of course you can't pick up a menu and have it flown up to you. Although i bet you that day is coming. We drones on but but baio yes suspended up there. And you've got a three course meal. And i'm assuming three hundred sixty degree views but no. I have not done it yet. Well i can imagine what you might not want to locate with hype. I'm a bad with heights. Which is good because most people who come here say you go to take the personally fund and eat even on one hundred twenty twenty four th floor. You're still a fairly good way up. Oh yeah when you you look down you realize how high it is. The name of the pie cast is places. I remember so garrett. Could you please share with us. A special memory of yours about dubai the easiest and all this one was Was resume getting married in in dubai. Me and that's all was gonna trump all of the the random encounters with famous people that that that just happened. But i know I was for fortunate enough of them. Married that lovely. Sarah in little church in dubai that despite it being the e being muslim country they are very respectful of other faiths and we got a church wedding during on lockdown time. So a week we masks. Our two guests were mass to witnesses. The minister was in masks and we had it on facebook. Live so our friends and family around the world to watch it so that's always going to be no matter what happens that's that's going to be my takeaway mantech and there's nothing more lovely than that. That is the most superlative thing of all. Yes thank you. I did live in the dubai marina. And so every friday morning i would go to the same grocery store and every friday morning i would see the same retired english cricket store buying groceries and just like morning morning before i got married. That may have been the big things like. Yeah he made me by my first name but dollars yeah well. I've noticed a lot of the memories that people share our special memories like that a small memory to some but a big memory to the person and those are the things you you you carry with you the rest of your life of course thank you for sharing that one. I do hope that dubai keeps coming up with superlative things to see and do we can all use a bit of magic in our lives as we traveled the world. A thank you garrett. I it for helping us better. Understand what makes you by such an extraordinary destination. Thank you once again leah for for inviting me on and it's been.
Places I Remember with Lea Lane
"dubai" Discussed on Places I Remember with Lea Lane
"Dune bashing in a in a luxury for wheeler i did that kind of fun and then at night. We sat on cushions. We had a dinner out of the sand and we had hannah tattoos and dancing. And just beautiful. Have you have you done that. I've done that. I've done Again it's one of the things that take out Friends who visit the city and there there are plenty of companies that offer packages and tours out there even also just go out to the conservation reserve in here about the wonderful work. They've done bringing back the arabian oryx from near extinction and stuff like that again. I i've It's a wonderful place to go out and take full photographs as well. There's just something about watching a sunset or sunrise over the dunes that just You forget that there's city of three million people twenty minutes away so incredible that part. I know when when you do that you really marvel at it. there's some other thing that's marvelous. It's called the palm islands. These are manmade artificial islands. They created two thousand one. It only took four years to build them and each of them used over fifty three million pounds of sand and twelve million pounds of rock and they are created to look like a palm tree. If from the bob when you fly over your high building you see punditry. And and there's another cluster. Call the world islands which is positioned to resemble a world map. So you know one of those things that see it but you just think how can this be. It's just only a few years since it's been a a tiny town and now you have an artificial islands and gorgeous hotels out there. That's that's where a lot of the diop winces of the palm is just is just great again. During the winter months some you'll see hundreds of families just walking around the the pathways of the palm you've got of course The blockbuster hotel is the atlanta's that's the one that most people will have seen a photo off right out on the end of the pond tree but restaurants as well as just it's it's just a great great. I went and had a a turkish. A mom i remember. It was the most luxurious experience. I've ever had an a spy game. I was doing this story for an upscale magazine. More upscale things dubai than than i like an ally. Well done it. Yeah i remember. That does a nuke fountain palm fat..
WTOP
"dubai" Discussed on WTOP
"We're getting them from Dubai. There's a market out there that has dried insects, and one of the insects they have is the dried cicadas. And if you're wondering what else goes in, it's okay to talk. Talk a little bit of avocado little bit of Moulay their day and a little bit of fresh radish to finish it off in Loudon County near Lloyd can steam double U T L P no thanks Rustic of Nigeria's That'll be fine 8 23 here will. The intelligence officials reportedly say that there is no evidence that UFOs that were seen by Navy pilots are actually alien spaceships. Former President Obama may have fueled the speculation when he appeared last month on CBS's Late Late show with James Corden. There's footage and records of objects in the skies that we don't know exactly what they are. But The New York Times says a government report is inconclusive about what those Navy pilots saw only that they weren't from the U. S military or some secret government project. There was concerned that the objects came from Russia or China. Times quote senior intelligence officials as saying that they can't rule out alien spacecraft either. Peter King CBS News through the end of next month, you'll have an opportunity to see a rare letter written by George Washington at DCs Decatur House Museum. 17 17 99 letter, which is owned by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, discusses Washington Successful distillery operation in Mount Vernon. It's among just a few pieces of correspondence in existence that highlight the founding fathers work as a distiller. That letter will be on display of Decatur House from 10..
Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"dubai" Discussed on Xtra Sports Radio 1300 AM
"It's a little different in that regard. I was talking to the wife last night, and we were wondering where we could take the kids and I was wonder. Can you vacation on fire fight? I know Island. Uh, if you have a lot of money, and also if you I think if you have some connections, you know, Fight Island is not really like a fighter. It's just the place's brilliant marketing on their their part. They have been to quote unquote Fight Island many times in the past. In fact, I was there 11 years ago, it's Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. And you know the geniuses at the UFC dubbed it Fight Island, and to their credit it caught on, but they did have fans in attendance. So people did, uh, did fly in from all Over, they said, and you know they had around 2000 for this fight. The prices were astronomical, like I think that the cheapest ticket was like 4500 something like that. So, yes, you could go to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and if you look at the scenes over there, it seems like they're handling the pandemic a little better than we are over here, But you're not really going to see much if you go to court, a court fight out because it's basically just in arena in a hotel. Yes, long as it's all inclusive. That's what my wife wanted to know. You know, like weaken real ground and pound restaurant. It could be like a steak house. Yes, you know, you mean well. Arm bar arm. Yeah, the arm bar. I love great for that. I've talked my head by. No, that's well done. Hey, I would grab it trademark that thing. The arm bar. Let let Connor McGregor no You know what I think he's doing pretty well with his whiskey and all those other endeavors I might hold on to that one. Dana White will probably watch this and steal it and trade market within the next 10 minutes. So great to talk to Ariel. Thanks for joining us is always Buddy. Any time. Thank you. Like that. The arm bar Aerial hell, Wani. Have different drinks named after M M a fighters there. You know, Connor McGregor helped build the UFC, You know, multi billion dollar company, but you know when stars decline You got to find that next star Look, he's only 32 still has the star power to be the biggest draw in the sport by far. Do. I think he's done? No, but Ours better days behind him. Yes, that doesn't mean he can't win again. But he could also draw Although the nicer Khanna McGregor donating money to charity. That's not what we're used to buying into. You don't read about those things, but you know this happens all the time. Mohammed Ali, and then we waited. Would we ever find Mohammed Ali Mike Tyson came along. You know they come in. They grabbed the sport by the throat and after a while, the sport, you know, discards them. But You know, Eventually, the days of building off Khanna McGregor going to come to an end and you start to think who is next? Is there somebody out there? And I know within the circles the inner circles of USC, They'll tell you all this person and this person this I'm talking about somebody's a crossover star, where somebody who doesn't watch the sport will pay to watch the sport. There's very few of those athletes that crossover power where you go. I don't like golf, but I'll watch Tiger Woods. Ryan Clark of the mother ship. What was Aaron Rodgers saying at the end of the game after the game? Who has a better chance of getting back to the Super Bowl or back to it. A F C NFC title game. Josh Alan or Aaron Rodgers. Join us coming up. With the rocket Mortgage Super Bowl Square sweepstakes. It's back, Todd, You know how much you could win a lot. You could win $50,000. So why not try it? Rocket mortgage hosting the largest official game.
Bloomberg Radio New York
"dubai" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"I'm using committed Dean in Dubai, a reflation train that appears to have bean reenergized as risk came firmly back on the table on the S and P 500. Many We are still very much protected to continue that direction of 3/10 of 1% overnight. Big bank shares fell, though, after Morgan Stanley wrapped up results that despite solid, if uninspiring numbers Just bc private bank remain overweight risk assets within the U. S and Asia Day favorite stocks and China South Korean Singapore Treasuries ended little changed after raising declines. That is in the face of soft demand metrics for what went on the way in terms of the 20 year bond auction. Currently, we aren't one await. The Bloomberg dollar index comes marching on the pressure. And then Brent crude down 3/10 of 1%. Look, we had the industry report that pointed to a rise in U. S stockpiles, and that just added to these mounting concerns since the beginning of the year. That there is lackluster consumption crystallizing. Let's check in on how the rest of the markets are holding up in Asia with Juliet stallions. He joins us from our Singapore studio, Jules Sequencing fresh eyes on the regional benchmark index here following on that positive momentum amongst global stocks and US equity futures, the regional index rising for the third session, with dedicated to five back at August 1990 hires even as we saw the BOJ, saying that risks is still tilted to the downside for their economic outlook. The Hang Sang index hitting 30,000 points. The first time since May 2019. We've been on the sensex 50,000 watch, too, And that finally happened. So the Indian stocks remaining at records and hitting that 50,000 point level for the first time ever. You've got the Title IX also on an absolute tear Today, as we see Ah lot of money going into these tech players. It has risen the most since March to reclaim all time highs. Going back to January. 1967 so certainly seeing A lot of risk on optimism as we head into this new era after we saw that very positive momentum coming through the strongest finish on the S and P 500 on Inauguration Day since 1937 years of Thanks. Jules will check back in with you later. Let's also run our global audience to the first world headlines from around the world with some old Fox but soon Good morning yourself. President Biden.
MyTalk 107.1
"dubai" Discussed on MyTalk 107.1
"Who was the I thought there was somebody from Dubai. She was connected to anyway. Well, yeah, we'll go ahead house. No, not not to Dubai. Necessarily. But there are names that are close to Dubai that have been linked to Lindsay Lohan. Also, can we talk about Armey Hammer? And can we talk about the connections that he has to People who are connected, like I don't want to go down these roads because people are listening. See, that's what I was saying is that there are connections between Lindsay Lohan and those people. And then those people and army hammer at all. Yeah. Royalty with lots of money and power. And he may be responsible for things that you should Google. Yeah, that or not that Google, I would say also, if you're walking around Dubai, check toes and make sure I was like where we're going. Has all say goodbye to you will know where the hammer has been. Lindsay Lohan in 2013 was hanging out with Mohammed Al Turkey in New York. Greater online Has the photo gallery interest. Do you think Armey Hammer plays that little piggy's game before he eats? Your toes are probably is like in this. This little piggy went to market. Yeah. This little piggy stayed home. This little piggy ate roast beef. This little piggy had none in this little piggy went wee wee wee way out tonight. Way down my pocket. Some creepy. Sorry, you guys. We've been obsessed with it with the story that Armey hammer being a cannibal. I put the photo gallery of Lindsay Lohan Um Mohamed al Turkey in the segment. It goes to show that yes, there is a vent diagram of all these people are all connected to each other. Can we also just talk for just one very short.