Crypto

I’m winding people up with blockchain this week. As I was doing that, a song came back to me on regular occasion. A song about Blockheads. I went back to the song and re-read the lyrics. It’s about Essex Boys back in the 1970s. Not quite the world of today, is it? But there is…

I need to shut up about Ant Group, as I’ve blogged a lot about them lately. However, with an IPO coming up and news coming out daily almost, it’s hard to ignore some of their activities. One activity that really hit me when it was released in July was the rebranding of all of their…

Goldman Sachs just became the bad boy on the block in the bitcoin brethren by saying bitcoin has nothing behind it. Remember last week when we were all bullish for the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin call? L pic.twitter.com/W5lRyx1L5Y — Zack Voell (@zackvoell) May 27, 2020 However, when you look at their presentation … … they don’t…

What if we make money truly global, stable and secure? That’s Libra’s ambition and I’ve got to hand it to the guys at Libra. Having announced their idea to create a global currency last summer, and then see it ripped to pieces by regulators, they’re back. Yes, it’s Libra 2.0. What’s the difference between 1.0 and…

As usual, during this period of pandemic, there’s been a rollercoaster of events for those of us involved in financial markets. We’ve seen global stock indices drop dramatically, cryptocurrency going up and down faster than Donald Trump’s spin doctoring, and everyone feeling there’s little joy out there economically, financially or socially. That’s what a pandemic…

I said you’re probably sick of Davos but one last update. On Friday a major announcement affecting all of banking and finance globally seeped out under the radar. I spotted it. Did you? Here it is … World Economic Forum Announces Global Consortium for Digital Currency Governance Today, the World Economic Forum announces the first…

I’ve written so much about the Wild West of Crypto that I’m kind of fed up with it but … here we go again. When bitcoin first appeared, I got into trouble. I kept saying that you cannot have money without government, and the libertarians called me a statist. Whatever. However … the older crypto…

I’ve noted that the bitcoin swings and roundabouts tend to often cycle around the hope and expectation of the US SEC giving approval to a bitcoin ETF … only to find that they never do and so it goes around. In an interesting article by Dave Weisberger on Coindesk, there may be a reason for…

People were surprised to see a headline that garnered much market shock: Markets Crash after reports that Binances Shangai Office Closed in Crypto Crackdown Argh. Crypto meltdown! I was amused to see a headline that garnered much online mirth: Markets Crash after reports that Binances Shangai Office Closed in Crypto Crackdown Because Binance doesn’t have…

Really interesting interview here with Ana Botin, Executive Chair of Santander, on Bloomberg. It starts with talking about how Santander can make a difference on climate change with Ana claiming that the bank is voted the most sustainable bank in the world. But when the interviewer, Erik Schatzker, asks her how Santander is making a…