Bitcoin came close to breaking the $ 50,000 barrier over the weekend and our Big Read on cryptocurrency has seen its 350 percent gain in the past 12 months.
What boosted the price last week was Tesla’s revelation that it had spent $ 1.5 billion on bitcoin. Then, BNY Mellon – America’s oldest bank – said on Thursday that it would start maintaining and transferring cryptocurrencies to asset management customers, while Mastercard announced that it would soon support “selected cryptocurrencies” on its network, allowing more stores to accept them as payment.
But analysts and investors say the main driver of the recent rise in bitcoin has been the fear that the central bank’s stimulus to cushion Covid-19’s economic damage will eventually inflame inflation. The hope of its proponents is that bitcoin is now becoming popular. “We are potentially at the birth of a new asset class,” argues Duncan MacInnes, a fund manager at Ruffer, a UK conservative and traditional investment group that raised its eyebrows when it placed a $ 600 million bet on bitcoin on last year.
As for his opponents, Jonathan Ford argues in Inside Business that Elon Musk being a bitcoin cheerleader is idiotic in terms of the environmental impact of his production. Bitcoin miners are not interested in intermittent renewable energy, he says. Needing to operate their machines 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, many locate their operations in locations with cheap coal-fired electricity.
In his last column, Rana Foroohar says that the rise of bitcoin can be seen as a first sign of a new world order in which the U.S. and the dollar will play a less important role.
This is the belief of some parts of the investor community – that the US post-crisis monetary policy, designed to stabilize the markets, will give way to post-Covid monetization of the growing US debt burden. If the U.S. government sells so much debt that the dollar starts to lose its value, then bitcoin could be a safe haven.
The Internet of (five) things
1. Apple also talked to Nissan
Apple approached Nissan of Japan in recent months about a tie for its secret self-driving car project, but negotiations are no longer active, we found. Discussions did not advance to senior management levels after the iPhone maker branded electric vehicle divisions. Apple also recently halted negotiations with South Korea’s Hyundai Motor and its affiliate Kia.
2. EU news – UK data OK, Big Tech under French cosh
Brussels should allow data to continue to flow freely from the EU to the UK after concluding that the British have ensured an adequate level of protection for post-Brexit personal information. In addition, France is pushing for the next EU regulations on Big Tech to be changed so that member states can exercise more power to punish misbehavior and police more types of content.
Daily Bulletin
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3. US starts Arm probe
The EU is preparing an investigation and the US Federal Trade Commission has now opened an in-depth review of Nvidia’s planned acquisition of SoftBank’s arm designer, placing it at the forefront of what is expected to be a series of investigations across the world . Qualcomm is considered one of the companies that complains that Arm could lose its “Switzerland” status if its rival Nvidia closes the deal.
4. OakNorth from SoftBank undergoes standards
OakNorth, the UK lender backed by SoftBank that once boasted of its perfect credit history, incurred nearly £ 100 million in defaults largely as a result of soured loans for real estate developers. In Asia, authorities are cracking down on digital creditors, stepping up control of a sector that has advanced with little supervision in large credit-hungry economies such as India and Indonesia.
5. Zynga walking high with high heels!
Zynga made its name with FarmVille, played on Facebook on a PC, but its boss, Frank Gibeau, told Patrick McGee that he now plans to launch new multiplatform games that can be played on mobile devices and consoles together. His latest hit is the number one iPhone app High heels!, where users bypass obstacles in absurdly high platform shoes to win accolades like “Queen!”
Tech week ahead
Monday: Australian lawmakers today began debating historic legislation to force tech giants like Google and the Facebook to pay for news.
Tuesday: Palantir, the Silicon Valley-based data analytics company listed last year, reports earnings for the December quarter before opening in New York.
Wednesday: Profit from China’s largest search engine provider Baidu are about to benefit from a recovery in advertising revenue on their central search platform, along with an increase in subscribers to its video streaming service similar to Netflix. An increase in online traffic should boost the e-commerce giant Shopify. The People’s Bank of China will end a week-long test of digital currency payments. So far, more than 100 million digital yuan it was issued and used in cities like Shenzhen and Suzhou.
Thursday: A recovery in demand for semiconductor equipment is expected to boost revenues in Applied Materials. Two of Wall Street’s top hedge fund managers are expected to testify along with the company’s top executives Reddit and Robinhood in a US Congressional hearing on the market turmoil surrounding GameStop’s stock trading. Keith Gill, the trader known as “Roaring Kitty” who has emerged as a key player in GameStop’s negotiations, is also scheduled to appear.
Technology Tools – LG Grass
I was impressed by the incredible lightness of the LG gram laptop, despite the 17-inch screen and the 20-hour battery when I tried it out in 2019. LG just announced that its 2,021 gram range is now available in the UK and the USA . All five new models have thin bezels, large 16:10 screens instead of the usual 16: 9, with the 17in costing £ 1,399, 16in at £ 1,249 and 14in at £ 1,149. The keyboard and touchpad have been enlarged for easy typing and the 14-inch model weighs less than 1kg and has a battery life of 25.5 hours. There are also 2-in-1 versions with 360-degree hinges and a 16-inch pen. And 14 in. (£ 1,599 and £ 1,499), starting in March.