Article: If the SEC doesn’t regulate crypto assets, a new shadow finance industry could emerge

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If the SEC doesn’t regulate crypto assets, a new shadow finance industry could emerge

PATRICK AUGUSTIN, 08 May 2021

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is dragging its feet in deciding whether it should approve the listing of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposed by VanEck Associates Group. While it is good to be cautious, speed and political decisiveness are equally important. Otherwise we risk the rise of a digital shadow finance industry.

Cryptocurrencies are here to stay. The opportunities brought about by the digitization of assets and new financial technologies make it challenging to reverse the course of financial innovation. Continue reading “Article: If the SEC doesn’t regulate crypto assets, a new shadow finance industry could emerge”

Article: Meet The Tiny California Town “Full Of Dirt” That Snagged Elon Musk’s Boring Company

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Meet The Tiny California Town “Full Of Dirt” That Snagged Elon Musk’s Boring Company

TYLER DURDEN, 20 April 2021

Elon Musk is taking his Boring Company circus on the road to Adelanto, California.

Adelanto is a town of 37,000 where the mayor, Gabriel Reyes, works part time and the city manager, Jessie Flores, is the full time chief executive of the city, according to a recent Bloomberg report.

The county supervisor mentioned to Flores recently that Musk’s Boring Company was looking for a place to practice digging tunnels, so Flores reached out. “Steve, we’re the ones you’re looking for. When can we meet?,” Flores texted Boring’s President Steve Davis. Flores suggested meeting at SpaceX’s headquarters, which was about 2 hours away from Adelanto. Continue reading “Article: Meet The Tiny California Town “Full Of Dirt” That Snagged Elon Musk’s Boring Company”

Article: Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash

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Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash

Linda Chiem, 19 April 2021

A fatal crash in Texas involving a Tesla vehicle purportedly in semi-autonomous mode with no driver behind the wheel has sparked dual federal investigations that will invite sharper regulatory scrutiny of potential gaps in self-driving car technology, even as CEO Elon Musk flatly rejects suggestions that Autopilot was a factor.

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which regulates auto safety, as well as the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates transportation accidents, sent teams Monday to investigate the Saturday crash in the Houston suburb of Spring, which left two people dead. Continue reading “Article: Self-Driving Car Tech In Crosshairs As Feds Probe Tesla Crash”

Article: David Einhorn calls out Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya, defends GameStop champion Roaring Kitty, and blasts market regulators in a new letter. Here are the 11 best quotes.

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David Einhorn calls out Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya, defends GameStop champion Roaring Kitty, and blasts market regulators in a new letter. Here are the 11 best quotes.

Theron Mohamed, 16 April 2021

The elite investor David Einhorn blasted market regulators, accused Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya of juicing assets, and praised the GameStop champion Keith Gill in a letter to Greenlight Capital investors this week.

The Greenlight president also highlighted the “Big Short” investor Michael Burry’s exit from Twitter and pushed for greater scrutiny of Archegos Capital, the family office that blew up in March. Einhorn’s latest letter was obtained by ValueWalk. Continue reading “Article: David Einhorn calls out Elon Musk and Chamath Palihapitiya, defends GameStop champion Roaring Kitty, and blasts market regulators in a new letter. Here are the 11 best quotes.”

Article: Pension Fund Drops Suit Against Tesla Over $1.8B Bond Offer

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Pension Fund Drops Suit Against Tesla Over $1.8B Bond Offer

Rachel Stone, 16 April 2021

A pension fund voluntarily ended its proposed class action against Tesla and its multibillionaire founder, Elon Musk, which claimed the automaker and a group of big banks acting as underwriters misled investors on a $1.8 billion bond offering.

Inter-Local Pension Fund GCC/IBT has bowed out of its securities fraud suit in California federal court following a decision in the Ninth Circuit in March not to rehear a related case, according to a notice filed Thursday. Continue reading “Article: Pension Fund Drops Suit Against Tesla Over $1.8B Bond Offer”

Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

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The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors

Annabel Smith, 13 April 2021

The Reddit revolution in the US has drawn attention to the potential power that a growing force of retail investors can wield in stock markets when equipped by social media.

Amateur investors have increasingly engaged with retail platforms in the last year, partly due to the pandemic leaving them idol at home, but also due to the newfound onslaught of information through social media and access to the market through retail brokerages and platforms such as Robinhood. Continue reading “Article: The Reddit revolt: GameStop and the impact of social media on institutional investors”

Article: Robinhood Faces 458% Spike in Crypto Customers–Massive Increase from 1.7 Million to 9.5 Million in Q1 of 2021

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Robinhood Faces 458% Spike in Crypto Customers–Massive Increase from 1.7 Million to 9.5 Million in Q1 of 2021

Joen Coronel, 09 April 2021

On Thursday, Apr. 8, Robinhood announced a staggering surge in the number of its customers who engage in cryptocurrency trading. The financial services company which was founded on Apr. 18, 2013, has recorded that 9.5 million people have used the platform during the first quarter of this year.

The said number shoots up to a stupendous 458% increase in users, which only accounts for 1.7 million in 2020’s Q4.

How Robinhood Sudden Became Popular in Crypto Trading Continue reading “Article: Robinhood Faces 458% Spike in Crypto Customers–Massive Increase from 1.7 Million to 9.5 Million in Q1 of 2021”

Article: Robinhood Says 9.5 Million People Traded Crypto on Its App in Q1

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Robinhood Says 9.5 Million People Traded Crypto on Its App in Q1

Will Gottsegen, 09 April 2021

The online brokerage service Robinhood said on Thursday that 9.5 million of its customers traded cryptocurrency on its platform in Q1 of 2021.

That’s up from just 1.7 million in Q4 of last year, a 458% spike.

In a blog post, the company chalked up the numbers to crypto’s growing “popularity”: the global market cap of all cryptocurrencies has doubled in the past three months to over $2 trillion. Continue reading “Article: Robinhood Says 9.5 Million People Traded Crypto on Its App in Q1”

Article: Bitcoin Shows Us That Not All Volatilities Are Created Equal

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Bitcoin Shows Us That Not All Volatilities Are Created Equal

Enrique Dans, 09 April 2021

For many people, the main obstacle to using cryptocurrencies is that they are volatile; their value fluctuates sharply across time depending on, apparently, many different factors. To put the issue in context, the original paper on bitcoin was published in late 2008 and the first transaction in early 2009: since then, its value in dollars or euros has risen by more than 15,000%.

In contrast, over the same period of time, the parity between the dollar and the euro, has varied by a few percentage points up or down. No surprise therefore that bitcoin is seen as highly volatile and unsuitable for transactions, and at best, a store of value, subject to the systemic risk that arises every time the authorities or a government make decisions that could affect it. China talks of banning bitcoin mining and its price falls. Elon Musk uses part of Tesla’s reserves to buy bitcoin? Bitcoin rises.

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Article: ‘Voltswagen’ April Fools Stunt Could Backfire Spectacularly

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‘Voltswagen’ April Fools Stunt Could Backfire Spectacularly

TooFab Staff, 02 April 2021

Volkswagen said the name change was a joke — but not everybody is laughing.

Volkswagen broke a few April Fools rules with its name change prank this week; namely it not even being April Fools Day, and continuously insisting it wasn’t a prank when called out.

But it may have broken even more serious rules after the stunt caused share prices to soar… leading some business experts to predict an investigation into possible stock market manipulation.

The controversy began on Monday (note: that’s March 29, a good deal short of April 1) when the company “accidentally” leaked an incomplete press release, revealing its intention to change its name to Voltswagen to mark its move towards electric vehicles. Continue reading “Article: ‘Voltswagen’ April Fools Stunt Could Backfire Spectacularly”

Article: SEC is investigating Japanese investment giant SoftBank for market manipulation

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SEC is investigating Japanese investment giant SoftBank for market manipulation

DUNCAN RILEY, 25 March 2021

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating Japanese telecommunications company and investment giant SoftBank Group Corp. for alleged market manipulation.

Founded in 1981, SoftBank holds a significant share — 21.2% as of 2020 of Japan’s mobile phone subscription market — but is best known in the W est for its prolific investment portfolio. The list of companies SoftBank has invested in is too long to list but notable names include Uber Technologies Inc., Didi Chuxing Co. Ltd., Grab Holdings Inc., Nvidia Corp., TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd. and DoorDash Inc.

Along with operating the world’s largest technology-focused venture capital fund, Softbank has a particular interest in ride-hailing companies. Except for Lyft Inc., SoftBank owns significant minority stakes in just about every other company in the market. When Grab purchased Uber’s Southeast Asian arm in 2018, it was a deal between two SoftBank-funded companies. Continue reading “Article: SEC is investigating Japanese investment giant SoftBank for market manipulation”

Article: COMEXposed: How The Hateful-8 Kill Free Market Price Discovery

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COMEXposed: How The Hateful-8 Kill Free Market Price Discovery

TYLER DURDEN, 22 March 2021

We certainly live in interesting times. Yet be you bear or bull, left or right, optimist, cynic or pessimist, one would be hard pressed to pretend that anything is, well, normal.

Many are questioning why a virus with a death rate of less than .4% has shut down the global economy for a year and counting.

Despite extremely legitimate moments of silence for those who died with (or of) COVID, others are questioning policy makers who ignored protecting the most at risk profiles while remaining largely silent for the self-inflicted death for the rest of Main Street economies shut-down across the world. Continue reading “Article: COMEXposed: How The Hateful-8 Kill Free Market Price Discovery”

Article: GameStop stock surge lingo: Here’s what Reddit’s WallStreetBets vocabulary means

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GameStop stock surge lingo: Here’s what Reddit’s WallStreetBets vocabulary means

Katie Conner, 19 March 2021

Reddit’s community, WallStreetBets, is still assisting in the rise of GameStop’s stock, which is currently sitting at $272 per share and even hit an all-time high last week. Reddit users are battling it out with Wall Street to keep GameStop’s stock prices soaring while Wall Street expected a crash. Small investors are using Reddit communities to drive “meme stocks,” causing short sales and https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/shortsqueeze.asp. And it’s not just GameStop. Other companies, like AMC and Nokia, have also been affected by the coordinated surge.

No, this doesn’t mean you should necessarily drop everything and fully invest in the stock of the moment. Some are calling the market manipulation a “Ponzi scheme,” and the stock price will likely even out once the hullabaloo dies down.

In fact, broker TD Ameritrade restricted trading of the GameStop and AMC stocks on Jan. 26 and continues to post an advisory note to clients about market volatility. Trading app Robinhood followed suit on Jan. 27 in response to the runaway growth — the company got itself into trouble by restricting stock trades and will be closely reviewed by the SEC (It’s currently limiting buys on AMC and GameStop stocks). The White House has said it’s monitoring the situation.

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Article: How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

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How Regulating GameStop’s ‘Market Manipulation’ Could Harm Crypto

Benjamin Sauter, Steven Perlstein, William McGovern and David McGill, 02 March 2021

The ongoing roller-coaster ride of GameStop, dogecoin and other so-called meme stocks has led day traders, market makers and exchanges to attack each other with knee-jerk accusations of “market manipulation.” When this happens, the primary winners are government regulators seeking to expand the scope of their authority. Industry cries of market “manipulation” – from all sides – are not only shortsighted. They also risk setting the market on a path towards an enforcement framework that all market participants may come to regret, no matter what side they think they are currently on.

Reddit takes on Wall Street
Since early this year, by sharing tips and organizing on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter, individual traders have been able to rally prices of meme stocks to unbelievable heights. First, it was GameStop, AMC and a handful of other targets, with traders sending prices skyward 1,500% or more. Then, traders set their sights beyond the securities markets: dogecoin (DOGE) rose over 800% in 24 hours after a tweet from Elon Musk rallied the masses behind it.

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Article: The Elon Musk Effect: The Timeless Power Of Disruption And Brand Authority

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The Elon Musk Effect: The Timeless Power Of Disruption And Brand Authority

Ben Constanty, 25 February 2021

The odds are good that you have been impacted by the network effect, or when a product increases in value when more individuals begin adopting and using said product. A few examples include the telephone and the internet.

Company CEOs such as Elon Musk have recently expedited this process by using their personal brands to create a massive network effect in different industries. To get a better understanding, we need to dive in further. Continue reading “Article: The Elon Musk Effect: The Timeless Power Of Disruption And Brand Authority”

THE DOLLAR HAS NO INTRINSIC VALUE : DO YOUR ASSETS?