Cryptocurrency

Viewsroom: Tesla/bitcoin, Hydrogen, French finance

11 Feb 2021

Elon Musk has gone full cryptocurrency. Tesla’s $1.5 bln bitcoin buy is a wink to virtual-investment, anti-establishment fervor, if a challenge to accounting rules, Richard Beales argues. Meantime, Japanese carmakers are going gaga for hydrogen, and Parisian finance is in tumult.

Musk’s next disruption: accounting for crypto

8 Feb 2021

The $808 bln Tesla has put $1.5 bln into bitcoin and may accept it from buyers of its electric cars. The cryptocurrency surged to a record high value, but Musk’s car company won’t mark up the gain. If such investments catch on, reporting rules may need to change.

Bitcoin isn’t a currency, but a bet on skepticism

22 Jan 2021

Reasons to doubt the cryptocurrency, up over 250% in a year, are legion. It’s a poor unit of exchange, and the price is driven by speculative retail traders. As a reflection of mistrust in government, though, it offers a useful market signal – one that could rise long term.

Chancellor: Was I totally wrong about bitcoin?

12 Jan 2021

Three years ago, this column argued the cryptocurrency wasn’t money, resembled the gold prospector’s fabled sardine tin, and faced a total wipeout. Bitcoin promptly shed more than two-thirds of its value. Now it’s back from the dead and trading at twice its peak. What happened?

Corona Capital: Bitcoin, Lonely Planet

1 Dec 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: Bitcoin hit a record, buoyed by inflationary fears, new fans and plain old speculation. Meanwhile Lonely Planet has found a new owner, as it wrestles with an anything-but-lonely market for travel information.

Dollar-backed crypto shapes up as pandemic winner

22 Apr 2020

Cash is neither contactless nor clean, drawbacks that might have pushed money into big-name bitcoin. Instead, investors have focused on so-called stablecoins like Tether and USD Coin, linked to the U.S. currency. A revamped Libra even has a shot if Facebook gets out of the way.

China’s e-yuan will be more cryptic than crypto

23 Dec 2019

Beijing is primed to launch the world's first digital sovereign currency in 2020. The rollout will give authorities a powerful tool to tackle fraud and money laundering. Deploying the breakout innovation into the wheeling-dealing banking system could also aid a cleanup.

Chancellor: A 300-year bubble worth remembering

12 Dec 2019

Next year marks the tricentennial of England’s most notorious speculative mania. Even the great mathematician Sir Isaac Newton couldn’t resist The South Sea Company’s charms. Unicorn and cryptocurrency crazes suggest financial practices haven’t improved much over the centuries.

Chess “hybrid IPO” is less absurd than it sounds

22 Nov 2019

Ilya Merenzon, CEO of one of the game’s big broadcasters, may sell digital tokens that eventually convert to listed shares. Investors would get a discount but be stuck with a worthless asset if the planned IPO flops. Either way, World Chess’s profile gets a much-needed boost.

Bitcoin mining IPO mirrors currency volatility

12 Nov 2019

China’s Canaan aims to raise $400 mln in New York, after aborting previous efforts to list in Hong Kong and on the mainland, but its financials are as unstable as the cryptocurrency. Beijing’s uncertain position on this niche activity will weigh on any prospect of striking rich.

Silicon Valley is trapped in political purgatory

15 Jul 2019

Facebook can shrug off a $5 bln fine over privacy but the U.S. Treasury is questioning its crypto-coin plan. It also faces, with others, an antitrust grilling in Congress. Big tech doesn’t want a Wall St-like straitjacket, but growth will suffer without clear rules of the road.

Crypto blank-check deal has at least one virtue

10 Jul 2019

The idea of a blockchain company backing into a listed special-purpose buyout vehicle sounds like risk on steroids. Hong Kong-based Diginex has big ambitions but a skimpy track record. Yet the transparency of a Nasdaq listing can help sort cryptocurrency reality from hype.

Facebook discovers money is tougher than data

26 Jun 2019

Fed Chair Jerome Powell joined foreign watchdogs in vowing tough scrutiny of the $539 billion company’s planned crypto coin. Some of its own partners may have doubts about the project, too. The tactics Facebook used to pioneer social networking don’t transfer easily to finance.

Tech’s finance push is disrupting regulators too

25 Jun 2019

Innovations like Facebook’s proposed digital currency challenge established banking rules. New arrivals are hard to pin down, weaken existing players, and invert the risks and rewards of competition. A joined-up global response is necessary - but will be hard to agree.

Big Tech warrants Bank of England’s open eyes

21 Jun 2019

The central bank may let technology firms deposit funds alongside regular lenders as Governor Mark Carney seeks to keep up with rapid shifts in finance. Lower costs and more competition are broadly positive. Large groups like Facebook, however, deserve a more cautious embrace.

Viewsroom: UBS gets lost in translation

20 Jun 2019

A star economist at the Swiss bank sparked outrage on Chinese social media after his remarks about the country’s pigs were misconstrued. UBS’s decision to put him on leave seems overdone. And: Those weighing the benefit of a Facebook cryptocurrency must ask if “In Zuck we trust.”

Facebook throws down crypto-gauntlet to critics

18 Jun 2019

The social network’s poor track record on privacy makes it an unlikely creator of digital money. Yet it boasts 2.4 bln users and has enlisted some of the biggest names in tech and finance as partners. The new currency, Libra, is a bet that Facebook’s trust problems are overblown.

Facebook coin may aid crypto-rivals more than self

6 Jun 2019

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network could launch its own digital currency as a way into global payments, but it faces daunting trust and regulatory issues. Still, if some of its 2.4 bln users get hooked, that would boost the likes of bitcoin as well as blockchain technology overall.

Buffett may find value in crypto lunch ‘n’ learn

3 Jun 2019

Blockchain developer Justin Sun can afford the $4.6 mln he has bid for lunch with the Berkshire Hathaway boss. Any shift by Buffett, who has labeled bitcoin a fraud, could ignite digital assets. The sage of Omaha will get a check for his charity and a much-needed tech tutorial.

Bitcoin’s latest surge lacks ground support

16 May 2019

Markets are again eyeing the digital currency after it doubled in six weeks. Yet adoption of its blockchain technology remains sluggish and applications developed by Amazon, Microsoft and others don’t need the crypto-asset. That virtually assures more bitcoin volatility.