Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, stated in a recent interview that American banks are burdened with poor-quality commercial real estate loans. His comments arrive amid the collapse of three major U.S. banks and the expected seizure of First Republic Bank by the federal government. Despite the potential challenges, Munger emphasized that the
Singapore’s government-owned investment firm Temasek continues investing in cryptocurrency projects even after losing hundreds of millions of dollars to the collapsed FTX crypto exchange. Temasek has invested $10 million in Array, the developer of an algorithmic currency system based on smart contracts and artificial intelligence. Announcing the news on May 1, Array said that the
Gary Gensler, the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) chair, recently appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee for a hearing regarding his leadership of the regulatory agency. The hearing, with Gensler as the only witness, promised to be unpleasant for the SEC chair, with the federal agency’s actions during Gensler’s leadership
The Kingdom of Bhutan is bullish on Bitcoin (BTC). Following the revelation that the small Himalayan Kingdom has been quietly accumulating crypto, the country is also mining Bitcoin. Moreover, the country of less than 800,000 people leverages green energy to power its Bitcoin mining operations. Known for its focus on “Gross National Happiness” and picturesque landscapes,
Your biweekly roundup of cool AI stuff and its impact on society and the future. The past two months have seen a Cambrian explosion in the capabilities and potential of AI technology. OpenAI’s upgraded chatbot GPT-4 was released in mid-March and aced all of its exams, although it’s apparently a pretty average sommelier. Midjourney v5
Bitcoin started the week trading in the red, as markets prepared for an important week of U.S. economic events. On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve is expected to increase rates by 25 basis points, with nonfarm payrolls for April being released this coming Friday. Ethereum was also lower in today’s session. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) continued to
On May 1, 2023, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) seized First Republic Bank, placing it into Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) receivership. According to reports, this move came after the bank’s financial troubles made it insolvent and unable to meet its obligations. Following the seizure, JPMorgan Chase submitted the winning bid
Uday Kotak, the CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, a financial institution based in India, recently expressed his view on the dominance of the U.S. dollar in global financial markets. Kotak stated that the U.S. dollar has “disproportionate power” as a reserve currency, retracting his previous statement in which he referred to the currency as the
The blockchain and crypto industry is constantly growing and changing around the world, and the Principality of Liechtenstein is no exception. The sixth smallest country in the world, located in the middle of Europe between Switzerland and Austria, has attracted the attention of the international and European crypto communities alike since the early days of
Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are not new, but the rapid emergence of chatbots as integrations into emerging technology and society has raised public concerns. A new survey out of Japan released on April 30 revealed major concerns among the local population over the widespread use of AI chatbots. According to the report from Kyodo News, 69.4% of Japanese want
Nigeria, one of the world’s most curious nations about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), is preparing new industry regulations for digital asset platforms. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria is considering allowing licensed digital exchanges to list tokens backed by certain assets, Bloomberg reported on May 1. According to SEC head of securities and
Bitcoin (BTC) starts a new week digesting major macroeconomic news as the United States sees the second-largest bank failure in its history. After a sideways weekend, BTC/USD was already volatile into the new weekly and monthly candle as downside kicked in. After steadying below $29,000, BTC price action is already facing more potential pressure as
Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund (BLDF) recently delivered on its promise to fund the legal costs of 11 Bitcoin developers that are the target of the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor Craig Wright’s lawsuit. According to Alex Morcos, the “mission [of BLDF] is to safeguard innovation by shielding developers from legal intimidation.” The Future of Open-Source Software Development
The American banking giant JP Morgan Ch is set to acquire all the assets of First Republic Bank (FRC) after early efforts to rescue it failed. JPMorgan, along with multiple other banks, submitted a bid to acquire the assets of troubled FRC on April 29. The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation closed FRC
Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of the most relevant crypto and economic development news from Latin America during the last week. In this issue, economist Steve Hanke calls to dollarize Argentina, Bitcoin City plans are still not formalized in El Salvador, and Venezuelan crypto watchdog Sunacrip is allegedly involved in mass layoffs. Steve Hanke
Immutable is a game development platform that simplifies building Web3 games on the Ethereum blockchain. Headquartered in Sydney and co-founded in 2018 by James Ferguson, Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly, this leading Web3 gaming platform is focused on a mission to bring digital ownership to players by making it easy to build Web3 games for
The BRICS bloc is now focused on expanding the use of the currencies of its members, according to the representative of one of them. The establishment of a single currency for the group is not an immediate task at this point in time, the diplomat indicated in an interview. Wider Use of National Fiats of
Block, a financial services and technology company owned by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced it has completed the prototype design of its new five-nanometre (5nm) Bitcoin (BTC) mining chip — which it claims is key to decentralizing the supply of Bitcoin mining rigs. According to a blog post published on April 28, Block
The United States securities regulator has handed down nearly $4 million in fines to crypto exchange Coinme for allegedly offering unregistered securities and giving “misleading statements” on its crypto token UpToken (UP). On April 28 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it settled charges against Coinme, its subsidiary Up Global SEZC and the CEO
Cryptocurrency may be bad for investors but it can be useful in international settlements, according to a top government official in Moscow. Russian authorities intend to set up a special committee that would issue permits to operators employing crypto in foreign trade transactions, he indicated. Russia Plans to ‘Experiment’ With Cross-Border Crypto Payments Amid Sanctions