Markets

Ben Brown Ben is a journalist with a decade of experience covering financial markets. Based in London, UK, his writing has appeared in The Huffington Post and he was Chief Editor at Block Explorer, the world's longest-running source of Blockchain data. Reach him at benjamin-brown.uk, Twitter at _Ben_Brown or MuckRack. Email ben @ benjamin-brown.uk.

The founder and CEO of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, Ren Zhengfei, has dismissed concerns that Facebook’s planned cryptocurrency Libra could dominate the world at the expense of China and its tech firms, Sina reports.Noting that countries have more power compared to internet firms, Zhengfei stated that China could issue its own digital currency that would rival Libra:China can also issue such a currency by itself. Why wait for others to issue it? The power of a country is always...

Switzerland crypto laws have appealed to blockchain enthusiasts for years. Facebook’s head of blockchain, David Marcus, is no exception. He released a statement announcing that he expects the new coin to be governed by Swiss law.“Because the (Libra) Association is headquartered in Geneva, it will be supervised by the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA). We have had preliminary discussions with FINMA and expect to engage with them on an appropriate regulatory framework for...

By CCN.com: Owners of “whale wallets” scooped up 450,000 BTC as the bitcoin market hit bear-market lows in late 2018. It appears whales now control 25% of all BTC.Is this good or bad for bitcoin?Whales are smart moneyThese private, non-institutional buyers decided an 85 percent decline was a buying opportunity.The market sent BTC prices higher.Now they hold bitcoin, hoping to exploit the law of supply and demand. By hoarding coins, liquidity dries up, theoretically forcing prices...

By CCN.com: On May 17, within minutes, the bitcoin price plummeted from around $7,800 to $6,400 in a flash crash, recording an unexpected 18 percent drop.The bitcoin price briefly plunges to $6,400, recovers swiftly (source: coinmarketcap.com)The sudden decline in the bitcoin price led the valuation of the crypto market to plunge from $257 billion to $225 billion, by more than $32 billion in less than 24 hours.What triggered the sudden bitcoin price drop?According to researchers and investors...

You could say Warren Buffett is loaded for bear. The “Oracle of Omaha” says he’d like to make permanent investments in U.S. companies with decent long term prospects, but not while the U.S. stock market is so overpriced. Maybe he should buy Bitcoin instead.Buffett Pines for ‘Elephant-Sized’ AcquisitionIn his 2019 annual letter to Berkshire shareholders, Buffett wrote:“In the years ahead, we hope to move much of our excess liquidity into businesses that Berkshire will permanently own. The...