Author: Steven Sahiounie

The anetaBTC project aims to attract bitcoin liquidity to the Cardano ecosystem. Wrapped bitcoin token cBTC has gone live on the Cardano testnet, with the project’s developers aiming to attract bitcoin (BTC) users to the nascent Cardano decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.Users can now mint cBTC tokens from the anetaBTC protocol, and use the tokens to fund, trade, or provide liquidity to Cardano testnet protocols. These wrapped tokens are a 1:1 representation of bitcoin, but on the Cardano blockchain. Wrapped tokens make it easy to transfer value across blockchains, which otherwise lack interoperability, allowing users to access different DeFi protocols without…

From a fundamental perspective the weaker correlation supports diversification arguments in favor of holding both BTC and ETH, the report said. The correlation between bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) returns has been declining since mid-March, when BTC started outperforming against the backdrop of the U.S. banking turmoil and increased regulatory scrutiny of non-bitcoin digital assets, Coinbase (COIN) said in a research report Friday. The decline in the relationship has become more pronounced following the Ethereum blockchain’s Shanghai upgrade – aka Shapella, the report said, noting that a similar trend was seen in September 2022 following the network’s previous update, the Merge. The Shanghai upgrade was…

The cost of insuring against a potential U.S. government default in the next 12 months soared to record highs last week. Bitcoin (BTC) faced selling pressure in the week ended April 23 as bond yields rose and the U.S. dollar liquidity declined. The leading cryptocurrency by market value fell by 9% to $27,600, registering its largest single-week percentage loss since early November, according to data from TradingView and CoinDesk. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose by six basis points (bps) to 3.58%, its second straight weekly gain, denting the appeal of risk assets, including cryptocurrencies. The USD Liquidity Conditions…

Credit Suisse on Monday revealed that it suffered net asset outflows of 61.2 billion Swiss francs ($68.6 billion) during the first-quarter collapse that culminated in its emergency rescue by domestic rival UBS. The stricken Swiss lender posted a one-off 12.43 billion Swiss franc profit for the first quarter of 2023, due to the controversial write-off of 15 billion Swiss francs of AT1 bonds by the Swiss regulator as part of the deal. The adjusted pre-tax loss for the quarter came in at 1.3 billion Swiss francs. Swiss authorities brokered the controversial 3 billion Swiss franc rescue over the course of a weekend in late March, following a…

Singapore’s core inflation slowed to 5% in March on a year-on-year basis, slightly lower than economists expectations of 5.1%. It was also lower than February’s figure of 5.5%, which was at a 14-year-high. Headline inflation for March — which includes accommodation and private transport costs — came in at 5.5% year-on-year, down from 6.3% the month before. The country’s statistics department revealed that food costs rose the fastest in March, recording a 7.7% year-on-year increase, followed by costs in recreation and culture at 6.8%. This article was originally published by CNBC.

Shares of HSBC were down 0.89% on Monday. It comes after investor advisory group ISS advised HSBC shareholders not to vote for proposals calling for the spinoff of HSBC’s Asian business at the upcoming AGM on May 5, Reuters reported. In a note seen by the news agency, ISS said the Ping An proposal, which supported a resolution by individual shareholder Ken Lui calling for the spinoff, “lacks detailed rationale.” Lui had put forward two resolutions calling for a review of HSBC’s business — including the spinoff and a restoration of fixed dividends, among others. ISS is not the only one with this stance. Last…

Asia-Pacific markets were broadly lower on Monday, ahead of a busy week of key economic releases in the region. Most major markets were down except Japan, which bucked the regional trend: the Nikkei 225 ended Monday slightly above the flatline at 28,593.52, while the Topix was 0.11% higher to close at 2,037,34. Investors will be closely watching the Bank of Japan monetary policy meeting later this week, the first to be led by new BOJ chief Kazuo Ueda. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.11% to finish at 7,322, while South Korea’s Kospi closed 0.82% lower at 2,523.5 and the Kosdaq was down 1.56% to end…

Most settlements for oil, gas and other resources are already made in national currencies Russia is switching to national currencies in energy trade with foreign partners, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Saturday in an interview with the Russia-1 TV channel. According to the official, most transactions are already made in these currencies, mostly in Chinese yuan and Russian rubles, and in the future Moscow intends to abandon the euro and dollar in energy exports altogether. “The trends have changed greatly toward reducing the use of dollars and euros. Considering the current problems with these currencies, in our settlements…

Projects worth over $1.6 billion were launched in Khabarovsk last year, the governor says Ukraine-related Western sanctions against Russia have failed to stop the flow of investment in the country’s far-eastern Khabarovsk Region, bordering on China, Governor Mikhail Degtyarev said this week. According to the official, a total of 26 new investment projects worth 133 billion rubles ($1.6 billion) were launched in the area in 2022, including a large-scale infrastructure project to build the Pacific Railroad. “It is comparable to the historical construction of the BAM (Baikal–Amur Mainline railway). It is the first private railroad in Russia to have a…

Japanese consumers were hit with the biggest price spikes in over 40 years in March, with especially severe increases for food and electricity, government data shows. The core consumer price index (CPI), which excludes fresh food but includes energy costs, jumped 3.1% in March from a year ago. The reading was unchanged from the previous month and sharply lower from January’s 4.2%, mainly due to the government’s subsidies to soften the cost of utility bills for households. Excluding both food and energy in the index, inflation was measured at 3.8% in March from February’s 3.5%. It has been well above…