Author: Steven Sahiounie

Ledger has raised most of a €100 million ($109 million) funding round at a €1.3 billion ($1.4 billion) valuation, the company told Bloomberg. Media outlets first reported on a potential new capital raise last August. The collapse of centralized crypto exchange FTX and recent U.S. regulatory actions against competitor Binance have made many digital asset owners wary of leaving their tokens in the hands of others. Ledger’s hardware products allow users to store their assets in a secure, physical location. “Suddenly people were like ‘wow, to leave crypto on an exchange is actually dangerous,'” Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier, told Bloomberg. “And 2023…

Kraken has filed pre-registration paperwork with the Ontario Securities Commission as it works towards becoming a registered Restricted Dealer in Canada. U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is remaining in Canada and complying with tougher rules set out by the country’s financial regulator, the Canadian Securities Administrators (CSA). Kraken has filed a pre-registration undertaking with the Ontario Securities Commission as it works towards becoming a registered Restricted Dealer across Canada, the company said in a press release on Thursday. Canada has tightened its rules governing crypto exchanges and set a deadline to commit to a set of enhanced pre-registration undertakings (PRU), causing…

Market makers selling the options may need to buy more bitcoin in the spot market to cover their positions if the cryptocurrency rises further. Bitcoin (BTC) could see wild price swings heading into the weekend as options contracts worth billions of dollars tied to the cryptocurrency are set to expire on Friday. At press time, the quarterly expiry on the dominant crypto options exchange Deribit comprised 81,052 call options worth $2.24 billion and 60,261 put options worth $1.73 billion, according to data from Amberdata. Deribit, which accounts for almost 80% of the global crypto options activity, will settle the quarterly…

XRP trading made up nearly 50% of all volume on Korbit, a prominent local exchange. The South Korean crypto trading mania has seemingly returned fueled by the surge in XRP tokens. Trading volume for XRP spiked to billions of dollars on UpBit, Bithumb and Korbit, three of Korea’s top exchanges by volume, on the back of the token’s 26% rise in the past week. In the past 24 hours, XRP trading made up 37% of all volume on Bithumb, 18% of volume on UpBit and a staggering 50% of all volume on Korbit, data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap shows. These…

Bed Bath & Beyond is warning of a bankruptcy filing — again — if a proposed $300 million stock offering doesn’t pay off. The beleaguered retailer said in a securities filing Thursday that its lenders downsized its loan. If it doesn’t receive proceeds from the stock offering, Bed Bath & Beyond warned Thursday it will likely need to file for bankruptcy protection. In addition, the company disclosed that the loans it secured last year were downsized. According to the filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said its $565 million revolving loan was decreased from $565 million to $300 million.…

EV charging network operator EVgo on Thursday reported fourth-quarter revenue that beat Wall Street expectations and posted a narrower-than-expected loss as booming demand from business clients drove big jumps in sales and usage. While EVgo’s revenue guidance for 2023 fell slightly short of Wall Street’s expectations, investors didn’t seem to mind: Shares were up over 20% in early trading following the news. Here are the key numbers from EVgo’s fourth-quarter earnings report, compared with Wall Street consensus estimates as reported by Refinitiv. EVgo’s fourth-quarter revenue marked a 283% increase from a year ago. The company’s net loss for the quarter was $17 million.…

The European Union is poised to ramp up its 2030 renewable energy targets, accelerating a shift away from fossil fuels as the bloc seeks to rapidly cut emissions and reduce its dependence on Russia. Negotiators from the European Council and Parliament on Thursday reached a provisional deal to source 42.5% of the 27-nation bloc’s energy from renewable technologies such as wind and solar by the end of the decade, EU lawmaker Markus Pieper said via Twitter. Pieper described the agreement as “a good day for Europe’s energy transition.” The deal is said to include an additional 2.5% “indicative top-up” to allow the bloc to…

Initial filings for unemployment insurance ticked higher last week but remained generally low in a tight labor market. Jobless claims for the week ended March 25 totaled 198,000, up 7,000 from the previous period and a bit higher than the 195,000 estimate, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Though the number was slightly higher than expectations, the total indicates that companies are slow to lay off workers despite expectations that the unemployment rate will rise through the year. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, edged up 4,000 to 1.689 million. That was below the FactSet estimate for 1.6935 million. The four-week moving…

By: Javad Masoumi, a geopolitical researcher and analyst Israel’s situation after three months of protests and social unrest and the lack of compromise between the leaders of this regime has had a wide regional and extra-regional reflection.  So that many political experts believe that Israel is on the verge of collapse.  This social and security crisis will become much more sensitive and widespread at the same time as Ramadan.  Because in the current state of Israel’s security institutions, it has to focus on two completely different situations: the internal crisis and the axis of resistance on the other hand.  In…

The two BRICS nations will now reportedly trade in their own currencies Beijing and Brasilia have signed an agreement on trade in mutual currencies, abandoning the US dollar as an intermediary, and are also planning to expand cooperation on food and minerals. According to media reports, the deal will enable the two BRICS members to conduct their massive trade and financial transactions directly, exchanging renminbi for real and vice versa, instead of using the US dollar for settlements. “The expectation is that this will reduce costs… promote even greater bilateral trade and facilitate investment,” AFP quoted the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion…