Author: Steven Sahiounie

Happy Monday. Bitcoin is starting the Asia business day up 1.7%, just below $28K at $27,966. Ether is slightly outperforming bitcoin, beginning the day up 1.8% at $1,777. Speaking with CoinDesk TV on Friday, Oanda Senior Market Analyst Edward Moya said the success of Coinbase is dictating much of the future price movement of crypto. “Crypto traders are closely following everything with Coinbase. ​ Coinbase CEO [Brian] Armstrong noted that they weren’t entirely surprised by the SEC notice. No one knows how regulators are going to rule if all tokens are securities,” he said. “Coinbase’s success is vital for longer-term…

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says Silicon Valley Bridge Bank’s $72 billion in assets will be purchased by First Citizens at a discount of $16.5 billion. A deal has been finalized for what’s left of Silicon Valley Bank. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) announced late Sunday U.S. time that it had finalized a deal with Raleigh, N.C.-based First Citizens Bank to acquire the deposits and loans of the failed Silicon Valley Bank. Bloomberg had initially reported that a deal was nearing completion and could be announced as early as Monday morning U.S. time. In a statement, the FDIC said that all depositors of…

On Saturday, March 25, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would station its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus at the request of the Belarusian side, just as the US has long been doing on the territory of its allies China calls for reducing the risk of conflict between nuclear powers, reiterating that there can be no winners in a nuclear war, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning told a briefing on Monday. “Last January, the leaders of the five nuclear-weapon states issued a joint statement that a nuclear war should not be started, that it cannot be won. They…

“Despite the dirty campaign to cancel everything connected with Russia, we still have many friends in every country in the world, including in the West,” the top diplomat said Russia will determine the future prospects of interaction with Western countries on its own terms, when and if their leadership sobers up, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday. “When and if they sober up, we will determine our position on the prospects for further relations with them. But of course, we will be deciding ourselves and on our own terms,” Lavrov told a meeting of the board of guardians of…

Israeli President Isaac Herzog calls on the government to halt judicial reforms “for the sake of unity.” Israeli media reported last night that over 600,000 Israeli settlers took to the streets on Sunday to protest against the judicial reforms introduced by the government of Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed Security Minister Yoav Gallant. Israeli President Isaac Herzog, urged the government to halt the adoption of judicial reform immediately. Herzog said “We have seen very difficult scenes tonight. I appeal to the Prime Minister, the members of the government, and members of the coalition…

Stock futures rose slightly Monday, putting Wall Street on track to build on last week’s gains as investors continued to follow the latest from the bank sector. First Citizens Bank agreed to buy large parts of Silicon Valley Bank, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said overnight. The deal includes the purchase of approximately $72 billion of SVB assets at a discount of $16.5 billion, but around $90 billion in securities and other assets will remain “in receivership for disposition by the FDIC.” Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 92 points, or 0.3%. S&P 500 futures were…

Japan’s Defense Ministry confirms that the missiles traveled 350 kilometers with an altitude of 50 kilometers before plunging into the sea.  South Korea’s news reported that an unspecified ballistic missile was test-fired toward the Sea of Japan by North Korea on Monday, citing the South Korean military. In response, the Japan Coast Guard issued two warnings that two launches were carried out by South Korea. After the first warning was issued at 07:50 am local time by the Japan coast guard with the second following 10 minutes later, Japan’s Defense Ministry stated that the missiles traveled 350 kilometers with an…

Asia-Pacific markets were mixed on Monday as investors continue to assess the impact of the banking troubles in the U.S and Europe. Deutsche Bank ended the week seeing a selloff of its U.S.-listed shares, after the German lender’s credit default swaps jumped, adding onto lingering fears of contagion from turmoil seen in banking sector. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dipped 1.67% and the Hang Seng Tech index fell 2.83% in its final hour of trade. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite fell 0.44% to finish at 3,251.4, and the Shenzhen Component rose 0.12% to close at 11,647.93. In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1% to close at 6,962.2, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.33%…

The visit of Taiwan’s former leader to China will include Central China, not Beijing. Taiwan’s former leader, Ma Ying-jeou, is set to arrive today on March 27 in China’s mainland, the debut visit of any former leader of Taiwan to the mainland since 1949. The Taiwanese politician who served as president of Taiwan from 2008 to 2016, said in 2019 that he had long wanted to visit mainland China, despite “working on cross-Straits relations” for decades. Ma Ying-jeou is scheduled to begin his 12-day visit to mainland China in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province, on Monday. The Taiwanese politician’s…

“While disingenuously talking about freedom of choice, the United States, will in fact simply abuse the countries whose sovereignty and democracy it violated,” Nikolay Patrushev said Washington actually violates the sovereignty of other countries while claiming to support free speech and is the world’s biggest dictator, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta. “While disingenuously talking about freedom of choice, the United States, which has proclaimed itself the world’s biggest dictator, will in fact simply abuse the countries whose sovereignty and democracy it violated,” he said, commenting on the upcoming Summit for Democracy. Patrushev emphasized…