Bloomberg Crypto

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenovec and Katie Greifeld , host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL - In Real Life. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we've got an audio version of their latest episode.  Enjoy! Find the full video experience of the shows here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The equivalent of an earthquake jolted the crypto world this week:  Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced and then quickly reversed a proposal to buy out rival exchange FTX, which was reportedly facing a liquidity crisis and on the brink of collapse.   The companies are each owned by two of the most well known CEOs in crypto: Sam Bankman-Fried at FTX, who has been touted...

One of the core fundamentals that personifies the Bloomberg newsroom is its commitment to data. As part of that commitment, the Markets Live team does a weekly investor survey, asking questions about different elements of financial markets. It’s called the MLIV Pulse Survey - because it’s the Markets Live team taking the pulse of financial markets. In October, the team asked investors for their op...

Evangelists of web3 - a term popularized by venture capitalist Chris Dixon - will often say that a big goal of the whole thing is giving more power to creators, and especially monetary power. Web3, these proponents say, allows artists, musicians, and creators of all stripes to cut out middlemen and intermediaries and to retain more of the financial benefits of their work. In other words, why pay a...

One of the bigger fights in crypto right now is over the definition of a security - what counts as a security, and who gets to decide - and therefore regulate - that. This isn’t just about semantics: the answer to that question affects trillions of dollars of assets in the United States, including crypto assets. In December 2020, the SEC accused Ripple Labs, issuers of the Ripple token, of having...

Given how the crypto industry feels about fast cars and men with big personalities, it’s perhaps no surprise that crypto is emerging as one of the biggest sponsors of Formula 1. Formula One racing is marketed as being all about competition that rewards instinct, speed, engineering innovation, and sheer adrenaline. Companies ranging from FTX to Crypto.com have spent millions of dollars on flashy de...

Listen to the second audio excerpt from this week's special issue of Businessweek magazine, The Crypto Story. Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine uses the full issue to explain where crypto came from, what it means and why it matters. This episode is voice by Bloomberg Businessweek editor Mark Leydorf. See https://omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener fo...

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenovec and Katie Greifeld , host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL - In Real Life. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we've got an audio version of their latest episode.  Enjoy! Find the full video experience of the shows here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been another pretty unpredictable week in crypto. Now that Elon Musk is at the helm of Twitter, what do his plans for the social media company have in store for digital assets? Why is Dogecoin rallying? And what’s the outlook for crypto earnings this quarter? Bloomberg crypto senior editor Dave Liedtka and deputy editor Beth Williams join this episode for a look at the top stories of the week...

As our colleague David Pan has been reporting, Bitcoin miners have been having a very rough time of it. To paraphrase one of his recent stories, falling Bitcoin prices and rising energy costs “led to combined second-quarter losses of more than $1 billion for the top three US publicly traded players — Core Scientific, Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain.” Yikes. This crunch has led to miners tryin...

Crypto is notorious for its volatility. All its wild swings in prices have become a trademark of the market. And it’s also something that has for years now shaped the trading behaviors of investors looking to make a quick profit. But what happens when the market’s largest digital asset , Bitcoin, starts losing its volatility? For the last four months, the coin has traded in a tight range around $2...

About a year ago, Nigeria introduced a digital version of its official currency, the naira. The introduction of the so-called e-naira was partly a response to concerns that the rising popularity of crypto in the country was threatening the banking system. There are a few countries experimenting with their own versions of digital money, including the Central African Republic, China, Jamaica, The Ba...

You’ve likely heard of Bitcoin and Ether as digital tokens, but there’s actually tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies you probably haven’t heard of. In fact over 12,000 of those coins are virtually defunct. Not that they’re ‘dead’ per say-  but they’re also not considered ‘alive’ or active. They’re called ‘zombie’ coins: tokens that have stopped trading activity as of late and are simply dormant....

Listen to the first audio excerpt from this week's special issue of Businessweek magazine, The Crypto Story. Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine uses the full issue to explain where crypto came from, what it all means, and why it matters. This episode is voiced by Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Mark Leydorf. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenocec and Katie Greifeld, host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL - In Real Life. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we've got an audio version of their latest episode.  Enjoy! Find the full video experience of the shows here.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week in crypto, we are settling in to crypto's new norms: like bitcoin now being range-bound: trading steadily between $19k-$20k. And we are still waiting to see if the so-called ‘Uptober’ will shake out.  But, hey, trading is still happening…and the SEC’s uptick in regulation efforts are being viewed as a boon to investors. According to the latest MLIV Pulse survey , would-be Crypto investor...

Let’s say you’re a crypto startup trying to raise money from venture capitalists. All things being equal, you’d have done decently well in 2020, ridiculously well in 2021, and not bad at all in the first half of 2022. But right now? Maybe not so much. Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller joins this episode to discuss  what’s happening with crypto VCs and the startups who need them. See omnystudio.com/...

Ethereum’s Merge has created a new class of blockchain participants, called ‘builders.' It's a significant shift in the current decentralized ecosystem. There are a relatively small number of these builders, but they have a significant amount of power on the blockchain. What exactly do these builders do? Why are critics so concerned? Joining this episode to discuss are Bloomberg Crypto reporters O...

Some of you may already know the work and writing of Bloomberg Opinion columnist Matt Levine . For everyone else — well you’re in for a treat.  Matt’s just published many thousands of words on the subject of crypto for a special issue of Bloomberg Businessweek. It lives HERE. He joins this episode to talk about what motivated him to do such an intensive dive into the blockchain, why he thinks of c...

September is traditionally a bad month for crypto - a down month for the past five years. But for Bitcoin proponents, October might hold something a bit more hopeful. The month of pumpkins and Halloween has typically been one of the best months for Bitcoin price gains. Advocates are crossing their fingers that the same thing will happen this year, especially as Bitcoin’s total market share has ris...

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenovec and Katie Greifeld, host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL - In Real Life. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we've got an audio version of their latest episode. For the full experience, find them on the web here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is episode 100 of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast. When we launched, in June, Bitcoin was trading around $30,000. Celsius and Three Arrows Capital hadn’t yet filed for bankruptcy. People knew where Do Kwon was. Celebrities cared about NFTs. It was a different time. When we launched, we knew what we wanted to do: every day, we’d take a look at all things digital assets. And we’d talk to reporters...

It might seem like the conversation about the metaverse right now is a combination of jokes about Mark Zuckerberg’s digital legs, snark about the cost of virtual reality headsets, and a real lack of clarity on why any corporation might want to be in the space.  So we asked Matthew Boyle, a Bloomberg reporter who’s written a lot about the future of work, to help explain what’s going on here. Specif...

Wealthy crypto investors are dumping a bunch of money into US politics, especially ahead of November’s congressional elections. Over the past 15 or so months, crypto-affiliated donors have sent roughly $70 million to political causes - topping what traditional players like defense and big pharma are spending.  One of the most prolific donors in the space is Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire co-fo...

Bankruptcies can be chaotic times for companies, and for their creditors. Investors, vendors, and former customers often end up jostling in court to get their share of what they lost from what remains of the firm.  In the crypto space, bankruptcies can bring even more questions. Some restructuring lawyers say the U.S. bankruptcy code still does not adequately address how to handle crypto assets. B...