| December 05, 2022 | "Irreverent, but never irrelevant" | | | | John Lothian
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Hits & Takes
John Lothian & JLN Staff
Jay Clayton and Timothy Massad, former heads of the SEC and CFTC respectively, have written an op-ed to The Wall Street Journal titled "How to Start Regulating the Crypto Markets-Immediately." The subheadline is "Former chairmen of the SEC and CFTC offer three steps U.S. regulators should take to make sure crypto lives up to its promise-without compromising the fairness and stability of financial markets." This is a good read and could be the basis of how to get the ball rolling on crypto regulation in the U.S.
The Financial Times Person of the Year is Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The title of the headline is "FT Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 'I am more responsible than brave.'
Leo Lewis of the Financial Times has an interesting piece that asks the question "Is Fomo the new greed when it comes to investing?" FOMO is of course the fear of missing out. Markets used to be moved by fear and greed, so this would suggest markets are moved by fear of losing and fear of not winning.
Lara Shevchenko has joined the FIA European Principal Traders Association as Senior Policy Advisor- Market structure. In this new role, she will drive FIA EPTA's market structure work program in both the EU and UK.
The headline of the day, and there are some good ones, is "Misfortune Favors the Crypto Mouthpiece," from CoinDesk, about Matt Damon's performance in a Crypto.com's adventurer-themed television advertisement.
Here is a bit of personal finance and marriage advice from The Wall Street Journal. The story is "Couples Who Combine Finances Are Happier. So Why Don't More Do It?"
I want to thank all my family, friends, JLN colleagues, industry colleagues, neighbors and others who attended the memorial service for my mother, Marjorie Jane Lothian, on Saturday in Glenview at the Glenview Community Church. It was a beautiful service, with the sanctuary all ready for the Christmas holiday. The music was extraordinary, from the number of members of the Singing Stones church high school choir that came up front to join in the singing of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee" to the moving "Let there be Peace" ending song of the Singing Stones. We also had a bagpiper, and my nephew Andrew Lothian performed a Warren Zevon song live. Andrew also played a recording of an original song he wrote at the end of the service from Apple iTunes, which then started playing the next thing on his playlist, which was my November 30th JLN Daily Update. Luckily, he quickly turned off the player before my face turned too red.
I was really moved by the number of people who showed up and the diversity of aspects of my life and my mom's and family's life that they came from. It was a very special day I shall hold in my heart forever.
Have a great day and stay safe and treat people the same way you want to be treated: with respect, equality and justice.~JJL
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The UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) is taking place at the Palais des congres in Montreal, December 7-19. At the conference, governments from around the world will convene to agree to a plan to halt biodiversity loss and restore nature. The new set of goals will be embedded in an agreement known as the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. Among business and finance issues on the table are the conditions of "Target 15," which would require all businesses globally to report on dependencies and impacts on biodiversity, and progressively reduce negative impacts. As part of COP15, Business for Nature, a coalition of 1000 businesses with revenues of $4.7 trillion is asking governments to adopt policies to reverse nature loss by 2030. You can watch live streams of all sessions here. Follow the #COP15 hashtag on social media for ongoing news. ~SAED
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MWE SHORT: Chip Dempsey - Breaking Down Cryptocurrencies
JohnLothianNews.com
In this video from MarketsWiki Education's Intern Recruiting Event in Chicago, Chip Dempsey, chief commercial officer at OCC, discusses cryptocurrencies and what effect they'll have on markets. Dempsey says that the emergence of cryptocurrencies is the beginning of a new age in finance and using a shared ledger has enormous cost control implications.
Watch the video »
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Bernie Madoff's Lawyer Has Some Advice for Sam Bankman-Fried: Shut Up; Stop talking, Ira Sorkin advises fallen FTX wunderkind; Media tour could undermine future defense, lawyers say
Ava Benny-Morrison - Bloomberg
The lawyer who represented Bernie Madoff has this advice for Sam Bankman-Fried: shut up. Enough with this whole media apology tour, says Ira Sorkin, lead defense lawyer for Madoff, late mastermind of one of the greatest Ponzi schemes of all time. As authorities sift through the wreckage of FTX, Bankman-Fried's collapsed crypto empire, the man known as SBF, has been talking to everyone from The New York Times to the ABC talk show Good Morning America.
/jlne.ws/3umtcGb
***** The subconscious message from the Madoff lawyer was actually "STFU!" OK, that might be mine.~JJL
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Former FTX users say the failed crypto exchange was a 'Ponzi scheme.' Here's how those work, and what we know about how Sam Bankman-Fried operated
Will Daniel - Fortune
Until recently, Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, was crypto's golden boy, known for building his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, into a $32 billion giant in just two years. But the disheveled, left-leaning 30-year-old gamer was living a lie. SBF, who claimed to be a minimalist philanthropist, had used customer funds to prop up his failing crypto empire and fund his lavish lifestyle. Amid the revelations and the broader retrenchment of the crypto industry, FTX and its web of investments-which included SBF's trading business, Alameda Research, as well as over 200 other crypto companies-have dramatically unraveled.
/jlne.ws/3HrODgT
****** Just think, if SBF had come first, they would have referred to the schemes as Bankman-Fried schemes.~JJL
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Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says it's 'baffling' FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried isn't 'in custody already'
Steve Mollman - Fortune
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be in custody by now, as far as Brian Armstrong is concerned. The Coinbase CEO said this week it's "baffling to me why he's not in custody already." "The DOJ or somebody should be able to make-just based on his public statements, I think there's a very open and shut case for fraud," Armstrong said at the a16z crypto Founder Summit on Tuesday. He added, "I'm not an expert on this, but the people I talk to seem to agree on that."
/jlne.ws/3VSDNEk
****** You have to do the perp walk first before you can be in custody.~JJL
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Anna Sorokin says Sam Bankman-Fried's media apology tour is a scam: 'He's just trying to save himself'
Jacob Shamsian - Business Insider
Convicted scammer Anna Sorokin thinks Sam Bankman-Fried's media apology tour is insincere garbage, she told Insider, believing he's trying to lay the groundwork for a legal defense over his role in FTX's meltdown and the evaporation of billions of dollars. "He's just trying to save himself," she told Insider Thursday. "That would be his defense if he is going to get prosecuted: 'I didn't know Alameda was overleveraged' - which is a crazy f---ing claim - that it's the girlfriend's fault. You can see the seeds of that already."
/jlne.ws/3urP9U4
****** Advice from a professional scammer is always appreciated.~JJL
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Why labor economists say the remote work 'revolution' is here to stay
Greg Iacurci - CNBC
Remote work surged in the pandemic era - but this trend, borne of necessity for public health, has now become a fixture of the U.S. job market, one that's likely to remain entrenched, according to labor experts. Almost 10% of online job searches in September mentioned "remote work," a nearly sixfold increase relative to September 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a recent report published by Indeed and Glassdoor.
/jlne.ws/3P0KIJx
****** The near-universal access to the internet, a fast internet, and video conferencing software breakthroughs mean it works for me.~JJL
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Brad DeLong on the FTX Collapse and the South Sea Bubble; What history says about the crypto implosion.
Tracy Alloway and Joe Weisenthal - Bloomberg
We're in the aftermath of an extraordinary bubble in cryptocurrencies and the collapse of FTX is a defining chapter of the industry's turmoil. But what does history tells us about the cycle of bubbles and busts? Which past manias are the most similar to what we've just seen? In this episode, we speak with Brad DeLong, an economic historian at the University of California at Berkeley, who is also the author of the new book, Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century. He explains how the FTX saga shares shocking similarities with the story of the South Sea Company, a British endeavor that was at the center of a massive mania of speculation in the early 1700s.
/jlne.ws/3P1mrmw
***** Forget the Enron or Tulips comparison, we are going to the South Sea Bubble.~JJL
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Oxford word of the year 2022 revealed as 'goblin mode'
Imogen James - BBC
The first Oxford word of the year to be chosen by public vote has been announced. The winning word, "goblin mode", is a slang term describing "unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy" behaviour. It was one of three potential choices selected by Oxford lexicographers.
/jlne.ws/3VRkcEF
****** Why did I think this had something to do with Spiderman?~JJL
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Friday's Top Three
Our top story Friday by several lengths was Blockchains, What Are They Good For?, Paul Krugman's column in The New York Times. Second was CNBC's Jim Cramer eviscerates FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried: 'Total con artist', from The New York Post. Third was 11 New Books We Recommend This Week, an eclectic list from The New York Times containing a mix of fiction and non-fiction.
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| All MarketsWiki Sponsors» | | | | | | | John Lothian News (JLN) is the news division of John J. Lothian & Company, Inc. (JJLCO). The online media and financial services firm is staffed by derivatives industry, journalism and technology professionals. | | | | | | | John Lothian News Editorial Staff: | | | John Lothian
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| Lead Stories | FTX Effort to Save Itself Failed on Questionable Assets; Collateral seized by crypto exchange was likely worth far less than it claimed
Shane Shifflett, Rob Barry and Coulter Jones - The Wall Street Journal
When crypto exchange FTX was struggling to raise cash early last month, it seized billions of dollars worth of collateral from its trading arm, Alameda Research, and used it to try to convince investors of its financial health, former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried said. But much of it didn't add up. A big chunk of the assets consisted of four thinly traded crypto tokens closely connected to Mr. Bankman-Fried and FTX employees and mostly held by Alameda. The tokens were likely worth far less than the $6.4 billion marked on the balance sheet FTX was shopping to investors in the hope of a bailout, according to market data and crypto researchers.
/jlne.ws/3iEaxTn
Crypto CEOs Fearing Worst Is Yet to Come Are Cutting More Jobs; Bybit, Swyftx announce headcount cuts of at least 30%; StanChart sees Bitcoin at $5,000 as 'surprise' scenario
Philip Lagerkranser, Joanna Ossinger, and Suvashree Ghosh - Bloomberg
Digital assets are already a year into one of the industry's worst slumps, but judging from recent announcements of steep headcount reductions, crypto executives seem to be bracing for more pain. Cryptocurrency exchanges Bybit and Swyftx over the past two days said they're laying off 30% and 35% of their staff, respectively. The announcements came less than a week after bigger rival Kraken unveiled a similar workforce culling.
/jlne.ws/3VPIZJ3
The Crypto Industry Struggles for a Way Forward; The implosion of the exchange FTX shows how an industry built in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has drifted far from its original ideals.
David Yaffe-Bellany - The New York Times
Not long after several Wall Street banks collapsed in 2008, a nine-page document circulated on an obscure mailing list, proposing a new kind of financial system that wouldn't rely on any "trusted third party." The paper was the basis for what became the cryptocurrency industry. Using sweeping, idealistic language, its adherents vowed to conduct business in a transparent and egalitarian way, rejecting the high-risk practices of a small number of powerful financial firms that caused the Great Recession.
/jlne.ws/3F4wRgy
Clashes Over FTX Bankruptcy Go Global; Squabbles are erupting around the world over who controls insolvent company's cash and crypto assets
Alexander Osipovich, Alexander Saeedy and Alexander Gladstone - The Wall Street Journal
The collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has opened a hornet's nest of squabbles between foreign governments and its new U.S. chief executive, John J. Ray III. In Cyprus, the country's securities regulator is complaining that Mr. Ray's decision to place FTX in bankruptcy has stymied investigations and is preventing European customers from getting their money back. Officials in the Bahamas, where FTX moved its headquarters last year, are accusing Mr. Ray of making false statements and suggesting that his team is motivated by the prospects of earning hefty legal fees.
/jlne.ws/3XYnibS
The 'Good Cop and Bad Cop' of US Crypto Regulations
Cheyenne Ligon - CoinDesk
If U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler is often perceived as the "bad cop" of the crypto industry, Rostin Behnam - chairman of sister regulatory agency the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) - has long been seen as the "good cop." Since his appointment as chair of the SEC in 2021, Gensler has taken a tough stance on regulating the crypto industry, seemingly preferring to regulate via enforcement actions and keeping mum about things - including which cryptocurrencies are considered to be securities by his agency - that could help industry players comply with regulations.
/jlne.ws/3iHgMpS
Asset managers pour money into tech platforms to take on BlackRock; Companies including State Street and Pimco compete to capture slice of outsourced IT services
Brooke Masters and Harriet Agnew - Financial Times
Money managers including State Street, Pimco and Amundi are pouring money into digital investment platforms in hopes of emulating BlackRock's technology business, which is bringing in new revenue even as falling markets hit fees from their core investment clients.
/jlne.ws/3XWzSIw
Cboe Digital Continues to Demonstrate Commitment to the Highest Levels of Financial and Operational Controls in Crypto Industry with SOC 1 Completion
Cboe Global Markets
Cboe Digital is pleased to announce it has completed an independent Service Organization Controls (SOC) audit of its clearing services platform, Cboe Clear Digital, and received a SOC 1 Type II certification, completed by a large national public accounting firm. The SOC 1 Type II examination reviewed Cboe Clear Digital's design, implementation and operating effectiveness of its financial transaction operations and reporting controls.
/jlne.ws/3F3vMWz
FTX's LedgerX Up for Sale as Restructuring Process Picks Up
Gillian Tan, Lydia Beyoud and Allyson Versprille - Bloomberg
LedgerX, one of the few solvent pieces of Sam Bankman-Fried's crumbled FTX empire, is for sale and attracting interest from would-be buyers including crypto giants Blockchain.com and Gemini, according to people familiar with the matter. The unit, which is registered with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission as a derivatives exchange, was a cornerstone of Bankman-Fried's efforts in Washington. It's also considered one of the most valuable assets associated with FTX after more than 100 other entities filed for bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/3gXf0QT
Sam Bankman-Fried's Self-Incrimination Tour
David Z. Morris - CoinDesk
FTX and Alameda Research founder Sam Bankman-Fried has spent the week on what may be a genuinely unprecedented media tour, sitting for a series of extended interviews, even in the face of his likely imminent arrest for criminal financial fraud. One of those interviews, with the New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin, was already scheduled before the unmasking of FTX and Alameda in November. But Bankman-Fried also sat for a surprise interview with George Stephanopoulos at ABC's "Good Morning America."
/jlne.ws/3VTmPWG
Harris Taps Ex-Citi CEO for $9.5 Billion Investment Firm; Michael Corbat will be an adviser to Harris's 26North Partners; New firm focuses on private equity, credit and insurance deals
Heather Perlberg - Bloomberg
Michael Corbat, the former chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., is joining Josh Harris's new investment firm as a senior adviser. Corbat, 62, will be providing insight and advice to 26North Partners, the $9.5 billion entity Harris has been building since announcing his departure from Apollo Global Management Inc. last year. His new firm has expanded to about 60 professionals focusing on private equity, credit and insurance deals. Corbat is also expected to guide companies in which 26North invests.
/jlne.ws/3Ux4spj
The Four Horsemen of the Cryptocalypse
David Z. Morris - CoinDesk
What a difference a few weeks makes. Every year, CoinDesk plans its Most Influential list starting as early as August. Back then it seemed obvious who belonged in the rogue's gallery of the 2022 crypto collapse (crippling an industry is, after all, a kind of influence, too). The four CEOs behind Terraform Labs, Celsius Network, Three Arrows Capital and Voyager Digital built flawed products, enticed retail investors to take huge undisclosed risks and borrowed heavily to lever themselves up to nosebleed heights. Then each of them blew up spectacularly.
/jlne.ws/3FraeVb
Crypto's Virgil Through the Market Hellscape
Daniel Kuhn - CoinDesk
Here's something that might make you laugh: Arthur Hayes' Wikipedia page still categorizes him as a "banker." Indeed, the founder of the BitMEX crypto exchange and derivative trading platform did get his start on the equities side of Deutsche Bank and Citigroup. But that's like calling a butterfly a caterpillar or a chicken an egg.
/jlne.ws/3Be3GXl
BIS warns of $80 trillion of hidden FX swap debt
Marc Jones - Reuters
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has warned that pension funds and other 'non-bank' financial firms now have more than $80 trillion of hidden, off-balance sheet dollar debt in the form of FX swaps. Dubbed the central bank to the world's central banks, the BIS raised the concerns in its latest quarterly report, in which it also said this year's market upheaval had, by and large, been navigated without many major issues.
/jlne.ws/3VVR2Ex
More Crypto Exchanges Verify Reserves, But Questions About Assets Remain; Binance, Kraken and other crypto companies are offering proof of reserves, which is often less thorough than a full audit
Mark Maurer - The Wall Street Journal
Cryptocurrency exchanges are setting up systems to verify certain assets and liabilities intended to reassure investors and customers in the wake of FTX's collapse last month, but these measures give limited insight into the companies' finances.
/jlne.ws/3VUsmMj
Bob Diamond's Concord Acquisition Corp ditches $9bn crypto deal
Scott Chipolina - Financial Times
Bob Diamond's acquisition vehicle has ditched plans to take Circle, a stablecoin provider, public in the latest blow to the crypto sector. Circle runs USD Coin, a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, and had first announced in July last year that it planned to go public via a merger with Diamond's Concord Acquisition Corp. The deal would have valued Circle at $9bn. But the companies announced on Monday that the deal had been mutually terminated.
/jlne.ws/3Uwmc4e
North Carolina Power Outage Leaves 33,000 Without Electricity After Substation Attack; Authorities haven't determined a motive or identified those responsible
Dan Frosch and Ginger Adams Otis - The Wall Street Journal
About 33,000 customers were without power Sunday evening in Moore County, N.C., after what authorities said was an intentional act of vandalism on local substations. A spokesman for Duke Energy, which provides power to the area, said its equipment was seriously damaged and the outages could last for days. Two substations were disabled by gunfire beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday night, County Sheriff Ronnie Fields said at a Sunday news conference. The sheriff said that someone opened fire on the substations in a targeted attack, and authorities were searching for whoever is responsible.
/jlne.ws/3uo235N
Hackers Exploit a DeFi Project to Mint 4 Quadrillion Crypto Tokens; Binance CEO Chengpeng Zhao said that a hacker exploited a smart contract on a DeFi project to mint unlimited crypto.
Kyle Barr - Gizmodo
Just how far will hackers go to eek out a profit from a crypto entity? In one DeFi projects' case, those looking to exploit found they could make a pretty penny by simply telling the system to mint a quadrillion crypto tokens. Binance CEO Chengpeng Zhao, who often goes by CZ, wrote early Tuesday there were "possible hacks" of the Ankr and Hay coins listed on the exchange. He said the hacker "updated the smart contract to a more malicious one." The CEO added that he paused withdrawals for Ankr's loyalty token aBNBc.
/jlne.ws/3Fq2geL
Ankr Hack Of 6 Quadrillion Tokens Looks Like Inside Job
Maria Gracia Santillana Linares - Forbes
The theft of 6 quadrillion cryptocurrency tokens on Friday from Ankr shows signs of being connected to the decentralized finance protocol itself. Crypto intelligence firm Arkham said that on-chain sleuths found that the wallet address of the initial attacker was connected to that of an Ankr developer. "The possibility of an inside job should not be ruled out," the firm posted on Twitter following the exploit. A spokesperson for Ankr told Forbes that the source of the hack was from a compromised private security key, adding in a tweet that the breach seemingly occurred after a system update.
/jlne.ws/3OZZy2N
A European Central Bank Blog Decries the End of Bitcoin, and We Aren't Buying It
George Kaloudis - CoinDesk
As a Greek-American, I've been paying attention to the European Central Bank (ECB) for too long. Imagine the scene: There's a teenager on the way to soccer practice absolutely in shambles because he just learned that Goldman Sachs brokered a cross-currency swap for Greece so that the latter could gain admission into the eurozone. The teenager then systematically loses his mind after each austerity package is announced in the following months and years. That teenager was me.
/jlne.ws/3XXXT1L
Sam Bankman-Fried's trading shop was given special treatment on FTX for years; Alameda Research was exempt from borrowing limits applied to exchange's other clients, former billionaire tells FT
Joshua Oliver - Financial Times
Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire's trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized role Alameda played in launching the exchange in 2019 and how it had access to exceptionally high levels of borrowing from FTX from the beginning.
/jlne.ws/3uuU6eM
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Says He Can't Account for Billions Sent to Alameda; Entrepreneur says he had little insight into workings of trading firm even though he owned 90% of it
Alexander Osipovich - The Wall Street Journal
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried said he couldn't explain what happened to billions of dollars that customers of his failed cryptocurrency exchange sent to the bank accounts of his trading firm, Alameda Research. And he said he couldn't rule out the possibility that money deposited by FTX customers who were told their money was theirs alone was in fact lent to Alameda. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Bankman-Fried distanced himself from Alameda, saying he had stepped back from running the firm and had little insight into its workings even though he owned 90% of it.
/jlne.ws/3F4HrnJ
How The FTX Collapse Could Have A Major Impact On Tom Brady's Net Worth
Matt Salter - Slash Gear
Of all the public figures that might suffer consequences from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, a sensible observer might expect the majority to be, well, finance professionals: traders invested heavily in the exchange's FTT token, crypto enthusiasts suffering backlash, so on. Not so much the winningest quarterback in NFL history. And yet! Tom Brady and his ex-wife, supermodel Gisele Bundchen, are just two of the celebrities being sued over Sam Bankman-Fried's fiduciary trainwreck. Per CNN, well-known lawyers David Boies and Adam Moskowitz have filed suit on behalf of FTX creditor Edwin Garrison.
/jlne.ws/3upOAKM
The end of benefit of the doubt for disruptive leaders
Felix Salmon - Axios
"Can you give the guy a break?" - Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, after being asked about Elon Musk at the NYT's Dealbook Summit on Wednesday. No. We're in no mood to give Elon Musk a break. Nor ByteDance. Nor Sam Bankman-Fried. Nor, for that matter, the entire crypto industry. There's a new vibe in town, and it's unforgiving.
/jlne.ws/3upOe6M
Will SBF Soon Be Wearing an Orange Jumpsuit? The over-under on SBF's criminal risk.
Ankush Khardori - Intelligencer
The legal onslaught facing Sam Bankman-Fried has only just begun, but it's already a doozy. With government investigations and court proceedings in their earliest stages, SBF has been working hard to exude an aura of calm in his public statements - periodically tweeting and giving ill-advised interviews with the press since the collapse of his firm - yet it's already clear that his years ahead are going to be unpleasant and perilous and that his newfound status as a pariah is now the least of his problems. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan, which is now reportedly investigating SBF and the collapse of FTX, has plenty of evidence to work with and plenty of reason to go after him as fast and hard as possible.
/jlne.ws/3HrPgXN
Embattled KuCoin CEO defends high-yield product, hires accountants to verify reserves
Leo Schwartz - Fortune
The current Crypto Winter is littered with the corpses of companies that rose to prominence by offering risky products, from margin trading on FTX to so-called "earn" rewards on Celsius. In the aftermath of FTX's bankruptcy, crypto watchers on Twitter set their sights on to KuCoin, the world's fourth-largest exchange by trading volume. Critics spotted a potential time bomb in the form of KuCoin's complex options product called "dual investment," which let customers earn interest rates as high as 300% for depositing cryptocurrencies.
/jlne.ws/3usmWwG
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| Ukraine Invasion | | News about the invasion of Ukraine by Russia and its military, economic, political and humanitarian impact | Russia and Ukraine are fighting the first full-scale drone war
Isabelle Khurshudyan, Mary Ilyushina and Kostiantyn Khudov - The Washington Post
A war that began with Russian tanks rolling across Ukraine's borders, World War I-style trenches carved into the earth and Soviet-made artillery pounding the landscape now has a more modern dimension: soldiers observing the battlefield on a small satellite-linked monitor while their palm-size drone hovers out of sight. With hundreds of reconnaissance and attack drones flying over Ukraine each day, the fight set off by a land grab befitting an 18th-century emperor has transformed into a digital-age competition for technological superiority in the skies - one military annals will mark as a turning point.
/jlne.ws/3Vx2iY2
Russia's Strategic Bombing Campaign Is Ill-Conceived; What worked against increasingly isolated belligerents in World War II won't beat a victimized nation that enjoys strong outside support.
Leonid Bershidsky - Bloomberg
Regular Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian power stations disrupt power and water supplies, as well as cellular coverage, in Ukrainian regions for hours, sometimes days on end. The attacks began after a powerful explosion damaged a key bridge connecting Russia with occupied Crimea, and many have interpreted them as Putin's revenge for the sabotage and for recent battlefield defeats. They are, however, more than that: Strategic bombing is a time-honored, if disputed, war-winning tool. But Russia's military strategists seem to have missed or ignored some important developments in the debate around it.
/jlne.ws/3FqBZgm
Russia Will Rely on 'Shadow' Tanker Fleet to Keep Oil Flowing; Whether the world's biggest crude exporter succeeds in skirting harsh sanctions starting Monday depends on a non-Western aligned fleet
Joe Wallace, Costas Paris and Anna Hirtenstein - The Wall Street Journal
Shipping companies have snapped up dozens of secondhand oil tankers this year, paying record prices for ice-class ships that can navigate frozen seas around Russia's Baltic ports in winter. A driving force behind the purchases, say people familiar with the deals: To get Russian oil to market after the harshest sanctions to date strike Russia's energy industry next week. The frenzy in a quiet corner of the shipping market is splitting the tanker industry in two. One part deals with Western oil companies, banks and insurers. The other, known informally in the industry as the "shadow fleet," doesn't, allowing it to trade with Iran, Venezuela, and increasingly with Russia, the world's biggest exporter of crude and refined fuels.
/jlne.ws/3uqpmvw
Putin has destroyed Russia's most important oil market - and what's next for crude depends on him and Xi Jinping, energy expert Daniel Yergin says
George Glover - Business Insider
Europe's tough sanctions on Russian oil kick in Monday - meaning Vladimir Putin has basically killed off Moscow's most important market for its crude, according to energy expert Daniel Yergin. The European Union's ban on seaborne imports takes effect alongside a widely expected price cap of $60 a barrel for Russian oil, agreed in a last-minute deal with G7 nations on Saturday.
/jlne.ws/3h2G6Ge
War and Sanctions Threaten to Thrust Russia's Economy Back in Time; While Russia's economy has not collapsed, an exodus of Western companies is eroding hard-won progress, and experts say the worst may be yet to come.
Valerie Hopkins and Anatoly Kurmanaev - The New York Times
Valery Volodin, a welder at a sprawling Volkswagen plant in western Russia, relaxed for most of the summer at his dacha, or weekend house, planting his garden and looking after his children. Mr. Volodin, 41, had little choice: The car factory closed down in March, joining more than 1,000 multinational companies that had curtailed operations in Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine.
/jlne.ws/3UwKyuy
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| Exchanges, OTC & Clearing | | Top news from exchanges, clearing, settlement and trade execution facilities | CME Group Names Winning Teams of 2022 University Trading Challenge; Universidad Anahuac takes Top Honors; First place team based in Latin America for third consecutive year
CME Group
CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, today announced the winners of its 19th annual University Trading Challenge, led by Universidad Anahuac in Mexico, the third consecutive Latin American team to earn top honors in the global competition. This year's four-week competition included nearly 500 teams, comprised of 1,975 undergraduate and graduate students from 208 universities around the world. Participants this year represented 23 countries.
/jlne.ws/3uj0kOT
Intercontinental Exchange Reports November 2022 Statistics
ICE
Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE), a leading global provider of data, technology and market infrastructure, today reported November 2022 trading volume and related revenue statistics, which can be viewed on the company's investor relations website at https://ir.theice.com/ir-resources/supplemental-information in the Monthly Statistics Tracking spreadsheet. November highlights include: Total natural gas ADV up 14% y/y; OI up 11% y/y North American natural gas ADV up 25% y/y; OI up 20% y/y
/jlne.ws/3Hk2C82
Reminder on Payment Obligations of Clearing Participants
HKEX
Hong Kong Securities Clearing Company Limited (HKSCC) considers it appropriate to remind all participants of the importance of having proper risk management and robust funding arrangements in place to adequately monitor their exposures and fulfil their payment obligations to HKSCC on time to ensure the smooth operations of Hong Kong and China Connect markets. Participants must adhere to the settlement timelines stipulated by HKSCC.
/jlne.ws/3upCuRH
Moscow Exchange provides an opportunity to conclude OTC-deals with bonds with settlements in yuan
MOEX
From December 5, 2022, banks, brokers, management companies and their clients can enter into over-the-counter bonds transactions with settlements in Chinese yuan. The new trading mode opens up additional opportunities for using the Chinese yuan in transactions on the securities market. RMB settlements have become available for all bonds and Eurobonds as part of the service of bilateral transactions with a central counterparty (CC) , which today allows you to make transactions with almost 2.5 thousand bonds.
/jlne.ws/3B9oPSB
Companies with highest number of complaints pending
NSE
Out of the companies whose securities are traded on NSE, there is one company with the number of complaints greater than or equal to 10, pending for more than 2 months OR the aggregate value of the complaints pending for more than 2 months is equal to or greater than Rs.5 lakhs for 5 or more complaints as on November 30, 2022.
/jlne.ws/3iwfTA5
November 2022 figures at Eurex; Index derivatives continued their positive trend (up 10 percent) in November; Total repo volumes up 27 percent y-o-y; Notional outstanding OTC interest rate swaps with growth over 18 percent
Eurex
Index derivatives continued their strong year-on-year growth, up 10 percent from 68.6 million traded contracts to 75.3 million. Interest rate derivatives decreased by 6 percent compared to the high level of the previous year, from 50.3 million traded contracts to 47.4 million. Equity derivatives contracts traded fell by 20 percent in November, from 23.5 million to 18.8 million compared to the same month last year. Total contracts traded at Eurex stayed nearly unchanged with 141.8 million after 142.5 million in November 2021.
/jlne.ws/3VQ8R7F
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| Fintech | | A roundup of today's market tech news and a look at tomorrow's disruptors | Discord Is Attracting Users Who Want More Than 'Doomscrolling'
Cecilia D'Anastasio - Bloomberg
I have a deep antipathy toward Twitter. This could be because I follow its new Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk and my newsfeed is rife with bootlickers and his replies to them. But there's a reason why very online people have referred to Twitter as "the hellsite" for years. It teases us with crumbs of human connection while enabling toxicity and disinformation. Like a lot of journalists and academics, I think about Twitter a lot. I don't post on Twitter a lot, though. Because, does posting really connect us? Does shouting, "Toasting New York bagels should be illegal!" into the abyss, and the abyss screeching back, "I'll do what I want!" bring us together in the way the internet's early adopters envisioned? I'd argue that it doesn't, really.
/jlne.ws/3XYi9AA
Hate Speech's Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find
Sheera Frenkel and Kate Conger - The New York Times
Before Elon Musk bought Twitter, slurs against Black Americans showed up on the social media service an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter's owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day. Slurs against gay men appeared on Twitter 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day. And antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.
/jlne.ws/3F26F6j
The FTX Crisis Brought Investors To Decentralized Exchanges. Here's Why They Might Leave.
Kenneth Rapoza - Forbes
The FTX debacle turned investors onto decentralized exchanges (DEX), where crypto investors have more control over their coin. And where no cowboy tech CEO can commingle customer funds as FTX did, use it as leverage, and gamble it all away. Moving to decentralized exchanges these last two weeks has been the safe haven crypto move. Is this a lasting trend?
/jlne.ws/3FtxO3H
Fireside Friday with... FlexTrade's Andy Mahoney; The TRADE catches up with FlexTrade's managing director, Andy Mahoney, to discuss upcoming regulations, developments within the EMS space and steps being taken to improve efficiency.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
How will the changing scope of regulation, such as a post-Brexit definition of multilateral trading facilities (MTFs), impact EMS providers like yourself?
This is a topic on everyone's minds in the EMS space - specifically, what constitutes a venue and an EMS. So it's been fascinating to see how the proposals have evolved. The initial intention was to address and resolve a genuine potential grey area. However, today, the discussion has moved toward broadly applying regulatory oversight to two distinct pieces of software, which serve very different purposes.
/jlne.ws/3gXacen
Baillie Gifford goes live with SureVu SDR management software; The investment manager said the technology enables it to "proactively resolve unmatched trades before they fail".
Annabel Smith - The Trade
Edinburgh-based investment manager Baillie Gifford has implemented Settlement Discipline Regime (SDR) management software from corfinancial. The investment manager said the software would ensure it is well equipped for the UK's likely move to T+1 settlement.
/jlne.ws/3gXAKfw
Goldman Sachs, UBS and Banco Santander support DLT proof of concept initiated by Fnality and HQLAx; Proof of concept showcases how platforms running on different DLTs can be linked, alongside paving the way for the settlement of intraday transactions.
Wesley Bray - The Trade
Goldman Sachs, UBS and Banco Santander have supported the first proof of concept (PoC) delivery versus payment (DvP) repo settlement across the Fnality Payment System (FnPS) and HQLAX's Digital Collateral Registry. The move bridges together the distributed ledger technologies (DLT) of Enterprise Ethereum and R3 Corda, respectively.
/jlne.ws/3VSGSEt
Russia's Largest Bank Announces Ethereum Compatibility for Its Blockchain
Francisco Memoria - Crypto Globe
Russia's largest bank Sber, formerly known as Sberbank, has announced that its proprietary blockchain platform will become compatible with the Ethereum ($ETH) network, meaning it will " allow developers to freely transfer smart contracts and entire projects between the bank's blockchain network and open blockchain networks." According to a press release the bank published, its blockchain platform will receive "technological compatibility with the world's largest ecosystem of decentralized finance Ethereum," while also providing integration with the MetaMask wallet.
/jlne.ws/3VDRLuk
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| Cybersecurity | | Top stories for cybersecurity | Lapsus$ Hacking Group Will Be Focus of DHS Cyber Review Board; Group of teens allegedly breached major tech firms this year; US panel examines major security incidents, gathering lessons
William Turton - Bloomberg
The Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Safety Review Board said Friday it will study the Lapsus$ hacking group, which has been accused of carrying out breaches at major US companies this year. The board, comprised of senior government cyber officials and industry representatives, aims to review and compile reports on significant cybersecurity issues. In its first review the board examined a flaw in the Log4j open-source software library.
/jlne.ws/3VSAxsA
Darknet markets generate millions in revenue selling stolen personal data; A handful of markets were responsible for trafficking most of the data.
Christian Jordan Howell and David Maimon - Ars Technica
It is common to hear news reports about large data breaches, but what happens once your personal data is stolen? Our research shows that, like most legal commodities, stolen data products flow through a supply chain consisting of producers, wholesalers, and consumers. But this supply chain involves the interconnection of multiple criminal organizations operating in illicit underground marketplaces.
/jlne.ws/3Y7X8DE
Gartner analysts reveal 8 cybersecurity predictions for 2023
Tim Keary - VentureBeat
Cyber risks never stand still. With the Russia-Ukraine war continuing and economic uncertainty looming over the horizon, organizations need to be prepared for an increase in cyberthreats.
Recently, some of Gartner's top analysts connected with VentureBeat to share their top cybersecurity predictions for 2023.
/jlne.ws/3B9QcvN
Why Modernizing Cybersecurity Boosts SaaS Companies' Bottom Line
Justin Rende - Forbes
Cybersecurity is important for SaaS companies, both to comply with industry standards and to protect their businesses. Companies that still use legacy systems to host a product, application or service on their premises run additional risks, which include cyber breaches, loss of confidential data and intellectual property, and potential damage to customer relationships caused by noncompliance.
/jlne.ws/3iABck8
We are still failing to learn the most important lesson in cybersecurity. That needs to change, fast
Danny Palmer - ZDNET
One year ago, a newly discovered zero-day vulnerability rocked the world of cybersecurity, but 12 months on, there are clear signs that vital lessons haven't been learned. The catchily-titled CVE-2021-44228 was and still is an easy to exploit vulnerability in the widely used Java logging library Apache Log4j, which enables attackers to remotely gain access to and take control of machines and servers.
/jlne.ws/3XVgziS
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| Cryptocurrencies | | Top stories for cryptocurrencies | FTX collapse leaves program to help formerly incarcerated Chicagoans in jeopardy
Manny Ramos - Chicago Sun Times
The future of a program aimed at helping formerly incarcerated Chicago residents hangs in the balance after the company that was supposed to pay for it, cryptocurrency giant FTX, has imploded amid accusations of fraud before paying most of its promised $1 million grant. FTX's participation was announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot in May, when the cryptocurrency exchange moved its U.S. headquarters to Fulton Market.
/jlne.ws/3VV1BaV
Galaxy Digital Wins Celsius Bankruptcy Auction to Acquire Crypto Custodian GK8
Liam J. Kelly - Decrypt
Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital has won the bid to acquire GK8, a self-custody crypto firm. GK8 was first acquired by Celsius in November 2021 for $115 million. After Celsius filed for bankruptcy, the self-custody firm was put up for auction as part of Celsius' proceedings. Today's acquisition cost was not disclosed, but a representative of Galaxy Digital told Decrypt that "the purchase price we agreed on was materially less than what GK8 was previously purchased for."
/jlne.ws/3VyzqhZ
Three Arrows Capital says its founders still not cooperating with asset recovery
Dietrich Knauth - Reuters
Liquidators for bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital(3AC) said on Friday that the company's founders are refusing to cooperate with asset recovery efforts, hindering the company's ability to return funds to creditors. Founders Kyle Davies and Su Zhu are more interested in rehabilitating their reputation than helping their own company's creditors, the liquidators' attorney Adam Goldberg said in bankruptcy court in New York. Davies has done interviews recently commenting on the implosion of crypto exchange FTX, attempting to shift blame for Three Arrows' own collapse.
/jlne.ws/3gTp0e0
Coinbase CEO Rejects FTX 'Accounting Error,' Says Funds Were Obviously 'Stolen'
André Beganski - Decrypt
Coinbase Chief Executive Brian Armstrong on Saturday condemned Sam Bankman-Fried's account of how FTX found itself in an $8 billion hole. Armstrong said there is no way billions of dollars could have simply slipped past FTX's founder and former CEO, who graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in physics.
/jlne.ws/3h0xSOR
Crypto broker Genesis owes Winklevoss exchange's customers $900mn; New York-based Gemini is trying to recover funds after FTX failure plunged market into turmoil
Nikou Asgari and Joshua Oliver - Financial Times
Digital asset trading group Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group owe customers of the Winklevoss twins' crypto exchange $900mn as the collapse of FTX reverberates across the market. New York crypto exchange Gemini, run by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, is trying to recover the funds after Genesis was wrongfooted by last month's failure of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto group, according to people familiar with the matter.
/jlne.ws/3FoTyO3
Crypto exchange Gemini trying to recover $900 million from crypto lender Genesis, Financial Times reports
Reuters
Crypto broker Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG) owe customers of the Winklevoss twins' crypto exchange Gemini $900 million, the Financial Times reported on Saturday. Crypto exchange Gemini is trying to recover the funds after Genesis was wrongfooted by last month's failure of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX crypto group, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter. Venture capital company Digital Currency Group, which owns Genesis Trading and cryptocurrency asset manager Grayscale, owes $575 million to Genesis' crypto lending arm, Digital Currency Chief Executive Barry Silbert told shareholders last month.
/jlne.ws/3umtfle
Genesis Creditor Groups' Loans Amount to $1.8B and Counting: Sources
Ian Allison - CoinDesk
Customers whose money is locked up on trading and lending platform Genesis and who have taken legal advice on the matter currently account for some $1.8 billion of loans, according to a person familiar with the situation. And that number looks like it will continue to grow. The FT had recently reported that a group of customers using cryptocurrency exchange Gemini's Earn program, which is tied to Genesis, were owed $900 million after Genesis' lending unit halted customer withdrawals on Nov. 16.
/jlne.ws/3B9LsWU
Crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz says FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried will go to jail 'if the facts turn out the way I expect them to'
Steve Mollman - Fortune
As both CEO of Galaxy Digital Holdings and a Bitcoin maximalist, Mike Novogratz has taken many hits from the crypto winter, and the collapse of FTX into bankruptcy is just the latest blow. Last month, Novogratz's crypto financial services firm disclosed $76.8 million exposure to FTX, while Novogratz has lost 64% of his net worth this year, which is now down to $1.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg wealth index. Following Bankman-Fried telling the New York Times DealBook Summit this week "I didn't ever try to commit fraud," Novogratz talked to Bloomberg TV on Thursday, and he's seen enough to make a call.
/jlne.ws/3OYCfXk
Celsius clients with collateral stuck on failed crypto platform turn to bankruptcy process for relief
Paige Tortorelli and Kate Rooney - CNBC
Alan Knitowski holds an MBA, has worked in technology and finance for over 25 years and is CEO of a mobile software company that trades on the Nasdaq. That didn't prevent him from getting duped by a crypto firm. Knitowski borrowed $375,000 from crypto lender Celsius over several years and posted $1.5 million in bitcoin as collateral. He didn't want to sell his bitcoin because he liked it as an investment and believed the price would go up. That was the Celsius model. Cryptocurrency investors could essentially store their holdings with the firm in exchange for a loan in dollars that they could put to use. Knitowski would get the bitcoin back when he repaid the loan.
/jlne.ws/3VAiF6i
Alameda Bet Big on Crypto Miner Genesis Before Sector Implosion; Venture arm invested $1.15 billion in total in Genesis Digital; Investments occurred before mining industry fell into distress
Yueqi Yang and David Pan - Bloomberg
One of the bigger questions surrounding the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto empire is what venture investments his trading firm Alameda Research poured billions of dollars in. A company document indicates that his largest bet was on the Bitcoin mining company Genesis Digital Assets during the height of the crypto gold rush. Alameda continued to pour money into the firm even as the price of Bitcoin tumbled and soaring energy costs wreaked havoc across the industry.
/jlne.ws/3gZQpe5
Sam Bankman-Fried's trading shop was given special treatment on FTX for years; Alameda Research was exempt from borrowing limits applied to exchange's other clients, former billionaire tells FT
Joshua Oliver - Financial Times
Alameda Research was allowed to exceed normal borrowing limits on the FTX exchange since its early days, Sam Bankman-Fried has said, in a concession that illustrates how the former billionaire's trading shop enjoyed preferential treatment over clients years before the 2022 crypto crisis. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 30-year-old described the outsized role Alameda played in launching the exchange in 2019 and how it had access to exceptionally high levels of borrowing from FTX from the beginning.
/jlne.ws/3VSn3wW
Sam Bankman-Fried Knew Plenty About His Alameda Research Hedge Fund-And Sent Details To Forbes Just Months Ago
Chase Peterson-Withorn - Forbes
With customers, investors and, potentially, law enforcement closing in, the fate of crypto wunderkind-turned-pariah Sam Bankman-Fried may rest on two key questions: What did he know about Alameda Research, and when did he know it? Since the stunning, early November collapse of both Alameda, a secretive crypto hedge fund Bankman-Fried cofounded in 2017, and FTX, a crypto exchange he cofounded in 2019 and grew into one of the world's largest, speculation has run rampant about how the two operations were intertwined and what chain of events drove both businesses into bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/3P0qjUU
Sam Bankman-Fried: This crypto entrepreneur saw his £21bn empire crumble in just three days - what happened at FTX?
James Robinson and Connor Sephton - Sky News
The 30-year-old had built a £21bn business empire and was the CEO of FTX, the world's second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. More than one million customers worldwide were using his platform to buy assets like Bitcoin - enticed by star-studded adverts that made everything look simple and safe. Bankman-Fried - known as SBF for short - had become one of the biggest names in the crypto industry too, with his company swooping in to save smaller firms after they were tipped into bankruptcy.
/jlne.ws/3h1cSaA
Will Grayscale be the next FTX?; Grayscale is fighting the good fight on behalf of everyone in cryptocurrency.
Daniele Servadei - Cointelegraph
On Nov. 18, Grayscale, the asset manager running the world's largest Bitcoin fund, released a statement detailing the security of its digital assets products and affirming that it won't share its proof of reserves with customers. "Due to recent events, investors are understandably inquiring deeper into their crypto investments," the statement begins, which is quite the understatement following the implosion of FTX and the inquiry into Sam Bankman-Fried's questionable leadership. In no time, the question on everyone's lips became clear. Will Grayscale be next?
/jlne.ws/3Vyk7Ge
Crypto Exchange Bybit to Cut 30% of Jobs in 'Deepening Bear Market'; 'Tough times demand tough decisions,' CEO Ben Zhou says; Priority is business operations, safety of client assets: Zhou
Joanna Ossinger - Bloomberg
Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit is planning to cut its workforce by 30% amid a continued bear market in the asset class, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Ben Zhou said. The moves are part of an ongoing reorganization aimed at refocusing efforts, and reductions will be across the board, Zhou said Sunday, adding the priority is to ensure business operations are unaffected and client assets remain safe. He cited crypto prices trending lower and the struggles of companies such as bankrupt crypto lender BlockFi and embattled crypto brokerage Genesis as signals "to tell us that we are entering into an even colder winter than we had anticipated from both industry and market perspectives."
/jlne.ws/3P1WuTN
Former FTX Executive Brett Harrison in Talks With Investors for New Crypto Startup
Aidan Ryan and Erin Woo - The Information
Brett Harrison, the former president of FTX's U.S. arm, is trying to raise money for a new crypto startup focused on building crypto trading software for big investors, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. Harrison has told at least one venture capital firm he is aiming to raise $6 million at a valuation of $60 million, one of the people said, though details are still subject to change.
/jlne.ws/3VxBJC4
'I did not know': SBF statements highlight legal liability questions in FTX collapse
Alexis Keenan - Yahoo!Finance
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried told two media outlets this week that it was his mistakes and ignorance that led to the severe liquidity crisis that forced his $32 billion crypto empire into bankruptcy, comments that hint at his legal predicament. "I didn't knowingly commingle funds," Bankman-Fried said over an hour-long video interview from The Bahamas during the The New York Times' annual DealBook Summit on Wednesday hosted by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Specifically, he said that a connection between FTX and his margin trading firm Alameda Research was "tied together substantially more" than he would have ever wanted it to be.
/jlne.ws/3VJnE4k
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says it's 'baffling' FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried isn't 'in custody already'
Steve Mollman - Fortune
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried should be in custody by now, as far as Brian Armstrong is concerned. The Coinbase CEO said this week it's "baffling to me why he's not in custody already." "The DOJ or somebody should be able to make-just based on his public statements, I think there's a very open and shut case for fraud," Armstrong said at the a16z crypto Founder Summit on Tuesday. He added, "I'm not an expert on this, but the people I talk to seem to agree on that." Armstrong also questioned why the media has refrained from calling Bankman-Fried a criminal.
/jlne.ws/3VSDNEk
Doctor Strange Faces His Biggest Enemy Yet: Cryptocurrency; Doctor Strange's magical powers are pushed to their absolute limit as Marvel reveals his latest enemy: the blockchain.
Joshua Isaak - Screen Rant
Marvel's Doctor Strange has fought interdimensional aliens and otherworldly sorcerers, but now his most dangerous enemy is revealed: cryptocurrency. Stephen Strange may be a genius surgeon, but he has little patience for modern technology - not because he does not understand it, but because he has very little use for it during his day-to-day life as the Sorcerer Supreme. But in Strange #8, Marvel explains why the blockchain is Strange's weakness.
/jlne.ws/3VSErBK
'The Next Generation'-BlackRock CEO Reveals $8 Trillion Fund's Huge Crypto Prediction After Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Crash
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have suffered an almighty crash this year (though Elon Musk sent one small cryptocurrency sharply higher). The bitcoin price has crashed by around 70% since late last year, plunging under $17,000 per bitcoin and dragging down the ethereum price and raising fears the entire crypto market could be "headed for oblivion."
/jlne.ws/3H6Sn7f
Many DAOs and Web3 Projects Are 'Decentralization Theater': Tezos Co-Founder
André Beganski - Decrypt
Tezos Co-Founder Kathleen Breitman says many Decentralized Autonomous Organizations remind her of middle school. "The way I see most of these DAOs fail, it's like they basically act as a really crappy school project," she said. "When I was in middle school, I was always the person who wound up doing the work in the school project, so I'm very sensitive to this dynamic." Breitman said a DAO can quickly devolve into one member taking a larger stake in the decision making process than their peers, and warned against putting people in a position of power that gives them the authority to overrule decisions once members of a DAO have weighed in.
/jlne.ws/3FoDYC2
Keeping the Crypto Industry Bankrolled
Elizabeth Napolitano - CoinDesk
Cryptocurrency and Web3 evangelist Chris Dixon is a partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the crypto industry's leading VCs. There he has cultivated a reputation for having something of a Midas touch, leading a $25 million funding round for Coinbase back in 2013 that allowed a16z to ultimately amass nearly 20 million shares in the company. Those shares yielded a roughly $10 billion return when Coinbase went public in 2021. That's a 60-times return on a16z's initial investment in the crypto exchange. And it's that deal that earned Dixon the top spot on Forbes' Magazine 2022 Midas List in April.
/jlne.ws/3VUAMDo
The unraveling of $3 billion crypto lender BlockFi amid FTX's 'death spiral', according to bankruptcy filings
Morgan Chittum - Bloomberg
Crypto lender BlockFi filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday in the wake of FTX's catastrophic implosion, which continues to send ripples through the industry. BlockFi has over 100,000 creditors, with liabilities and assets ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion, according to its bankruptcy filing, with one of the largest being "West Realm Shires," the company publicly known as FTX.US, which has a $275 million unsecured claim.
/jlne.ws/3VB44rg
Nearly 46% Of All NFT Volume In Ethereum Is Affected By Wash Trading: bitsCrunch's Saravanan Jaichandran
Inc42 Media
Move over, Web2.0. Web3.0 and the world of digital assets are here to stay. In fact, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) took the world by storm in 2021. Trading in this blockchain-based digital asset class spiked 21,000% to $17 Bn from $82 Mn in 2020. But the market crashed equally quickly, and the volume of NFT trading plunged by nearly 97% between January and September this year. For context, NFTs are unique digital assets that cannot be mass-produced. NFT is a unique digital identifier on the blockchain that records the ownership of digital assets (think how digital art and music are sold by artists as NFT tokens).
/jlne.ws/3FtxW3b
Empire of the Bored Apes
Rosie Perper - CoinDesk
In the 18 months since its launch of the wildly successful non-fungible token (NFT) project Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs has taught the nascent Web3 industry how to build a community around an NFT project and maintain that momentum despite market volatility.
/jlne.ws/3H8zkJJ
Meta Urges Washington to Take Hands-Off Approach to Regulating the Metaverse; Social-media company releases paper making case against rules; Over-regulation could stymie innovation, company argues
Emily Birnbaum - Bloomberg
Meta Platforms Inc. is urging policymakers to hold off on creating new rules governing the metaverse. In a policy paper released Friday, Meta argues that many of the world's existing laws and regulations will also apply to activity in the metaverse -- a catch-all term that refers to an immersive virtual world that doesn't yet exist in which users could someday work, play games, shop and interact.
/jlne.ws/3F2PRw1
Indonesia central bank says digital rupiah currency can be used in metaverse
Reuters
Indonesia's central bank (BI) governor Perry Warjiyo said on Monday its planned digital rupiah currency can be used in the future to buy products in the metaverse. BI launched the design for its digital rupiah last week, following many central banks around the world that are developing so-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
/jlne.ws/3iCwQZU
Investing Millions to Orchestrate an Open Metaverse
Rosie Perper - CoinDesk
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of blockchain gaming and venture capital giant Animoca Brands, believes that Web3 - a decentralized, creator-driven evolution of the internet currently in development- will be a force for good. In his own words: "We don't play to beat each other, we play to become better for ourselves and to help one another in the collaborative spirit of Web3, as we share in the network effect that we are building together."
/jlne.ws/3VReHWx
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| Politics | | An overview of politics as it relates to the financial markets | SBF Publicly Punts on U.S. House Hearing Invitation
Jason Nelson - Decrypt
Sam Bankman-Fried today replied to a Friday invitation from U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters on Twitter, saying he's "not sure" he'll be ready to participate in a scheduled Dec. 13 hearing in Washington, D.C. Bankman-Fried was called to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee. The committee's ranking member, Representative Maxine Waters, tweeted to Bankman Fried that "we would welcome your participation in our hearing" on Capitol Hill.
/jlne.ws/3Uw4Cx9
Bankman-Fried says he will testify before U.S. House committee
Reuters
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried tweeted on Sunday that he would testify before the House Financial Services Committee after he finished "learning and reviewing" the events that led to the spectacular collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange. The U.S. House Financial Services Committee plans to hold a hearing in December to investigate the collapse of FTX and expects to hear from the companies and individuals involved, including founder and CEO Bankman-Fried.
/jlne.ws/3F3Cw6F
G-7 Sets Russian Oil Price Cap of $60 a Barrel; U.S.-backed plan aims to limit Russia's oil revenues while keeping global supplies steady
Laurence Norman and Andrew Duehren - The Wall Street Journal
The Group of Seven advanced democracies agreed to cap the price of Russian crude oil at $60 a barrel, moving forward with an unprecedented sanction on one of the world's largest oil producers months after its invasion of Ukraine. The agreement among Australia and the G-7-Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K. and the U.S.-came just hours after the European Union united behind the figure. Poland, a holdout over the past few days for a lower cap, agreed to $60 a barrel earlier on Friday, clearing the way for the deal. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, had initially proposed setting the cap between $65 to $70 a barrel.
/jlne.ws/3F5xmH8
What Does Political Giving Look Like for Crypto After the Downfall of FTX? (Podcast); SBF was a darling in political circles. But in the wake of his downfall, campaigns are feeling the chill.
Victoria Vergolina - Bloomberg
The interplay of money and politics in the US is real, and well established. And that includes when that money is either in the form of crypto, or comes from people who made their fortunes in digital assets.
/jlne.ws/3H7Izdb
Citi CEO Whisperer Nudges Wall Street Into Political Minefields; Ex-investment banker Sara Wechter was in her 20s when she started shaping the firm's strategy, personnel and now policies from remote work to abortion access.
Jennifer Surane - Bloomberg
Inside Citigroup Inc., women across the bank were raising alarms. It was months before the US Supreme Court announced it would revisit Roe v. Wade, the landmark precedent establishing a woman's constitutional right to abortion. Yet across the country, states were pushing measures aimed at making the procedure illegal.
/jlne.ws/3VzwCBd
The UFO Bubble Goes Pop; Watch the skies? No, watch our intelligence agencies and their penchant for disinformation.
Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. - The Wall Street Journal
Call it the buildup to a letdown, as the latest of the required intelligence reports to Congress on the UFO question undergoes a prolonged and likely angst-filled vetting before being delivered to the relevant committees. A month has passed since its leaked contents were detailed in the New York Times, and still the document has not appeared and it's not hard to guess why. Its findings will be surprising only to those who imbibed previous official disinformation on so-called UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena. The most credible and widely trumpeted sightings by Navy pilots now are explained as illusions.
/jlne.ws/3XU4LgJ
Elon Musk Reveals Wild '$1 Billion' Democrat Donation Theory After Bitcoin And Crypto Exchange Collapse
Billy Bambrough - Forbes
Tesla billionaire and new Twitter owner Elon Musk has suggested the disgraced former chief executive of collapsed bitcoin and crypto exchange FTX donated far more money to Democrats than previously thought. Musk, who claimed he saw red flags when FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried offered cash toward his Twitter takeover, revealed via Twitter that he thinks Bankman-Fried could have donated "over $1 billion" to Democrats ahead of the FTX's meltdown-far more than the near-$40 million that's been reported.
/jlne.ws/3unjhQq
'Why is it taking so long?': Tapper presses Senate Banking Chair on lack of cryptocurrency regulations
CNN
CNN's Jake Tapper asks Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio about what Congress can do to help protect Americans who are investing in cryptocurrency after the crash of crypto exchange FTX.
/jlne.ws/3HehIfp
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| Regulation & Enforcement | | Stories about regulation and the law. | Bank of America Says Regulation Is Key for Mainstream Adoption of Crypto
Will Canny - CoinDesk
The bankruptcy of FTX and its affiliated trading firm, Alameda Research, is a major blow to the cryptocurrency industry's credibility, but there are silver linings, Bank of America (BAC) said in a research report Friday. "An increased urgency for regulation may enable greater institutional engagement, and a shift in focus (and capital) from speculative trading to projects with real-world functionality and companies with roadmaps to profitability may accelerate industry maturity," analysts Alkesh Shah and Andrew Moss wrote.
/jlne.ws/3XV627k
The 'Crocodile of Wall Street' and Her Husband Face Trial
Elizabeth Napolitano - CoinDesk
Heather Morgan is many things: a Forbes contributor, a tech entrepreneur and an alleged criminal. After her arrest for alleged crypto money laundering, another persona was discovered: Razzlekhan, a campy YouTube rapper who declared herself the "Crocodile of Wall Street." Publications from BuzzFeed to the Washington Post have profiled the raunchy rapper about her alleged billion-dollar frauds. And Vanity Fair has billed her as one-half of crypto's Bonnie and Clyde - a title she's earned with her husband and partner in crime, Ilya "Dutch" Lichtenstein.
/jlne.ws/3F5WP3t
Glencore to pay DR Congo $180mn to cover corruption claims; Payment by Swiss-based miner covers alleged misconduct from 2007-18
Leslie Hook - Financial Times
Glencore has agreed to pay $180mn to the Democratic Republic of Congo to cover claims arising from alleged acts of corruption, the mining company's latest settlement with global authorities over its conduct. The settlement means Glencore has this year agreed to pay more than $1.66bn to authorities around the world following investigations into its business practices.
/jlne.ws/3B5hQdp
Statement of Commissioner Caroline D. Pham on Non-U.S. Swap Dealer Annual Compliance Reports
CFTC
I appreciate the Market Participants Division issuing CFTC Staff Letter 22-17 to provide further guidance on the Division's expectations for non-U.S. swap dealers that elect substituted compliance with CFTC Rule 3.3 and file the home regulator annual compliance report ("home regulator report") with the CFTC in lieu of an annual chief compliance officer report ("Annual CCO Report") that adheres to CFTC Rule 3.3(e) requirements.
/jlne.ws/3iDT5hS
Statement of Commissioner Summer K. Mersinger Regarding Extension of CFTC Staff No-Action Letter Addressing Certain Swap Reporting Obligations
CFTC
I support the continuation of staff no-action relief that is being provided through today's extension of Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Letter 22-05. But the extension of this relief compels me to yet again repeat my refrain[1]: the Commission must stop using temporary and successive band-aids and work-arounds instead of doing the hard work of crafting permanent solutions to known problems.
/jlne.ws/3F60f6j
CFTC Amends Its Complaint Against Peter Miller and Omerta Capital LLC to Charge Additional Fraud and False Statements to CME
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today filed an amended complaint alleging that Peter Miller and Omerta Capital LLC engaged in an additional fraudulent scheme involving tipped confidential block trade order information and made false statements to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a board of trade and designated contract market.
/jlne.ws/3F4h8hv
CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Regarding Certain Swap Reporting Obligations for Counterparties Clearing Swaps Through DCOs Acting Consistent with Exemptive Orders or No Action Letters
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight (DMO) today issued a no-action letter extending the no-action position in CFTC Staff Letter No. 22-05 concerning certain swap reporting requirements of Part 45 of CFTC regulations. The letter applies to counterparties clearing swaps through derivatives clearing organizations (DCOs) operating consistent with a CFTC issued exemptive order or a no-action letter issued by the CFTC's Division of Clearing and Risk (Relief DCOs).
/jlne.ws/3Bd5HmO
CFTC Staff Issues No-Action Letter Supplementing Staff Letters Regarding Swaps Trading on Certain Financial Markets Licensed in Australia
CFTC
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Market Oversight today issued a supplemental staff letter modifying the no-action position of CFTC Staff Letters 15-29 and 16-72 concerning certain swap reporting requirements of Parts 43 and 45 of the CFTC's regulations. The letter applies to qualifying Australian licensed financial markets (QALMs) regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission.
/jlne.ws/3VVWl6V
ABB Settles SEC Charges that it Engaged in Bribery Scheme in South Africa
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced charges against global electrification and automation technology company, ABB Ltd, for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising out of a bribery scheme in South Africa. The company has agreed to pay a $75 million civil penalty to settle the SEC's charges.
/jlne.ws/3Fsg34D
SEC Seeks Order Requiring Witnesses to Comply with Subpoenas for Testimony and Documents
SEC
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that it filed a subpoena enforcement action against three Texas residents-Bruce Conway, Elizabeth Conway, and Merritt Conway, for failing to appear for testimony and/or produce documents pursuant to SEC investigative subpoenas; the filed action seeks an order directing them to comply with the subpoenas.
/jlne.ws/3VSUcJ6
FCA fines Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Ltd £2.4m for serious failings in relation to the British Steel Pension Scheme
FCA
The FCA has fined Pembrokeshire Mortgage Centre Limited (PMC) (trading as County Financial Consultants) (in liquidation) £2,354,331 for unsuitable advice to consumers to transfer out of the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) and other defined benefit (DB) pension schemes.
/jlne.ws/3Vyubis
Federal Court upholds ASIC's appeal on John Gilliland
ASIC
The Federal Court has set aside a decision of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) not to disqualify John Gilliland's self-managed super fund (SMSF) auditor registration.
Following an appeal by ASIC, the Court found that general deterrence is a relevant consideration in deciding whether to disqualify a person as an approved SMSF auditor under section 130F of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth).
/jlne.ws/3F6iybm
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| Investing & Trading | | Today's top stories from equities, indices and FICC (fixed income, currencies and commodities) | Volatile Football Stocks Offer a Tough Match for Shareholders; Some of the largest listed teams trade below IPO prices; Analysts see clubs unable to guarantee earnings growth
Joe Easton and Sunil Kesur - Bloomberg
If following a soccer team can be frustrating, try investing in one. As British Premier League stalwart Manchester United Plc seeks a new owner, it is one of a handful of well-known publicly traded clubs whose share price moves would test the faith of even the most loyal supporters. Soccer teams are unable to guarantee the type of earnings growth that shareholders usually demand, say analysts, citing volatile on-field performance that impacts revenue sources including television income, sponsorships, ticket sales and prize money. Player salaries and transfer fees add to high costs.
/jlne.ws/3VTrfNg
US college football: big money game is now beyond a jock; The savage Darwinism of this commercial juggernaut would shock even hard-bitten Wall Street bankers
Financial Times
In 2035 or so, an economist may win a Nobel Prize for showing that post-pandemic inflation did not come from supply bottlenecks or stimulus payments but from an arms race in American college football. Take Auburn University. The problem of this Alabama state institution is not that it is paying someone a lot to coach its high-profile football team. Instead, the college is currently paying two different men close to $50mn for the next few years not to coach its team. College football coaches are demigods in America. Their names are emblazoned on town welcome signs. Their pay runs into millions and is largely guaranteed.
/jlne.ws/3UuCGd6
Trafigura Signs $3 Billion German-Backed Loan for Gas Supply; Trafigura sent the first cargo of LNG to Germany in November; The deal is underwritten in part by Germany's Euler Hermes
Archie Hunter and Steven Arons - Bloomberg
Commodities trader Trafigura Group signed a $3 billion German government-backed loan for gas supply, as Berlin steps up efforts to secure natural resources following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Trafigura, which will primarily tap its global gas and liquefied natural gas portfolio, made the first delivery on Nov. 1, the trading house said Monday in a statement. The loan deal confirms an earlier report by Bloomberg News.
/jlne.ws/3Ft1z4u
EDF Complicates a Challenging Week for French Power Grid
Bloomberg
As of Monday morning, France's strained electricity system looked like it would be able to cope with this week's cold snap, despite more difficulties at the country's main generator. "Power cuts are avoidable" this winter, Xavier Piechaczyk, president of network operator RTE, said on France Inter radio. He acknowledged the possibility that the country's Ecowatt system could send out power-saving red alerts in the event of very cold weather, but as of Monday morning indications for the next four days were green.
/jlne.ws/3OZeRsL
It's the $65 Trillion in Debt You Can't Find That'll Get You; Accounting conventions have hidden immense amounts of foreign-exchange liabilities. We might not know where they are until the next crisis.
Paul J. Davies - Bloomberg
Sixty-five trillion dollars is a not big number: It's a huge, barely comprehensible number. It's more than two-and-a-half times the size of the entire US Treasury market, the world's biggest. It's 14% of the value of all financial assets globally, according to a tally from the Bank for International Settlements.
/jlne.ws/3iw7tbX
Financial instability: the hunt for the next market fracture; Investors are keeping a close eye on areas ranging from US Treasury market illiquidity to Japanese government debt
Eric Platt and Kate Duguid, Tommy Stubbington and Jonathan Wheatley and Leo Lewis - Financial Times
After a decade of falling interest rates and central bank largesse, global financial markets are facing a reckoning. Soaring inflation is being met by rising interest rates, the slowing of central bank asset purchases and fiscal shocks, all of which are sucking liquidity, the ability to transact without dramatically moving prices, out of markets. Violent, sudden price moves in one market can provoke a vicious loop of margin calls and forced sales of other assets, with unpredictable results.
/jlne.ws/3OYuTmF
There is no alternative to alternative assets; Diversifying into private markets can build resilience but expertise and experience are required
Elif Aktug - Financial Times
What alternatives do investors have in a crisis? Public markets are suffering their worst pummelling in a generation or more. In such broad turmoil, private markets offer a compelling investment. This is a path that comes with its own perils given the real risks in democratising private markets for retail investors.
/jlne.ws/3FrDye0
World's largest gold ETF to use non-UK vaults for the first time; HSBC was sole custodian of $52.5bn SPDR Gold Trust but it will now add JPMorgan vaults in Zurich and New York
Steve Johnson - Financial Times
The world's largest gold exchange traded fund is to store some of its inventory outside London for the first time in a move aimed at facilitating further expansion. The $52.5bn SPDR Gold Trust (GLD) has held all its bullion in HSBC's London vaults since its inception as the first physically backed gold ETF in 2004.
/jlne.ws/3VOpKzI
Is Fomo the new greed when it comes to investing? Fear of missing out on the rewards of tech and crypto led to irrational exuberance
Leo Lewis - Financial Times
If investors insist on trying to time their moves in stock markets, said Warren Buffett almost 20 years ago, they should be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy only when others are fearful. It is good contrarian stuff. And the time-honoured depiction of markets in the permanent push-pull grip of these two animal spirits has an enduring appeal because (nuance and caveats aside) it does actually explain a lot of market psychology quite neatly. The difficulty arises, as now, when greed and fear start defining themselves as the same thing.
/jlne.ws/3UwpwfI
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| Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance | | Stories about environmental, social and governance investing | State of Finance for Nature 2022
UN Environment Programme
The second edition of the State of Finance for Nature report launched today reveals that nature-based solutions (NbS) are still significantly under-financed. If the world wants to halt biodiversity loss, limit climate change to below 1.5C and achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030, current finance flows to NbS must urgently double by 2025 and triple by 2030. Delayed action is not an option in the face of the devastating effects of climate change, the extinction crisis, and severe land degradation globally. The first edition of the report indicated that annual investments in nature-based solutions will have to triple by 2030 and increase four-fold by 2050 from the current investments into nature-based solutions of USD 133 billion (using 2020 as the base year).
/jlne.ws/3B9cj5H
The Best Electric Bike For Every Type of Rider; Find the e-bike that's right for you, whether you're a kid-toting parent, a suburban commuter or an apartment-dweller with little extra space.
Ira Boudway - Bloomberg
In the first year of the pandemic, electric bikes were part of a US boom in outdoor goods: Americans bought fire pits, coolers, camper vans, chicken coops and just about anything else that would help them to pass the time in open air. But when life started returning to normal, so too did most of the outdoor industry - except demand for e-bikes continued to climb.
/jlne.ws/3HclLck
Tiny Wind Farms Are Ready to Ease Britain's Energy Crunch
UK faces pressure to lift onshore wind ban as bills soar
Cheap power source is essential to achieve climate goals
Will Mathis - Bloomberg
A pig-food manufacturer in England has accomplished a feat that's been nearly impossible for close to a decade, positioning it at the vanguard of a shift in British renewable-energy policy. Manor Farm Feeds' rare achievement was getting permission to install a wind turbine. While the Yorkshire company might currently be an outlier, soaring energy prices and the threat of blackouts are driving momentum to reverse a seven-year-old ban on onshore wind farms in the UK.
/jlne.ws/3XYLAlN
Europe Is Looking for Ways to Counter the New US Climate Law; Commission head sees need to work with US on IRA's impact; EU, US should cooperate on clean economy, von der Leyen says
Ewa Krukowska - Bloomberg
The European Union should improve its state aid rules and consider more green-transition funding to offset possible distortions from the new US climate and tax law, said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Her remarks came a day before the US-EU Trade and Technology Council ministerial meeting to be held at the University of Maryland, where the law is likely to be a hot topic.
/jlne.ws/3H8tlV5
Cop15 security operation will be biggest for 20 years, Montreal police say; Protests against oil and mining have been planned, as thousands of delegates arrive for UN biodiversity summit
Leyland Cecco - The Guardian
Police in Montreal are bracing for their biggest operation in two decades, as thousands of visitors - including frustrated demonstrators - begin to arrive for the Cop15 global biodiversity summit. Officials are expecting more than 10,000 people, including scientists and senior bureaucrats, to attend Cop15 in the Canadian city.
/jlne.ws/3FoOucu
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| Banks, Brokers & Managed Funds | | The latest from banks, brokers, hedge funds and managed futures | Biggest Wall Street Banks Are Slashing Bonuses by as Much as 30%; Deal slump, job cuts leave staff fewer options if banks ax pay; Some firms plan to hand out more 'doughnuts' to low performers
Jennifer Surane, Hannah Levitt, and Katherine Doherty - Bloomberg
Across Wall Street, this year's bleak expectations for banker bonuses are rapidly proving true, as a slump in dealmaking ends the industry's war for talent and firms regain the upper hand in setting pay. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. are all weighing plans to cut bonus pools for their investment bankers by as much as 30%, according to people with knowledge of the internal deliberations. Some firms are planning to give low performers no reward at all. The proposals are still under discussion and could change in coming weeks, the people said.
/jlne.ws/3VRUDU0
Pakistan Central Bank Says It Paid $1 Billion-Dollar Bond; Central bank says it made payment to Citigroup Inc. on Friday; Nation's longer-term bonds are trading at distressed levels
Faseeh Mangi - Bloomberg
Pakistan's central bank said it met a $1 billion bond payment on Friday, dodging the risk of a near-term default even as worries linger over its ability to pay its long-term debt. The nation's bonds rallied. The nation transferred the money for the sukuk dollar bonds due Dec. 5 three days before their maturity to Citigroup Inc., which will distribute the funds to creditors, said Abid Qamar, a spokesperson at State Bank of Pakistan. The notes climbed to 98.9 cents on the dollar Friday, marking a nearly 16-cent comeback from a record low of 83 cents in October, according to indicative pricing data compiled by Bloomberg.
/jlne.ws/3VoNXwJ
JPMorgan's Josh Younger Is Heading to the New York Fed; He will be a senior policy advisor in the New York Fed's Markets Group
Tracy Alloway and Jonnelle Marte - Bloomberg
Josh Younger, Head of Asset Liability Management Research and Strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co., is leaving the bank to join the New York Fed. The move caps more than a decade of Younger's work at JPMorgan, which he joined in 2010 as a bond strategist after training to be an astrophysicist. At the bank, Younger developed a reputation for writing vivid research on everything from the structure of the US Treasury market to money market funds and interest rate derivatives.
/jlne.ws/3XVBZwg
Hedge Funds Millennium, Brevan Howard Move to Fine New Hires That Back Out; Clause would penalize traders who back out of job contracts; Multi-strategy hedge funds are fighting for staff as they grow
William Shaw, Nishant Kumar, and Donal Griffin - Bloomberg
Millennium Management and Brevan Howard Asset Management want to penalize money managers who agree to join the firms but later change their minds, in an unusual step to protect themselves from the competition for talent in the hedge fund industry. The two firms are asking new hires to agree to terms in their employment contract that can force them to pay damages if they do not start work as planned, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Conversely, the trader would get paid if the hedge funds decide to pull the job offer, the people said asking not to be identified because the information is private.
/jlne.ws/3B9h8LY
Hwang Seeks Dismissal of Charges For 'Deceitful' US Conduct; Investigators allegedly didn't tell Hwang when he was target; Hwang's fraud trial has been set for October 2023 in New York
Erik Larson - Bloomberg
Archegos Capital Management's Bill Hwang asked a judge to toss out fraud charges against him because prosecutors allegedly engaged in "deceitful" conduct in the early days of the government's probe. Hwang was duped into assisting the government in a number of meetings with investigators who didn't tell him when they'd decided he was more than a mere "subject" of the probe, leaving open the possibility that he wouldn't be charged, his lawyer said in a motion to dismiss the indictment late Friday. Hwang is scheduled to go on trial in October 2023.
/jlne.ws/3F5aqYP
Ex-Barclays boss Bob Diamond set to launch bid to back arm of troubled Credit Suisse; Former Barclays chief eyes deal to fund investment division
David Rothnie and Jim Armitage - The Times
Bob Diamond, the former Barclays chief executive dubbed the "unacceptable face of banking" during the financial crisis, is planning a stunning return to high finance with a bid to back part of the troubled Swiss bank Credit Suisse. Diamond resurrected his career, after being forced out of Barclays during the Libor-rigging scandal in 2012, by setting up Atlas Merchant Capital. The 71-year-old, who has already used AMC to buy a majority stake in City broker Panmure Gordon, now wants to use the vehicle to invest in CS First Boston, the corporate finance business set to be spun out of Credit Suisse by financier Michael Klein.
/jlne.ws/3XW2BgF
Why Blackstone's $69 Billion Property Fund Is Signaling Pain Ahead for Real Estate Industry; The property industry is grappling with a pullback from investors, financing challenges and even more layoffs.
John Gittelsohn and Patrick Clark - Bloomberg
Pain is deepening across the US real estate industry. Two of the biggest players - Blackstone Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. - took steps this week to contend with weaker demand as the industry faces a rapidly cooling property market, rising interest rates and waning investor appetite. The well-heeled investors in the $69 billion Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc. learned Thursday the fund will limit withdrawals as people seek to pull money from what's been a cash magnet for one of the largest owners of real estate globally. Also Thursday, Wells Fargo, the biggest home loan originator among US banks, confirmed it's cutting hundreds more mortgage employees as soaring borrowing costs crush demand.
/jlne.ws/3h1T07o
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman is walking back on comments seemingly defending SBF - says 'nothing could be further from the truth'
Huileng Tan - Business Insider
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman said his comments on disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried were misinterpreted. Ackman was seen to be defending Bankman-Fried after the former FTX CEO denied committing fraud at the New York Times DealBook Summit last Wednesday.
/jlne.ws/3P0HRjE
Credit Suisse Rises as Saudi Crown Prince Weighs Investment
Dinesh Nair and Marion Halftermeyer - Bloomberg
Credit Suisse Group AG shares rose on the prospect that Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will take a stake in the Swiss firm's planned investment bank spin out.
/jlne.ws/3XUv86e
Here's How Hedge Funds Are Speculating on Justice
Katharine Gemmell - Bloomberg
For centuries, turning other people's legal claims into moneymaking opportunities has been frowned upon. That started to change in the 1990s, when Australia allowed insolvent companies to engage outside funders to sustain legal claims they might otherwise have run out of money to pursue. Third-party funding of civil litigation caught on in the UK and some European countries in the 2000s. Gradual acceptance in the US helped turn the field known as litigation finance, or "lit finance," into a multibillion-dollar industry, spawning a niche asset class that's drawn in private equity funds and institutional investors. Proponents say the practice allows parties with limited resources to pursue worthy claims against the goliaths of industry. Critics say it makes the judicial system resemble a sports betting parlor, where wagers are made on which side will win.
/jlne.ws/3Y1BCAu
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| Wellness Exchange | | An Exchange of Health and Wellness Information | China's Covid Pivot Accelerates as Cities Ease Testing Rules; Shanghai, Hangzhou scrap range of testing requirements; New daily infections nationwide fall to lowest in two weeks
Bloomberg
Chinese authorities eased Covid testing requirements across major cities over the weekend as Beijing appears to be engineering a gradual shift away from its strict Covid Zero policy amid elevated cases and public protests. The financial hub of Shanghai, which saw a gruelling two-month lockdown earlier in the year, scrapped PCR testing requirements to enter outdoor public venues such as parks or use public transportation starting Monday, city authorities said in a statement. Measures will "continue to be optimized and adjusted" in line with national policy and the local situation, according to the statement.
/jlne.ws/3iwNnhT
Italy's Catholic Church reintroduces handshakes during Mass
Reuters
Italy's Catholic Church is reintroducing handshakes for the "sign of peace" during Mass as part of a wider relaxation of anti-COVID-19 measures. "It will be possible to restore the usual form of exchanging the sign of peace," the Italian Bishops' Conference (CEI) said in a letter to bishops. The letter, publicised by RAI public broadcaster and other Italian media on Saturday, was originally posted on CEI's website on Friday.
/jlne.ws/3FpVju9
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| Regions | | Stories of local interest from the Americas, EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions | Beijing, Shenzhen loosen more COVID curbs as China fine-tunes policy
Reuters
Beijing residents on Saturday cheered the removal of COVID-19 testing booths while Shenzhen said it would no longer require commuters to present test results to travel, as an easing of China's virus curbs gathered pace. Although daily cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen COVID testing requirements and quarantine rules as China looks to make its zero-COVID policy more targeted amid a sharp economic slowdown and public frustration that has boiled over into unrest. The southern city of Shenzhen announced it would no longer require people to show a negative COVID test result to use public transport or enter parks, following similar moves by Chengdu and Tianjin.
/jlne.ws/3ixY1F8
Improbable bets on break of Hong Kong dollar peg adding up
Tom Westbrook and Georgina Lee - Reuters
It's what is known in the markets as a "tail risk": a highly unlikely scenario in which Hong Kong's currency peg suddenly snaps. Yet market pricing suggests bets on such a shock are building in the hedge fund world, and some traders say it makes a lot of sense.
/jlne.ws/3F68hvO
Australian crypto exchange Swyftx cuts 40% of jobs amid fallout from FTX collapse
Lachlan Keller - Forkast
Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx Pty Ltd cut 90 staff members - or 40% of its workforce - to prepare for a "worst-case scenario" in the market from the collapse of FTX.com, according to a company announcement on Dec. 5.
/jlne.ws/3unkJlY
NFTs ruled virtual property in China, its sales protected by law
Ningwei Qin - Forkast
The Hangzhou Internet Court has ruled that non-fungible tokens (NFT) are virtual properties protected by law, according to the court's summary of a recent case posted on its official Wechat account on Nov. 29.
/jlne.ws/3FoPDkj
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| Miscellaneous | | Stories that don't quite fit under the other sections | Chamath Palihapitiya slams media for not uncovering FTX problems ahead of collapse
Anviksha Patel - MarketWatch
"The way that [Sam Bankman-Fried] was able to get away with it is that not a single reporter or regulator thought to dig in and the reason I think is because he said all of the right things that wanted them to embrace him."
That was Chamath Palihapitiya, a venture capitalist known for setting up VC fund Social Capital and a former Facebook executive, speaking on the All-In podcast about how the allegations behind FTX went unnoticed by traditional media outlets in the last two years. In episode 106 of the All-In podcast with Paypal co-founder David Sacks, angel investor David Friedberg and Uber investor Jason Calacanis, Palihapitiya said because of Sam Bankman-Fried's upbringing, private education and political donations, mainstream media "fell for it and embraced him." The media is still going on easy on Bankman-Fried because doing otherwise would result in having to admit that they "got it wrong."
/jlne.ws/3gVgprb
World Cup Wins Deepen Currency Pain for Football Fans; Korean won, Japanese yen and British pound down against riyal; Qatar trip was 'financially burdensome,' South Korean fan says
Ronojoy Mazumdar and Hooyeon Kim - Bloomberg
Football fans who traveled to Qatar knew the World Cup experience wouldn't come cheap, but the resilience of the Gulf nation's currency is making the trip particularly painful for travelers from South Korea, Japan and England. Everything from hotel bills to the price of Coca-Cola at the stadium are pinching tourists, who in many instances are already dealing with sky-high inflation in their home countries.
/jlne.ws/3VPeIu3
The unexpected perils of sabbatical leave; People who take a big break from work can return in new guises that surprise colleagues and bosses alike
Pilita Clark - Financial Times
What does the new chief financial officer of HSBC have in common with one of the world's top crime writers and a billionaire Silicon Valley tech titan? The answer is not obvious, because each is a member of an unusual club. They all took sabbatical leave from an enviable corporate job and returned to find themselves on a path to bigger, bolder success. Georges Elhedery's story is the most surprising. He was in his late forties and co-head of investment banking at HSBC in January when he announced he was taking six months off for "personal development". This was a rare move for anyone in the remorseless world of investment banking, especially a senior banker. So was what happened next.
/jlne.ws/3unWSmn
Crypto 'smart' money? Big traders fell for Sam Bankman-Fried
Charles Gasparino - Bloomberg
I was shocked when I first learned how a hot mess like Sam Bankman-Fried got away with convincing so many seemingly smart people - big money managers, venture capitalists and all those celebrity ambassadors - that he was such a boy genius of investing, they should turn over lots of money for him to play with. That is, until I witnessed what went down Wednesday after the fallen crypto star tried to explain his side of the FTX disaster to reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin. The missing billions in customer funds, ruined lives, etc., wasn't illegal, just one big, innocent mistake, or in his words, he "screwed up," the result of one "bad month."
/jlne.ws/3F3rQ8f
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