by Fintech Express | Jan 21, 2023 | Banking
Britain will endure high living costs as the Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates at painful levels. The Bank of England is expected to take this move all year as inflation pushes the economy into recession.
Bank of Britain likely to raise interest rates
There is no end in sight for Britain’s economic misery. The Bank of England (BoE) previously announced that this year would be tough as the economy is expected to fall into recession. Things have only worsened as the BoE is set to keep interest rates high.
Currently, inflation rates are spiking five times above BoE’s target levels. These developments have made Governor Andrew Bailey concerned that worker shortages could be fueling wage pressure. As such, the British market is betting on a 1-point interest rate hike this year to try and counter the inflation.
This week’s latest British economic data report showed that wage pressure was at record levels except for right after the COVID-19 pandemic. Governor Bailey noted that he hoped the inflation would turn around soon, but the scarcity of workers seems to have fueled wage pressure.
Suppose the current trend continues; some families in Britain will have to remortgage in 2023 at much higher rates. This will squeeze them further than in 2022. As such, around 4 million might be touched by the remortgaging requirements.
Inflation persists globally
The markets have almost fully priced in a half-point increase from the Bank of England in February to 4%, the highest since the 2008 collapse. Another half-point increase by Q3 might also follow that rate hike.
In the US, inflation rates were also high, recording over 10% in 2022. However, things are cooling down as the Federal Reserve is eyeing the reversal of rate hikes in the second half of 2023. Other countries are also recorded significantly high inflation rates globally.
Here are the top countries by inflation rates
- Argentina – 94.8%
- Turkey – 64.27%
- Russia – 11.9%
- Italy – 11.6%
- United Kingdom – 10.5%
Keep watching FintechExpress for inflation and other finance-related news.
by Fintech Express | Jan 21, 2023 | Regulation
CFTC commissioner has revealed that FTX VCs will be included in a series of serious grilling regarding the ongoing FTX case. The commissioner said that the management at FTX was questionable and raised many eyebrows. Now, the CFTC want’s to unearth what was going on there.
FTX official’s grilling continues
The efforts by US regulators and prosecutors to grill the Executives at the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX aren’t slowing down. The CFTC commissioner has revealed that they have been disturbed by several questions regarding how the exchange operated.
Now, they want to question the VCs to learn more about the exchange’s lack of records, as John Ray III revealed in 2022. John Ray is the current FTX liquidations CEO. In a 2022 US Congress hearing, John Ray made several bold reveals surrounding the findings of his liquidations team.
One of the major issues was that FTX did not have record-keeping whatsoever. The exchange also had an auditor not yet heard of, which raised many eyebrows. Amid the ongoing investigations against Bankman-Fried, the CFTC questions how venture capitalists (VCs) operate in crypto.
CFTC Commissioner questions the role of crypto VCs
In an interview with Bloomberg, the CFTC Commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero said he needs help figuring out how VCs could run down their investments to near zero. What’s sensible is that the VCs should have done better by following up on how their million-dollar investments in the exchange were doing.
She explained that the VCs must have ignored the red flags surrounding the operations at FTX. She particularly questioned the possibility of conflicts between the VCs from paying attention to the facts they were uncovering. Since that seems highly improbable, they will need sittings with the CFTC to explain why they did not report any anomalies.
What Goldsmith Romero said sums up a growing sentiment in the crypto space that crypto stakeholders have neglected their roles. The industry is in chaos due to stakeholders failing to perform their duties as expected.
One key player who backed this sentiment is shark tank star Kevin O’Leary. O’Leary said that the fall of another exchange is imminent as long as the regulation is not in place. Keep watching FintechExpress for finance news to be updated as soon as they happen.
by Fintech Express | Jan 21, 2023 | Regulation
Bankman-Fried, FTX Ex-CEO, and founder will lose assets worth $700M if he is found guilty of fraud during his upcoming trial. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the US, facing multiple counts of fraud and breaking banking rules.
Bankman-Fried might lose his possessions
Sam Bankman-Fried might lose his possessions which currently stand at around $700M, a fall from over $10B if he is found guilty of eight counts of fraud. He is accused of misusing customer funds at FTX, making the exchange end up collapsing.
Allegations detail that he siphoned the money via Alameda Research, a company he had founded before FTX. The allegations are that he spent the funds on personal expenses.
Per a Friday court filing in the Southern District of New York, US Attorney Damian Williams said that 10 bank accounts, some shares, cash, and crypto holdings are among the possessions that Bankman-Fried will forfeit if he loses the trials.
The US already has its hands on Bankman-Fried’s accounts and shares
The asset pool the US prosecutors are eyeing includes highly contented 55 million Robinhood shares. These shares are priced at around $526M. They were bought via a loan from Alameda research and collateralized on another loan from BlockFi.
Bankman-Fried, BlockFi, and the FTX liquidation team have been contending to repossess them. However, the Department of Justice previously announced it had seized them. Other assets that are Bankman-Fried might forfeit over $20M held in an account under the name Emergent Fidelity Technologies.
Emergent Fidelity is a holding company that Bankman-Fried used to purchase shares. The court filing also explained that the Department of Justice was in reach of another $171M deposited under the name FTX Digital Markets in three Binance accounts. It explained that the possessions were collected between Jan.4 and Jan 19.
Elsewhere the authorities are increasing their efforts by cracking down on risky crypto exchanges. The US recently arrested Bizlato’s founder and closed down that exchange. South Korean regulators have also issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, ex-CEO of Terra Luna ecosystem.
Terra Luna collapsed in Mid 2022 due to shady management, and arrests have also been made. Keep watching FintechExpress for crypto regulation and other finance-related news.
by Fintech Express | Jan 20, 2023 | Cryptocurrencies
Genesis Capital has filed for bankruptcy protection with a New York court following a series of troubles with Digital Currency Group, its parent company. Bybit has been caught up in the crossfire as its investment arm reportedly committed sizeable funds to Genesis Capital, prompting its founder to speak out.
Mirana invested heavily in Genesis before bankruptcy
Ben Zhao, the Bybit founder, took to Twitter earlier today to comment on the developments regarding the connection between the now-bankrupt Genesis capital and Bybit.
He commented on an earlier tweet that had pointed at Bybit as a risky entity at the moment following Genesis Capital’s fall. The tweet claimed that Miran(Bybit) is one of Genesis capital’s creditors. The tweet detailed that Bybit had committed around $151M.
Zhao tweeted what he called full disclosure and said that Mirana is Bybit’s investment arm. He added that Mirana is tasked to manage some bybit company assets only and that client funds are separate from the funding that Mirana receives. He added that Bybit’s earn products also do not use Mirana.
Zhao also stressed that of the reported $151M, around $120M is in collateralized positions that Mirana already liquidated before DCG and Genesis capital’s woes.
Series of bankruptcies continues in the crypto space
Genesis capital is one of the many platforms that have met their end in the 2022 bear market. Big names like FTX, Celsius, Voyager, and Blockfi have all filed for bankruptcy. Most of these players have gone under due to poor management and leadership.
Other big crypto empires like Terra Luna have also gone down, claiming the life savings of many. Now, there is no end in sight as even more organizations continue to file for bankruptcy, have lay-offs, and leave the crypto space.
It remains to be seen if the crypto space will learn from its mistakes this bear and do better in the future or if the mayhem will continue. Keep watching FintechExpress.news for crypto and other finance-related news.
by Fintech Express | Nov 3, 2022 | Podcast
In the newest edition of “Around the Block With Jefferson Nunn,” Jefferson interviews John Dogru of 3DOS.
John is a thought leader in digital manufacturing, IP security, and streamlining 3d printing workflows. He has graduated the Top IOT accelerator in Silicon Valley, and has founded multiple companies. He designed just-in-time manufacturing systems and motherboards as a lead engineer at Dell. Additionally, he was an internal I/T auditor which helped him architect 3DPrinterOS. The platform complies with I/T processes and provides security for top corporations and universities.
John works with corporations, and universities, helping them understand how to monitor, scale, command and control their 3d printing networks, users, and IP in real-time.
