Bitcoin Mining Company Core Scientific Sells Up to $167 Million in BTC in June

US-based cryptocurrency miner Core Scientific sold more than 7,000 Bitcoins in June to pay for equipment costs and pay off debts.

In an announcement on July 5, Core Scientific said it sold about $167 million worth of Bitcoin in June at an average price of $23,000, or 7,202 BTC. The sale leaves the company 1,959 BTC, approximately 21% of its shares, and $132 million in cash as of June 30, down more than 75% from its reported 8,058 BTC holdings as of May 31. 05.

According to Core Scientific, they used proceeds through the sale of BTC to pay for ASIC miners, schedule debt repayments, and invest in additional data center capacity. The company reported that it produced 1,106 BTC in June, with self-mining accounting for 57% of data center capacity, and crypto mining as of June 30, over 180,000 miners.

“Our mining industry is under tremendous stress as capital markets weaken, interest rates rise and the economy deals with historic inflation,” said CEO Mike Levitt. Core Scientific has successfully weathered downturns in the past, and we are confident in our ability to navigate the current market volatility.”

Amid the current extreme market conditions and extreme price volatility, many Bitcoin miners have reportedly changed their business strategy by selling instead of accumulating as before. This inadvertently created a huge pressure on the BTC price reaction in the past time.

As evidenced also in June, another major Bitcoin mining company, Bitfarms, sold 3,000 BTC, or about 47% of its holdings, for $62 million as part of a strategy to improve liquidity and repay debt. . Meanwhile, the last ray of hope of the Bitcoin Marathon mining industry encountered a force majeure event, and it is highly likely that it will also sell in the near future, causing the sector to fall into a state of extreme stalemate.

UK government consults people on DeFi tax plan

The UK government is asking the public to comment on the taxation of crypto loans and staking in the DeFi sector.

Specifically, on July 5, the UK Tax and Customs Service (HMRC) published a report seeking input as well as collecting evidence on the taxation of loans and staking money. encryption in the DeFi space.

At the same time, HMRC also emphasized the concern that there is any possibility to reduce the administrative burden, the costs for taxpayers to engage in this activity and that the tax treatment may be more in line with the value of the tax. underlying economics of the related transactions or not.

Local citizens and stakeholders have until August 31 to submit their responses via email provided by the agency. Following the call for evidence, the government will publish a summary of the responses along with details of the next decisive steps.
However, this can be seen as the next significant step taken by the UK government in its approach to the crypto industry. Because the Bank of England (BOE) has been determined to accelerate the construction of a regulatory framework to “strangle” Bitcoin after Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe urged the government to act quickly to prevent the danger of money. encode. He even bluntly stated that the value of crypto could plummet to zero in the future.

Notably, the above event coincided with the time when the UK FCA launched a crypto risk warning campaign on TikTok and Youtube and expanded its investigation to 300 cases involving crypto companies. , including Binance. Therefore, no one can think that the UK will really "transform" to be friendly to the industry.

However, by April 2022, the situation has completely changed when the UK Treasury has released a list of plans to make the country a global cryptocurrency power. On the other hand, according to Economy Secretary John Glen, the legal transformation of the country is a “major surgery” to the tax system to make it easier for the country to operate on cryptocurrencies.

Not only that, in May 2022, the British government conducted a consultation to give the Bank of England the authority to appoint administrators to manage bankruptcy arrangements for issuers. stablecoins failed.

In fact, when it comes to cryptocurrency regulation, many British politicians have recently expressed concern that the country is lagging behind its European competitors. Therefore, they urgently need a strong push from the government to help Britain gradually catch up with the trend of the times.

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Crypto Investor Briefing – July 2022

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July 2022 

The crypto market continued its slump in the month of June and the total market value of all cryptocurrencies fell under $1 trillion for the first time since January 2021. A few systemically important companies in the crypto ecosystem failed to meet their debt obligations and suffered from liquidity crunches, forcing them to disable the withdrawal function and causing further panic from their users. As investors, you may wonder whether people have once again lost confidence in Bitcoin and other crypto assets and whether it could get worse from here. 

The real answer is, surprisingly, the opposite. All that has happened in front of our eyes is the result of people having strong confidence in mainstream crypto assets, namely Bitcoin and Ethereum, as digital stores of value. Many crypto players use Bitcoin and Ethereum as collateral to borrow and make leveraged investments in newly created DeFi protocols to seek high yields. When those new protocols experience liquidity imbalance and trigger price downfall, the good collateral is force-liquidated. In short, the major sell-off is a result of margin calls due to certain crypto lenders and traders’ poor risk management practices and over-leveraging positions. 

There is nothing wrong with the crypto ecosystem—the main blockchains still function as they always have, and user adoption continues to increase. Perhaps we could say that the crypto industry is experiencing a “Lehman Brothers moment,” and the ultimate culprit is human greed. We should expect more regulatory oversight in this area, which will benefit the quality of the entire crypto ecosystem. For long-term investors, this could be another great chance for bottom fishing.  

Christian Hsieh
CEO, Tokenomy 

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Celsius Network, one of the largest crypto lenders, announced a halt on withdrawals and transfers between accounts due to extreme market conditions. This action triggered a wider market crash. Celsius is known for its involvement in the decentralized lending (DeFi) space, as its mission statement states its goal is to “disrupt the financial industry.” The platform had locked users’ funds into stETH, a wrapped ETH token by Lido Network, and a stETH de-pegging prompted a wave of redemptions, sparking a liquidity crisis similar to the TerraUST incident just a month ago.

Three Arrows Capital (3AC), the multi-billion dollar hedge fund based in Dubai, is facing financial issues; they have been selling down their stETH positions and reportedly failed to meet its margin call with BlockFi. Their co-founder Su Zhu wrote a cryptic Twitter post and the fund is rumored to have leveraged long positions where it is unable to meet its obligations.

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USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle Internet Financial is expanding with a new euro-backed stablecoin, Euro Coin (EUROC). According to the company announcement, this new stablecoin will be “a regulated, euro-backed stablecoin issued under the same full-reserve model and built on the same pillars of trust, transparency, and security that have made USDC one of the world’s most trusted digital currencies.”

Goldman Sachs is looking to raise $2 billion from investors to buy up distressed assets from troubled crypto lender Celsius. The proposed deal would allow investors to buy up Celsius’ assets at potentially big discounts in the event of a bankruptcy filing. Celsius has tapped restructuring advisory firm Alvarez & Marsal, restructuring attorneys from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and Citigroup. Citigroup and Akin Gump have both recommended Celsius file for bankruptcy, according to various media reports. 

A survey conducted by Deloitte indicates that 85% of US merchants view enabling crypto payments as a high priority. Spending on crypto infrastructure is expected to increase, with more than 60% of survey respondents expecting to have budgets of more than $500,000 to enable digital currency payments in the next 12 months. Companies prefer not to hold digital assets, with 52% planning to have payment processors convert crypto into fiat currency, and companies partnering with third-party crypto payment processors are particularly likely to do so (61%). Barriers to adoption cited include customer security of the payment platforms (43%), changing regulatory landscape (37%), and instability of the digital currency market (36%).

The US House Agriculture Committee, which oversees the CFTC, held a hearing on digital asset regulation. Many crypto-industry experts, including Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson and Chainalysis co-founder Jonathan Levin, testified on how US government agencies can address potential risks in the market. 

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) issued guidance outlining compliance requirements for dollar-backed stablecoins, the first financial regulator in the US to do so following Terra’s collapse. The document has three main components: any USD-backed stablecoin regulated by the DFS must (i) be “fully backed” by a reserve of assets and set clear policies for redemption, (ii) separate their reserve assets from their proprietary assets and hold them in specific assets categories (e.g. US Treasury bills, government money-market funds, etc.), and (iii) be audited by an independent certified public accountant. 

New York Senator Gillibrand and Wyoming Senator Lummis have teamed up to propose a bipartisan bill that would shift much of the regulatory oversight of crypto assets from the SEC to the CFTC, acknowledging that these tokens are more like commodities than securities.

Now you can short Bitcoin via ETF! ProShares plans to launch a short bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to allow investors to bet on declines in the largest cryptocurrency. The ProShares Short Bitcoin Strategy ETF will give investors the opportunity to profit from a decline in bitcoin’s price, or to hedge their exposure to crypto. The product has been launched with the ticker BITI. The firm previously launched the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF in October 2021.

The U.S. Federal Reserve published a paper exploring the impact on monetary policy of potentially issuing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). It considers a scenario where the digital dollar was widely adopted for both payments and as a store of value. In that case, it could result in the Federal Reserve needing to buy more Treasuries and having a permanently bigger balance sheet.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) explores DeFi applications with DBS Bank, JPMorgan, and Marketnode, the central bank announced. “Project Guardian” will explore the feasibility of tokenization and DeFi using open, interoperable networks, enabling digital assets to be traded across platforms, including existing financial infrastructure—with wholesale funding markets as the first stage, with the creation of liquidity pools of tokenized bonds and deposits to carry out borrowing and lending on a public blockchain-based network.

More crypto hedge funds are being created as digital assets gain acceptance despite the market volatility, according to PwC’s 4th Annual Global Crypto Hedge Fund Report. Of traditional hedge funds surveyed, 38% are investing in digital assets. Of those who are investing, 57% of them have less than 1% crypto exposure, and 20% of these funds hold between 5% and 50% digital assets of the total asset under management (AUM). It is estimated that there are more than 300 crypto hedge funds globally.

An ex-OpenSea executive was charged with NFT insider trading, according to a press release from the US Department of Justice (DOJ). Nate Chastain was charged with wire fraud and money laundering in connection with trading on confidential information about which NFTs were about to be featured on the OpenSea homepage. This is the first time the DOJ has pursued an insider trading charge involving digital assets, which could mark the onset of a new wave of enforcement actions involving NFTs.

PayPal enables crypto withdrawals to non-custodial wallets, following the footsteps of Robinhood, which released the feature in April. In addition to withdrawals, they are also enabling users to transfer digital assets between themselves, according to its press release. An important consideration to note is privacy; by using this feature, users will essentially tie their non-custodial wallets to their personal information held by PayPal.

Bitcoin miner Bitfarms sold nearly half of its BTC to reduce its debt. The Toronto-based miner sold 3,000 BTC for $62 million and used a portion of the fund to rebalance its debt with Galaxy Digital from $66 million to $38 million. Despite remaining bullish on long-term BTC price appreciation, by no longer “HODLing” all its BTC production, Bitfarms enhanced liquidity and strengthened its balance sheet. 

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• It’s only been a month since the collapse of Terra, and now Lido Finance and its Staked Ethereum (stETH) are at the center of another potential liquidity crisis. Read about how Lido’s stETH is linked to Celsius Network’s liquidity crunch. 
• Cash App parent company Block, Inc. partnered with Wakefield Research on a study to survey 9,500 people in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific regions about public perception of Bitcoin. The survey focused on 14 countries. Read the survey report here. 
• The Ethereum upgrade from Proof-of-Work (PoW) to Proof-of-Stake (PoS) has been one of the most talked-about events in crypto. This “merge” will take place in the next few months. Read “The Investor’s Guide to The Merge: Understanding and Playing the Opportunity” by Tom Dunleavy at Massari research. 
• Andreessen Horowitz (“a16z”), an American Venture Capital firm that manages >$30 billion of assets, released their “State of Crypto” report that looks at the current environment of the industry and highlights leading trends like DeFi, NFTs, and GameFi.

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• Tokenomy Earn latest rates: 
  • Earn 5% on TEN 90-day fixed deposit 
  • Earn 4.5% on BTC 90-day fixed deposit
  • Earn 5.5% on USDC 90-day fixed deposit 
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• Dual Currency Deposit is a great tool for short-term speculators when price volatility is high! Earn enhanced returns on BTC, ETH, and USDT deposits. 
• Tokenomy Loan is live! Pledge your crypto assets to borrow IDK with only a few clicks! 

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🚨 Today On Direct Source News 🚨

📌EToro SPAC Deal For Public Listing Cancelled As Transaction Becomes 'Impracticable'

EToro (eToro) and its SPAC partner have mutually agreed to call off a planned takeover. The decision was taken mutually with FinTech Acquisition Corp. V. The trading platform, eToro's planned public listing through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), FinTech Acquisition Corp. V has been terminated. The firm announced on Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

Source: CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/07/05/etoro-spac-deal-for-public-listing-canceled-as-transaction-becomes-impracticable/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines

📌BSV Blockchain Association Partners With Domineum Blockchain To Host Developers Summit In Nigeria

BSV Blockchain Association is sponsoring the first-ever two-day Developers Summit in Abuja, Nigeria, run by Domineum Blockchain Solutions Ltd, the ledger technology company providing blockchain-as-a-service solutions. The event will take place at Baze University in Abuja, Nigeria, from 21 July 2022 to 22 July 2022. The summit will provide an avenue for big announcements, new product launches, core tech updates, keynote speeches, panel discussions, pitching sessions, and fireside chats with global industry leaders for more than 1,000 participants in attendance. The theme of the summit is tagged 'Stimulating Blockchain Adoption in Nigeria'.

Source: PRNewsWire https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bsv-blockchain-association-partners-with-domineum-blockchain-to-host-developers-summit-in-nigeria-301580572.html

📌British Army’s Social Accounts Hacked

On Sunday, 3rd July 2022, hackers took control of the British Army’s official social media accounts, using them to promote fraudulent NFT collections and crypto scams for more than four hours.

Crypto scams and hacks have affected billions of individuals worldwide over the past several years, increasingly becoming an everyday occurrence.

Source: Bitcoinist https://bitcoinist.com/crypto-scammers-hacked-british-armys-social-accounts-to-promote-frauds/

📌Argentines Turn Towards Stablecoins As Economy Minister Quits

Stablecoins are now drawing the attention of people in Argentina after a top cabinet official resigned.

As a result of the departure of Argentina’s economy minister in the face of a continuing economic calamity, Argentines ramped up their purchases of stablecoins throughout the weekend as they normally do. The cost of purchasing Tether’s stablecoin USDT using Argentine pesos increased significantly after the resignation of Economy Minister Martn Guzmán on Saturday.

Source: Bitcoinist https://bitcoinist.com/stablecoins-attractng-argentines/

📌Russians Banned From Accessing Bitmex Within European Union

Russian citizens or residents will no longer be able to access BitMEX services from the European Union after July 11, 2022. A major cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX is working to increase compliance with the European sanctions against Russia by preparing to enforce major restrictions on its Russian users.

Cointelegraph reports that BitMEX is changing its restricted jurisdictions policy to be compliant with various restrictive measures of the European Union.

Source: Cointelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/news/russians-banned-from-accessing-bitmex-within-european-union

📌Bitcoin Under Fresh Pressure As US Dollar Crushes Gold, Risk Assets

Bitcoin (BTC) hit daily lows on the July 5 Wall Street open as the U.S. dollar saw a violent surge. Data from Cointelegraph, Markets Pro, and TradingView shows BTC/USD retreating to $19,281 on Bitstamp as the Independence Day long weekend concludes with a bump.

The pair had seen last-minute gains the day prior, these fizzling as the return of Wall Street trading was accompanied by USD strength laying waste to gains across risk assets and safe-havens.

Source: Cointelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-faces-fresh-pressure-as-us-dollar-crushes-gold-risk-assets

📌Singapore Eyes More Regulation To Shield Retail Investors From Crypto Winter Fallout

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is considering new regulations to protect retail investors after the crypto market crash has led to the collapse of several crypto firms.

According to the regulator, the new rules being considered include “placing limits on retail participation, and the use of leverage when transacting in cryptocurrencies.”

MAS continued that there is a need for global collaboration to better police the crypto industry, due to the ‘borderless nature’ of its market.

Source: CryptoSlate https://cryptoslate.com/singapore-eyes-more-regulation-to-protect-retail-investors-from-crypto-winter-fallout/

📌UK Financial Regulator Hires Former Police Officer To Head New Crypto Unit

The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority is expanding staff as it struggles with new crypto challenges. The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has tapped Matthew Long to lead a new crypto and payments unit, the regulator announced Tuesday 5 July 2022. Matthew Long will be responsible for payments and digital money at the Financial Conduct Authority.

Source: CoinDesk https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/07/05/uk-financial-regulator-hires-former-police-officer-to-head-new-crypto-unit/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=rss&utm_campaign=headlines

📌The Paris Blockchain Summit Slates 8th July 2022 For Its Mainstream Edition

Despite today’s bear market, the demand for blockchain and crypto skills from companies continues to grow.

On July 8, 2022, those interested can position themselves in the sector with the Mainstream edition of the Paris Blockchain Summit (PBS).

As in previous editions, the PBS brings together the international ecosystem in a single location to discuss the future of blockchain technology.

Source: Cointelegraph https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/the-paris-blockchain-summit-is-back-for-its-mainstream-edition-on-july-8th

📌U.K. Tax Authorities Seek Public Consultation On DeFi Tax Treatment

U.K. tax authority, H.M. Revenue and Customs (HMRC) opened a public consultation on the tax treatment of DeFi lending and staking on 5th July 2022.

The lead official in the inquiry, Alex Bosinceanu, called on U.K. DeFi stakeholders to submit evidence for a review on the topic. The consultation period will run for two months, from July 5 to August 31, 2022, after which a summary of responses will be published along with details on what happens next.

Source: CryptoSlate https://cryptoslate.com/u-k-tax-authorities-seek-public-consultation-on-defi-tax-treatment/

📌Spanish Crypto Holders To Be ‘Burdened’ With Fresh Crypto Declaration Rules

The Spanish government’s latest plan for the crypto sector is to make citizens who hold coins on overseas platforms declare their holdings.

As previously reported, an attempt to force Spaniards with coins on foreign exchanges or in overseas wallets to declare their holdings turned chaotic at the beginning of the year. The Treasury and the Agencia Tributaria (Spain’s tax body) were forced to abandon plans to make citizens list their crypto holdings on the much-vilified Modelo 720 form. The latter is a declaration of taxable assets, such as stocks and real estate that are held outside Spanish territory.

Source: CryptoNews https://cryptonews.com/news/spanish-crypto-holders-burdened-with-fresh-crypto-declaration-rules.htm

📌Ethereum Transaction Fees Dip To Lowest Since December 2020, While Bitcoin Fees Get Relatively Stable

The depressed state of the crypto market has also taken its toll on transaction fees. This has made Ethereum (ETH) fees now finally come down to lows not seen since December 2020. Bitcoin (BTC) fees, however, hover around the same low level they have been since the past year.

The low on Ethereum’s side was reached last Sunday, 3rd July 2022, when the median transaction fee dropped to USD 0.87, before rising slightly to USD 1.142 by Tuesday, 5th July 2022. The last time Ethereum transaction fees were lower than they were this week was 6th December 2020 when they dipped to USD 0.66 per transaction.

Source: CryptoNews https://cryptonews.com/news/ethereum-transaction-fees-dip-to-lowest-since-december-2020-bitcoin-fees-relatively-stable.htm

📌Huobi Eyes US Expansion With New FinCEN License

On 5th July 2022, Huobi announced that its subsidiary, HBIT, has received a license from the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Bureau’s (FinCEN) Money Services Business Registration (MSB) to operate in the country.

According to the press release, the license provides a good foundation for the exchange’s digital currency-related businesses in the U.S.

Source: CryptoSlate https://cryptoslate.com/huobi-eyes-us-expansion-with-new-fincen-license/

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𝗗𝗮𝗶𝗿𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗨𝗦, 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗝𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗴𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗻𝘀; 𝘁𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝗲; 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗲 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴

The gold price has fallen below US$1800/oz for the first time since October 2021. And oil prices have crashed, down about -10% and below US$100/bbl for the first time since mid-May.

Lower demand expectations and Russians selling at huge discounts has finally caught up with the main oil indexes.

All this is despite US factory orders levels coming in surprisingly positive, up +1.7% from April when a good monthly +0.5% rise was expected. Overall these orders are up +15.5% from year-ago levels, far more than can be explained by inflation.

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And durable goods orders were up +12.2% so the gains are more than just temporary consumption. It is data that isn't getting much respect today.

The overnight dairy auction has brought lower prices again, down -4.1% in US dollar terms. Butter was the big loser, down -9.1% at this auction. SMP fell -5.2% and WMP fell -3.3%.

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But somewhat saving the day has been a sharpish retreat in our currency, so in NZD terms prices fell only -1.0%. This is the seventh retreat in dairy prices in the past eight auction events, taking prices back to levels last seen at the start of 2022.

The private Caixin China services PMI also revealed a big recovery, even stronger than the official June services PMI.

China needs jobs badly. In the south, it is peak hiring season, but young workers face slumping wages and fewer opportunities in the Pearl River manufacturing heartland, a region grappling with pandemic disruptions and slumping exports when supply chains shift their business out for strategic reasons.

China is taking aim at the international technology firms by rolling out new "standards". This effort is to try and get key tech "made in China" in return for access to their huge economy. They are building a large non-tariff "bamboo curtain" that circumvents the WTO.

And in Europe, their Parliament has overwhelmingly approved two sweeping new pieces of digital regulation, paving the way for clashes between regulators and some of the world’s largest tech companies over how the rules should be applied.

The Reserve Bank of Australia raised its offial cash target rate by +50 bps to 1.35% at its July meeting late yesterday. "The Board expects to take further steps in the process of normalising monetary conditions in Australia over the months ahead.

The size and timing of future interest rate increases will be guided by the incoming data ... " they said. A third +50 bps rate rise is entirely possible in August.

The Australian services PMI wasn't so impressive, still expanding but much slower, in fact their softest expansion in five months.

The price of gold is down sharply, down a very chunky -US$42 at US$1766/oz.

And oil prices are down very sharply, down a massive -US$12.50 at just under US$96.50/bbl in the US, while the international Brent price is just on US$100.50/bbl. Even natural gas prices are falling.

The Kiwi dollar will open today -¾c lower at 61.4 USc. Against the Australian dollar we are lower at 90.7 AUc. Against the euro we are a little firmer at 59.9 euro cents. That means our TWI-5 starts today at just on 70.1 and -20 bps softer.

The bitcoin price has slipped since this time yesterday and is now at US$19,708 and down -1.0%. Volatility over the past 24 hours has been moderate at +/-2.9%.

Source: Interest .co .nz