This is a segment from The Breakdown newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe. “The dollar is always going to be the reserve currency. Anyway, for a long time.” — Jerome Powell When the price of oil suddenly quadrupled in 1973, Saudi Arabia was wholly unprepared for the billions of dollars that started flooding in. Strictly
Over the last month, shares of Jack Mallers’ Tether-supported public company Twenty One have lost a quarter of their value. Despite Mallers’ insistence that he’s different from all the other bitcoin (BTC) industry executives, his stock price has the same story as everyone else. Over the same time period, Michael Saylor’s Strategy, the world’s largest
New research suggests Venezuela has become increasingly dependent on crypto as the United States and its allies escalate a push for regime change in the isolated nation. Nearly a decade of economic isolation, aggressive international sanctions, and economic collapse have made crypto tokens—particulary, Tether’s USDT stablecoin—central to the everyday life of Venezuelans, according to a
As cryptocurrency markets came under renewed selling pressure, Bitcoin failed to sustain its strong gains from the start of the week, falling below $90,000. Despite the Fed’s interest rate cut, which was in line with expectations, and its resumption of Treasury purchases, weakening risk appetite reversed much of Tuesday’s recovery. With market weakness overall, over
Global bank J.P. Morgan has arranged a landmark commercial paper issuance on the Solana blockchain, in a move that pushes real-world financial instruments deeper into public blockchain infrastructure. Commercial paper, typically issued through legacy systems, is a short-term debt tool that companies use to raise working capital. This one was structured onchain and settled using
Key Takeaways Oracle lost $105B in market value after forecasting a $15B increase in 2026 capex. Much of the spending is tied to supporting OpenAI’s cloud computing needs. Oracle shares fell 14% on Thursday, dropping from $225 to $194 and wiping out $105 billion in market value after the company sharply raised its capital expenditure
Key Takeaways Silver’s market cap surged above $3.59 trillion, surpassing Microsoft to become the world’s fifth-largest asset. This record rally was driven by inflation-hedge demand and followed the US Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut. Silver overtook Microsoft today to become the world’s fifth-largest asset by market capitalization, reaching $3.59 trillion after breaking above $63 for
Crypto investment firm Blockstream Capital Partners (BCP) plans to acquire Corbiere Capital Management, a Jersey-based equities hedge fund founded by Rodrigo Rodriguez in 2023, the company said in a press release Thursday. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. BCP said the Corbiere deal will add equity and event-driven strategies to its existing bitcoin-linked
The movement of approximately 33,737 BTC (approximately $3.11 million) from Silk Road-linked wallets on the evening of December 9th once again became a hot topic in the crypto community yesterday. On-chain data shows that these assets were moved from addresses previously associated with the US government to the Coinbase Prime platform. This image shows transfers
Key Takeaways Coinbase has selected Chainlink CCIP as the exclusive cross-chain bridging protocol for its wrapped assets. Coinbase Wrapped Assets, such as cbBTC or cbETH, will use Chainlink’s CCIP for all cross-chain transfers. Coinbase has named Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) its exclusive bridging partner to accelerate its wrapped asset growth. CCIP is Chainlink’s solution