First Mover Americas: Crypto Markets Reel on Geopolitical Risk

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Crypto prices were firmly in the red following the Fed’s decision on Wednesday to leave interest rates unchanged. Cautious comments from Chair Jerome Powell on the possibility of a rate cut in September were compounded by escalating tensions in the Middle East. Iran’s leaders ordered retaliation against Israel for killing Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which may also have spooked investors and traders. Bitcoin traded around $64,500 during the European morning, about 2.5% lower than 24 hours ago. The broader digital asset market has dropped nearly 4.24%, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20).

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms’ second-quarter loss trebled to more than $84 million, or $0.32 per share. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose to $61.2 million, more than half of which comprised stock compensation expenses related to new grants under a long-term incentive program. The net loss for the quarter also included a $76.4 million drop in the fair value of bitcoin it holds. April’s Bitcoin halving, which cuts the reward miners receive for adding new blocks to the blockchain by 50%, reduced the number of bitcoin Riot produced during the quarter. The company mined 844 BTC, 52% less than in the year-earlier period.

Ripple will allocate $10 million to a tokenized version of U.S. Treasury bills (T-bills) that will become available on the XRP Ledger for the first time. The short-term U.S. government debt is being issued as TBILL tokens by the tokenization platform OpenEden. Assets backing the tokens will be invested in short-dated U.S. Treasuries and reverse repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. Treasuries. The tokenization of tangible real-world assets and traditional financial securities is a growing sector of the crypto industry. It allows traditional assets, especially private and alternative assets, to be issued, managed, and distributed in a way that is considered more efficient than their off-chain counterparts.

– Omkar Godbole