Here are 5 important things happening in tech around the world today.
Bitcoin slipped back below $80,000 on Friday after Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh pledged to bring inflation back to target, pushing short-term Treasury yields higher.
This cooled some of the week’s risk-on momentum. The move was modest rather than a reversal of the broader crypto rebound.
Warsh said financial conditions are not restrictive and stressed that inflation must move clearly toward the Fed’s target, reinforcing expectations that policy could stay tighter for longer.
Bitcoin eased with other rate-sensitive assets but remained well above levels seen earlier this month.
The crypto market is still in a limbo with no clear directional views in sight after a short squeeze due to a record liquidation in leveraged bearish bets on digital assets last week.
The open interest for Bitcoin futures, which makes up the majority of crypto trading, has not seen a significant recovery after the wipeout, according to data from Coinglass.
“Despite a slight hawkish tilt from Warsh, the market is digesting all of this relatively well so far,” said Jasper De Maere, OTC trader at Wintermute. “For me, the speech fell in line with expectations.”
Bitcoin dropped as much as 4% to $76,871, and is now little changed on the week. It registered a gain of 23% in the previous one. The price is still down about 40% from an all-time high of around $126,000.
Traders are looking at longer-term metrics to gauge the health of the rebound.
According to a research report by Galaxy Digital, in four of the five completed crypto bear markets, once the 50-week moving average was first broken to the upside, the bear market bottom was definitively in.
“From here it comes down to the 50-week moving average: it needs to hold on a weekly close for the bullish structure to stay intact,” said Mostafa Al-Mashita, co-founder of Secure Digital Markets.
“Alts are the higher-beta expression of that same test. The rally looks structurally healthier than a typical leverage-driven crypto move.”
Crypto options traders are cautiously optimistic in the medium to long term. Bitcoin surged from $62,000 to $80,000 in little more than a week.
$6.4 billion in Bitcoin options expiry on crypto exchange Deribit leaves market makers facing key positioning decisions that could amplify volatility.
“Leading into today, we’ve seen skew start to shift more call-heavy and implied volatility rise above the historic lows its waded in the past couple months,” said Alex Blume, founder and CEO of Two Prime.
“The expiration offers an opportunity for the market to reset positioning. I am looking to see if the skew continues to trend towards calls and if implied volatility remains elevated.”
There have been very big blocks of $85,000 call options with a September expiry, and $90,000 call option with expiry dates in November and December, according to De Maere. [Bloomberg]
China-linked hackers target NASA: The US Justice Department claimed that authorities disrupted online infrastructure allegedly used by Chinese state-sponsored threat actors to target government agencies, including NASA, the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy and the US Senate. [Bloomberg]
Toy giant Hasbro suffers data breach: Hasbro, one of the world’s largest toy and game-making companies, disclosed a data breach where attackers accessed the personal and financial information of an undisclosed number of employees. The company did not say when the incident was detected. [Bleeping Computer]
New update for Meta smart glasses to address privacy concerns: Meta has updated its AI-powered smart glasses to fix a loophole that lets wearers keep recording footage while covering the front-facing LED. This was used by some wearers to record others without their knowledge. Alex Himel, Meta’s VP of augmented reality, said that now, the camera will stop working when the LED is covered. [The Verge]
Former Twitter employee launches Twitter.now: A group led by Stephen Coates, the former legal counsel of the original Twitter have introduced a new version of the social media platform called Twitter.now. The group claim that the Twitter identity and IP were abandoned by Elon Musk upon purchasing the social media platform in 2022 and immediately renaming it X. A legal case looms as Musk looks to sue. [Engadget]
South African Airways to reclaim R942 million from Zimbabwe: The South African government is looking to reclaim over R942 million owed to South African Airways (SAA) by Zimbabwe. This forms part of a larger R1.4 billion owed to South Africa by foreign countries and is linked to SAA ticket-sale revenue that the country has been unable to repatriate. The debt has accumulated over the last decade, and diplomatic attempts to recover the money since 2020 have been unsuccessful. [Daily Investor]
