Connect with us

Published

on

Loading… Loading… Loading…

Several firms are vying for the approval of their proposed spot Bitcoin BTC/USD exchange-traded funds (ETFs), hoping to capture a significant market share.

What Happened: Switzerlands Pando Asset AG on Wednesday emerged as the 13th contender by submitting a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Pando Asset Spot Bitcoin Trust.

Among the total 13 applications, two major players, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC and Blackrock Inc. BLK , have revised their filings just to secure a BTC ETF spot.

Analysts predict that the SEC is on the cusp of approving several spot Bitcoin ETFs. The first to cross the finish line could enjoy a significant first-mover advantage, attracting a large base of retail investors.

Since both BlackRock and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust submitted their applications for a spot Bitcoin ETF, their stock prices have experienced an upswing. We compare which of the two stocks has delivered the best returns over the past year.

BlackRocks stock increased from $695.78 to $747.3, marking a 7.4% growth. On the other hand, GBTC saw a 242.74% surge from $9.05 to $31.02. BLK Or GBTC: 1-Year Performance (Image: Benzinga)

If you had invested $1000 in either of the stocks, you would have yielded $1074.04 in BLK and $3427.4 in GBTC. BLK Or GBTC: Which Offers Better Returns? (Image: Benzinga)

See More: Dogecoin HODLERs Are Beating Shiba Inu With 57% Landing In Profits, IntoTheBlock Data Reveals

Loading… Loading… Loading…

A Closer Look at Market Movements

When analyzing their market behavior, the coefficient of determination (R^2) stands at a low 0.023, suggesting a very weak correlation between BLK and GBTCs market movements, as evidenced by a linear regression analysis. Do BLK And GBTC Often Move Together? (Image: Benzinga)

Price Action: At the time of writing, BTC was trading at $37,731, down 1% in the last 24 hours, according to Benzinga Pro. On Wednesday, GBTC finished trading at $31.02, while BLK closed at $747.30.

Illustration by CryptoFX on Shutterstock

Read Next: Heres How Much You Should Invest In Shiba Inu Today For A $1M Payday If SHIB Hits 1 Cent?Loading… Loading… Loading…

Continue Reading

Business

The Russia-Ukraine war has reshaped global trade and forged new alliances

Published

on

By

The Russia-Ukraine war has reshaped global trade and forged new alliances

The vast majority of policymakers in Westminster, let alone elsewhere around the UK, have never heard of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the geopolitical grouping currently holding its summit at Tianjin, but hear me out on why we should all be paying considerable attention to it.

Because the more attention you pay to this grouping of 10 Eurasian states – most notably China, Russia and India – the more you start to realise that the long-term consequences of the war in Ukraine might well reach far beyond Europe’s borders, changing the contours of the world as we know it.

The best place to begin with this is in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Back then, there were a few important hallmarks in the global economy. The amount of goods exported to Russia by the G7 – the equivalent grouping of rich, industrialised nations – was about the same as China’s exports. Europe was busily sucking in most Russian oil.

But roll on to today and G7 exports to Russia have gone to nearly zero (a consequence of sanctions). Russian assets, including government bonds previously owned by the Russian central bank, have been confiscated and their fate wrangled over. But Chinese exports to Russia, far from falling or even flatlining, have risen sharply. Exports of Chinese transportation equipment are up nearly 500%. Meanwhile, India has gone from importing next to no Russian oil to relying on the country for the majority of its crude imports.

Indeed, so much oil is India now importing from Russia that the US has said it will impose “secondary tariffs” on India, doubling the level of tariffs paid on Indian goods imported into America to 50% – one of the highest levels in the world.

The upshot of Ukraine, in other words, isn’t just misery and war in Europe. It’s a sharp divergence in economic strategies around the world. Some countries – notably the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – have doubled down on their economic relationship with Russia. Others have forsworn Russian business.

And in so doing, many of those Asian nations have begun to envisage something they had never quite imagined before: an economic future that doesn’t depend on the American financial infrastructure. Once upon a time, Asian nations were the biggest buyers of American government debt, in part to provide them with the dollars they needed to buy crude oil, which is generally denominated in the US currency. But since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has begun to sell its oil without denominating it in dollars.

More on Russia

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Putin and Xi discuss Trump talks at security summit

Read more from Sky News:
How Moscow and its allies are trying to display their immunity to Western pressure

How Trump and Modi’s bromance fell apart
Russia has made Trump look weak

At the same time, many Asian nations have reduced their purchases of US debt. Indeed, part of the explanation for the recent rise in US and UK government bond yields is that there is simply less demand for them from foreign investors than there used to be. The world is changing – and the foundations of what we used to call globalisation are shifting.

The penultimate reason to pay attention to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is that while once upon a time its members accounted for a small fraction of global economic output, today that fraction is on the rise. Indeed, if you adjust economic output to account for purchasing power, the share of global GDP accounted for by the nations meeting in Tianjin is close to overtaking the share of GDP accounted for by the world’s advanced nations.

And the final thing to note – something that would have seemed completely implausible only a few years ago – is that China and India, once sworn rivals, are edging closer to an economic rapprochement. With India now facing swingeing tariffs from the US, New Delhi sees little downside in a rare trip to China, to cement relations with Beijing. This is a seismic moment in geopolitics. For a long time, the world’s two most populous nations were at loggerheads. Now they are increasingly moving in lockstep with each other.

That is a consequence few would have guessed at when Russia invaded Ukraine. Yet it could be of enormous importance for geopolitics in future decades.

Continue Reading

World

At least 43 Palestinians killed as Israeli offensive in Gaza City intensifies

Published

on

By

At least 43 Palestinians killed as Israeli offensive in Gaza City intensifies

At least 43 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Saturday, according to local hospitals, as the Israeli offensive on Gaza City intensifies.

Most of the casualties were reported in Gaza City. Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza, said 29 bodies had been brought to its morgue, including 10 people killed while seeking aid and others struck across the city.

Al-Awda Hospital said on Sunday morning that 11 more people were killed in strikes and gunfire, seven of whom were civilians trying to get aid. Witnesses said Israeli troops shot at crowds in the Netzarim Corridor, which is an Israeli military zone cutting Gaza in half.

Ragheb Abu Lebda, from Nuseirat, said the area is a “death trap” after he saw at least three people bleeding from gunshot wounds.

A Palestinian girl walks past a heavily damaged building in Gaza City, a day after an Israeli strike hit it. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi
Image:
A Palestinian girl walks past a heavily damaged building in Gaza City, a day after an Israeli strike hit it. Pic: AP/Jehad Alshrafi

The Netzarim Corridor has become increasingly dangerous, with civilians seeking aid being killed while approaching United Nations (UN) convoys, which have been overwhelmed by desperate crowds and looters.

Others have been shot en route to aid sites run by the controversial Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Neither the foundation nor the Israeli military responded to questions about the seven reported casualties among people seeking aid on Sunday.

More on Gaza

Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in a strike on a tent at Al-Shifa Hospital. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa
Image:
Mourners react during the funeral of Palestinians killed in a strike on a tent at Al-Shifa Hospital. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa

Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday that the spokesman for Hamas’ armed wing, Abu Obeida, was killed in Gaza over the weekend after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier said his forces had attacked the spokesman without confirming whether he had died.

Hamas has not commented on the claim that Mr Obeida has been killed.

It comes after Israel announced the initial stages of its Gaza City offensive on Friday, following weeks of operations on the outskirts of the city and the Jabaliya refugee camp.

Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations in northern Gaza. Pic: AP/Leo Correa
Image:
Buildings that were destroyed during the Israeli ground and air operations in northern Gaza. Pic: AP/Leo Correa

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have since intensified its air attacks in the coastal areas of the city.

The military has urged hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still in Gaza City to flee, but only tens of thousands have followed through, as many say they are not convinced it is safer elsewhere, or they are too exhausted after repeated displacements.

About 65,000 Palestinians have fled their home this month alone, including 23,199 in the past week, according to the UN.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

A local resident said ‘our choice is to face certain death or to leave and end up on the streets without shelter’.

Many are living in temporary shelters after they were displaced multiple times.

The UN says more than 90% of the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least once since the start of the war on 7 October 2023.

Palestinians have accused Israel of forcing displacements after it signalled that aid to Gaza City would be cut.

A Palestinian child waits to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa
Image:
A Palestinian child waits to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters/Mahmoud Issa

Malnutrition in Gaza is rife, with part of the Strip suffering from famine, according to a global hunger monitor.

Seven adults died of causes related to malnutrition and starvation over the last 24 hours, bringing the death toll from malnutrition-related causes in adults to 215 since late June, the Gaza health ministry said.

Read more:
Gaza diary: ‘The drones are always there’
Israel declares Gaza City a combat zone

The ministry said 63,371 Palestinians have died since the start of the war in October 2023, including 124 children who have died of malnutrition-related causes.

This comes as Greta Thunberg and other activists have embarked on a second aid flotilla to Gaza on Sunday, despite having been detained by Israeli forces and deported when they approached on a British-flagged yacht in June.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

New flotilla of aid into Gaza

Thunberg, who is among hundreds of people from 44 countries on the flotilla, hopes their mission will bring symbolic aid and help open up a humanitarian corridor to deliver more aid.

She said the activists’ goal is to send “hope and solidarity to the people of Gaza, showing a clear signal that the world has not forgotten about you”.

Continue Reading

World

The Russia-Ukraine war has reshaped global trade and forged new alliances

Published

on

By

The Russia-Ukraine war has reshaped global trade and forged new alliances

The vast majority of policymakers in Westminster, let alone elsewhere around the UK, have never heard of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, the geopolitical grouping currently holding its summit at Tianjin, but hear me out on why we should all be paying considerable attention to it.

Because the more attention you pay to this grouping of 10 Eurasian states – most notably China, Russia and India – the more you start to realise that the long-term consequences of the war in Ukraine might well reach far beyond Europe’s borders, changing the contours of the world as we know it.

The best place to begin with this is in February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine. Back then, there were a few important hallmarks in the global economy. The amount of goods exported to Russia by the G7 – the equivalent grouping of rich, industrialised nations – was about the same as China’s exports. Europe was busily sucking in most Russian oil.

But roll on to today and G7 exports to Russia have gone to nearly zero (a consequence of sanctions). Russian assets, including government bonds previously owned by the Russian central bank, have been confiscated and their fate wrangled over. But Chinese exports to Russia, far from falling or even flatlining, have risen sharply. Exports of Chinese transportation equipment are up nearly 500%. Meanwhile, India has gone from importing next to no Russian oil to relying on the country for the majority of its crude imports.

Indeed, so much oil is India now importing from Russia that the US has said it will impose “secondary tariffs” on India, doubling the level of tariffs paid on Indian goods imported into America to 50% – one of the highest levels in the world.

The upshot of Ukraine, in other words, isn’t just misery and war in Europe. It’s a sharp divergence in economic strategies around the world. Some countries – notably the members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation – have doubled down on their economic relationship with Russia. Others have forsworn Russian business.

And in so doing, many of those Asian nations have begun to envisage something they had never quite imagined before: an economic future that doesn’t depend on the American financial infrastructure. Once upon a time, Asian nations were the biggest buyers of American government debt, in part to provide them with the dollars they needed to buy crude oil, which is generally denominated in the US currency. But since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has begun to sell its oil without denominating it in dollars.

More on Russia

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Putin and Xi discuss Trump talks at security summit

Read more from Sky News:
How Moscow and its allies are trying to display their immunity to Western pressure

How Trump and Modi’s bromance fell apart
Russia has made Trump look weak

At the same time, many Asian nations have reduced their purchases of US debt. Indeed, part of the explanation for the recent rise in US and UK government bond yields is that there is simply less demand for them from foreign investors than there used to be. The world is changing – and the foundations of what we used to call globalisation are shifting.

The penultimate reason to pay attention to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is that while once upon a time its members accounted for a small fraction of global economic output, today that fraction is on the rise. Indeed, if you adjust economic output to account for purchasing power, the share of global GDP accounted for by the nations meeting in Tianjin is close to overtaking the share of GDP accounted for by the world’s advanced nations.

And the final thing to note – something that would have seemed completely implausible only a few years ago – is that China and India, once sworn rivals, are edging closer to an economic rapprochement. With India now facing swingeing tariffs from the US, New Delhi sees little downside in a rare trip to China, to cement relations with Beijing. This is a seismic moment in geopolitics. For a long time, the world’s two most populous nations were at loggerheads. Now they are increasingly moving in lockstep with each other.

That is a consequence few would have guessed at when Russia invaded Ukraine. Yet it could be of enormous importance for geopolitics in future decades.

Continue Reading

Trending