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The value of all the bitcoin in circulation, or market capitalization, on Wednesday rose above $1 trillion for the first time since late 2021, according to CoinMarketCap data.

The cryptocurrency also broke through the $51,000 level during the day, marking the first time it has hit this price since December 2021.

Bitcoin was trading at around the $51,229 mark at 6.15 a.m. ET, up around 3% from its price of 24 hours prior, according to CoinDesk data.

The price rise continues a rally that began in January last year. This year alone, bitcoin is up more than 21%.

Bitcoin rallied more than 150% in 2023, as anticipation built for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission‘s approval of bitcoin exchange-traded funds — or ETFs — which eventually came in January this year.

The price of bitcoin dipped after the ETF approval. A new rally began in late January, as investors now look toward the “halving” — a supply-restricting event written in bitcoin’s code that happens every four years and is slated for April.

When the halving takes place, the rewards given to bitcoin miners are cut in half, which reduces the volume of the cryptocurrency onto the market. Historically, halving has preceded bitcoin hitting new all-time highs in ensuing months.

Bitcoin’s last record high was just under $69,000 in November 2021.

The latest leg of the rally appears to be fueled in part by high demand for the ETFs. The newly-issued spot bitcoin ETFs recorded net inflows of $1.1 billion last week.

ETFs are a product that track the price movement of another asset, in this case allowing investors to play bitcoin price moves without owning the underlying cryptocurrency. However, ETF issuers will need to buy and sell bitcoin to back the derivative.

Other cryptocurrencies have also observed price rises. Ether, the coin associated with Ethereum, hit $2,759.87 on Wednesday, according to CoinDesk data — its highest level since May 2022. Investors are hoping that an ether ETF may be approved by the SEC this year.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more.

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Uber delivery chief Gore-Coty is leaving after almost 13 years at ride-hailing company

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Uber delivery chief Gore-Coty is leaving after almost 13 years at ride-hailing company

Courtesy: Uber Eats

Uber said Monday that Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty, one of the company’s longest-tenured top executives and the head of is delivery business is leaving after almost 13 years.

Gore-Coty joined Uber as a general manager in France in 2012, and worked his way up to become vice president of mobility for the Europe and Middle East region four years later, according to his LinkedIn profile. He was named senior vice president of delivery in 2021.

“It’s hard to imagine Uber without Pierre, because there hasn’t been much Uber without Pierre,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement that was part of a regulatory filing. “As one of our first employees, he was a driving force behind our global Mobility expansion and stepped up to run Uber Eats just weeks before the first Covid lockdowns.”

The company didn’t say what Gore-Coty plans to do next.

Uber also said that Andrew Macdonald, the company’s senior vice president of mobility and business operations, will become chief operating officer, reporting to Khosrowshahi. Macdonald, 41, will oversee the company’s global mobility, delivery and autonomous businesses in addition to “key cross-platform functions like membership, customer support, safety, and more,” the filing said.

Gore-Coty is one of 11 people listed on Uber’s executive team page. Macdonald is the only one who has worked at the company longer. He joined in May 2012, four months before Gore-Coty, according to LinkedIn.

“These last nearly 13 years have been the ride of a lifetime,” Gore-Coty said in the statement. “It was a true team effort, and I’m so proud of what we’ve built and the impact we’ve had on daily life in cities around the world.”

Uber shares were little changed in extended trading after closing on Monday at $83.64. The stock is up 39% this year, while the Nasdaq is about flat.

Last month, the company reported first-quarter results that beat on earnings but missed on revenue. A month earlier, the Federal Trade Commission sued Uber, alleging that the company engaged in “deceptive billing and cancellation practices” related to its Uber One subscription service.

In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” Khosrowshahi characterized the lawsuit as “a bit of a head-scratcher for us.”

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Applied Digital shares rip 40% higher on CoreWeave AI lease agreement

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Applied Digital shares rip 40% higher on CoreWeave AI lease agreement

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Shares of Applied Digital rose more than 40% after the company said it signed two long-term lease agreements with CoreWeave for artificial intelligence data centers.

Nvidia-backed CoreWeave climbed more than 7% following the announcement.

Financial terms of the two agreements were not provided, but Applied Digital said it expects $7 billion in total revenue during the approximately 15-year period.

“Through these newly signed long-term leases with CoreWeave, we are taking a step forward in our strategic expansion into advanced compute infrastructure,” said Applied Digital CEO Wes Cummins in a release announcing the news.

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CoreWeave will provide AI and high-performance computing infrastructure for the Applied Digital data center campus in Ellendale, North Dakota, according to the release.

Applied Digital will provide 250 megawatts of critical IT load for CoreWeave. The campus is designed to host 400 MW of load.

CoreWeave shares have been on a tear over the past couple of weeks, setting a record high of $130.76 on May 29. The company, which rents AI servers powered by Nvidia chips, started trading at $39 on March 28.

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Amazon’s pricing controls may be anticompetitive, German regulator warns

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Amazon's pricing controls may be anticompetitive, German regulator warns

Packages with the logo of Amazon are transported at a packing station of a redistribution center of Amazon in Horn-Bad Meinberg, western Germany, on Dec. 9, 2024.

Ina Fassbender | Afp | Getty Images

German antitrust regulators warned Amazon on Monday that the company’s pricing mechanisms for third-party sellers could run afoul of competition laws.

The Federal Cartel Office said in its preliminary assessment that Amazon’s pricing controls limit the visibility of merchants’ products and, “based on non-transparent marketplace rules,” interfere with their freedom to set prices.

Amazon uses algorithms and statistical models to calculate certain price caps for products, the Cartel Office said. Products that are flagged as having “prices that are too high” or “prices that are not competitive” can then be demoted in search results, excluded from advertising or removed from the buy box, they added.

The buy box is the listing that pops up first when a visitor clicks on a particular product, and the one that gets purchased when a shopper taps “Add to Cart.”

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“Competition in online retail in Germany is largely determined by Amazon’s rules for the trading platform,” Federal Cartel Office President Andreas Mundt said in a statement. “Since Amazon competes directly with other marketplace retailers on its platform, influencing competitors’ pricing, even in the form of price caps, is fundamentally questionable from a competition perspective.”

Amazon’s pricing practices not only threaten sellers’ businesses, but could also harm other retailers by deterring them from offering lower prices, the Cartel Office said.

An Amazon spokesperson said the company strongly disagrees with the Cartel Office’s preliminary findings. They added that any changes to Amazon’s pricing mechanisms would be “bad for customers and selling partners.”

“If Amazon is prevented from helping people find competitively priced offers, it will lead to a bad shopping experience for them, as we’d need to promote uncompetitive or even abusive pricing in our store,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “This would mislead customers into thinking they’re getting good value when, in reality, they’re not.”

Amazon can provide feedback to the Cartel Office on its preliminary assessment before it reaches a final decision.

Amazon in 2022 reached a deal with European Union antitrust regulators who were investigating its use of seller data and buy box practices. As part of the settlement, Amazon agreed to display a second buy box on products sold in Europe when there is a second competing offer that’s different on price or delivery.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is also probing Amazon’s use of pricing algorithms on its sprawling third-party marketplace as part of a wide-ranging antitrust lawsuit filed in 2023. Amazon has said the FTC’s complaint is “wrong on the facts and the law.”

The case is set to go to trial in October 2026.

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