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The price of bitcoin rose to start the week, edging even closer to its all-time high after the rally took a breather over the weekend.

The flagship cryptocurrency was last higher by 5% at $66,042.60, according to Coin Metrics. Earlier, it rose to as much as $66,332.00, its highest level since November 2021. Ether advanced 1.5% to $3,525.21.

Both coins are coming off their best week in almost a year (bitcoin gained about 21% and ether 16%) but paused their run over the weekend as the market digested two days of steep outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin ETF that were offset by inflows into other “newborn” bitcoin ETFs.

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Bitcoin is edging toward its all-time high

“With the birth of these nine new ETFs the big moves now tend to take place during the normal trading week rather than the weekends,” said Antoni Trenchev, cofounder of crypto exchange Nexo. “What we’re seeing today … might well be a rerun of early last week when bitcoin surged $10,000 in the space of a couple of days. We’re in that sort of environment when a day or two of sideways consolidation can precede explosive price action thanks to the voracious demand of these new spot ETFs.”

Investors have been extra eager to see bitcoin approach its all-time high. At $66,000 it’s sitting about 4% off its November 2021 intraday record of $68,982.20.

Some analysts have suggested that while it could keep rising in the short term, bitcoin may may cool in the next few weeks, as unrealized profit margins approach extreme levels. Bitcoin’s realized price is sitting at just about $42,700, according to CryptoQuant.

Nevertheless, long-term investors are confident that the combination of increasing demand for bitcoin through the new U.S. exchange-traded funds and a tighter supply expected after the April halving event will push the price of bitcoin to a new all-time high.

Crypto has also been getting a slight bid from the stock market, where the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite reached an all-time high on Friday, becoming the last of the major stock indexes to hit a record close this year. David Duong, head of institutional research at Coinbase, said that although March could be a month of sideways grinding for bitcoin, the cryptocurrency is benefitting from an AI- and blockchain technology-driven productivity boom he expects is here to stay.

Large-cap cryptocurrency moves Monday were more modest, although prices of smaller coins, particularly meme coins, have swelled. Dogecoin jumped 8%, while Shiba Inu coin surged 18%. Analysts point to their performance as evidence that retail investors, who have been absent for much of the recent crypto rally, are starting to return to the crypto market.

Crypto equities rode the bitcoin wave. Coinbase and Microstrategy rose 6% and 18%, respectively. In the mining group, CleanSpark and Marathon Digital each traded about 6% higher and Riot Platforms added 3%.

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SK Hynix quarterly profit soars 158% to top estimates as chip demand surges on AI boom

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SK Hynix quarterly profit soars 158% to top estimates as chip demand surges on AI boom

Illustration of the SK Hynix company logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen.

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South Korea’s SK Hynix on Thursday topped quarterly revenue and operating profit estimates, with demand for its high bandwidth memory offerings used in generative artificial intelligence chipsets remaining robust.

Here are SK Hynix’s first-quarter results versus LSEG SmartEstimates:

  • Revenue: 17.64 trillion won ($12.36 billion) vs. 17.26 trillion won
  • Operating profit: 7.44 trillion won vs. 6.62 trillion won

Revenue rose about 42% in the March quarter compared with the same period a year earlier, while operating profit surged 158%, year on year.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue dropped 11%, while operating profit fell 8% from a record high in the December quarter.

The company warned that macroeconomic uncertainties including tariff policy have created demand volatility that will impact the second half of the year.

SK Hynix is a leading supplier of dynamic random access memory — a type of semiconductor memory found in PCs, workstations and servers that is used to store data and program code.

In its earnings release, SK Hynix said that its first-quarter profits demonstrated AI’s impact in the memory market as well as company’s leading position.

The memory chipmaker expects Big Tech’s spending on AI to continue, with the ecosystem’s expansion to be driven by open-source AI model offerings, and “sovereign AI projects” that will stoke memory demand.

SK Hynix has benefitted from a boom in artificial intelligence servers as a key supplier of high bandwidth memory, or HBM — a type of DRAM used in artificial intelligence servers — to clients such as the U.S. AI darling Nvidia. Micron Technology and Samsung Electronics are the other players in the space.

A report from Counterpoint Research earlier this month said that SK Hynix had captured 70% of the HBM market by revenue share in the first quarter.

This HBM dominance helped it overtake Samsung in the overall DRAM market for the first time ever, with a 36% global market share as compared to Samsung’s 34%, the report added.

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Trump meme coin surges 50% after top holders offered dinner with the president

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Trump meme coin surges 50% after top holders offered dinner with the president

A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens, depicted in front of the White House to mark his inauguration, displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. 

Paul Yeung | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The $TRUMP meme coin jumped more than 50% on Wednesday after the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.

“Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The dinner — black tie optional — is scheduled for May 22, with a reception for the top 25 wallets. A “VIP White House Tour” will take place the following day, the site says.

The price spike gives the $TRUMP coins in circulation a total value of $2.7 billion. It had by far the biggest move of any cryptocurrency, outpacing Sui, which is up 23%, according to CoinMarketCap.

Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

The Trump coin debuted in January, just ahead of the inauguration, offering an early indication of the president’s willingness to embrace crypto and the wealth creation it offers him and his family. The project’s market cap soared to $15 billion almost instantly, fueled by Trump’s posts on Truth Social and X declaring, “It’s time to celebrate everything we stand for: WINNING!” Within days it had lost most of its value.

First Lady Melania Trump launched her own coin — $MELANIA — as well. It briefly topped $2 billion in market value before crashing alongside $TRUMP.

Shortly after the launch of the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins, the SEC issued guidance stating that meme tokens don’t qualify as securities, effectively shielding the projects from immediate regulatory scrutiny.

So far, just 20% of $TRUMP’s supply has been available to trade. The remaining 80% — held by insiders — remains locked under a three-year vesting schedule. The first tranche is scheduled to unlock soon, freeing up millions of dollars worth of tokens for sale and potentially allowing President Trump and project insiders to cash in on Wednesday’s pop.

As with most meme coins, there is no underlying product or service. The project’s website claims that 80% of the token supply is held by the Trump Organization and affiliated entities.

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IBM beats on earnings and revenue, maintains full-year guidance

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IBM beats on earnings and revenue, maintains full-year guidance

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna speaks at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, on March 11, 2025.

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IBM reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter on Wednesday.

Here’s how the company performed:

  • Earnings per share: $1.60 adjusted vs. $1.40 expected
  • Revenue: $14.54 billion vs. $14.4 billion expected

Revenue increased 0.6% in the quarter from $14.5 billion a year earlier, according to a statement. Net income slid to $1.06 billion, or $1.12 per share, from $1.61 billion, or $1.72 per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

For 2025, IBM reiterated its expectation for $13.5 billion in free cash flow and 5% revenue growth at constant currency. At current exchange rates, currency will provide 150 basis points of benefit for 2025 growth, down from the company’s forecast of 200 basis points in January.

Management called for $16.4 billion to $16.75 billion in second-quarter revenue. The middle of the range, $16.58 billion, is ahead of the LSEG consensus of $16.33 billion.

“We remain bullish on the long-term growth opportunities for technology and the global economy,” IBM CEO Arvind Krishna said in the statement. “While the macroeconomic environment is fluid, based on what we know today, we are maintaining our full-year expectations for revenue growth and free cash flow.”

In the first quarter, software revenue rose 7% to $6.34 billion, in line with the consensus among analysts polled by StreetAccount. The hybrid cloud software category that includes Red Hat grew 12%, compared with 16% in the fourth quarter.

IBM’s consulting unit contributed $5.07 billion in revenue, which was down 2% and slightly above StreetAccount’s $5.05 billion consensus.

The company’s infrastructure division, which includes mainframe computers, posted a 6% decline in revenue to $2.89 billion, higher than the $2.76 billion consensus. Earlier this month, IBM introduced its z17 mainframe. Infrastructure revenue growth generally picks up as customers adopt the next generation and then drifts down late in the cycle.

During the first quarter, IBM said it had settled its lawsuits with chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries. IBM also closed its $6.4 billion acquisition of cloud software maker HashiCorp and announced plans to buy data storage software startup DataStax for undisclosed terms.

IBM has been an outperformer this year as the broader market has sold off due largely to concerns around President Donald Trump’s tariffs and their potential impact on the economy. As of Wednesday’s close, IBM shares were up 11%, while the Nasdaq was down almost 14%.

The stock slipped 6% in extended trading.

No one is immune from fallout from President Trump’s tariffs on imported goods, the company’s finance chief, Jim Kavanaugh, said in an interview with CNBC’s Jon Fortt.

IBM’s customers are prioritizing efficient spending and the preservation of cash, Kavanaugh told the Wall Street Journal. The U.S. Department of Governmental Efficiency had delayed or nixed 15 federal contracts, he told Bloomberg.

Executives will discuss the results with analysts on a conference call starting at 5 p.m. ET.

This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.

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