Bitcoin tops ,000 as it nears 2021 all-time high

Bitcoin tops $66,000 as it nears 2021 all-time high

Published

1 year ago

March 4, 2024

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Jaap Arriens | NurPhoto | Getty Images

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.

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%.

Technology

British fintech Revolut tops $1 billion in profit as revenue jumps 72%

Published

3 hours ago

April 24, 2025

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British fintech Revolut tops billion in profit as revenue jumps 72%

Revolut CEO Nikolay Storonsky at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, Nov. 7, 2019.

Pedro Nunes | Reuters

LONDON — British fintech firm Revolut on Thursday announced it topped $1 billion in annual profit for the first time, a major milestone for the company as it readies the launch of its U.K. bank later this year.

Revolut, which offers a range of banking and financial services via an app, said that net profit for the year ending Dec. 31, 2024, totaled £1.1 billion ($1.5 billion), up 149% year over year. Revenues at the company increased 72% year on year to £3.1 billion, driven by growth across different revenue streams.

Revolut’s wealth unit — which includes its stock-trading business — saw outsized growth, with revenue surging 298% to £506 million, while subscriptions turnover jumped 74% to £423 million.

Revolut also saw significant growth in its loan book, which grew 86% to £979 million. Coupled with a jump in customer deposits, this contributed to a 58% increase in interest income, which totaled £790 million.

UK bank rollout

Revolut’s financial milestone arrives at a critical time for the almost decade-old-firm. The digital banking unicorn has been preparing a transition to becoming a fully operational bank in the U.K. after securing a banking license last summer.

It was granted a banking license with restrictions in July 2024 from the U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority, bringing an end to a lengthy application process that began back in 2021.

The restricted license means that Revolut is now in the “mobilization” stage, where it is focusing on building out its banking operations and infrastructure in the run-up to a full launch. The period typically lasts about 12 months.

Revolut is still awaiting approval from regulators to transfer all 11 million of its U.K. users to a new banking entity this summer. Once fully up and running, the firm will be able to begin offering loans, overdrafts and mortgages, opening up the path to new income streams.

‘Customers trust banks’

Victor Stinga, Revolut’s chief financial officer, told CNBC on Thursday that the company’s aim is to formally launch its U.K. bank later this year.

“As you can imagine, at this scale, it’s a thorough process, and we just pay a lot of attention to it,” Stinga said. “We work very closely on a close contact with the PRA [Prudential Regulation Authority] and the FCA [Financial Conduct Authority] on it. We feel like we’re making great progress on it.”

Stinga said that a big advantage of becoming a bank in the U.K. is ability to start accepting deposits protected by government guarantees. Licensed banks are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, which means their customers can claim up to £85,000 if a lender goes out of business.

“Customers trust banks, so it means customers on this transition will use Revolut as a primary bank account,” Stinga said.

Lending is arguably “the biggest roadmap item that this unlocks,” Revolut’s CFO said, adding that the firm is looking at launching credit cards and personal loans, similar to the products it already offers in the European Union under a separate EU banking license.

Francesca Carlesi, Revolut’s U.K. boss, previously told the Wall Street Journal that Revolut views its journey to becoming a U.K. bank as a crucial step in its global expansion and eventual IPO. “My main strategic focus is making Revolut the primary bank for everybody in the U.K.,” she told the WSJ.

It has a steep hill to climb — rivals Monzo and Starling have had a lengthy head start on Revolut. Monzo obtained its full banking license in 2017, while Starling was granted its own permit in 2016.

Technology

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

Published

10 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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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.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

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.

Technology

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

Published

13 hours ago

April 23, 2025

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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.