Author: Admin

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce said crypto vaults and onchain lending products may fall under US securities laws, urging developers to assess whether products that actively manage user assets require regulatory compliance.In a statement published Wednesday, Peirce said crypto vaults and lending strategies that involve discretionary decisions, including allocating assets, selecting yield-generating activities, setting lending terms and determining liquidation thresholds, may fall within the scope of federal securities laws, depending on their structure and operation.She said some vaults could be treated as securities offerings or investment companies, while parties managing vault allocations or lending parameters could also trigger investment adviser requirements.…

In a highly unusual move, the US Treasury joined Japanese financial authorities in a joint foreign exchange intervention to strengthen the yen on July 31. The US action was notable as its first intervention in support of the yen since June 1998, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave it a geopolitical gloss, stating, “The Trump Administration delivers for America’s trusted partners.” The likely rationales behind the intervention demonstrate not so much the Trump administration’s ability to deliver as its pursuit of conflicting goals in multiple areas. The United States has vast economic and financial power, but not the power to…

On August 6, the first tranche of locked-up SpaceX shares was released. Roughly 911.5 million shares became eligible to trade in a single session. SPCX went up 6%. Then it went up again the next day, closing out a two-day gain of about 11% on the exact event everybody had circled on their calendar as the plunge. I had circled it too. The Consensus Was Obvious, And Obviously Wrong SpaceX’s public float before that day was about 639 million shares. The unlock added roughly 143% to the tradeable supply overnight. Put another way, the freely tradable portion of the company…

For all the turmoil these days, the U.S. stock market remains extremely attractive to investors around the world, simply because of its sheer size and liquidity. But it’s still quite difficult for investors in other parts of the globe to trade stocks on U.S. exchanges. A San Mateo-based startup called Alpaca has quietly capitalized on that opportunity by offering an API to financial services firms that lets them sell trading services to their consumer user bases. Today, Alpaca claims it serves more than 5 million brokerage accounts, and has more than 200 financial clients in 40 countries. To build on…

Twenty-five states sued the Trump administration earlier this month over its latest tariffs, calling them a transparent attempt to replace the tariffs that the Supreme Court voided in February. The suit challenged tariffs imposed on 60 countries, with the rationale that these countries failed to block imports produced by forced labor. Letitia James, the New York attorney general, accused the administration of “once again trying to illegally raise taxes on families and businesses with a new round of tariffs.” It is easy to dismiss the lawsuit as a partisan effort by largely Democratic states. But the suit, which was joined…

PrimeXBT has rolled out a substantial upgrade to its spot trading offering, introducing 25 newly supported cryptocurrencies and more than 90 additional trading pairs. The update creates even more spot trading markets across multiple blockchain networks. The exchange boasts a user base of more than one million traders, and this new expansion can strengthen the platform’s push toward a fully unified trading experience, where users can explore a wider range of spot trading opportunities without relying on third-party exchanges. Platform Expansion Brings 25 New Tokens and 90+ Trading Pairs PrimeXBT‘s spot trading update adds 25 cryptocurrencies to the roster, bringing…

Smithfield Foods (NASDAQ:SFD) reported record second-quarter adjusted operating profit as its packaged meats and hog production businesses helped offset pressure from softer consumer demand, commodity volatility and higher transportation costs. For the second quarter of 2026, the company posted adjusted operating profit of $300 million, with adjusted operating margin rising to 8.1% from 7.9% a year earlier. Adjusted net income increased 13% to $245 million, while adjusted diluted earnings per share rose to $0.62 from $0.55. President and CEO Shane Smith said the results reflected the company’s vertically integrated operating model, spanning packaged meats, fresh pork and hog production. Through…

BNY’s Geoff Yu notes that a less hawkish Fed has weakened the Dollar but failed to spark a sustained bid in commodity FX such as Norwegian Krone (NOK), Australian Dollar (AUD) and Emerging Markets (EM) currencies Chilean Peso (CLP), South African Rand (ZAR) and Brazilian Real (BRL). High nominal rates in Australia and Norway are offset by stagflation and productivity issues, while South Africa’s policy stance reflects a clear global growth priority over carry.Commodity currencies struggle for follow-through”Even before last Friday’s payroll numbers, iFlow showed dollar hedges rising again. Mean reversion was already overdue, but the Fed decision and subsequent…

Some 35 years ago, at a time of economic and political turmoil in South America, a group of farsighted countries signed the Treaty of Asunción, establishing a common market to promote economic development and social justice through economic integration. Since then, the Southern Common Market, or Mercosur, has increased regional trade and delivered an integrated industrial core that has survived to the benefit of its members, comprising Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. To be sure, the Mercosur bloc has suffered many shortcomings and problems. Although intra-Mercosur trade increased more than tenfold between 1991 and 2024, the agreement has underdelivered on…

July inflation landed exactly where the consensus had it, on all four lines of the release, and Gold responded by adding around 1% and holding fast near $4,400/ounce, trading at its highest since early June. A print that surprises nobody is not supposed to move a metal that far. This one did, because the composition underneath the headline handed a hawkish Federal Reserve (Fed) the cover to wait, and the rate market cut the odds of a September hike from a coin flip to a 38% tail inside the hour.What the same curve says about October and December is the…