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This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

• Forbes released its first-ever list of the richest billionaires in bitcoin and cryptocurrency on Wednesday.
• The majority of the list are the founders and CEOs of the biggest companies in blockchain technology.
• The people on the list are worth more than $17 billion and as much as $24 billion, though that number fluctuates daily with price swings in the crypto market.

The life of a bitcoin and crypto-billionaire is stressful.

After seeing unprecedented gains over the last year, driving bitcoin, ethereum, and Ripple's XRP token up 1,300%, 8,000%, and 32,000% respectively, the last few weeks have seen a coming back down to earth.

As of Friday afternoon, bitcoin was down 28% since late January. On Monday, bitcoin hit $7,000, 64% down from its all-time high of nearly $20,000 in late December. 

The total value of all digital currencies has dropped 61% from its January 7 peak at $826 billion to $320 billion as of Tuesday. 

But don't tell that to the crypto-billionaires. 

While stories abound of regular people making fortunes in crypto, the world's richest crypto and bitcoin-billionaires are primarily the people making the pans and shovels in the digital gold rush.

On Wednesday, Forbes Magazine released its first-ever list of the richest people in cryptocurrency, a similar list to its Forbes 400 annual list, which dates back to 1982. The numbers are estimates based on the price of cryptocurrencies as of January 19.

In his letter explaining why Forbes created the list, editor Randall Lane said such transparency could help the crypto industry move out of its shadowy beginnings to financial maturity.

Meet the kings of crypto and the world's richest bitcoin billionaires:

SEE ALSO: A certified financial planner explains just how risky of an investment bitcoin is

13. 38-year-old Valery Vavilov founded bitcoin mining company Bitfury in 2011. The company has mined about 800,000 bitcoins and employs 400 people. He's worth $500 - $700 million.

12. Dan Larimer, Block.One's 35-year-old chief technology officer, is worth $600 - $700 million after helping found three blockchain platforms.

11. Brendan Blumer is the 31-year-old CEO of Block.One, the company behind blockchain platform EOS.IO. He is worth $600 -$700 million.

• Forbes released its first-ever list of the richest billionaires in bitcoin and cryptocurrency on Wednesday.
• The majority of the list are the founders and CEOs of the biggest companies in blockchain technology.
• The people on the list are worth more than $17 billion and as much as $24 billion, though that number fluctuates daily with price swings in the crypto market.

The life of a bitcoin and crypto-billionaire is stressful.

After seeing unprecedented gains over the last year, driving bitcoin, ethereum, and Ripple's XRP token up 1,300%, 8,000%, and 32,000% respectively, the last few weeks have seen a coming back down to earth.

As of Friday afternoon, bitcoin was down 28% since late January. On Monday, bitcoin hit $7,000, 64% down from its all-time high of nearly $20,000 in late December. 

The total value of all digital currencies has dropped 61% from its January 7 peak at $826 billion to $320 billion as of Tuesday. 

But don't tell that to the crypto-billionaires. 

While stories abound of regular people making fortunes in crypto, the world's richest crypto and bitcoin-billionaires are primarily the people making the pans and shovels in the digital gold rush.

On Wednesday, Forbes Magazine released its first-ever list of the richest people in cryptocurrency, a similar list to its Forbes 400 annual list, which dates back to 1982. The numbers are estimates based on the price of cryptocurrencies as of January 19.

In his letter explaining why Forbes created the list, editor Randall Lane said such transparency could help the crypto industry move out of its shadowy beginnings to financial maturity.

Meet the kings of crypto and the world's richest bitcoin billionaires:

SEE ALSO: A certified financial planner explains just how risky of an investment bitcoin is

13. 38-year-old Valery Vavilov founded bitcoin mining company Bitfury in 2011. The company has mined about 800,000 bitcoins and employs 400 people. He's worth $500 - $700 million.

12. Dan Larimer, Block.One's 35-year-old chief technology officer, is worth $600 - $700 million after helping found three blockchain platforms.

11. Brendan Blumer is the 31-year-old CEO of Block.One, the company behind blockchain platform EOS.IO. He is worth $600 -$700 million.

• Fidelity isn't letting its customers bet against volatility because there's so much volatility in the markets. 
• It's blocking trading of a product that aims to deliver returns that are the inverse of the Volatility Index. 

Fidelity isn't letting its customers short volatility via an exchange-traded fund because there's too much volatility in the markets. 

The US brokerage announced Friday it would temporarily block customers from buying the ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY), which is designed to provide single-day returns that are the inverse of the Cboe  Volatility Index, citing current market conditions as the rational. 

"We have blocked opening trades [in SVXY]," a Fidelity spokesperson told the Financial Times. "You can’t buy them but you can sell them if you own them and we have increased margin requirements on other volatility ETFs to protect customers on outsized risk in this market environment." 

The fund was rocked earlier this week when volatility came storming back into the markets, resulting in a 90% decline in its value. A similar fund managed by VelocityShares suffered a similar fate, resulting in Credit Suisse pulling the plug. Still, it looks like traders are ready to hop back on the short volatility trade. Assets in the ProShares fund have risen sharply from $300 million on Tuesday to $640 million Friday morning, according to Bloomberg data.

The implosion of the two funds followed more than a year of stellar returns fueled by a market stuck in the doldrums. 

This week marked a sharp departure from that environment. Not only did the stock market enter an official correction, but the VIX has stayed above 30.

The decision, as noted by the FT, could have an impact on Cboe which relies heavily on trading volumes from VIX products for revenue. Cboe's stock has tumbled by more than 20% since the two funds imploded Monday night. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

The post Hedge Fund Manager: Floored Bitcoin Price is Under-Owned appeared first on CCN

Bitcoin and the other leading digital coins are trading in the green on Friday. The bounce doesn’t surprise Dan Morehead, head of Pantera Capital, a $1 billion long/short cryptocurrency and blockchain hedge fund, who as an early bitcoin investor has seen this movie before, telling CNBC that bitcoin in recent days had reached a bottom. Bitcoin closed

The post Hedge Fund Manager: Floored Bitcoin Price is Under-Owned appeared first on CCN

• XRP, the cryptocurrency made by Ripple for international money transfers, is trading around $0.90 a coin, up about 60% from its low of $0.56 hit less than a week ago.
• The third-largest cryptocurrency has had an exhausting February, beginning the month with a dramatic plunge. XRP is currently trading at less than a third of its all-time high of $3.31, set just after the new year.
• Ripple, which uses XRP to power its cross-border liquidity and settlement products, has tried to quell some of the intense volatility through a three-part series about its vision and strategy. Still, speculative investment on cryptocurrency exchanges has continued to drive wild price swings for XRP.
• Ripple now boasts 100 customers, with 75 deploying Ripple products commercially, according to its website, including banks like Santander and Standard Chartered, as well as payments firms like MoneyGram.
• You can track the price of XRP in real-time here>>

SEE ALSO: Sign up to get the most important updates on all things crypto delivered straight to your inbox.

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NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

• XRP, the cryptocurrency made by Ripple for international money transfers, is trading around $0.90 a coin, up about 60% from its low of $0.56 hit less than a week ago.
• The third-largest cryptocurrency has had an exhausting February, beginning the month with a dramatic plunge. XRP is currently trading at less than a third of its all-time high of $3.31, set just after the new year.
• Ripple, which uses XRP to power its cross-border liquidity and settlement products, has tried to quell some of the intense volatility through a three-part series about its vision and strategy. Still, speculative investment on cryptocurrency exchanges has continued to drive wild price swings for XRP.
• Ripple now boasts 100 customers, with 75 deploying Ripple products commercially, according to its website, including banks like Santander and Standard Chartered, as well as payments firms like MoneyGram.
• You can track the price of XRP in real-time here>>

SEE ALSO: Sign up to get the most important updates on all things crypto delivered straight to your inbox.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

The post Warren Buffett-Owned Railroad Joins Blockchain Transport Consortium appeared first on CCN

It may be the closest the billionaire investor ever gets to bitcoin. Berkshire Hathaway-owned BNSF, a US and Canadian railway based in Ft. Worth, Texas, is the newest member of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), which is comprised of 200-plus freight and logistics plays that are interested in incorporating distributed ledger technology into their

The post Warren Buffett-Owned Railroad Joins Blockchain Transport Consortium appeared first on CCN

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

The post Russian Firm Launches Bitcoin Anxiety Hotline as Correction Leaves Investors Nervous appeared first on CCN

A Russian company has launched a “Bitcoin anxiety hotline” targeted at cryptocurrency investors who find themselves struggling to stomach the market’s recent downward trajectory. The Moscow-based Blockchain Fund established the service and began answering calls from distraught investors earlier this week, according to a report from Russian-language publication Life.ru. The service is a bit of

The post Russian Firm Launches Bitcoin Anxiety Hotline as Correction Leaves Investors Nervous appeared first on CCN

• Tesla is the premier, aspirational car brand for millennials.
• The company's appeal is rooted in its ability to create a narrative that extends beyond traditional cars to renewable energy, space exploration, and self-driving vehicles.
• The Model 3's tech features make the car particularly appealing to millennials.

Forget Mustang and Corvette. Tesla is the premier, aspirational car brand for millennials. 

But unlike traditional, aspirational car brands, millennials aren't attracted to Tesla because it implies wealth. They like Tesla because the company cares about more than cars.

"I think Tesla, to a lot of millennials, is more than just a car brand. It's a lifestyle," Kelley Blue Book executive analyst Akshay Anand told Business Insider. 

Tesla's vision reaches beyond traditional cars

Anand said Tesla's appeal to millennials is rooted in the company's ability to create a narrative that includes renewable energy, space exploration, self-driving vehicles, and other developments that could produce wide-ranging benefits for the human race. Anand said millennials "tend to be very cause-centric" and "care about what companies stand for," which makes Tesla CEO Elon Musk a perfect cult figure, and could explain why Tesla was ranked as one of millennials' favorite brands, according to a 2017 survey. 

Musk's ambitions, which include revamping global energy grids and starting colonies on Mars, may reach further than those of any American business executive. He represents the potential for a business culture that cares about more than profits — though it doesn't hurt that he makes beautifully-designed electric vehicles that look like sports cars. 

But Tesla's early vehicles — the Roadster, Model S, and Model X — were expensive, starting above $70,000 and able to hit $100,000 with optional features. So in order to convert young Tesla evangelists into Tesla customers, the company had to make a car that was affordable to those whose salaries and savings accounts didn't justify the steep price tag of a Model S or X.

The Model 3's price makes it more accessible to millennials

Enter the Model 3, which starts at $35,000 and has received a "strong response from millennials," according to Anand. While Tesla is working through significant production delays with the vehicle, early reviews from customers who have received it tend to be positive. The car's handling and acceleration are appealing to owners of all ages, but the car's tech features have a particular appeal among millennials.

"I think that Tesla has a leg up when it comes to technology in the minds of people, and I think that's especially critical when it comes to millennials," Anand said. "We've grown up with smartphones in front of our faces."

For the Model 3, Tesla removed the instrument cluster to bring even more attention to a 15-inch touchscreen display that controls many of the car's interior features. The Model 3 also includes some of Tesla's standard tech features, like over-the-air updates and an Autopilot system with semi-autonomous features that can be used in some situations.

Now, all Tesla has to do is figure out how to make the Model 3 fast enough to keep up with demand. If the hundreds of thousands of pre-orders for the vehicle are any indication, the millennials are waiting.

SEE ALSO: Tesla created the world's best car commercial without spending a dime on advertising

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

• Comedian Nicole Byer said she found poop on her in-flight blanket while flying first-class on Delta Air Lines.
• She said Delta told her it may have come from a disgruntled employee.
• Byer said she received 600 Delta Dollars, 50,000 miles, and a refund on her ticket after reporting the incident to the airline.

Airlines put blankets in sealed, plastic bags to make it appear as if the blanket is new — or, at least, has been washed since its last use.

But comedian Nicole Byer found out the hard way that isn't always true. During a recent appearance on "Conan," Byer told a story about a Delta Air Lines flight on which she allegedly found poop on her in-flight blanket. Byer tweeted about the incident in March 2017.

Byer was flying first-class from Louisiana to Atlanta, when, during the descent, she became cold and unwrapped the blanket.

“I pulled out the blanket out of this sealed, plastic bag. Open it. A little brown crumble falls on me," she said.

“I open it more and I see this brown thing in it, so I drop it because I was like, ‘Is it an animal? What is it?' So then I open it with my foot, this man’s staring at me — I’m in first class, thank you — and the smell hits me and I was like, ‘Oh my god! Oh my god I think that’s a piece of poop!’”

After the flight landed, Byer said she told a flight attendant about the incident and asked for hand sanitizer. After the flight attendant inspected Byer's blanket, Byer said the attendant became excited.

"Oh my god, I got to get my phone!" the flight attendant reportedly said.

After tweeting to Delta about the incident, Byer said Delta told her it believed the incident resulted from a "disgruntled employee."

Byer then said she negotiated Delta's initial offer of 250 Delta Dollars to 600 Delta Dollars, 50,000 miles, and a refund on her ticket. But her troubles weren't over.

"I found a piece of poop in my phone a week later," she said.

Delta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SEE ALSO: A Spirit passenger claims employees suggested she flush her emotional-support hamster down the toilet — and she did it

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

Welcome to Crypto Insider, Business Insider’s roundup of all the bitcoin and cryptocurrency news you need to know today. Sign up here to get this email delivered direct to your inbox.

• Bitcoin (BTC): $8,490 (+3.0%)
• Ethereum (ETH): $859 (+5.6%)
• Ripple (XRP): $0.91 (+17.1%)
• Bitcoin Cash (BCC): $1,295 (+1.21%)
• Litecoin (LTC): $155 (+4.1%)

What else is happening:

SEE ALSO: South Korea’s defense ministry is taking steps to keep soldiers from getting caught up in the cryptocurrency frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US shouldn't get 'too isolationist'

The post Blockchain-Friendly Arizona Moves to Allow Bitcoin Tax Payments appeared first on CCN

Lawmakers in Arizona, a blockchain friendly state, have proposed allowing residents to pay their taxes in bitcoin. State Rep. Jeff Weninger, a co-sponsor for the bill, which the senate finance committee has already passed, said the measure will send a signal to the U.S. and possibly worldwide that Arizona is a place for blockchain and digital

The post Blockchain-Friendly Arizona Moves to Allow Bitcoin Tax Payments appeared first on CCN

The Arizona Senate has cleared a bill that aims to allow residents in the state to pay their taxes with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

The post IRS Prepares to Bring Down the Hammer on Bitcoin Tax Cheats appeared first on CCN

US residents still have two more months to submit their annual federal tax returns, but the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has already begun preparations to bring down the hammer on Bitcoin tax cheats. The tax collection agency has assembled a team of 10 investigators to focus on international crimes, and one of its chief mandates

The post IRS Prepares to Bring Down the Hammer on Bitcoin Tax Cheats appeared first on CCN

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

The post Ripple Price 25% Gain Headlines Crypto Markets Recovery appeared first on CCN

The cryptocurrency markets extended their recovery on Friday, adding $14 billion to inch their way back above the $400 billion threshold. This time, however, it was the Ripple price’s turn to lead the rally, and the third-largest cryptocurrency posted a large-cap-best 21 percent increase. At present, the cryptocurrency market cap is valued at $413 billion,

The post Ripple Price 25% Gain Headlines Crypto Markets Recovery appeared first on CCN

Have you already missed the Bitcoin train? Maybe, or maybe not

The post Republican Senate Candidate Accepts The Largest Single Bitcoin Donation in Federal Election History appeared first on CCN

Missouri Republican candidate, Austin Petersen, the former Libertarian, has received 24 bitcoin donations so far in his campaign for Senate – the largest of which, valued at $4,500, is officially the largest single Bitcoin donation ever accepted by a US politician according to the Federal Election Commission. According to the Federal Election Commission, Senate Republican

The post Republican Senate Candidate Accepts The Largest Single Bitcoin Donation in Federal Election History appeared first on CCN

• Sterling dived after Michel Barnier said a deal on "transition is not a given."
• The currency dropped close to 0.8% against the dollar on Friday afternoon.
• On Thursday, sterling spiked on news that the Bank of England is set to raise interest rates further in 2018.

LONDON — The pound has dived on Friday afternoon after Michel Barnier, the EU's chief Brexit negotiator warned a transition deal between Britain and the bloc is 'not a given' if the UK remains inflexible on certain areas of negotiations.

"The UK insisted that we should reach an agreement in March on transitional period. However, at the same time, our partners set out a number of disagreements which I see as substantial," Barnier said at a press conference in Brussels on Friday.

"To be frank, if these disagreements persist, transition is not a given."

Those words spooked sterling investors, who sold out of the currency aggressively. By 12.30 p.m. GMT (7.30 a.m. ET) the pound was down by close to 0.7% against the dollar to trade just above $1.38, as the chart below illustrates:

“It looks like it may be a torrid end to the week for sterling as it comes under renewed Brexit pressure," Hamish Muress, a currency analyst at money transfer firm OFX said in an email.

Friday's fall wipes out the gains seen by the pound on Thursday. Sterling surged after the Bank of England said that policy could be "tightened somewhat earlier and by a somewhat greater extent over the forecast period" if the economy continues to grow as forecast.

This effectively signalled interest rate increases over the course of 2018.

Sterling spiked above $1.40 on that news, but quickly fell back, and then dropped even further after Barnier's comments.

"Over half of the gains that the pound made since the start of the year against the dollar have been wiped out," Muress added.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

Reports say scientists at a Russian nuclear bomb factory tried to mine crypto-currencies.

• HMRC is targeting companies which advertise unpaid work.
• More than 500 were contacted since November, with plans for more.
• Genuine voluntary unpaid placements are legal, but any position with fixed hours and defined work must be compensated with hourly pay.
• Officials doubled the budget for tackling unpaid work, to £25 million.

The British government has sent letters to 500 companies telling them to start paying their interns as part of a new wave of measures against unpaid work.

Officials at HMRC, the UK's tax and revenue department, are contacting around six employers every day to remind them that advertising for free work is often illegal, and can result in large fines.

Enforcers trawl job listings for unpaid internships, and contact employers to remind them that in many cases they are legally obliged to pay staff.

An official government response to the Taylor Review of working culture in the UK detailed the enforcement regime, saying that more than 500 employers had been contacted between November and the start of February.

UK law does allow for brief placements by genuine volunteers, who are defined by a lack of fixed hours and responsibilities.

But if interns have fixed hours and are doing non-negotiable work, they legally count as workers and must be paid at least the national minimum wage, which is defined by age as follows:

• £7.50 ($10.44) per hour for those over 25,
• £7.05 ($9.81) for 21 to 24
• £5.60 ($7.80) for 18 to 20
• £4.05 ($5.64) for under-18s

The response said that the government had also almost doubled its budget for minimum wage enforcement this year, from £13 million to £25.3 million in the next tax year.

If the problem persists, they said, the government will look at more aggressive methods of tackling the problem.

Business Insider offers a variety of paid internships, which are listed here.

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NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

• JPMorgan says something sinister is brewing in markets amid massive turbulence as stocks and bonds trade increasingly in tandem.
• The problem stems from the practices of risk-parity and balanced mutual funds, which are forced to de-risk when big fluctuations occur, which can put stress on markets.

JPMorgan has noticed a big shift in markets that should have any investor worried.

Yes, traders are clearly already spooked, as evidenced by Thursday's massive 1,000-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average, and Monday's similarly stark decline. But this is a longer-term issue — one that's been building for weeks.

It relates to the relationship between stocks and bonds, which have largely traded in opposite directions since the financial crisis, but have recently seen their correlation spike into positive territory.

The firm says it's problematic when two assets move in tandem, because it throws off the investing models used by risk-parity and balanced mutual funds.

And the reason why comes down to one thing: volatility.

When the correlation between stocks and bonds is negative, it keeps price swings subdued, notes JPMorgan. That then allows these funds to increase leverage and, as an extension of that, boost returns. It's only when they start moving in the same direction that things get chaotic.

"When this correlation turns positive, the volatility of bond/equity portfolios increases, inducing these investors to de-lever," Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, a global market strategist at JPMorgan, wrote in a client note.

This de-levering has been in play this week, with US stocks suffering through their worst stretch in years. As major indexes plummeted and the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) spiked the most on record, risk-parity funds went haywire.

By JPMorgan's measure, the past week has marked the worst drawdown for a typical 60%/40% equity/bond portfolio since the Federal Reserve taper tantrum in mid-2013, as funds have been forced into selling by their stringent de-risking requirements. And the speed of the shift suggests to the firm that the market is still very much at risk of a repeat performance.

"A simultaneous selloff of both equities and bonds is the worst possible backdrop for multi-asset investors," said Panigirtzoglou. "The rise in both equity and bond volatility and the abrupt change in momentum means the probability of de-risking remains elevated not only by risk parity funds and balanced mutual funds, but also other investors who employ trend following and vol strategies."

What's causing the shift?

JPMorgan has a few ideas as to what could be causing this rising correlation. It's primarily focused on the recent uptick in inflation, noting that an unexpected increase can erode both equity and bond returns due to the Fed tightening that can result from it.

For stocks, the issue is the lower profit margins that result from higher borrowing costs, as well as what the prospect of what a Fed-induced economic slowdown can do to investor sentiment. And for bond investors, the issue is the negative impact Fed tightening can have on returns.

The key takeaway here is that rising inflation can take a bite out of both stock and bond returns. And as a result, their inverse relationship can suffer, and even turn positive.

What can an investor do in response to the shift?

With all of this established, the question becomes: What the heck can you do about it?

Vincent Deluard, a macro strategist at INTL FCStone, has some ideas, at least when it comes to hedging. After all, if an investor is no longer able to safely seek safety in bonds when the stock market goes awry, they need to find another way to protect themselves — and vice versa.

In terms of stocks, Deluard recommends buying equity put options. More generally, he identifies gold, the Japanese yen, and the Swiss franc as ideal candidates to replace Treasurys as safe haven assets.

As for a longer-term view on how to treat stocks, JPMorgan global head of quantitative strategy Marko Kolanovic says recent weakness — which now includes another 1,000-point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average — is a buying opportunity.

"We believe that the fundamental drivers of the equity market uptrend are still intact for the next 1-2 months," Panigirtzoglou and Kolanovic wrote in a recent client note. "These drivers are underpinned by still low real yields, robust global growth, profit margin expansion due to US tax reform and increased US share buyback activity due to repatriation."

SEE ALSO: There are 2 reasons why the volatility explosion that rocked markets won't happen again anytime soon

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

While the stock market suffers, BTC looks set to make further gains amid mixed action in the crypto markets.

The post Russian Bitcoin Blogger Robbed and Beaten After Boasting Wealth appeared first on CCN

Pavel Nyashin, a 24-year-old Internet blogger from St. Petersburg who blogged about his wealth, was beaten and robbed of nearly 24 million rubles in his Leningrad area home, according to forklog. Nyashin had even mentioned the house where he kept his crypto holdings.. Police are investigating the incident. Nyashin, who was hospitalized after the attack,

The post Russian Bitcoin Blogger Robbed and Beaten After Boasting Wealth appeared first on CCN

Despite the recent price plunge, ARK Invest's CEO remains convinced bitcoin is the first of its kind in a new asset class, one that is here to stay.

• Global market sell-off resumed in the USA on Thursday, with US stocks entering a technical correction.
• That sell-off moved to Asia overnight, with China's benchmark Shanghai Composite falling 4%.
• Thus far, the wave of selling has not reached Europe, with continental bourses only around 0.5% lower in early Friday trading.

LONDON — European equities are avoiding the renewed global market sell-off early on Friday morning, with major indexes on the continent nursing only minor losses in the first few minutes of trade.

By around 8.05 a.m. GMT (3.05 a.m. ET), losses are limited to a maximum of around 0.6%, the broad Euro Stoxx 5o index even trading in positive territory, up around 0.1%.

After a mid-week pause, stocks in North America and Asia resumed their slide on overnight, with major US bourses tumbling as much as 4% to enter the territory of a technical correction.

The benchmark S&P 500 closed 10.4% below its record high on January 26. It's the fourth correction for the index since the bull market began in March 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group.

Stocks rallied on Wednesday, with the Dow closing up 567 points, or 2.3%. By Thursday, the index of large companies including Boeing and Apple returned to the red for 2018.

Once again, North America's slump shifted to Asia, with Chinese stocks in particular taking a pounding.

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed the morning session down 4.1%, extending its losses from the recent highs to over 12.8%. The stock exchanged ended up closing the day down 4% at its lowest point since mid-2017.

Thus far, however, the wave of losses has not reached Europe, with major benchmarks only mildly lower.

Here's the scoreboard:

• Britain's FTSE 100 — down 0.49%
• Germany's DAX — down 0.22%
• France's CAC 40 — down 0.41%
• Italy's FTSE MIB — down 0.33%
• Spain's IBEX 35 — down 0.59%
• Euro Stoxx 50 — up 0.1%

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NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

Most major cryptocurrencies in the global market with the exception of Bitcoin Cash have struggled to record major gains over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, and Litecoin all demonstrated a slight change in their values, failing to show large price movements. Bitcoin Cash Surges While the majority cryptocurrencies in the market recorded

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

Most major cryptocurrencies in the global market with the exception of Bitcoin Cash have struggled to record major gains over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, and Litecoin all demonstrated a slight change in their values, failing to show large price movements. Bitcoin Cash Surges While the majority cryptocurrencies in the market recorded

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

Most major cryptocurrencies in the global market with the exception of Bitcoin Cash have struggled to record major gains over the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, and Litecoin all demonstrated a slight change in their values, failing to show large price movements. Bitcoin Cash Surges While the majority cryptocurrencies in the market recorded

The post Cryptocurrency Market Struggles to Record Gains; Bitcoin Cash Spikes 25% appeared first on CCN

The post Washington, D.C. Gets Its First Bitcoin Luxury Condo Listings appeared first on CCN

Four new condos in Washington D.C. have been listed for sale and payable fully or in part with bitcoin. As  The Washington Post reports, the offer marks a first for the District, according to the real estate broker. Luxury Condos The condos were converted from a single-family home, featuring soapstone counters, recessed lighting, stainless steel appliances and … Continued

The post Washington, D.C. Gets Its First Bitcoin Luxury Condo Listings appeared first on CCN

• Dominik Schiener is the cofounder of IOTA, a cryptocurrency that's worth $5 billion and is designed for the internet of things.
• Schiener heads up the IOTA Foundation, which is trying to build out the IOTA network and ecosystem.
• Cryptocurrency markets have been swinging wildly in recent weeks, creating headaches for people trying to build businesses off the back of them.
• "You have to constantly adapt and change things," Schiener said.

LONDON — How can you make plans for a business when you don't know how much it has in the bank?

"Today it’s like $300-400 million or so — probably less so now," says Dominik Schiener when I spoke to him on Monday.

Schiener is the chairman of the IOTA Foundation, the not-for-profit set up to develop the IOTA network. IOTA aims to be a cryptocurrency for the internet of things (think cars and petrol stations communicating with each other over the internet — that kind of thing). As machine-to-machine contact grows, IOTA wants to be the currency that powers their transactions.

When it launched in 2015, the project raised 1,300 bitcoins through an "initial coin offering", a portion of which went to the foundation. IOTA's crypto token, the MIOTA, is now the 11th biggest cryptocurrency, with $5 billion-worth in circulation.

The project has a significant war chest. But on Monday, as Schiener was speaking to Business Insider, that war chest was diminishing. Bitcoin tanked as much as 10%, taking the rest of the cryptocurrency market with it. That followed a whirlwind session on Friday that saw bitcoin dive 15% before rebounding to make gains later in the day.

"Me and David [Sønstebø, IOTA cofounder] always joke: we are really f------ good at freestyling this, because the crypto market is just too insane right?" Schiener, 22, said.

"You have to constantly adapt and change things because all of your assumptions are constantly being proved wrong. You just really have to be very agile and just move forward. We don’t make 12-month plans."

Schiener has been in the crypto world since 2011 and has already lost it all once. He set up a cryptocurrency exchange in 2013 but said the business went under and he "ended up losing all my money" in a past crypto market crash.

"If there’s a huge market crash like over the last few days, you really have to revamp your strategy because you can’t make major investments," he said. "For example, right now, we are really thinking about making a major investment in property to set up a kind of IOTA Lab. Now it’s: 'Hey, does this even make sense now?' You have to prioritise."

Schiener said that the IOTA Foundation liquidates a portion of its bitcoin holdings each month so that it has "stable money that we can work with."

"The best way to plan in this space is just to set your top priorities and really focus on those," he said. "Then the other stuff is less important."

IOTA's 2018 plans

Schiener and his colleagues have spent the last few months setting up the IOTA Foundation, which is now a fully regulated German entity.

As for its current priorities, he said: "The first one is definitely to get the technology right, to get it to a stage where it’s production ready. That is kind of our main focus on 2018.

"The second thing is to really engage with the ecosystem, which means developers that build products. Apart from this community, we also have a big corporate ecosystem where we really focus with them on, hey, how can we introduce the technology to you and more importantly, how can we do projects together?"

IOTA recently signed a deal with Taipei to collaborate on "Smart Cities" projects and Volkswagen's chief digital officer Johann Jungwirth joined the foundation's supervisory board last month.

Schiener said: "The stage that we’re at right now is we’re crossing over from doing proof of concepts to doing larger case studies like really out in the field. We’re working together with some bigger companies on a larger research project as well."

IOTA has faced some criticism for the speed and capacity of its network. Schiener countered: "What we always say is everything is a proof of concept and we have been very blunt about this since the beginning of IOTA. We always say that IOTA is a beta product right now. In 2018, we want to make it production ready.

"The network being slow is really also us figuring out: how can we make the IOTA network very reliable? For us, the problem now is to close the gap between what research does — we have more than 10 mathematicians on board right now — and what engineering does. That’s exactly what we’re doing right now."

'100% of my net worth is in IOTA tokens'

MIOTA, the cryptocurrency that the foundation holds, hit a high of over $5 per token in early December but is now trading around $1.80.

"Right now, 100% of my net worth is in IOTA tokens," Schiener said. "It may be good, it may be bad."

We don’t want to be rich millionaires sipping some champagne and see IOTA fail

Neither he nor Sønstebø earn a salary from the IOTA foundation and Schiener says that they spent around $500,000 of their own money in setting up the foundation. (They were unable to access the crypto war chest until that was done.)

"Me and David are very entrepreneurial," Shiener said. "We were just like: f--- it, either we go all in or nothing right? For us, it’s very personal. We want to get shit done, we want to make this big. We’re the ones that are fully committed.

"We always said, this is an all or nothing situation for us. We don’t want to be rich millionaires sipping some champagne and see IOTA fail."

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NOW WATCH: Expect Amazon to make a surprising acquisition in 2018, says CFRA

After leaving the startup he co-founded, Greg Maxwell is focusing his energy on developing more efficient and more private bitcoin smart contracts.

The post Dark Web Users Ditch Bitcoin for Litecoin Due to Costly, Slow Transactions appeared first on CCN

Slow transaction times and high fees are causing dark web users to favor Litecoin and, to a lesser extent, Dash, over bitcoin. A new report by Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, has found that dark web criminals began turning away from bitcoin in 2017 because of slow processing and high fees. Recorded Future analyzed

The post Dark Web Users Ditch Bitcoin for Litecoin Due to Costly, Slow Transactions appeared first on CCN

The post Dark Web Users Ditch Bitcoin for Litecoin Due to Costly, Slow Transactions appeared first on CCN

Slow transaction times and high fees are causing dark web users to favor Litecoin and, to a lesser extent, Dash, over bitcoin. A new report by Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company, has found that dark web criminals began turning away from bitcoin in 2017 because of slow processing and high fees. Recorded Future analyzed

The post Dark Web Users Ditch Bitcoin for Litecoin Due to Costly, Slow Transactions appeared first on CCN

• The Dow plummeted 1,000 points for the second time in a week on Thursday.
• While some said the selloff on Thursday felt more human, there are those who see the influence of machine-based traders once again. 
• "The slower moving strategies such as risk parity and vol target funds tend to move over a week or so later, thus leading to the second wave of selloff," one hedge fund manager told Business Insider.

The Dow plummeted 1,000 points for the second time in a week on Thursday. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised. 

The sharp fall on Monday was widely blamed on machine-based traders, with the blow-up of two exchange-traded products exacerbating affairs. And while some said the selloff on Thursday felt more human, there are those who spy the influence of machine-based traders once again. 

On Monday, a spike in volatility led to a forced selloff in stocks by short-volatility funds that had to cover their positions. It was a different group of investors that led the activity on Thursday, Katina Stefanova, CEO of $200 million hedge fund Marto Capital, told Business Insider.

"The second sell-off in markets today is within expectations given the spike in volatility that happened earlier in the week,"  she said. "The slower moving strategies such as risk parity and vol target funds tend to move over a week or so later, thus leading to the second wave of the selloff."

"We saw markets play out similarly in 2011 and 2015 where the first correction was followed by stabilization and then another selloff."

This view was echoed by another hedge-fund manager, who said he thought much of the selling on Thursday came from risk control indices, which he described as popular investments that invest in equities that offer leverage that's targeted to recent realized volatility. 

"They only adjust their leverage with a 2-3 day lag in order to avoid creating intra-daily vicious circles," the manager, who couldn't be named, told Business Insider. "So when we had that big crash on Monday, it moved 2-month realized volatility up from around 10% to closer to 13%, which would imply a 30% deleveraging coming yesterday and today. There are hundreds of billions of assets in products like this."

And Timothy Ng, chief investment officer at Clearbrook Global Advisors, a consultancy, also saw machine-based traders at play in Thursday's selloff. 

"The market decline we believe is an unwinding of leveraged positions, short volatility positions, the selling/re-positioning by risk parity and perhaps even some retail selling as a good amount of individual investors starting re-entering the market late last year after a sizable run-up in the equity markets," he said. "Selling pressure is also coming from the algo and technical traders as the markets in this downturn are breaching several price support levels."

Ng added that "market technicals are very negative," saying the selling could go on for another week. That could then present an opportunity for investors, he said. 

"Once the market stabilize investors need to go back to fundamentals as equities have become much cheaper and can provide opportunities to pick up solid companies at attractive valuations. This was hard to find just over a week plus ago."

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Ken Rogoff on the next financial crisis and the future of bitcoin

• US stocks have dipped 10% since peaking on January 26, an official correction. 
• Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have fared even worse during that same time period. 

The US stock market is officially in a correction, defined as a 10% decline from its most recent high.

The benchmark S&P 500 closed 10.4% below its record high on January 26. Bitcoin has fared much worse during that same time period.

In fact, it's down nearly 28% since US markets began their slide in late January, according to data from CoinDesk. That includes a rebound during most of this week. At last check, it was trading at 8,298. 

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has had a tough start to the year following news of a regulatory clampdown in South Korea and declining trading volumes.

The total capitalization of the market for digital coins has shed over $170 billion since January 26. 

Bitcoin has not been the only coin to experience a rout worse than the stock market:

• Ethereum: $800, -$270, (-25%)
• Litecoin: $146, -$25, (-18.4%)
• Bitcoin Cash: $1,336, -$320, (-20%)

As US equities, this is the fourth correction for the index since the bull market began in March 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group. 

Stocks have been on a slide since January 26. But selling pressure ramped up this week, worsened by technical factors including the implosion of trading strategies that had bet on low volatility.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Wharton professor predicts what city Amazon will choose for their new headquarters

• US stocks have dipped 10% since peaking on January 26, an official correction. 
• Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have fared even worse during that same time period. 

The US stock market is officially in a correction, defined as a 10% decline from its most recent high.

The benchmark S&P 500 closed 10.4% below its record high on January 26. Bitcoin has fared much worse during that same time period.

In fact, it's down nearly 28% since US markets began their slide in late January, according to data from CoinDesk. That includes a rebound during most of this week. At last check, it was trading at 8,298. 

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has had a tough start to the year following news of a regulatory clampdown in South Korea and declining trading volumes.

The total capitalization of the market for digital coins has shed over $170 billion since January 26. 

Bitcoin has not been the only coin to experience a rout worse than the stock market:

• Ethereum: $800, -$270, (-25%)
• Litecoin: $146, -$25, (-18.4%)
• Bitcoin Cash: $1,336, -$320, (-20%)

As US equities, this is the fourth correction for the index since the bull market began in March 2009, according to Bespoke Investment Group. 

Stocks have been on a slide since January 26. But selling pressure ramped up this week, worsened by technical factors including the implosion of trading strategies that had bet on low volatility.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: A Wharton professor predicts what city Amazon will choose for their new headquarters