The Russian negotiation team arrives in Kyiv.

John Sweeney's Kyiv Diary day 111

'The Music has Stopped' : Crypto Firms Quake as Prices Fall

From today's NY Times:


'The Music Has Stopped’: Crypto Firms Quake as Prices Fall
Crypto companies are laying off staff, freezing withdrawals and trying to stem losses, raising questions about the health of the ecosystem.


Over the last two years, as the prices of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies surged, crypto start-ups proliferated. Companies that market digital coins to investors flooded the airwaves with TV commercials, newfangled lending operations offered sky-high interest rates on crypto deposits and exchanges like Coinbase that allow investors to trade digital assets went on hiring sprees.

A global industry worth hundreds of billions of dollars rose up practically overnight. Now it is crashing down.

After weeks of plummeting cryptocurrency prices, Coinbase said on Tuesday that it was cutting 18 percent of its employees, after layoffs at other crypto companies like Gemini, BlockFi and Crypto.com. High-profile start-ups like Terraform Labs have imploded, wiping away years of investments. On Sunday, an experimental crypto bank, Celsius, abruptly halted withdrawals.

‘The Music Has Stopped’: Crypto Firms Quake as Prices Fall https://nyti.ms/3mKYUcr

Perhaps fortune doesn't favor the brave.

CNBC: Mortgage rates surge to 6.28%

Mortgage rates jumped sharply this week, as fears of a potentially more aggressive rate hike from the Federal Reserve upset financial markets.

The average rate on the popular 30-year fixed mortgage rose 10 basis points to 6.28% Tuesday, according to Mortgage News Daily. That followed a 33 basis point jump Monday. The rate was 5.55% one week ago.


Rising rates have caused a sharp turnaround in the housing market. Mortgage demand has plummeted. Home sales have fallen for six straight months, according to the National Association of Realtors. Rising rates have so far done little to chill the red-hot home prices fueled by historically strong, pandemic-driven demand and record low supply.

The drastic rate jump this week is the worst since the so-called taper tantrum in July 2013, when investors sent Treasury yields soaring after the Fed said it would slow down its purchases of the bonds.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/14/30-year-mortgage-rate-surges-to-6point28percent-up-from-5point5percent-just-a-week-ago.html

There seem to be runs starting on Chinese banks.

Bitcoin drops 12 percent, below $24000.

Bitcoin tumbled below $24,000 on Monday, hitting its lowest level since December 2020, as investors dump crypto amid a broader sell-off in risk assets.

Meanwhile, a crypto lending company called Celsius has paused withdrawals for its customers, sparking fears of contagion into the broader market.


The world’s largest cryptocurrency bitcoin briefly dropped below the $24,000 mark around 05:00 a.m. ET, according to CoinDesk data, before jumping back above that level shortly after.

Over the weekend and into Monday morning, more than $200 billion had been wiped off the entire cryptocurrency market. The cryptocurrency market capitalization fell below $1 trillion on Monday for the first time since February 2021, according to data from CoinMarketCap.


https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/13/bitcoin-btc-falls-as-market-focuses-on-celsius-issue-fed-rate-hike.html

But I thought this time would be different!
It was $64000 in November. It was only supposed to go up!

Global Markets are Tanking Ahead of a Huge Week for Central Banks.

US Dow Stock Futures fall 600 points.

From CNBC this AM:

U.S. stock futures fell early Monday morning as rates jumped and Wall Street braced for a key Federal Reserve meeting later in the week.

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 600 points, or 2%. Nasdaq 100 futures tumbled 3%, and S&P 500 futures fell 2.5%.


The major averages last week posted their biggest weekly declines since late January. The Dow and S&P 500 fell 4.6% and 5.1%, respectively, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 5.6%.

A chunk of those losses came Friday, when hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data spooked investors. The Dow dropped 880 points, or 2.7%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq lost 2.9% and 3.5%, respectively.


OUCH!

The video that made Patron a star!

As far as I can tell, this is Patron's media debut:

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1505289113100034060

Did anyone see AOC on CNN just now?

She was asked if she would support President Biden if he chose to run again. OMG.