Bloomberg Crypto

It’s been another pretty unpredictable week in crypto. Now that Elon Musk is at the helm of Twitter, what do his plans for the social media company have in store for digital assets? Why is Dogecoin rallying? And what’s the outlook for crypto earnings this quarter?

Bloomberg crypto senior editor Dave Liedtka and deputy editor Beth Williams join this episode for a look at the top stories of the week in the cryptoverse. 

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As our colleague David Pan has been reporting, Bitcoin miners have been having a very rough time of it.

To paraphrase one of his recent stories, falling Bitcoin prices and rising energy costs “led to combined second-quarter losses of more than $1 billion for the top three US publicly traded players — Core Scientific, Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain.” Yikes.

This crunch has led to miners trying to raise cash by selling off their emergency stockpiles of Bitcoin - into the teeth of a down market.

At the same time, miners continue to flock to places like Texas - and not everyone is a fan of these relatively recent arrivals. Texas isn’t known for having the world’s most stable power grid, so miners and state officials have sought to pilot ways to address concerns about energy consumption. 

Bloomberg reporters David Pan and Michael Smith join this episode for more on how the miners are holding up.

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Crypto is notorious for its volatility. All its wild swings in prices have become a trademark of the market. And it’s also something that has for years now shaped the trading behaviors of investors looking to make a quick profit. But what happens when the market’s largest digital asset, Bitcoin, starts losing its volatility?

For the last four months, the coin has traded in a tight range around $20,000, unable to break out in any real way. How have crypto investors– who are used to trading on the ups and downs of the coin– responded? How have their investing strategies shifted?

For more on how traders are dealing with Bitcoin’s stasis, guest host and Bloomberg reporter Vildana Hajric is joined by Bloomberg reporter Katie Greifeld.

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About a year ago, Nigeria introduced a digital version of its official currency, the naira.

The introduction of the so-called e-naira was partly a response to concerns that the rising popularity of crypto in the country was threatening the banking system.

There are a few countries experimenting with their own versions of digital money, including the Central African Republic, China, Jamaica, The Bahamas, and various islands in the Eastern Caribbean. Other countries, including the United States, are in the “studying” and “thinking deep thoughts about feasibility” phase of things.

So how’s it going for Nigeria and the e-naira? Bloomberg reporter Ruth Olurounbi and Bloomberg Nigeria Bureau Chief Anthony Osae-Brown weigh in.

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You’ve likely heard of Bitcoin and Ether as digital tokens, but there’s actually tens of thousands of cryptocurrencies you probably haven’t heard of. In fact over 12,000 of those coins are virtually defunct. Not that they’re ‘dead’ per say-  but they’re also not considered ‘alive’ or active.

They’re called ‘zombie’ coins: tokens that have stopped trading activity as of late and are simply dormant. 

These zombified coins are not a new phenomenon, but the substantial increase in their volume (from the hundreds in 2019 to 12,100 at recent count) has been eye-opening as another symptom of chilly market conditions.

Bloomberg reporter Olga Kharif joins Bloomberg senior markets editor Mike Regan to wade through what happens when a market has so many inactive currencies, and what it says about the crypto industry's overall health.

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Listen to the first audio excerpt from this week's special issue of Businessweek magazine, The Crypto Story.

Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine uses the full issue to explain where crypto came from, what it all means, and why it matters.

This episode is voiced by Bloomberg Businessweek Editor Mark Leydorf.

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Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenocec and Katie Greifeld, host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL - In Real Life. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we've got an audio version of their latest episode.  Enjoy!

Find the full video experience of the shows here.

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This week in crypto, we are settling in to crypto's new norms: like bitcoin now being range-bound: trading steadily between $19k-$20k. And we are still waiting to see if the so-called ‘Uptober’ will shake out. 

But, hey, trading is still happening…and the SEC’s uptick in regulation efforts are being viewed as a boon to investors. According to the latest MLIV Pulse survey, would-be Crypto investors are cautiously optimistic about having more crypto guardrails on the way.

Also, Apple updated its language regarding crypto transactions on every app in its store.  And Finally, we have a big story. Actually one story to rule them all. And that’s The Crypto Story by Bloomberg Columnist Matt Levine.

To break down the latest, crypto senior editor Philip Lagerkranser is joined by Bloomberg crypto senior editor Anna Irrera and Bloomberg reporter Muyao Shen.

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Let’s say you’re a crypto startup trying to raise money from venture capitalists. All things being equal, you’d have done decently well in 2020, ridiculously well in 2021, and not bad at all in the first half of 2022. But right now? Maybe not so much.

Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller joins this episode to discuss  what’s happening with crypto VCs and the startups who need them.

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Ethereum’s Merge has created a new class of blockchain participants, called ‘builders.' It's a significant shift in the current decentralized ecosystem. There are a relatively small number of these builders, but they have a significant amount of power on the blockchain. What exactly do these builders do? Why are critics so concerned?

Joining this episode to discuss are Bloomberg Crypto reporters Olga Kharif and David Pan. 

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