Musk accuses Apple of antitrust violation, says xAI will take legal action
"xAI will take immediate legal action," Musk said in an X post.
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CNA
13 minutes ago
- CNA
Citigroup considers custody and payment services for stablecoins, crypto ETFs
NEW YORK :Citigroup is exploring providing stablecoin custody and other services, a top executive told Reuters, in a further sign sweeping policy changes in Washington are spurring major financial firms to expand into the cryptocurrency business. The U.S. bank is among a handful of traditional institutions, including Fiserv and Bank of America, considering pushing into stablecoins after Congress passed a law paving the way for the crypto tokens to become widely used for payments, settlement, and other services. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies pegged to a fiat currency or another asset, commonly the U.S. dollar. That law requires stablecoin issuers to hold safe assets such as U.S. Treasuries or cash to back the digital coins, creating opportunities for traditional custody banks to provide safekeeping and administration of the assets. "Providing custody services for those high-quality assets backing stablecoins is the first option we are looking at," Biswarup Chatterjee, global head of partnerships and innovation for Citigroup's services division, said in an interview. Citi's services business, which includes treasury, cash management, payments, and other services to large companies, remains a core unit for the bank, which has been undergoing a major restructuring. A McKinsey study estimates about $250 billion in stablecoins have been issued so far, but are mainly used to settle cryptocurrency trades. While Citigroup said last month it was considering issuing its own stablecoin, the bank has not previously discussed its broader digital asset plans. Citi is also exploring custody services for digital assets that back crypto-related investment products. For example, many asset managers have launched ETFs tracking the spot price of bitcoin since the Securities and Exchange Commission authorized such products last year. The largest bitcoin ETF, BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, has around $90 billion in market capitalization. "There needs to be custody of the equivalent amount of digital currency to support these ETFs," Chatterjee said. Currently, crypto exchange Coinbase dominates that business. In a statement, a Coinbase spokesperson said the company serves as the custodian for more than 80 per cent of issuers of crypto ETFs. Citi is also exploring using stablecoins to speed up payments, which in the traditional banking system typically take several days or longer. Currently, Citi offers "tokenized" U.S. dollar payments that use a blockchain network to transfer dollars between accounts in New York, London, and Hong Kong 24 hours a day. It is developing services to allow clients to send stablecoins between accounts or to convert them to dollars to make instant payments, and is talking to clients about the use cases, Chatterjee added. Once wary of allowing traditional financial firms to expand into the often-volatile crypto sector, banking and securities regulators under U.S. President Donald Trump's crypto-friendly administration are taking a more relaxed stance on the sector. Still, Citi and other firms would have to comply with current regulations, including money laundering and currency controls in some countries for international transfers. Chatterjee said the custody of crypto assets needs to ensure these assets, prior to being acquired, were used for legitimate purposes, and also strengthen cyber and operational security for safekeeping and theft prevention. The issuance of a stablecoin by the bank is also under consideration, Chatterjee added.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
Stocks retreat after hot US inflation data shakes Fed rate cut hopes
NEW YORK/LONDON :Global stocks retreated from record highs on Thursday while U.S. Treasury yields rose after market expectations for an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve were shaken by stronger-than-expected inflation data. U.S. producer prices rose 0.9 per cent in July, the Labor Department reported, surpassing consensus forecasts for a 0.2 per cent gain. Investors have been watching for signs of inflation pressures from U.S. President Donald Trump's trade tariffs. Wall Street stocks fell, with the benchmark S&P 500 and Nasdaq pulling back from record highs reached on Wednesday. Materials, real estate and industrials stocks were driving losses. Communication services and healthcare stocks were gaining. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.38 per cent, the S&P 500 slid 0.25 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.30 per cent. European stocks held onto gains from earlier in the day and were last 0.49 per cent higher. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe fell 0.37 per cent to 949.56, taking a breather a day after hitting an all-time high. "We have been too anxious to draw a conclusion that the economy is fine; it's not overheated," said Peter Andersen, founder of Andersen Capital Management in Boston. "But this wholesale data does show that perhaps there is some inflation working and we shouldn't be so quick to conclude, we need to cut interest rates." U.S. Treasury yields leaped after the inflation data as expectations for jumbo Fed rate cuts briefly faded. The two-year note yield was last up 5.4 basis points at 3.741 per cent. The benchmark U.S. 10-year note yield rose 5.1 basis points to 4.291 per cent. Money markets showed traders still almost unanimously expect the Fed to cut borrowing costs next month, although some traders have lowered their bets. Markets are predicting a 92.5 per cent chance that the Fed will cut rates by 25 basis points in September, down slightly from 94.3 per cent on Wednesday but up from nearly 59 per cent, according to the CME FedWatch tool. "It reinforces the case that the Fed might say we still don't have a clear picture yet based on the tariffs in the employment picture to take any action and I would expect that they would tend to be neutral and make no change in September as opposed to the majority of opinions out there," Anderson said. UK and euro area government bonds sold off alongside Treasuries. The benchmark 10-year Bund yield was up 50 bps at 2.71 per cent and Britain's equivalent gilt yield rose 4 bps to 4.643 per cent. About 70 per cent of global investors expect U.S. stagflation, with growth slowing as consumer price rises accelerate, to become the dominant market narrative within three months, a Bank of America survey found this week. The dollar rose against major peers after falling in the prior session. It strengthened 0.27 per cent to 147.78 against the Japanese yen and was up 0.39 per cent at 0.808 against the Swiss franc. The euro fell 0.55 per cent to $1.164. The dollar index tracking the greenback against peers including the euro and Japan's yen edged 0.6 per cent higher. Trump on Wednesday threatened "severe consequences" if Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not agree to peace in Ukraine and has also floated the idea of a second summit that would include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, rose from almost a two-month low with a 1.7 per cent jump to $66.75 a barrel and U.S. crude added 1.8 per cent to $63.77.
CNA
2 hours ago
- CNA
AI startup Cohere valued at $6.8 billion in latest fundraise, appoints new executives
Cohere was valued at $6.8 billion after its latest $500 million funding round, as the artificial intelligence startup moves to expand its market share in a highly competitive industry. The funding round was led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with participation from existing investors AMD Ventures, NVIDIA, PSP Investments, and Salesforce Ventures, among others. Unlike most AI companies like OpenAI and Meta's Llama, which are focused on broad foundational models, Cohere builds enterprise-specific AI models. In January, it launched North, a ChatGPT-style tool designed to help knowledge workers with tasks such as document summarization. The company said it will use the new funding to advance agentic AI that can help businesses and governments operate more efficiently. Alongside the fundraise, Cohere appointed Joelle Pineau, former Vice President of AI Research at Meta, as Chief AI Officer, and Francois Chadwick, former CFO at Uber and Shield AI, as Chief Financial Officer. The fundraise comes amid a broader surge in AI financing, as private equity and Big Tech channel capital into startups in pursuit of strong returns from innovative AI products.
