African Panel Challenges Fitch's Afreximbank Ratings Downgrade
An African Union-backed panel challenged Fitch Ratings to review its downgrade of the African Export-Import Bank's rating, questioning the company's classification of loans to three countries.
Fitch cut its assessment of Afreximbank's debt closer to junk earlier this week, citing the risk that money owed to the lender by sovereign borrowers might be included in those nations' debt restructurings. The downgrade reduced the bank's rating to BBB- — one step above the speculative level that would limit the pool of funds allowed to invest in its debt.
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Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Crypto Treasury Companies Are Bullish on Bitcoin and XRP. But Don't Invest.
Start-ups are piling Bitcoin and XRP onto their balance sheets for a few reasons. It's questionable whether their shareholders are getting any value. Owning these assets directly is probably the safer option. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) (formerly called MicroStrategy) famously pioneered the Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) treasury concept, buying the crypto and holding it on the company's balance sheet. Now, a crop of start-ups promises to provide the same kind of leveraged exposure to select digital assets for anyone willing to buy their shares. But before you hand any treasury operator a dime, it's important to look at who really captures the value they're advertising, and to understand how the existence of these companies might be favorable for the coins you hold. In a nutshell, crypto treasury companies are businesses that accumulate cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) on their corporate balance sheets. Their aim is to provide investors with indirect exposure to these digital assets while theoretically offering some diversification or additional value compared to investors just buying and holding the main underlying asset. They are a very recent phenomenon, and most will probably not survive even if their main assets do fine during the next decade or so. Over the last quarter, at least five companies launched or pivoted to stockpiling coins as their main strategy, or as a pillar of their financing strategy for their other lines of business. Hong Kong-based logistics group Reitar Logtech Holdings just filed to buy as many as 15,000 Bitcoins, worth roughly $1.5 billion at today's prices. Another company, Twenty One Capital, wants to procure 42,000 Bitcoins, enough to rank third worldwide among corporate holders. Renewable energy player VivoPower International raised $121 million to start a $100 million XRP purchase program. Two smaller private firms announced their intent to form XRP reserves within 24 hours of that deal. More might be on the way. But why are these assets so appealing to hold, and why would investors want to buy shares of a business that only manages assets they don't have any control over? In short, chief financial officers are seeing that low yields on relatively safe assets they already hold, like U.S. Treasuries, look even punier in comparison to the meteoric run-up in prices for assets like XRP and Bitcoin during the past 10 years. They likely figure that a small coin allocation offers a hedge against inflation, without as much risk as an investment in stocks -- though it's not clear that they're correct on that latter point. Furthermore, buying and holding cryptocurrencies means that a company doesn't have to take on any risk of making capital investments in value-generating equipment, nor put hardly any of their operational expenses toward labor, like most companies do. The catch is that every one of these new crypto treasury companies is banking on the same set of assets, and the same infrastructure to support them. Therefore, none of them have any economic moat, nor do they have any competitive advantage. And that means that over the long term, they are more likely to be bad investments than the assets they hold. For example, VivoPower's deal depends on BitGo for cold storage of its coins. Reitar's prospectus lists Coinbase Prime and Anchorage Digital as backup custodians. Insurance, auditing, chain attestations, and cold-storage logistics are effectively off-the-shelf services, which makes them great for operational security, but terrible for outperforming competitors. In other words, if you invest in these crypto treasury businesses, you are paying a premium for coin exposure that's being diluted by the company's need to pay overhead. A skeptical investor might also ask whether picking up shares in these crypto warehouses is safer than holding coins directly. The answer is "not really." Balance-sheet leverage not only amplifies the upside, but also the downside if prices swoon, leaving investors with losses. On the brighter side, assuming that demand from crypto treasury adopters keeps rising, the existence of supply scarcity favors buying and holding the coins themselves. Twenty One's goal of 42,000 Bitcoins alone is equivalent to almost 93 days of global Bitcoin mining issuance. Add Reitar, VivoPower, and a dozen smaller imitators, and the circulating float of coins available for public trading will shrink. None of that accrues uniquely to the corporate holders; it accrues to the protocol. Therefore, the easiest way to surf the wave here is to buy and hold a disciplined position in the digital assets these companies chase. Lastly, remember that volatility cuts both ways. If these crypto treasuries are forced to dump their coins to meet margin calls, prices can swing more violently than what's normal for crypto. Over long time horizons, assuming scarcity and consistent adoption remain intact, equity holders will be forced to eat management fees, dilution, and execution risk that they did not bargain for, whereas those who simply hold the coins won't need to pay for any extras whatsoever. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $674,395!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $858,011!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 997% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Crypto Treasury Companies Are Bullish on Bitcoin and XRP. But Don't Invest. was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
35 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CFOs On the Move: Week ending June 6
This story was originally published on To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily newsletter. Grant Thornton, an assurance, tax and advisory services provider, named as its new finance chief. Before joining the firm, Surett was chief financial officer of Transportation Equipment Network, a full-service trailer leasing company. He previously spent over 13 years at U.S. stevedore and marine terminal operator Ports America, where he was most recently was chief financial officer. Surett earlier held the role of director of corporate development at Avaya. He succeeds Muhammad Bhayat, who is retiring after more than 20 years at the company. Bhayat joined Grant Thornton in 2003 and has been CFO since 2023. HelloFresh's CFO will step down from his role no later than the fourth quarter of 2025. Gärtner, who has led the meal kit provider's finance since 2015, is leaving to pursue other opportunities. HelloFresh has initiated a search for a new chief financial officer. Before joining HelloFresh, he held managing director roles at Bank of America and Goldman Sachs. Gärtner started his career at Deutsche Bank as an analyst. was appointed chief financial officer of financial operations platform Bill Holdings, effective July 7. Rohini joins the company from PayPal, where she was most recently CFO and senior vice president of its large enterprise and merchant platforms. Earlier financial leadership roles include senior director of FP&A at Walmart e-commerce, director of shipping finance and analytics at eBay and FP&A manager at GE HealthCare. Jain replaces John Rettig, who will take on the role as president and chief operating officer. Newfold Digital promoted to chief executive officer of its Network Solutions Group. Clohecy joined the web and commerce technology company in 2019 as chief financial officer, and later added on the additional role of chief operations officer. Before joining Newfold Digital, she was CFO of Stratus Technologies and held senior leadership positions at Airvana, Sycamore Networks and Vitronics Soltec. Five Below's CFO, , is stepping down for personal reasons. Chipman joined the discount retailer in July 2023 as chief financial officer and has previously held CFO roles at Ruth's Hospitality Group and Orangetheory Fitness. While Five Below searches for Chipman's successor, its chief operating officer, Ken Bull, will take on the additional role of interim CFO. Bull has been with the company for 20 years and was previously its chief financial officer. Pluralsight hired as the technology workforce development company's new CFO. Ellis joins Pluralsight from Accel Entertainment, where he has been chief financial officer for the last three years. Earlier roles at Accel include senior vice president and vice president of operational strategy. He was earlier the vice president of financial planning and analysis at Transworlds Systems and started his career at Deloitte as an audit senior. , chief financial officer of Lulus, will step down on June 30. Smith is stepping down for personal, family-related reasons. She joined the online women's apparel retailer in April 2021 as vice president of finance and was promoted to CFO in March 2023. Crystal Landsem, chief executive officer of Lulus, will take on the additional role of interim chief financial officer while the company looks for Smith's permanent successor. Electric vehicle charging network operator Blink named as its new finance chief. Bercovich was most recently chief financial officer of global workforce management and payments platform Helios. He previously held CFO roles at MyOutDesk, Cialfo and Elements Global Services. Bercovich replaces Michael Rama, who left the company at the beginning of June to pursue new opportunities. Robert Strauss, a senior advisor from FTI Consulting, is working as the company's interim chief financial officer until Bercovich joins on June 23.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Pi Protocol Rebrands to STBL, Introduces Architecture for Next-Generation Stablecoin Economics
DUBAI, AE / ACCESS Newswire / June 7, 2025 / Pi Protocol today announced the completion of its comprehensive rebrand to STBL, marking a strategic development that reflects the company's maturation to institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure. The transformation signals a refined focus on establishing the 'Stablecoin 2.0" era, a paradigm where users who mint stablecoins retain both the yield generated from backing assets and governance control over the protocol itself. The new STBL ecosystem introduces three complementary tokens designed to address fundamental inefficiencies in existing stablecoin markets: USST (Stablecoin): A fully over-collateralized stablecoin backed by a diversified portfolio of institutional-grade, real-world assets. Unlike traditional stablecoins, USST maintains price stability while passing yield to users through the protocol's innovative architecture. YLD (Yield Token): Automatically issued during the USST minting process, YLD tokens represent users' claims to real income streams generated by backing assets. This separation of yield from principal allows users to trade, hold or compound their returns independently while maintaining stablecoin utility. STBL (Governance Token): Provides holders with democratic control over protocol parameters, reserve management, and reward distribution. The governance structure ensures community-driven decision-making rather than centralized control. STBL is designed for regulatory alignment and institutional-grade integrations - while remaining fully modular, permissionless, and compatible with DeFi. Current stablecoin markets suffer from a fundamental asymmetry where centralized issuers like Tether and Circle retain billions in yield generated from user deposits. STBL's architecture directly addresses this market failure by ensuring value flows back to ecosystem participants who create and maintain the stablecoin supply. 'STBL combines institutional-grade infrastructure with decentralized governance principles,' said Reeve Collins, co-founder of STBL and former co-founder and CEO of Tether. 'We're establishing a new financial primitive that serves protocols, institutions and governments while preserving core decentralization values. The stablecoin market has remained largely unchanged since our work on Tether. STBL is the natural evolution and the start of the Stablecoin 2.0 era.' The stablecoin market, valued at approximately $200 billion, has seen limited innovation since Tether's introduction nearly a decade ago. STBL now positions itself as the next evolutionary step, targeting significant market share by delivering superior value to users. 'We built Tether to put the dollar on the blockchain,' Collins noted. 'Now, we've built STBL to bring sustainable yield and democratic governance to stablecoins. This is the infrastructure that will onboard the next wave of institutional decentralized finance adoption.' 'The premise is simple: you create the money, you keep the yield,' said Bundeep Singh Rangar, CEO and co-founder of STBL. 'We're witnessing the evolution toward Stablecoin 2.0, a model where financial sovereignty is embedded as a core architectural feature.' STBL operates on both Ethereum and Solana networks, providing institutional clients with multi-chain flexibility while maintaining regulatory compliance standards. Unlike existing decentralized alternatives that rely on complex algorithmic mechanisms or suffer from capital inefficiency, STBL provides capital efficiency through optimized collateralization ratios, yield transparency with real-time asset performance tracking, governance legitimacy through token-holder voting mechanisms and regulatory alignment with compliant asset selection. The rebrand to STBL reflects confidence in the protocol's ability to capture market share from legacy stablecoin providers. By addressing structural inefficiencies, STBL offers compelling incentives for users, institutions, and protocols to migrate toward this next-generation framework. To find out more about STBL and its three-token architecture, visit About STBL STBL is a decentralized finance infrastructure protocol enabling the collateralization and monetization of yield-bearing real-world assets through USST stablecoin issuance. Operating across Ethereum and Solana, STBL serves protocols, institutions and users seeking yield-generating stablecoin solutions without compromising on decentralization. Governance is driven by holders of the STBL token, ensuring community-led protocol evolution. Media Contact [email protected] Follow STBL Twitter: LinkedIn: Website: Disclaimer Crypto assets are unregulated investment products prone to sudden and substantial value fluctuations, presenting a high risk of total loss of the invested capital. The information presented herein is not intended as a financial promotion. This material has been produced for circulation to a limited number of professional investors and journalists. If you are unsure whether this asset is suitable for your individual circumstances, it is highly recommended to obtain independent financial and legal advice. SOURCE: PI TECHNOLOGIES, LTD press release
