Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) — US stocks ended Wednesday’s session higher after the Federal Reserve’s latest meeting minutes showed most officials backing slowing the pace of interest-rate hikes soon. 

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 notched gains for a second straight session. Treasuries rallied, with the benchmark 10-year yield around 3.69%. Wall Street’s fear gauge, the Cboe Volatility Index, fell to its lowest level in more than three months. US stock and bond markets will be closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday. 

Several Fed officials backed the need to moderate the pace of rate hikes, the central bank’s Nov. 1-2 meeting minutes show. Only a small number of these officials underscored the need for a higher terminal rate. Since the Fed’s latest meeting, investors have parsed a bevy of economic data that somewhat eased inflation concerns, further strengthening the case for smaller rate hikes.

“The minutes were dovish as they recognized a softening in consumer demand and tightening international economic and financial conditions,” said Jay Hatfield of Infrastructure Capital Management.

Read More: Most Fed Officials Seek to Slow Pace of Interest-Rate Hikes Soon

Still, some investors think that the meeting minutes didn’t convey anything new and that markets may be overreacting to the perceived shift in tone.

“The minutes said that hikes can be smaller than 75bps but also that the terminal rate will need to be higher than previously thought — which also is pretty much what everyone at the Fed has been signaling anyway,” said Max Gokhman, chief investment officer at asset manager AlphaTrAI. “It’s almost weird we’re getting any kind of big moves on the minutes. I guess the market is happy to take a longer road to a more painful outcome given the reaction to the minutes.”

Meanwhile, the dollar dropped for a second day as investors assessed a fresh batch of economic data. Business activity in the US continued to contract and separate data showed US unemployment applications rising more than expected, in a sign of cooling in the labor market.

Key events this week:

• ECB publishes account of its October policy meeting, Thursday
• US stock and bond markets are closed for the Thanksgiving holiday, Thursday
• US stock and bond markets close early, Friday

Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

• The S&P 500 rose 0.6% as of 4 p.m. New York time
• The Nasdaq 100 rose 1%
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.3%
• The MSCI World index rose 1.1%

Currencies

• The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell 0.8%
• The euro rose 1% to $1.0402
• The British pound rose 1.5% to $1.2065
• The Japanese yen rose 1.2% to 139.50 per dollar

Cryptocurrencies

• Bitcoin rose 2.9% to $16,594.92
• Ether rose 3.9% to $1,173.48

Bonds

• The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined six basis points to 3.69%
• Germany’s 10-year yield declined five basis points to 1.93%
• Britain’s 10-year yield declined 13 basis points to 3.01%

Commodities

• West Texas Intermediate crude fell 4.3% to $77.44 a barrel
• Gold futures rose 0.7% to $1,766.50 an ounce

This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Isabelle Lee and Peyton Forte.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Top farm machinery maker Deere & Co. says corn and soybean production in the US could be fully autonomous by 2030.

Farmers already are paying Deere to use automation technology for tillage work this autumn, and the company is exploring recurring revenue models that will allow growers to use such enhancements as needed.  

“We’re committing to have a total autonomy and automation solution for corn and soy in the US,” Chief Financial Officer Josh Jepsen said Wednesday on a conference call with investors. Advancements have been proving that “it’s technically possible, and I am really excited about it.”

Deere revealed an autonomous tractor earlier this year and it’s also been developing technology in which sprayers use artificial intelligence to identify weeds in fields. In the future, autonomy could be used for pulling carts that hold grain from the harvest while Deere also aims to grow recurring revenue by 10% by 2030.

–With assistance from James Attwood.

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — An accounting firm that touts itself as the first to open its headquarters in the metaverse was accused in a lawsuit of turning a blind eye to a pattern of racketeering at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange that collapsed causing billions of dollars in losses.

Prager Metis CPAs LLC, an auditor for FTX, was sued by an investor who claims to have lost almost $20,000. Stephen Pierce also sued Armanino LLP, an auditor for FTX US, FTX’s co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried and others — accusing all of them of a racketeering conspiracy.

Much of the lawsuit relies on a sworn declaration in FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings from John J. Ray III, who famously oversaw the liquidation of Enron Corp. Ray said in his 40-year career he’s never seen such a “complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here.”

• Read more: FTX’s New Boss Reveals Chaos Left Behind by Bankman-Fried

Prager Metis declined to comment on the lawsuit. Armanino didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Pierce is seeking unspecified damages in the proposed class-action lawsuit, filed Wednesday in San Francisco federal court.

Armanino and Prager Metis issued certified audit reports giving FTX US and FTX clean bills of health in March, according to the lawsuit.

Both accounting firms acted as cheerleaders for FTX, rather than skeptical auditors, Pierce claims in the lawsuit, citing a Wall Street Journal article. Armanino tweeted “Let’s go buddy,” tagging Bankman-Fried in advance of his testimony before Congress, according to the lawsuit. Prager Metis posted on its website that it was “Proud to support FTX US,” and included a photo of Prager Metis and FTX representatives at a baseball game, according to the lawsuit.

“Auditors are required by regulators to maintain a ‘professional skepticism’ of their clients, including alertness to errors and fraud when assessing a company’s finances,” Pierce’s lawyers wrote in the complaint. “Neither Armanino nor Prager Metis did so here.”

It’s the latest lawsuit to be filed against Bankman-Fried and FTX over the exchange’s collapse. Earlier suits also targeted celebrities who promoted the platform.

• Read more: FTX Investors Go After Brady, Shaq: Here Are Their Legal Chances

The case is Pierce v. Bankman-Fried, 3:22-cv-07444, US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

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(Bloomberg) — In the wake of the spectacular meltdown of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto empire, many investors are looking for early warning signs that may have foretold the contagion that was about to unfold. One possibility? Coinbase Global Inc.’s junk bonds.

The largest US digital-asset trading platform has seen the price of its bonds plunge this year. In early January, the price for one of its most active notes was at about 92 cents. It then slid to about 77 cents in April before dropping to 63 cents amid the Terra Luna market crash in May. The bonds traded around 53 cents on the dollar — a level typically associated with distressed — in early morning trading in New York Wednesday, according to Trace bond trading data. 

The drop is largely attributed to the so-called crypto winter that has leveled digital currency markets this year. But for some industry participants, the plunge was an omen of the carnage that would soon be unleashed. 

The crypto exchange’s debt can be described as a “canary in the coal mine,” Bloomberg Intelligence credit analyst David Havens said in a phone interview. In particular, “something that really grabbed attention” back in May was Coinbase’s noting that clients could be treated as general unsecured creditors if the company went bankrupt.

This caught a lot of people by surprise and raised several questions, according to Havens: “Bankruptcy? What were they seeing, hearing, feeling that compelled the lawyers to include that statement at that time,” he said. And secondly: “Clients. Wait, what? We may be pari passu to bondholders, not segregated as we’d be at a regular exchange?”

At the time, Coinbase chief executive officer Brian Armstrong said the firm added the risk disclosure due to a new US Securities and Exchange Commission accounting requirement. 

It contributed to the decline in the bonds and proved to be one of the indicators of what was to come. 

The yield on Coinbase’s bonds is currently roughly between 13 and 15%. “We think this fully reflects ongoing crypto uncertainty and negative technicals, with few buyers willing to step in with what remains of 2022,” Havens wrote in a note Monday.

“The bonds are reflecting the animal spirits that are going on right now,” he said in the phone interview. “And that is the fear that has engulfed crypto.”

Any recovery in the debt, however, could be an early signal that the market is beginning to thaw, according to Havens. “But so far it’s been a painful ride,” he said. “We are sort of at a tipping point.”

Debt Recovery Near? 

There may be a path to positive returns for Coinbase bonds, according to Havens. He points out that the crypto exchange has $5.4 billion of liquidity and is actively engaged with regulators, differentiating it from other exchanges like Bankman-Fried’s FTX and Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s Binance. 

“Coinbase should be buying back every bond they possibly can at the moment to demonstrate their commitment to a reasonable balance sheet,” added John McClain, a high-yield portfolio manager at Brandywine Global Investment Management. “Leverage has destroyed many of their competitors and they have a unique opportunity to very attractively reduce leverage.”

Long-time high-yield bond analyst Marty Fridson also shares a more positive outlook on the beaten-down bonds. Fridson, who is chief investment officer at Lehmann Livian Fridson Advisors LLC, thinks that BB rated notes trading at distressed levels, including Coinbase, can be better described by their ratings tier than their current price, according to a Nov. 15 PitchBook analysis. 

He notes that Coinbase’s debt is trading at distressed levels while still holding one of the highest ratings in speculative grade. Moody’s Investors Service reports just a 0.79% one-year default rate for Ba issuers for the period spanning 1970 to 2021, his analysis showed. 

“By contrast, I estimate the one-year average default rate on distressed issuers over the period from 1997 to 2021 at 38%, suggesting a massive mismatch between a BB rating and a distressed valuation,” he wrote. 

The yield on Coinbase’s bonds is currently much higher than the 7.1% average yield that debt with similar ratings is trading at. That too suggests a dislocation between the price the market is setting for the debt versus how solid a bet credit graders think it is.  

To be sure, the market is still fragile. The fallout from FTX’s meltdown has already set off a wave of bankruptcies and it’s likely too soon to say which players will still be here when the dust settles. 

Underwriting anything tied to crypto is tough — except maybe crypto firms with hard assets like mining rigs or other infrastructure — said Hunter Hayes, portfolio manager of the Intrepid Income Fund at Intrepid Capital Management.

“There’s no intrinsic value,” he explained. “It’s like Tinkerbell — if people don’t believe in crypto’s utility, it disappears.” 

Buy the Dip

Bullish equity managers are already diving in to buy the dip. Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management funds have bought more than 1.3 million shares of Coinbase since the start of November, as FTX started to topple. Meanwhile, the debt has rallied off its record low set earlier this month. 

Year-to-date, the shares have fallen more than 80%, while Bitcoin is down about 65%. As of Tuesday’s close, it was estimated the shares need a staggering 782% rally if they are to reach their average 12-month price target from the beginning of 2022. 

Elsewhere in credit markets:

Americas

General Electric Co. announced that about $9.3 billion of dollar-denominated bonds were validly tendered and not withdrawn at or before the early participation date as part of its recent buyback offer.

• Rite Aid said about 33% of eligible notes were tendered by an early deadline after proposing to purchase as much as $200 million of its 7.5% senior secured notes due 2025
• T. Rowe Price Group Inc., the $1.3 trillion global money manager, is cautious on US corporate debt given its exposure to overly hawkish Federal Reserve policy
• The three-month London interbank offered rate for dollars climbed to the highest level since the financial crisis in an otherwise quiet day for the front-end of fixed income markets
• For deal updates, click here for the New Issue Monitor
• For more, click here for the Credit Daybook Americas

EMEA

Borrowers piling into Europe’s debt market are selling bonds with the lowest average maturity in four years. Bonds sold this month by investment-grade issuers in the common currency have an average tenor of about 6.3 years, the lowest since December 2018.

• Among Wednesday’s issuers were Severn Trent in the sterling market, while Continental AG, GSK Capital and Liberty Mutual Group offered euro-denominated deals
• Foreign firms seeking funds from a niche German debt market may face a lukewarm reception from potential lenders stung by French care-home operator Orpea SA’s scandal
• Indexes tracking the cost of insurance against defaults by European companies were on track for the lowest close since June

Asia

Yield premiums on investment-grade bonds in Asia outside Japan widened for a third straight day Tuesday, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

• Chinese developers are issuing more bonds under a state-guarantee program, suggesting a ramp-up in government support to ease the sector’s liquidity woes are bearing some fruit
• China’s green-bond market has grown past $300 billion and a Bloomberg analysis reveals important gaps in disclosure and transparency, as it’s almost impossible to know how the money is being spent and whether it’s having the intended impact

–With assistance from Yueqi Yang.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Former employees from companies including Meta Platforms Inc. and Twitter Inc. are taking to TikTok to give an unfiltered look behind the scenes of the mass layoffs hitting the tech industry.

One video from someone who claims to be an ex-Twitter employee invites viewers to “get ready with me to see if I was laid off from my job” has racked up over half a million views and 80,000 likes. “Get ready with me” (#GRWM) is a common TikTok trope where users invite followers to join them as they do their makeup and get dressed for work, a night out or a first date. Other recent videos are emotional and raw, opening up right after the news hits. Some even share snippets from the moment they’re let go.

From comic to heartfelt, the videos have one thing in common: the simple act of posting challenges the shame and silence that usually prevails after someone gets let go from a job. Those posting say it’s helping them cope with the experience, commiserate with other people in the same situation — and network for the next opportunity.

Daizha Brown worked on a marketing team that promoted Facebook’s services for small businesses and posted on TikTok within an hour of getting a pink slip. “I was stunned, like I can’t believe it came to my inbox,” she said in an interview, referring to the email telling her she had lost her job.  Brown, who’s based in Seattle, is now using the platform to document her journey to whatever’s next with a series of “day in the life post-layoff” videos.

@adoseofdaiaday

Reality has set in. Here’s my journey ????. I’m ready to get to the “something better” I and everyone keeps telling me about????. But the hardest part is being in the “now” until that comes. I’m gonna take it one mini step at a time. I know future me is cheering me on ❤️ #techlayoffs #metalayoff #dayinmylifevlog #healthyhabits6step #blackgirlsintech #morningroutine #verymuchopentowork #twentysomethings #lifeislifing #therebirth #stillthicktho

♬ Seeing Green – Nicki Minaj & Drake & Lil Wayne

Most of the comments she’s received have been supportive and kind, with many people checking in on how she’s doing. The app reminds you that you’re not alone, Brown said, since a quick search of #layoffs brings up dozens of videos of people coping with job loss. “If you’re crying every day, it can be very rough,” she said. “But then you see someone else is crying every day, too. It makes it less personal, since we’re all going through the same thing.” 

Megan Arroyo was also laid off from Meta, where she worked in recruiting. “When it happened I figured, there are 11,000 of us,” she said in an interview. “So I’m not the only one going through those feelings — of disappointment and sadness, but also being proud of myself for having that opportunity, having worked for such a great company — all of those conflicting emotions.” Arroyo, who’s based in Chicago, said she’s made a few friends after coming across similar TikTok videos from cohorts.

@meganarielll

After days of waiting, today I got laid off. #techlayoffs #metalayoff #nontechnicalintech #jobless #funemployed

♬ original sound – Megan Ariel

The overwhelming majority of comments have been very positive, she said, with people adding her on LinkedIn and reaching out to offer referrals. But a few have been critical with a nod to the risk of getting so personal about work online. She described and dismissed some of the comments: “Like, ‘Oh, you’re crying on the internet, if I were a hiring manager, I would never hire you,’” she said in the interview. “I’m like, ‘Ok, that’s great… I don’t really care.’”

The effects of economic uncertainty stretch beyond tech. Marjana Maksuti, who worked in marketing for Global Citizen, an advocacy organization that aims to end extreme poverty, lost her position in New York last week. “There’s a stigma around losing your job. It can be one of the most stressful and isolating experiences we go through in our lives,” she said. “I do think it’s important for people to share and be open about these things, because it really brings people together and makes them not feel isolated.”

@marthestarr

I’m conviced it’s for the plot #corporatebaddie

♬ Here Comes The Sun / The Inner Light – The Beatles

Jordan Gibbs, who was laid off  from her New York-based recruiting position at Lyft Inc. this month, said she started a daily vlog as a way to fight the paralysis that sometimes sets in after an emotional blow. “I basically had to figure out a way to get myself out of bed every day,” Gibbs said in an interview. “It really just started as a way, like ok, if I’m going to commit myself to filming a piece of my layoff every single day, it’ll help me actually make progress and get something done.” Since then, she’s applied to dozens of roles and has been interviewing with a few companies — including TikTok itself.

@elyse_____6

I feel like a loser, but I’m hoping, making a Daily video holding myself accountable will speed up the process of finding a job. #layoff #techworkers #lyft

♬ original sound – Jordan Elyse

She started with around 1,000 followers at the beginning of November —  mostly friends, colleagues and other acquaintances —  but that count has almost tripled in the roughly two and a half weeks since she began her series. “I do not want to be a famous person, that’s really not my vibe,” she laughed. “But the first one had a kind of reach I just was not expecting, because everyone’s kind of going through something so similar, there were a lot of people who found comfort and were interested in me filming my day.”

Since Gibbs started sharing, she’s seen a number of her friends in the tech industry who also got laid off share similar content, often in the form of weekly updates. 

“Twitter is kind of like where you go to fire angry things off your chest. Instagram is more like, here’s a perfect version of my life through a stream of photos,” she said. “TikTok, there’s something so specific about that community that just naturally gravitates towards vulnerability, honesty, just being a little bit more raw.”

–With assistance from Jennifer Ryan.

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — An Apple Inc. retail store in St. Louis withdrew its petition to unionize, dealing a setback to the labor movement’s efforts to gain sway over the world’s most valuable company. 

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which had been working to represent the store, blamed “anti-union practices and increased hostility towards workers” in making the move to drop the petition. “The IAM will continue to ensure that all labor laws are followed and remain hopeful that Apple workers will get the respect and dignity they deserve,” the group said in a statement Wednesday.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The St. Louis store becomes the second Apple location to abandon a unionization drive. A vote at a store in Atlanta was scrapped as well, with the union claiming that pressure from Apple prevented a fair election. But labor groups have made inroads elsewhere. An Oklahoma City site voted to unionize last month, becoming the second to do so among Apple’s roughly 270 US outlets.

The IAM had filed a petition last week with the US National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the St. Louis store, seeking to represent around 80 employees. If the agency had held an election and the union won, the company would have been legally obligated to negotiate over working conditions at the store.

At the time, the group filed a separate claim against Apple with the NLRB, accusing the company of violating federal law by holding mandatory anti-union meetings, threatening retaliation and telling staff that organizing would be futile.

Apple has said previously that it disagrees with these allegations.

The tactics ultimately prevented the St. Louis election from being able to proceed, according to the labor group, which represents a broad swath of workers in aerospace, health care and other industries. “Apple has chosen the route of disenfranchising its workers and their right to enjoy the benefits of having a union,” the IAM said in Wednesday’s statement.

(Updates with previous filings starting in fifth paragraph.)

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — Vista Equity Partners is exploring an acquisition of Coupa Software Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. The stock rose as much as 36% on the news. 

Vista has held talks with the San Mateo, California-based company, which is working with an adviser, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. Private-credit lenders could provide financing for a potential deal, the people said. 

No deal is imminent and Vista could opt against pursuing a transaction, the people said. Other suitors could emerge for Coupa too, they added. 

Representatives for Vista and Coupa Software didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Coupa Software rose 34% to $61.42 at 1:43 p.m. in New York trading Wednesday, giving the company a market value of about $4.7 billion. The stock had fallen 77% in the past year before Wednesday’s gain.  

Led by billionaire Robert F. Smith, Vista is among the most active private equity investors in the technology sector. The firm agreed to pay $4.6 billion in October for software-security firm KnowBe4 Inc. and struck an $8.4 billion deal in August for Avalara Inc. It used private credit to fund those deals. 

Coupa Software provides so-called business-spend management software, which helps companies track and manage the purchasing of goods and services. Customers have included Nestle SA and Groupon Inc., according to its website. 

–With assistance from Liana Baker.

(Updates trading in first and fifth paragraphs.)

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) —

The implosion of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX empire dealt a harsh blow to the Bahamas’ ambitions to be a hub for the crypto industry, and it’s causing massive pain for locals who treated the now-bankrupt exchange like a bank.Stephane Ouellette, chief executive of Toronto-based crypto firm FRNT Financial, traveled to the Bahamas to assess the fallout from the collapse. He joined the What Goes Up podcast to discuss the bankruptcy’s effect on the island nation it called home, as well as the impact the scandal is having on his business and the entire market.

“FTX was positioning [itself] as a banking alternative, particularly in regions where they operated—like the Bahamas,” Ouellette said. “So there’s even more horror stories of people treating FTX like bank-like infrastructure, and therefore leaving a significant amount of their assets just latent on FTX. Now they can’t get access to them, just like everybody else.”

 

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©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

(Bloomberg) — The European Parliament’s website was knocked offline following what its president, Roberta Metsola, described as “a sophisticated cyberattack.” She said a pro-Kremlin group claimed to be behind the attack.

Metsola said the parliament’s IT experts were pushing back against the attack and “protecting our systems” in a tweet on Wednesday. The website was sporadically online later that day. 

A pro-Russia group, known as Killnet, claimed responsibility on its Telegram channel, calling on followers to overload the parliament’s website with high levels of junk external network traffic, a temporary disruptive attack known as a Distributed Denial of Service, or DDoS. 

The European Parliament had just adopted a resolution accusing Russia of war crimes and calling it a state sponsor of terrorism due to its “deliberate attacks and atrocities” against civilians earlier on Wednesday. The statement on the website was unreachable for part of the day.

Eva Kaili, vice president of the European Parliament, said the only problem caused by the attack had been external access to the website. “We hope there won’t be another one,” she said, in a message to Bloomberg News. 

Killnet has engaged in a series of cyberattacks in recent months against Western targets, including by knocking US airport websites offline and state websites offline in previous months, according to cybersecurity researchers and claims from the group.

 

–With assistance from Jack Gillum.

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(Bloomberg) — Two Democratic senators want former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives to be held accountable for the company’s collapse. Mike Novogratz, the CEO and founder of Galaxy Digital, said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday that what happened at FTX is an indictment of the company, not crypto. He also said the fallout will push crypto users to other institutional players like Fidelity Investments, which will offer custody and trading services.  

Crypto markets steadied as Bitcoin climbed for a second day, trading back above $16,000. But activity has dwindled — the Bitcoin seven-day trading volume has plunged to a three-month low, according to Arcane Research.

Investors remain alert for contagion from FTX and long-term predictions for the coin differ wildly, underscoring the uncertainty that’s rife in the industry. Novogratz told CNBC that he still sees crypto as a long-term buying opportunity.

Key stories and developments:

• FTX Investors Go After Brady, Shaq: Here Are Their Legal Chances
• FTX Flipped Jane Street’s Risk Obsession to Disastrous Effect
• Cathie Wood Sticks to $1 Million Bitcoin Call as Others See Rout
• What the FTX Collapse Suggests About Crypto and Risk
• Sequoia Capital Says Sorry for FTX But Defends Vetting Process

(Time references are New York unless otherwise stated.)

Crypto Market Activity Plummets (1:17 p.m.)

Crypto investors are still sifting through the rubble of the FTX collapse, but one thing’s already evident: market activity has dwindled significantly.

Senators Want Executives to be Accountable (10:49 a.m.)

Democratic senators Elizabeth Warren and Sheldon Whitehouse have asked the Justice Department not to pull any punches as it investigates and seeks to hold accountable the executives at FTX who contributed to the crypto company’s demise. 

Custodians Like Fidelity Will Attract Users: Novogratz (9:45 a.m.)

Crypto billionaire Mike Novogratz said the “crisis of confidence” in the digital asset world will drive more cryptocurrency users to seek out institutional players like Fidelity Investments.

The founder of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., a crypto financial services firm, told CNBC that more people will put their money in “safe and trusted custodians.”

Novogratz Says ‘Bitcoin Is Not Going Away’ (8:48 a.m.)

Mike Novogratz, the CEO and founder of Galaxy Digital, tells CNBC in an interview that while there was a “bubble” in crypto assets this is a long-term buying opportunity because “Bitcoin is not going away.”

He says that what happened at FTX is an indictment of the company and other similar firms that are poorly run, however it is not an indictment of crypto itself. 

Serving Humble Pie This Thanksgiving (8:00 a.m.)

Polite company never talks politics or religion. This Thanksgiving, it might be wise to avoid crypto, too.

Last year’s digital asset investors basted themselves in Bitcoin riches. Then, the token traded just below the almost $69,000 all-time high set weeks earlier. By dessert time, the crypto hopefuls may have even sold the Baby Boomers on a token or two. 

This holiday season, the Bitcoin bulls have less to be grateful for. The largest digital asset has plummeted about 70% since last Turkey Day. That drop might annoy the guests who bought in, including the Baby Boomers persuaded by their younger relatives.

Jane Street Alums Ditched Wall Street Firm’s Risk Focus at FTX (7:49 a.m.) 

Jane Street Group is known among peers for its obsession with risk and preference for stealth. The more-than 2,000 employee powerhouse based in lower Manhattan digs into the health of trading partners, models potential catastrophes, autopsies losses and restricts staff from commenting publicly, because even that poses a danger.

The easiest way to describe the culture that Sam Bankman-Fried and a cadre of Jane Street alumni created at FTX: The opposite.

Crypto Crash Offers a Path to Recovery for Damaged Relationships (6:58 a.m.)

Devoting days and nights to a gamified digital economy left a mark on some people’s relationships, turning partners into crypto widows and widowers. 

Now they have some emotional work to do: in the aftermath of the digital-asset mayhem, believers are trying to heal what Bitcoin and Bored Ape obsessions did to intimacy.

Wild Divergence in Bitcoin Predictions Highlights Uncertainty (4:32 a.m.) 

Over the past few days, long-term targets for the world’s largest token by market value have ranged from $5,000 at strategists BCA Research Inc. to $1 million by 2030 for Ark Investment Management’s Cathie Wood. 

The cavernous spread reflects the gnarly question of what further contagion may or may not lie ahead following the evisceration of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX exchange and trading house Alameda Research, onetime crypto darlings.

El Salvador Closer to Issuing Bitcoin Bonds (12:05 p.m. HK)

The country’s presidency dispatched a digital-securities bill to lawmakers, taking the nation a step closer to raising $1 billion via the world’s first sovereign blockchain bond.

The legislation calls for a digital-assets commission and a Bitcoin Fund Management Agency to oversee crypto-related debt sales. The proposed blockchain bonds, with a minimum investment of just $100, are meant to help finance the construction of the Bitcoin City project.

New York Governor Signs Moratorium to Curb Crypto Mining (11:10 a.m. HK)

Kathy Hochul signed one of the most restrictive laws in the US on regulating cryptocurrency mining, with the bill triggering a two-year moratorium on new permits for crypto-mining companies.

“I will ensure that New York continues to be the center of financial innovation, while also taking important steps to prioritize the protection of the environment,” Hochul said in a statement.

Bankman-Fried Says Collateral Crashed by $51 Billion as FTX Fell (8:30 a.m. HK)

Bankman-Fried, disgraced founder of the now collapsed crypto exchange FTX and trading house Alameda Research, apologized to staff in a letter that outlined a crash in “collateral” to $9 billion from $60 billion.

“I didn’t mean for any of this to happen, and I would give anything to be able to go back and do things over again,” he wrote in the message sent to employees Tuesday and obtained by Bloomberg News.

Sequoia Capital Says Sorry for FTX But Defends Vetting Process (7:20 a.m. HK)

Top partners at the venture capital firm apologized to their investors in a conference call Tuesday for backing FTX, according to people familiar with the meeting.

Roelof Botha, the firm’s global leader, opened the call, and he and his colleagues were repentant for backing the company, with investments totaling $214 million in FTX.com and FTX.us across two funds. Alfred Lin, the partner who led the FTX deal, provided an update on the situation. Shaun Maguire, another partner who focuses on crypto, gave an overview of the sector.

Cathie Wood Holds On to $1 Million Target for Bitcoin (7:10 a.m. HK)

“Bitcoin is coming out of this smelling like a rose,” said the ARK Investment Management CEO as she defended her forecast.

Wood also said that crypto infrastructure is “working beautifully.” She added that digital-asset manager Grayscale Investments is now the crown jewel of Barry Silbert’s once-$10 billion Digital Currency Group conglomerate.

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