UPDATE 4-Ethereum breaks past $3,000 to quadruple in value in 2021

UPDATE 4-Ethereum breaks past $3,000 to quadruple in value in 2021

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) – Warren Buffett delivered a clear verdict Saturday on the state of the U.S. economy as it emerges from the pandemic: red hot.“It’s almost a buying frenzy,” the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chief executive officer said during the conglomerate’s annual meeting, which was held virtually from Los Angeles. “People have money in their pocket and they’re paying higher prices,” he said.Buffett attributed the faster-than-expected recovery to swift and decisive rescue measures by the Federal Reserve and U.S. government, which helped kick 85% of the economy into “super high gear,” he said. But as growth roars back and interest rates remain low, many – including Berkshire – are raising prices and there is more inflation “than people would have anticipated six months ago,” he said.Buffett reunited with his long-time friend and business partner Charlie Munger for this year’s meeting. Munger didn’t make it to last year’s meeting in Omaha, Nebraska – Buffett’s hometown – due to the shutdowns across the country. Some shareholders were relieved to see the duo fielding questions together again.“I really feel that both Charlie and Warren displayed their usual and amazing level of acuity and intellectual energy,” said James Armstrong, who manages assets including Berkshire shares as president of Henry H. Armstrong Associates.Buffett and Munger spent hours fielding questions, from the economy, to climate and diversity, the SPAC boom, taxes and succession. Here’s the lowdown:Climate Pressure:Berkshire faced pressure from two shareholders proposals, one to improve transparency related to its efforts on climate change. The topic was bound to be a feature at the meeting – and it was.When asked about the proposals, Buffett stuck to his previous stance. Measures to produce big reports on diversity and climate for his business lines spanning energy to railroads were, he said, “asinine.” The proposals were later voted down.Buffett was also asked about Berkshire’s stake in oil and gas producer Chevron Corp., which it disclosed earlier this year. Buffett said he felt “no compunction” in the least about its ownership in the company, which he said had benefited society in many ways. While he acknowledged the world is shifting away from hydrocarbons, people on the extreme sides of either argument are “a little nuts,” he said.Greg Abel, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Energy, called climate change a “material risk.” He added that they’re setting targets and spending $18 billion over 10 years on transmission infrastructure.Killer SPACs:Buffett warned investors that Berkshire might not have much luck striking deals amid the boom in special purpose acquisition companies that gripped the market over the past year.“It’s a killer,” Buffett said about the influence of SPAC companies on Berkshire’s ability to find businesses to buy. “That won’t go on forever, but it’s where the money is now, and Wall Street goes where the money is.”Buffett, 90, also spent part of Berkshire’s annual meeting Saturday addressing the recent boom in retail and day trading. A lot of people have entered the stock market “casino” over the past year, he said.Tax:Buffett said President Joe Biden’s proposals for a corporate tax hike would hurt Berkshire shareholders. He added that antitrust laws and tax policy could change things for the company but new tax laws wouldn’t alter its no-dividend policy.Succession:Buffett and Munger, 97, fielded the majority of questions at Saturday’s meeting, but their two top deputies Abel and Ajit Jain, who runs the insurers, also shared the stage. Investors were able to get a closer look at the pair who are considered the top candidates for the job.Munger dropped a little mention of the post-Buffett years that drew speculation on social media about the most likely candidate to succeed Buffett. The CEO was pointing out that decentralization doesn’t work everywhere because it requires a certain type of culture that businesses need to have.“Yeah, but we do,” Munger insisted. “And Greg will keep the culture.”Abel has long been considered the top candidate to replace Buffett, especially when he was promoted to a vice chairman role overseeing all non-insurance operations, which gives him a wide array of responsibilities, including oversight of the railroad BNSF and the energy business.Errors:Buffett offered a few mea culpas during Saturday’s meeting. He noted that selling some Apple Inc. stock last year was a mistake and even said that Haven, the health care venture with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Amazon.com Inc., thought it could fight the “tape worm” of American health care costs but the worm won.“That was probably a mistake,” Buffett said of those Apple stock sales last year. Berkshire still owned a roughly $110 billion stake in the iPhone maker at the end of March. “In fact, Charlie, in his usual low-key way, let me know that you thought it was a mistake too,” he said to Munger, who shared the stage with him.Cash Pile:Before the annual meeting started, the company released its first-quarter earnings, giving investors a dive into the 19.5% operating profit gain during the period.Berkshire ended the quarter with a near-record $145.4 billion of cash on hand as it continued to generate funds faster than Buffett could deploy them. But Buffett also ended pulling back on some capital deployment levers during the period. He bought back just $6.6 billion of Berkshire’s own stock, short of the record $9 billion set in prior quarters, and ended up with the second-highest level of net stock sales in the first quarter in almost five years.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Ethereum price shoots past $3,000 for the first time

Yuriko Nakao/GETTY

Bitcoin and Dogecoin both hit new all-time highs in April, but May appears to be Ethereum’s month. The cryptocurrency, second biggest in the world and the most widely used, hit $3,000 for the first time on Sunday. As is customary with headline-grabbing cryptocurrencies, it’s been a meteoric rise for Ethereum over the last year. It’s price on this day one year ago? Just over $207.

The cryptocurrency now has a marketcap of just under $350 billion. It’s been growing rapidly over the past year, mostly over anticipation for its relaunch as Ether 2.0, but this latest rally is tied to news last week that the European Investment Bank issued $120 million (€100 million) in bonds using Ethereum blockchain.

While Bitcoin is the most well known cryptocurrency, costing $58,000 per token and with a market cap of over a trillion dollars, it’s almost entirely used as a speculative asset that people can buy or sell. Ether, a cryptocurrency built on the ethereum blockchain, is the most widely used digital currency in crypto trading. Underneath Bitcoin and Ethereum are tens of thousands of “altcoins”, similar to pennystocks, which are mostly traded using Ether. NFTs, tokens that authenticate ownership of a digital product, are notably bought and sold using Ether, not Bitcoin.

Coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum have grown substantially since the end of 2020 for many reasons, including big tech’s increasing embrace of cryptocurrency and the IPO success of Coin Base. Ethereum’s price has also grown in anticipation of Ether 2.0, which will change the fundamental way in which tokens are minted. Without getting lost in the technical mumbo jumbo – you can read here if you’re interested in the difference between Proof of Work and Proof of Stake –ether 2.0 promises to be more efficient, which will be good for traders and the planet.

Ethereum Cryptocurrency Breaks Past $3,000 in Record High

Cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) hit a record high of $3,017 (roughly Rs. 2.2 lakhs) on Monday, extending last week’s rally in the wake of a report that the European Investment Bank (EIB) could launch a digital bond sale on the Ethereum blockchain network.

Ether rose 2 percent on the Bitstamp exchange to hit the milestone early in Asia trade. It is up more than 300 percent for the year so far, outpacing a 95 percent rise in the more popular Bitcoin.

Ether is the digital currency or token that facilitates transactions on the Ethereum blockchain and it is the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap behind Bitcoin.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources, that the EIB plans to issue a two-year 100-million-euro digital bond.

Bitcoin hovered around $58,000 (roughly Rs. 43 lakhs) on Monday.

In related news, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently donated 100 ETH and 100 MKR, worth approximately $606,110 (roughly Rs. 4.5 crores), for use in COVID-19 relief in India. Ethereum, the open-source blockchain software founded in 2014, is used to build contracts on the blockchain, and has recently been in the news a lot because of its use in the making and transferring of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — digital collectibles that can be uniquely identified and held by individuals.

Australian cricketer Brett Lee, too, has donated 1 Bitcoin (roughly Rs. 40 lakhs) to the Crypto Relief Fund to help his “second home” India ensure oxygen supplies for hospitals and win the battle against the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. India has been recording close to 4,00,000 COVID-19 cases daily that has stretched the country’s health infrastructure to its limits.