BTC Price Retests $62K as Bitcoin Preps 'Very High Impact' Month End

A new HBO documentary about the origins of bitcoin suggests that Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the original cryptocurrency, is likely Canadian software developer Peter Todd. 

Called Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery, the 100-minute film on Tuesday featured interviews with a handful of people who had been involved with bitcoin from early on, including long-time Satoshi candidate Adam Back, investor Roger Ver, bitcoin marketer Samson Mow and Todd.

The documentary’s creator, Cullen Hoback, used circumstantial evidence such as postings from an early bitcoiner forum to guess that Todd is Satoshi Nakamoto. When confronted, Todd shrugged off the idea, and called the suggestion “ludicrous”. Like several people in the film, Todd said, at one point, “I am Satoshi Nakamoto,” while seemingly laughing the idea off.

Who exactly Satoshi Nakamoto is — a person or a group — has been subject of much speculation since bitcoin’s launch in January 2009. The cryptocurrency has since burst onto the mainstream, ending up on the books of companies like MicroStrategy Inc and part of US exchange-traded funds, holding billions of dollars worth of the token. Over the years, various publications have suggested a variety of people were Satoshi Nakamoto. In 2014, Newsweek claimed he was Dorian Nakamoto, which the physicist denied. In 2015, the New York Times pointed the finger at computer scientist Nick Szabo. Australian Craig Wright famously proclaimed himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto, until a UK judge ruled he is not bitcoin’s creator.

Todd is listed as an applied cryptography consultant on developer platform GitHub, which says he is based in Toronto. A LinkedIn profile for someone of the same name lists him as “Chief Naysayer” at bitcoin security provider Coinkite, the chief scientist at anonymising wallet service Dark Wallet, and chief scientist at project Mastercoin. He graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Integrated Media from the OCAD University in 2011, according to the LinkedIn profile. 

The white paper outlining bitcoin came out in 2008, while the bitcoin network came online in 2009. Todd has been discussed as a possible Satoshi Nakamoto for years.

Even though Satoshi Nakamoto hasn’t been heard of since 2011, he or they continue to be of importance. Satoshi Nakamoto’s wallets hold around one million bitcoin, worth about US$62.40 billion (RM267.23 billion) at current prices. Any moves by the bitcoin creator could crash the price. But the creator’s tokens haven’t moved in many years.

The creator’s identity could also have a profound impact on governments’ and corporations’ willingness to continue to adopt the world’s biggest cryptocurrency.

Source: The edge markets

Source: Poundsterlinglive

Keppel’s wholly-owned subsidiary Keppel Pegasus was awarded $34 million plus interest for its arbitration proceedings against Cuscaden Peak Investments, then known as Singapore Press Holdings (SPH).

The interest rate will be 5.33 per cent per annum from April 29, 2022, which is the date Keppel Pegasus demanded payment for an agreed break fee under an implementation agreement between the company and SPH.

On Oct 9, Keppel said the arbitral award is not expected to have a material impact on the group’s net tangible assets per share nor earnings per share for its current financial year.

The arbitral tribunal will decide on costs in a separate award, it added.

Shares of Keppel were trading down 0.15 per cent at $6.52 as at 9.25am on Oct 9, after the announcement.

The group was a contesting bidder in the lead-up to Cuscaden Peak’s eventual takeover of SPH in 2022 for $2.40 apiece, comprising $1.602 in cash and 0.782 of an SPH Reit unit through a distribution-in-specie by SPH.

Cuscaden is a consortium backed by Hotel Properties, businessman Ong Beng Seng and two Temasek-linked entities, CLA and Mapletree.

Its offer trumped Keppel’s last $2.351 per-share bid, consisting of $0.868 per share in cash, 0.596 of a Keppel real estate investment trust (Reit) unit, and 0.782 of an SPH Reit unit.

After SPH terminated Keppel’s implementation agreement relating to the latter’s takeover offer, Keppel began arbitration proceedings to enforce its rights and seek various reliefs against the company, including specific performance of SPH’s obligations. 

Source: Straitstimes

After an almost 10% plunge yesterday. Mining stocks, including BHP and Rio Tinto remained under a decent selling pressure in Australia, but the bleeding in copper and iron ore slowed, the metals were flat to slightly positive in the Asian session.

Getting ugly

The selloff mainly concerned energy companies like Total and Eni, and their British and American peers as crude oil took a dive.US crude tumbled below the $73pb level and is consolidating near the $74pb this morning. Some suggested that the possibility of a ceasefire in the Middle East helped accelerating yesterday’s selloff. I am little convinced when the first thing I see in the morning is how Israel’s response to Iran would be ‘significant’ (Bloomberg). Therefore, oil’s short-term risks remain tilted to the upside, while the long-term outlook is comfortably bearish due to ample global supply, prospects of weakening global demand, until (and if) proven otherwise by the data.

Little concerned

Despite a 10% plunge in Hang Seng, the major US indices did well, yesterday. The S&P500 gained 1%, Nasdaq advanced 1.55% as Nvidia jumped 4% as the US 2-year yield eased below the 4% mark on balanced comments from the Federal Reserve (Fed) members. Some said the Fed should continue to focus on the employment market, while others said that the Fed should remain careful with the inflation leg. Overall, the comments and the economic data would justify a 25bp cut from the Fed in November, and that’s what the activity on Fed funds futures suggests today: a 88% chance of a 25bp cut.

But boy, these probabilities chance so rapidly. Due today, we will have a look at the latest FOMC meeting minutes to understand how and why the Fed opted for a 50bp cut at the latest meeting whereas they had the opportunity to start easing by a safe 25bp and avoid all that volatility, uncertainty and confusion around that decision. Then, we have a CPI update from the US scheduled for Thursday. If we see any undesired strength there, we could see the probability of a no cut take off as rapidly as the probability of a 50bp cut did last week.Matching fundamentals and technicals

The US dollar index consolidates near a major Fibonacci level, the 38.2% retracement on summer retreat, near the 102.50 level. Parallelly, the EURUSD consolidates near its own major Fibonacci retracement level, 1.0980. A move above or below these levels, respectively, will send the US dollar into a medium-term bullish consolidation zone, and the euro into the medium-term bearish consolidation zone. A sufficiently soft US CPI update could prevent that from happening, while a stronger-than-expected read would leave little doubt about the view that the euro deserves to weaken from the actual levels. There is not much to prevent the European Central Bank (ECB) from announcing a few more rate cuts in the coming meetings to support the slowing European economies when headline inflation has fallen below their 2% target. Core inflation, however, is another story. But the fact is, I like when technicals match the fundamental story, and the US CPI will provide a good basis to justify a fresh move in the USD to one way or the other.

And speaking of central banks, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) announced a 50bp cut today, as expected. The kiwi-dollar is testing the 200-DMA to the downside this morning, with a stronger case for a slide below the 60 cents level.

Malaysia is set to transition away from coal power, with coal-fired generation being gradually phased out and no new coal plants in the pipeline, said Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. 

Fadillah, who is also the energy transition and water transformation minister, said the effort is in line with the nation’s commitment to transitioning towards a lower carbon energy system, moving away from fossil fuels, and embracing cleaner and sustainable energy alternatives.

He said the government aims to increase the share of renewable energy in the national electricity mix to 40% by 2035, and 70% by 2050. 

“Currently, our renewable capacity stands at 28%, and technological advancements will be critical to our progress.

“We are moving away from coal. Coal-fired generation will be gradually phased out, and no new coal power plants will be established…reducing coal dependency is critical to limiting global warming, and we are acting on that premise,” he said.

He said this in his opening remarks at the Clean Energy Transition Asia (CETA) Summit 2024, in conjunction with the International Greentech and Eco Product Exhibition and Conference Malaysia (IGEM) 2024, at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Wednesday.

Fadillah added that the government is moving towards enhancing grid flexibility by investing in smart grids, digitalisation, and energy storage systems, with the target of a 20% increase in grid flexibility by 2035.

He said pushing for regional power grid integration would further support and enhance energy security within member states, and the regional integrated grid can as well be the economic catalyst in fostering regional cooperation through cross-border renewable energy trade.

Meanwhile, as Malaysia prepares to assume the Asean chairmanship in 2025, Fadillah said this marks a significant opportunity for the country to lead the region in advancing cross-border renewable energy trade. 

“This is our moment to drive knowledge-sharing, advance policy innovations, and position Malaysia as a regional leader in the shift towards cleaner energy. 

“We will demonstrate our unwavering commitment to sustainability, and drive meaningful progress across Asean, by leveraging our key industries, semiconductors, electric vehicles, and digitalisation,” he said.

Fadillah added that as global demand for green electricity rises, Malaysia stands poised to seize this opportunity, attracting more foreign investments that will drive the nation’s green economy forward.

Source: Theedgemarkets

The United States said on Oct 8 that it may ask a judge to force Alphabet’s Google to divest parts of its business, such as its Chrome browser and Android operating system, that it says are used to maintain an illegal monopoly in online search.

In a landmark case, a judge found in August that Google, which processes 90 per cent of US internet searches, had built an illegal monopoly. The Justice Department’s proposed remedies have the potential to reshape how people find information on the internet, while shrinking Google’s revenues and giving its competitors more room to grow.

“Fully remedying these harms requires not only ending Google’s control of distribution today, but also ensuring Google cannot control the distribution of tomorrow,” the Justice Department said.

The proposed fixes will also aim to keep Google’s past dominance from extending to the burgeoning business of artificial intelligence (AI), prosecutors said.

The filing represents Washington’s first push to dismantle a company for illegal monopolisation since unsuccessful efforts to break up Microsoft two decades ago. The 32-page filing lays out a framework of potential options for the judge to consider as the case moves to the remedy phase.

Antitrust enforcers said Google gained scale and data benefits from its illegal distribution agreements with other tech companies that made its search engine the default option on smartphones and web browsers. 

The Justice Department is also considering asking for an order that would require Google to make available to rivals the indexes, data and models it uses for Google search and AI-assisted search features.

It might also ask the court to end Google’s payments to have its search engine pre-installed or set as the default on new devices.

Google has made annual payments - US$26.3 billion (S$34.3 billion) in 2021 - to companies including Apple and other device manufacturers to ensure that its search engine remained the default on smartphones and browsers, keeping its market share strong.

Google called the proposals “radical” and said they “go far beyond the specific legal issues in this case.”

Google has said it plans to appeal, and that its search engine has won users with its quality. It adds that it faces robust competition from Amazon and other sites where users go directly to search for goods or services, and that users can choose other search engines as their default.

Some of the ideas in the breakup proposal had previously garnered support from Google’s smaller competitors such as reviews site Yelp and rival search engine company DuckDuckGo.

Yelp, which sued Google over search in August, says spinning off Google’s Chrome browser and AI services should be on the table. Yelp also wants Google to be prohibited from giving preference to Google’s local business pages in search results.

The Justice Department is expected to file a more detailed proposal with the court by Nov 20. Google will have a chance to propose its own remedies by Dec 20.

US District Judge Amit Mehta’s ruling in Washington was a major win for antitrust enforcers who have brought an ambitious set of cases against Big Tech companies over the past four years.

On Oct 7, a different federal judge ordered Google to open up its app store for the next three years to resolve a separate antitrust case brought by Epic Games related to its dominance of app distribution on Android smartphones.

The company also plans to appeal that decision. 

Source: Straitstimes