The Markets

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – The cryptocurrency market is now worth more than $3 trillion. As of 7:38 a.m. in London, the overall market cap of cryptocurrencies hit $3.01 trillion, according to CoinGecko pricing. The third- and fourth-biggest tokens, Binance Coin and Solana, have added more than 20% in the past seven days; all of the seven biggest coins are up over the last week. Bitcoin rose as much as 5.5% on Monday to $66,339,…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Wall Street leaders turned up their noses when Bitcoin exploded onto the scene more than a decade ago. Now they’re paying sweet premiums to crypto recruits, amassing an army of enthusiasts within the traditionally staid realm. Some of the biggest banks and financial firms have added about 1,000 crypto-related roles since 2018, according to Revelio Labs, which collects data by scraping LinkedIn. Among those hiring the most are JPMorgan Chase…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Digital-asset companies are pushing back against claims of excessive energy usage in the cryptocurrency sector as world leaders flock to Glasgow this week for key climate change talks.     Global Digital Finance, whose members include industry juggernauts BitMEX, Coinbase Global Inc. and Crypto.com called for greater data transparency around issues of sustainability. The group published a report on Monday in an effort to set industrywide environmental goals amid…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – A Mexican dealmaker in China was one of the key architects behind former President Donald Trump’s deal with a special purpose acquisition company. Shanghai-based ARC Group Ltd. was an adviser to Trump’s merger partner Digital World Acquisition Corp. and was tasked with building the SPAC’s deal pipeline, according to its listing prospectus. The boutique is led by Mexican founder Abraham Cinta, who’s lived in the Chinese financial center for over…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – After a wild week on Wall Street that saw inflation expectations reach decade highs, portfolio managers are staring down an ever-more dangerous prospect: A modest rise in yields that inflicts trillions of dollars in losses. It’s a result of investors’ exposure to duration, a key gauge of risk for bondholders that’s near record highs. Even a half-percentage point jump in yields from here, to roughly the pre-pandemic average in…

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Optimism about digital assets stoked by Bitcoin’s run to a record high has helped push the overall value of cryptocurrencies to an all-time peak of more than $2.7 trillion. That’s a climb of about $200 billion from the last high in May for a sector that now spans almost 10,000 coins, according to data from tracker CoinGecko. The ascent shows how bets on cryptos are spreading beyond Bitcoin amid enthusiasm about…