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USDC 'Stablecoin' Breaks Peg As Circle Admits Billions Stuck With SVB
Yesterday afternoon, after the equity market close, USD Coin (USDC) issuer Circle revealed that $3.3 billion of its $40 billion reserves were tied up in now-failed Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
Specifically, on March 9, Circle initiated a wire transfer to remove its funds from SVB as the FDIC-insured bank was about to shut operations. However, two days later, on March 11, Circle confirmed that the wire transfers were not wholly processed, with $3.3 billion of USDC reserves still with SVB.
Almost immediately, leading crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase both said that they would temporarily suspend USDC conversions as the contagion from the collapse of SVB plays out.
Citing "current market conditions" without naming Silicon Valley Bank, Binance said it has temporarily suspended auto-conversion of USDC to BUSD.
https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/usdc-stablecoin-breaks-peg-circle-admits-billions-stuck-svb
What Comes After The Great Liquidation?
When 2023 started, there was a general sense that the stock and bond markets had turned over a new leaf. A repeat of 2022 was out of the question.
The primary assumption was that inflation would relent. After that, everything else would neatly fall in line. Specifically, interest rates would decline, and the next great stock market boom would bubble up just in time to bailout the meager retirement savings of aging baby boomers.
That was the general outlook when 2023 commenced. But instead, the opposite is now happening. Inflation is persisting. Interest rates are rising. And stock and real estate prices are headed down, down, down.
This week, for example, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, in his semi-annual Congressional testimony, clarified that interest rates would go “higher than previously anticipated.” He also noted that, if needed, he’s “prepared to increase the pace of rate hikes.”
In other words, the much-anticipated Powell pivot has gone on indefinite hiatus. You can fight the Fed and buy stocks if you must. But you won’t likely be very happy with the results.
Moreover, Fed rate hikes are only part of the story. To be clear, the Fed’s rate hikes are to the federal funds rate. However, they do, in fact, influence Treasury rates.
Since March 2022, the Fed has hiked the federal funds rate from a target range of 0 to 0.25 percent to a range of 4.50 to 4.75 percent. As a result, and over this duration, the 2-year Treasury yield has jumped from 1.75 to over 5 percent.
What to make of it…
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/what-comes-after-great-liquidation
Secretive 'Wearable Camera' Startup With Ex-Apple Execs Secures $100 Million, Partners With OpenAI
WSJ reports that a new investment round of $100 million has been secured by a secretive startup called Humane Inc., founded by ex-Apple executives, along with a partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT. Although the startup's device is shrouded in mystery, it seems to be developing a wearable camera powered by artificial intelligence.
According to data pulled from Crunchbase, a Series C round of $100 million was raised on March 8. It attracted a long list of top investors, including Kindred Ventures (which led the round), SK Networks, LG Technology Ventures, Microsoft, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures, and OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman.
"This Series C round presented an opportunity to raise money through equity, and to bring on board great VCs and strategic partners who would like to participate in equity as the company grows," founder Chaudhri Bongiorno told TechCrunch in an email interview.
"At Humane, we're building a first-of-its-kind device and services platform — we're growing fast, and we've been focused on innovation, research and development," he said.
According to The Verge, the startup is developing a wearable camera device that would allow the user to have access to AI technology at all times. It sounds like this is ChatGPT on steroids…
A leaked investor pitch deck from 2021 revealed by tech blog Daring Fireball describes the device as a camera that "captures moments you didn't think to capture" or "moments you want to recall."
The slide deck continues: The AI software with the wearable camera will be able to create compositions of images and videos captured by the device in different styles like a documentary, candid, landscape, lifestyle, photojournalism, filmmaking, and sports.
The deck also said: "You can mark them [the photos and videos] by tapping record, and those moments will be cued to be processed on the server so you can recall them in different styles, either as images or videos."
Users could have the ability to ask the device questions about their surroundings, such as "What is the name of that building?" or "What type of car is that?"
Other features include "Memory recall," "Senior monitoring," and even "Personal live broadcasting."
The arrival of AI-powered wearable technologies has raised concerns regarding privacy issues, given the nature of these intelligent devices that constantly monitor our daily lives.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/secretive-wearable-camera-startup-ex-apple-execs-secures-100-million-partners-openai