News without the noise
Business and economic news
50 articles
Blockchain analytics company Elliptic has closed a $120 million Series D funding round backed by Deutsche Bank and Nasdaq Ventures, valuing the firm at $670 million, as major traditional financial institutions continue to expand their exposure to cryptocurrency infrastructure.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission is mounting a broad push to establish federal oversight of sports prediction markets, with Chairman Michael Selig confirming the agency is in talks with every major professional sports league while simultaneously backing prediction market platform Kalshi in a legal dispute with Ohio over who has the right to regulate these fast-growing financial instruments.
Bitcoin's current market drawdown — sitting roughly 35% below its all-time high — is proving significantly less severe than previous bear market cycles, according to multiple analysts, with steady inflows into Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and continued corporate accumulation helping to absorb selling pressure. However, warnings of a possible further pullback persist, highlighted by at least one large investor maintaining a costly short position despite mounting losses.
eBay's board of directors on Tuesday officially rejected an unsolicited $55.5 billion acquisition offer from GameStop, dismissing the proposal in blunt terms and raising serious doubts about the video game retailer's ability to finance such a deal — though GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen, who has quietly amassed a 5 percent stake in eBay, may yet take the fight directly to shareholders.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have agreed to sell their music catalogue to Warner Music Group in a deal valued at approximately $300 million, according to reports published on 11 May 2026, marking one of the largest catalogue acquisitions in recent music industry history.
The global payments landscape shifted on two fronts this week: S&P 500 payments firm Corpay announced a partnership with fintech firm BVNK to introduce stablecoin wallets and round-the-clock settlement for its 800,000-strong client network, while Syria moved to restore credit card payments as part of a broader effort to reintegrate into the international financial system.
Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, raised $222 million in a presale of its Arc token at a $3 billion valuation, the company announced on May 11, 2026, with prominent investors including a16z crypto, Andreessen Horowitz, and BlackRock participating in the round alongside the release of strong first-quarter financial results.
German energy giant E.ON has agreed to acquire struggling British energy firm Ovo in a deal that, if approved by regulators, would create the United Kingdom's largest gas and electricity supplier by customer numbers, serving approximately 9.6 million households.
Ronin Network, the blockchain infrastructure powering the popular Axie Infinity game, is migrating from an independent Ethereum sidechain to an Ethereum Layer 2 built on the OP Stack on May 12, 2026 — nearly four years after North Korean hacking group Lazarus stole more than $600 million in what remains the largest decentralised finance bridge exploit on record.
Strategy, the software-turned-Bitcoin treasury company led by Michael Saylor, resumed its cryptocurrency acquisitions on Sunday after a brief pause last week, purchasing 535 Bitcoin for approximately $43 million and pushing its total holdings to 818,869 BTC — representing more than 3.9% of the cryptocurrency's hard-capped supply of 21 million coins.
Ripple announced Monday that it has secured a $200 million debt facility from Neuberger Berman's Specialty Finance division to expand its Ripple Prime institutional brokerage platform, which the company says has tripled its revenue in the past year since Ripple acquired it for $1.25 billion.
CSL Limited, one of Australia's most celebrated corporate success stories, has suffered a devastating loss in market value estimated at $88 billion, with analysts warning that the bloodbath reflects structural and competitive pressures that extend well beyond the uncertainty created by US President Donald Trump's tariff regime.
Seven major bitcoin mining pools — including Foundry, AntPool, F2Pool, SpiderPool, and MARA Pool — have joined the Stratum V2 working group, collectively representing nearly three-quarters of Bitcoin's global hashrate and signalling a potentially significant shift in how the network's blocks are built.
The bitcoin market is showing signs of strain amid a contested rally, with on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant warning that profit-taking by holders is accelerating and a correction may be forthcoming — even as major miners like TeraWulf report that artificial intelligence compute revenue has already eclipsed their bitcoin mining income.
The Senate Banking Committee has announced it will hold a markup hearing for the Clarity Act on Thursday, March 14, marking a second attempt to advance sweeping cryptocurrency market structure legislation through the committee.
Mike Ashley, founder of Sports Direct, has admitted that he was behind the covert surveillance operation that captured footage of JD Sports chairman Peter Cowgill in an unauthorised meeting — footage that ultimately forced Cowgill's departure from the retail giant.
Cryptocurrency markets entered the second week of May 2026 with Bitcoin consolidating above the $80,000 mark and Ethereum continuing a prolonged underperformance against its larger rival, while a longer-term structural threat — quantum computing — is quietly pushing crypto firms to redesign the wallets that underpin both networks.
US authorities have launched an investigation into approximately $7 billion worth of oil-price bets that were placed ahead of news related to potential conflict with Iran, with officials describing the transactions as appearing 'well informed' — a characterisation that has triggered warnings from the Trump administration about insider trading.
European automobile manufacturers have absorbed an €8 billion financial blow from US tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, as Washington threatens to escalate levies to 25% unless the European Union moves forward with a trade agreement that has sat unresolved since last year.
Whitbread, the hospitality group behind Premier Inn hotels, announced on Wednesday it will shut all remaining Beefeater and Brewers Fayre restaurants in the UK and Ireland, resulting in the loss of approximately 3,800 jobs — around 12% of its total workforce — as it undertakes a strategic overhaul driven by higher taxes, rising operating costs, and pressure from a US activist investor.
Fresh inflation data has captured public attention, with economists and households alike scrutinising what the latest figures signal for interest rates, purchasing power, and the broader economic outlook.
A coordinated international law enforcement operation led by the FBI resulted in the arrest of 276 individuals across multiple countries in connection with sophisticated cryptocurrency fraud schemes known as 'pig butchering' scams, with Dubai police accounting for 275 of the arrests and Thai authorities detaining one additional suspect.
Alex Mashinsky, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius, has been permanently banned from the crypto industry under a $10 million settlement with the Federal Trade Commission — a dramatic reduction from an initial $4.7 billion judgment — as the broader digital asset sector contends with renewed security vulnerabilities and high-stakes recovery operations.
Bitcoin prices retreated this week as traders reduced risk exposure ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting, even as Eric Trump, co-founder of American Bitcoin, declared the cryptocurrency is in its 'greatest period ever' during a keynote at Bitcoin Las Vegas 2026.
Visa has significantly expanded its stablecoin settlement pilot program, adding five new blockchain networks — including Polygon, Base, Canton, Arc and Tempo — bringing the total to nine supported chains, as the program's annualised settlement run rate reached $7 billion and quarterly growth hit 50%, the company announced on Tuesday.
The Federal Reserve is expected to hold interest rates steady at its upcoming policy meeting, which is widely anticipated to be the last presided over by Chair Jerome Powell, as the Senate Banking Committee moves toward confirming Kevin Warsh as his successor.
A federal judge has dismissed Sam Bankman-Fried's motion for a new trial, rejecting the convicted FTX founder's claims that potential witnesses were subjected to 'government threats and retaliation' — characterising the allegations as 'wildly conspiratorial.'
Canada's Liberal government has proposed a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency ATMs, describing the machines as a primary vehicle for fraud and money laundering, as data and law enforcement agencies report rising financial losses linked to the devices.
Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to pay more than $8 billion to resolve its long-running legal battle with the United States government over its role in fuelling the opioid epidemic, in a settlement that will direct funds to communities across the country that have borne the brunt of the crisis.
Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, has announced a partnership with mining hardware manufacturer Canaan and Swiss technology firm ACME Swisstech to develop modular, upgradable Bitcoin mining systems, marking its latest expansion beyond its core stablecoin business into broader cryptocurrency infrastructure.
Robinhood reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $1.07 billion, a 15% year-over-year increase, even as its cryptocurrency trading revenue fell by roughly 47% to $134 million — a sharp decline offset by record-breaking activity in event betting and prediction markets.
Average US gasoline prices climbed to $4.18 per gallon on Thursday — the highest level since April 2022 — as stalled US-Israeli peace negotiations with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz continue to roil global oil markets, according to The Guardian.
Polymarket, one of the world's largest decentralized prediction market platforms, is in discussions with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to obtain regulatory approval to reopen its main exchange to American traders, according to reports from Bloomberg cited by CoinDesk and The Block.
Major decentralised finance protocols Aave and Compound, operating under the banner of DeFi United, on Monday released a technical recovery plan aimed at eliminating bad debt and restoring full backing for rsETH tokens following a $293 million exploit of the Kelp DAO protocol.
Visa has announced a partnership with WeFi, a fintech startup co-founded by a former Tether executive, to integrate cryptocurrency payment capabilities into Visa's global payment network, with a stated focus on expanding financial access to underbanked communities worldwide.
State Farm, one of the United States' largest home insurers, is facing multiple lawsuits alleging it systematically worked to reduce or deny legitimate insurance payouts to homeowners for hail damage — allegations the company has not publicly addressed in detail, and which arrive at a particularly fraught moment for American property insurance markets.
The European Commission has expanded its sanctions against Russia to include cryptocurrency exchanges, stablecoins and the country's central bank digital currency (CBDC), in a direct response to Moscow's growing use of digital assets to circumvent existing financial restrictions imposed since the invasion of Ukraine.
Cryptocurrency markets presented a contradictory picture this week as institutional investors poured $1.2 billion into crypto exchange-traded products for the fourth consecutive week, while Bitcoin's spot price reversed from the $79,500 level and fell roughly 2% following a surge in oil prices that rattled broader risk sentiment.
United Airlines chief executive Scott Kirby has publicly acknowledged for the first time that he approached American Airlines about a potential merger, only to be rebuffed — a rare public admission that adds fresh tension to the competitive rivalry between two of the United States' largest carriers.
Western Union, one of the world's oldest and largest money transfer companies, is preparing to launch its own stablecoin — dubbed USDPT — as early as May 2026, with CEO Devin McGranahan signalling a broader push to embed digital assets into the company's core payment infrastructure.
Wall Street's S&P 500 rallied to another record closing high on Friday as first-quarter corporate earnings continued to surpass analyst expectations, though the momentum is unlikely to carry immediately to Australian shores, with the ASX set for a flat opening.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's strategy of shelving near-finished films to claim tax write-offs — a cost-cutting measure adopted to manage the studio's substantial debt load — has generated mounting controversy, with the cancellation of 'Coyote v. Acme' emerging as the most prominent and damaging example of a practice critics say harms creators, audiences, and the broader film industry.
A nascent open-source payment protocol called x402 is gaining attention from cryptocurrency developers and AI infrastructure companies alike, with Coinbase's Jesse Pollak and others arguing it could become foundational infrastructure for a future in which AI agents autonomously purchase compute, data, and API services without human intervention.
BitMine Immersion Technologies, the Ethereum treasury firm backed by Wall Street veteran Tom Lee, has purchased approximately 10,000 ETH for $23.9 million directly from the Ethereum Foundation, marking the company's second such transaction after a $10 million purchase of 5,000 ETH last month.
Italian independent researcher Giancarlo Lelli has claimed a 1 bitcoin prize from Project Eleven after successfully breaking a 15-bit elliptic curve key using publicly accessible quantum hardware — the largest such demonstration ever recorded publicly, and one that has renewed debate about how close the cryptocurrency industry is to a so-called 'Q-Day' reckoning.
Sarah Breeden, the Bank of England's Deputy Governor for Financial Stability, warned on Thursday that record-high global stock markets do not fully reflect underlying economic risks and are likely to fall, pointing to stretched valuations in artificial intelligence stocks and private credit markets as particular sources of concern.
A growing divide between profitable and struggling airlines has reignited debate over industry consolidation in the United States, with President Donald Trump and leading aviation executives both suggesting that mergers could be the answer to the sector's uneven performance.
Morgan Stanley has launched a dedicated government money market fund — MSNXX — designed specifically for stablecoin issuers to hold their reserves, positioning the Wall Street bank as a major institutional custodian for the fast-growing stablecoin sector, according to reports published Thursday.
Spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds recorded their first eight-day consecutive inflow streak since October, drawing approximately $2 billion in fresh capital, according to CoinDesk data — a milestone that BNY Asset Servicing says has pushed year-to-date ETF flows back into positive territory. However, on-chain analysts warn that short-term holders are selling at three times the rate historically associated with local market tops.
Major weapons and aircraft manufacturers reported improved financial results in early 2026, with Boeing narrowing its first-quarter losses on the back of a $2.3 billion US Pentagon contract, as sustained global conflicts continue to drive defence spending to elevated levels.