New York CNN —Bitcoin surged to an all-time high Tuesday, shaking off a more-than-two-year rut that had put the future of the entire crypto ecosystem in question.
Bitcoin, the world’s oldest — and by far the largest — digital currency, traded above $69,000 Tuesday morning, topping the previous record of $68,789 reached on November 10, 2021, according to CoinMarketCap.
Over the past several months, bitcoin’s rally has been turbocharged by US regulators’ approval of exchange-traded funds pegged to the digital asset, which created an on-ramp for more traditional investors to incorporate bitcoin into their portfolios.
That approval took years of lobbying by crypto firms, and was granted only grudgingly by the Securities and Exchange Commission after a court ruled the regulator’s reasons for rejecting bitcoin ETF applications were “arbitrary and capricious.” READ MORE...
Kim Kardashian Charged by SEC for “Unlawfully Touting Crypto Security,” Agrees to $1.26M SettlementShe agreed to pay penalties, disgorgement and interest, while also cooperating with the SEC's ongoing investigation into EthereumMax: "Ms. Kardashian’s case also serves as a reminder to celebrities and others that the law requires them to disclose to the public when and how much they are paid to promote investing in securities." READ MORE...
Tesla boss Elon Musk has offered to buy Twitter, saying he is the right person to "unlock" the social media platform's "extraordinary potential".
In a surprise announcement, Mr Musk said he would pay $54.20 a share for Twitter, valuing it at about $40bn. It recently emerged that Mr Musk was Twitter's biggest shareholder after he built up a large stake in the firm. He said that if his offer was not accepted: "I would need to reconsider my position as a shareholder".
Twitter's share price rose by 5.3% to $48.32 in early trading.
A filing with the US financial regulator appeared to show text and/or voice messages from Mr Musk to Twitter's board, showing that he had raised the idea at the weekend that the business should go private.
Mr Musk had been invited to join the board, but Twitter announced on Sunday he had decided against it.
In the messages published in the filing, Mr Musk said he was not "playing the back-and-forth game" and said of his offer: "It's a high price and your shareholders will love it." He said he would have to sell his shares if the deal did not go through. "This is not a threat, it's simply not a good investment without the changes that need to be made," he added.
Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "This is a deeply hostile move from Elon Musk who has threatened to 'reconsider' his 9.2% stake in the company if his 100% acquisition offer is rejected." In his filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Mr Musk said he had invested in Twitter because "I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.
"However, since making my investment I now realize the company will neither thrive nor serve this societal imperative in its current form. Twitter needs to be transformed as a private company." He added: "Twitter has extraordinary potential. I will unlock it."
Twitter said its board "will carefully review the proposal to determine the course of action that it believes is in the best interest of the company and all Twitter stockholders".
Mr Musk is the world's richest man, according to Forbes magazine, with a net worth of $219bn mostly due to his shareholding in electric vehicle maker Tesla. He also leads the aerospace firm SpaceX. READ MORE...
California’s civil rights regulator said it’s suing Tesla Inc. for racial discrimination after finding widespread harassment of Black workers at the electric carmaker's factory near San Francisco.
The state’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing received complaints from hundreds of workers and “found evidence that Tesla’s Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay and promotion creating a hostile work environment,” Kevin Kish, the agency’s director, said in a statement late Wednesday.
The complaint in Alameda County Superior Court wasn’t immediately available on the court’s website. Tesla said in a Feb. 8 blog post — before the suit was filed — that the company “will be asking the court to pause the case and take other steps to ensure that facts and evidence will be heard.”
The DFEH said one Black worker told of hearing racial slurs as often as 50 to 100 times a day. Some who complained about the offensive language said supervisors and managers were active participants in the abuse or witnesses to it. On a daily basis, Black workers saw racist graffiti on restroom walls, lockers, benches, work stations, lunch tables and the break room, according to the agency’s emailed statement, which provided a detailed summary of its findings.Am
The agency is the state-level equivalent of the better-known U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, with a mission to protect Californians from unlawful discrimination in employment, housing and accommodations. The DFEH informed Tesla on Jan. 3 that it had grounds to file a complaint. Tesla warned investors of the agency’s investigation in the annual report it filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this week.
The automaker’s shares fell 2% at 9:32 a.m. Thursday in New York.
Numerous Complaints
Tesla has more than 99,000 employees globally, and the factory in Fremont employs in excess of 10,000 people. The car company headed by billionaire Elon Musk moved its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to Austin, Texas, last year. READ MORE...
