Bitcoin soars past key milestone
The world's leading cryptocurrency is continuing its monumental rise surpassing the $US120,000 ($AU182,000) mark for the first time, up 3.11 per cent to $122,643 ($AU186,708) during Monday's trading.
The jump in Bitcoin's price comes as the US House of Representatives begins deliberating a series of Crypto bills on Monday, dubbed 'Crypto Week.' Bitcoin surpasses a key milestone. Close-up generic Credit: istock
One of the most significant bills under consideration is the Genius Act, which could establish federal guardrails for the US dollar to be pegged to stablecoins and provide the pathway for private businesses to issue digital dollars.
The aim of the laws is to provide a clearer regulatory framework in the US for the digital asset industry.
eToro market analyst Josh Gilbert said investors were bringing into exchange traded funds on the back of US policy makers.
'Strong ETF inflows and a solid macro backdrop have helped drive market momentum and that momentum keeps driving new all-time highs,' he said.
'The pace of gains in recent weeks reflects not just growing demand, but the growing maturity of bitcoin as an asset class.'
Mr Gilbert said publicly traded companies are starting to adopt bitcoin as part of their treasury strategy in some instances taking out billion dollar stakes in the coin.
'At the same time, retirement funds and sovereign wealth funds are starting to gain exposure through ETFs, adding to the wave of demand chasing a fixed supply.
'Central banks keep running expansive monetary policies and global money supply keeps rising. Crypto Week is helping to drive interest in Bitcoin. NewsWire / Andrew Henshaw Credit: News Corp Australia
He also said inflation was helping to drive investors' interest.
'In that environment, an asset with fixed, decentralised supply cements itself as an alternative store of value,' Mr Gilbert said.
'Bitcoin as an asset in an investment portfolio is still in its infancy, and that in itself creates a huge opportunity for bitcoin and crypto to flourish over the next decade,' he said.
'This is just the beginning of widespread adoption, seamless integration with traditional finance, and robust regulatory frameworks.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
14 hours ago
- 7NEWS
GWM teases Ferrari-fighting supercar
GWM is set to unveil its first supercar as it looks to muscle in on Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren turf. Company chairman Wei Jiajun posted an image of what appears to be a low-slung, two-door sports car on social media to celebrate the automaker's 35th anniversary. The vehicle under a silk cover sits below the waist height of the executives surrounding it, with a low bonnet and arching rear silhouette suggesting it has a mid-mounted powertrain. To be launched under a new 'super luxury' sub-brand called Confidence Auto, development of a GWM supercar was confirmed by GWM chief technology officer Wu Huixiao earlier this year. CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. The confirmation came with the bold promise it would be better than the Ferrari SF90, the Italian brand's first plug-in hybrid (PHEV) supercar. In Australia, the SF90 has a list price of $846,888, meaning a price tag of more than $1 million once on-road costs are added. Car News China reports the GWM supercar will be priced at $US140,000 ($A211,600), to be cheaper than both the SF90 and the $A398,975 Yangwang U9 electric supercar made by rival BYD. The flagship Yangwang – a brand under consideration for Australia – uses four electric motors to give the electric U9 a 960kW output with a 2.36-second 0-100km/h claim and top speed of 309km/h. It's not the only Chinese supercar, with GAC's Hyptec brand offering the SSR with a 900kW/1230Nm tri-motor electric powertrain that gives it a claimed 0-100km/h time of as low as 1.9 seconds. ABOVE: Hyptec SSR, Yangwang U9 Ferrari's SF90 uses a mid-mounted 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 engine and a trio of electric motors to produce 735kW/800Nm, enabling a 2.5-second 0-100km/h time and 340km/h top speed. GWM showed off a 4.0-litre V8 petrol engine of its own earlier this year, developed entirely in-house and designed as part of a PHEV powertrain. The V8 was originally destined for a large pickup truck to compete with the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and Ram 1500 in the US. Those plans have been put on hold given the import tariffs introduced on Chinese-made vehicles by US President Donald Trump. While GWM has previously suggested the engine's physical dimensions ruled it out for the supercar, it could be repurposed given the idling of the V8 US truck project. GWM International vice-president James Yang told Australia media in Shanghai earlier this year the new V8 was under consideration for several models to be sold in China and export markets, including Australia. 'For the past three-four years we have been working on this V8, including lab as well as real-world testing,' said Mr Wang. Mr Wang also suggested the V8 is under consideration for GWM models, including the Tank 300 off-roader.
West Australian
a day ago
- West Australian
Elon Musk's Tesla makes multi-billion-dollar bitcoin misstep in sell off at one of the worst possible times
Tesla missed on the top and bottom lines in the second quarter, but another miss was buried in its investor deck. The company's digital assets are currently valued at $US1.24 billion ($1.8 billion). That's up substantially from $US722 million a year ago. But anyone who's been following the crypto market knows that the figure represents a lost opportunity amounting to billions of dollars in missed gains for the electric vehicle maker. Bitcoin is trading near a record and is up 80 per cent over the past year. Tesla sold 75 per cent of its holdings in mid-2022, when the digital currency was trading at a fraction of its current price. While chief executive Elon Musk has made clear that the future of his electric vehicle company is about robotaxis and humanoid robots — not about crypto investments — the business in its current form is struggling and could use the cash boost. Tesla reported a second straight drop in auto revenue in its earnings report late Wednesday, and came up short of Wall Street estimates. The stock plunged 8 per cent on Thursday and is now down about 25 per cent for the year, by far the biggest drop among tech's megacaps. Robotaxis and Optimus robots are huge and costly bets for Mr Musk in markets with stiff competition and ever-changing dynamics. Tesla has also acknowledged that US President Donald Trump's tariffs and the expiration of federal EV tax credits could hurt the company's core business in the coming quarters. Tesla's digital assets, meanwhile, are bolstering profitability. Gains from bitcoin in the second quarter amounted to $US284 million in a period when total net income was $US1.17 billion. The gains could have been much greater. In early 2021, Tesla invested $US1.5 billion in bitcoin, banking on what the EV company called the digital currency's 'long-term potential' and to add 'more flexibility to further diversify and maximise returns on our cash.' Mr Musk had become a loud proponent of bitcoin online, and in January of that year, the currency skyrocketed 20 per cent in a day after the Tesla CEO added #bitcoin to his bio on Twitter, now X. By mid-2022, the world was in a much different place. The COVID-era boom was gone, replaced by soaring inflation and rising interest rates, an equation that pushed investors out of risky assets. Tesla said in the second quarter of that year that it sold three-quarters of its bitcoin holdings, adding cash to its balance sheet at a time when equity and crypto markets were simultaneously plunging. Tesla lost about two-thirds of its market cap in 2022, and bitcoin fell by 60 per cent. However, bitcoin has rebounded sharply since then, getting an added boost this year from the Trump Administration's efforts to loosen regulations and its promise to create a strategic bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin is currently trading at over $US119,000, up about sixfold from the end of the second quarter of 2022, the period when Tesla made its big move out. Had Tesla held on to all of its bitcoin, that stash would be worth roughly $US5 billion, based on estimates of how much Tesla bought in 2021, instead of $US1.24 billion. The $936 million worth of bitcoin the company converted to cash would currently be valued at over $US3.5 billion. Tesla didn't respond to a request for comment. As for Mr Musk, he's hardly said anything about bitcoin on his social network X in the past three years. In March 2022, shortly before Tesla began dumping bitcoin, he wrote regarding cryptocurrencies, 'I still own & won't sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw.' — CNBC's Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
7NEWS
2 days ago
- 7NEWS
Cheaper Tesla production starts: could a sub-$50k Tesla be sold in Australia?
Tesla has confirmed it has started production of its cheapest model yet in the United States (US). The announcement came during an earnings call where the electric vehicle (EV) brand confirmed its largest quarterly financial loss in more than a decade. According to Tesla, production of the cheaper model – expected to cost around $US35,000 ($A53,000) – started in June, ahead of sales beginning in the US later this year. Australian arrivals are yet to be confirmed. 'We started the production of the lower-cost model as planned in the first half of 2025,' said Tesla chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja. 'However, given our focus on building and delivering as many vehicles as possible in the US before the EV credit expires, and the additional complexity of ramping a new product, the ramp will happen next quarter slower than initially expected.' CarExpert can save you thousands on a new car. Click here to get a great deal. Further details of the vehicle are still to be announced, however Tesla CEO Elon Musk said during the call 'it's just a Model Y '. It's not clear if an upcoming, more affordable Model Y for China – codenamed E41, and set to enter production in 2026 – is the same vehicle. This cut-price version of the Model Y – the best-selling EV in the world and Australia in 2024 – is reportedly intended to battle more affordable rivals from Chinese brands such as BYD. It will reportedly be around 20 per cent more affordable than the existing Model Y. The mid-size SUV in Australia currently starts at $58,900 before on-road costs. A 20 per cent saving would bring the entry-level Model Y price down to $47,120 before on-road costs in Australia. Tesla was reportedly working on a completely new, lower-priced EV – said to be named 'Model 2' – as part of Mr Musk's long-term goal to make electric cars affordable with a 'low-cost family car' announced in 2006. The Model 2 was aimed to drive sales growth amid an increasing number of EV competitors and capitalise on lower production costs as EV production spread globally. Production was scheduled to begin in the second half of this year, however reports early last year indicated the project had been scrapped. The automaker launched its robotaxi service in June in the US city of Phoenix, Arizona, with Mr Musk expecting significant growth to occur – including plans to offer its Cybercab robotaxi for sale to fleets and private buyers. The Cybercab is a purpose-built autonomous vehicle with a focus on lower-cost per-mile driving, which may have been a basis for the previous 'Model 2'. This includes a reduced top speed, which Mr Musk said enables cheaper tyres and other lower-cost parts for a more affordable price. Mr Musk suggested owners of Tesla cars – and even EVs made by other automakers – could provide owners a revenue source by serving as robotaxis when the owner doesn't need them. 'I mean, the fundamentally … biggest obstacle remains … people don't have enough money in the bank account to buy it [the robotaxi]. Literally, that is the issue – not a lack of desire, but a lack of ability – so the more affordable we can make the car, the better,' he said.
