Join us on Twitter spaces for today’s Bulls, Bears & Blockchain show, where we’ll be tackling some of the most pressing topics in the financial world.
Be sure to join the conversation as we discuss:
- RIP FRC – Long Live JPM. Do the “rules” apply anymore?
- Venture Capital’s Wild Ride
- Ex CTFC chair pulls a Gary Gensler in front of Congress
Don’t miss out on this exciting discussion! Tune in to our Twitter Spaces show today at 5:30 pm EST and join the conversation.
Let’s dive right in!
RIP FRC – Long Live JPM. Do the “rules” apply anymore?
First Republic $FRC has been seized and sold to JP Morgan Chase.
— TradingView (@tradingview) May 1, 2023
The chart says everything you need to know. pic.twitter.com/XdKosSwU32
JPM and other “money center” banks have learned a valuable lesson from the Biden-led Feckless Fed – there is no need to acquire regional / Tier 2 banks in the traditional sense. All they need to do is wait for the Fed to overreact, shut them down and acquire them for pennies on the dollar in frenzied fed-forced dealmaking over the course of a weekend.
If that seems less-than-sporting to investors (especially FRB shareholders) and depositors, consider the fact that JPM now holds more than $2.4trillion in deposits – a violation of the Fed’s alleged rule against one bank holding more than 10% of all US deposits. State banking rules (NY, for example) also prohibit this level of control over US deposits by a single bank; yet this acquisition was allowed to take place. Is the Fed knowingly permitting – or worse still, encouraging, the consolidation of the US banking system among an elite cadre of banks in an effort to exert further control over money flow??
“The Fed – The Banking System is Fine. DTC to the Fed – Hold my Beer.”
The Depository Trust Company just quietly announced a 100% haircut – zero value – to collateral held in US banks that are parties to an interbank Line of Credit (LOC) agreement:
The list of banks affected:
Even the NYT has come to admit the Feckless Fed role in all of this:
“And the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, is likely to continue to raise interest rates — the very thing that catalyzed this year’s bank collapses.”
Source: Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
By Karl Russell
Venture Capital’s Wild Ride
NEWS: Venture capital is on the decline, crypto and broader VCs included.https://t.co/8kw78DPnu1
— Blockworks (@Blockworks_) May 1, 2023
Venture capital (VC) funding in the US took a massive hit in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023 as growing investor cautiousness weighed heavily on deal-making. According to GlobalData, VC deals value year-on-year (YoY) nosedived 50.2% from $72.6 billion in Q1 2022 to $36.1 billion in Q1 2023. Meanwhile, VC deals volume in the US YoY fell by 45.3% from 3,568 to 1,950 during the same period.
Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in the US during Q1 2023 included $6.5 billion fundraising by Stripe, $500 million raised by Rippling, $500 million raised by Sandbox AQ, and $350 million by Adept AI. Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in the disclosure of information in the public domain.
Ex CTFC chair pulls a Gary Gensler in front of Congress
The Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairman Gary Gensler made headlines last week for his inability to straightforwardly answer if Ether was a security or commodity. Late last week, Timothy Massad, the former chair of the CFTC (the Commodity Futures Trading Commission) walked into the same line of questioning only to dither in his response.
“The concern about Ether… was in the Merge, where they changed the system of validating transactions, there seemed to be a foundation, a group of people involved in that… Is that, under the Howey test, a common enterprise?”
– Timothy Massad
Shareholder Lawsuit Says Coinbase Execs, VCs Saved $1 Billion by Selling Before Bad News
A new civil lawsuit accuses Coinbase directors and executives of dumping shares soon after the crypto exchange went public, knowing it was likely to miss its financial targetshttps://t.co/uBAPId030J
— Semafor (@semafor) May 2, 2023
Coinbase still fighting on many fronts:
A new civil lawsuit accuses Coinbase directors and executives — a star-studded list of elite Silicon Valley investors including Marc Andreessen and Fred Wilson, along with the company’s CEO and its co-founder — of dumping shares soon after the crypto exchange went public, knowing it was likely to miss its financial targets. The nine named defendants, who include Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and CFO Alesia Haas, sold $2.9 billion worth of stock between the company’s market debut on April 14, 2021 and when the company reported its quarterly earnings a month later, according to the shareholder lawsuit and confirmed by a review of the company’s securities filings.
Join us today on Bulls, Bears & Blockchain
Let's go! Join us for another great 🐂🐻⛓️ Twitter space today at 5:30pm EST. Bulls, Bears, & Blockchain with your host @robnelsonlive & market masters @jonnajarian @MXLESQ & @AlexMascioli cover TradFi, Crypto, & Web3, there’s nothing more comprehensive.https://t.co/rca5KqAI46 pic.twitter.com/SIS7UkoXZC
— Revolution Radio @getRevRadio (@getrevradio) May 2, 2023
With so much at stake, it’s crucial to stay informed and involved in these discussions.
Don’t miss this opportunity to engage with experts Rob Nelson, Marc Lopresti, Jon Najarian and Alex Mascioli and make your voice heard in this critical conversation.
Join us on Twitter Spaces today at 5:30 pm EST and stay informed about the latest market trends. See you there!
