Cheddar's weekly program "The Crypto Craze" tracks the latest trends in the cryptocurrency space. Cheddar Anchors Hope King and Brad Smith track the biggest movers of the week, and new ways investors might be able to capitalize on this market.
Coinbase users took to social media and Reddit to complain about glitches on the platform. Coinbase says the root of the problem is credit card processing managed by Visa. But, Visa says they didn't cause the problem. Russell Brandom, Reporter at The Verge, explains the implications of these problems on the platform.
"This was going on for three weeks, and we're talking about thousands of dollars disappearing from people's accounts. That's kind of the worst thing that could happen for a service," said Brandom. "Coinbase has to take a lot of blame for this."
Bitcoin rebounded this week, trading above $10,000 for a short time. It still remains far from its all-time high of $19,000.
Brandom says Coinbase is getting most of the pie right now, but it should expect more and more competitors to emerge as this market continues to grow.
There's a new way to invest in Blockchain technology. Amplify ETFs launched a blockchain-based technology fund under the ticker "Blok" in January. Amplify ETF explains the opportunity he sees in this market, and responds to criticism facing one of the companies in this ETF's holding.
"The smallest position in the fund is Riot Blockchain," said Magoon. "The fund is actively managed so I expect the fund portfolio managers are adjusting the portfolio. This was a controversial company that we did some research in." Shares of Riot Blockchain plummeted after CNBC released a report suggesting the re-branding of the company was done for personal gain.
"Now that news has come out it really seems like the momentum of this stock is going downward, and I'm expecting that come tonight when we update our holdings I wouldn't expect to see that stock in the portfolio based on this report," said Magoon.
The PGA Tour has announced that it will suspend players that are competing in the LIV Golf event that teed off today. At least 17 players, including names like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, and Sergio Garcia are banned from the PGA Tour competition. Hilary Fordwich, a business analyst and golf expert, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the PGA had to go this route. This is a threat to the future of golf for them, and there's been many contentions about them not being fair and that this is vindictive," she said. "Don't forget, of course, they represent sort of a monopoly in the history of golf. So you've got two sides to this story. You've got those the purists, those that feel that golf should only be a certain way and that there are only these limited events that the PGA puts on. And then you've got other people who are saying … this is all about money"
Facebook parent Meta officially has changed it’s ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’. Paul Meeks, a portfolio manager, Independent Solutions Wealth Management, and a professor of practice in the Baker School of Business at The Citadel, joined Cheddar News to discuss why the tech giant has had to make big changes to its name, its ticker, and its business plans. "When you see what's happening in digital advertising — and there was a slowdown there even before the threat of a recession, which could cause a even more drastic slowdown next year — they had to pivot," he said. Meeks noted he sees Facebook dominating in the metaverse space going forward — whatever that may end up being.
Sports merchandising company Fanatics announced it will be making trading cards featuring college athletes, a deal made possible by the NCAA's change to NIL rules for its players. Anchors Kristen Scholer and Ken Buffa break down the deal for Cheddar.
Catching you up on today’s top business headlines with household wealth falling in Q1 for the first time in two years, Meta officially changing its ticker symbol from ‘FB’ to ‘META’, and updates on Tesla.
The European Union has approved a 40 percent quota for women to sit on company boards. This comes as only 9 of the 27 EU member states have gender equality legislation.
Amanda Victoria, co-founder and CEO of Siponey, joins Cheddar News to talk about the company's canned cocktails. The spritz is made with only four ingredients — wildflower honey, aged rye whiskey, sparkling water, and fresh lemon juice.
Officials and power operators are bracing the public for blackouts caused by higher-than-average temperatures this summer. Utility officials in California and Arizona are warning of potential interruptions this summer due to the strain on energy supplies. Heat waves and drought conditions weaken power grids and available electricity reserves. This also makes hydroelectric power less reliable and raises the risk of wildfires.
Cisco DeVries, CEO of OhmConnect, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
