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.
trivago reported its last earnings of 2021 yesterday, marking the end of a rollercoaster year. The online hotel search site was forced to cut costs during the pandemic as the travel industry shut down entirely, instead pivoting its strategy to meet customer demand in other ways. Matthias Tillmann, CFO of trivago, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the company's results and why he's optimistic about the future of the travel industry in 2022.
PLAY, a low-cost airline headquartered in Iceland, is expanding service to New York Stewart International Airport, marking its third destination in the United States. PLAY is the latest affordable carrier to fly onto the scene, debuting its first flights a little more than six months ago. Birgir Jonsson, CEO of PLAY, joined Cheddar to discuss what this expansion means for the airline and what it's been like to lead a new airline during a pandemic. "For us to get into the market now, have the availability of great, brand new aircraft at historically low prices, and basically being able to secure a low operating cost base for the future is a completely rare opportunity," Jonsson said. "We can get into the market now when our competitors are also weak."
On Monday, Peloton CEO John Foley stepped down, 2,800 layoffs were announced, and its stock price skyrocketed. Lydia Moynihan, business reporter for the New York Post joined Cheddar News to talk about why investors are excited about this shift in power, while thousands of its workers were let go in a less than ideal manner. "One of the headlines that emerged was that even as they were being fired, Foley sort of couched it as, 'well, you know what, you're still gonna get a year's login to a Peloton subscription', as if somehow if that would make things better," Moynihan said of the soon-to-be ex-CEO. "So, even in that, it was seen as a very sort of tone-deaf move as people were being axed."
Low-cost airlines Frontier and Spirit have agreed to merge in a deal worth $6.6 billion. The new company name and other terms of the deal have not been disclosed. If approved, the merger would be the fifth-largest airline in the United States. Jonathan Root, senior vice president at Moody's, joins Closing Bell to discuss the impact this deal could have on the broader airline industry, as well as why it makes sense for both discount airlines to combine.
