Overstock.com’s CEO denied reports the company suffered any significant losses because of a glitch in cryptocurrency systems, and said that, despite the media coverage, he still believes Bitcoin holds a lot of potential for the company.
“Right now we’re doing a tZero ICO raising $300 million...People are telling me that’s a business they think has a 3 billion or 4 billion value,” Patrick Byrne told Cheddar Friday.
“I literally have people on Wall St. saying, if I pull off the tZero ICO, and then over two years we do what we think we can do, they say that’s a $40 billion enterprise. People have no idea, yet how much of the financial system we intend to augment.”
Reports emerged earlier this week that a bug created a big opportunity for arbitrage, allowing customers to purchase items with Bitcoin Cash, which trades at roughly $2,500, and return them in exchange for Bitcoin, priced at more than $13,000.
Byrne said the issue was caused by the overwhelming trade volume at payment partner Coinbase. He claims the mix-up, which lasted milliseconds, did not result in any material losses.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/overstock-ceo-responds-to-bitcoin-mix-up).
The Senate set a Jan. 24 hearing for last year's debacle involving Ticketmaster's sale of Taylor Swift tickets.
Apple unveiled a new and improved HomePod.
Semafor plans to buy back Sam Bankman-Fried's $10 million investment in the company.
Volkswagen U.S. CEO Pablo Di Si joined Cheddar New to discuss record quarterly electric vehicle sales and his reaction to Tesla trimming prices on some vehicles by 20% last week. “We'll continue with our pricing strategy, we're not cutting prices on the vehicle's quality over quantity and product content,” he said.
Southwest Airlines pilots could be on the verge of a strike with a vote planned in May.
Party City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it aims to cut debt.
The federal government says it will begin a targeted crackdown on nursing homes’ abuse of antipsychotic drugs and misdiagnoses of schizophrenia in patients.
Spotify became the latest tech company to call on the European Union to take action against Apple over anti-competitive practices.
Mortgage demand continues to increase as rates dip while homebuilder sentiment is also on the rise.
Amazon has begun cutting about 18,000 workers this week, affecting largely Amazon stores and some in the technology unit.
