Ukrainians were paying a steep premium for Tether's stablecoin while facing uncertainty as Russia invaded Thursday. The price of USDT on the popular Ukrainian cryptocurrency exchange Kuna jumped Thursday to about $1.10 per USDT, which is supposed to maintain a price of $1.
Fintech and digital payments firm Block reported better-than-expected 2021 Q4 results after the market closed on Thursday. Total revenue was $4.08 billion, up 29% year-over-year, narrowly topping the $4.04 billion analyst consensus.
Coinbase defied analyst predictions on Thursday by announcing nearly $2.5 billion in revenue for Q4. The monthly active user base also surged to 11.4 million.
The crackdown on crypto in China has stepped up yet another level, thanks to China’s new Supreme Court ruling that enable fines and potentially lengthy jail sentences for citizens found guilty of fundraising via crypto tokens.
U.S. stocks staged a sharp comeback Thursday as investors piled into growth and technology stocks in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Stocks and futures fell in the aftermath of the attacks, however optimism grew after President Biden announced new sanctions on Russian elites, state-owned enterprises, and banks.
Aluminum rallied to a new record in London and nickel surged to the highest in more than a decade, leading gains in industrial-metals markets as the Ukraine crisis added to supply risks in an industry already facing critical shortages.
Oil pared most of its gains after climbing to $100 a barrel when President Biden said the U.S. is working with major consuming nations to coordinate a collective release from strategic petroleum reserves, while continuing to spare Russian supplies from sanctions.
Flows of natural gas into Europe via Ukraine, which has a web of Soviet-era pipes designed to funnel Russian gas to Europe, were stable early Thursday. Nevertheless, prices jumped around the world, with the European benchmark in northwest Europe rising 30% in early trading.