2024-11-21 20:10

Trump has promised crypto-friendly administration Council likely to be housed within White House, source says Will likely coordinate policy, set up bitcoin reserve Industry wants end to Biden enforcement actions Nov 21 (Reuters) - A slew of crypto companies including Ripple, Kraken and Circle are jostling for a seat on President-elect Donald Trump's promised crypto advisory council, seeking a say in his planned overhaul of U.S. policy, according to several digital asset industry executives. Campaigning at a July bitcoin conference in Nashville, Trump promised a new council as part of a crypto-friendly administration. His transition team is discussing how to structure and staff it, and which companies should be included, the people said. Several top U.S. crypto companies are clamoring for seats at the table. Among them are venture firm Paradigm, said one source, while venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm a16z is also expected to grab a spot. "It's being fleshed out, but I anticipate the leading executives from America's bitcoin and crypto firms to be represented," said David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine who arranged for Trump to speak at the July conference and has spoken with the President-elect about bitcoin policy. "People are eager to advise and give input," Bailey said. A Kraken spokesperson and a spokesperson for a16z declined to comment. Coinbase (COIN.O) , opens new tab CEO Brian Armstrong recently met with Trump, said a source familiar with the matter, confirming a Monday Wall Street Journal report. It was unclear what they discussed. The source added that Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, was also interested in being on the council. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire told the New York Times this month he wants to be on the council, a company spokesperson noted. The crypto council would likely be housed under the White House's National Economic Council, which coordinates and implements the President's economic policies, or a separate White House apparatus, two of the people said. It is expected to advise on digital asset policy, work with Congress on crypto legislation, establish Trump's promised bitcoin reserve and coordinate between agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Treasury, they and other executives said. The council may also include enforcement representatives and former policymakers, one of the sources said. Trump's transition team, which did not respond to a request for comment, is also discussing creating a crypto "tsar" role, two sources said. One added the tsar would likely lead the council. Trump's team is vetting candidates , opens new tab for that role, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Former CFTC Chair Heath Tarbert, chief legal officer at Circle, and former Republican CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz, head of policy for a16z crypto, have been advising the Trump transition team on crypto policy, Reuters previously reported. Excitement over a crypto-friendly Trump administration has helped push bitcoin to record highs and closer to the long-awaited $100,000 milestone. Trump courted support and campaign donations from the sector with promises to be a "crypto president" and end President Joe Biden's crackdown on crypto companies that regulators accused of flouting securities and anti-money laundering laws. The industry is pushing for executive orders guaranteeing crypto companies' access to banking services, an end to enforcement actions and other changes. Some consumer groups have warned the crypto industry should not be able to write its own rules, and some of the sources said ethics considerations could slow personnel appointments. But others said it makes sense for industry experts to have a say in critical policy issues. "It's absolutely the wise choice to put together a council of people who... understand how both the industry ought to be regulated and how to situate the industry to be a strategic asset," said Nathan McCauley, CEO of crypto platform Anchorage Digital, who has urged the Trump team to reverse Biden's stance on crypto. While presidential advisory councils are not a new concept, there has never been one dedicated to cryptocurrencies, which did not exist until bitcoin's launch in 2009. Biden has multiple councils, including on Science and Technology which was established via executive order in first month he took office. Kristin Smith, chief executive of crypto trade group the Blockchain Association said setting up the crypto council is something Trump "could do very quickly." Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/crypto-industry-jockeys-seats-trumps-promised-council-2024-11-21/

2024-11-21 20:09

Northvolt calls its liquidity situation "dire" Operations to continue during restructuring, expected completion by Q1 2025 Scania lends $100 million for bankruptcy process Nov 21 (Reuters) - Northvolt, the Swedish maker of battery cells for electric vehicles, said on Thursday it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., dealing a blow to Europe's hopes that its most developed battery player would reduce Western car makers' reliance on Chinese rivals. Northvolt said it has only enough cash to support operations for about a week and said it has secured $100 million in new financing for the bankruptcy process. It said operations will continue as normal during the bankruptcy. "Northvolt's liquidity picture has become dire," the company said in its Chapter 11 petition, filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston. The company, which has operations in California, has about $30 million of cash, which can support its operations for only about a week. It has $5.8 billion in debts. Northvolt, which employs around 6,600 staff across seven countries, said it expects to complete the restructuring by the first quarter of 2025. Northvolt transformed in a matter of months from Europe's best shot at a homegrown electric-vehicle battery champion to a company struggling to stay afloat by slimming down, hobbled by production problems, the loss of a major customer and a lack of funding. Europe has been hoping that Northvolt would reduce Western car makers' reliance on Chinese rivals such as battery maker CATL (300750.SZ) , opens new tab and EV and battery maker BYD (002594.SZ) , opens new tab. Northvolt said the $100 million in a new loan is part of $245 million in financing support for the bankruptcy. Swedish truck maker Scania, a shareholder and its biggest customer, said on Thursday that it was loaning $100 million to Northvolt to support the manufacturing of electric vehicle battery cells in Skellefteå, northern Sweden. "This decisive step will allow Northvolt to continue its mission to establish a homegrown, European industrial base for battery production," Tom Johnstone, interim chairman of Northvolt's board, said in a statement, noting the support Northvolt has received from existing lenders and customers. As part of the restructuring, Northvolt will evaluate proposals for new money investment from strategic and financial investors, as well as existing lenders, shareholders and customers, he said. Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) , opens new tab, Northvolt's top shareholder with a 21% stake, said it had taken note of the filing and was in close contact with the Swedish firm. It declined to comment on potential repercussions on its own business. STIFF COMPETITION Investment group Vargas, a co-founder of Northvolt and one of its largest shareholders, said the bankruptcy would allow the company to address financial challenges and maintain its competitive edge in producing high-performance battery cells. Handelsbanken analyst Hampus Engellau said the bankruptcy filing would give the company some short-term breathing space. Even so, he said, "This tells us that they haven't found investors and raised the capital needed to restructure their business." Northvolt had been discussing the possibility of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States as one of several options for survival, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters last week. Northvolt has led a wave of European startups investing tens of billions of dollars in battery production to serve the continent's automakers as they switch from internal-combustion engines to EVs. But EV demand is growing at a slower pace than some in the industry had projected, and competition remains stiff from China, which controls 85% of global battery-cell production, according to International Energy Agency data. At a court hearing late Thursday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo Perez approved some routine initial steps in Northvolt's bankruptcy, including allowing the company to pay wages owed to employees and draw the first $51 million of the Scania loan. On Monday, Reuters reported that Northvolt had missed some in-house targets and curtailed production at its battery-cell plant in Skellefteå, underscoring the challenge of ramping up output. The company's court filing on Thursday said it had capacity to produce 300,000 batteries a year. In October, Northvolt struck a deal that gave access to a small amount of money while talks on a bigger financing package continued, business daily DI reported. Those talks had become more difficult in recent weeks, one of the sources familiar with the Chapter 11 plan said. In recent years several Swedish companies have opted for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filings, such as Scandinavian airline SAS and debt collector Intrum, a process that allows management to retain control over the company and run operations. Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Ebba Busch said on social media platform X that the government continues to support the EV battery industry and hopes that the restructuring will help turn around Northvolt's fortunes. Busch told Reuters on Tuesday that the Swedish government had no plans to take a stake in Northvolt. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/technology/northvolt-files-chapter-11-bankruptcy-us-2024-11-21/

2024-11-21 19:52

GENEVA, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Swiss National Bank governing board member Petra Tschudin said on Thursday that inflation was comfortably within the range it hoped to see. Inflation in October dropped to 0.6%, its lowest level since June 2021, stoking analyst expectations the SNB will press ahead with further rate cuts. Asked about the risk of possible deflation at a banking event in Geneva, she said: "Inflation is now comfortably in the range of 0-2% where we want to see inflation (and) our definition of price stability." She declined to comment further on the outlook for monetary policy which she said will be decided at the SNB's upcoming meeting on Dec. 12. The central bank has been at the forefront of interest rate cuts this year, lowering borrowing costs three times in 2024 to 1%. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/snb-board-member-says-inflation-is-within-target-range-2024-11-21/

2024-11-21 19:34

Nov 21 (Reuters) - One of three gas liquefaction trains at Freeport LNG's export plant in Texas tripped offline on Wednesday, the company told state environmental regulators in a report on Thursday. The gas processing unit known as Train 3 tripped while operating due to an issue with a lube oil pump, causing an emissions event that lasted more than 11 hours from Wednesday evening into early Thursday morning, the company told regulators. Freeport on Thursday declined to comment and did not detail plans for the unit's restart in its report to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The second-largest U.S. LNG export facility has been the least reliable of all U.S. LNG plants with several outages this year. The company has however been benefiting from its debottlenecking project in the last month and for several days in November pulled record amounts of natural gas to turn into LNG. U.S. natural gas futures retreated after the news, halving an 8% gain that took prices to a one-year high earlier in the day. Before news of the filing, gas traded at 11-month highs of around $15 per mmBtu at both the Dutch Title Transfer Facility benchmark in Europe and the Japan-Korea Marker benchmark in Asia on worries about Russian supplies and the coming of colder winter weather. The U.S. price gain was partly driven by a data showing two U.S. export plants were on track to reach gas supply records. Supplies to the seven big U.S. operating plants were on track to hit an 11-month high of 14.5 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) on Thursday, up from 14.1 bcfd on Wednesday. The closure of one of Freeport's liquefaction trains should reduce its gas flow. Each train at the 2.1-bcfd Freeport plant is capable of turning around 0.7 bcfd of gas into LNG daily. One billion cubic feet is enough gas to supply about five million U.S. homes for a day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/freeport-lng-liquefaction-train-texas-export-plant-shuts-2024-11-21/

2024-11-21 19:32

Gensler's tenure marked by ambitious reforms, legal challenges SEC's crypto crackdown led to criticism, legal battles Trump likely to appoint a Republican SEC commissioner as acting head WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler will step down on Jan. 20 when President-elect Donald Trump's administration takes over, the agency said on Thursday, ending an ambitious tenure that saw him clash with Wall Street and the crypto industry. "I thank President Biden for entrusting me with this incredible responsibility. The SEC has met our mission and enforced the law without fear or favor," Gensler, who was nominated by Democratic President Joe Biden in 2021, said in a statement. Known for his hard-charging style, Gensler led an ambitious agenda to boost transparency, reduce systemic risks, and stamp out conflicts of interest on Wall Street, completing dozens of new rules, some of which have been challenged in court. Among his major accomplishments were changes to increase the resilience and efficiency of U.S. markets, including speeding up trade settlements and overhauling the $28 trillion Treasuries market, as well as a number of rules boosting investor disclosures and corporate governance. The Baltimore native also successfully implemented rules mandated by Congress imposing SEC oversight on auditors of U.S.-listed Chinese companies, ending a decade-long tussle with Beijing that lawmakers said had put U.S. investors at risk. On the enforcement front, Gensler's SEC broke new ground with a multi-year effort focused on Wall Street's use of text, WhatsApp and other unauthorized channels to discuss business, levying more than $2 billion in fines against dozens of firms, including JP Morgan (JPM.N) , opens new tab and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) , opens new tab. He also took on the crypto industry, suing Coinbase COIN.N, Kraken, Binance and others, alleging that their failure to register with the agency violated SEC rules, accusations the companies deny and are fighting in court. When it comes to crypto, the courts have mostly backed Gensler's positions. But his sweeping agenda and uncompromising posture sparked intense pushback from Wall Street, as well as congressional Republicans, and even some Democrats. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Managed Funds Association and other groups sued in the conservative-leaning Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and elsewhere to overturn at least eight rules, arguing they were unjustified, harmful or beyond the SEC's authority. Jill Fisch, a University of Pennsylvania law professor specializing in securities regulation, said Gensler would depart with a mixed legacy. "I think there are clearly some victories, but I would say he came in with a fairly aggressive rule-making agenda and most of that either hasn't or isn't likely to endure." TRUMP TRANSITION In a major blow to the agency, the Fifth Circuit ruled in June that the SEC did not have the authority to oversee the $27 trillion private funds industry. That loss, and other legal challenges, have slowed the agency's rule-making this year, and could impede the agency in the long run, Reuters reported. Just before Gensler's announcement on Thursday, a federal judge in Texas struck down the SEC's overhaul of Treasury dealer rules adopted earlier this year. Some critics also say Gensler's crypto crusade was ill-conceived and damaged the U.S. economy by stifling innovation and pushing crypto companies offshore, criticism he has rejected. In a speech this month, he argued history has shown that "robust securities regulation both creates trust in markets and fosters innovation." Trump has not said who would replace Gensler, although he is widely expected to appoint one of the current Republican SEC commissioners, Hester Peirce or Mark Uyeda, as acting head of the agency. Reuters previously reported that Trump's transition team is considering former SEC officials for the job permanently. Gensler's successor is expected to immediately end the crypto crackdown, review many of Gensler's rules, pull enforcement actions wending their way through the courts, and pursue rule changes focusing on promoting capital formation. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-sec-chief-gensler-step-down-jan-20-2024-11-21/

2024-11-21 19:31

NEW YORK, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Citadel's founder Ken Griffin said on Thursday that he would be open to selling a small stake in his hedge fund at some point in the future. Griffin, at an event hosted by the Economic Club of New York, said it made sense for him to sell a minority stake in his market maker Citadel Securities to Sequoia and Paradigm in 2022, in a deal that valued the firm at $22 billion. His comments come days after reports about BlackRock Inc (BLK.N) , opens new tab in talks with Citadel's competitor Millennium for a potential tie-up, involving the acquisition of a minority stake in the hedge fund by the world's largest asset manager. "We take great pride in being in a private partnership. It has served us well for 30 years," he said when asked about a potential consolidation in the hedge fund industry. Still, he said he "would be open to the possibility of selling a minority stake in Citadel at some point in the future." When asked about what kind of partner he would engage with, he said venture capital firm Sequoia would be an example. "We would look for a partner that feels like Sequoia, that's going to push us to be better at what we do." Griffin said the focus on Citadel Securities now is on the growth of the business and that an initial public offering should not happen "in the foreseeable future." Griffin, a Republican supporter, criticized in a wide-ranging interview President-elect Donald Trump's plans for deportation of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, tax cuts and tariffs implementation, saying some of his policies could increase the U.S. deficit and make domestic companies less competitive and productive. "We've got to put the fiscal house to order," he said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/citadels-griffin-says-he-would-be-open-selling-minority-stake-his-hedge-fund-2024-11-21/