This week’s Crypto Biz delves into Elon Musk’s plans for Twitter’s rebranding as X, the Italian central bank’s embrace of DeFi, PacWest’s merger with Banc of California, and more. Here are the key points:
– Twitter, now known as X, aims to become the American equivalent of China’s super-app WeChat by incorporating financial services on its platform. Elon Musk believes X could capture “half of the global financial system” and may include cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin in its plans.
– The Italian central bank has chosen a decentralized finance (DeFi) project developed by Cetif Advisory and Polygon Labs to help financial institutions get started with DeFi and tokenized assets. This move reflects growing interest in security tokens on secondary markets within the crypto industry.
– PacWest bank experienced a brief stock flash crash of 27% but quickly recovered after announcing its merger with Banc of California. The combined banks are expected to have over $36 billion in assets and $25 billion in total loans, with private-equity firms Warburg Pincus and Centerbridge providing $400 million in equity.
– Bitcoin-related investment products saw outflows of $13 million for the week ending July 21, marking the first week of outflows since BlackRock filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF in June. In contrast, Ether and XRP investment products recorded a combined inflow of $9.2 million, potentially benefiting from Ripple’s partial victory over the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
In summary, this week’s Crypto Biz explores Elon Musk’s ambitious plans for X, the Italian central bank’s embrace of DeFi, PacWest’s merger with Banc of California, and the shift in crypto investors’ preferences towards Ether and XRP over Bitcoin.
