00:00 Julie Hyman

Let’s turn to the cryptocurrency markets. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap after Bitcoin recently hit its highest level since January. It’s up 60% over the past month. Joining me now with a closer look at what’s driving this momentum is our senior markets reporter, Ines Ferre. So what’s going on there?

00:24 Ines Ferre

So, Julie, there’s a lot of enthusiasm around Ethereum right now. And this is not just because ETH or Ether is going to be going up in price, but because, uh, companies have this bullishness about the entire infrastructure, the network, so to speak, as the financial services industry converges with the crypto world. So what do I mean by that? Is that what analysts are telling me is, look, you are have now have the ability to tokenize real world assets. And that can be anything. That can be gold, that can be currencies, as we’ve seen also with stable coin, for example, it can be art, it can be real estate. And those, those tokens can be stored and moved on the Ethereum blockchain. So, the reason why we’ve seen such a surge in Ethereum recently, really over the last month, we’ve seen it up more than 60%, is because of this bullishness around the architecture, the infrastructure, the financial layer, so to speak, or the financial network infrastructure around, uh, all of the innovation that’s happening in the digital space and, uh, when it comes to financial services. So many stable coins run on Ethereum, and we saw a huge surge after the genius Act was passed. And you also have companies like, uh, the miner, for example, Bit Mine, which went public on June 5th, on the same day that Circle went public as well. And, uh, they have now acquired more than $500 million of Ethereum. So that’s a pure play on Ethereum. Now, this does not replace this Bitcoin strategy. And you have companies like strategy, for example, Michael Saylor strategy, and he has said he does not plan to buy Ether. His his bet is on Bitcoin. Bitcoin is the one that he sees as as as uh, as the commodity, as as valuable. Uh, but as far as other companies are concerned, they’re very much betting on these infrastructure, the network, uh, behind this convergence of the financial services and the crypto world.

04:33 Julie Hyman

Um, and sticking with Bitcoin and the sort of Bitcoin Treasury on a lot of corporate balance sheets, Trump Media, the latest one, uh, that is jumping into that pool, Ines.

04:51 Ines Ferre

Yeah, that’s right. So Trump Media now holding $2 billion in Bitcoin and Bitcoin related securities, and these holdings are making up now two-thirds of the company’s $3 billion in liquid assets. So this just goes to show you this push from companies to go towards, uh, holding Bitcoin on their balance sheets, still a huge, uh, Bitcoin is the number one cryptocurrency in in the world by market cap. And, uh, DJT, though, I do want to add is there is a difference when you look at these companies that are acquiring Bitcoin. Some companies are acting more like meme-like type of stocks when this happens, and other companies like strategy, for example, is up 40% year to date. But if you take a look at DJ DJT stock, it is down about 45% year to date. So just because companies acquire Bitcoin doesn’t necessarily mean that the investor reaction to that is the same as you would see when a company like, for example, strategy acquires it.

06:27 Julie Hyman

Yeah, if nothing else, strategy seems to have sort of a first mover advantage in that way, as the company that sort of pioneered that strategy in this. So it’s been interesting to watch. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.