UK manufacturing slowdown continues as business
optimism dips to lowest level in over two years

Key findings

Output growth slows to near-stagnation pace…
…as new order intakes fall for the first time
since January 2021
Price inflation remains elevated despite
further easing

The slowdown in the UK manufacturing sector continued at
the end of the second quarter, as June saw output growth
grind to a near-standstill pace and new orders contract for
the first time in 17 months. Business optimism dipped to its
lowest since May 2020, as the number of firms expecting
production to rise over the coming year fell to 47% (from 55%
in May).
The seasonally adjusted S&P Global / CIPS UK Manufacturing
Purchasing Managers’ Index® (PMI®) fell to a two-year low
of 52.8 in June, down from 54.6 in May. The PMI has remained
above the 50.0 mark since June 2020.
Manufacturing production rose for the twenty-fifth
consecutive month in June. However, the rate of expansion
was the weakest during the current upturn. Performances
differed widely across the sector. Consumer goods producers
saw a marked downturn in output, while robust expansion
was again registered in the investment goods industry.
June saw intakes of new work decline for the first time
since January 2021. Companies indicated that the weaker
economic outlook, reduced new export order intakes, slower
growth of domestic demand, the war in Ukraine, raw material
shortages and the slowdown in China all contributed to the
reduction in new work received.
The consumer goods and intermediate goods sectors were
hardest hit by the decline in new order inflows. In contrast,
investment goods producers saw new work rise for the fifth
month running.
New export orders contracted for the fifth month running
in June, mainly reflecting the slowdown in China, rising
economic uncertainty, the war in Ukraine and increased
competition. Some firms also noted that ongoing Brexitrelated difficulties and weaker growth had impacted new
order intakes from the EU. New export business declined in
the consumer and intermediate goods industries, and was
unchanged in the investment goods category

source : spglobal.com

Cryptocurrency prices today plunged with the world’s largest and most popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin falling over a per cent and was trading at $20,316. The global cryptocurrency market cap today was below the $1 trillion, and was down over 2% in the last 24 hours to $953 billion, as per CoinGecko. On the other hand, Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain and the second largest cryptocurrency, fell nearly 2% to $1,149. Meanwhile, dogecoin price today was trading 3% lower at $0.06 whereas Shiba Inu tanked over 5% to $0.000010. Other crypto prices’ today performance also declined as XRP, Tether, Solana, BNB, Litecoin, Uniswap prices were trading with cuts over the last 24 hours, whereas, Stellar, Chainlink, Tron, Apecoin and Polygon gained. Crypto investors continued to jump ship as global funds witnessed net outflows totalling $423 million in the week ended 24 June, the largest on record, according to a report by digital asset manager CoinShares. The earlier record for outflows stood at $198 million earlier this year in January. The latest outflows were solely focussed on bitcoin, which saw net selling for the week totalling $453 million. Meanwhile, ethereum saw net inflows totalling $11 million, the first for the crypto asset following 11 consecutive weeks of outflows. Multi-asset crypto funds also saw minor inflows. Cryptocurrencies have suffered this year amid Federal Reserve rate hikes and stubbornly high inflation. After crypto’s last two-year hibernation ended in 2020, the sector spiked to around $3 trillion in total assets last November, before plunging to less than $1 trillion. The collapse of the Terra/Luna ecosystem and continued concern about hedge fund Three Arrows Capital Ltd. have further rattled investors. Bitcoin miners needing to sell could weigh on the token’s price for some time, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bitcoin miners have been forced to tap into their cryptocurrency stashes as a plunge in prices, rising energy costs and increased competition bite into profitability. “Offloading of Bitcoins by miners, in order to meet ongoing costs or to delever, could continue into Q3 if their profitability fails to improve,” the strategists wrote. That offloading “has likely already weighed on prices in May and June, though there is a risk that this pressure could continue.” source: mint image : canva

GBPUSD has been tip toeing sideways over the past week within the range of 1.2150 – 1.2356, unable to extend its recovery off two-year lows.

The momentum indicators are reflecting a neutral bias as the latest rebound in the RSI has stalled marginally below its 50 neutral mark, while the MACD continues to grow gradually within the negative region and barely above its red signal line.

As regards the market trend though, the picture remains bearish given the lower lows and lower highs formed below the descending trendline. The falling simple moving averages (SMA) are also promoting the negative direction in the market.

A close above the 20-day simple moving average (SMA) and the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement of the 1.3747 – 1.1932 downtrend at 1.2356 could immediately pause around the descending trendline at 1.2465. The 50-day SMA is positioned in the same area. Therefore, another bullish break at this point could confirm an extension towards the 38.2% Fibonacci of 1.2622, where June’s peak is also placed. Should upside pressures accelerate from here, violating the negative trend pattern, the spotlight will shift up to the 50% Fibonacci of 1.2837.

Looking for support levels, the 1.2250 region has been cooling downside forces over the past week. Should that floor collapse, the 1.2150 restrictive region may come to the rescue, preventing a continuation towards the crucial zone of 1.1988 – 1.1932. In case the downtrend resumes below the latter, a new lower low could be formed around 1.1765, taken from March 2020.

In the four-hour chart, the pair keeps trading within a triangle for the second consecutive week.In summary, GBPUSD is holding a neutral-to-bearish status in the short-term picture. Failure to bounce above 1.2356, and more importantly beyond 1.2465, may shift attention back to the downside.

source : https://www.xm.com/research/analysis/technicalAnalysis/xm/technical-analysis-gbpusd-in-wait-and-see-mode-within-downtrend-162716

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko tells Decrypt about its new SMS platform and Android phone, the Solana Saga. Solana’s teasers leading up to yesterday’s “SMS” event suggested something to do with mobile, but few could have imagined the twist that was announced in New York City. Yes, Solana Labs has built a mobile software platform… but it’s also releasing a smartphone solana Labs yesterday revealed the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) software kit, which provides tools for developing native Android mobile apps, walls, and games, and also includes a decentralized app store. The company also revealed the Saga, a powerful Android smartphone that will be released in early 2023. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana and CEO of Solana Labs, told Decrypt that his team has been working on the SMS push for about five months, and the hardware itself for a bit longer. But the idea of improving Web3 access and functionality on mobile has been in his head for years, particularly given his past experience as a Qualcomm engineer. “What does it look like with 1 billion people using [crypto]? What do you imagine? It’s in this device—the device you use everyday,” he said, holding up the Solana Saga prototype. “That has to be your hardware wallet. That’s just something that we always felt.” Yakovenko said the idea went from concept to reality once he met Jason Keats, founder and “Chief Hooligan” at OSOM Products. Keats was previously the R&D head at Essential, a startup that made its own Android phone, and OSOM will be doing much the same: the previously announced OSOM OV1 will now be rebranded as the Solana Saga. It’s a powerful device. The sizable Android handset will feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, a 6.67” OLED display, 12GB RAM, and 512GB of internal storage. Given the chance to briefly hold the phone, we can say it very much looks and feels like a premium Android phone that you’d find from Google or Samsung, with a dash of iPhone-like minimalism. “It’s a pretty freakin’ cool device,” Yakovenko said. He added with a laugh, “Don’t drop it.”

Android runs on more than 3 billion devices around the world, so why build a new phone specifically for the Solana ecosystem? Yakovenko said that the device—which is estimated to sell for $1,000—will represent the gold standard for a Web3-centric smartphone, and showcase the full array of capabilities of the Solana Mobile Stack.

“Every developer that I talked to—we talked to them about mobile strategy, and how to grow to most of the rest of the world,” he said. “There’s a lot of friction in the App Store. When devs tell me that, I kind of start pacing around the room trying to figure out how to help them. It just feels like a natural opportunity to build a Web3-facing app store and Web3 device.”

He said that while other Android devices can adopt the full Solana Mobile Stack or even parts of it, the Solana Saga will give users and developers the complete experience with top-tier specs. And the Saga is not just meant as a secondary device: it’s a robust smartphone with the full suite of Google apps and services, like most other popular Androids.

“I think it’s important to have a flagship [phone] that shows that this is a full integration,” Yakovenko added. “This is the best version of it.”

Besides, it’s not a given that other Android devices will adopt Solana Mobile Stack. It’s an open-source platform and the aim is widespread adoption, so Solana Labs hopes to see every major manufacturer integrate it. However, phone makers will need to put in the work to support this crypto software—a relatively niche and oft-controversial thing.

“If we start succeeding, then I think the dominoes will start falling in terms of crypto adoption in both of those companies,” he said, when asked about SMS on Samsung and Google devices.

What about Apple’s iPhone and the iOS ecosystem, though? Unlike Android, which has been forked and adapted for any number of devices, Apple keeps a tight lock on iOS.

The suit claims that the artist’s “deliberate effort” to devalue Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is “no mere monkey business.”company has filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps, claiming the online provocateur has been “scamming” buyers with falsely equivalent NFTs in a “deliberate effort to harm Yuga Labs at the expense of consumers.”

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are unique blockchain tokens that prove ownership over digital or physical assets, such as pieces of artwork or items in video games.

Ripps, referred to in the suit as “a self-proclaimed ‘conceptual artist,'” is the creator of RR/BAYC, an Ethereum NFT collection that features identical BAYC images he did not purchase. Ripps first began minting his RR/BAYC NFTs on May 13 on Foundation, and after Yuga sent him an initial DMCA takedown claim, it quickly rescinded the claim when Ripps fought it. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, has since removed Ripps’s collection because of “a claim of intellectual property infringement,” but not before it saw nearly $3.5 million in total volume traded.

Ripps responded to the lawsuit on Twitter, but didn’t respond to Decrypt on Friday when asked for additional comment about a blog post by BAYC co-founder Gordon Goner (real name Wylie Aronow) that called Ripps a “demented troll.”

Yuga Labs, in part, wrote on Twitter on Friday that the group “will continue to be transparent with our community as we fight these slanderous claims” and that it “will continue exploring and pursuing all legal options at our disposal.”

The company, valued at $4 billion, is seeking a jury trial.

From the lawsuit: “This is no mere monkey business… These actions are calculated, intentional, and willful with the stated purpose of causing actual and monetary harm to Yuga Labs and to the holders of authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.”

According to the Binance CEO, the projects whose problems are fixable, can be bailed out and subsequently ensure changes are made to fix the problems that led them to this situation in the first place.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ), co-founder and CEO of the largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance said he is bullish on bear markets. He believes the blockchain industry has shown remarkable resilience. And considering the current tough market conditions, the Chinese-Canadian executive has provided his views on ‘bailout’ and cryptocurrency leverage.
In a blog on Thursday, CZ said, “As you all know, current market conditions are tough. With our position as one of the largest industry players with healthy cash reserves, we have a duty to protect users. We also have a responsibility to help industry players survive and hopefully thrive. This is the case even if there are no direct benefits to us or we experience negative ROIs.”

According to Zhao, the word “bailout” can have different meanings for different people. And as with most things in the real world, it’s not a binary situation.
In the first category, Zhao explains “not all bailouts are the same”. He points out different types of “bailouts” for different situations. First, some companies/projects/products are – poorly designed (no product-market fit); poorly managed; poorly operated.

In simple words, these are just ‘bad’ projects, and in Zhao’s view “these should not be saved.”

However, the dilemma begins when some of these ‘bad’ projects have a large number of users, which as per Zhao are often acquired through inflated incentives, “creative” marketing, or pure Ponzi schemes.

Furthermore, according to the Binance CEO, in any industry, there are always more failed projects than successful ones.

He hopes the failures are small, and the successes are large. In his opinion, bailouts here don’t make sense.
source: decrypt
image:Shutterstock

Formerly called FairX, Coinbase Derivatives Exchange will offer futures priced at 1/100th of a Bitcoin through third-party brokers beginning Monday.

Retail investors will be able to trade crypto futures through Coinbase starting Monday, as the largest exchange in the U.S. by volume will offer them on its new Derivatives Exchange platform.

The move comes after Coinbase acquired FairX in January as part of its goal of offering crypto futures and options trading to its customers. FairX had been selling futures products and was already registered with the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), giving Coinbase a running start in the $3 trillion crypto derivatives market.

Now Coinbase has rebranded FairX as the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, and its “nano Bitcoin futures”—1/100th of a Bitcoin, marketed under the ticker BIT—is its first listed crypto derivatives product. “This is one step to creating a robust and regulated crypto derivatives market,” a Coinbase spokesperson told Decrypt.

If BIT futures were available today, they would be priced around $211, based on a BTC price of $21,000 at the time of writing.

Boris Ilyevsky, Head of Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, said in a statement that FairX brought in a “world-class team with deep expertise across product development, market structure, compliance, market-leading exchange technology and a proven ability to deliver listed futures.”

Coupled with Coinbase’s consumer-friendly interface, the derivatives exchange aims to make trading of crypto derivatives much more accessible.

Futures are one type of derivative financial product, which set a date and price in the future at which an asset must be sold, regardless of the actual market price at that time. When the SEC finally allowed a Bitcoin ETF in October, it only allowed a Bitcoin futures ETF, not yet a “spot” ETF tied to the current price of Bitcoin.

Many traders prefer futures as they allow for around-the-clock trading, lower upfront investment, “and the ease of going long and short,” Ilyevsky said. “Our BIT futures contract will offer the same benefits but is built with the retail trader in mind.”

Competing exchange FTX is on a similar path, after acquiring LedgerX in August. Binance also offers derivatives products, but has pulled back in some markets due to regulatory concerns.

It’s important to note that BIT futures will not yet be offered directly from Coinbase, but only from third-party retail brokers and clearing firms. Beginning on June 27, Coinbase BIT futures will be available from firms like EdgeClear, Ironbeam, NinjaTrader, Optimus Futures, Stage 5, and Tradovate.

Coinbase cannot offer the futures directly until it gets regulatory approval for its own FCM (futures commission merchant) license.

source : https://decrypt.co/103717/coinbase-launching-nano-bitcoin-futures-via-derivatives-exchange

A new report from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) concludes that crypto’s “structural flaws” make it “unsuitable as the basis for a monetary system.”

The Annual Economic Report 2022 from the BIS, a global organization of 63 leading central banks, goes on to suggest that blockchain’s role in a future monetary system will likely take the form of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), because “a system grounded in central bank money offers a sounder basis for innovation.”

The report points to Terra’s historic collapse last month and the current bear market as the catalyst for what analysts have labeled the start of a “crypto winter,” but says that focusing on price action alone “diverts attention away from the deeper structural flaws” in crypto that render it unfit for purpose as a monetary system. 

The utility said attracting more blockchain companies to the state will increase tax revenue and create jobs.

Looking to entice Bitcoin miners to the region, Black Hills Energy announced today that it has completed its first agreement to provide power to a crypto mining facility under Wyoming’s Blockchain Interruptible Service Tariff.

The company says the unidentified facility will be one of the largest bitcoin mining operations in the region, and is expected to be operational and purchasing energy by the end of the year.

“We are excited to serve this new type of customer and to explore the benefits we can provide to other flexible load customers over the longer term,” Black Hills Corp. CEO Linn Evans said in a statement.

The company says that attracting blockchain companies with high energy needs will provide Wyomingites with several financial benefits, including property and sales taxes, and long-term employment.

Black Hills Energy is a subsidiary of the Cheyenne Light, Fuel, and Power Company, which in turn is part of Rapid City, South Dakota-based Black Hills Corporation. The firm serves 1.2 million customers in eight states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming.

The energy supplier first proposed the Blockchain Interruptible Service Tariff in October 2018 to the Wyoming Public Service Commission, saying the state’s “existing tariffs are insufficient to attract blockchain business while continuing to provide safe, reliable and affordable service to existing retail customers.”

The Tariff was approved in June 2019 to attract new industries that have high energy demands over limited durations, specifically blockchain companies.

“By providing a blockchain interruptible service option, we are able to meet the high energy demands of the blockchain industry without adding costs to our existing retail customers,” company vice president Shirley Welte said at the time.

According to the agreement, Black Hills Energy will deliver up to 45 megawatts of electric service with an option to expand service up to 75 megawatts to the new customer in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for five years.