Anthony Scaramucci says it's not too late to buy bitcoin — just look at Amazon's run since 2009
SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci believes bitcoin can move even higher over the long term and become a less volatile asset as adoption picks up. Amazon shares have surged more than 3,600% from the company's IPO in May 1997 to May 2009. Bitcoin's value by market cap has nearly doubled this year alone, according to CoinDesk data. In 2018, however, bitcoin lost about 80% of its value in what's now known as the "crypto winter." Scaramucci, whose firm has a bitcoin fund, said the currency is still in a "transitory period," like Amazon shares years ago.
cnbc.comKen Griffin says he doesn't see the 'economic underpinning' of cryptocurrencies
Ken Griffin, who runs a sprawling Wall Street empire that includes market-making operations and a hedge fund, was dismissive of cryptocurrencies on Friday even as some see the emerging asset as the future of finance. "I don't see the economic underpinning of cryptocurrencies. Employees and customers of major Wall Street banks are also pushing for greater involvement in cryptocurrencies. Griffin also founded a hedge fund named Citadel. The Citadel hedge fund also made an investment in January in Melvin Capital, one of the funds hit hardest by GameStop's rapid rise.
cnbc.comTrump probably should be allowed back on social media, Bill Gates says
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates told CNBC that social media companies should eventually take their muzzles off former President Donald Trump, despite his "corrosive" election fraud conspiracy theories. "I think at some point he probably will be allowed back on and probably should be allowed back on," the Microsoft co-founder said in an interview that aired Thursday morning. CNBC "Squawk Box" co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin had asked Gates whether he would let Trump back on social media if he were on Facebook's oversight board. And how corrosive that is," said Gates, who also has criticized the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. With social media unavailable to him, Trump has issued fewer statements since leaving the White House on Jan. 20.
cnbc.comRobinhood CEO: Tapping credit lines proactive, not a sign of cash crunch in GameStop frenzy
Robinhood's decision to tap into its bank credit lines during the Reddit-sparked trading frenzy was done proactively, the CEO of the brokerage app, Vlad Tenev, told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. The news of Robinhood drawing on its bank credit lines, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, came after the broker on Thursday restricted users' ability to buy 13 securities, including shares of GameStop and AMC Entertainment. "By drawing on our credit lines, which we do all the time, as part of normal day-to-day operation, we get more capital that we can deposit with the clearinghouses. Many of those restricted stocks suffered major losses Thursday, with GameStop tanking more than 40% and AMC falling more than 55%. Robinhood received fierce backlash for implementing trading limits from both customers and a bipartisan group of lawmakers in Washington.
cnbc.comRobinhood raises $1 billion and taps credit lines to make trading of GameStop available to customers
Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC that tapping the credit lines was a proactive measure and denied it was because of a liquidity issue. Shares of the popular retail trading names all rose in premarket trading on Friday in anticipation of Robinhood easing some restrictions. Amid a wild week of speculative retail trading, Robinhood earlier Thursday limited trading in 13 equities, including GameStop and AMC Entertainment. Robinhood has experienced unprecedented high volume of trading this week as Reddit-reading retail traders attempt a takeover of certain highly shorted stocks. The $1 billion raised came from previous venture capital investors in Robinhood, including Sequoia, and the credit lines are from banks including JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs.
cnbc.comMelvin Capital, hedge fund targeted by Reddit board, closes out of GameStop short position
Melvin Capital closed out its short position in GameStop on Tuesday afternoon after taking a huge loss, the hedge fund's manager told CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin. GameStop, hedge funds' most-hated stock, was targeted by an army of retail investors who marshaled forces against short sellers in online chat rooms. CNBC could not confirm the amount of losses Melvin Capital took on the short position. Citadel and Point72 have infused close to $3 billion into Gabe Plotkin's hedge fund to shore up its finances. GameStop was the single most traded name in the U.S. stock market on Tuesday, topping Tesla and Apple, even though they are 81 and 233 times larger in market cap terms, according to Deutsche Bank strategist Jim Reid.
cnbc.comHeated on-air CNBC exchange between Sorkin and Santelli mirrors national debate over Covid lockdowns
"Squawk Box" co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin and CNBC bond maven Rick Santelli engaged in a heated on-air debate Friday over coronavirus restrictions, a back-and-forth that mirrored the ongoing divide among many Americans throughout the pandemic and the derisiveness of the presidential race. The intense disagreement over lockdowns between Sorkin and Santelli, which was also a central theme in the November election, came after the release of a weaker-than-expected November jobs report. The slowest pace of nonfarm payrolls growth since April coincided with a sharp rise in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations across the country, which led many governors and other local officials to reimpose virus mitigation measures. "Five hundred people in a Lowe's aren't any safer than 150 people in a restaurant that holds 600. Both cases and deaths in the U.S. account for about a fifth of the world's totals.
cnbc.comJamie Dimon lashes out at 'childish behavior' from Congress amid deadlock over coronavirus relief
JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon criticized lawmakers for a monthslong deadlock over a second round of coronavirus relief to help unemployed Americans and struggling businesses as the pandemic deepens. Is it $2.2 trillion, $1.5 trillion?" Dimon said Wednesday, referring to competing visions for a relief bill from Democrats and Republicans, at The New York Times' DealBook conference. "You gotta be kidding me," Dimon told Andrew Ross Sorkin, who is a co-anchor of CNBC's "Squawk Box." Congress has so far failed to pass a second relief bill after key parts of the first law, the CARES Act, expired in July.
cnbc.comMark Zuckerberg says social networks should not be fact-checking political speech
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told CNBC he does not think social networks should be fact-checking what politicians post. "Political speech is one of the most sensitive parts in a democracy, and people should be able to see what politicians say." Although Facebook does use independent fact-checkers who review content on its social networks, the point of the fact-checkers is to "really catch the worst of the worst stuff," Zuckerberg said. "In terms of political speech, again, I think you want to give broad deference to the political process and political speech." Facebook announced in October that it would allow politicians to run ads on the social network, even if they include misinformation.
cnbc.comWeWork reassures investors it has enough cash to weather coronavirus downturn
WeWork is telling investors it has enough cash on hand to execute its long-term plans and weather the near-term challenges posed by COVID-19. In a seven-slide deck for investors, WeWork said it had $4.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents as of the end of 2019. WeWork is the second SoftBank-backed company to reassure investors that its cash position will get it through an increasingly uncertain and volatile year. Last week, Uber told investors that it had enough cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet to weather the impact of COVID-19 as ridesharing numbers plunge. WeWork's cash position at the end of 2019, at $4.4 billion, is less than half of what Uber had on hand.
cnbc.comPalantir CEO Alex Karp defends his company's relationship with government agencies
Palantir CEO Alex Karp said he stands by his company's controversial work for the U.S. government, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Last March, Palantir won an $800 million contract to build an intelligence system to aid soldiers in remote environments. Karp, however, defends his company's public-private relationship. "It's commonly known that our software is used in an operational context at war," Karp said. "Do you really think a war fighter is going to trust a software company that pulls the plug because something becomes controversial with their life?
cnbc.comDimon says the only financial market bubble out there right now is in sovereign debt
J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said Wednesday the only financial market bubble he sees right now is in government red ink. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Dimon if he sees any frothy areas in the market. The total U.S. public debt outstanding stands above $23 trillion, with debt held by the public north of $17 trillion. If inflation unexpectedly shot higher, it could force central banks to hike interest rates to help cool down the economy. "Do you know anyone who's actually bought a negative interest rate bond?"
cnbc.comUber CEO: 'We are very, very, very different from WeWork'
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi defended the ride-hailing company's business Wednesday as its stock continues to tumble and it faces growing investor skepticism around its massive losses. "We are very, very, very different from WeWork," Khosrowshahi said. On stage, Khosrowshahi acknowledged that Uber has felt the effects of a reckoning among public and private investors, wherein the "appetite for the unknown and high risk has gone down." He added that the core ride-hailing business essentially functions as Uber's version of Amazon Web Services, which has become a major profit engine for Amazon, and should help Uber achieve profitability. Uber stock fell 3.8% on Wednesday.
cnbc.comPeloton's CEO, on IPO day, takes CNBC into livestreaming control room
Peloton Interactive CEO and co-founder John Foley told CNBC he sees his at-home fitness company as more than a maker of high-end stationary bikes and treadmills. Foley brought "Squawk Box" co-host Andrew Ross Sorkin into Peloton's livestreaming control room at Tread Studio in New York ahead of its stock market debut. In its S-1 initial public offering filing, Peloton said it is an "innovation company at the nexus of fitness, technology, and media." But from early on, Peloton's mission was to be more than just a bike maker or fitness-class provider, Foley told Sorkin. After talking with other companies about partnering on the fitness classes, Foley said Peloton determined it could "build more integrated experiences if we controlled the entire technology stack."
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