MARKET MOVERS

  • Self-driving trucks start to propel land rush near major cities. Alterra Property and Embark form an alliance to create autonomous-trucking hubs across the U.S. To do that, Embark needs numerous so-called transfer hubs close to highways on the outskirts of cities to park and switch trucks. But that land is scarce. For one, developers have been buying up outdoor facilities for use as e-commerce warehouses.

  • Binance will not block Russian accounts despite Ukraine's request. On Sunday, Mykhailo Fedorov, vice prime minister of Ukraine, asked major exchanges to block the addresses of Russian users. Binance said it is not going to unilaterally freeze millions of innocent users’ accounts. Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, also said they cannot freeze the accounts of our Russian clients without a legal requirement to do so.

  • Oil prices surge on new Russia sanctions, while U.S. and others eye further releases from strategic reserves. Prices jumped after the U.S., the European Union and the U.K. said they would block some Russian banks from the SWIFT messaging system, making it more difficult for countries to purchase Russian oil. Meanwhile, they are also weighing the release of 70 million barrels of reserves in response to surging crude prices.

  • BTC and ETH were both up on a 30-day period despite all of the recent world events. While it feels like the world is ending, not much changed month over month in the two majors. Pretty interesting to see ETH keeping up with BTC. This may be due to more NFT hype projects creating a need for it. The HODL wave (people not selling) is expanding. It suggests the heavy holders (whales/wealthy) really do understand what they bought. Read more here.

  • Shares in cybersecurity companies like CrowdStrike and Cloudflare jumped last week as companies around the world rushed to boost their cyber defenses. Spurring this was the discovery in Ukraine of wiper malware, a kind of cyber weapon that permanently deletes data on infected computers. The FT’s John Thornhill says the current military invasion speaks to the limits of cyber warfare. Source(6:37)

WHAT TO WATCH

  • EVs are about to get cheaper. Panasonic will build new “4680” battery cells for EVs. The 4680 refers to the batteries’ size.  The larger size is designed to pack more power into cells. More range and power means, essentially, fewer batteries can do more. That will help reduce EV battery costs, which are the biggest reason EVs cost more to purchase than gasoline-powered cars.

  • Walmart is building around 100 automated small fulfillment centers attached to existing stores in the next few years. The company is also experimenting with autonomous trucks while experimenting in using its own workers to make deliveries and expanding a service where staffers leave packages inside homes.  It’s testing autonomous delivery vans that shuffle products short distances. Read more here.

  • Secret JPMorgan project aims to push banks deeper into the growing market serving private companies. The bank JPMorgan has been quietly hiring programmers and creating products for a new fintech business that aims to provide an array of services to start-ups and investors around the world. The business is known internally by the code name “Project Bloom”. A key part is a digital network to match start-ups with investors. Read more here.

  • Chevron to acquire Renewable Energy Group for $3.15B, a sustainable fuels producer, in a bid to accelerate its transition toward clean energy. Biomass converter Renewable Energy Group will increase Chevron’s renewable fuels capacity to 100,000 barrels a day by 2030. The transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of 2022, has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies.

  • Countries will soon build SWIFT equivalents outside the US dollar system and set up non-USD accounts with various trading partners, and begin to heavily investigate digital currencies, says the Pomp. We also shouldn’t discount bitcoin either. The decentralized currency is a neutral technology that can be used by anyone, either friend or foe. Bitcoin would be the superior way to take their economic wealth with them if moving borders. Read more here.
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