First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Tops $37K

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Bitcoin topped $37,000 in the U.S. morning after it neared that level in Asian trading hours to create a "short squeeze" that drove prices higher. Just under $50 million of bitcoin shorts (bets against the price rising) were liquidated in a four-hour period, extending the BTC rally. Short squeezes occur when the price of an asset jumps higher than expected and short sellers are forced to cover their positions, driving the price higher still. Exchanges with a large Asian presence such as BitMEX, OKX and Binance accounted for large chunks of the exited positions. Bitcoin's bullish momentum followed reports late Wednesday that the U.S. SEC is beginning talks with fund manager Grayscale, with whom it has been engaged in a legal fight over the conversion of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust into a spot ETF.

Shares of U.S. crypto-centric companies ticked upward in pre-market trading, riding the momentum of the latest rally in BTC and reflecting the fresh optimism of a spot bitcoin ETF finally being approved in the U.S. Coinbase was up about 4% as of around 6.00 ET, while MicroStrategy, the software developer that holds over 150,000 BTC on its balance sheet, rose almost 5%. Mining firms Marathon and Riot advanced around 9.8% and 6% respectively. Robinhood showed more restrained gains of 2.5%, having dropped 14% on Wednesday after reporting big drops in its revenue and trading activity.

Standard Chartered's venture arm and SBI Holdings are forming an investment company with $100 million backing to target crypto startups. The company will be established in the UAE and focus on firms in market infrastructure, risk and compliance, DeFi and tokenization. Standard Chartered has pivoted its crypto activities toward the UAE in recent months, choosing Dubai as the jurisdiction in which to start safeguarding digital assets for institutional clients in the first quarter of 2024, citing the region's mature regulatory structure relative to other jurisdictions.

- Omkar Godbole

UPDATE (Nov. 9, 15:00 UTC): Updates BTC price in headline, first item