New technologies are often scary. Then, over time, people get to know them a little—and often still wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole. That would be you, cryptocurrency.
The Pew Research Center yesterday released the results of a survey showing that a whopping 88% of Americans have heard at least something about crypto, and three-quarters of those people are either not very confident (36%) or not at all confident (39%) about the safety and reliability of virtual currencies. A mere 6% are very or extremely confident in crypto.
Of course, hearing about something and experiencing it are two different things, and Pew’s research does show that those who have invested in crypto (around a sixth of U.S. Adults, who tend to be wealthier, younger men) are somewhat more likely to find it trustworthy—just 43% of that cohort lack confidence in it. Americans aged 50 or older are less likely to be confident about crypto, as are women.
On the plus side for Team Crypto, 69% of those who have invested in, traded, or used cryptocurrencies still hold some of it. The results don’t indicate how much they still hold, but, for those who don’t urgently need to liquidate their holdings, I guess it makes sense to avoid selling in a crypto winter.
As it happens, Bitcoin is on an upward trajectory at the moment, having just broken past the $30,000 mark for the first time since the middle of last year. But that’s not necessarily an expression of confidence in Bitcoin as such—it probably has more to do with the expectation that central banks will stop hiking interest rates.
There’s certainly no reason to think regulators are going to become less hostile to crypto in the near future, especially given recent actions such as the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s civil suit against Binance and its CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, over alleged compliance violations.
Speaking of which, do read Jeff John Roberts and Yvonne Lau’s exclusive interview with the otherwise-quiet-these-days Zhao, which delves deep into his formative experiences in Canada and China—and even his relationship with his brilliant but remote father. And don’t forget to check out Coins2Day’ s new Crypto 40 list, which shows how, even if trust in cryptocurrencies is dismal these days, many blockchain technologists are still building quality companies.
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David Meyer
Data Sheet’s daily news section was written and curated by Andrea Guzman.
NEWSWORTHY
Twitter becomes X Corp. Twitter Inc. Doesn’t exist as a Delaware-based company anymore. Elon Musk registered two new businesses in Nevada in early March, then applied to merge those Nevada businesses with two of his existing companies, mandating that the one known as X Corp. Fully acquire Twitter, Slate reports. The SEC-recognized name for the Twitter purchase’s $13 billion bank loan is known as Project X, and Musk has previously said this purchase will help create an “everything app” named X.
Microsoft's enigmatic cloud gaming announcement. Microsoft announced a 10-year gaming partnership with British telecoms company EE on Monday. Microsoft exec Phil Spencer tweeted that the deal involves cloud-based gaming with Xbox PC games as well as Activision Blizzard titles. As the Verge notes, however, EE does not operate a cloud gaming service. The deal comes as Microsoft's planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard faces scrutiny from British antitrust regulators.
Chinese tech giants announce ChatGPT competitors. The Alibaba Group said Tuesday that it will be installing its “Tongyi Qianwen” chatbot into its smart speakers and its office chat software, with plans to integrate the new technology into all its services. It is also offering access to enterprise clients for “beta testing.” It comes on the heels of an announcement from A.I. Developer SenseTime, which unveiled a chatbot known as SenseNova on Monday. CEO Xu Li showed the bot writing an email and code after user prompts.
SIGNIFICANT FIGURES
$18 billion
—The amount that Hyundai is investing in South Korea's electric vehicle industry through 2030. On Tuesday, the Hyundai Motor Group held a groundbreaking for its first EV plant, which is expected to begin production in 2025.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How Binance turned regular people who plug crypto into millionaires: Inside its 26,000-person influencer army, by Alexandra Sternlicht and Shawn Tully
Nintendo shares surge after the Mario movie’s record-breaking opening but the company is still navigating ‘uncharted territory’ amid slowing sales, by Nicholas Gordon
FTX execs ‘joked internally’ about losing track of millions in assets, misused customer funds, and ‘stifled dissent,’ new debtors’ report says, by Will Daniel
A.I. Could lead to a ‘nuclear-level catastrophe’ according to a third of researchers, a new Stanford report finds, by Tristan Bove
Look out, Tesla: China’s biggest electric-car maker wants to take on the world, by Vivienne Walt
BEFORE YOU GO
Get ready for kick-off. YouTube's NFL Sunday Ticket subscription is on presale today. The company is selling the add-on to subscribers of the YouTube TV Base plan at $249 for the season. Users can also get NFL Sunday Ticket and NFL RedZone bundles for the season during the presales. Both of the packages offer access to all local, national, and out-of-market games and will increase by $100 once the presale ends on June 6. Last December, YouTube got streaming rights for NFL Sunday Ticket in a deal that reportedly cost Google $2 billion per season, TechCrunch reports.
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