Oman mulls IPO of energy firm OQ’s units to catch up with Gulf peers

RIYADH: Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency internationally, traded higher on Thursday, rising by 6.20 percent to $22,138.54 as of 8:30 a.m. Riyadh time.

Ethereum, the second most traded cryptocurrency, was priced at $1,201.35 up by 8.83 percent, according to data from Coindesk.

Crypto giant Binance offers 2,000 new positions

Despite a slew of job cuts by companies in the digital currency space, cryptocurrency exchange Binance has opened 2,000 positions for hiring, CEO Changpeng Zhao said on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

“It was not easy saying no to Super Bowl ads, stadium naming rights, large sponsor deals a few months ago, but we did. Today, we are hiring for 2000 open positions for #Binance,” Zhao said in a tweet.

Binance’s move takes place amid extreme volatility in the cryptocurrency market, amid fears that rising inflation could force the Federal Reserve to raise rates aggressively and lead to a recession, which the Fed eventually did.

On Wednesday, the Fed approved its largest interest rate increase in more than 25 years to stem an inflation crisis that US central bank officials said may undermine public trust and was driven by events beyond the bank’s control, Reuters said.

As a result, the Fed increased its federal funds rate target to between 1.5 percent and 1.75 percent.

In addition, officials expect to continue raising interest rates throughout this year, possibly adding another 75 basis points, with the federal funds rate set at 3.4 percent at year’s end.

Gates says Greater Fool Theory underpins NFTs

On Tuesday, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates called non-fungible tokens a sham based on “the greater fool theory” of crypto, reviving past criticism of digital assets, according to Bloomberg.

“Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world greatly,” he said sarcastically.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO, sparred with him last year over whether Bitcoin was too risky for retail investors and the environmental impact of mining coins.