Here comes Friday, April 26th. As the ongoing week elapses, we can focus on the industry highlights over the past few days.
Meta slides 15% amid AI spending
Meta (META) stocks plunged 15% in after-hours trading due to a bleak prospect for Q2 2024 revenue and daunting plans to “aggressively” step up investments in AI sector this year. At the same time, its metaverse department is expected to keep bleeding cash.
As of April 24th, the tech giant’s financial chief, Susan Li, noted in Q1 earnings report that its revenue forecast for the next quarter totals from $36.5B to $39B — below recent Wall Street estimates of $38.3 billion.
Li anticipates spendings to climb to between $96 billion and $99 billion because of “higher infrastructure and legal costs.”
It was also revealed about a hike of full-year 2024 capital expenditures to a max level of $40 billion from its previous $37 billion since the firm intends to “invest aggressively to support our ambitious AI research and product development.”
Crypto caught the eye of Canada’s institutions
Last year, Canada-based institutional investors sharply increased their crypto exposure as opposed to the prior bull run, according to a survey from accounting firm KPMG.
Nearly 40% of them reported acquiring direct or indirect practical experience to crypto assets over 2023 — up from 31% in KPMG’s 2021 study, as the April 24 report revealed.
The poll indicated that one-third of the institutional investors have allocated 10% or more of their portfolios to digital assets, the figure which is also up from a fifth two years ago.
Kunal Bhasin, a partner and leader at KPMG Canada’s Digital Assets practice pointed out it “appears” the businesses are seeking to invest in alternative asset classes that serve as a hedge against losses and as a solid store of value amid galloping inflation and mounting debt in the United States.
Bitcoin mining to heat homes in Finland
A new project has been launched in Finland aimed at using energy generated by bitcoin mining to warm up households during the harsh Finnish winter.
Hashlabs Mining has introduced a trailblazing initiative focusing on turning the energy from mining into the one which can be used for heating entire buildings through specially designed devices.
The technology blends the hydro-cooled ASIC mining device — a WhatsMiner M63S — with the Finnish district heating system, where the heat is transferred from a centralized source through a network of insulated pipes to multiple buildings. It is designed to allow households to benefit from industrial BTC mining.
“With the help of industrial consumers like Bitcoin miners, Finland can increasingly use its massive nuclear power plant to produce heat,” Hashlabs Mining co-founder Jaran Mellerud said in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on April 23.
Europe’s largest banks are now embracing crypto
A number of the EU’s biggest financial institutions are striving to enter the crypto industry as a result of recent tangible evidence provided by the adoption of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA).
In May 2023, the European Council established the first comprehensive legal framework for the cryptoverse. The MiCA plan focuses on protecting investors through more stringent transparency standards and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) rules.
Thanks to gaining clarity regarding regulation for the first time ever, European banks are now more sure-footed in developing crypto services. However, the lack the technical expertise and infrastructure is the reason why they are resorting to crypto services providers such as Bitpanda. As per Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, its Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer, “suddenly [banks] are realizing that they do not have the technical expertise, the knowledge internally because they didn’t have time and investment to build it up, but suddenly they want something to go to market with.”
Raiffeisen, the leading community banking group in Austria, has teamed up with Bitpanda to offer digital asset services to retail banking customers, whereas other major banks are eager to develop corporate crypto services.