Business Point Today

 Bitcoin dropped back below $40,000 amid volatile price swings across financial markets, while day-trader favorite Shiba Inu jumped about 10 per cent. Shiba Inu and three other tokens - Solana’s SOL, Polygon’s Matic and Compound’s COMP - were all listed for the first time on Robinhood’s platform. Shiba, which trades at a fraction of one US cent, was the biggest gainer of the four. Bitcoin had dropped Monday to below $40,000 for the first time in more than three weeks. It was about 1.1 per cent lower at $39,411 as of 3.30pm in New York. Ether also turned lower again after briefly rising above $3,000. Bitcoin and the broader crypto market have struggled in recent weeks as the Federal Reserve began hiking rates to combat stubbornly high inflation and geopolitical turmoil hurt risk appetite. A report on Tuesday showed core inflation increased less than what was forecast in March. Bitcoin “is still consolidating in a triangle pattern stretching back to mid-January”, said Jeffrey Halley,...

Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that he owns Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin and isn’t planning to sell them. Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin got a quick boost on Monday after Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell. Bitcoin, which had fallen as much as 2.9 per cent before Mr Musk’s tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again. Ether was up as much as 2.3 per cent before giving up some gains. Dogecoin’s 3.8 per cent increase over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko. Mr Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive of Tesla, is no stranger to social media posts on cryptocurrencies. Last May, he said he hasn’t “and won’t” sell any Dogecoin, a token created in 2013 as a joke and for which he’d become a proponent. In October, Mr Musk said he owns Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin. This time around, he had posted a question on Twitter about the likely rate of inflation over the next fe...