NASDAQ 100 sits on nearly $1T in cash — and we’ve got the charts to prove it-Computerfanfield

Earlier this week, Google parent Alphabet raised $10 billion despite already sitting on $121 billion in cash — a decision no doubt fuelled by the Fed’s souped-up money printer and record low interest rates.

But the Mountain View giant is not alone; the rest of US tech is hoarding too.

In 2012, the companies currently featured in the tech-heavy NASDAQ 100 (NDX) stock index collectively held $405 billion in cash and other small investments. Now, they’ve amassed more than $927 billion — more than half a trillion dollars saved in eight years.

Microsoft and Alphabet are NASDAQ’s kings of cash

As one might expect, the biggest tech giants have the deepest pockets. But five companies in particular are saving more than any other: Microsoft, Alphabet, Apple, Amazon, and Facebook.

Together, they’ve added $323 billion since 2012. Now, the reserves of those five tech companies represent more than half of the total cash controlled by the entire NDX, which includes around 100 firms.

On the other hand, some would rather deplete their war chests. Hard Fork found networking mainstay Cisco “saved” the least, now with $20 billion less compared to 2012; biotech play Amgen $14 billion has less; and eBay $3.8 billion.

Still, more than 80% of the companies currently in the NDX added cash to their kitties since 2012.

The real question is: what does Big Tech plan on doing with all its billions? Some companies use extra cash to reward shareholders with dividends , and others opt to buy back their own shares to inspire demand, or some kind of combination .

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But considering the sheer size of the fortunes amassed by tech’s biggest companies, it’s equally likely we could see even more acquisitions in the near future — no doubt only when all that pesky antitrust nonsense with Congress is over with. Surely.

US fines founders of ‘worthless cryptocurrency’ over $4.25M binary options scam

A US federal court has ordered defendants to pay $4.25 million in penalties as a result of operating a virtual currency scam known as ATM Coin .

Blake Harrison Kantor and Nathan Mullins, both from New York — and corporate entities Blue Bit Banc, ( UK ) ; Blue Bit Analytics, (Turks and Caicos); and Mercury Cove Inc and G. Thomas Client Services, ( New York ) — are accused of committing fraud and misappropriating customer funds.

According to the court , Kantor, Blue Bit Analytics, and G. Thomas Client Services, took customer funds and illegally acted as Futures Commission Merchants without having registered with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The case was first submitted in April last year and charged the defendants with fraud in connection with a binary options scam.

The CFTC said defendants asked public customers to invest in binary options, promising the opportunity to earn predetermined amounts based on the price of the commodities at specific points in time.

Although customers could trade for themselves, or have a Blue Bit Ban representative do so for them, Mullins and Kantor failed to tell customers that a computer software program used by Blue Bit Banc fraudulently changed the data associated with their binary options investments.

Kantor and Mullins told most investors to transfer their funds to a bank account located in the island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, making it harder to trace investor funds.

In addition, the defendants also converted Blue Bit Banc investments into ATM Coin , a worthless cryptocurrency that Kantor had misleadingly told victims was worth a substantial amount.

Satoshi Nakaboto: ‘Bitcoin hits 3-month low as it dips below $8,000’

Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.

Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Hegel used to say: Whip it, whip it, whip it!

Bitcoin price

We closed the day, March 09 2020, at a price of $7,923. That’s a notable 2.31 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$187.50. It was the lowest closing price in fifty-nine days.

We’re still 60 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).

Bitcoin market cap

Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $144,706,353,758. It now commands 65 percent of the total crypto market.

Bitcoin volume

Yesterday’s volume of $46,936,995,808 was the highest in eleven days, 140 percent above last year’s average, and 6 percent below last year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 880 tons of gold.

Bitcoin transactions

A total of 345,387 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 5 percent above last year’s average and 23 percent below last year’s high.

Bitcoin transaction fee

Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $0.25. That’s $3.46 below last year’s high of $3.71.

Bitcoin distribution by address

As of now, there are 11,781 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.8 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.9 percent, and the top 1000 34.7 percent.

Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin

With a market capitalization of $145 Billion, SAP has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.

Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million

On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.

He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 96.6 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $238,283 by now, according to dickline.info.

Bitcoin Energy Consumption

Bitcoin used an estimated 213 million kilowatt hour of electricity yesterday. On a yearly basis that would amount to 78 terawatt hour. That’s the equivalent of Chile’s energy consumption or 7,2 million US households. Bitcoin’s energy consumption now represents 0.35% of the whole world’s electricity use.

Bitcoin on Twitter

Yesterday 31,167 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 68.3 percent above last year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day last year about Bitcoin was 75,543.