The weekend is within sight. Today we're breaking down the turmoil in the crypto markets and why one analyst said more gloom could still be coming. And we've got breaking news this morning: Elon Musk said his Twitter deal is on hold — we've got the latest.
Let's get started.
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1. Terra's implosion is shaking confidence in crypto. The entire market has turned red since the collapse of Luna and its sister stablecoin, Terra, and some say this could be crypto's "Lehman Brothers moment."
GlobalBlock analyst Marcus Sotiriou is less focused on what has already happened, however, he sees a potentially larger catastrophe looming.
"A collapse of USDT [Tether] would be ['the Lehman Brothers moment'] though, and we have seen the largest stablecoin by market cap wobble over the past 24 hours," Sotiriou told Insider.
This week's turmoil signals potentially systemic issues. Investors often peg stablecoins as essential to growth in the sector, but belief in their viability is being tested.
Terra's collapse shows how these tokens can have all the risk of crypto without any of the upside.
Now, people are realizing there is nothing to back up the value of these tokens other than the hope that there will always be more buyers than sellers — a bleak rationale to rely on during a full-blown bear market.
The move in crypto feels different this time. Rather than being sparked by an offhand comment about more regulation or a temporary skittishness among investors, this week's sell-off has roots in the underlying mechanisms of the market, which appear to be faltering.
In other news:
2. Breaking this morning: Elon Musk tweeted early Friday that his deal to buy Twitter is "temporarily on hold." Musk made the announcement after the social network reported that fake accounts represent less than 5% of its users. Twitter's stock price plunged 25% in premarket trading.
3. Bitcoin trades above $30,000 early Friday. Cryptocurrencies across the board were rebounding from brutal sell-offs this week. US futures were also up, after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the chances of a bigger rate hikes. Here are the latest market moves.
4. On deck today: Cineplex, Emera, and Neo Performance Materials, all reporting.
5. Crypto bled $600 billion in market value over the last month. The crypto crash has seen the net worth of industry titans, like Sam Bankman-Fried, slashed in half. Insider spoke to four crypto experts about why the market is tanking — and one exec said the buying opportunities are "as diverse as ever."
6. Russia is still earning $20 billion per month in oil sales. Higher crude prices are lifting export revenue 50%, according to the International Energy Agency. In April, Russian oil exports climbed by 620,000 barrels per day from the prior month to 8.1 million — back to their average before the invasion of Ukraine.
7. Robinhood shares surged 30% after crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried revealed a 7.6% stake in the company. Bankman-Fried disclosed that he owns about 56.3 million shares in Robinhood Markets, a stake worth about $482 million.
8. This long-time investor and venture capitalist thought growth equities were "un-ownable" last year but currently thinks they are brimming with opportunity. Howard Lindzon isn't fleeing tech stocks like other investors are right now. He shared four beaten-down companies that he thinks look like bargains.
9. Sean Allen paid off five figures of debt less than two years after getting serious about tackling his loans. He was able to shed $81,000 in debt and is now financially independent. This is his three-step process for getting debt-free.
10. It's finally a better time to buy a used car. The seller's market for used vehicles is starting to wobble, and prices fell 0.4% in April, marking a third consecutive month of declines. Dig into the numbers here.
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Curated by Phil Rosen in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @philrosenn.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.