The giving of gifts to mark life’s milestones is among the oldest of human customs, the cash tucked into a birthday card, the savings bond presented at a graduation, the check handed over at a wedding, and the gifts that family members give one another to express love, to celebrate occasions, and to help the…
Read MoreThe individual retirement account has long been one of the most powerful tools available to ordinary people for building wealth over a lifetime, a tax-advantaged container in which investments can grow with their gains sheltered from the annual taxation that erodes returns in ordinary accounts, and for most of its history it has held familiar…
Read MoreCryptocurrency was supposed to be a technology of liberation, a way to move money without banks and to hold wealth without intermediaries, yet for a great many ordinary people their first real encounter with it has come not through investment but through fraud, in the form of a stranger’s friendly message, a too-good-to-be-true opportunity, or…
Read MoreFor decades, the reward a credit card offered in exchange for loyalty was a familiar and predictable thing, a small slice of cash returned to the account, a handful of airline miles, or points redeemable in a catalog of merchandise and gift cards, all of them fixed in value and easy enough to understand even…
Read MoreFor someone new to cryptocurrency, the prospect of buying a digital asset like Bitcoin can feel intimidating, not because the act of buying is difficult but because the prices move so violently that the decision of when to buy seems to carry enormous weight, with the constant fear that one might purchase just before a…
Read MoreFor most of cryptocurrency’s history, digital assets such as Bitcoin have been far easier to buy and hold than to spend, since the corner store, the coffee shop, and the gas station all expect dollars, not Bitcoin, and very few merchants accept cryptocurrency directly. This gap between owning crypto and using it for everyday purchases…
Read MoreIn financial markets, the same asset can trade at different prices in different forms at the same moment, and the gap between those prices can be a source of profit for those who know how to capture it. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin trades at one price for immediate delivery, called the spot price, and at…
Read MoreIn the world of blockchains that secure themselves through staking, a powerful and deeply controversial idea has taken firm hold, the seductive idea that the very same staked assets used to secure one network could simultaneously be put to work securing many others at the same time. This concept, known as restaking, promises to make…
Read MoreEvery price in a financial market is the visible result of an essentially invisible negotiation, the constant pushing and pulling of countless buyers and sellers, each trying to transact on the best terms they can possibly get. Most people who follow markets see only the final outcome of this negotiation, the price ticking up and…
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