Why Crypto Is Surging Back to All-Time Highs and Shrugging Off High Interest Rates

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

Bitcoin is in a prolonged rebound to levels last seen when interest rates were near zero and pixelated artwork was regularly selling for millions.

On Monday, bitcoin spiked by more than 5% to breach $66,000 for the first time in nearly three years. It’s within reach of its all-time high of $69,000. Ether, solana, dogecoin, and other tokens are also staging rallies. In February, the value of the cryptocurrency market returned to $2 trillion for the first time since April 2022.

This retesting of highs comes against the headwinds of interest rates potentially remaining higher for longer. Markets have pushed back their rate-cut forecasts as inflation persists and the economy shows little sign of weakening.

The last time around, the rally was driven by low-interest rates that encouraged speculative behavior. When the Federal Reserve started hiking rates to curtail high inflation, the momentum ran out, and Bitcoin plunged to $16,000 less than a year after hitting records.

Now cryptocurrencies are climbing with rates still elevated and without a clear path lower.

What gives?

“Even though Fed rate-cut expectations have been pushed back, the threat of rate hikes is off the table for now,” Blue Chip Daily’s chief technical strategist, Larry Tentarelli, told Business Insider, adding, “So bitcoin has been rallying.”

There’s also a supply-demand imbalance that appears to be outweighing policy concerns.

A slate of bitcoin-ETF approvals has fueled demand and retail interest, while markets are bracing for the bitcoin halving event that will lower the reward for miners and cut the volume issued daily in half.

Halving happens once about every four years, with occurrences in 2020, 2016, and 2012. In the 12 months after the previous three halvings, bitcoin climbed by 8,069%, 284%, and 559%. The event puts pressure on supply as it slows the rate at which new bitcoins enter the market, and this year’s halving will come at a time when demand is sharply rising.

Tentarelli and other market pros have pointed to the emergence of bitcoin ETFs as a “tremendous” driver of crypto demand, as the products allow more investors to gain exposure without buying tokens outright.

CoinShares data released Monday indicates that last week digital investment products saw the second-biggest weekly inflows on record, at $1.84 billion. Ninety-four percent of those inflows moved into bitcoin products. Trading volumes in the investment products hit a record of more than $30 billion in the same stretch.

ETFs from the likes of Wall Street titans like BlackRock and Fidelity invest directly in bitcoin and are snapping up more and more of the available supply.

A report from CoinDesk in February, the month after the ETF approvals, said the 11 funds owned 192,000 bitcoins. That figure is separate from the 420,000 owned by Grayscale, which converted its bitcoin trust into an ETF, and from the nearly 200,000 owned by MicroStrategy.

Standard Chartered has predicted that ETF inflows could help push bitcoin’s price to $200,000. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee holds an even more bullish prediction, saying the crypto could reach $500,000.

“There’s a finite supply and now we have a potentially huge increase in demand” with spot bitcoin ETF approval, Lee said in a recent interview, “so I think in five years something around half a million would be potentially achievable.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/bitcoin-rally-why-is-crypto-surging-back-to-all-time-highs/470618

‘I Was Young and Should Have Known It’: Mark Cuban Says This Is the 1 Thing He’d ‘Do Differently’ in Life

Billionaire and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban, 65, isn’t one to shy away from doling out life advice and business pointers on social media.

But recently, Cuban told his followers that the one thing he would “do differently” is to worry less about aging and not worry about “getting old at every milestone” birthday.

On Threads, Meta’s rival platform to X, Cuban responded to a post by fitness coach and author Steve Kamb which sarcastically listed out several ways to “stay strong and fit” at age 39, which included luck, genetics, privilege, not having kids, having never been overweight, having no chronic health issues among other factors.

“I was young and should have known it,” Cuban wrote optimistically. “Your body will change. Your diet will need to change. But that’s not being old. That’s being wise!”

Cuban inspired a slew of positive responses from followers on the platform who chimed in with anecdotes about growing older and how mindset is everything when it comes to aging.

“I’m privileged to feel that life continues to improve with age,” one user wrote. “47 now and can’t imagine any age from the past that I’d want to be again.”

“I’m 55 and have come to appreciate every year I age. Life is so short,” another said. “We must enjoy every minute! Love your people and let them know every single day.”

Last month, Cuban spoke with Entrepreneur about the importance of being able to tap into a business mindset when other distractions and life events demand your attention.

“It’s hard,” he admitted. “You have to find ‘me time’ where you can focus on what you need to learn, do, and focus on.”

Cuban is set to turn 66 on July 31. His current net worth is an estimated $7.16 billion, per Bloomberg.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/mark-cuban-says-this-is-the-1-thing-hed-do-differently/470616

Here’s How Much Amazon’s Typical Customer Makes, Plus How Much They Spend on the Platform Per Year

Retail powerhouse Amazon ships to more than 100 countries and is one of the brands that U.S. consumers most trust, according to several polls, including the Harvard CAPs Harris Poll, the Morning Consult list, the Axios Harris Poll, and others.

Amazon made $574.8 billion in net sales last year with more than half of those sales, over 60%, coming from U.S. independent sellers — or small or medium-sized businesses. Independent sellers sold more than 4.1 billion products and made an average of $230,000 each in sales in 2022.

And who is buying all of those goods? New data from market research firm Numerator shows that Amazon shoppers are most likely to be Gen X (1965 to 1981), middle-income ($40,000 to $80,000), white/Caucasian, and female.

Numerator found that 99% of shoppers went back to Amazon for another purchase, and most go back many times — the average Amazon customer made 72 purchases last year.

The Numerator data also highlights that 81% of U.S. households bought something on Amazon in 2023 and spent an average of $2,662 on the platform. Target, by comparison, was frequented by 77% of U.S. households about 23 times throughout the year. Shoppers spent more than double at Amazon than they did at Target, which had an annual buy rate of $1,103.

The shopper demographic was different at Target too, with Gen Z (>1996) or millennials (1982 to 1995) most likely to shop there.

A separate report from JungleScout looked at the seller side of Amazon. According to the company’s State of the Seller survey, the top categories for sellers are home and kitchen (35%), beauty and personal care (26%), clothing, shoes and jewelry (20%), and toys and games (18%).

“You don’t have to be this big company to launch a product,” Alfred Mai, founder and CEO of ASM Games, told Amazon. “It doesn’t matter how small you are, we are able to compete with some of the biggest players.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/selling-on-amazon-heres-new-data-on-the-average-shopper/470612

The Infamous Diner Booth from ‘The Sopranos’ Finale Is Up for Auction — And Some Fans Are Livid: ‘Let Future Generations Enjoy’

The outcome of the final scene of the famed, six-season HBO show, “The Sopranos,” has long been debated by fans who were left wondering what exactly happened to Tony Soprano when he looked up from his infamous diner bench and the screen cut to black.

The diner scene has been the catalyst for hundreds of conspiracy theories and assumptions about the fate of Soprano and the surrounding universe.

Now, fans of the show have their chance to own a piece of television history.

Holsten’s Ice Cream, Chocolate & Restaurant in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where the iconic scene was filmed, announced on Instagram that it is auctioning off the iconic booth as the establishment undergoes renovations and upgrades.

“The time has come. All good things sometimes need an upgrade. The famous Sopranos booth is getting a much-needed face-lift,” the company wrote of the nearly 60-year-old booth. “It has come to a point where [the booths] are structurally not safe anymore as a whole, and we need to think about the safety of our patrons first.”

The booth is cheekily adorned with a sign that reads: “This booth is reserved for the Soprano family.”

As of Monday afternoon, the booth had already earned a high bid on eBay of $82,200.

“I don’t want to change it, but I’m forced to change it. I’m forced to make things stay modern somewhat,” Holsten’s co-owner Chris Carley said in an interview with NJ Advance Media last week. “People will either get used to it, or they won’t get used to it. But I think they will… hopefully, the response will be when the new one is in that everybody likes it.”

Carley added that the seats have become progressively withered down over the years, especially since the finale aired in the summer of 2007, which made Holsten’s a tourist attraction and the booth a once-in-a-lifetime photo opp.

Still, despite the damage, fans of the show are begging the establishment on social media to keep the booth the way it is, with some even touting the remodel as a “horrible” decision.

“Can’t seem to understand this from a business perspective,” one person wrote. “Even if it is no longer safe and can’t be repaired, it makes far more sense to build some plexiglass around it. I know so many people who have visited NJ and made Holsten’s a priority stop.”

“What makes you great is your quality product and nostalgia! You do NOT need to upgrade, you need to let future generations enjoy what older generations already know,” another chimed in.

Carley told NJ Advance Media that the establishment is not quite sure what they will do with the money from the auction.

Bidding will close at 10:02 p.m. ET on Monday.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/the-sopranos-finale-diner-booth-up-for-auction-fans-livid/470609

U.S. Army Employee Nicknamed the ‘Gucci Goddess’ Pleads Guilty to Stealing $108 Million in Army Funds

An employee of the U.S. Army is under fire after being accused of stealing $108 million in Army funds to spend on personal luxury goods including lavish clothing, cars, and homes.

Janet Yamanaka Mello, 57, pleaded guilty on February 29 to five counts of mail fraud and five counts of false tax return filings after being indicted in December for reportedly submitting fraudulent paperwork requesting money from the U.S. Army for an organization she was running called the Child Health and Youth Lifelong Development (CHYLD).

The catch, however, was that the organization did not exist. Instead, Mello is accused of using the funds to purchase designer goods from Gucci and Louis Vuitton, an estimated 80 cars and motorcycles, 31 properties across four states, and an estimated $18 million placed into six bank accounts.

According to the San Antonio Express-News, the purchases included a $3.1 million estate in Preston, Maryland that sits on 58 acres and two Aston Martins.

The outlet reports that Mello earned the nickname of “the Gucci goddess” by local couriers over the volume of luxury packages being delivered to her address.

Mello was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas as a civilian financial program manager for the Army throughout the seven-year-long scheme.

In August, authorities raided her home.

Following the raid, the U.S. army allowed her to retire with full benefits.

Mello was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas working as a civilian financial program manager for the Army throughout the duration of the seven-year-long scheme.

Mello was initially flagged after reporting the CHYLD organization on her personal tax return form in 2017, which reported a $483 profit on $2,152 revenue, and then never filed tax returns for the business again.

Mello is facing a maximum sentence of 125 years in prison — 20 years for each count of mail fraud and five years for each count of tax fraud.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/army-employee-pleads-guilty-to-108-million-fraud-scheme/470602

IKEA Price Increases Are Going Viral — Here’s How Much Your Favorite Couch Costs Now: ‘Inflation Is Crazy’

A TikTok highlighting price increases at IKEA is going viral after one creator had an eye-opening online shopping experience at the furniture retailer.

A video by a TikToker named Jules has racked up over 1.3 million views after showing viewers what happened when she went to reorder a mattress that she first bought in 2021 to get the same one for her children.

The shopper said that, in 2021, the mattress cost $170 and when she went to check last month, she was shocked at how much the price had increased in just three years.

@ustolemysandwich inflation bb!!! #greenscreen ♬ original sound – jules

“Now that same mattress is $249, it’s $70 more or 40% more than it was in November 2021,” she explained. “This is just another example of why it is so expensive to be an adult and 2024.”

Viewers were outraged at the massive price increase in 26 months, with many accusing the retailer of hiking up prices at the customer’s expense to keep up with competitors.

“People have to stop saying inflation and start calling it corporate greed,” one viewer wrote. “It’s a perspective that needs to be addressed.”

“Going through the same thing, inflation is CRAZY,” another said.

Currently, mattresses on IKEA’s website range in price from $99 to $1,049.

In November 2023, IKEA rolled out a “New Lower Price” initiative in which the retailer would add red banners to certain products online with the original higher price listed below the new lower price.

The decision came after IKEA had been found to have hiked prices up to 80% more since 2021.

“Lowering prices is not just a promotion, it is our promise to our customers,” said Javier Quiñones, CEO & chief sustainability officer, of IKEA U.S., in a release at the time. “Our priority is to remain as affordable as possible and continue reducing prices whenever we can to ensure that our products are accessible to all and that dream homes are within reach for the many.”

IKEA did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur‘s request for comment.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/viral-tiktok-exposes-ikea-mattress-price-increase-inflation/470552

Elon Musk Sues ChatGPT-Maker OpenAI, Accuses the Company of Working to ‘Maximize Profits For Microsoft, Rather Than For the Benefit of Humanity’

Elon Musk sued ChatGPT-creator OpenAI and its co-founders Sam Altman and Greg Brockman Thursday, accusing the company of breaking its founding agreement and working to maximize profits for a key investor instead of humanity at large. Musk was a co-founder of OpenAI but stepped away from the company in 2018.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday in a San Francisco Superior Court, focused on OpenAI’s relationship with Microsoft.

^{Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and the X (formerly Twitter) platform. Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images}

“Under its new Board, [OpenAI] is not just developing but is actually refining an AGI [Artificial General Intelligence] to maximize profits for Microsoft, rather than for the benefit of humanity,” the filing reads.

In the lawsuit, Musk reinforced his part in OpenAI’s founding story and stated that Altman and Brockman had approached him in 2015 to make an open-source, non-profit company that would benefit humanity. The lawsuit alleged that OpenAI “set the founding agreement aflame” last year when it released its latest GPT-4, which the lawsuit called a Microsoft product.

Musk asked the court to make OpenAI’s research and technology publicly available and to stop Microsoft and OpenAI execs from financially gaining from it.

Microsoft’s $13 billion, multiyear partnership OpenAI is one that regulators in the U.S. and U.K. are preparing to investigate. Microsoft has a 49% stake in OpenAI’s for-profit side and can capitalize on OpenAI’s advancements in products like Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Musk launched an AI company of his own last year called xAI, which stands in direct competition with OpenAI’s offerings. xAI has already secured $500 million from investors.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/elon-musk-sues-chatgpt-maker-openai-sam-altman/470551

Jeff Bezos, Microsoft, and Nvidia All Decided To Invest in a $2.6 Billion Humanoid Robot Startup

Figure AI, a robotics startup that’s engineering human-like bipedal robots that could one day take over human tasks, stated on Thursday that it raised $675 million from high-profile investors, including Jeff Bezos. The company, which was founded in 2022, is now valued at $2.6 billion.

Figure AI’s master plan appears to be transforming various industries, “from corporate labor roles (3+ billion humans), to assisting individuals in the home (2+ billion), to caring for the elderly (~1 billion), and to building new worlds on other planets,” according to the company.

For now, the startup is aiming to be involved in industries like manufacturing, shipping, and retail, “where labor shortages are the most severe.”

^{Figure 01 in action. Credit: Figure AI}

The first offering from the startup is Figure 01, a general-purpose robot that walks on two legs and has five-fingered hands. A video showing the robot in action highlights that it can walk to a stack of crates, pick one up, and place it on a conveyor belt.

A status update slide before the footage showed that the robot’s speed when compared to a human is currently 16.7%.

[embedded content]

“Figure 01 is completing fully autonomous tasks,” Figure AI wrote in the video.

Figure AI stated as part of the deal on Thursday that it would partner with OpenAI, the nonprofit behind ChatGPT, to incorporate generative AI into its human-like robots. Microsoft has made a multiyear, multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, and also invested $95 million in Figure AI, according to Bloomberg.

Nvidia and an Amazon-affiliated fund are investing $50 million each in Figure AI, and Amazon founder Bezos committed $100 million through his firm Explore Investments LLC. Amazon has seven different robotics companies in its $1 billion innovation fund portfolio, from Agility Robotics to Bionic Hive.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/jeff-bezos-microsoft-invest-in-a-humanoid-robot-startup/470546

‘I Chickened Out’: Barbara Corcoran Shares an Early Real Estate Regret — And How You Can Avoid the Same Mistake

“Shark Tank” star Barbara Corcoran says that buying real estate as soon as possible, regardless of the state of the market, is the best bet.

The real estate maven echoed these sentiments in a recent series with Forbes’ “Women & Wealth”, where she explained that if prospective buyers wait until interest rates drop down, they’ll face a tougher market due to increased competition and higher prices.

“If you think you have a problem now finding a house, you’re going to have a bigger problem and you’re going to pay a lot more for the house,” she explained. “So, there’s no sense in waiting. There’s nothing better about waiting.”

Corcoran said that she learned this lesson the hard way — decades ago, she passed on purchasing a studio apartment in New York.

“When I was in my late 20s, I got my hands on a studio that I could barely afford — I chickened out,” she said. “I just didn’t have the courage to go forward. But it took me probably five years to catch up to the market again. It ran away from me before I could find another studio.”

Now, the 74-year-old has plenty of real estate in her portfolio, including a $1 million double-wide trailer in California and a $13 million penthouse in NYC.

In an episode of the “Elvis Duran Show” last month, Corcoran first shared her thoughts on getting in on the market early, telling viewers that you can always upgrade and “trade up” when the time is right.

“It’s always a good time [to buy]. You only get one chance to live,” she said. “You are not buying an investment only, you are buying a home to raise your kids in, to have good times, to cook in your kitchen. You want to get in the market. Prices always long term go up … so why wait?”

Corcoran’s net worth is an estimated $400 million.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/barbara-corcoran-no-sense-in-waiting-to-buy-real-estate/470543

HP Wants You to ‘Never Own A Printer Again,’ Launches Rental Subscription

HP launched a printer subscription service on Thursday that allows subscribers to rent a new printer, print a specific number of pages, and get ink delivered from the company when they need it — for a fixed price per month.

Customers can choose between three new printers: the HP Envy, which costs $6.99 per month to rent, the HP Envy Inspire, which costs $8.99 per month, and the HP OfficeJet Pro, which costs $12.99 per month with no upfront cost. For comparison, the HP OfficeJet Pro line retails for $200 to $300 and replacement ink cartridges from HP cost $27 each.

The printer subscription service also aligns with HP’s previous statements about the direction of its business. Last month, HP’s CEO Enrique Lores stated that making printing a subscription was the company’s “long-term objective.”

“We lose money on the hardware, we make money on the supplies,” Lores told CNBC.

Lores stated that HP’s long-term goal was to decrease the number of “unprofitable” customers, or people who bought printers but didn’t spend money on supplies like ink cartridges.

“Every time a customer buys a printer, it’s an investment for us,” Lores told the outlet. “If this customer doesn’t print enough, or doesn’t use our supplies, it’s a bad investment.”

HP has been sued more than once for blocking users who own their printers from printing with non-HP ink cartridges. The company entered into a $1.5 million class settlement in 2019 over the issue, with more recent lawsuits filed this year.

HP isn’t the first to experiment with subscription services. Epson launched its ReadyPrint subscription service in 2020 which also provides a printer for rent and automatic ink cartridge replacements, but some users experienced snags with the service in 2022 that left them unable to print.

^{Enrique Lores, president and chief executive officer of HP Inc. Photographer: Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images}

This isn’t HP’s first subscription service, either: HP’s Instant Ink plan brings ink to subscribers’ doors automatically when HP detects that they’re running low for $0.99 to $25.99 per month.

“We sort of see a 20 percent uplift on the value of that customer because you’re locking that person, committing to a longer-term relationship,” Marie Myers, HP’s chief financial officer, said at a UBS Global Tech conference in December.

Subscribers to HP’s new service can choose to print anywhere from 20 pages per month for $6.99 to 700 pages per month for $36. Like with the Instant Ink pan, HP will detect when ink is running low and deliver replacement cartridges automatically at no additional cost. If the printer jams or runs into an issue, subscribers have access to 24/7 live support. After two years, HP offers an option to upgrade to a new printer or continue with the old one.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/hp-wants-you-to-never-own-a-printer-again-launches-rental/470541