Crypto’s Onetime Fans Are Calling It Quits After FTX Collapse
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    HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $1,689,034 (+0.71%)       Melbourne $1,029,629 (+0.12%)       Brisbane $1,073,600 (-0.42%)       Adelaide $967,678 (-1.54%)       Perth $950,137 (+0.33%)       Hobart $774,360 (+0.61%)       Darwin $777,437 (-0.15%)       Canberra $984,996 (+0.85%)       National $1,100,903 (+0.24%)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING PRICES AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $779,247 (+1.20%)       Melbourne $496,926 (-0.28%)       Brisbane $670,411 (-0.54%)       Adelaide $501,324 (+0.74%)       Perth $548,262 (+2.85%)       Hobart $518,845 (-2.68%)       Darwin $389,404 (+0.44%)       Canberra $495,673 (+0.15%)       National $573,183 (+0.35%)                HOUSES FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 11,558 (-468)       Melbourne 13,241 (-445)       Brisbane 8,142 (-163)       Adelaide 2,686 (-223)       Perth 7,534 (-294)       Hobart 1,241 (-23)       Darwin 163 (+3)       Canberra 1,051 (-100)       National 45,616 (-1,713)                UNITS FOR SALE AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 9,129 (-228)       Melbourne 7,678 (-122)       Brisbane 1,622 (-53)       Adelaide 435 (-23)       Perth 1,622 (-53)       Hobart 222 (-5)       Darwin 303 (0)       Canberra 1,158 (-36)       National 22,169 (-520)                HOUSE MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $800 ($0)       Melbourne $590 ($0)       Brisbane $650 ($0)       Adelaide $638 (+$8)       Perth $700 ($0)       Hobart $570 (-$15)       Darwin $700 ($0)       Canberra $700 ($0)       National $675 (-$1)                UNIT MEDIAN ASKING RENTS AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney $750 ($0)       Melbourne $590 ($0)       Brisbane $645 ($0)       Adelaide $530 (-$10)       Perth $650 ($0)       Hobart $520 (+$20)       Darwin $570 (-$25)       Canberra $575 ($0)       National $612 (-$2)                HOUSES FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 5,741 (-6)       Melbourne 7,467 (-128)       Brisbane 3,756 (-56)       Adelaide 1,387 (-31)       Perth 2,263 (+9)       Hobart 209 (+6)       Darwin 84 (+1)       Canberra 474 (-7)       National 21,381 (-212)                UNITS FOR RENT AND WEEKLY CHANGE     Sydney 7,723 (-104)       Melbourne 5,470 (0)       Brisbane 1,811 (+13)       Adelaide 394 (+6)       Perth 713 (-25)       Hobart 91 (-10)       Darwin 90 (-11)       Canberra 560 (-1)       National 16,852 (-132)                HOUSE ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 2.46% (↓)       Melbourne 2.98% (↓)     Brisbane 3.15% (↑)      Adelaide 3.43% (↑)        Perth 3.83% (↓)       Hobart 3.83% (↓)     Darwin 4.68% (↑)        Canberra 3.70% (↓)       National 3.19% (↓)            UNIT ANNUAL GROSS YIELDS AND TREND         Sydney 5.00% (↓)     Melbourne 6.17% (↑)      Brisbane 5.00% (↑)        Adelaide 5.50% (↓)       Perth 6.16% (↓)     Hobart 5.21% (↑)        Darwin 7.61% (↓)       Canberra 6.03% (↓)       National 5.55% (↓)            HOUSE RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.0% (↑)      Melbourne 1.9% (↑)      Brisbane 1.4% (↑)      Adelaide 1.3% (↑)      Perth 1.2% (↑)      Hobart 1.0% (↑)      Darwin 1.6% (↑)      Canberra 2.7% (↑)      National 1.7% (↑)             UNIT RENTAL VACANCY RATES AND TREND       Sydney 2.4% (↑)      Melbourne 3.8% (↑)      Brisbane 2.0% (↑)      Adelaide 1.1% (↑)      Perth 0.9% (↑)      Hobart 1.4% (↑)      Darwin 2.8% (↑)      Canberra 2.9% (↑)      National 2.2% (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL HOUSES AND TREND         Sydney 29.7 (↓)     Melbourne 29.3 (↑)        Brisbane 33.2 (↓)       Adelaide 27.8 (↓)     Perth 38.8 (↑)        Hobart 31.9 (↓)     Darwin 30.9 (↑)        Canberra 29.7 (↓)     National 31.4 (↑)             AVERAGE DAYS TO SELL UNITS AND TREND       Sydney 28.9 (↑)        Melbourne 29.8 (↓)     Brisbane 32.1 (↑)        Adelaide 25.6 (↓)     Perth 39.6 (↑)      Hobart 43.4 (↑)        Darwin 37.5 (↓)     Canberra 39.8 (↑)        National 34.6 (↓)           
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Crypto’s Onetime Fans Are Calling It Quits After FTX Collapse

Debacle is last straw for many who embraced crypto during pandemic

By GUNJAN BANERJI
Mon, Dec 19, 2022 9:01amGrey Clock 4 min

Buying crypto was so much fun when it was going up. Now, many onetime fans are getting out.

This year has brought crisis after crisis, raising questions about the industry’s long-term prospects. Two major lenders, Voyager Digital and Celsius Network, filed for bankruptcy this summer. The price of bitcoin has plunged some 75% from its peak late last year. For some traders, the recent collapse of the crypto exchange FTX—which is dragging down other firms—was the last straw.

Crypto fund asset managers saw investors withdraw almost $20 billion in November, or nearly 15% of total assets under management, according to the research firm CryptoCompare. That brought the fund managers’ collective AUM to its lowest point in nearly two years. By contrast, many small-time investors continue to stay in the relatively boring stock market, despite losses there as well.

Dennis Drent, a former executive at a pet-insurance company, said he waded into the crypto market last December, when the world felt very different. He was growing anxious that the stock market’s record run would soon sputter and was frustrated by how little his bond investments were generating.

Around that time, he caught an appearance by a bitcoin proponent, Michael Saylor, with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson.

“He had me convinced that you can’t lose,” said Mr. Drent, who lives in Southern California.

A few weeks later, he poured about $25,000 into Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. He even had a nod from his financial adviser, he said.

It didn’t work. Mr. Drent cashed out in May, taking about a 50% loss. By then, crypto prices were falling fast. But so were stocks and bonds, an unusual coupling that reflected broad uncertainty.

Mr. Drent said he should have known to avoid a market that was so lightly regulated and that he didn’t fully understand: “I wasn’t cautious enough.”

Mr. Saylor didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Crypto use exploded over the past few years and so did crypto prices, with bitcoin soaring from roughly $9,000 in early March 2020 to about $68,000 at its peak in November 2021.

Rookie traders stuck at home during pandemic lockdowns downloaded apps that made it easy to buy crypto with a few taps on their phones. Some embraced active trading, darting in and out of different cryptocurrencies. Others thought they were taking a safer route by parking their crypto holdings at companies that offered eye-popping yields in return.

The share of U.S. households that have ever transferred funds into a crypto-related account jumped to 13% as of June 2022, up from 3% before 2020, according to data from the JPMorgan Chase Institute. It estimates that many new investors flocked to crypto for the first time last year, with activity among new users peaking around the time bitcoin prices did in November. Since then, activity has tumbled.

While crypto prices soared, financial-services companies rolled out new products and services to allow everyday investors to add crypto to their nest eggs. Some of that enthusiasm has waned.

“New customer additions have slowed…because the trust of the industry has been damaged,” said Chris Kline, co-founder of Bitcoin IRA, which allows investors to trade crypto through retirement accounts.

Making matters worse, many people followed the herd and bought crypto only when prices rose.

JPMorgan estimates that many investors who transferred money to crypto accounts did so when prices were much higher than they are now. That means many investors are likely sitting on losses.

Of course, plenty of crypto traders say they are holding on or trying to buy the dip in cryptocurrencies. Some are doing so because they believe in crypto as a conduit to change global finance. Others just don’t need the money soon.

Stephen Jones, 28 years old, said he started buying cryptocurrencies when he was in college. Mr. Jones notched some wins but started having doubts over the past year, so he sold out of some positions. Getting married in June pushed him to take another closer look at his finances, he said.

Finally, he decided to cash out his remaining holdings in October. When he saw FTX collapse shortly afterward, he was relieved that he had already dumped his crypto.

FTX “definitely opened my eyes a little bit,” said Mr. Jones, who works in finance and is based in Houston. “I’m not really seeing as much value-added activity as was initially promised.”

Nick Torrico, 26, had about $10,000 in mainly bitcoin, Ethereum and VeChain at Voyager when it filed for bankruptcy in July, and he doesn’t know if he will see all of that money again.

After diving into cryptocurrencies a few years ago, he has pulled back on some of his trading, especially in smaller coins.

Mr. Torrico said he is glad that he has diversified his holdings and didn’t pour all of his money into crypto. He is holding more in cash in his investment account. He has made some stock trades with borrowed money and could face margin calls if shares of some of his companies fall farther.

Still, Mr. Torrico, who works in finance, said he remains optimistic about blockchain technology and expects more regulation of crypto, which he thinks will help the industry. He still holds bitcoin and ether, the two biggest cryptocurrencies, and plans to keep buying regularly.

“A lot of bad actors have been exposed,” Mr. Torrico said. “My biggest lesson is to be patient and not try to make fast money.”

—David Benoit contributed to this article.



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Gold is outshining stocks, bonds and crypto. Here’s what’s driving the surge—and how to get in.

By JACK HOUGH
Thu, Apr 24, 2025 8 min

Give gold bugs their due. The yellow metal has been a light in the investing darkness. At a recent $3,406 per troy ounce, it’s up 30% this year, to the envy of stock, bond, and Bitcoin holders. Cash-flow purists will call this a flash in the pan, but they should look again. Over the past 20 years, SPDR Gold Shares , an exchange-traded fund, has surged 630%—85 points more than SPDR S&P 500 , which tracks shares of the biggest U.S. companies.

That isn’t supposed to happen. If businesses couldn’t be expected to outperform an unthinking metal over decades, shareholders would demand that they cease operations and hoard bullion instead. So, what’s going on? If this were gasoline or Nike shoes or Nvidia chips, we would look to supply versus demand. With immutable gold, nearly every ounce that has ever been found is still around somewhere, so price action is mostly about demand. That has been ravenous and broad since 2022.

That year, the U.S. and dozens of allies placed sweeping sanctions on Russia, including its largest banks, and China went on a bullion spree. Its buying has since cooled, but other central banks have stepped in. Perhaps this is unsurprising, in light of a decades-long diversification by finance ministers away from the U.S. dollar, which is down to 57% of foreign reserves from over 70% in 2000. But the recent uptick in gold stockpiling looks to JPMorgan Chase , the world’s largest bullion dealer, like a debasement trade. Investors are nervous about President Donald Trump’s tariffs, his browbeating of the Federal Reserve Chairman over interest rates, and blowout U.S. deficits.

Surging Demand

It isn’t just bankers. Demand among individuals for gold bars and coins has been surging, with some dealers experiencing sporadic shortages. Gold ETFs were bucking the trend, but flows there have turned solidly positive since last summer, including recently in China. All told, there is now an estimated $4 trillion worth of gold held by central banks, and $5 trillion by private investors. Calculated against $260 trillion for all financial assets, including stocks, bonds, cash, and alternatives, that works out to a global gold portfolio allocation of 3.5%, a record.

What’s next? BofA Securities says that central banks have room for much more gold buying, and that China’s insurance companies are likely to dabble, too. RBC Capital Markets analyst Chris Louney says ETFs could drive demand growth from here, especially if angst reigns. “Gold is that asset of last resort…the part of the investing universe that investors really look for when they have a lot of questions elsewhere,” he says.

Russ Koesterich, a portfolio manager for BlackRock , a major player in ETFs including the iShares Gold Trust , says that gold has proven itself as a store of value, and deserves a 2% to 4% weighting for most investors. “I think it’s a tough call to say, ‘Would you chase it here?’ ” he says. “There have been some pullbacks. Those might represent a good opportunity, particularly for people who don’t have any exposure.”

Daniel Major, who covers materials stocks for UBS , points out that gold miners mostly haven’t wrapped themselves in glory in recent years with their dealmaking and asset management. As a result, a major index for the group is trading 30% below pre-Covid levels relative to earnings. UBS increased its 2026 gold price target by 23%, to $3,500 per troy ounce, before gold’s latest lurch higher. Many miners are producing at a cost of $1,200 to $2,000. Major has bumped up earnings estimates across his coverage. “I think we’re gonna see further upward revisions to consensus earnings,” he says. “This is what’s attractive about the gold space right now.”

Major’s favorite gold stocks are Barrick Gold , Newmont , and Endeavour Mining . More on those in a moment. We also have thoughts on how not to buy gold—and what not to expect it to do: Don’t count on it to keep beating stocks long term, or to provide precise short-term protection from inflation spikes and stock swoons. But first, a little history, chemistry, and rules of the yellow brick road.

Flesh of the Gods

The first gold coins of reliable weight and purity featured a lion and bull stamped on the face, and were minted at the order of King Croesus of Lydia, in modern-day Turkey, around 550 B.C. But by then, gold had been used as a show of riches for thousands of years. Ancient Egyptians called gold the flesh of the gods, and laid the boy King Tutankhamen to rest in a gold coffin weighing 243 pounds. The Old Testament says that under King Solomon, gold in Jerusalem was as common as stone. Allow for literary license; silicon, an element in most stones, is 28.2% of the Earth’s crust, whereas gold is 0.0000004%.

Marco Polo described palace walls in China covered with gold. Mansa Musa I of Mali in West Africa, on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, is said to have splashed so much gold around Cairo on the way that he crashed the local price by 20%, and it took 12 years to recover. To Montezuma, the Aztec king whose gold lured Cortés from Spain, the metal was called, as it still is by some in Central Mexico, teocuitlatl —literally, god excrement. Golden eras, gold medals, the Golden Rule, and golden calf—so deep is the historical association between gold and wealth, excellence, and vice that it seems to have a mystical hold on humanity. In fact, it’s more a matter of chemical inevitability.

Trade and savings are easier with money. Pick one for the job from the 118 known elements. Years ago on National Public Radio, Columbia University chemist Sanat Kumar used a process of elimination. Best to avoid elements that are cumbersome gases or liquids at room temperature. Stay away from the highly reactive columns I and II on the periodic table—we can’t have lithium ducats bursting into flame. Money should be rare, unlike zinc, which pennies are made from, but not too rare, unlike iridium, used for aircraft spark plugs. It shouldn’t be poisonous like arsenic or radioactive like radium—that rules out more elements than you might think. Of the handful that are left, eliminate any that weren’t discovered until recent centuries, or whose melting points were too high for early furnaces.

That leaves silver and gold. Silver tarnishes, but rarer, noble gold holds its luster. It is malleable enough to pound into sheets so thin that light will shine through. And, despite the best efforts of Isaac Newton and other would-be alchemists, it cannot be artificially created—profitably, anyhow. Technically, there is something called nuclear transmutation. If you can free a proton from mercury’s nucleus or insert one into platinum’s, you’ll end up with a nucleus with 79 protons, and that’s gold. Scientists did just that more than 80 years ago using mercury and a particle accelerator. But what little gold they produced was radioactive. If you think you can do better, you’ll likely need a nuclear reactor to prove it, but a large gold mine is one-fifth the cost, and we have to believe the permitting is easier.

We passed over copper due to commonness, but it has become too valuable to use for pennies. The 95% copper content of a pre-1982 penny is worth about three cents today. The equivalent amount of silver goes for $3.10, and gold, more than $320. But the three trade in different units. A pound of copper is up 17% this year, at $4.72. Silver and gold are typically quoted per troy ounce, a measure of hazy origin and clear tediousness, which is 9.7% heavier than a regular ounce. A troy ounce of silver is $32.70, up 13% this year.

Some Finer Points

Confused? This won’t help: The purity of investment gold, called its fineness, is measured in either parts per thousand or on a 24-point karat scale. A karat is different from a carat, the gemstone weight, but our friends in the U.K.—who adopted troy ounces in the 15th century—often spell both words with a “c.” Gold bricks like the ones central banks swap are called Good Delivery bars, and weigh 400 troy ounces, give or take, worth more than $1.3 million. If you buy a few, lift with your legs; each weighs a little over 27 regular pounds (as opposed to troy pounds, which, it pains us to note, are 12 troy ounces, not 16).

There are many options for smaller players, like Canadian Maple Leaf coins, which are 24-karat gold; South African Krugerrands, at 22 karats, and alloyed with copper for durability; and Gold American Eagles, 22 karats, with some silver and copper. Proof coins cost extra for their high polish, artistry, and limited runs, and may or may not become collectibles. Humbler-looking bullion coins are bought for their metal value. Prefer the latter if you aren’t a coin hobbyist. Avoid infomercials and stick with high-volume dealers. Even so, markups of 2% to 4% are common. Costco Wholesale , which sells gold in single troy ounce Swiss bars, charges 2%, but often runs out, and limits purchases to two bars per member a day. Factor in the cost of storage and insurance, too.

ETFs are more economical. For example, iShares Gold Trust costs 0.25%, not counting commissions. For long-term holders, as opposed to traders, there is a smaller fund called iShares Gold Trust Micro , which costs 0.09%.

Resist fleeing stocks for gold. The surprisingly long outperformance of gold is mostly a function of its recent run-up. From 1975 through last year, gold turned $1 invested into about $16, versus $348 for U.S. stocks. That starting point has a legal basis. President Franklin Roosevelt largely outlawed private gold ownership in 1933; President Richard Nixon delinked the dollar from gold in 1971; and President Gerald Ford made private ownership legal again at the end of 1974.

Gold has been a so-so inflation hedge over the past half-century, and at times a disappointing one. In 2022, when U.S. inflation peaked at a 40-year high of over 9%, the gold price went nowhere. The problem is that high inflation can prompt a sharp increase in interest rates. “If people can clip a 5% coupon on a T-bill, often they’d prefer to do that than have either a lump of metal or an ETF that doesn’t produce cash flow,” says BlackRock’s Koesterich.

Likewise, while gold has generally offset stock declines this year, it hasn’t always done so in the heat of the moment. Recall tariff “liberation day” early this month, which sent U.S. stocks down close to 11% in three days and pulled gold down nearly 5%. “This isn’t an uncommon scenario,” says RBC’s Louney. “When investors were losing elsewhere in their portfolio, gold was sold as well to cover those losses.”

Our top tip on how gold behaves is this: It doesn’t. People do the behaving, and they are appallingly unreliable. Use bonds as a stock market hedge. If they don’t work, fall back to patience. For inflation protection, think of assets that are a better match than gold for the goods and services that you buy every week. A diversified commodities fund has precious metals but also industrial ones, along with energy and grains. Treasury inflation-protected securities are explicitly linked to the consumer price index, which measures inflation for a theoretical individual whose buying patterns differ from your own, but are close enough.

Own a house. Stick with a workaday, reliable car. Yes, cars deteriorate. But so does nearly everything on a long enough timeline. Rely mostly on stocks, which represent businesses, which wouldn’t endure if they couldn’t turn raw inputs like commodities into something more profitable. There’s even a miner, Newmont, in the S&P 500.

The Case for Mining Stocks

Speaking of which, UBS’ Major recently upgraded both Canada’s Barrick and Denver-based Newmont from Neutral to Buy. “Both very much fall into that category of having a challenging recent track record,” he says. Newmont has lost 20% over the past three years while gold has gained 76%, which Major blames on difficult acquisitions and earnings shortfalls. Barrick, down 8%, has been in a dispute with Mali since 2023, when its government instituted a new mining code that gives it a greater share of profits. In recent days, authorities have shut the company’s offices in the capital city of Bamako over alleged nonpayment of taxes.

These are the sort of headaches that Krugerrands in a safe don’t produce. But Major calls expectations “adequately reset,” free cash flow attractive, and guidance achievable. Newmont, at 13 times next year’s earnings consensus, is selling assets, and Barrick, at 10 times, has healthy production growth.

Major also likes London-based, Toronto-listed Endeavour Mining , up 40% over the past three years and trading at nine times earnings, although he says it has “higher jurisdictional risk.” It is focused on West Africa, especially Burkina Faso, which had a coup d’état in 2022. You’d think the stock would be doing worse amid such political upheaval. Then again, Burkina Faso since 1966 has had eight coups, five coup attempts, and one street ousting of a president who tried to change the constitution to remain in power. That works out to an uprising every four years, on average.

Montezuma’s scatological name for gold might have been prescient, considering the sometimes-odious consequences for small countries that find it.

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