Crypto: A Bernie Madoff-Style Scheme May Have Crushed Prominent Lenders (The Street)

The Street: Crypto: A Bernie Madoff-Style Scheme May Have Crushed Prominent Lenders. “An unprecedented crisis of confidence has affected the crypto industry for several months. To measure it, just consider the prices of cryptocurrencies, which are often attached to a platform or a project. The cryptocurrency market has lost $2 trillion in value since hitting an all-time high of $3 trillion in early November, according to data firm CoinGecko. Prices for bitcoin, the king of cryptocurrencies, are down more than two-thirds since hitting an all-time high of $69,044.77 on November 10.”

New York Times: Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine

New York Times: Corporate Insiders Pocket $1 Billion in Rush for Coronavirus Vaccine. “On June 26, a small South San Francisco company called Vaxart made a surprise announcement: A coronavirus vaccine it was working on had been selected by the U.S. government to be part of Operation Warp Speed, the flagship federal initiative to quickly develop drugs to combat Covid-19. Vaxart’s shares soared. Company insiders, who weeks earlier had received stock options worth a few million dollars, saw the value of those awards increase sixfold. And a hedge fund that partly controlled the company walked away with more than $200 million in instant profits.”