SK Hynix labor and management reach preliminary salary agreement: 6.3% pay raise, with 60% of performance bonuses to be issued as stocks.

Citigroup currency strategists have recently turned bearish on the U.S. dollar, as markets brace for a less hawkish Federal Reserve, the U.S. midterm elections, and the U.S. Treasury’s expanded debt buyback program. In a Thursday research note, the Citi team led by Daniel Tobon said it has cut its three-month forecast for the U.S. Dollar Index from 102.12 to 98.34. The shift follows the bank’s warning that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s latest move to lower long-term borrowing costs—expanding buybacks of 10- to 30-year U.S. Treasuries—could come at the cost of a weaker dollar. The day before, the U.S. Dollar Index had dropped to its lowest level since May before stabilizing around 98.9. Tobon and his colleagues added that their stance on the dollar has been more neutral in recent months, and cautioned that risks may rise in the coming months.

According to Bloomberg, Franklin Templeton is preparing to introduce tokenized assets into traditional investment funds. The firm stated that after securing approval from U.S. regulators, its native digital products have been cleared for use in traditional funds for the first time. Based on a letter released by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and details disclosed by company executives, Franklin Templeton plans to deploy its tokenized money market fund in ETFs and mutual funds, serving both as fund holdings and collateral. This means investors who currently invest in traditional funds may end up with tokenized assets in their portfolios in the future, even if they did not actively seek such assets.

Longtime Bitcoin critic Peter Schiff posted that Bitcoin’s rally to break above $72,000 is a fake breakout, not a genuine one. The U.S. Treasury’s announcement of a repurchase plan caught the market off guard. Bitcoin investors have long believed that a return to loose monetary policy would act as a catalyst for sharp gains in both gold and Bitcoin, but that view is only half correct. Schiff advised selling Bitcoin and buying gold.

Coinbase’s official X account posted that now appears to be a good time to resubmit this request to the X platform, calling out to X: “Restore the Bitcoin emoji.” Previous reports noted that X (formerly Twitter) removed the orange Bitcoin emoji associated with the #Bitcoin tag on July 26, 2024.

Crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett stated in a post that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) will hold its first meeting of the Innovation Advisory Committee at 1 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) today, discussing topics including cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, and prediction markets. Attendees will include several corporate executives who attended a White House event yesterday, as well as other leaders from the crypto industry, traditional finance, academia, and the prediction market sector.

Privacy public blockchain project Beldex has closed an $8 million funding round, led by Sigma Capital with participation from NTC, Nxgen, Digital Consensus Fund, and EAK Ventures. The round will be used to accelerate the development of its privacy infrastructure for Web3 and AI. As it expands its business, Beldex is extending its existing privacy ecosystem further into the infrastructure space to support developers in building private, confidential applications. The company plans to allocate the funds to key areas including developer tools, privacy applications, protocol security, AI infrastructure, and ecosystem development.