BusinessBloombergDays of Torrid Dogecoin Gains Erased as Musk ‘SNL’ Episode Airs
(Bloomberg) -- Dogecoin, the fifth most valuable cryptocurrency, retreated from an all-time high after billionaire Elon Musk, appearing on “Saturday Night Live,” jokingly called it “a hustle.”The altcoin had surpassed 73 cents on Saturday before dropping to 46.01 cents as of 8:08 a.m. in New York Sunday, a 35% decline in 24 hours, according to pricing from CoinGecko.Dogecoin hadn’t been below 50 cents since May 4, amid a rally in anticipation of the “SNL” episode. The activity may also have affected Robinhood, which said earlier that it was having some issues with crypto trading, citing high volume and volatility.Musk, who said he’s the first person with Asperger’s to host the show, was asked repeatedly during the “Weekend Update” segment to explain what Dogecoin is. After reciting multiple facts about the cryptocurrency in the character of a financial expert, he was asked if Dogecoin was a “hustle.” He responded, “yeah, it’s a hustle.”Musk, 49, is the world’s second-richest person with a net worth of $183.9 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He had helped drive the coin to new heights on Friday and Saturday after tweeting a picture of himself and a Shiba Inu, the dog breed that lends its image to the altcoin, on the set of the NBC show.Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013, has surged more than 16,000% in the past year, according to CoinGecko. Musk has been among its biggest boosters, along with Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. Dogecoin traders around the world organized watch parties for the “SNL” episode.An earlier Dogecoin reference came during the opening monologue where his mother, Maye Musk, joined him on stage. The author and model said she was excited about her Mother’s Day gift, and she hoped it’s not Dogecoin -- to which he said, “it is.”In the character of the financial expert, Musk also called Dogecoin “the future of currency, it’s an unstoppable financial vehicle that’s going to take over the world.”Meanwhile, DCG Holdco Inc. CEO Barry Silbert posted on Twitter hours before the “SNL” episode that he’d gone short Dogecoin via a leveraged token, and that it was time for people to convert Dogecoin into Bitcoin. He later added that if Dogecoin hits $1 by May 31, $1 million would be donated “to a charitable cause selected by the Dogecoin community.”Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, retreated more than 1% to about $58,000. Musk’s Tesla Inc. announced in February that it had bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, and the head of the electric-car giant himself has spoken of the digital asset in favorable terms.Read more: It’s Hard to Take Dogecoin Seriously, But the Doge Doesn’t CareCryptocurrencies are “promising, but please invest with caution,” Musk tweeted on Friday, linking to a video that showed him talking about the merits of crypto, particularly Dogecoin. That followed months of Twitter posts from Musk about the likes of Bitcoin and Dogecoin, almost all favorable.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
ScienceTechCrunchSpaceX launches and lands a Falcon 9 rocket booster a record 10th time
SpaceX has launched another 60 Starlink satellites — making 180 delivered to orbit in under two weeks — but the launch early Sunday morning was more notable because it set a new, key record for Falcon 9 rocket reusability. This marked the 10th flight of the first-stage rocket booster used for the launch, which sets a record for re-use for SpaceX as the rocket booster with the most successful mission under its belt. SpaceX also successfully returned the booster to its drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean for a tenth successful landing for the rocket, too, making it a record-setter in that regard as well, and setting up the possibility that it could fly yet again.
BusinessBloombergColonial Hackers Stole Data Thursday Ahead of Shutdown
(Bloomberg) -- The hackers who caused Colonial Pipeline to shut down the biggest U.S. gasoline pipeline on Friday began their blitz against the company a day earlier, stealing a large amount of data before locking computers with ransomware and demanding payment, according to people familiar with the matter.The intruders, who are part of a cybercrime gang called DarkSide, took nearly 100 gigabytes of data out of the Alpharetta, Georgia-based company’s network in just two hours on Thursday, two people involved in Colonial’s investigation said.The move was part of a double-extortion scheme that is one of the group’s hallmarks. Colonial was threatened that the stolen data would be leaked to the internet while the information that was encrypted by the hackers on computers inside the network would remain locked unless it paid a ransom, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.The company didn’t immediately respond to requests to comment on the investigation. It said earlier that it “proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat, which has temporarily halted all pipeline operations, and affected some of our IT systems.”Colonial’s decision late Friday to shut down a pipeline that is the main source of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the East Coast, without saying when it would reopen, represents a dangerous new escalation in the fight against ransomware, which President Joe Biden’s administration has identified as a priority.It’s not clear how much money the attackers demanded or whether Colonial has paid. Ransomware demands can range from several hundred dollars to millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Many companies pay, often facilitated by their insurers.AXA SA, one of Europe’s top insurance companies, said this week that it would break with that trend and stop offering policies in France that reimburse customers for payments made to ransomware hackers, which could be the first in the industry, the Associated Press reported.Cyber-attacks have disrupted the operations of other energy assets in the U.S. in recent years. Last year, the Department of Homeland Security revealed that an attack brought down an unnamed natural gas compressor facility for two days. In April 2018, several natural gas pipeline operators had service interruptions because of the hack of a third-party provider whose technology enables electronic communications between the entities.The theft of Colonial’s data, coupled with the detonation of ransomware on the company’s computers, highlights the leverage that hackers often have over their victims in these kinds of cases. The company said FireEye Inc.’s Mandiant digital forensics division is assisting with the investigation.The White House said that Biden was briefed on the incident Saturday morning.A series of major cyber-attacks in recent weeks also underscored the brazenness of the attackers and the challenges of tackling the problem of ransomware.In a matter of days, attacks were revealed against the police department in Washington, D.C. , where the hackers threatened to release information about police informants to criminal gangs; the Illinois Attorney General’s office, which had been warned about weak cybersecurity practices in a recent state audit; and San Diego-based Scripps Health, where medical procedures were canceled and emergency patients diverted to other hospitals.Ransomware Attackers Up Ante as White House Vows Crack Down(Adds reference to recent attacks starting in 11th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.
