A protracted battle in China’s food-delivery market has chopped $100 billion in market value from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., with no end in sight for damage to profits and investor confidence.
Its Hong Kong-listed shares plunged 28% from a March high through Thursday, nearly double the loss in a gauge of Chinese tech peers. Rivals JD.com Inc. and Meituan have dropped by similar measures amid daily headlines on government efforts to contain the destructive hyper-competition being dubbed “involution”.
At least four brokers, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc, have cut their price targets by an average of 8% since late June as the latest phase of the yearslong turf war continues to escalate.
“It could last longer than expected,” said Luo Jing, investment director at Value Partners Group Ltd. in Hong Kong. “The players are financially stronger than in the previous round, with more cash and better cash flow positions.”
Alibaba’s food-delivery strategy has distracted investors away from the DeepSeek-led AI boom that drove its shares up more than 80% in just two months earlier this year. The company has merged its delivery unit into its core business and boosted subsidies since JD.com’s formal entry to the space in February.
It’s a costly fight. Nomura Holdings Inc. estimates about $4 billion has been burned on discounts in the June quarter alone by Alibaba, Meituan and JD.com. It sees Alibaba dictating the intensity and scale of the coupon war going forward.
Sector leader Meituan said Saturday that it was going into “attack” mode versus Alibaba, while JD.com announced a new incentive scheme this week. The companies’ extreme moves have drawn much criticism from the government over the potential disastrous impact to the industry, as well as warnings on driver health and food safety.
Alibaba might sustain a loss of 41 billion yuan ($5.7 billion) in its food-delivery business for the 12 months through next June, according to Goldman Sachs, equal to about a third of its net income for the fiscal year ended March.
“Aggressive investment in food delivery, insta-shopping will meaningfully damp its near-term earnings outlook,” HSBC analysts including Charlene Liu wrote in a note this week, cutting their price target for Alibaba by 15%.
The consensus estimate for Alibaba’s 12-month forward earnings per share is down about 6% since early May. Analysts are still overwhelmingly bullish, with 44 buy ratings on the Hong Kong shares and no holds or sells. The stock also remains historically cheap at a price-to-earnings ratio of less than 11 times.
In terms of uspide risks, UOB Kay Hian Holdings Ltd. analyst Julia Pan notes that the government may step in to curb price competition if the market takes a heavy blow and margins get squeezed further. Alibaba’s current valuation is low enough to trigger some dip buying, she added.
The stock climbed as much as 3.5% Friday amid a broad rally in Hong Kong.
But investors may remain cautious until a definitive end to the steep discounts, especially if they trigger more earnings downgrades and constrain investment in all-important AI business.
“We do need to watch for price competition that evolves into a situation where certain companies decide to gain market share at the expense of profitability,” said Nicholas Chui, a Franklin Templeton portfolio manager. “As a stock picker, we would avoid those stocks.”
A delivery courier for Ele.me, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s food-delivery platform, travels along a road in Shanghai, China, on Monday, March 22, 2021.
Ferrero International SA, a closely held Italian candy maker, is close to acquiring cereal producer WK Kellogg Co. for about $3 billion, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Talks are advanced and a deal could be announced this week, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.
Shares of Kellogg surged as much as 54% in post-market trading after the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Wednesday that the two companies are nearing a deal. The stock had declined 2.7% this year through Wednesday’s close, valuing the company at $1.51 billion.
A takeover of Kellogg has been speculated for several months. Dealreporter wrote in February that Ferrero was weighing a bid and the Betaville blog said earlier this week that Kellogg may have received takeover interest.
Representatives for Ferrero and Kellogg didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kellogg, owner of cereal brands Froot Loops and Frosted Flakes, has been struggling to revive growth as consumers move away from sugary foods. In May, the company cut its guidance for annual organic sales, which strips out items including currency changes, to a decline of 3%. Chief Executive Officer Gary Pilnick called out a “challenging operating environment.”
In 2023 Kellogg Company split into two separate entities with its snacking business under Kellanova and its cereal brands under WK Kellogg.
Last year Kellanova, the owner of Pringles and Cheez-It, announced that it had agreed to be sold to closely held snacking company Mars Inc. for nearly $36 billion including debt, the largest deal of the year, Bloomberg’s data showed.
Ferrero’s brands include Nutella, Kinder and Tic Tac, according to its website. The company, founded in 1946, sells products in more than 170 countries. In the fiscal year through August, sales rose 8.9% to 18.4 billion euros ($21.6 billion).
Ferrero has selectively bought brands, including from Kellogg before the separation, to bulk up its lineup of products.
It bought a portfolio of cookies and fruit-flavored snacks including cookie brand Keebler from Kellogg in 2019 for $1.3 billion. The year before, the company bought the Butterfinger and Baby Ruth brands from Nestle SA.
A WK Kellogg transaction would further diversify Ferrero’s business after cocoa prices have surged recently for chocolate makers.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s revenue rose a better-than-anticipated 39% in the June quarter, buoying expectations for a sustained post-ChatGPT boom in AI spending.
Sales for the chipmaker to Nvidia Corp. and Apple Inc. climbed to NT$934 billion ($32 billion) for the three months, based on its reported monthly revenue. That beat the average analyst projection for about NT$928 billion.
Investors have piled back into AI-linked companies, shaking off a funk that settled in after China’s DeepSeek cast doubt on whether the likes of Meta Platforms Inc. and Google needed to spend that much money on data centers. This week, Nvidia became the first company in history to hit a $4 trillion valuation, underscoring investors’ renewed enthusiasm for companies like TSMC key to building the infrastructure for AI.
TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei reassured shareholders in June that AI chip demand still outstripped supply, and reaffirmed an outlook for 2025 sales to grow in the mid-20% range in US dollar terms. His company has pledged to spend another $100 billion ramping up manufacturing in Arizona, in addition to an expansion in Japan, Germany and back home.
As the world’s largest contract chipmaker, TSMC sits at the heart of the global technology supply chain, producing cutting-edge chips for iPhones and Nvidia’s AI offerings.
While Nvidia is fueling its growth, TSMC remains reliant on Apple and smartphone makers for most of its business.
For 2025, investors remain wary about the impact of tariffs on the global economy and the electronics sector.
The Trump administration’s trade war is prompting economists to scale back their forecasts for gross domestic product growth worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing.
Investors have piled back into AI-linked companies, shaking off a funk that settled in after China’s DeepSeek cast doubt on whether the likes of Meta and Google needed to spend that much money on data centers.
Virgin Atlantic Airways announced a deal with SpaceX’s Starlink to overhaul the onboard Wi-Fi across its entire fleet, making it the first UK carrier to strike a deal with Elon Musk’s company.
The British long-haul carrier will start installing Starlink on its aircraft next year and expects to finish the full retrofit by the end of 2027.
The service will be free for Flying Club members to use across multiple devices, Virgin Atlantic Chief Executive Officer Shai Weiss and Chief Experience Officer Siobhan Fitzpatrick said at an event in London on Tuesday. Weiss declined to say how much the deal was worth, adding that it was “a lot.”
Virgin Atlantic told Bloomberg earlier this year Starlink was one of the internet service providers in consideration, along with Amazon.com Inc.’s Project Kuiper and Viasat Inc.
“Right now, there’s only one solution. It is Starlink,” Weiss said.
Among the announcements on Tuesday was a refurbishment of all of Virgin’s Boeing Co. 787 cabins by the end of the decade, which will increase the number of upper class and premium seats onboard. In addition, ten of the carrier’s new Airbus SE A330s joining the fleet starting in the third quarter of 2026 will have larger premium cabins and four extra retreat suites, the airline said.
Premium Demand
The bar, a popular feature on Virgin’s aircraft, will be phased out on the 787s by 2030 with the addition of retreat suites, Weiss said.
“There’s a fundamental demand for premium travel,” he said. “We believe we have a tremendous amount of growth.”
Virgin previously warned of a slight softness in demand from the US following President Donald Trump’s economic policies and the resulting uncertainty. Weiss said there were signs of improvement but it wasn’t dramatic and the airline is “tapering our expectations to be more flat year over year.” Meanwhile, UK demand is “relatively robust,” he said.
Other announcements made on Tuesday included refurbishments of the airline’s London and New York Clubhouses, a new app and an extension of Virgin’s loyalty program to less-frequent flyers.
A vehicle passes below the contrail remaining from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket after launching from Vandenberg Space Force Base carrying 26 Starlink internet satellites on June 16, 2025 as seen from Pasadena, Calif.
Great Eastern Holdings Ltd.’s shares are expected to resume trading in Singapore, after the insurer failed to win enough shareholder support for its delisting plan that was backed by Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.
About 63.5% of the insurer’s minority shareholders voted for a delisting but that fell short of the threshold needed to take Great Eastern private, according to a company filing on Tuesday after an extraordinary general meeting. As a result, OCBC’s S$900 million ($704 million) offer has lapsed, the country’s second-largest lender, said in a separate filing.
The deal’s failure is a setback for OCBC, which has owned the majority of Great Eastern since 2004 and has tried multiple times to take the 117-year-old insurer private. OCBC chief executive officer Helen Wong has said that it wanted to fully integrate its banking, wealth management and insurance businesses, and that owning all of Great Eastern would help improve its shareholder returns.
To support Great Eastern’s delisting proposal, OCBC had offered S$30.15 a share for the 6.28% of the insurer it does not own. It improved the offer by 17.8% last month from its previous bid.
Great Eastern, one of the largest insurers in Singapore and Malaysia, has total assets of more than S$100 billion with 16 million-plus policyholders. OCBC’s shares closed up 0.8% on Tuesday, versus a 0.4% gain in the broader Straits Times Index.
“Whether OCBC owns 94% or 100%, it has a minimal impact on earnings or strategy as they are already in control,” said Jayden Vantarakis, head of equity research for Southeast Asia at Macquarie Capital, adding that the market’s view of the lender won’t change with the latest outcome.
Trading in Great Eastern had been suspended since July 2024, after OCBC failed to obtain a sufficient level for a delisting or compulsory acquisition with its previous offer. Its latest bid this year was still lower than the insurer’s 2024 embedded value of S$38.08 a share, a metric used to value insurers elsewhere and cited by resistant minority shareholders urging a higher offer.
Great Eastern will issue new shares to meet the exchange’s listing rules. After the share issue, OCBC’s holding in Great Eastern will be around 88% from the current level of about 94%, the insurer said in an earlier statement. It did not provide any date for the resumption of trading.
The insurer has contributed an average of about S$700 million a year in net profit to OCBC over the past 10 years, translating to an average of about 15% of OCBC’s annual profit over this period, the bank has said.
The deal’s failure is a setback for OCBC, which has owned the majority of Great Eastern since 2004 and has tried multiple times to take the 117-year-old insurer private.
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. is plowing deeper into the cryptocurrencies space with a new filing for an exchange-traded fund that would hold a number of digital assets including Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and others.
A Tuesday filing showed the social-media firm owned by President Donald Trump seeking to launch the “Crypto Blue Chip” fund, with the paperwork marking its third ETF filing. The fund, should it launch, would hold Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, Cronos and XRP directly, though nearly three-quarters of it would be comprised of Bitcoin, the largest token in the market. Though ETFs holding Bitcoin and Ether already trade in the U.S., no such funds hold Cronos or XRP directly.
It marks Trump Media’s third filing for crypto-based ETFs, with the firm having filed for a Bitcoin-Ether product as well as one tied solely to Bitcoin. Should any of them launch, they’d join a crowded field of crypto-minded offerings, as more than 10 Bitcoin-specific funds already trade in the U.S., as do many other digital-asset-based products. The Trump Media offerings would also present direct competition for issuers vying to stand out in the space.
Trump Media is the company behind Truth Social and is majority-owned by the president. The president’s deepening crypto ties have drawn criticism from ethics experts, who point to the potential for financial gain in areas where Trump also sets policy. The White House has said the president is walled off from his namesake businesses.
The president had embraced the crypto industry during his presidential run and has made good on a number of promises. The price of Bitcoin has risen during Trump’s second term, with the coin increasing roughly 55% since October to currently trade around $108,900 apiece.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen accused China of distorting trade and limiting access for European firms two weeks ahead of a summit between the economic powers.
“If our partnership is to move forward, we need a genuine rebalancing: fewer market distortions, less overcapacity exported from China, and fair, reciprocal access for European businesses in China,” von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Beijing has imposed export controls on rare earth magnets, hitting European Union industries hard and compounding an increasingly unbalanced trading relationship. The move has dashed signs of a thaw earlier this year between the EU and China because of US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
China’s Foreign Ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 27-member bloc imposed tariffs on electric vehicles over allegations Chinese producers benefit from unfair subsidies. The EU also excluded the country’s firms from public contracts for medical devices earlier in 2025, sparking a tit for tat retaliation from Beijing.
“China invested early in many of the technologies of the future,” von der Leyen said. “But then it started flooding global markets with cheap, subsidized goods, to wipe out competitors.”
“Entire Western industries closed — from solar panels to mineral processing — leaving China to dominate,” the commission president said.
Combined with a lack of progress over longstanding trade and economic issues, tensions have ramped up ahead of a summit between Brussels and Beijing planned for the second half of July. The Chinese government cancelled part of what was meant to be a two-day summit.
“Goods and services that are ‘made in China’ get an automatic 20% price advantage in public bids,” von der Leyen said. “This is simply not fair. The system is explicitly rigged.”
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority fined Monzo Bank Ltd. £21 million ($29 million) over failures tied to the digital lender’s systems for stopping financial crime.
Between 2018 and 2022 — a period during which Monzo’s customer base soared roughly tenfold to 5.8 million users — the watchdog found that Monzo did not obtain sufficient information about customers during the onboarding process, the FCA said in a statement.
For instance, the company ultimately found cases where customers used foreign addresses with UK postcodes or “obviously implausible” addresses like those of famous British landmarks, the agency said.
“This illustrates how lacking Monzo’s financial crime controls were,” Therese Chambers, the FCA’s joint executive director of enforcement and market oversight, said in the statement. “This was compounded by its inability to properly comply with the requirement not to onboard high-risk customers.”
Monzo, which now has 13 million customers, said it began working in 2021 to address the issues and has made a “significant investment” in recruiting financial crime experts to help it improve its processes.
“The FCA’s findings relate to a historical period that ended three years ago and draw a line under issues that have been resolved and are firmly in the past – with our learnings at the time leading to substantial improvements in our controls,” Chief Executive Officer TS Anil said in a separate statement.
This is the 10th fine the FCA has imposed on a bank for similar failings with financial crimes in the last four years. In October, the regulator announced it had fined Starling Bank £29 million for what it described as “shockingly lax” controls around risky customers.
Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp.’s final attempt to fully control Great Eastern Holdings Ltd. with its S$900 million ($704 million) bid will be tested on Tuesday, capping a two-decade quest by Singapore’s second-largest lender to take over the insurer.
OCBC is just 6.28% shy of complete ownership, and Great Eastern’s minority shareholders will vote at an extraordinary general meeting whether to delist the 117-year-old firm with an improved bid from the bank. If rejected, OCBC’s so-called ‘exit offer’ will lapse, paving the way for the insurer’s shares to resume trading.
Acquiring Great Eastern, one of the largest insurers in Singapore and Malaysia, will boost OCBC chief executive officer Helen Wong’s strategy to build an integrated financial services group that will better capture growth in the region’s booming wealth management sector. The insurer has total assets of more than S$100 billion with 16 million-plus policyholders—complementing the bank’s business.
“The transaction is to streamline the group structure and we also think it opens up the potential to manage group capital more efficiently,” said Jayden Vantarakis, head of equity research for Southeast Asia at Macquarie Capital. Still, a full takeover would have a minimal impact on earnings or strategy as OCBC is already in control, he said.
Trading in Great Eastern’s shares has been suspended since July 2024 after OCBC failed to secure a sufficient level for a delisting or compulsory acquisition with last year’s offer. While the bank raised its bid by 17.8% last month to S$30.15 a share, the price is still at a discount to the insurer’s 2024 embedded value of S$38.08 per share.
That metric has been used to value insurers elsewhere and has been cited by resistant minority shareholders urging a higher offer.
Great Eastern’s independent directors have advised shareholders to accept OCBC’s bid, which has been described by the firm’s financial adviser EY as “fair and reasonable.”
The insurer has contributed an average of about S$700 million a year in net profit to OCBC over the past 10 years, translating to an average of about 15% of OCBC’s annual net profit over this period, the bank has said.
While delisting Great Eastern has been a long-term goal for OCBC, the bank is satisfied with its 93.72% stake, regardless of the outcome of the EGM, it said in a statement last month. OCBC does not intend to launch another offer in the foreseeable future, it added.
Great Eastern’s independent directors have advised shareholders to accept OCBC’s bid, which has been described by the firm’s financial adviser EY as “fair and reasonable.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese plans to travel to China from this weekend, seeking to strengthen ties with his country’s largest trading partner while its top security ally US aims to check Beijing’s presence in Asia.
The Australian leader said Tuesday that he will visit Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, where the country has consular operations, starting from Saturday.
“China’s an important trading partner for Australia, 25% of our exports go to China,” he told reporters in Hobart. “What that means is jobs, and one of the things that my government prioritizes is jobs.”
The delegation will include top executives from Macquarie Bank Ltd. and HSBC Holdings PLC’s Australia arm, as well as from Fortescue Ltd., BlueScope Steel Ltd., Rio Tinto Ltd. and BHP Group Ltd, according to the Australian Financial Review, citing people it didn’t identify.
Xiao Qian, China ambassador to Australia, wrote earlier this week that Beijing is open to expanding the free-trade agreement between the countries to cover artificial intelligence, health care and renewable energy.
The visit comes as US President Donald Trump has unleashed a series of punishing tariffs, expected to go into effect Aug. 1 barring any bilateral deals. That pressure, aimed at spurring domestic industry, has isolated allies and trading partners like Australia, which has a longstanding security partnership with Washington.
Albanese on Tuesday said Australia continues to negotiate with the Trump administration to lower tariffs below the 10% baseline in force at the moment, which Washington has said repeatedly would likely be the floor for all countries.
Meanwhile, Albanese’s government has helped thaw relations with Beijing, it’s biggest trading partner and customer for raw materials and wine. Albanese on Tuesday said his government has been able to remove impediments that blocked more than A$20 billion ($13 billion) worth of goods going to China.
Apple Inc.’s top executive in charge of artificial intelligence models is leaving for Meta Platforms Inc., another setback in the iPhone maker’s struggling AI efforts.
Ruoming Pang, a distinguished engineer and manager in charge of the company’s Apple foundation models team, is departing, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Pang, who joined Apple from Alphabet Inc. in 2021, is the latest big hire for Meta’s new superintelligence team, said the people, who declined to be named discussing unannounced personnel moves.
To secure Pang, Meta offered a package worth tens of millions of dollars per year, the people said. Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has been on a hiring spree, bringing on major AI leaders including Scale AI’s Alexandr Wang, startup founder Daniel Gross and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman with high compensation.
Meta on Monday also hired Yuanzhi Li, a researcher from OpenAI, and Anton Bakhtin, who worked on Claude at Anthropic PBC, according to other people with knowledge of the matter.
Meta declined to comment. Apple and Pang didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
At Apple, Pang had been running a roughly 100-person team responsible for the company’s large language models, which underpin Apple Intelligence and other AI features on the company’s devices. In June, Apple announced that those models would be opened up to third-party developers for the first time, allowing for a range of new iPhone and iPad apps.
But internally, the foundation models team has come under scrutiny from new leadership, which is exploring the use of third-party models, including from either OpenAI or Anthropic, to power a new version of Siri. Those internal discussions have soured some of the morale on the foundation models team, also known as AFM, in recent weeks.
While the company has explored a move to a third-party solution to power the AI in the new Siri, it has simultaneously been working on a new version of Siri based on the models developed by Pang’s group. Those models also power Apple Intelligence features that run on Apple devices including email and web article summaries, Genmoji and Priority Notifications.
The major departure, the most significant in Apple’s AI ranks since the company started working on Apple Intelligence a few years ago, underscores the heightened competition for talent in the emerging space. Meta has been making offers to the world’s top engineers worth many millions of dollars per year — significantly more than what the iPhone maker pays its engineers doing similar work.
Pang’s departure could be the start of a string of exits from the AFM group, with several engineers telling colleagues they are planning to leave in the near future to Meta or elsewhere, the people said. Tom Gunter, a top deputy to Pang, left Apple last month, Bloomberg reported at the time.
The foundation models team reports to Daphne Luong, a top deputy to AI senior vice president John Giannandrea. Earlier this year, Giannandrea was sidelined internally and saw Siri, robotics, Core ML frameworks and other consumer product-related teams stripped from his command. That came after a poor response to Apple Intelligence and frequent delays for new Siri features.
With Pang’s departure, the AFM team will now be run by Zhifeng Chen. In a change from a structure under Pang where most of the engineers reported to him directly, there will be a new organizational layout that includes multiple managers reporting to Chen, who will then have engineers reporting to them. People close to the team indicate that Chong Wang, Zirui Wang, Chung-Cheng Chiu and Guoli Yin could be possible managers in the new structure.
Apple’s AI strategy is now run primarily by Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software engineering, and Mike Rockwell, who helped create the Apple Vision Pro headset and now leads engineering for Siri. For his part, Giannandrea is in charge of Apple’s AI research arm. In June, at its Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple’s own AI only got a small showing, appearing in new features for translating calls and text messages.
The few other AI features, including analysis of on-device screenshots and improved image generation, came courtesy of partners, including OpenAI and Google. The company also rolled out a new version of Xcode that can handle code completion by tapping into Claude and ChatGPT.
The scam began with a message, then a friendly exchange. A stranger directed the victim to a cryptocurrency investment site that appeared professional — slick design, charts, even customer support. The first deposit showed a modest profit. So did the next. Encouraged, the victim sent more, even borrowing money to keep up. Then, without warning, the platform stopped responding. The account balance disappeared.
“That’s how they do it,” Jamie Lam, an investigative analyst with the U.S. Secret Service, told law enforcement officials in Bermuda last month. “They’ll send you a photo of a really good-looking guy or girl. But it’s probably some old guy in Russia.”
Secret Service investigators traced the fraud to the domain name behind the fake investment site. Using open-source tools, they found out when it was registered, by whom and how it had been paid for. A cryptocurrency payment pointed them to another wallet. A brief VPN failure exposed an IP address.
Lam is part of the agency’s Global Investigative Operations Center or GIOC, a team specializing in digital financial crimes. Their tools are software, subpoenas, and spreadsheets, not badges or guns.
“It’s not always that hard,” Lam said. “Sometimes you just need patience.”
Patience and digital tools have helped the GIOC seize nearly $400 million in digital assets over the last decade, a figure not previously reported, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations.
Much of that trove sits in a single cold-storage wallet that now ranks among the most valuable anywhere. After leading crackdowns on digital currencies such as Liberty Reserve and E-Gold in the 1990s, the agency best known for protecting U.S. presidents has become one of the world’s biggest crypto custodians.
At the center of the operation is Kali Smith, a lawyer who directs the Secret Service’s cryptocurrency strategy.
Her team has conducted workshops in more than 60 countries to train local law enforcers and prosecutors in unmasking digital crimes. The agency targets jurisdictions where criminals exploit weak oversight or residency-for-sale programs, and provides the training for free.
“Sometimes after just a week-long training, they can be like, ‘Wow, we didn’t even realize that this is occurring in our country,’” she said.
Last month, the team flew to Bermuda, a British overseas territory that has marketed itself to digital-asset firms with one of the world’s most comprehensive crypto frameworks — and exposed itself to new threats in the process.
“Technologies and financial services are fantastic for economic growth, but they can also be exploited,” Bermuda’s governor, Andrew Murdoch, said in an interview. “Alongside the benefits, you need strong investigative powers to deal with abuse under the law.”
Inside a conference room on a hill overlooking Hamilton Harbor, Smith told her class that scam victims usually see opportunity. “They think they can use Bitcoin and be safe. But that isn’t the case,” she said.
One real-life case involved an Idaho teenager who thought he was flirting online and sent a nude photo to a stranger. The stranger then demanded $300 or the image would be sent to his relatives. He paid twice before going to police.
GIOC analysts reconstructed the extortion with screenshots, receipts and blockchain data. Payments had been routed through another American teenager coerced into acting as a money mule, then funneled to an account that had processed about $4.1 million across nearly 6,000 transactions and was registered to a Nigerian passport, according to an analyst who asked not to be named because the investigation is ongoing.
British officers arrested the suspected extortionist when he landed in Guildford, England. He remains in custody awaiting extradition, the analyst said.
Fraud tied to digital currencies now drives a majority of U.S. internet-crime losses. Americans reported $9.3 billion in crypto-related scams in 2024, more than half of the $16.6 billion logged that year, FBI data show. Older victims bore the largest share, losing nearly $2.8 billion, much of it to bogus investment sites.
Some schemes spill into real-world violence. In New York, two investors were indicted for allegedly kidnapping and torturing a longtime friend inside a townhouse to force access to his digital wallet. In Connecticut, six men were charged with abducting the parents of a teenage hacker who had stolen $245 million in Bitcoin, beating them in a failed ransom attempt.
To claw back stolen funds, the Secret Service leans on industry partners. Coinbase and Tether have publicly acknowledged assisting in recent cases, providing trace analysis and wallet freezes. One of the largest recoveries involved $225 million in USDT, the dollar-pegged token known as Tether, linked to romance-investment scams.
“We’ve been following the money for 160 years,” said Patrick Freaney, head of the agency’s New York field office, which oversees Bermuda. “This training is part of that mission.”
Secret Service Director Sean Curran, second from right, looks on as President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump attend an Independence Day military family picnic on the South Lawn of the White House on Friday.
Michael Saylor’s Strategy registered an unrealized gain of $14.05 billion in the second quarter due to a rebound in Bitcoin’s price and a recent accounting change.
The unrealized gain was partially offset by a related deferred tax expense of $4.04 billion, the company said in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Monday. This is the first week the company formerly known as MicroStrategy Inc. has not purchased additional tokens since April. Strategy owns about $65 billion in Bitcoin, making it the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
Saylor has transformed the the once floundering enterprise software maker into the leading leveraged Bitcoin proxy through the sale of common and preferred shares and debt offerings. On Monday, it also announced the addition of an at-the-market sales program for the third round of preferred stock it began selling earlier this year to help fund the Bitcoin purchases. Strategy acquired around $6.8 billion of Bitcoin in the three months ended June 30.
Although Strategy’s quarterly results will probably put it in a select group with the likes of Amazon Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. whose operating profits are expected to exceed $10 billion last quarter, the company is anticipated to only post about $112.8 million in revenue from its software business, according to analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The company is expected to release second-quarter results in August.
Strategy’s shares have soared over 3,300% since Saylor began buying Bitcoin in the middle of 2020 as a hedge against inflation. Bitcoin is up around 1,000% during the same period, while the S&P 500 has increased around 115%. The stock rose 40% in the second quarter as the S&P climbed 11%.
In the first quarter, Strategy adopted an accounting change that requires valuing the firm’s Bitcoin at market prices. Strategy and fellow corporate buyers of Bitcoin are now recognizing the unrealized changes that often produce big swings in earnings. Strategy posted a record $4.2 billion loss the first quarter, which saw Bitcoin slump 12%.
Prior to the accounting change, Strategy had been classifying its Bitcoin holdings similar to intangible assets like patents or trademarks. That designation forced Strategy to permanently mark down the value of its holdings when the price of Bitcoin dropped below the previous carrying value. Gains could only be recognized when tokens were sold.
(Adds information on weekly purchases and at-the-market sales, beginning in the second paragraph.)
Before taking office last July, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves met business leaders over a series of breakfasts that became known as the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs offensive. British bosses were clamoring for change after 14 years of rule by the opposition Conservative party, and her pitch went down well.
But a year on from the Labour Party’s landslide election win, that initial optimism has been replaced by discontent over tax increases, persistent red tape and a lack of dialogue with the government. A spike in borrowing costs and a lack of economic growth haven’t helped matters. Companies say they are being forced to cut jobs, delay investment — and in some cases, move their listings altogether.
“I’m struggling to see what’s business-friendly so far,” said Bernard Fairman, executive chairman of Foresight Group, an infrastructure investment firm.
The government is faced with a balancing act — appeasing companies as well as the unions that help support the party financially; appealing to its traditional left-wing base while trying to win over Conservative supporters and voters who may be veering toward the populist Reform UK party. At the moment, it doesn’t appear to be satisfying any of them.
Last week’s market turmoil following an emotional appearance by Reeves in Parliament and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s move to water down planned welfare reforms has fueled concerns that the party has lost the support of business, which it needs to help deliver jobs and economic growth. Talk that the head of Britain’s biggest company would like to move its listing to the US didn’t help.
“We thought we had a really strong relationship, but then those sorts of surprises where we had significant business cost hikes were a kind of reset moment,” said Stephen Phipson, chief executive officer of manufacturing body Make UK.
The Department for Business and Trade declined to comment.
The British economy was already on shaky ground when Labour took office and has seen little improvement so far. A growth spurt at the start of the year was quickly followed by the sharpest monthly economic contraction since October 2023, driven by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the UK government’s own tax hikes.
That’s added to the extent of the economic repair job facing the government. In the run-up to the election, Labour had promised not to touch income tax, value-added tax or national insurance. But shortly after taking office, Reeves declared that a £22 billion ($30 billion) black hole in the country’s finances meant drastic measures would be necessary.
Business has borne the brunt, in the form of higher taxes. National insurance contributions (NICs) paid by employers rose in April, a move the government has said will raise £25 billion a year. At the same time, the minimum wage spiked, dealing a double blow to companies with big payrolls. Retailers such as J Sainsbury Plc and Tesco Plc have complained about the tax rise and announced job cuts.
A high tax burden is “dampening the contribution” retailers can make to the economy, Currys Plc CEO Alex Baldock told reporters on Thursday. “We want to be powering employment and growth, not employing fewer people,” he said.
The rise in NICs has already cost the economy jobs and pushed up food prices as businesses pass on the increase to consumers, according to Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey. But with policymakers still on guard against sticky price pressures, the central bank is expected to provide only limited borrowing-cost relief.
Last week’s U-turn on welfare reforms has left the government with an additional £5 billion to find. Cabinet minister Pat McFadden said Labour would stick to its election tax pledge, despite the need for more savings.
“The fact that they’ve boxed themselves in, not being able to put up taxes last time round, is going to cause greater pain when they finally put up taxes in this autumn statement,” said Julian Morse, CEO of investment bank Cavendish Plc.
The abolition of a two-century-old tax break for non-domiciled residents — well-heeled residents from overseas referred to as “non-doms” — has also had an outsized impact on the business community.
A Bloomberg analysis last month showed a spike in departing business leaders, with more than 4,400 disclosing an overseas move in the last year or so. If non-doms leave at the pace some advisers are predicting, recent studies indicate thousands of jobs may disappear along with as much as £12.2 billion over the coming four years.
“If you put taxes up, there are consequences in behavior,” said Foresight’s Fairman. “It doesn’t always mean you raise more money.”
Red tape continues to vex business leaders too. Pascal Soriot, CEO of AstraZeneca Plc, has expressed his frustration at the UK’s regulatory regime for medicines. In January, the drugmaker — Britain’s largest listed company — abandoned plans to invest £450 million in a UK vaccine manufacturing plant, following protracted wrangling with Labour over state funding.
Last week, the London-based Times reported that Soriot would like to move the drugmaker’s listing to the US. Other smaller companies such as Flutter Entertainment Plc and CRH Plc have already switched their primary listings to New York amid frustration with lower valuations in London.
And a visa clampdown announced in May, seen as an attempt to appeal to voters who might be attracted by Reform UK, will have a big impact on businesses that rely heavily on workers from abroad, in particular care-home operators. Overseas recruitment in the care sector will end within months, a move the charity Care England described as “a crushing blow to an already fragile sector.”
For some CEOs, the bigger concern is lack of interaction with the government. Since the smoked salmon and scrambled eggs offensive, there’s been little dialogue, according to one chief executive who has acted as an advisor to the government. Labour has been open to ideas, he said, but has used them to create policies without a sense-check from businesses. If he were to grade the government’s performance, he added, he would give it a “C.”
He’s not the only person to feel blindsided. “It’s not just the NICs increase, but the inheritance tax increases, the national living wage, that whole package of things,” said Make UK’s Phipson. “Although it was hinted at, there was no real dialogue.”
The government has announced some pro-business measures, such as capping corporation tax at 25%. But even the long-awaited Industrial Strategy — a welcome grand vision for growing the economy, launched last month — lacked depth and clarity, according to two prominent CEOs, who declined to be named discussing sensitive matters.
That’s at a time when Britain’s ailing industries need all the help they can get. In March, Vauxhall’s Luton van plant became the latest in a series of vehicle factories to close its doors. Earlier this year, the government was forced to step in and take over operational control of British Steel, which owns the UK’s last remaining blast furnace. And the collapse last week of the Lindsey oil refinery in northeast England, one of only a handful left in the UK, further highlighted Britain’s industrial crisis.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said companies were hoping for “some enterprise-friendly stability” under Labour. “In 12 short months, they have been firmly disabused of that,” he said. “Other than a few subsidy junkies, you’d be hard pressed to find a single business leader who backed them then, who still does today,” he said.
Still, after a tough spring, there are signs of some economic green shoots. Britain’s private sector expanded at the fastest pace in nine months in June, according to S&P Global’s closely watched survey. A BOE poll of finance chiefs showed hiring intentions for the year ahead are at their strongest since October. Trump’s tariffs have done less damage than feared, and the UK’s trade agreements with the US, India and the European Union have further calmed anxieties.
A plan to revive investment in new onshore wind farms in England was announced on Friday, almost a year after lifting a de facto ban.
Still, whatever the positive signs, business is gearing up for a fight if the government wants to lift taxes again.
The government has laid “solid foundations” for growth, said Rain Newton-Smith, chief executive of the Confederation of British Industry. However, she added, the effects are being limited by the cost burden firms are facing. “Companies have responded by cutting back on investment, hiring and pay,” she added, “making it vital that we avoid further tax rises on business at the next budget.”
President Donald Trump said he would put an additional 10% tariff on any country aligning themselves with “the Anti-American policies of BRICS,” injecting further uncertainty into global trade as the U.S. continues to negotiate levies with many trading partners.
“Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% Tariff,” Trump said Sunday night in a Truth Social post. “There will be no exceptions to this policy.”
The comments come as the U.S. prepares to send tariff letters to dozens of countries in the coming days, with the Trump administration’s 90-day pause on higher duties set to expire on Wednesday. Trump said in a separate post that the letters would start being delivered from noon Monday, Washington time.
BRICS, a grouping of nations that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, held a summit over the weekend, where leaders condemned U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran and called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to withdraw troops from the Gaza Strip. They urged a “just and lasting” resolution to conflicts across the Middle East. Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among those who attended.
Trump’s post didn’t specify which policies he considers “Anti-American,” nor did it provide details on when any of those tariffs might be imposed.
“Trump’s comments are a warning shot for emerging market nations looking to go down the BRICS alignment path,” said Mingze Wu, a trader at StoneX Financial Inc. in Singapore, adding that they’re likely in response to what BRICS said about Gaza.
Major U.S. trading partners are racing to secure trade agreements or lobby for extra time ahead of the July 9 deadline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled that some nations without deals in place could have the option of a three-week extension to negotiate, with the levies set to take effect on Aug. 1.
In a joint statement released Sunday, leaders gathered in Brazil agreed to denounce military strikes against Iran, a BRICS member, since June 13, when Israel began attacks that culminated with U.S. airstrikes nine days later.
The 10-member bloc of emerging-market nations also expressed “grave concern about the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”—citing Israeli attacks and the obstruction of the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, something Israel denies—while calling for a permanent and unconditional ceasefire, along with the release of all hostages.
Chinese Premier Li said BRICS countries should take the lead in advancing reforms in global governance and championing the peaceful resolution of international disputes.
“Today’s world is more turbulent, with unilateralism and protectionism on the rise,” Li said. “China is willing to work with BRICS countries to promote global governance in a more just, reasonable, efficient and orderly direction.”
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t immediately respond to a request seeking comment on Trump’s latest post. India’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry declined to comment.
Indonesia’s Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs spokesperson Haryo Limanseto said the government has “no comment” specifically on Trump’s remarks regarding additional tariffs on BRICS countries. “The team is still working. Hopefully Indonesia and the U.S. will find the best solution,” he said.
Trump has also previously threatened to slap 100% levies on BRICS if they ditch the U.S. dollar in bilateral trade. The pushback, in turn, has spurred interest in developing local payment systems and other instruments that can facilitate commerce and investment between the nations.
On Sunday, BRICS leaders agreed to continue talks on a cross-border payment system for trade and investment—a project they’ve been discussing for a decade, though progress has been slow.
Billionaire Richard Li’s FWD Group Holdings Ltd. rose in its Hong Kong trading debut, reversing earlier declines, after an initial public offering that raised HK$3.5 billion ($442 million).
The insurer’s stock climbed as much 2.1% to HK$38.80 on Monday, reversing a drop of as steep as 2.5%. It was at HK$38.40, up 1.1%, at the midday break.
The debut comes after the tycoon—son of famed Hong Kong businessman Li Ka-shing—tried to take the company public in New York in 2021, which was abandoned after regulatory scrutiny. Subsequent efforts to list at home in Hong Kong were stalled as the city’s IPO entered a prolonged slump.
Now, with Hong Kong’s equity markets rebounding, Li is seizing a more favorable window to raise capital for the crown jewel of his business empire. Investors’ sentiment has been buoyed by a wave of multibillion-dollar deals, with IPOs and follow-on offerings raising $37.4 billion so far in 2025—the highest since the record-breaking year of 2021 and a sharp jump from $5.1 billion during the same period last year.
“It’s been a long journey,” FWD chief executive officer Huynh Thanh Phong said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “Hong Kong, as you can see, is back in a big way, and we’re extremely happy to be part of that comeback story post-COVID.”
The city’s stock benchmark, the Hang Seng Index, has risen about 20% for the year. Insurers have been particularly hot lately, with shares of AIA Group Ltd. and Prudential Plc each rising at least 35% since their April lows.
Richard Li, who founded the company in 2013, owns a 66.5% stake in FWD through various corporate entities. His stake in FWD accounts for two-thirds of his $6.1 billion net worth at the IPO price, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The insurer plans to use the proceeds to reduce debt, support growth and enhance its digital capabilities.
Richard Li, founder of FWD Group Holdings Ltd., attends the company's listing ceremony at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in Hong Kong, China, on Monday, July 7, 2025.
US President Donald Trump said his administration will probably start notifying trading partners Friday of the new US tariff on their exports effective Aug. 1, while reiterating a preference for simplicity over complicated negotiations five days before his deadline for deals.
Trump told reporters that about “10 or 12” letters would go out Friday, with additional letters coming “over the next few days.”
“By the ninth they’ll be fully covered,” Trump added, referring to a July 9 deadline he initially set for countries to reach deals with the US to avoid higher import duties he has threatened. “They’ll range in value from maybe 60 or 70% tariffs to 10 and 20% tariffs,” he added.
US talks with economies from Indonesia and South Korea to the European Union and Switzerland are reaching critical stages, where the most contentious issues are hammered out. Trump’s latest threat, which fits his pattern of issuing ultimatums to break any impasses, aligns with earlier statements that some nations won’t have a say in their tariff level.
The top tier of his new tariff range, if formalized, would be higher than any of the levies the president initially outlined during his “Liberation Day” rollout in early April. Those varied from a 10% baseline tariff on most economies up to a maximum of 50%. Trump didn’t elaborate on which countries would get the tariffs or whether that meant certain goods would be taxed at a higher rate than others.
Trump said that countries would “start to pay on Aug. 1. The money will start going to come into the United States on August 1.” Tariffs are typically paid by the importer, or an intermediary acting on the importer’s behalf. But often it’s profit margins or the end consumer that ultimately absorb much of the cost.
Stocks in Asia and Europe dropped along with the dollar. US equity and Treasury markets closed for the Fourth of July holiday.
The lagged effect of tariffs on inflation has some Federal Reserve officials wary of cutting interest rates. The Fed has held off on lowering rates this year — despite intense pressure from Trump — in part to determine whether tariff-driven price hikes might evolve into more persistent cost-of-living pressures.
Trump has long threatened that if countries fail to reach deals with the US before next week’s deadline, he would simply impose rates on them, raising the stakes for trading partners that have rushed to secure agreements with his administration.
He initially announced his higher so-called “reciprocal” tariffs on April 2, but paused those for 90 days to allow countries time to negotiate, putting in place a 10% rate during that interval.
Bloomberg Economics estimates that if all reciprocal tariffs are raised to their threatened level on July 9, average duties on all US imports could climb to around 20% from close to 3% before Trump’s inauguration in January. That would add to growth and inflation risks for the US economy.
So far, the Trump administration has announced deals with the UK and Vietnam and agreed to truces with China that saw the world’s two largest economies ease tit-for-tat tariffs and lower export controls.
Asked Thursday if more deals were on the way, Trump responded that “we have a couple of other deals, but you know, my inclination is to send a letter out and say what tariffs they are going to be paying.”
“It’s much easier,” he said. “I’d rather just do a simple deal where you can maintain it and control it.”
Trump announced the Vietnam deal on Wednesday, saying that the US would place a 20% tariff on Vietnamese exports to the US and a 40% rate on goods deemed transshipped through the nation — a reference to the practice whereby components from China and possibly other nations are routed through third countries on their way to the US.
Vietnam Deal
While the rates are lower than the 46% duty Trump imposed on Vietnam initially, they are higher than the universal 10% level. And many of the particulars of the deal are still unclear, with the White House yet to release a term sheet or publish any proclamation codifying the agreement.
After Trump’s announcement, Vietnam said the negotiations were still ongoing.
Indonesia is confident it is close to securing a “bold” trade deal with the US that will span critical minerals, energy, defense cooperation and market access ahead of the looming tariff deadline, according to the nation’s chief negotiator on Friday.
Many major trading partners, however, such as Japan, South Korea and the European Union, are still working to finalize their accords.
South Korea’s top trade official will visit the US this weekend with fresh proposals in a last-minute bid for a reprieve before higher tariffs are scheduled to kick in.
The US president has expressed optimism about reaching an agreement with India but has spoken harshly about the prospects of an accord with Japan, casting Tokyo as a difficult negotiating partner. He intensified his criticism this week, saying that Japan should be forced to “pay 30%, 35% or whatever the number is that we determine.”
Trump on Tuesday also said he was not considering delaying next week’s deadline. Asked about any potential extension of talks, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier Thursday that Trump would make the final call.
“We’re going to do what the president wants, and he’ll be the one to determine whether they’re negotiating in good faith,” Bessent said on CNBC when asked whether the deadline might be lengthened.
French Industry Minister Marc Ferracci said agreeing to 10% tariffs on European exports to the US would be a bad deal, signaling disapproval of a potential compromise with Washington.
The European Union has until July 9 to clinch a trade arrangement with Donald Trump before tariffs on nearly all exports to the US jump to 50%. Some members of the bloc are willing to accept a deal that includes keeping a 10% universal tariff on many of the bloc’s exports, but with lower rates in certain sectors, Bloomberg reported earlier.
“Ten percent is not a good deal and we all should find a way to get back to the former situation by negotiating with the US and the US administration,” Ferracci said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on the sidelines of the Rencontres Economiques conference in Aix-en-Provence. “To achieve this goal we need to stay united and be very firm in our answer and really to take into account the actual impact of the tariffs on value chains.”
The EU is pushing for the US to commit to lower rates than the universal 10% tariff on key sectors such as pharmaceuticals, alcohol, semiconductors and commercial aircraft.
Brussels is also pushing the US for quotas and exemptions to effectively lower Washington’s 25% tariff on automobiles and car parts as well as its 50% tariff on steel and aluminum, Bloomberg reported earlier.
The French minister gave the example of the aeronautical sector where value chains are deeply integrated with no tariffs.
“A 10% tariff for this industry would be a nightmare,” he said.
China imposed anti-dumping duties on European brandy for five years, while exempting major cognac makers that committed to keeping their prices above minimum levels.
The duties of as much as 34.9% will be imposed on European brandy shipments from July 5, according to a statement from China’s Ministry of Commerce. Exemptions apply to those that meet the price commitment, the ministry said.
The three big cognac makers — Remy Cointreau SA, Pernod Ricard SA and LVMH’s Hennessy — are among producers that agreed to abide by the pricing accord with China. The arrangement comes as a partial reprieve for the companies, which have seen cognac shipments to China plunge after Beijing imposed preliminary duties last year.
“The minimum price commitment regime offers more tolerable conditions for our companies than the definitive anti-dumping duties announced, even if the market access they allow remains impaired,” Florent Morillon, president of cognac producers’ association BNIC, said in a statement. The group will keep pushing to regain unhindered access to the Chinese market, he added.
The terms of the price agreement represent a “significantly more favorable outcome, or at the very least, a substantially less punitive alternative,” compared to the anti-dumping duties announced, Remy Cointreau said in a statement. While it’s waiting for further details to assess the effects accurately, the impact is expected to be far less restrictive than what was anticipated when it released results in June.
The company’s shares erased an early decline of as much as 7.2%, while LVMH and Pernod Ricard shares narrowed losses.
A Hennessy representative declined to comment on the matter, while Pernod didn’t immediately comment.
Macron Meeting
By accepting minimum pricing, these cognac makers can maintain their presence in the Chinese market without the burden of additional duties. “This was obviously a crucial decision, as China is a key market, accounting for a substantial portion of their global sales,” said Jacques Roizen, managing director of China consulting at Digital Luxury Group.
The tariffs on brandy followed the EU’s decision last year to levy duties as high as 45% on Chinese-made electric vehicles. China had postponed the conclusion of the cognac probe twice, as the two sides tried to resolve the alcohol and EV spats, among others.
China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao had discussed the two issues with the EU Trade Commissioner when he visited France in June. Foreign Minister Wang Yi is scheduled to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron later Friday.
French Industry Minister Marc Ferracci told Bloomberg Television Friday that it’s essential to deescalate tariff battles, over cognac and other goods. “Trade wars only make losers, so we shouldn’t be happy with what was announced today by China — even if some agreements can be found.”
Tensions between the two trading partners are far from easing, with China leaning toward canceling part of a two-day summit with European Union leaders planned for later this month, Bloomberg News reported Friday.
The three big cognac makers — Remy Cointreau SA, Pernod Ricard SA and LVMH’s Hennessy — are among producers that agreed to abide by the pricing accord with China.
India has temporarily barred Jane Street Group LLC from accessing the local securities market for alleged index manipulation, dealing a severe hit to the U.S. firm that made $4.3 billion in trading gains there in more than two years.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India said it would seize 48.4 billion rupees ($570 million) from Jane Street, which it claimed is the total amount of “unlawful gains” made by the firm, according to a 105-page interim order by Ananth Narayan, a board member at the regulator, on its website. Jane Street said it disputes the findings.
Jane Street is one of the most active foreign players in India, the world’s largest derivatives market by contracts traded, and one that has become a magnet for high-frequency trading firms amid a retail investing boom sparked by the pandemic. SEBI’s order marks a rare instance of such an action against a foreign entity.
The U.S.-based market maker’s operations in India came under a global spotlight last year after a court battle with Millennium Management revealed it earned $1 billion trading in Indian equity derivatives. Other details disclosed in the case helped trigger SEBI’s investigation, which continued even as the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. earlier this year closed a separate probe into irregular trades by the firm.
Jane Street made about 365 billion rupees ($4.3 billion) in overall gain from trading in Indian derivatives and cash market during the period between January 2023 and March 2025, according to the SEBI order.
“SEBI is sending a message to global HFT giants that you are welcome to trade here but if you undertake unfair practices then we also hold a stick,” said Tejas Shah, head of derivatives trading at Equirus Securities Pvt. “I would expect some temporary impact on volumes as other HFTs sit back a little.”
Shares of Nuvama Wealth Management Ltd., Jane Street’s local trading partner, plunged 11% in Mumbai trading, the most in three months. India’s benchmark NSE Nifty 50 Index was little changed while a broader gauge of Asian equities fell 0.3%.
SEBI alleged that on weekly index options expiry days, Jane Street used a large amount of funds to influence price action in the futures as well as the cash market—where volumes are relatively low. That allowed it “to put on significantly larger and profitable positions in the highly liquid index options market by misleading and enticing a large number of smaller individual traders.”
The regulator had warned Jane Street to avoid such trading practices as early as January this year, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The investigation found that the trading strategy continued to be used in May, the person said.
Curbs Imposed
Pending detailed investigation, Jane Street Group entities are immediately “restrained from accessing the securities market and are further prohibited from buying, selling or otherwise dealing in securities, directly or indirectly,” SEBI said. Banks have been directed to ensure no debits are made without SEBI’s permission in respect of the accounts held individually or jointly by the entities, according to the interim order.
SEBI also said the restrictions can be lifted if Jane Street deposits the said amount in an escrow account at a designated bank in India.
Jane Street disputes the findings of the SEBI interim order and will further engage with the regulator, a representative for the U.S.-based market maker said in a statement. SEBI said the firm can contest the regulator’s “prima facie observations” within 21 days of the receipt of the order.
“This may signal SEBI’s growing vigilance and willingness to assert control over foreign institutional activity making hefty gains in its derivatives market—particularly where such strategies blur the line between smart trading and market distortion,” said Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist at Saxo Markets in Singapore.
Derivatives Boom
Global high-frequency trading and market-making firms from Ken Griffin’s Citadel Securities LLC to Optiver have rushed to expand operations in India in recent years as the retail investor-led boom saw options premiums surge 11-fold in the five years to March 2025.
The retail frenzy has helped foreign funds and local proprietary firms that use algorithms as they pocketed $7 billion in gross profits in the 12 months ended in March 2024, according to a SEBI study. Retail investors, meanwhile, lost an equivalent of $21 billion from trading futures and options in the three years to March 2024., according to the regulator.
To protect them, SEBI has since November imposed several restrictions on trading options including higher minimum investment limits and an increase in lot sizes to protect retail traders. The measures have helped cool trading this year.
The regulator’s action “will also create a level playing field for everyone especially the local players who were losing a lot of money,” said Shah of Equirus.
SEBI also directed Jane Street entities to close out or square off any open positions they may have in exchange-traded derivative contracts within three months from the date of order or at the expiry of such contracts, whichever is earlier.
Jane Street is “committed to operating in compliance with all regulations” in the regions it operates in around the world, the firm said in its statement.
“This is a good move by SEBI, but we need more corrective measures to protect market integrity,” said Deven Choksey, managing director at DRChoksey FinServ Pvt. “Mechanisms like Algos, HFTs are creating inequalities in the markets. Institutions have an edge.”
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