More women are investing in cryptocurrency, as Coinbase Global Inc.s initial public offering and bitcoins recent record-setting high help bring the asset class further into the mainstream.

Several cryptocurrency exchanges and online brokerage firms are reporting an increase in the number of women trading crypto in the past year. Some are expecting that number to rise further, thanks in part to investors greater awareness of the asset class, their desire to buy into hot markets and the promise of boosting their savings. At the same time, some people who are using volatile markets to save expose themselves to the risk of having months of gains wiped out when the winds shift.

One in four customers who traded crypto so far in 2021 on the Robinhood Markets Inc. platform is a woman, said Christine Brown, chief operating officer of Robinhood Crypto. The firm said fewer women trade crypto on its platform than trade stocks and exchange-traded funds. Over the past two years, digital trading platform eToro Group Ltd. said the number of female crypto traders in the U.S. on its platform has jumped by half, to about 20% of all users in the U.S.

Women should have an equal seat at the table when it comes to cryptocurrency investing, Ms. Brown said.

Anthony Denier, chief executive at Webull Financial LLC, is surprised there arent more female crypto traders on the firms platform, owing in part to the availability of information about cryptocurrency investing online and womens increased interest in managing their portfolios. About 21% of the crypto traders on the firms platform are female, a number he said is rising.

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Women Step Up Trading in Bitcoin, Other Cryptocurrencies - The Wall Street Journal

Gibbs Wealth Management President Erin Gibbs and B. Riley National chief market strategist Art Hogan discuss cryptocurrency, insider 'sell' transactions, and which stocks to watch.

Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, battled back Monday following a weekend flash crash.

BITCOIN SLUMPS 14% AS PULLBACK FROM RECORD HIGH GATHERS PACE

Prices hovered near $56,000 late in the day Monday after previously plunging as much as 14% to $51,541 on Sunday, wiping out the majority of its gains from the previous week which led to a record-high value of $63,200 as tracked by Coindesk.

Bitcoin's recent gains were fueled by the historic stock market debut of cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase, which launched a direct listing on the Nasdaq on April 14. Shares of Coinbase, which trade under the ticker COIN, opened at $381 apiece, giving the company a valuation of about $99.5 billion.

According to cryptocurrency analytics firm Bybt, bitcoin set a new record in liquidations on Sunday, resulting in roughly one million positions worth a total of about $10 billion being wiped out.

Multiple factors are believed to be connected to bitcoin's drop.

Data website CoinMarketCap attributed bitcoin's selloff to a blackout in Chinas Xinjiang region, which reportedly powers a lot of the digital currency's mining.

Meanwhile, some reports have speculated that bitcoin's drop could possibly be connected to concerns that the U.S. Treasury may crackdown on money laundering through digital assets. A spokesperson for the Treasury did not immediately return FOX Business' request for comment.

Binance's recent quarterly burn of over 1 million BNB tokens, worth about $595 million, has also prompted fears of market uncertainty.

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Despite bitcoin's drop, many big-name crypto investors are still bullish.

On Sunday, Tyler Winklevoss, founder of Winklevoss Capital Management, along with his twin brother Cameron, and the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange, encouraged investors on Twitter to buy the dip.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz added in a tweet that the drop was "inevitable" but that it's nothing to worry about over the long-term.

"Markets got too excited around $Coin direct listing," Novogratz said. "Basis blowing out, coins like $BSV, $XRP and $DOGE pumping. All were signs that the market got too one way. We will be fine in the medium term as institutions coming to the space."

"In the shorter term we will need to rebuild a trading base," he added. "Market damage doesnt heal overnight. Good luck out there."

Bitcoin Foundation Chairman Brock Pierce told FOX Business in a statement Monday that while he would like to see how the market settles over the next to days, he remains extremely bullish.

"This is just normal volatility in the Bitcoin market, and the pullback only brings us back to where we were two weeks ago," Pierce said. "I still think that all of the conditions are favorable to increase in the medium-and-long term, and I am - as should others - be actively looking to invest more across the space."

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The volatility comes as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies continue to see growing acceptance.

The Bank of England recently announced it would create a Central Bank Digital Currency as well as a task force to explore its uses.

China is also working on a digital yuan, which it is reportedly considering rolling out during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Li Bo, deputy governor of the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) also referred to bitcoin as an "investment alternative."

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Bitcoins nosedive: What happened and whats ahead? - Fox Business

View the high-resolution of the infographic by clicking here.

Oil is one of the worlds most important natural resources, playing a critical role in everything from transportation fuels to cosmetics.

For this reason, many governments choose to nationalize their supply of oil. This gives them a greater degree of control over their oil reserves as well as access to additional revenue streams. In practice, nationalization often involves the creation of a national oil company to oversee the countrys energy operations.

What are the worlds largest and most influential state-owned oil companies?

Editors Note: This post and infographic are intended to provide a broad summary of the state-owned oil industry. Due to variations in reporting and available information, the companies named do not represent a comprehensive index.

National oil companies are a major force in the global energy sector, controlling approximately three-quarters of the Earths oil reserves.

As a result, many have found their place on the Fortune Global 500 list, a ranking of the worlds 500 largest companies by revenue.

*Value of Iranian petroleum exports in 2019. Source: Fortune, Statista, OPEC

China is home to the two largest companies from this list, Sinopec Group and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC). Both are involved in upstream and downstream oil operations, where upstream refers to exploration and extraction, and downstream refers to refining and distribution.

Its worth noting that many of these companies are listed on public stock marketsSinopec, for example, trades on exchanges located in Shanghai, Hong Kong, New York, and London. Going public can be an effective strategy for these companies as it allows them to raise capital for new projects, while also ensuring their governments maintain control. In the case of Sinopec, 68% of shares are held by the Chinese government.

Saudi Aramco was the latest national oil company to follow this strategy, putting up 1.5% of its business in a 2019 initial public offering (IPO). At roughly $8.53 per share, Aramcos IPO raised $25.6 billion, making it one of the worlds largest IPOs in history.

Because state-owned oil companies are directly tied to their governments, they can sometimes get caught in the crosshairs of geopolitical conflicts.

The disputed presidency of Nicols Maduro, for example, has resulted in the U.S. imposing sanctions against Venezuelas government, central bank, and national oil company, Petrleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). The pressure of these sanctions is proving to be particularly damaging, with PDVSAs daily production in decline since 2016.

In a country for which oil comprises 95% of exports, Venezuelas economic outlook is becoming increasingly dire. The final straw was drawn in August 2020 when the countrys last remaining oil rig suspended its operations.

Other national oil companies at the receiving end of American sanctions include Russias Rosneft and Irans National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Rosneft was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2020 for facilitating Venezuelan oil exports, while NIOC was targeted for providing financial support to Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an entity designated as a foreign terrorist organization.

Like the rest of the fossil fuel industry, state-owned oil companies are highly exposed to the effects of climate change. This suggests that as time passes, many governments will need to find a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.

Brazil has already found itself in this dilemma as the countrys president, Jair Bolsonaro, has drawn criticism for his dismissive stance on climate change. In June 2020, a group of European investment firms representing $2 trillion in assets threatened to divest from Brazil if it did not do more to protect the Amazon rainforest.

These types of ultimatums may be an effective solution for driving climate action forward. In December 2020, Brazils national oil company, Petrobras, pledged a 25% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. When asked about commitments further into the future, however, the companys CEO appeared to be less enthusiastic.

Thats like a fad, to make promises for 2050. Its like a magical year. On this side of the Atlantic we have a different view of climate change.

Roberto Castello Branco, CEO, Petrobras

With its 2030 pledge, Petrobras joins a growing collection of state-owned oil companies that have made public climate commitments. Another example is Malaysias Petronas, which in November 2020, announced its intention to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Petronas is wholly owned by the Malaysian government and is the countrys only entry on the Fortune Global 500.

Between geopolitical conflicts, environmental concerns, and price fluctuations, state-owned oil companies are likely to face a much tougher environment in the decades to come.

For Petronas, achieving its 2050 climate commitments will require significant investment in cleaner forms of energy. The company has been involved in numerous solar energy projects across Asia and has stated its interests in hydrogen fuels.

Elsewhere, Chinas national oil companies are dealing with a more near-term threat. In compliance with an executive order issued by the Trump Administration in November 2020, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) announced it would delist three of Chinas state-run telecom companies. Analysts believe oil companies such as Sinopec could be delisted next, due to their ties with the Chinese military.

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Visualizing the Power Consumption of Bitcoin Mining - Visualcapitalist - Visual Capitalist

There is a small ripple effect from the multibillion-dollar Archegos Capital fallout to the crypto world, which is reflected on the bitcoin futures premium on CME. But the crypto market is largely unaffected.

The latest crisis on Wall Street involves a rapid de-risking triggered by the trading crisis at Archegos Capital, a family office managing at least $10 billion that bet $50 billion-$80 billion on leverage that led to nearly $5 billion of losses for Switzerlands Credit Suisse and the departure this week of its investment-banking chief.

Chicago-based CME, which offers traditional finance players bitcoin exposure with its popular futures contract, may have been slightly affected, as seen in its CME futures premium, or the price reflected in futures contracts minus the current spot price. That premium has lagged behind the equivalent gauge at popular retail-focused exchanges including Binance, Deribit, FTX and OKEx.

According to a top crypto-industry investor, the discrepancy might reflect the Wall Street deleveraging.

We are seeing everywhere de-leveraging in the traditional financial space, Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at the digital-asset investment firm Arca Funds, told CoinDesk in a phone interview. The CME mostly serves your typical big hedge funds, big mutual funds, and the leverage is less than it was because of this leverage crackdown from the prime brokers and from the exchanges in traditional markets.

On the CME, the annualized bitcoin futures premium rate, the gap between bitcoins long-term futures contract prices and the current spot market price, is, on average, at 8.67%. That compares with a range of 27%-31% on crypto exchanges including FTX, Deribit, Binance, and OKEx, according to crypto derivatives data provider Skew.

The difference between bitcoin futures premium on CME and other crypto exchanges has widened since the end of March, when the troubles surfaced at Bill Hwangs Archegos Capital.

Patrick Heusser, a senior cryptocurrency trader at Zurich-based Crypto Broker AG, explained the futures premium is sometimes a function of the demand for leverage by traders on an exchange.

In a bull market like right now, the traders who look to go long on leverage are willing to pay the premium, the cost for the leverage, Heusser said. Because there is not much leverage you can take on the CME, the future premium is not that steep or big compared with other platforms.

In theory, the futures premium on CME should be lower than it is on other crypto exchanges due to its more restrictive trading rules and limited leverage positions, Heusser added.

Another explanation is the premium has been rising on crypto exchanges since the end of March because of traders bullish views on bitcoin.

There are more overly confident traders and more leveraged longs probably, says Bendik Norheim Schei, head of research at Arcane Research. Traders are expecting higher prices and taking on long positions.

Traders on retail-focused crypto-derivatives exchanges are already in the crypto ecosystem, Dorman said. Its just a completely different investor base and completely different leverage base. So what was happening is you still have really aggressive investors in the crypto world who are levering up to buy as much risk as they can.

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Here's How the Archegos Debacle May Have Spilled Over to Bitcoin - CoinDesk - CoinDesk