dani: i'm dani burger in london. new global covid-19 cases have reached one million for a second straight day. full intensive care units and high death rates are a thing of the past because omicron seems to cause less severe illness. john bell says it is not the same disease, and average length of a hospital stay is down to three days. the pboc governor says china's financial system is stable overall with controllable risk. in an interview he says market

expectations on property companies are improving. he did not name any specific developers. apple has awarded unusual and significant stock bonuses to some engineers. sources tell us they found out last week about the out of cycle bonuses worth up to 180,000 dollars, issued as restricted stock units over four years. elon musk sold $1 billion in tesla shares, taking him close to the target of reducing his stake in the carmaker. he has been offloading stocks and asking his followers since november if he should sell. he has a net worth around $279 billion. jimmy cain, who led bear stearns during its rise, has died at age 87. he was a college dropout who

became a bond broker on wall street. he ceded the job to alex schwartz. it is another record high for european stocks. one hour into cash equity trading for european equities. that is surpassing the record set in mid-november. it is the santa rally. light volumes today led by ftse 100 stocks. those are at the highest since february 2020. the ftse 100 was closed and is playing catch-up. take the record gains the grain of salt. gas continues to fall for another day as lng shipments attracted by the high prices. we also looking at a sideways market in the u.s. big cap tech leading the way up.

still demand for oil, up 0.4%. iron ore tumbling after weaker data in china's property sector. bitcoin still under $50,000, on track for one of its worst months. this is bloomberg. >> from the heart of where innovation and money collide in silicon valley and beyond, this is "bloomberg technology," with emily chang. emily: i'm emily chang in san francisco, and this is "bloomberg technology." over the next 30 minutes we are focusing on one of the big tech topics of the year, that is crypto. we'll talk about it with michael, who now owns more bitcoin than any other company in the world.

plus, the first bitcoin etf, a milestone for the industry. we talk to the company behind that move. and non-fungible tokens stage a resurgence after fading from the headlines during bitcoin's springtime sweep. first, bitcoin, reaching highs after starting the year at just above $18,000. who better to talk to about all that volatility than michael saylor. he's vowed to keep stockpiling more. take a listen. >> we are getting a lot of attention from investors. we appreciate that. i think microstrategy is a leveraged, long bitcoin play. and it's also an enterprise software company. investors are trying to evaluate how to separate the two businesses and our growth

prospects in either. our strategy with bitcoin is we acquire bitcoin, when we think the market timing is right. it has worked out pretty well for the past 12 months. we've put about $3.1 billion in bitcoin, and our position is worth more than $7 billion right now, so i'm pretty pleased with the way the macro trend is working. emily: let's talk about the macro bitcoin trend. obviously big moves last week coming into this week. what do you read into it? michael: it's all bullish. you've got great statements coming out of the senate, great support in congress and great support from the regulators. you've got two etf's coming online. you read today about etf's coming online in australia. i think the etf action is bullish for the doctor. -- for the stock.

i think all of the regulatory clarity is going to be really, really good for bitcoin. emily: there is still no spot etf, though, and that depends on gary gensler. how much does it matter? michael: well, i think everybody is kind of perplexed that we're a little late with this, but i think that the writing is on the wall. there are 40 different etf applications in place, and in time i think over the next 12 months, we will see more and more etf's and more options, if the spot etf comes to the market, i think it is going to be really good for bitcoin in general and everybody involved in the bitcoin ecosystem. emily: you know, looking at robinhood results, their crypto trading dropped almost 80%. it was kind of astonishing how -- i spoke with the cfo who told me perhaps crypto trading had normalized. and i'm wondering what you make of that huge change in volume. i know it is just a window into robinhood, but i wonder if it signals something about broader

interest or hype around cryptocurrency. michael: i mean, i think we have ebbs and flows and it is natural to have some cyclicality to it. i think q1 was a pretty good quarter. it's slow down after the china exodus and they are heating up right now, you can tell with all the chatter about the various coins. so i don't think that we have seen the last of crypto volatility and crypto enthusiasm. and i think that in time, we are going to see more of this cyclicality. emily: so you think more volatility is ahead? michael: i just think this is the most exciting thing going on. right? the entire crypto world is attracting a huge amount of capital. it's attracting a huge amount of talent. it's attracting a huge amount of attention. on saturday afternoon, what else is there to talk about? the bond market is closed. the equity market is closed.

crypto is moving, crypto is changing, twitter is on fire and youtube is working. so i just think it is tailor-made asset class for the 21st century. emily: what do you want to see when it comes to stable coin regulation? michael: look, i think the united states has the ability to make the u.s. dollar the world reserve digital currency. and there is enormous demand for dollars in south america and africa and asia. there's at least six billion people, maybe eight billion people who like to get their hands on dollars. it's clear that the best chance of that is something like a tether or circle. there's like $100 billion circulating between those two coins right now. i think that the entire market is waiting for regulatory clarity. and when they get clarity, it's possible for these kind of private stable coins to grow by a factor of 10 to 100.

we could see a trillion dollars up to $10 trillion. and it would be good for the u.s. dollar, it would be good for the united states world reserve currency status, and it would move the state of technology forward by leaps and bounds. emily: curious on your thoughts on chips in particular, people thought it was a joke, and who is laughing now? michael: you know, there's different segments of the market. there is the savers that want to buy assets like bitcoin, there's the technology funds, they want to invest in the next nft platform, and then there's the speculators and the entertainers and they will have their meme coin. everybody has got their thing. it's all part of the crypto world right now. and it is what makes it so interesting and exciting. i don't think this will be the last one.

emily: how would you compare it to doge? michael: i have no opinions about one dog coin versus another dog coin. i stay in my lane, emily. [laughter] bitcoin. bitcoin is my lane. emily: let's talk about your bitcoin lane. we've seen a massive crackdown in china. we're expecting waves from that shock to impact the bitcoin ecosystem here in the united states. one of the interesting things that we've been talking about is the talent flow out of cryptocurrency companies because u.s. regulation has remained so uncertain and there are draws to big tech and other companies that frankly have potentially more certainty. do you think that will have a negative impact on the industry and the enthusiasm that we've seen over the last couple of years? michael: well, i think that the china crackdown was the best

thing that ever happened to bitcoin because the entire bitcoin mining business moved from china to the u.s. and the u.s. became the world leader in bitcoin mining. so i think that was a good thing. i think, in fact, regulatory certainty became clearer for bitcoin, and the crypto world outside of bitcoin is waiting for clarity on security tokens. but on the other hand, the bitcoin world is all about digital property and we got that clarity. the clarity we got was support for bitcoin from the senate and congress and regulators, and the acknowledgment that bitcoin is digital property and part of the western technology stack. it's going to be critical to the support of and the spread of the american values and western technology, just like the english language, just like the u.s. dollar, just like google and amazon and facebook and microsoft. so, that china crackdown was a

good thing for bitcoin. emily: michael saylor, cofounder and ceo of the software company microstrategy. coming up, the first bitcoin etf. we will tell you about this historic day in crypto and everything you need to know. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: 2021 marked the year of

the first bitcoin etf and the opening of the floodgates to institutional investors. our guest joined bloomberg on the long-awaited day. here is his conversation with my colleague. >> we are really excited to bring the ipo, the first bitcoin linked etf to investors as an important opportunity for them conveniently to invest in bitcoin in their regular brokerage accounts.

and it is with suspenders, if you will, in the regulated futures market and in a plain old etf wrapper. so we think this is going to allow for many people who been waiting for an easy and robust way to do this to now be involved and have it in their portfolios. guy: do you think the average investor is going to understand the difference between a cash settled futures etf and an etf based on the underlying -- ie, this is going to come with costs. do you think the investor you're talking about, is this the right product for them? >> well, we want them to understand. because in fact, we think there are some key advantages. there have been a growing group of experts who have been writing that the futures market is one of the best places for price discovery in bitcoin. you know, see this in other asset classes. as an example, in credit default swaps, you reflect price more quickly than cash bonds.

so to some extent it is a feature, not a bug. and there is tremendous volume here as well. the simi futures market trades 40% more volume than the largest u.s. bitcoin exchange. so, it's not a second order choice. we think it is quite a robust one. alix: some etf futures have gotten into trouble, particularly when you have to roll over some of the futures contracts, etc. did you guys structure it in any way that kind of helped that issue? >> so, we are focused on the front months because that has historically had very good tracking to spot bitcoin. to contextualize it, in the month of september, the average between that near month and the next month contracts on any given day was about 20 basis points. that would annualize to about 2.5%, which we think compares very favorably to lots of other ways to get exposure.

running the futures-based approach to bitcoin that we launched in july, and through last friday as an example, the bitcoin reference rate that amalgamates a few exchange prices was up 51%. our mutual fund, running the future strategy, was up 52%. the grayscale trust was up 37% in that period. so we really do think this is a first-class way to have exposure to bitcoin in addition to being a convenient way. guy: do you think most people that use it, though, are going to be using it for price action? ie, they are traders rather than investors? because a lot of people are certainly buying bitcoin for trading purposes. they like the volatility, they like the price action. you are building here a perfect vehicle for them. why do they need bitcoin when they've got you, and if they've got you, is there a danger that the underlying actually becomes

effective -- effected negatively as a result of that? >> a couple of key points to make. this will absolutely be a vehicle that will will be attractive to folks who will use it longer-term in their portfolio, but also to the trading community. but this again is a really important and valuable feature of the etf market. think about this. you buy and hold this for you whatever it may be, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24, 36 months. one day you need to monetize it and you will be really happy there are traders involved to make sure the trading is really efficient. so we think this is a landmark in the broader ecosystem which will bring even more liquidity to the marketplace in the evolution and maturation of it. emily: now, not all investors rushed to this new etf. take a listen to why cathie wood did not buy in, at least not just yet.

>> we are looking at this very carefully. the futures, there are some tax ramifications we would like to understand more after do with contango versus more normal accreditation. so, not yet. emily: they launch their own etf, they plan to invest in futures contracts for bitcoin and trade it on the chicago mercantile exchange. coming up, the nft phenomenon. while it is the talk of the town, how valuable can they possibly be? we will discuss, next. this is bloomberg. ♪ emily: in 2021, bitcoin hit a

high of $67,000. defi started angling for the mainstream. and yet all anyone talked about were nft's, or nonfungible tokens. with a college dictionary even declaring nft its word of the year. we spoke to the ceo of the fnt -- nft marketplace about it all. >> it's a really exciting time for nft's. and i think from our perspective, if you rewind, nft's have been around since 2017. and this recent surge and excitement is really an accumulation of a lot of hard work from a lot of companies in this space, a lot of infrastructure being built around nft's. so that now there is really a lot more for consumers to go and dig into in the nft space. there's art, there's collectibles, there's gaming, there's virtual worlds. there's so much activity and so much momentum around it. people are waking up to the fact

that there is a whole new digital economy emerging around artists, creators, musicians, and athletes as well, that allows them to sell individual assets directly to their fans and directly to the people who want to engage with these products. so it's an exciting time for the space. and we are at the center of all that so we have seen tremendous growth of the market over the last 12 months. emily: so, we are at a point where you can own a piece of a song. do you see owning a piece of a movie, owning a piece of a tv series, owning a piece of a popular sports space, do you see that going mainstream on a broad scale? >> i definitely do. there are really opportunities for everyone here. gamers have been trading digital assets for a long time. they know how valuable digital content is within the context of games. artists have been looking for ways to engage more effectively with their fans. musicians, athletes, there's opportunity here for everyone.

and there are even use cases for nft's outside of the art or gaming use space. we have had examples of people trading event tickets as nft's. it's a broad ranging technology. it is just in the early days being explored, and the sky is the limit. emily: so look, for people to understand, how do we know for sure these are actually going to be worth something someday? >> at the end of the day, it is all supply and demand. so i think if you're buying an nft, you should think about it as something that is a collectible, something you want to own just for the pure purpose of owning it. and you should look at sort of at the market dynamics over time, do your own research. so there is no guarantee that every nft is going to be worth something. just as there is no guarantee

the beanie baby you buy is going to be a rare collectible that someone wants to buy in the future. that being said, there is a really interesting opportunity to own digital content here and it is early days for this space. emily: meantime, the nba and draftkings are launching their own marketplaces. talk about the competition and where opensea fits in. >> sure. we are the largest and broadest marketplace. we think there will be tons of content coming on the blockchain, tons of opportunities and tons of artists. we've envisioned it as the amazon-type or ebay-type of marketplace. you can find whatever you are looking for and then resell it. there is peer-to-peer trading of a lot of content that is launched overseas. we have really broad coverage. and we are not just about collectibles. we trade game items, we trade event tickets, we trade crypto domain names, so it's a one stop shop and we aim to make it the best user experience in terms of the marketplace and also the best place for new people who

are still learning about the space but really want to explore and just get a taste of it before really sinking their teeth in. emily: so, talk about transaction costs on the blockchain. have the upgrades we have been seeing with ethereum changed things? is there more that you would like to see? >> we are seeing an explosion of innovation in the underlying layers for nft in the blockchain layers that power the technology. upgrades to ethereum have been great and have provided more stability. but there is a lot more room to grow. for example, we've launched our cross blockchain support, so we now support ethereum but we also support others like polygon to allow for a lower cost environment for trading. this is supercritical because if you're paying a high transaction cost to buy something, it limits the types of things you can purchase. it's hard to buy something for only $10 if you are paying a $30

or $40 fee on top of that. adding these scalable solutions, moving to new technologies are really vital for getting this technology to be adopted by a more mainstream customer. and at openseas, we're excited about the polygon launch we did recently, which is a solid step in that direction. emily: so, quickly, what are your favorite nft's? what should we be watching? >> i'm excited about gaming and metaverse. there is a project called crypto voxels, it's a virtual world where you can own virtual land, and you can build museums of your nft is inside of this virtual world. it's a lot like minecraft. i think it is really going to be sort of this weird intersection between gaming, art, and collectibles. where we're spending more time inside of these digital ecosystems and building out really unique experiences. i'm excited about projects that take it to the next level and build really engaging

environments to display your nft's. and crypto voxel, the sandbox are great examples of that. but of course i have got to give a shout out to some of the projects on the stream. i'm a fan of all of the experimentations happening in the space. emily: the question now, just how much of a roller coaster will next year in crypto and nft's be? coming up next, a special edition of bloomberg studio 1.0. you don't want to miss it. stay with us. this is bloomberg. ♪

dani: covid-19 cases have reached one million cases per day. more than 11,000 infections reported today, double the number seen on tuesday. hong kong will mandate three days of quarantine for air cargo and efforts to prevent omicron transmission. health officials have measures for the regular aircrew. markets are falling into by