Federal regulators on Wednesday approved the first financial products that track the price of bitcoin, a landmark moment for the cryptocurrency industry that proponents hope will increase investment in the technology.

The Securities and Exchange Commission authorized 11 applications by financial firms to offer exchange-traded funds tied to bitcoin, a potentially simpler way for people to invest in digital assets on traditional platforms such as the Nasdaq. Some of the largest financial companies in the world, including the asset managers BlackRock and Fidelity, were approved to offer the products, known as ETFs, which could begin trading as soon as Thursday.

The approval was hailed as a sign that mainstream financial institutions remain willing to use digital currencies even after 18 months of market crashes and high-profile bankruptcies. Since the fall, bitcoin’s price has surged more than 60%, as traders bet that SEC’s backing of the new crypto products would give the industry an imprimatur of regulatory legitimacy, drawing fresh investment from professional wealth managers and amateur traders.

Widely offered by financial firms such as Charles Schwab and Vanguard, ETFs are baskets of assets divided into shares that can be bought and sold on the open market — a form of investment popular among wealth managers who control trillions of dollars in capital.

Rather than storing bitcoin in online wallets, investors in bitcoin ETFs would own shares in funds containing the digital currency. Investors would gain exposure to the crypto market without some of the risks and inconveniences historically associated with the technology.

But skeptics argue that the new products wouldn’t solve any of the fundamental problems in crypto. Several major crypto firms declared bankruptcy in 2022, exposing the fragility of the digital asset industry. Critics argued that many of the firms weren’t offering much practical utility.

In a public letter last week, the nonprofit advocacy group Better Markets said the approval of bitcoin ETFs would be a “historic mistake almost certainly leading to massive investor harm.” Other analysts have argued that the products won’t provide much of a boost to crypto prices.

— New York Times

SAP to pay $220M in U.S. bribery fines

German software giant SAP will pay more than $220 million in fines to resolve U.S. bribery allegations involving payments to foreign government officials, the Justice Department said Wednesday.

According to court documents cited by the Justice Department, SAP and unnamed co-conspirators provided bribes and other valuable enticements to South African and Indonesian foreign officials

The Securities and Exchange Commission also cited SAP “bribery schemes” in Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Ghana and Azerbaijan

Amazon’s Twitch to lay off hundreds

Twitch, the video game streaming platform acquired by Amazon a decade ago for close to $1 billion, is laying off more than 500 employees as the company tries to turn the tremendously expensive division profitable.

Twitch CEO Dan Clancy in an email to employees said that even with cost cuts and growing efficiency, the platform “is still meaningfully larger than it needs to be given the size of our business.”

Amazon purchased Twitch Interactive in 2014 for $970 million as it looked for a way to take part in video gaming’s growth as an online spectator sport.

Ram trucks recalled in Cummins emission flap

Engine maker Cummins Inc. will recall 600,000 Ram trucks as part of a settlement with federal and California authorities that also requires the company to remedy environmental damage caused by illegal software that let it skirt diesel emissions tests.

New details of the settlement, reached in December, were released Wednesday. Cummins had already agreed to a $1.675 billion civil penalty to settle claims — the largest ever secured under the Clean Air Act — plus $325 million for pollution remedies.

That brings Cummins’ total penalty to more than $2 billion, which officials from the Justice Department, Environmental Protection Agency, California Air Resources Board and the California Attorney General called “landmark” in a call with reporters Wednesday.

— From news services