We are now talking about a loss of nearly $350bn in market cap.

NVDA down 6% is roughly a $200billion loss in market cap. @Mark Camper

“A bunch of giga autist at a Chinese quant fund are going to cause the Nasdaq to crash but nobody has realized it yet”. Looks like this point hit home among investors over the weekend. DeepSeek causing a market selloff???

Well this escalated quickly. Open source for the win.

China Morning Missive The world’s worst kept secret, at least here in China. For all the moves made to keep Bitcoin out of the closed capital system, it has remained steadfast. P2P interlocuters have remained over the years regardless of what policy is put out from Beijing. Granted, there has also been the more nefarious play of “capital flight” with agents using the likes of Tether to assist with moving capital offshore. For Beijing, this is by far the more heinous act and looks to be now coming back into the cross hairs. I can attest personally to there being a hodgepodge of individuals seeing a market and the ability to profit off the “spread”. If there’s money to be made, you can be certain that a Chinese will be there to make that market. There could be yet another “China bans crypto” headline in the future. Then again, it wouldn’t be a four year cycle without a “China ban” headline.

Somebody needs to find this kid and get him on Nostr. He has laid out perfectly what might be - inadvertently or not - the end aims of DeepSeek. Also have to laugh. I get called a host of nasty names by those outside China. “Panda hugger” is always my favorite.

This has been making the rounds. Jokes aside ….. he’s not wrong. The guys who built DeepSeek did it as a side project for their quant fund. Nvidia and all those associated to the closed source OpenAI are looking to have a very rough week ahead in the markets. Also, no relation with “goodalexander”

Not sure what to make of this. The eagle on the Great Seal of The United States during Trump’s speech at Davos is facing the arrows or “war”. I believe that it has always faced the olive branches or “peace”. I would add though that there are some descriptions of the arrows representing “prepared to defend liberty”. That would be more on brand for Trump.

Following all the commentary on DeepSeek is fascinating. For those interested check out this Reddit thread. @gladstein @HoloKat @calle https://www.reddit.com/r/LocalLLaMA/s/v5KlHRbCWz

A final quick comment as I head into the weekend. Biden didn’t pardon SBF.

China Afternoon Missive When it comes to China, there’s no such thing as a “coincidence”. The very week that Trump announces “Stargate” with a price tag set at $500billion, the Chinese announced competitive AI platforms. There was DeepSeek and now ByteDance has released its own AI model; Doubao. These platforms are considered by those using them fast, effective and cheaper. So much for Washington’s “small garden, high fence” policy of containing China’s tech ambitions. No question, at least given my experience, that this was a not so subtle shot across the bow for the new Trump team and perfectly timed for full effect. Have a watch of this CNBC clip and the sense of concern is palpable.

It’s BOJ decision day. As expected rates were hiked by 25bps. Question now is how will markets react over the next several days. So far conditions are pretty docile. The same was the case last August and then, suddenly, everything went off the rails. Bank of Japan hikes policy rates by 25 basis points to highest since 2008

CNBC

Japan hikes rates to highest since 2008 as sustained inflation, rising wages signal 'virtuous cycle' in play

The move comes in line with expectations from CNBC's survey, where an overwhelming majority of economists predicted a hike.

The War for TikTok in America - #3 There continues to be a lot of jockeying for position with Mr. Beast now entering the fray with the quote “unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me. Let’s see if we can pull this off.” Sorry to disappoint Jimmy, but the one “influencer” with more “followers” than you is the Communist Party of China. Also, the CPC will do circles around you and all of those in the Frank McCourt camp. There are a great many other dynamics underling the entire TikTok drama including who actually owns versus controls both the parent (ByteDance) and the platform (TikTok). I’ll return to these dynamics in a separate note at a later date. For now, however, all interested parties must come to terms with what, exactly, the sort of negotiations they are headed into. It is very clear to me that, at the moment, that it remains a mentality of “vulture” investment. That is pure hubris and will end up taking people out (professionally).

Is MrBeast Buying TikTok? Bids Swirl as Trump Vows Deal to 'Save' App

Will TikTok find a U.S. buyer to remain legal? After Trump vowed to make a deal to save the app, MrBeast has emerged as part of a joint bid.