Is this the year of the crypto bull?

Crypto evangelists, rejoice! The Securities and Exchange Commission approved a financial product that’s been 10 years in the making, a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund. After much ado, including the hacking of the SEC’s X account, trading of the new asset began Thursday, effectively bridging the worlds of cryptocurrency and traditional finance. 

What’s a spot bitcoin ETF? It is a fund that tracks the price of bitcoin, offering an alternative way to invest in the digital currency without setting up your own cryptocurrency wallet. Investors can buy and sell bitcoin ETFs the same way they’d buy and sell other more traditional ETFs, though not without caveats. The ETFs may make it easier to get some bitcoin action, but it doesn’t change the underlying risks associated with crypto investing, an industry rife with volatility and scams.  

Cue the promotions: With almost a dozen companies jumping into the bitcoin ETF market at the same time, they’ll be competing to attract customers. Many funds slashed or discounted the fees associated with buying in.   

Will 2024 be the year of the bitcoin bull? Many insiders and analysts predict yes, and the launch of the ETFs only one reason. The next ”bitcoin halving” is likely to occur in April, which will cut the rewards that bitcoin miners receive for producing new tokens. That should put the squeeze on bitcoin supply, which is finite. (About 19.6 million bitcoins exist of the 21 million issued in 2009.) We’ll have to wait to see whether the bitcoin rally persists or the currency’s fortunes, and the ETF hype, go the way of meme stocks. 

Smart in a Shot

Gadgetpalooza has taken over Las Vegas. More than 4,000 exhibitors set up shop at the annual Consumer Electronics Show this week to show off the latest and greatest technology that’s likely to arrive in 2024. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of buzz around artificial intelligence.   

It wasn’t long ago that virtual reality held our imaginations. Mark Zuckerberg’s plans for virtual reality haven’t panned out, but many companies have moved forward with their own visions for the future of VR, including haptic tech and augmented reality smart glasses.  

Sony also previewed a spatial reality headset, its answer to Apple’s Vision Pro, which drops on Feb. 2 and will cost $3,500. Another company showed off a computer you both wear and can fit in your pocket.  

“Marketplace Tech” has been at the show all week. Learn more about the cool stuff being developed for cars and gadgets designed to improve your sleep.  

The numbers

Have you set any goals for 2024? We are almost halfway through January, but that might actually be the ideal time to set New Year’s resolutions. Let’s do the numbers.  

23% 

For Americans who are setting resolutions this year, 23% say their priority will be saving more money.  

$500 

More than half of people who made financial resolutions, according to a 2018 survey, spent $500 or more in “resolution spending” to help them achieve their goal. Writer Anne Helen Petersen warned her readers against “this ideology of self-improvement-through-consumption,” opting for reflection rather than resolution.   

1 in 10 

That’s how many people actually achieve their annual goals. There are four core reasons people fail to keep them.  

15 minutes 

Here’s how an economist applies the idea of marginal costs and benefits to make resolutions more achievable. Want to improve your fitness, for example? It might be that just 15 minutes more exercise a week is all you need for success! 

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The Marketplace team has some big and small financial resolutions for 2024! To hold ourselves accountable, we’re sharing them with you:  

• Cut back on online shopping to reduce waste and save money. I’m hoping that if I decide that whatever I want to buy isn’t worth the effort of going to the store, perhaps I will choose to not buy it! (Courtney Bergsieker, associate producer) 
• Make my first sale on a secondhand marketplace like Poshmark or Depop. I’d like to try selling some clothing to help me pay for my next vacation. (Marissa Cabrera, senior producer) 
• Transfer all my retirement funds from previous jobs into my current employer’s plan. (Ellen Rolfes, writer)  
• Buy secondhand whenever possible for clothes, kitchen equipment, etc., using Facebook Marketplace or local thrift stores. (Sara Low, audience insights associate) 
• Get my first credit card so I can build a credit history. (Jordan Mangi, digital producer) 
• Make an appointment with a financial planner. (Bekah Wineman, technical director) 
• Select one of the fee-only financial planners I interviewed in December and work with them to figure out how much I should be contributing to my savings every month. I also want to apply to more of New York City’s affordable housing lottery apartments. (Stephanie Siek, editor) 
• Hit my max contribution for my Roth IRA. (Tsering Yangchen, communications manager) 
• I made a time budget to help me balance my relationships. I have a spreadsheet with goals for how much time I want to spend with different groups of friends, family, boyfriend, roommates, video calls with long-distance besties, etc. I am hoping it will help me be more intentional about the relationships I want to invest in and maintain! (Maria Hollenhorst, producer) 
• I’m moving and will be needing a whole bunch of new home stuff, but I don’t want to participate in fast furnishings anymore. I’ve resolved to only buy quality used pieces or be superintentional about purchasing heirloom-quality design classics rather than buying a knockoff cheapo version. And I am setting up a saving project for them. (Meghan McCarty Carino, reporter) 

None of us is as smart as all of us

Calling all “good” hackers 

Editor Stephanie Siek is reading a Rest of World story about so-called ethical hackers in Brazil who recover stolen social media accounts. Read the story and then upgrade your online security.  

Are you a true bookworm? 

Writer Ellen Rolfes (hi!) is reading a Washington Post data dive into Americans’ book reading habits. Almost half of respondents reported they’d finished zero books last year. Read more than two books? Congrats, you’re above average.  

Need some reading goals for 2024? A few of us at Marketplace are following podcast “99% Invisible’s” plan to read “The Power Broker,” Robert Caro’s 1,200-page biography of New York urban planner Robert Moses.  

Speaking of books … 

Host Kimberly Adams is reading a Los Angeles Times story about the fight to save a prop house that rents books to film and TV productions. Its faux library boasts 16,000 fake titles.