Finance

Accelerate Your Path to Millionaire Status: Financial Strategies to Start Now

Becoming a millionaire is no longer a distant dream when you have the right strategy and mindset, though it requires time, discipline, and consistency. It’s not about a quick get-rich scheme, but rather about commitment and hard work to reach your financial goals. With the growing availability of digital opportunities and financial tools, the path to wealth is more accessible than ever, whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to accelerate your progress. By setting clear financial goals, creating a solid plan, and sticking to it, you can chart a course toward millionaire status. Key actions to take today include building a wealth plan by calculating how much you need to invest to reach $1 million, adding income streams through side hustles or career advancements, investing strategically and consistently, eliminating debt, and protecting your wealth with insurance and savings. Achieving millionaire status is all about focused effort, and these steps will help you lay the foundation for long-term financial success.

TECH

Nick Clegg Steps Down from Facebook as Tech Giants Yield to Trump’s Influence

Sir Nick Clegg has announced his departure from his position at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, just weeks before Donald Trump is set to return to power. As major tech companies in Silicon Valley move to align with the incoming Republican administration, the former Liberal Democrat leader stated that it was "the right time" for him to step down. After spending seven years at Meta with a reported salary exceeding £10m, Sir Nick will be succeeded by Joel Kaplan, a Meta lobbyist with strong ties to the Republican party. Reflecting the shift toward the new US administration, Sir Nick emphasized that Mr. Kaplan was “clearly the right person for the right job at the right time.”

CRYPTO

Crypto’s Growth Struggles: Can It Thrive Without Stocks?

The crypto market is attempting to kick off 2025 with growth, up 4% since the start of the year. However, like in late December, the market is facing difficulty surpassing a capitalization of $3.41 trillion. This time, the positive sentiment among cryptocurrency enthusiasts has been dampened by a sharp decline in both the US and Chinese stock markets.

Notably, reduced trading volumes suggest a wait-and-see attitude among investors, with many searching for new strategies. Despite this, the support level around $3.20 trillion indicates that the latest pullback is more of a correction than a reversal.

Bitcoin experienced a 3.5% decline in December, dropping to $93,600. For the full year of 2024, it saw a 120% increase, following a 158% rise the year before. Bitcoin was one of the best-performing assets of the year, having gained for seven months.

January has traditionally been a relatively strong month for Bitcoin, with the cryptocurrency finishing the month with growth in seven of the past 14 years. The average increase has been 22.5%, while the average decline was 14.6%.

On the technical front, Bitcoin bounced off the 61.8% retracement from November's rally and is trying to rise above the 50-day moving average. A sustained break above $97,000 could signal potential highs above $110,000. However, with the current pressure in equities, we must be ready for a possible increase in selling.

Regarding the news background, IntoTheBlock reports that the percentage of long-term Ethereum holders increased throughout 2024, rising from 59% in January to 75% in December. In contrast, Bitcoin’s long-term holder percentage dropped from around 70% to 62%.

Additionally, Bitcoin's mining difficulty was adjusted upward by 1.08%, reaching a record 109.78 T, with an average hash rate of 777 EH/s since the last adjustment.

MicroStrategy continued to build its Bitcoin position, acquiring 2,138 BTC for roughly $209 million at an average price of $97,837 per coin. The company now holds 446,400 BTC, purchased for a combined $27.9 billion at an average price of $62,428 per coin.

CoinGecko has noted that the most profitable crypto sector in 2024 was AI, followed by meme coins and RWAs. Meanwhile, CryptoQuant reports that Coinbase’s premium has dropped to a 12-month low, signaling weak institutional demand and caution among US investors.