Netflix said Tuesday that it had reached 70 million monthly active users on its ad-supported plan, two years after launching its cheaper subscription tier that includes commercials.

That’s up from May, when the company reported having 40 million monthly users on the ad version.

The Los Gatos, Calif., streamer has also been diversifying its content, including increasing its streams of live events, in order to boost its nascent advertising business.

Netflix said it had sold out of the in-game inventory for its live NFL Christmas Day games this year, with sponsors that include sports betting company FanDuel and Verizon. The streamer has partnered with Nielsen to provide live ratings for the games.

Netflix also said it had sold ads across its scripted programs, including the anticipated second season of the Korean drama “Squid Game.”

The company said that more than half of new sign-ups in countries where Netflix offers ads are for the cheaper ad-subscription tier.

“There has been continuous momentum over the last two years, but we’re just getting started and can’t wait to see what’s to come,” Amy Reinhard, president of advertising, said in a blog post.

Netflix began offering a cheaper ad subscription plan in November 2022 after the streamer saw its subscriber growth in decline earlier that year. In the U.S., Netflix with ads cost $6.99 a month, compared to ad-free options that start at $15.49 a month.

At first, Netflix’s ad-supported tier was powered by Microsoft’s technology through a partnership, but the streamer is transitioning to using its own in-house ad technology which will make it function independently from third parties.

The ad-supported tier was part of a broader push to diversify Netflix’s offerings and boost revenue. In addition to commercials, Netflix has started streaming live events, cracking down on password-sharing and promoting games on its platform.

This week, Netflix will up its live sports ambitions with a boxing match between former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson and influencer-turned-fighter Jake Paul.

Netflix in the third quarter added 5 million subscribers, bringing its total to about 283 million globally.

The price of a bitcoin soared to a record high of more than $87,000 on Monday, continuing its surge in value since Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the presidential election spurred excitement about the digital currency.

Unlike President Biden, whose administration has sought to rein in cryptocurrencies, Trump has done an about-face from earlier skepticism to embrace them, having even promoted a crypto-based business in September, World Liberty Financial. There are reports that Trump’s sons will run it, but the company’s website says otherwise. The president-elect vowed on the campaign trail to put the country at the center of the digital-asset industry and to oversee the accumulation of a bitcoin stockpile.

Crypto backers who spent more than $100 million promoting crypto-friendly political candidates are now celebrating the promise of a pro-crypto White House.

Bitcoin was trading at about $87,740, up 9% for the day, around 1:30 p.m. Pacific time Monday and has risen 98% this year, in part thanks to demand for U.S. exchange-traded funds and interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. Giddy crypto investors have added to the run with bets that the cost of the world’s largest cryptocurrency will reach $100,000 by the end of the year. In London on Monday, there were $780 million worth of investments riding on the price hitting the milestone by Dec. 27, Bloomberg reported.

Trump’s win, along with the prospect of pro-crypto lawmakers in Congress, has boosted smaller digital currencies as well. Dogecoin, a currency promoted by one of Trump’s most vocal and deep-pocketed supporters, Elon Musk, has risen nearly 63% in the last five days. Another currency, Litecoin, has climbed 10% in the same period.

“With the dust from Trump’s victory still settling down, it was only a matter of time before a run-up of some sort occurred given the perception of Trump being pro-crypto, and that’s what we’re seeing now,” Le Shi, managing director of market-making firm Auros, told Bloomberg.

Trump’s broader agenda of cutting taxes and regulations and bolstering domestic economic growth also triggered a buying spree across stocks, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 index hitting a record last week. The rise in bitcoin, meanwhile, exceeds the returns from investments including stocks and gold.

Crypto-related companies also got a boost from Trump’s win. Shares of Microstrategy, a software maker that buys cryptocurrency as part of its financial strategy, and U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase were each up more than 22% on Monday and have been rising throughout Trump’s candidacy. Crypto-miners MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms saw shares climb Monday by 30% and 18%, respectively.

Under Biden, Securities & Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler characterized the cryptocurrency industry as rife with fraud and misconduct. Trump was initially skeptical about digital assets as well, but changed his tune on the campaign trail and earned the support of crypto investors.

Trump will almost certainly replace Gensler and has promised to soften federal oversight of cryptocurrency. Republicans also will control the Senate under Trump and are on the brink of getting the majority in the House, potentially clearing the way for the passage of new pro-crypto bills.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.

The South Bay is in for a large-scale transformation near the Port of Los Angeles as Phillips 66 shuts down its sprawling refineries and makes way for developers to reimagine the prime real estate.

Potential replacements for the century-old refinery complex covering 650 acres include housing and last-mile distribution centers for e-commerce merchants, both of which are in high demand. There may be shops, restaurants, and sports and entertainment venues.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity,” real estate analyst Jesse Gundersheim said. “Where else are you going to find hundreds of acres of developable land in L.A or coastal California?”

Oil giant Phillips 66 announced last month that late next year it will close the twin refineries in Carson and Wilmington that produce about 8% of the state’s gasoline. About 900 workers currently operate the refinery, which also produces diesel and jet fuel.

The refinery’s massive fuel storage tanks, distillation towers and sprawling pipeline have been a long-standing source of community concern. In recent years, complaints of acrid odors, fiery accidents, soot and harmful emissions have gained new resonance as public officials become more sensitive to accusations of environmental damage.

“Phillips 66 in L.A. is an old refinery. It’s had a lot of problems with flaring and fires in recent years and high levels of pollution,” Julia May, senior scientist for Communities for a Better Environment told The Times. “It may have just been out-competed by the rest of the refineries.”

Asked if the site might be more valuable to Phillips 66 as developed real estate than as a refinery, company spokesman Al Ortiz said in an email, “We feel this is the best option for the future of our Los Angeles facilities.”

Ortiz declined to comment further, saying Phillips 66 is in the preliminary stages of the project and hasn’t set a timeline on how long it might take to redevelop the land.

The oil company did say last month that it has has engaged real estate companies Catellus Development Corp. and Deca Cos. to evaluate potential future uses for the site. Both have taken on industrial land makeovers in the past.

Catellus redeveloped the 200-acre former Pacific Refinery Co. near San Francisco into a residential subdivision called Victoria by the Bay in 2003, a process that involved the removal of contaminants, real estate data provider CoStar said.

Deca has transformed outdated sites to accommodate new technologies. Its 800 Cesar Chavez project on San Francisco’s waterfront converted an aging warehouse into a large electronic vehicle charging and maintenance facility. It opened in 2018.

Deca didn’t respond to a request for comment about potential uses of the Phillips 66 site and Catullus referred inquiries to Phillips 66.

“Right now, we are focused on running the facilities and collaborating with Catellus and Deca to get the necessary permits to redevelop the site,” said,” Ortiz said.

There is enough land for several uses, said Gundersheim, CoStar’s senior director of market analytics and a specialist in evaluating industrial real estate.

The Carson site may lend itself best to warehouses, which are always in demand around the nearby Port of Los Angeles, the busiest container port in the Western Hemisphere, Gundersheim said. The facilities may be used by importers collecting goods from China before distributing them across the West Coast or by e-commerce companies such as Amazon to store and quickly distribute goods to customers in the South Bay.

The Wilmington refinery site, which is connected to Carson’s plant by a pipeline, may lend itself to housing. It is bordered by golf courses, Los Angeles Harbor College, federally owned land and residential neighborhoods.

There is a model for such redevelopment not far away, Gundersheim said.

Huntington Beach, which was once a booming oil industry center, has approved construction of 250 residential units alongside a hotel and retail space on the site of a former oil pumping and storage facility on Pacific Coast Highway. It will include single-family homes and apartments intended to be affordable.

Developer Shopoff Realty Investments bought the land in 2016, removed oil tanks and cleaned up the land known as the Magnolia Tank Farm.

The vastly larger Phillips 66 refinery sites may also be turned into a mix of uses that could include golf courses, athletic facilities, shopping centers and entertainment venues blended into new communities with houses and apartments, Gundersheim said.

“This kind of opportunity hasn’t been around for some time,” he said.

Phillips 66, which has operated the refineries since its 2012 spin off from ConocoPhillips, said it would replace their output with sources “inside and outside its refining network” and with renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuels from its San Francisco Bay Area refinery.