Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Following the day the Tesla founder, Elon Musk, added the Bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter profile, the popular Carolina Panthers offensive tackle, Russell Okung told his social media followers to put the Bitcoin hashtag in their bio. Okung has managed to get hundreds of people to do it, but more recently the NFL player started a decent train of celebrities with very large Twitter follower counts to join the bandwagon too. Russell Okung: ‘Plant the Flag to Declare You’re Ready for the Future’ Last week, Elon Musk put the Bitcoin hashtag in his Twitter bio, and after he did that, the price of bitcoin ( BTC ) coincidently saw significant gains. Musk also tweeted, “In retrospect, it was inevitable,” and a great number of crypto supporters celebrated the Tesla founder’s social media teases. After Musk did this on Twitter, the NFL player who plays offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers, Russell Okung told his Twitter followers to follow Musk’s recent move. “Everyone put #Bitcoin in ...

A chief economist at UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, says cryptocurrency has a fundamental flaw. Bitcoin’s fixed supply could cause the collapse of its value and spending power, making it unattractive to use as a currency, he claims. A UBS Chief Economist Says Bitcoin’s Fixed Supply Is a ‘Fundamental Flaw’ Paul Donovan, Chief Economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, explained last week why people won’t want to use bitcoin as a currency. UBS is the largest bank in Switzerland. “The debate about bitcoin and other crypto tends to be very passionate. Crypto supporters say that economists are just dinosaurs, and economists say that crypto supporters are just selling a bubble.” He also pointed out that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been volatile in price terms. “If we look objectively at the issue, I think an important question is whether bitcoin and other crypto could be currencies,” the UBS chief economist continued, emphasizing, “And, I don’t think that they can.” ...

U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry is pro-bitcoin. He is now hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper on his official congressional website and has called on other lawmakers to embrace innovation like Bitcoin. He believes that the cryptocurrency is unstoppable and governments cannot kill it. Pro-Bitcoin US Lawmakers A growing number of U.S. lawmakers have recently spoken in support of Bitcoin. Among them is Congressman Patrick McHenry from the state of North Carolina. On Friday, he talked on CNBC’s Squawk Box about how to approach regulation after last week’s market swings. “You can’t put technology back in the box. Innovation is here. We have to embrace. We have to broaden access to our markets, we have to broaden access to our financial products,” he said. McHenry has long been a Bitcoin advocate. Last week, when the lawyer of the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, threatened to sue a few website owners for hosting the open-source Bitcoin whitepaper on their websites, McHenr...

The heavy hitters in traditional finance have been concerned about the recent stock market action fueled by Redditors and a colossal number of retail investors. This week a Goldman Sachs executive warned that if these short squeezes continue it could “snowball through the market.” Moreover, Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy made similar comments this week saying these types of systemic risk can “take down the entire system, theoretically.” Wallstreetbets Trend Could ‘Snowball Through the Market’ 2021 has been an interesting year so far and this week a Reddit forum called r/wallstreetbets sparked a whole new hot topic. Four days ago, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the stock market fiasco that started with short squeezing Gamestop (GME) shares. But GME shares were not the only stocks that felt the push as the wallstreetbets (WSB) trend started leaking into a number of other types of shares. The stock market story and Wallstreetbets (WSB) trend has shaken financial markets t...

Ripple Labs has officially responded to the complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Besides explaining that the XRP cryptocurrency is not a security, Ripple accuses the securities regulator of being out of step, picking winners and losers, as well as distorting facts regarding the cryptocurrency. In the court document filed on Jan. 29, Ripple claims that XRP is not an “investment contract,” insisting that the crypto “is a virtual currency and thus, outside the SEC’s jurisdiction.” Furthermore, the company stated that it never held an initial coin offering (ICO), never offered future tokens to raise money, and has no relationship with the vast majority of XRP holders. The SEC, however, is “out of step domestically and globally,” claims Ripple. The company noted that no other regulators in the world have considered XRP to be a security. Ripple alleges that “Basically, on its way out, the Trump administration sought to undo the determination that XRP was...

Payments giant Visa Inc’s CEO Alfred Kelly has revealed his firm’s plans to enable cryptocurrencies trading on its network. Kelly, who is also chairman of the firm, explains that there is no reason not to add cryptos when these are increasingly becoming “a recognized means of exchange.” Digital Gold Segment In an earnings call with analysts, Kelly opines that due to Visa’s “global presence, its partnership approach as well as its trusted brand”, the fintech giant is “uniquely positioned to help make cryptocurrencies more safe.” The CEO adds that Visa also wants to make cryptos “more useful and applicable for payments.” However, to achieve this, Kelly says his organization will divide the crypto market into two segments, namely cryptocurrencies and digital currencies. Describing the assets that will be included in the cryptocurrency segment, the CEO says these will be viewed “as digital gold.” According to Kelly, such currencies are “predominantly held as assets that are not used a...

Here’s the note I sent to Ripple employees today regarding Ripple’s preliminary legal response to the SEC’s complaint. Hi Ripple team, Since the SEC filed its complaint at the end of December, its side of the story has been the only one shared publicly. Our initial response was finally filed today. The “Answer” is a … Continued The post SEC Update — Preliminary Ripple Response appeared first on Ripple.