Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

PRESS RELEASE. February 4, 2021 – New York, New York – Sweet , in partnership with Bitcoin.com, has announced the launch of a highly-scalable Non-Fungible Token (NFT) platform for the broad distribution of digital collectibles and digital merchandise. Leveraging Simple Ledger Protocol (SLP) and the Bitcoin Cash network ( BCH ), blockchain digital collectibles provide consumer and entertainment brands with a previously-unseen opportunity to drive new revenue, create one-of-a-kind consumer experiences, and increase consumer engagement to unprecedented levels. Flexible Distribution With Sweet’s solution, brands have the flexibility to bring digital merchandise to market in an extraordinary number of ways, including for-purchase on existing e-commerce stores, bundled with physical products via QR codes, as social giveaways via web-based reservations, and as rewards for completing actions such as streaming a song on Spotify or Apple Music. The platform uses the Bitcoin Cash and the SLP...

Research by Bitflyer released today indicates the growing popularity of the cryptocurrency as an American household investment option. But not in Japan. Stocks Remain the #1 Investment Vehicle Bitflyer , a Japanese crypto exchange, released a research paper that dives into cryptocurrency sentiment and investment trends in the U.S. and compares them to the Japanese market. The most glaring difference between American and Japanese as far cryptocurrency acceptance is indicated through a simple question presented to survey participants: While 76% of Americans view cryptocurrencies positively, 78% of Japanese view cryptocurrencies negatively. The complete opposite pie charts demonstrate how the two markets are miles apart in their acceptance of cryptocurrencies. The research does not indicate when exactly the survey was done, but it can be assumed that the news-worthy ascend of bitcoin ( BTC ) in recent months has contributed to a heightened interest in cryptocurrencies as a whole in...

This week the firm Microstrategy held an event called “Bitcoin for Corporations” which looks at concepts like macro strategy, corporate playbooks, and legal considerations toward bitcoin. Prior to the event, Microstrategy CEO and bitcoin bull, Michael Saylor, said “professionals from more than 1,400 firms” would join the event. At the conference, Saylor was bullish on bitcoin as usual and said he expects “an avalanche of companies” to join the crypto economy. Microstrategy’s Bitcoin for Corporations Event On February 3 and 4, the firm Microstrategy ( NASDAQ: MSTR ) held an event called “ Bitcoin for Corporations, ” which aims to entice corporate entities to get into the leading crypto asset. In 2020 and into 2021, there’s been a major expansion of the M2 money supply as estimates believe 25-30% of all USD in existence was printed last year. This has led to a number of firms exchanging cash and bonds for bitcoin (BTC) in order to protect the company from devaluing fiat. Microstr...

Billionaire and crypto-asset supporter, Mark Cuban has identified bitcoin hodlers’ endurance as a model that stock investors can follow. According to the billionaire, after acquiring the asset at high prices back in 2017, the hodlers “held on because they believed in the asset.” Following in the Footsteps of BTC Hodlers These long term hodlers were unmoved even when the crypto asset lost more than two-thirds of its value after the 2017/18 bull run ended. Cuban’s remarks about BTC hodlers were in response to a request for advice to stock traders that incurred losses in the past week. In his reply, the billionaire, who recently praised the efforts Wallstreetbets (WSB) traders , explains that regular stock traders should follow an approach that is similar to his and that of BTC hodlers. The billionaire explains: When I buy a stock I make sure I know why I’m buying it. Then I Hodl until I learn that something has changed. The price may go up or down, but if I still believe in th...

Asian showbiz stars have been actively speaking about cryptocurrencies on major broadcasting networks. The Japanese pop sphere is not lagging behind, as one of its stars was featured in an interview talking about cryptos. Former Nogizaka46 Band Member Already Sold Her Crypto Holdings Nakada Kana, a former founding member of the Oricon chart-topping girl group Nogizaka46, spoke about her ventures as a crypto investor during a show aired by TBS, a major Japanese TV channel. Nakada Kana. In the interview on “Sunday Japon,” Kana revealed that she already sold some of her crypto holdings, without disclosing which ones, believing prices “would be going down.” Still, Kana said she “made a profit” on the move. The 26-years-old pop star was attracted by Warren Buffett’s books, which helped her unveil a new facet in her life as an investor. Hosts also asked Kana if crypto prices could keep their bullish steam ahead of the Tokyo Olympics Games. However, she limited her answer by just sa...

PRESS RELEASE. As an exchange that offers professional crypto trading services, Bityard has been focusing on the fast-changing market as well as the increasing needs of global investors. In 2020, Bityard, with Binance as the liquidity supplier, started offering crypto spot trading services with more than 30 types of trading pairs. Moreover, Bityard also launched “Grayscale Zone” recently to let its users to trade coins related to Grayscale investment trusts, which is a friendly design for both experienced investors and crypto beginners. Compared to some risky altcoins, the assets in the “Grayscale Zone” would be better options for crypto beginners since Grayscale has created investment trusts for those assets. In addition, on Bityard, the fee of spot trading is only 10%, which is much lower than most crypto exchanges in the market. Bityard is committed to bringing a reliable and easy-to-understand trading platform to crypto beginners around the world, and plans to offer more advanc...

Jehan Chu, who owns 1,300 Handshake domains, will be able to issue an unlimited number of subdomains under the .NFT extension. The Previous Owner Bought Extension for Less Than $600 Amid the rally in major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have experienced an explosion in interest, echoed by Hashmasks ’ recent funding campaign, which raised 7,600 ETH in exchange for over 15,300 digital collectible cards. Non-fungible tokens, which are effectively unique tokens designed to represent a single asset, whether digital or physical, have become the gold standard for attributing blockchain ownership to digital art and other collectibles. To harness the growing interest in these tokens and the ongoing exploration of their capabilities in other areas like finance and culture, Kenetic Founder and Managing Partner Jehan Chu spent a record $84,000 , amounting to approximately 680,000 Handshake (HNS) tokens, to purchase the .NFT web domain extension. The...

Visa is piloting a new system to enable banks to seamlessly integrate crypto features. Using Visa’s crypto APIs, banks can offer a number of cryptocurrency services to their customers, including the buying, trading, and custody of bitcoin. Visa announced Wednesday a partnership with First Boulevard, a digitally native neobank focused on serving the Black community. The bank will be the first to pilot Visa’s new suite of crypto APIs. “As part of the initial pilot program, Visa plans to enable First Boulevard to connect to infrastructure provided by Visa’s partner, Anchorage, a federally chartered digital asset bank, to allow their customers to buy and sell bitcoin,” the payments giant explained. Customers of the bank will be able to “purchase, custody and trade digital assets” held by Anchorage. First Boulevard will also launch a Visa debit card. The crypto API development marks the next phase of Visa’s digital currency strategy. The global payments giant explained that the pro...

Digital currency markets have been on the move northbound on Wednesday as bitcoin and numerous crypto assets have seen decent gains. The entire crypto-economy has once again crossed the $1 trillion mark as a myriad of digital currencies jumped anywhere between 5-20% in value during the last 24 hours. Crypto Assets See Some Upside Price Action Crypto supporters are pleased on Wednesday as digital currency markets are climbing again and a great number of assets have seen significant gains. The leading cryptocurrency, in terms of market valuation, bitcoin (BTC) is up 5.5% today and is currently trading just below $37k per unit. On Wednesday morning’s trading sessions, BTC jumped to $37,161 across a number of global exchanges but slid a hair since then. With the entire crypto-economy valued at $1.07 trillion, BTC captures $682 billion (62%) of that aggregate total. Overall, BTC is up 20% for the week, 14% during the last 30 days, 134% for the 90-day span, and 297% for the year. ...

Three people have been charged in the U.S. over two cryptocurrency scams, one of which was promoted by famous Hollywood actor Steven Seagal. The main promoter of the schemes has already been arrested and is facing criminal charges. Seagal previously settled the charges against him relating to the scheme. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged three people on Monday with defrauding retail investors “through two fraudulent and unregistered digital asset securities offerings” that occurred between approximately December 2017 and May 2018. The three are Kristijan Krstic, John DeMarr, and Robin Enos. DeMarr has been arrested and is facing criminal charges by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). Krstic (also known as Felix Logan), a Serbian-Australian national who was domiciled in the Philippines during the relevant period, is the founder of the two schemes, the SEC detailed. DeMarr of Santa Ana, California, was the schemes’ primary U.S.-based promoter. Robin Enos, ...

Pulse DeFi LTD Is a new London-based platform for digital token farming, staking, lending and borrowing. It provides a full range of services that can replace the old established financial system, but with decentralization at the forefront. Pulse DeFi LTD Wants You to Be Able to Trust the Economy Again At the top of the homepage of Pulse DeFi LTD stands a single quote, attributed to the inventor of bitcoin, which explains the main drive behind the platform: “The root problem with conventional currency is all trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.” – Satoshi Nakamoto The old financial system is plagued with corruption and people can not trust the economy to be fair when they see governments and banks operate with complete disregard for their fortune. Pulse DeFi LTD aims to fix this issue by using the power of blockchain technology and decentralizatio...

Darknet market revenues hit a new all-time high in 2020, despite declining individual purchases from marketplaces. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also spotted a singular driver behind the new record witnessed over the last year. Hydra Market Is the Major Driver Behind Revenue Figures in 2020 According to the Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report , darknet markets brought in a total of $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2020. But the report unveiled that Hydra Market, one of the largest illegal marketplaces in the darknet, boosted the total revenue significantly. In fact, Chainalysis details that without Hydra’s figures, darknet market revenue should have stayed “roughly flat” from 2019 to 2020. As a particular fact, Hydra Market is a one-of-its-kind darknet marketplace, as it only serves Russian-speaking countries. The research revealed that Hydra could be considered the largest darknet market globally, accounting for over 75% of the 2020 revenue. According to the ana...

New legal provisions on distributed ledger technology (DLT) went into effect on Feb. 1 in Switzerland. After the implementation, two local companies announced that they had issued the first tokenized asset under the brand-new law. ‘Fine Wine’ Token Is Available for Sygnum Bank’s Clients Per the announcement , Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum and Fine Wine Capital AG launched collectible premium wine-backed tokens, becoming the first ones under the new blockchain rules. Assets tokenized through Sygnum’s platform, Desygnate, will be recognized under a new category of ledger-based securities in the law. According to the digital asset bank, the “Fine Wine” token is available in the “Art & Collectibles” category for Sygnum’s clients. The “Swiss Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology” allows companies to develop a framework that links financial and real assets ownership to a DLT-based asset token. Alexandre Challand, Fine Wine C...

According to a report by Glassnode, bitcoin’s declining stablecoin supply ratio (SSR) indicates an increased supply of newly minted coins on exchanges. In turn, this increase in supply means exchanges are currently “highly liquid and ready to buy up assets such as bitcoin.” Stablecoin Supply Growth As explained in the report , the SSR is a ratio of the total value of all bitcoins versus stablecoins. This metric “decreases when (either) the price of BTC is low or when more stablecoins are entering circulation.” However, with BTC prices are already high, this leaves the increased stablecoin supply as the only possible reason behind the low ratio. Already, Messari data shows that the total stablecoin market capitalization currently stands at approximately $39 billion as of February 1. From this total, the USDT stablecoin accounts for $28 billion or approximately 71% share of the market. However, as the Glassnode report notes, it is the USDC stablecoin that is seeing “massive exc...