Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

At the end of January, the Matrixport subsidiary and leading derivatives exchange Bit.com announced the introduction of bitcoin cash perpetual swaps and options. Following the launch, the daily 24-hour volume has exceeded expectations doubling every day ever since. During the last few years, there’s been a number of derivatives exchanges leveraging bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) futures. This has been followed by the addition of perpetual swaps and options based on these crypto assets as well. Many assume that the upcoming ETH-based futures launch on the leading derivatives market operated by CME Group has bolstered the price of ether a great deal. Just recently, Bit.com announced that the team would be adding bitcoin cash (BCH) -based perpetual swaps and options. Bit.com noted that the derivatives markets these days are dominated by BTC and ETH , but BCH is a crypto asset recognized by institutions, the exchange announcement detailed. Option is one of the very few product...

Over the last twelve years, the cryptocurrency community has always been intrigued by Bitcoin’s inventor Satoshi Nakamoto. For over a decade, armchair sleuths and journalists have tried to uncover the creator’s identity and information on the whereabouts of all the bitcoins the enigma mined when the network was still in its infancy. Now a few individuals believe Satoshi’s coins may be the greatest prize competition ever and the private keys are somehow hidden within the blockchain. Maybe Satoshi Nakamoto Left a Message? Just recently, some members of the forum bitcointalk.org have been discussing a new theory surrounding the infamous Satoshi Nakamoto. For years now, the hunt for Nakamoto has been quite the quest and so far, no one has been able to uncover the creator’s identity or find the inventor’s stash of BTC . Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s anonymous inventor is the biggest mystery and for the last decade, online sleuths and journalists have tried to uncover the inventor’s iden...

A French wine trading firm has been favored by the recent crypto bull-run, specifically with the bitcoin prices surging across the board. Despite the pandemic, Lasserre & Papillon is making good numbers after founding BTC Wine. BTC Wine Was Launched During the 2017 Crypto Prices’ Rally Per an article published by Drinks International magazine, the luxury online wine retailer is witnessing a surge in demand nowadays. But the profitable journey first started with the bullish wave seen in 2017 that took bitcoin from $900 to $19,783.21. In that same year, Lasserre & Papillon launched the Bordeaux-based online retailer to the public. Despite the subsequent price reversal, the firm was confident that BTC Wine would keep its profitability in the future, as they believed bitcoin could resume its bullish steam. Their optimistic views became a reality. In fact, according to markets.Bitcoin.com, bitcoin exchanged hands above the $40k handle during Saturday morning’s trading sessi...

Grayscale Investments has surpassed the milestone of $30 billion in net crypto assets under management (AUM). The company says the tremendous growth is due to institutional investors, particularly hedge funds. Grayscale revealed Friday that its net total crypto assets under management now stands at $30.4 billion. In the lead is Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which currently has over $24 billion in AUM, followed by the Ethereum trust with more than $5 billion in AUM. Last year, Grayscale started off with just $2 billion in assets under management and ended the year with more than $20 billion, representing a 900% increase. Grayscale attributed the massive growth to investments from institutional investors, particularly hedge funds. CEO Michael Sonnenshein says: “There’s no longer professional risk of investing in the digital currency asset class — there’s probably more career risk in not paying attention to it.” In its Q4 2020 report, the company wrote that “Institutions are here,”...

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has circulated a letter directing banks and financial institutions to identify and close accounts of cryptocurrency transacting entities. The directive, which took immediate effect, threatens “severe regulatory sanctions” to financial institutions that fail to comply. Banks Taking Immediate Action Immediately following the letter’s publication , some banks and other financial service providers began complying with the directive. The CEO of Binance, Changpeng Zhao, tweeted that his company had received word from its Nigerian partners confirming that “Naira deposits and withdrawals will be affected.” Other crypto startups like Quidax, Buycoins Africa, and Bundle have said they will obey the directive. Meanwhile, the Nigerian crypto community is responding to the directive with anger and many are calling the decision retrogressive. Senator Ihenyen, the president of the Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SIBAN), says the C...

The price of bitcoin is nearing the crypto asset’s all-time price high on Saturday, as the digital currency has gained over 6% during the last 24 hours. The last time BTC was this high in value was during the first week of January when bitcoin touched a high of $42k that week. Crypto Prices Begin to Rise, Bitcoin Crosses the Psychological $40k Threshold Bitcoin (BTC) is up 6% today and hovering over the $40k price handle during Saturday morning’s trading sessions. For the last seven days, BTC has gained 17.6%, but during the last month, BTC is only up 2.3% today. Three month stats show bitcoin has also gained 160% and 311% against the U.S. dollar for the last 12 months. BTC/USD 5 minute chart on February 6, 2021. Today, BTC has a dominance index of around 62% even during the price high. That’s because coins like ethereum (ETH) and bitcoin cash (BCH) and others have seen some significant gains. At press time, with a 1.16 trillion dollar overall market valuation, BTC ’s en...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is actively working on a digital currency and will make a decision “very soon,” the central bank has reportedly confirmed. Meanwhile, payments giant Paypal is shutting down its payment services within India. RBI Near Digital Rupee Announcement As the Indian government prepares to introduce the cryptocurrency bill that seeks to both ban cryptocurrencies and create a regulatory framework for the digital rupee to be issued by the RBI, the central bank has made an announcement of its own. RBI Deputy Governor B. P. Kanungo said Friday: An internal committee is taking a close look to decide on the model of the central bank digital currency and you will hear from the Reserve Bank very soon in the matter. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das also spoke about digital currency Friday. “With regard to digital currency, I think we have already released our document,” he told reporters. “Our digital payment document spells out that digital currency is work in progre...

Tether has never been more popular. A quick look at Coinmarketcap data underscores this point, with 24-hour trading volume in USDT (US dollar-denominated Tether) exceeding both Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. Users of the Legacy Stablecoin Show No Sign of Relenting A slow-rolling lawsuit brought by the New York attorney-general against Tether parent-company iFinex for fraud and market manipulation, among numerous other critiques, isn’t even close to defusing trader interest in the most popular stablecoin. The Competition Grows Legs While, of course, there are competing stablecoins, none have managed to meaningfully slow Tether’s momentum. Take Circle, which issues the competing USD coin. Besides boasting monthly reserve attestations from accounting firm Grant Thornton, it features a more transparent issuance process. Yet, even with these improved protections and a 10x increase in inflows over the last 12 months, its capitalization stands at just over 20% Tether’s total. Moreove...