Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The e-commerce giant is preparing to explore the crypto business, as a recent job listing suggests. Amazon is looking to launch a pilot project in Mexico that seeks to build a team that develops new solutions based on “digital currencies.” E-Commerce Giant Amazon Seeks to Target Customers in ‘Emerging Markets’ According to a job posting , Jeff Bezos’ multinational firm was on the hunt this week for a Software Development Manager for the division of “Digital and Emerging Payments.” The job role has been reportedly filled as the offer is no longer available as of press time. Amazon stated in the job ad that the new payment product will be deployed on an initial stage in Mexico. One part of the description reads as follow: This product will enable customers to convert their cash in to digital currency using which customers can enjoy online services including shopping for goods and/or services like Prime Video. The role requires an expert in computer science or engineering, with ex...

A South Korean court ordered one of the biggest domestic crypto exchanges to compensate victims of an “accidental withdrawal” incident in 2018. Bithumb has been ordered to pay customers who withdrew their bitcoin funds to an unknown wallet. Funds Ended Up in a Wallet With an Unknown Owner According to Fn News , six Bithumb customers brought the case before the 15th Division of the Civil Agreement of the Seoul Central District Court. They alleged that the exchange provided them with misinformation regarding withdrawing funds in November 2018. Due to the alleged chain of errors, users sent the bitcoin ( BTC ) to an unknown wallet. Victims wanted to transfer their cryptos from the Bithumb wallet to a third-party one through a function offered by the exchange. But per Judge Min Seong-cheol, the operation went wrong, as Bithumb’s system didn’t transfer the funds to the third-party wallet. In reality, their funds ended in a wallet whose owner’s identity is still unknown, according to th...

In Colombia, the entity managed by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (Superfinanciera) has revealed the authorization of alliances between Colombian banks and digital currency exchanges. So far, Colombia’s financial department has approved nine partnerships between exchanges and national banks in order to make cryptocurrency operations more accessible to citizens. Colombia’s Financial Superintendent Wants to Spread Crypto Accessibility The Republic of Colombia in South America has been friendly toward crypto assets like bitcoin ( BTC ) and other digital currencies over the years. More recently, during the first week of January 2021, the Superintendence of Corporations in Colombia explained in an official circular that local firms can leverage capital to purchase bitcoin. Now the Financial Superintendence of Colombia (Superfinanciera) or FSC has revealed a trial between regulated financial institutions in the country and digital cu...

During the end of 2020 and into 2021, a great number of digital assets have seen significant gains and the bearish season that followed 2017 has turned its course. Bitcoin touched an all-time price high on February 11, 2021, reaching $49k per coin and three-month stats show bitcoin is up 198%. Despite the phenomenal 90-day gains, numerous alternative crypto assets have seen much larger increases. The infamous dogecoin, for instance, has spiked 2,322% during the last three months. Crypto Asset Market Performances in 2021 Bitcoin and the crypto economy has steadily surpassed the $1 trillion valuation mark and on Friday, February 12, 2021, the crypto market capitalization of all the coins in existence is worth $1.41 trillion. The day prior, bitcoin ( BTC ) reached another all-time high (ATH) on Thursday touching approximately $49,000 per unit. BTC has seen some significant gains this year, and the crypto asset has increased 149.16% since the ATH in 2017. Bitcoin has captured 198% in ...

The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been approved to launch in Canada. Purpose Bitcoin ETF, an alternative mutual fund, is expected to list and trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. With this approval, the U.S. has fallen behind Canada in approving a bitcoin ETF. First Bitcoin ETF Approved in North America The Ontario Securities Commission approved a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) called Purpose Bitcoin ETF on Thursday. The fund’s filing describes that “This ETF is an alternative mutual fund” that “invests in and holds substantially all of its assets in long-term holdings of the digital currency bitcoin.” The fund manager, Purpose Investments Inc., confirmed Thursday that it has been cleared by Canadian securities regulators to launch Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which the company says is “the first direct custody bitcoin ETF in the world.” Purpose Investments is an asset management company with more than $10 billion in assets under management, its website ...

The U.S. city of Miami is going full bitcoin. The city commissioners have voted to support the mayor’s resolution to allow payments in bitcoin for salaries, taxes, and fees. The city also supports efforts to make bitcoin an acceptable currency for potentially investing in the state treasury. Miami Gets Deep Into Bitcoin Miami City’s commissioners voted Thursday night to support Mayor Francis Suarez’s resolution that would make Miami a highly bitcoin-forward city. In a video thanking the commissioners for their support, the pro-bitcoin mayor explained that the resolution “directs the city manager, after analysis, to procure a vendor to be able to offer our employees to get a percentage of their salary in bitcoin, allow our residents to pay for fees in bitcoin, and also would allow the city manager to cooperate with the Miami county to allow for taxes to be paid in bitcoin.” He added: It’s also a request of the state legislature that the city of Miami supports efforts to make bitco...

Janet Yellen, the new U.S. Treasury Secretary, has warned about “a growing problem” from “the misuse of cryptocurrencies.” She emphasized that “cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism.” Janet Yellen Warns of Cryptocurrency Risks The U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted its inaugural Financial Sector Innovation Policy Roundtable on Feb. 9 and 10. “The Roundtable brought together policymakers and regulators with experts from the private sector to exchange views for collaborating on policy issues and innovative technologies,” the department described. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen briefly talked about cryptocurrencies during her opening remarks at the event. “We’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy. As the pandemic has moved more of life online, crime has moved with it,” she opined. One of the problems she outlined concerns ...

The Bank of New York Mellon, BNY Mellon, has set up a digital asset unit. The oldest bank in the U.S. plans to “hold, transfer, and issue” bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its clients. The bank aims to eventually treat cryptocurrencies like any other assets. BNY Mellon Gets Into Crypto The oldest bank in the U.S., BNY Mellon, announced Thursday “the formation of a new enterprise digital assets unit that will accelerate the development of solutions and capabilities to help clients address growing and evolving needs related to the growth of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.” BNY Mellon is a global investments company with a presence in 35 countries. As of Dec. 31, 2020, the bank had $41.1 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $2.2 trillion in assets under management, according to its website. “BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” said Roman Regelman, the ...

Core, an anonymous and hyped DeFi project, has announced Delta, a new product and token. Core says this will “close the gap” between options trading and spot markets by “using a combination of liquidity standards to deploy an on-chain options layer with scalability in mind.” Anonymous Developers Behind Delta Project Will Work Towards Promoting Healthier Market Core was initially launched in September 2020 after successfully raising $60 million in locked liquidity. It’s currently preparing to launch a new product and Delta token, Coredex , which will bring a variety of new derivatives and liquidity to the DeFi crypto market. The DeFi market is becoming a popular marketplace among anonymous developers. Earlier this week, a group known as Anon Powered announced the launch of its DeFi platform, Premia . Other notable names in the market include Aave, Hegic, Opyn, Coinlist, and Nexo, to name just a few. But the Core team is planning to do things a little differently thanks to its new ...

Big moves are happening within the bitcoin mining industry in Russia. An unnamed miner sent what seems to be the largest single batch of mining equipment to the country. Delivery Took Place at the End of 2020 According to Kommersant , the unknown miner shipped almost 20,000 devices on 14 trucks, which have a total power capacity of 70 megawatts. The media outlet’s estimations show that the hardware shipped from Asia is worth approx. between $40 million and $60 million. The Bitriver-powered data center is located in Irkutsk, the largest city of Irkutsk, in the Siberian Federal District, with over 600,000 residents. Citing Igor Runets, CEO and founder of Bitriver data center, says that the delivery took place at the end of 2020, specifically in December. Right after the shipping, the data center’s staff installed the rigs to mine bitcoin ( BTC ). Hardware From Four Major Manufacturer Brands Runets also added that they deployed a separate hangar in Bratsk, in the same region...

Buoyed by bitcoin’s recent spike, altcoins including exchange-issued tokens recently made significant gains, while several of these crypto-assets went on to set new all-time highs (ATH). According to Messari data, Binance is leading the pack in this category, after its token went up by more than 150% from $47 on February 1 to an ATH of $148 on February 10. Nevertheless, at the time of writing, the token had retreated and was trading at $123. Centralized Exchange Tokens Lead the Way As a result of this surge, the market capitalization of the BNB token stood at just over $19 billion at the time of writing, while the crypto-asset has now moved up to number 6, as shown by Messari.io top asset rankings. Also, BNB ’s seven-day change of 116% is one of the highest by a centralized exchange. Meanwhile, also seeing similar growth action is Asian crypto platform Huobi whose token touched a new ATH of $13.95 on February 10. After starting the month at $6.54, the token was trading at $12.65...