Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A crypto stealer seems to have spread through a massive spam campaign across several countries, including the United States, Australia, Japan, and Germany. The malware dubbed “Panda Stealer” has been spotted by a cybersecurity company. It is reportedly also distributed on Discord channels. Malware Can Also Steal Data From Telegram and Discord Apps According to the report published by Trend Micro, the stealer is a variant of another malware named “Collector Stealer,” which utilizes the same algorithms to bypass most detection tools. The malware is contained within a malicious Excel file in a .xlsm format. Once the victim executes a series of Powershell scripts in the infected document, Panda Stealer deploys its malicious processes. It collects sensitive crypto-related data, including private keys and records of past transactions performed with wallets from virtual currencies like dash ( DASH ), litecoin ( LTC ), ethereum ( ETH ). Researchers from Trend Micro provided further techn...

PRESS RELEASE. Newly-launched decentralized gaming platform, VulcanVerse, offers $20m giveaway as volume on its in-game marketplace triples. Cardiff, United Kingdom – Decentralized gaming platform, VulcanVerse is launching into the online gaming world, with record growth in users following a successful token sale. The gaming platform is positioning itself as a pioneer in NFT-based gaming, an area that has recently seen a huge surge in interest as a result of the wider NFT-mania that permeated the cryptocurrency market earlier this year. VulcanVerse expects to capitalize by converting this newly-found interest in online gaming into increased adoption for its own unique virtual world. With that aim, VulcanForged, the project behind VulcanVerse , has made several integrations with other blockchain-based platforms, including Polygon (formerly Matic), to broaden its reach. The team recently completed a sale for the platform’s native token, PYR, aimed at stimulating activity in its i...

The central bank of Israel has offered a glance at what a digitalized version of the national fiat currency may look like. According to a released “draft model” of the coin, Israelis should be able to use the digital shekel in payments, even offline, and convert it to cash at any moment. The Israeli central bank digital currency (CBDC) will provide some privacy, but not anonymity. This Is What the Digital Shekel Should Look Like The Bank of Israel is getting ready to jump on the CBDC bandwagon with a plan to issue a digital currency of its own, after examining the issue for years. Dozens of central banks around the world are already working on similar projects in response to developments in the payments market, not least related to the growth and the spread of cryptocurrencies. The final decision is yet to be made, according to a report by the bank’s Steering Committee, but the project is already taking shape. The published draft opens the door for public discussions and suggestio...

Bitcoin Cash Argentina, a nonprofit organization whose objective is to promote the use of Bitcoin Cash, has started a flipstarter campaign that seeks to raise funds to explain the use cases of this cryptocurrency in the country and boost its adoption. Argentina’s economy has been severely affected by inflation and devaluation, the reason why interest in cryptocurrencies and how these can be used is growing fast. Bitcoin Cash Argentina Raising Funds to Boost BCH Adoption in the Country Bitcoin Cash Argentina, an organization that deals with promoting the use and adoption of the said cryptocurrency in the country, is now raising funds to further increase their reach and boost adoption through a series of activities. The fundraising is being conducted through Flipstarter, a BCH-specific tool that allows anyone to collect funds for a determined objective. The funds won’t be released until a certain goal is reached. While Bitcoin Cash Argentina started just six months ago, it has manag...

On Wednesday, Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin took control of his stack of Shiba Inu, a dogecoin ERC20 token, and donated more than 1 billion dollars worth of the currency to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund. The fund is an initiative that seeks to help people suffering from the covid-19 outbreak that India is experiencing right now. Buterin also sold Akita and Dogelon, other similar currencies, causing a slide in market prices. Vitalik Buterin Donates $1 Billion Worth of Shiba Inu Tokens to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund Vitalik Buterin, the popular founder of Ethereum, started selling some of the meme coins that were sent to him by some projects, donating 10% of his Shiba Inu stack to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund. These dogecoin ERC20 tokens were given to him to “burn” them, under the assumption he wouldn’t touch them or sell them. However, against all popular belief, Buterin decided to put these funds to good use. The transaction of Shiba Inu tokens worth more than a billion d...

Tesla has suspended accepting bitcoin for vehicle purchases, CEO Elon Musk has announced. The company cited concerns “about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.” Tesla Stops Accepting Bitcoin Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on Twitter Wednesday that his electric car company has suspended accepting bitcoin for vehicle purchases. The message reads: Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel. The notice continues: “Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the Environment. Tesla will not be selling any bitcoin and we intend to use it for transactions as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy. We are also looking at other cry...

A European country in the Balkans region could start regulating the crypto environment within its territory. A bill is being drafted in Bosnia and Herzegovina that would establish a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies for the first time in the country’s history. Bill Aims to ‘Attract Entrepreneurs’ to the Country According to Klix , the Union for a Better Future (SBB) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), a Bosniak political party, is set to draft a crypto bill after forming a group to research “technological, economic progress, and market modernization.” The plan includes digital asset development, and thus, crypto-related rules are required to make it possible. The report states that Vedad Mešanović, a local financial expert, will lead the drafting of the bill. Mešanović – who was recently included in the Forbes list of the 30 most influential people under the age of 30 – stressed the need to regulate the virtual currency sphere in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as state laws “do not ...

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of the Globe Token (GDT) under the pair USDT/GDT on Apr 22 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Globe aims to be the global cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform of choice for traders. It is the first digital asset derivatives trading platform designed and developed to offer microsecond core latencies, burst message processing rates over ten million, and stable millisecond core cloud API. Globe is the inventor of bitcoin VIX futures. Globe’s token presale was larger than Binance’s, and they have hundreds of strategic partners spanning other trading platforms and leading liquidity providers. Globe has been working to solve problems like substandard trading experiences seen across other derivatives venues, unfilled latent demand for certain derivatives products, poor API access, and incentive misalignment between projects and the...

The meme-based crypto asset dogecoin has seen a phenomenal year, capturing a whopping 19,723% against the U.S. dollar during the last 12 months. Dogecoin’s price gains have pushed interest toward the cryptocurrency, quickly making it a recognizable name. A recently published survey from the web portal gamblerspick.com suggests one out of every four Americans “believe dogecoin is the future.” Dogecoin Survey Shows Meme-Coin Has Been Getting Attention in the US In mid-April, gamblerspick.com conducted a study with 1,001 American respondents that are “familiar” with cryptocurrencies. The survey team leveraged the Amazon Mechanical Turk survey platform in order to present a series of questions. 59.3% of survey participants identified as men, while 40.7% identified as women. Gamblerspick researchers also detailed that the respondents were Gen Zers (5.9%), millennials (60.8%), Gen Xers (22.6%), and baby boomers (10.7%). According to the poll statistics, social media is where people ar...

The government in Budapest has put forward measures aimed at streamlining taxation and reducing the tax burden on businesses and citizens. As part of the package, Hungary plans to cut the tax levied on capital gains from cryptocurrency transactions, expecting to increase budget revenue with the move. Tax Cut to Attract Cryptocurrency Traders to Hungary Hungarians now pay 30.5% on profits made from cryptocurrency transactions, but their government wants to reduce the tax rate to 15%. The primary goal is to minimize tax evasion, but the lower tax rate could also attract more crypto traders and investors to country. The Hungarian government believes this will generate “several billion forints” in additional budget receipts. The crypto tax cut was announced in a video address posted by Hungary’s Finance Minister Mihály Varga on Facebook, along with other steps to kick start the country’s economy following the Covid-19 crisis. The measures will soon be proposed to Hungarian lawmakers...

Moneygram will start letting customers buy and sell bitcoin at 12,000 locations, thanks to a partnership with Coinme. The collaboration “will bring bitcoin to thousands of new point-of-sale locations in the U.S. with plans to expand to select international markets in the second half of 2021,” the companies say. Bitcoin at Moneygram Locations Moneygram International Inc. and Coinme, a licensed crypto-to-cash exchange in the U.S., announced Wednesday the “launch of a new partnership to enable the cash funding and payout of digital currency purchases and sales.” A global leader in cross-border P2P payments and money transfers, Moneygram serves nearly 150 million people across the globe over the last five years. Coinme is a crypto exchange and ATM operator that currently powers over 20,000 physical locations to buy and sell bitcoin using cash through partnerships with Coinstar and Moneygram. The collaboration “will bring bitcoin to thousands of new point-of-sale locations in the U.S.,...

Last week, ethereum options volume surpassed bitcoin’s for the first time on the digital currency derivatives exchange Deribit. Further, the trading platform recently introduced a $50k ETH strike for March 2022 and explained the $50k call is “gaining immediate buy traction.” Ethereum Options Volume Grows Exponentially, $50K Strike Flexes Muscle When it comes to bitcoin ( BTC ) derivatives, the trading platform Deribit captures the lion’s share of today’s options volume. The cryptocurrency exchange also features bitcoin futures and ethereum options as well. During the first week of May, Deribit’s ethereum ( ETH ) options surpassed bitcoin ( BTC ) options for the first time. Skew analytics data shows while BTC had $880 million on May 3, ETH options saw $1.3 billion. The volume continued that week as the analytics company Skew tweeted about the staggering ETH options volume last Thursday. “Ether markets seeing record activity this week across spot, futures and options,” the anal...

The U.S. securities watchdog has announced it will scrutinize mutual funds that include investments in bitcoin futures markets to verify funds that comply with the Investment Company Act. The institution warned about the dangers of investing in bitcoin futures markets due to the implicit volatility of the underlying asset. SEC Warns Funds About Bitcoin Futures Yesterday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a public statement titled “Staff Statement on Funds Registered Under the Investment Company Act Investing in the Bitcoin Futures Market,” where the institution announced they would ramp up vigilance for funds that have invested in Bitcoin Futures Markets as part of their speculative strategies to maximize profit. The Division of Investment Management, a section of the SEC that oversees mutual funds and other investment products, would be the institution in charge of watching the behavior of these funds. The public statement also warns these funds about the impl...

It’s been a while since the crypto market has seen such a promising project, something that has a clear basis on a real market need and a long-term plan to stay relevant and bring value to customers, investors, and users alike. Uniqly.io aims to do exactly that, giving real-world value to digital items. Veterans of the space already know what non-fungible tokens are, and why they cost so much, but the mainstream market perception of them is poor at best. Without tangibility and actual “proof” it’s difficult to understand why that particular string of pixels may be worth so much, and as such, even with people like Beeple making millions out of their work, NFT has been already categorized as a fad by a lot of so-called “experts”. This can’t be further from the truth, as the expansion of the digital market is an unstoppable force, but to see a team recognize how to bridge that last connection between digital and physical goods, and act on it in less than 6 months is quite impressive....