Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Ledn, a cryptocurrency lending and savings platform based in Canada, has managed to raise $30 million in its latest funding round. The money raised will be used to expand its offer of lending products, and to expand its reach in more countries. Ledn could take advantage of the recent problems that Blockfi, one of its contenders, is facing now to increase its share in the sector. Ledn Raises $30 Million in Latest Funding Ledn, a Canada-based cryptocurrency lending platform managed to raise $30 million in its Series A funding round, a more than tenfold increase from its first funding round. The round was led by Kingsway Capital, a London-based investment firm with a focus on digital assets and mobile internet investments. The round also had participation from other investors: Alan Howard, Hashed, Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, ParaFi Capital, Alexis Ohanian, and John Pfeffer. According to the press release statement , all of the first backers of the company also chipped...

Pocketnet is a fundamentally new way to build a social media platform powered by the cryptocurrency Pocketcoin (PKOIN). It is a mix of traditional social media platforms and Bitcoin with some cutting-edge new features, such as the ability to auction off your content through NFT-Scarce. Pocketcoin (PKOIN) is a Proof-of-Stake token that allows authors to earn crypto for their content and protects them from arbitrary censorship through community moderation. Blockchain tracks reputation and high reputation users moderate the platform. PKOIN is for decentralized advertising, boosting posts, buying unique fonts and themes in Pocketnet, as well as auctioning off NFT-Scarce tokens in the upcoming releases. Pocketnet is a network of fully decentralized equal nodes ran by users (hundreds of nodes around the world are already in operation). Take Back the Internet with Pocketnet: Exclusive Live Crypto Challenge Pocketnet announces a limited space exclusive live event for cryptocurrency buffs...

Virtue Poker revealed plans to organize a high-stakes 12-player celebrity poker tournament on its platform, live-streamed on Twitch, with the winner donating the event’s proceeds to their preferred charitable organization. Celebrity Charity Tournament Features NFTs & Giveaways Virtue Poker , one of the first decentralized casinos to use Ethereum and peer-to-peer networking, will soon host a charity poker tournament on its platform. Scheduled for June 22nd, the event will feature several renowned industry personalities alongside exclusive prizes and giveaways. Poker pro players Brian Rast, Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey, NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce, Consensys Co-Founder Joe Lubin, crypto entrepreneurs Nick Rose from Ethernity and Elliotrades from Superfarm, and other influencers will be participating. In addition to the celebrities, Virtue Poker will also select three lucky community members, one each from Ethernity, Virtue Poker, and Superfarm, to compete at the table. The ev...

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn, the founder of Icahn Enterprises, says that his company is exploring how to get involved in cryptocurrency “in a relatively big way,” which he said could be an investment of about $1.5 billion. Carl Icahn Exploring Getting Into Cryptocurrency Carl Icahn, the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a diversified conglomerate holding company based in New York City, revealed his cryptocurrency plan in an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday. He said: I’m looking at the whole business and how I can get involved in it with Icahn Enterprises in a relatively big way because, I think, it’s here to stay in one form or another. Icahn is one of Wall Street’s most successful investors. In 1678, he formed Icahn & Co., a securities firm focusing on arbitrage and options trading. In 1978, he began taking substantial positions in individual companies, including RJR Nabisco, Texaco, Phillips Petroleum, Western Union, Gulf & Western, Via...

Denmark’s central bank governor Lars Rohde says that he can be tempted to ignore cryptocurrency, stating that it is not a threat to the central bank at present. However, he pointed out that the real threat could come from big technology companies “invading the currency area or the transaction means.” Denmark’s Central Bank Governor Tempted to Ignore Cryptocurrency Danish central bank governor Lars Rohde discussed cryptocurrencies on Bloomberg from Copenhagen on Wednesday. He was asked whether the central bank sees the rise in cryptocurrency trading as a serious economic threat. The governor was specifically asked if the central bank is taking the matter seriously or whether it largely continues to ignore cryptocurrency. Governor Rohde replied: I could be tempted to ignore it. I think the term currency is badly used here. Most currencies are stores of value or means of transactions. He added, “There is no stability and no guarantee from any side about the value of cryptocurrenci...

A Zimbabwean fintech lawyer, Prosper Mwedzi, recently initiated a process that seeks to bring recognition and regulation of cryptocurrencies. Under this private member bill procedure, a legislative proposition initiated by private citizens will be debated in the Zimbabwean parliament. If the crypto regulation bill succeeds in garnering the required support, it will become part of the country’s national laws. Meanwhile, Mwedzi’s attempt to use the private bill to bring regulation to Zimbabwe’s crypto space comes more than two years after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) issued a public advisory against cryptocurrency trading. For an update on the private bill’s progress, Terence ZImwara of Bitcoin.com News recently reached out to Mwedzi. Below are Mwedzi’s responses to a set of questions that were sent to him. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you start by telling us what prompted you to go the route of a Private Member’s Bill? Prosper Mwedzi (PM): We have been trying to get regulator...

According to data from Skew Analytics, more than 55,000 bitcoin options contracts worth $2.2 billion will expire on Friday. Statistics further show, as far as options are concerned, Deribit captures the lion’s share of contracts with 48,469 bitcoin options contracts ($1.95 billion notional) set to expire. 55K in Bitcoin Option Set to Expire, Deribit Carries $1.95 Billion Notional Another large options expiry is set to happen on May 28, 2021, following last week’s bitcoin (BTC) market sell-off. The analytics provider’s Twitter account from skew.com revealed on May 25, 2021, that over “55k bitcoin options expiring this Friday with $40k strike open in $130mln notional.” Skew data shows approximately 55,900 contracts ($2.2 billion) will expire around 4 a.m. (ET) on Friday. The options expiry follows the recent market carnage stemming from China, significant leverage , and environment FUD during the last two weeks. However, Skew Analytics said that bitcoin ( BTC ) markets absorb...

Like Bitcoin, DeFi’s ambition to build a fully decentralized global network is the fundamental source of its revolutionary characteristics – that of being trustless and enabling disintermediation. It is these two characteristics that build the core value of DeFi and determine its long-term market growth. It’s easy to see why this is so: On the one hand, the core model of any DeFi project must be zero-centric in order to carry unlimited trust, exhibiting the value of a decentralized network beyond the market value of one single product or a brand. On the other hand, a decentralized network must also be disintermediated, in order to compete with centralized products and retain its most critical competencies. A non-cooperative network is a naturally robust decentralized network model. Shield is building a decentralized non-cooperative game theory based, derivatives trading network consisting of traders, dual liquidity pools, liquidators and brokers. Shield Decentralized Network Ba...

On Wednesday, the Veriblock project, a blockchain that leverages the implementation of proof-of-proof (PoP) consensus, announced an initiative to secure the Dogecoin blockchain using Bitcoin. The Veriblock Foundation believes the effort counters the hostile ‘Blood Bitcoin’ narrative in regard to recent environmental concerns over proof-of-work (PoW). Veriblock to Secure Dogecoin via PoP and Bitcoin’s PoW The Veriblock Foundation , a nonprofit created to bolster the adoption of Veriblock’s PoP securitizing consensus algorithm, has revealed a new initiative dedicated to securing the Dogecoin network. Presently, Veriblock developers are in the midst of integrating PoP into the Dogecoin codebase and aim to “present an open-source beta to the Dogecoin community soon for testing and feedback.” Additionally, the Veriblock team will perform a 51% attack on the PoP-enabled version of Dogecoin in order to showcase the benefits of this technology. Veriblock’s cofounder and chief technical of...

Graphics cards manufacturer Nvidia has earned $155 million in revenue from chips designed for cryptocurrency mining during the first fiscal quarter. The company admitted that crypto miners have also pushed sales up in the gaming products segment which remains its main market. Leading GPU Maker Reports Record High Video Card Sales Supported by Crypto Miners Announcing its first fiscal 2022 results , Nvidia revealed its total revenue rose 84% in Q1 that ended on May 2. The record high $5.66 billion figure, which exceeded preliminary expectations, comes from the company’s gaming, data center and professional visualization platforms. Surging demand for graphics processing units (GPUs) during the pandemic, along with the growth of AI applications have played a major role, but so have booming crypto markets. While $155 million of the total have been attributed to crypto-specific chips, Nvidia also admitted that cryptocurrency miners have boosted sales in its larger gaming card segment, R...

On Wednesday the White House defended President Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar spending proposals despite the criticism concerning rising inflation and low-interest rates. Inflation has risen at unprecedented levels in the U.S. and the average American’s purchasing power is growing less powerful. Now critics like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and American economist Larry Summers have blasted the Biden administration because they expect inflation to grow “considerably higher.” Americans Watch Purchasing Power Sink While Analysts Suspect Even More Inflation on the Horizon Inflation has been a worry for American citizens ever since the U.S. government and Federal Reserve decided to increase the M1 monetary supply like never before in history. Essentially, inflation is the rise in price for goods and services, and the nation’s currency ends up buying fewer goods and services. Reports show that nearly everything is rising in value, and the U.S. dollar can purchase far less than it could...

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has announced that cryptocurrency mining is banned in Iran, effective immediately. The ban, which will last until Sept. 22, is imposed as many cities in the country are facing major power blackouts. Iran has banned cryptocurrency mining effective immediately, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday in a televised speech at a cabinet meeting. He was quoted by the media as saying: The ban on the mining of cryptocurrencies is effective immediately until September 22. Many cities in Iran are facing major power blackouts and the government has blamed power cuts on cryptocurrency mining, drought, and rising demand for electricity in summer. Bitcoin News recently reported that Iran will shut down licensed crypto miners in peak hours of power consumption. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic estimates that around 4.5% of all bitcoin mining takes place in Iran. The firm said income from mining has allowed “the country to circumvent trade embargoes...

During the course of the week, the cryptocurrency community has been focused on China and the country’s Financial Stability Board detailing that it aims to crack down on the bitcoin mining sector. Following the statements from Chinese officials and a few crypto businesses abandoning services in the region, executives from some of China’s largest bitcoin mining companies have openly discussed the situation. Btc.top’s CEO: ‘If China Takes Regulatory Actions Against Crypto Mining, Then Major Chinese Manufacturers Will Sell Abroad The million-dollar question right now is whether or not the Chinese government will continue to crack down on the crypto industry. It all started when Reuters published a report on May 18, that said: “China bans financial, payment institutions from cryptocurrency business.” Essentially the news publication said that “three financial industry associations” from China told financial institutions and payment processors “not to offer any crypto-related services.”...