Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter, banned the accounts of several key cryptocurrency and defi influencers in the country yesterday, according to reports from local sources. This might be a continuation of the anti-crypto stance the Chinese state has been exerting since 2013, and more profoundly in the last days with the crackdown of the state on crypto trading and mining. Sina Weibo Suspends Crypto-Related Accounts Sina Weibo, the Chinese substitute for Twitter, has recently banned the accounts of a large amount of cryptocurrency and decentralized finance (defi) related accounts from its platform. This was announced by Colin Wu, a local cryptocurrency journalist, using his Twitter account dubbed “Wu Blockchain.” According to the reporter, this might be the logical continuation of the latest crackdown the Chinese government is orchestrating to ban trading and mining in its territory. Wu states the suspension of these accounts can have an impact on how Chinese traders co

Billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has shared how he got into bitcoin and it involved famed hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones. When bitcoin was going up, Druckenmiller said, “I just couldn’t stand the fact that it was going up and I didn’t own it … I felt like a moron.” Paul Tudor Jones, Stan Druckenmiller, and FOMO Renowned investor Stan Druckenmiller has shared how he got into bitcoin in an interview with The Hustle published on May 26. He also shared his views on ethereum and dogecoin, as Bitcoin News previously reported . Druckenmiller founded Duquesne Capital in 1981. He managed money for George Soros as the lead portfolio manager for the Quantum Fund until 2000. He and Soros made massive profits betting against the British pound in 1992. When the price of bitcoin skyrocketed from $50 to $17,000, Druckenmiller described, “I just sat there aghast,” admitting, “I wanted to buy it every day.” The billionaire investor elaborated: It was going up and — even though I didn’t thi

The finance minister of Norway believes that bitcoin may experience “breakthroughs.” He noted that “There is no doubt that there is great interest in cryptocurrency both in Norway and internationally.” Bitcoin May See Breakthroughs, Says Finance Minister of Norway The finance minister of Norway, Jan Tore Sanner, suggested in an interview last week that “cryptocurrencies will at some point move past the volatility for which they’re currently known and experience a period of ‘breakthroughs,'” Bloomberg reported. He was quoted as saying: It is clear that there may be a development over time, whereby you will be able to get more stabilization mechanisms in the currencies that can lead to greater breakthroughs and upheavals in the slightly longer term. However, he noted that for the time being, cryptocurrency is not a market he would recommend consumers to enter. The finance minister added that he does not believe crypto assets will go mainstream until they are properly regulate

Investment bank Goldman Sachs recently held two roundtable sessions for chief investment officers of hedge funds. The bank found that they see bitcoin as their least favorite investment. In contrast, the latest Bank of America Fund Manager Survey found that “long bitcoin” was the most crowded trade. CIOs Reveal Their Most and Least Favorite Investments Goldman Sachs published a note Saturday after conducting a survey to find out what investments chief investment officers (CIOs) favor in the current market. Goldman Sachs strategist Timothy Moe wrote: We held two CIO roundtable sessions earlier this week, which were attended by 25 CIOs from various long-only and hedge funds. Their most favorite is growth style but least favorite on bitcoin. Besides growth style, the CIOs favored value style and then commodities. Their least favorite investment was bitcoin, followed by new IPOs, and rate-sensitive investments. The most and least favorite investments for chief investment officers.

On Friday, the well known nonprofit charitywater.org announced the launch of a celebrity-funded Bitcoin Water Trust initiative. The trust will be allowed to hold bitcoin donations to fund water projects worldwide until 2025. Charity Water Launches Bitcoin Water Trust A number of announcements were revealed at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami and one announcement was from the global safe drinking water nonprofit, charity water . The organization charity water is a nonprofit that helps provide clean and safe drinking water to citizens living in developing countries. On June 4, charity water revealed a celebrity-funded Bitcoin Water Trust initiative which aims to leverage bitcoin ( BTC ) to spark a “paradigm shift in the charitable sector adopting this digital asset.” The charity said that it received its first bitcoin donation back in 2014 and since then the leading crypto asset has grown in value by more than 100x. According to the announcement, the Bitcoin Water Trust has opene

PRESS RELEASE. TimeCoinProtocol is the decentralized sharing economy protocol which aims to optimize world resource usage. Various applications can be built and run on theTimeCoinProtocol including third party applications. The project puts a strong focus on the Gig Economy and Creator Economy. The project has issued an original crypto currency called TimeCoin(TMCN) which is listed on some major exchanges and was initially financed by a few investors who invested around 4 million USD. There have been only a very limited number of tokens placed on the market so far. The project is currently focusing on a Gig Economy application called TimeTicket, Creator Economy applications called GameTomodachi, eSportStars, and VTuber Production, NeoRad. TimeTicket has more than 500,000 users in Japan and generates several million US dollars in sales. The revenue of TimeTicket has grown more than 40 times over 3 years and the business plans to expand internationally. GameTomodachi is a game play

The National Court in Spain has suspended the hearing destined to deal with the extradition request that John McAfee, the well known cryptocurrency influencer, has pending for its tax-related crimes in the U.S. The entrepreneur was apprehended in October last year in the El Prat Airport where he was going to take a flight. No new dates have been announced for the new hearing. National Court Suspends John McAfee Extradition Hearing The National Court of Spain suspended the extradition hearing of John McAfee this week for tax evasion charges, as was reported by local media. The Court alleged that due to some mistakes in managing the case, the defense would not have been in its full capacity to effectively exert its function. Javier Villalba, the lawyer of John McAfee, had not been able to get the full file of the case before the hearing. John McAfee was apprehended last year in the El Prat airport before taking a flight. Villalba criticized the way that the Spanish justice is deal

Progressive Care, a company that operates a chain of pharmacies in the United States, has announced it’s now accepting cryptocurrency for its Covid-19 rapid testing services. Customers are welcome to pay with bitcoin for the quick tests offered at its Pharmcorx locations using a dedicated QR code. Pharmacies Offer Quick Covid Tests for Bitcoin Florida-based Progressive Care Inc. announced in a press release that the company now accepts bitcoin ( BTC ) as payment for Covid-19 fast testing at its Pharmcorx locations. CEO Alan Jay Weisberg pointed out that the option will allow “those with an alternative view of payment systems to get the testing services they require.” Noting Progressive Care’s dedication to efforts against a resurgence of the virus, the executive stated: We believe in the future of blockchain technologies, generally speaking, and we want to extend our market-leading services in rapid Covid-19 testing solutions to those who prefer to pay through Bitcoin. Weisberg

As the conversation about Bitcoin’s energy consumption reaches a fever pitch, Jack Dorsey’s payment provider Square has unveiled plans to fund a sustainable bitcoin mining facility in conjunction with Blockstream. Mining Project to Serve as Scalable Proof of Concept Bitcoin faces no shortage of consternation, but the spat over the cryptocurrency’s footprint spilled out into the public over the last few weeks following comments from Elon Musk. Although U.S. miners have come together to form the Bitcoin Mining Council following Musk’s critique by promising more transparency on mining’s energy use, Jack Dorsey’s Square plans to lead the way in terms of substantive action. Instead of jawboning the crypto up and down, Dorsey is putting Square’s reputation on the line with an investment allocation to a sustainable mining initiative. The payment giant revealed plans to invest $5 million in a solar-energy-based mining facility in partnership with Blockstream, which will be responsible f

The G7 finance ministers and central bank governors have met and agreed to work towards common principles for state-backed digital currencies and publish their conclusions this year. They said these digital currencies “could act as both a liquid, safe settlement asset and as an anchor for the payments system.” G7 Setting Common Rules for Central Bank Digital Currencies The G7 finance ministers met in London on June 4-5, the first face-to-face meeting of finance chiefs since the G20 finance leaders met in Saudi Arabia in February last year. The meeting followed the one held virtually on May 28 where the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors attended. The G7 comprises the U.S., U.K., Japan, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada. Among the topics they discussed was central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), according to the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Communiqué published Saturday. “Innovation in digital money and payments has the potential to bring significa

Tony Hawk, the American professional skateboarder often referred to as ‘Birdman,’ discussed bitcoin at the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami and told the crowd he got into the crypto economy in 2012. Hawk said he heard about the crypto asset after reading about the Silk Road marketplace and at the time, he said to himself bitcoin is the “future of finance.” Tony Hawk Discovered Bitcoin in 2012, Professional Skateboarder Gave Some to Charity in 2014 The popular skateboarder Tony Hawk spent some time with bitcoiners this past weekend at the multi-day Bitcoin 2021 conference held in Miami. During Hawk’s speech at the event, he explained how he was “living the dream” when he was skating for a living. He compared this passion to people involved with bitcoin and said: I embraced the idea that skateboarding was for misfits. I felt like a misfit as a kid. I felt like I found my community, my tribe. At the conference, Hawk discussed the cryptocurrency revolution with the cofounder of Augu

PRESS RELEASE. Vulcan Forged has secured IP rights to several artists’ work to bring fantasy-themed NFTs to the VulcanVerse. Cardiff, United Kingdom – Blockchain gaming platform Vulcan Forged has secured the intellectual property (IP) rights for works included in the Frank Frazetta Art collection. The team plans to use these rights to create and distribute fantasy-themed non-fungible tokens (NFTs), brandishing the famous works, in Vulcan’s in-game world the VulcanVerse. Fantasy Art Meets Virtual Reality Amongst the famous artworks, Frank Frazetta’s “Egyptian Queen” – a painting that recently sold for $5.4 million – will be tokenized for the first time as an NFT-themed ‘Vulcanite’ – a champion in the in-game world. Some of the original licensed artworks have already sold for millions of dollars globally. Most notably, the Vulcan team has secured the rights to designs by the so-called “Godfather of Fantasy Art”, Frank Frazetta . Frazetta is a world-renowned fantasy and science fi

Nearly 36% of Nigeria’s 106 million adults lack access to both regulated and unregulated financial services, according to the findings of the Enhancing Financial Innovations and Access (EFIA) study. In addition, while the findings do suggest a marginal drop in the percentage of financially excluded adults in the past few years, overall “the actual number of financially excluded adults increased from 36.6 million to 38.1 million.” Population Growth Rate Faster Than Financial Inclusion Growth Rate Additionally, the study findings show this number (financially excluded adults) rising to 52.5 million when not including those that gain access via the so-called informal or unregulated financial services. Meanwhile, in its report , the EFIA attributes this mismatch (between the number of Nigerians that are unbanked (in percentage terms) and the actual number of excluded adults) to the population growth rate. In fact, according to EFIA, Nigeria’s population growth rate is currently outpac

As part of government efforts to get the digital yuan going, authorities in Shanghai will distribute $3 million worth of the central bank-issued currency among residents of Shanghai. The digital money will be dispersed through a lottery, a method that has already been implemented elsewhere in China. Lottery Winners to Get 350,000 Digital Red Envelopes The city of Shanghai is going to hand out 19.25 million yuan in digital currency, or around $3 million. The money will be distributed among local consumers through a lottery system, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported quoting the Shanghai Municipality. Municipal government headquarters, Shanghai. Lottery winners will receive a total of 350,000 digital red envelopes. Each one of them will be loaded with 55 units of the Chinese central bank digital currency ( CBDC ), the municipal information office announced Friday through its official Wechat account. In Chinese tradition, red envelopes are small packets with money usually gi

Chipper Cash, an African fintech firm that specializes in facilitating cross-border payments, recently closed a $100 million Series C funding round. Taking the lead in what is now Chipper Cash‘s third fundraising round in the past twelve months is the venture capital (VC) firm, SVB Capital. The VC firm is an investment arm of U.S. high-tech commercial bank, Silicon Valley Bank. The New African Fintech Unicorn Other notable participants in this Series C round include Deciens Capital, Ribbit Capital as well as the Jeff Bezos backed Bezos Expedition. Following the conclusion of this Series C funding round, Chipper Cash has now raised a total of $143.8 million in just a year. As a consequence, some observers now estimate Chipper Cash’s valuation to be between one and two billion dollars. Notably, with this capital raise, Chipper Cash becomes the latest African fintech firm to attract the interest of leading venture capital firms. Other African fintech start-ups that similarly received