Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Customers using the Bakkt app can now apply for a debit card which will enable them to pay with bitcoin at merchants that don’t currently take crypto. The virtual Visa card can be added to Apple Pay or Google Pay to purchase items at thousands of retailers supporting the mobile payment systems. Bakkt Card Can Be Linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay This year’s all-time highs convinced many to invest in cryptocurrencies but digital assets still have a lot of ground to cover to achieve wide adoption in everyday payments. Debit cards issued by crypto companies bridge the gap between bitcoin and merchants that are yet to start accepting digital coins. Now there is a new offering in the market. Crypto marketplace Bakkt has launched a debit Visa card that “will maximize users’ ability to spend digital assets.” The card allows Bakkt customers to use their bitcoin ( BTC ) and fiat cash (USD) balances to buy goods and services, both online and in-store. Bakkt Card allows users to use bitco...

PRESS RELEASE. Bitcoin of America , a popular virtual currency exchange, is known for their 1200+ ATMs across 31 US states. Bitcoin of America is looking to bring attention to the success their team, working behind the scenes, has had on the company’s growth. Some of their top executives were interviewed on the future of the company and their experiences working there. Registered as a money services business with the United States Department of Treasury, (FinCEN) Bitcoin of America offers several different services including Bitcoin ATMs , Bitcoin Tablets, and an online exchange. Bitcoin of America has been known to provide fast and hassle-free transactions to their customers while offering top of the line customer support, which makes them one of the best in the industry. William P. Suriano, General Counsel for Bitcoin of America, has played a major role in the company’s success. When asked about the future of Bitcoin of America Suriano responded, “In the next couple years, I expec...

The United Nations (UN) mission in Kenya recently praised a local blockchain-based community inclusion currency (CIC) initiative for its part in helping to reduce poverty in one of the country’s poor informal settlements. The mission’s sentiments follow a tour of the Mukuru informal settlement by its resident coordinator, Stephen Jackson. In a tweet, the mission commended the Sarafu blockchain anchored e-voucher system for helping “vulnerable households access basic needs.” An Alternative Medium of Exchange In a different tweet , UN Kenya also praised residents of the informal settlement for their embrace of the Sarafu blockchain-based e-vouchers system. The world body further added that by using this trading system, the Mukuru informal settlement is “encouraging local circular economy and reducing poverty levels.” According to past remarks attributed to Will Ruddick — one of the co-authors of a whitepaper document that explains the novel monetary system — CICs are shares that ar...

A new report shows that U.S. regulators have imposed fines and penalties totaling $2.5 billion on crypto firms and individuals so far. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed the most fines, followed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Meanwhile, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is the latest government agency to come after crypto firms. $2.5 Billion in Fines and Penalties Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic released a report Monday outlining “crypto enforcement actions by U.S. regulators.” The report explains: “Contrary to the widely-held belief that the cryptoasset industry is unregulated, US regulators are increasingly imposing significant financial penalties on crypto businesses – for fraud, breaches of AML regulations, offering unregistered securities and sanctions violations.” Elliptic analyzed enforcement actions by U.S. regulators since the birth of Bitcoin in 2009 and found that “$2.5 billion in penalties hav...

Andreessen Horowitz, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, has announced the launch of a $2.2 billion crypto fund. The firm is “radically optimistic about crypto’s potential to restore trust and enable new kinds of governance.” Andreessen Horowitz Launches $2.2 Billion Crypto Fund Andreessen Horowitz announced the launch of a new $2.2 billion crypto venture fund Thursday. The Silicon Valley venture capital firm, also known as “a16z,” was founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz in 2009. Chris Dixon, Katie Haun, and Ali Yahya, partners on the crypto team at Andreessen Horowitz, explained the new fund in a blog post titled “Crypto Fund III.” They wrote: The size of this fund speaks to the size of the opportunity before us: crypto is not only the future of finance but, as with the internet in the early days, is poised to transform all aspects of our lives. “This fund allows us to find the next generation of visionary crypto founder...

Since deploying natively on Harmony’s blockchain in May, Sushi is now deepening its collaboration with Harmony after revealing plans to bring its full decentralized finance (defi) product stack onto the blockchain with accompanying incentives designed to drive greater participation. Meanwhile, decentralized exchange (dex) competition continues to swell. Partnership Expansion Accompanies $4 Million in Incentive Campaigns On Thursday, Harmony , a proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain network focused on cross-chain transactability, unveiled a decision to broaden the partnership agreement with Sushi , a community-driven defi platform offering a full stack of decentralized finance services. After deploying Sushiswap on Harmony back in May, the freshly strengthened collaboration paves the way for Sushi to deploy the remainder of its product suite onto the effective proof-of-stake (EPoS) blockchain. Sushiswap is the second runner-up in the space with an 11% share of dex trade volume, according...

On June 24, the CEO of Far Peak Acquisition Corp. and former New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) president, Thomas Farley discussed the future of bitcoin and gold on the CNBC broadcast Squawk Box. Farley is optimistic about the leading crypto asset but he doesn’t believe it will surpass gold’s $10 trillion market capitalization unless it’s “an accepted form of currency.” Far Peak CEO Says Bitcoin Will Go Up, But May Not Beat Gold Thomas Farley spoke about bitcoin ( BTC ) on Wednesday following the digital asset’s rebound from the $28,600 low on June 22. Farley is the chief executive officer at Far Peak Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company but he also once led the NYSE as its president. Farley has spoken about bitcoin on a few occasions in the past and was known for revealing the launch of the NYSE bitcoin price index in 2015. “We are now going to use our name, reputation, and global index provider stature to provide bitcoin values that the rest of the market can look to,”...

After OVR announced its integration with Chainlink on June 10th, now the team is proud to explain all the rules of OVR prize distribution powered by Chainlink Verifiable Random Function. In fact, OVR decided to collaborate with Chainlink VRF to determine the winner of its $15k OVR token prize extraction reserved to treasure hunters and to participate in its wider $ 50k OVR token prize extraction for OVRLand buyers. The extraction process will be done through a public and deterministic algorithm. So, OVR will run 2 main competitions, one for treasure hunters and one for OVRLand buyers. OVRLand buyers and treasure hunters to win $65k All the OVRLands where treasures have been discovered after the competition start date will be listed on a specific interface available to the user. The treasure hunt competition will have 3 rounds on different dates starting from June 22nd. At the end of each treasure hunt competition period the list of all OVRLands where treasures have been dis...

Cathie Wood, the founder of Ark Invest, bought the dip this Tuesday when Bitcoin prices tumbled below $30K. According to reports, Ark acquired more than one million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Fund. The company also bought more Coinbase shares. Wood has a positive stance on crypto and keeps predicting Bitcoin will reach a long-term price of $500K. Ark Invest Purchases One Million Shares Dips are for buying: that’s the popular saying in bull markets. And Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of Ark Invest did just that. According to reports , Ark took advantage of the price dip to acquire more than one million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Fund. These shares were purchased for the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF , a fund that’s based in tech, mobile, and cloud companies. This fund currently holds more than 8 million GBTC shares, totaling almost $240 million invested in Bitcoin only. Wood is showing she puts her money behind her words. She declared she has a positive stance on Bitcoin,...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is seeking a trial attorney to help with the federal executive agency’s Digital Currency Initiative. The DOJ posted a job listing on the justice.gov web portal and the hired individual is expected to serve as an “expert on digital currency and blockchain technologies for the criminal division.” DOJ’s Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section Needs a Digital Currency Trial Attorney The DOJ’s criminal division aims to hire an experienced and permanent attorney to work at the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) located in Washington, DC. Remote attorneys will be considered if they qualify for the Digital Currency Initiative (DCI) job listing. MLARS’ main goal is to “take the profit out of crime” and it accomplishes this mission in various ways. The new hire will help bolster the MLARS mission in criminal prosecutions, forfeiture actions, investigations of financial institutions committing money laundering, transgressions against t...

While bitcoin miners in China have been scrambling, second-hand markets offering cryptocurrency mining rigs from ASICs to GPUs have been exploding with an excess surplus. Additionally, the ASIC manufacturer Bitmain suspended machine sales on Wednesday, ceasing international spot deliveries. Official Crypto Mining Rig Dealers Are Either Sold-out or Suspending Deliveries, Second-Markets Explode With Mining Products and Low Prices per Hash Ever since the crackdown in Sichuan , the number of miners fleeing mainland China seems to have increased a great deal. Bitcoin’s overall hashrate has dropped below 100 exahash per second (EH/s) and remains just under that metric on Thursday morning (EST). There’s been a number of developments since the initial crackdowns in five different provinces, including pools losing hashpower and mystery hashrate returning . Another thing that’s happening right now is the excess crypto mining rig surplus that’s appearing on second markets. The superabundanc...

Q2’s digital banking platform, which currently powers nearly 30% of the top 100 banks in the U.S., will allow more than 18.3 million registered users to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin. Q2 Holdings Inc. (NYSE:QTWO) provides digital banking and lending solutions to banks, credit unions, alternative finance, and fintech companies globally. According to the company, the Q2 digital banking platform currently powers nearly 30% of the top 100 banks in the U.S. Q2 announced Wednesday that it will collaborate with New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) “to offer integrated bitcoin solutions for financial institutions via Q2’s digital banking platform.” The announcement states: They will collaborate to provide the more than 18.3 million registered users on the Q2 platform with the ability to buy, sell and hold bitcoin. NYDIG is a leading technology and financial services firm dedicated to bitcoin. It is a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, a $10 billion alternative asset manager. Q2 ...

ExzoCoin is a blockchain project promising to make cryptocurrencies easily accessible to everyone. Among the services being developed by the ExzoCoin team are a decentralized exchange, a launchpad and a solution for the healthcare sector. ExzoCoin Will Bring Back Trust to Crypto ExzoCoin is developing a number of innovative tools to achieve its mission of making cryptocurrencies accessible to anyone, anywhere, and at anytime. The ecosystem will be powered by the EXZO utility token – a voucher and a loyalty reward system that enables individuals to gain access to the platforms and services. The decentralized exchange (DEX) mobile app and wallet from ExzoCoin will be launching in four to six weeks from now on Android and iOS devices. It will provide access to over 2000 altcoins. Users will enjoy safety and security through verified DOXXED developers on the platform with a verified symbol. The app will also feature a developers voting system, featured projects, and new product Launch...

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance launched its NFT marketplace on Thursday. The platform allows users, including artists, creators, and crypto enthusiasts, to mint and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs). It employs Binance’s blockchain infrastructure and features various forms of digital artwork and collectibles. NFT Collection Brings Together Celebrated Artists in a ‘Genesis’ Auction The long-awaited Binance NFT Marketplace is now live, the world’s leading digital asset exchange announced . The platform kicks off with a premium event auction called ‘Genesis,’ its first ‘Mystery Box’ collection, and the launch of the recently announced “100 Creators” program presenting NFT content from local talent around the world. The ‘Genesis’ auction features digitized NFT artwork from famous Spanish surrealist artist Salvador Dali and a tribute to Pop Art movement icon Andy Warhol. The collection brings together Dali’s “Divine Comedy: rebeget” and three self-portraits by Warhol, “Nirvana,” “Vita...

U.K.’s financial regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has warned that 111 companies are offering crypto services in the country without proper registration. “This is a very real risk so we are worried about that,” said the regulator’s head of enforcement and market oversight. 111 Unregistered Firms Operating in the UK Britain’s financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has identified 111 companies operating in the crypto space without necessary registration, Reuters reported Tuesday. The FCA head of enforcement and market oversight, Mark Steward, told City & Financial’s City Week event that these companies are high risk, volatile, and unregulated. He was quoted as saying: We have a number of firms that are clearly doing business in the UK without being registered with us and they are dealing with someone: banks, payment services firm, consumers. This is a very real risk so we are worried about that. In the U.K., the FCA oversees the crypto indus...

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway (Finanstilsynet) has cautioned investors about investing in cryptocurrencies as the price of bitcoin plunged Tuesday. “There is a strong need for a legal framework and investor protection if cryptocurrency is to be able to become a suitable form of investment for consumers,” the regulator’s consumer coordinator wrote. Norway’s Financial Regulator Warns of Crypto Risks Norway’s financial regulator, Finanstilsynet, posted a notice on its website Tuesday warning about the risks of investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It is written by the regulator’s consumer coordinator, Jo Gjedrem, a lawyer from the Norwegian Consumer Authority, the Finanstilsynet described. The warning was posted as the price of bitcoin dipped below the $30K level Tuesday. Gjedrem began by noting that Norwegian consumers increasingly sought new investments during the coronavirus pandemic and “Cryptocurrency has received the attention that very few other inve...

PRESS RELEASE. Bitcoin.com Exchange is thrilled to announce the listing of SENT, being available to trade on the 23rd June 2021 at 10:00AM UTC. SENT is the native governance token of the Trade The Chain global community of crypto traders and enthusiasts, and was built to help traders make better decisions. The founding team is composed of veterans with backgrounds in asset management, prime brokerage, journalism, and more. SENT has started trading with USDT as a pair . What is SENT? SENT prioritizes community and ensures fair distribution of tokens. Token holders participate in the governance of the project from the very start, including voting on ecosystem fees, the SENT rewards program structure, how the Trade The Chain 2.0 platform will interface with the SENT token, and interfacing with a soon-to-be-announced advisory council to ensure impact resolutions are passed. Another unique part of SENT was how it first was brought to market, in a fair launch on the decentralized exchan...

E-Livestock Global, a venture-funded social enterprise, recently launched a blockchain-based livestock traceability system for Zimbabwean cattle farmers. The Mastercard “Provenance solution”-powered system, claiming to be the first of its kind in Africa, aims to bring “end-to-end visibility to the cattle supply chain.” It could also help Zimbabwean farmers prove the origin and health records of their cattle while reducing risks to buyers. Solution Brings Hope to Zimbabwe Cattle Farmers According to a statement released by Mastercard, this solution could not only bring hope to farmers who lost a total of 50,000 cattle to tick-borne disease in 2018, but may also improve Zimbabwe’s chances of regaining “its lucrative beef export market to support economic recovery.” In his remarks following the launch, Max Makuvise, Founder and President of E-Livestock Global, lauded the solution saying this “will open up new opportunities for farmers.” He said: Mastercard’s Provenance solut...