Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

According to Tom Jessop, president of Fidelity Digital Assets, the company is planning to increase staff by 70% because demand for cryptocurrencies continues to keep the firm busy. Fidelity Digital Assets, the subsidiary of the wealth management firm Fidelity Investments Inc., has also seen a significant amount of demand for ethereum. Crypto Demand Pushes Fidelity Digital Assets to Increase Staff Fidelity Digital Assets is looking to increase staff at its locations in Boston, Salt Lake City, and Dublin, according to a Bloomberg interview with Tom Jessop. The new hires will be dedicated to building new products that extend into other areas of crypto assets besides bitcoin. “[2020] was a real breakthrough year for the space, given the interest in bitcoin that accelerated when the pandemic started,” Jessop said. But Jessop also added: We’ve seen more interest in ether, so we want to be ahead of that demand. The company will be trading digital currencies more often as well, Jessop...

PRESS RELEASE. Toronto–– Coinchange is diversifying its portfolio of offerings with a move into the DeFi space. The High-Yield Account will provide all users with returns of up to 25% per annum on their USDC balances. This unique opportunity is paired alongside Coinchange’s existing fiat gateways and crypto brokerage, which will allow users to buy and sell BTC , ETH , USDC and USDT with 0% trading fees for a limited time. Easy Access to DeFi The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) sector has grown exponentially over the course of the last year, with over $60 billion now locked in DeFi protocols. Investors have been drawn to these new technologies – which can offer double-digit returns – due to low interest rates and the lack of attractive opportunities in the traditional financial sector. However, DeFi can be difficult to access for new users who are not familiar with the blockchain space, crypto wallets, and specialized tools. Additionally, finding the best opportunities requires users...

Woori Financial Group, one of the biggest financial conglomerates in South Korea, will offer crypto custody services. The bank will develop a joint venture effort with Coinplug, a blockchain-based developing company. This conglomerate signals the third bank entering the market in the country, after KB Kookmin Bank and Shinhan Bank. Woori Financial to Develop Joint Venture to Offer Custody Services Woori Financial Group, one of the biggest banks in South Korea, will soon offer cryptocurrency custody services. According to reports from Korea Economic Daily, Woori will establish a joint venture with Coinplug , a blockchain solutions developing company with more than 300 blockchain patents. While South Koreans have traditionally been attracted to cryptocurrency, their regulatory framework forbids them from relying on exchanges for custody. This has spurred interest from banks in stepping up and including cryptocurrency custody in their services. However, from a legal standpoint, banks...

JPMorgan has offered its view on the bitcoinization of El Salvador, the country which recently made bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. JPMorgan says, “It is difficult to see any tangible economic benefits associated with adopting bitcoin as a second form of legal tender.” JPMorgan on the Bitcoinization of El Salvador JPMorgan & Chase’s Latin American research team published a report titled “The Bitcoinization of El Salvador” Thursday. El Salvador recently passed legislation making bitcoin legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. The JPMorgan analysts who authored the report wrote: It is difficult to see any tangible economic benefits associated with adopting bitcoin as a second form of legal tender. The report also points out that “Recent surveys suggest widespread skepticism and hesitance of bitcoin as a medium of exchange … with extreme volatility posing a particularly acute challenge in a bimonetary system alongside official dollarization.” JPMorgan noted t...

Grayscale Investments now has three SEC reporting funds, with the newest addition being the Digital Large Cap Fund. The company has also filed to make three other funds SEC reporting companies. Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, made two announcements Monday. The first was that the registration statement on Form 10 filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the Digital Large Cap Fund (OTCQX: GDLC) has become effective. The fund is, therefore, an SEC reporting company, the company confirmed, elaborating: The fund is Grayscale’s first diversified digital currency investment fund to become an SEC reporting company with its shares registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund will now file its reports and financial statements with the SEC, along with current reports, in addition to complying with all other obligations under the Securities Exchange Act. ...

On Monday, the global payments solutions provider Clear Junction announced it ceased processing transactions for Binance. The move by Clear Junction was brought on by the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) recent warning, according to a blog post written about the decision. Clear Junction Ceases Processing Payments for Binance Citing the Recent FCA Warning The Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) warning against Binance operating in the UK has caused a lot of issues for the company. On Monday, the global payments solutions provider Clear Junction revealed it was no longer processing payments for the crypto firm. “Clear Junction can confirm that it will no longer be facilitating payments related to Binance,” the company’s blog post on Monday states. Additionally, the blog post also cites the FCA’s recent warning. “We have decided to suspend both GBP and EUR payments and will no longer be facilitating deposits or withdrawals in favour of or on behalf of the crypto trading platfor...

PRESS RELEASE. Panther Protocol has joined forces with StackOS, a decentralized cloud protocol, to deliver privacy and data protection tools. As a meta-protocol focused on end-to-end privacy for any digital asset, Panther is of great interest to virtually all DeFi users looking to benefit from personal financial data protection and confidential cryptocurrency transactions. Panther zAssets are 1:1 backed representations of the underlying assets they represent, offering users all of the benefits of private transactions in this emerging asset type. Under the Partnership agreement, Panther Protocol’s DeFi privacy services will be deployed on StackOS’ decentralized cloud. This is easily done in minutes through its easy-to-use interface after the applications have been containerized. Applications running on StackOS become unstoppable and more secure as the infrastructure is automatically being maintained, resulting in the removal of DevOps costs. Panther Protocol CEO and co-founder Oli...

The entire market capitalization of all 10,800 cryptocurrencies in existence is down 2.8% on Monday as bitcoin has lost over 2.4% during the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, bitcoin shorts are rising again after bitcoin shorts tapped a two-year high on the derivatives exchange Bitfinex on June 25. Bitcoin Shorts Climb Higher Bitcoin ( BTC ) and digital markets, in general, have seen better days as BTC tapped an all-time high above the $64K handle three months ago but is still down 48.66% since then. Roughly 17 days ago, on Bitfinex, the number of BTC/USD short positions skyrocketed to levels not seen since June 17, 2019. Stats from datamish.com/btcusd/7d Around 20 days ago, BTC reached its lowest price point in quite some time at $28,600 per coin, and today the cryptocurrency is only 13.72% up from that low price point. Now after the June 25th spike in short positions, things settled on June 27 and shorts remained low. Today, however, short positions held on Bitfinex are starting to...

The Miami-based Nifty’s, Inc. announced the launch of the project’s website which aims to reveal a non-fungible token (NFT) social platform focused on gathering mainstream attention. The company has also revealed it raised $10 million in a seed round from well-known investors like A&T Capital, Polychain Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Liberty City Ventures, Dapper Labs, Topps, Polaroid, and Samsung Next. Nifty’s Partners With Warner Bros, Launches Space Jam NFTs The new NFT venture Nifty’s announced Monday the launch of the project’s website niftys.com and further detailed that the company has partnered with Warner Bros., the American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. Nifty’s will be working with Warner Bros. on NFTs tethered to the upcoming animated film “Space Jam” featuring LeBron James and the Looney Tunes characters. In four days, “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” will release in theaters and on HBO Max. “We are excited to partner with Nifty’s on this new way f...

The popular meme token baby doge has slid quite a bit in value even after the token’s image was plastered all over Brandonbilt Motorsports’ No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro at the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Atlanta this past weekend. On Monday, baby doge statistics show the coin has dropped 42% in value over the last seven days and over 2% in the last 24 hours. Baby Doge Spanked by Grown-Up Markets, Donates Six-Figures to Animal Shelter Over the last two weeks, the cryptocurrency community has been focused on a meme-based cryptocurrency called baby doge (BABYDOGE). There are a couple of reasons why baby doge has made it into the spotlight, and Elon Musk’s July 1st tweet about the token probably hasn’t hurt. Still, its value has climbed a whopping 931% in 30 days. Bitcoin.com News reported on Musk’s incoherent baby doge tweet and how the dog token came awfully close to a $2 billion market capitalization. Baby doge (BABYDOGE) stats on Monday, July 12, 2021. However, since then baby doge has...

The U.S. has arrested a man on criminal charges after he allegedly defrauded the government’s Covid-19 loan programs and used the money to buy cryptocurrency and Tesla. Using PPP Loan to Buy Cryptocurrency and Tesla The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that Lebnitz Tran was arrested Thursday “on criminal charges related to his alleged scheming to submit fraudulent loan applications seeking millions of dollars in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Covid-19 relief funds.” According to an indictment unsealed Friday, the 40-year-old man from San Jose, California, submitted at least 27 PPP loan applications and at least seven EIDL loan applications on behalf of multiple persons and business entities. The indictment alleges that “Tran sought in excess of $8 million in PPP and EIDL funds, obtained over $3.6 million in illicit loan proceeds, and ultimately netted approximately $2 million from the scheme.” The DOJ noted: Tran and o...

Just recently, a software developer and “Solidity nerd” called Bunny Girl has sparked heated conversations within the cryptocurrency community over a smart contract that reveals a process called a “Request For Reorg contract (RFR).” On Twitter, Bunny Girl explained that the contract “creates a mechanism that allows users to pay miners to reorg the Ethereum blockchain.” Ever since then, the tweet went viral and there have been lots of debates over whether or not blockchains, in general, are immutable. Solidity Developer Reveals Blockchain Reorganization Smart Contract for Ethereum Conversations and debates concerning blockchain immutability have been taking place for years, and a fresh new discussion has ignited over a tweet and smart contract published on Github by the developer Bunny Girl. On July 10, Bunny Girl explained that the smart contract aims to enhance systematic chain reorganizations. A blockchain reorganization is a contentious subject and basically occurs when a chai...

Nigeria’s peer-to-peer bitcoin trade volumes went up to just under $38 million in June 2021, the latest data shows. This surge becomes only the second time Nigerian P2P traded volumes have breached the $35 million mark in 2021. March 2021 is the only other period when P2P bitcoin traded volumes nearly surpassed the $38 million mark. Nigerian P2P Growth Unhindered by Central Bank Crypto Restrictions Still, as the data shows, the country’s June volumes surge had been preceded by the marginal drop of traded value to $35.2 million and $34.9 million in the months of April and May 2021 respectively. Nevertheless, both volumes still remain higher than the over $31 million which was recorded in February 2021. Nevertheless, the latest data (which is sourced from two P2P exchanges) once again suggests that Nigerian interest and usage of cryptocurrencies continue to grow despite the imposition of restrictions on crypto assets by the central bank. In early February 2021, the Central Bank of ...

After Major League Baseball (MLB) revealed a partnership with Candy Digital, the Los Angeles Dodgers announced it is auctioning a non-fungible token (NFT) World Series championship ring, a physical version, and a VIP first pitch experience. The NFT collection will start with an online auction on Monday, July 12, and net proceeds will go to the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation (LADF). LA Dodgers Reveal World Series 2020 Ring NFT Another sports team is selling non-fungible token (NFT) assets, as the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers revealed plans to sell an NFT of a World Series championship ring hosted on the marketplace Candy Digital . The NFT package includes a 2020 Los Angeles Dodgers World Series ring NFT collectible and a VIP first pitch experience at Dodger Stadium. At approximately 9 a.m. (PT), Candy Digital will host the auction on July 12 up until 4 p.m. (PT) on Thursday. In addition to the 2020 World Series championship ring NFT, the Los Angeles Dodgers will also sell an open editi...