Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Reports from South Africa suggest that tax authorities have plugged a loophole on the online tax filing system that enabled crypto arbitrage traders to make several purchases on overseas cryptocurrency platforms using just one approval. As a consequence of these tweaks, crypto arbitrage traders are now forced to make a new application each they need to place an order. In addition, this change also effectively rules out daily arbitrage trades. Loophole Plugged As the publication Moneyweb’s report explains, some South African crypto traders have been known to “profit from differences in the prices of crypto assets on local and overseas exchanges.” The price differences have ranged between zero and three percent in recent months. However, according to the report, South African crypto traders can exploit such differences using their nearly $700,000 (10 million rands) annual foreign investment allowance (FIA). They can also profit from these price differences using their special discre...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested federal agencies stop signing appreciation letters for Binance. The exchange used these letters as proof they are actively helping these agencies in criminal probes. However, this behavior seems to have bothered agents of these state organizations, who argue the exchange is bound to cooperate with these investigations by law. DOJ, Says ‘No Thanks’ to Binance Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, seems to have fallen from grace with U.S. government agencies. The exchange normally requested appreciation notes regarding its cooperation with criminal probes. Now, according to two people with knowledge in the matter, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered the top law enforcement agencies to stop signing these thank-you notes. Binance used these notes from the FBI and the IRS as public confirmation that it is a law-abiding company. But Binance is compelled by law to help these institutions in their probes. From the stance of th...

On July 14, IOHK, the Cardano network developers, announced the project’s latest testnet called Alonzo white has been deployed. IOHK detailed that it has onboarded new participants and the move will help the project move “closer to smart contracts.” Two days later, a Cardano-based project called Spores raised $2.3 million to build a non-fungible token (NFT) and decentralized finance (defi) marketplace. Cardano Launches Alonzo White This week the Cardano ( ADA ) network launched the project’s successful hard fork of the Alonzo Blue testnet to the Alonzo White node. The upgrade aims to increase participation but also will help bolster functional Cardano-based smart contracts. “Hard fork successful,” IOHK tweeted on Wednesday. “Delighted to report around 19.44 UTC today we successfully forked the Alonzo testnet to the new Alonzo White node. The new network is happily making blocks already. Over the past week, we have spun up a new network and onboarded our new intake ready to help us...

PRESS RELEASE. Internet City, Dubai — As an innovative global trading platform for various crypto assets, founded in 2015. LBank officially launched the Global Ambassadors Recruitment at the end of June in 2021. LBank provides its users with safe crypto trading, specialized financial derivatives and professional asset management services. It has become one of the most popular and trusted crypto trading platforms with over 5.6 million users in more than 50 countries around the world. User-oriented with 24/7 support LBank has always been user-oriented with protecting their benefits being the fundamental goal since its inception. It has professional 24/7 online customer service and 50 local telegram communities covering North America, the Middle East, and Europe with providing the real-time, multilingual solutions and updates on the latest news of the platform and the industry. Digging out promising projects to benefit users has been the consistent goal of LBank. Perfect coordination...

While decentralized finance took a hit in Q2, stats still show there is an important movement in these protocols. Data taken from Messari’s Q2’21 defi review show that decentralized exchanges are busy settling important numbers. Decentralized Finance Bruised but Still Up The decentralized finance paradigm stormed the market this year, and while it certainly took a hit, it is still healthy. According to numbers extracted from Messari’s Q2’21 defi review report, there is still significant activity going on in the decentralized market. Decentralized exchanges, one of the core engines of the ecosystem, are still moving important amounts of funds. These settled $405 billion during the last quarter, an increase of 83% over the $221 billion settled on Q1. However, exchange volumes fell during May to $95 billion from the $203.5 billion in May. The general deceleration of the cryptocurrency market affected the sector significantly. In any case, June was a noteworthy month in the story of d...

Following the largest mining difficulty drop in Bitcoin’s history, this weekend will once again see another slide, but less than 6% of the difficulty will be shaved. Statistics show Bitcoin’s hashrate has been able to climb higher since the difficulty drop two weeks ago, and climbed above 100 exahash per second (EH/s) this week. This weekend’s upcoming bitcoin mining difficulty drop will be the only time in history the difficulty slipped four times in a row. 2021’s Consecutive Difficulty Drops Come Awfully Close to 2011’s Records After China cracked down on bitcoin miners at the end of June, a large quantity of hashpower had temporarily halted. Statistics indicate that the hashrate was around 66 EH/s on June 28 and since then it has increased to above the 100 EH/s zone. There’s currently 18 known mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain, and 4.71 % of the global hashrate (24-hour stats) or 4.79 EH/s belongs to unknown miners. This weekend, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty wi...

Payments giants Visa and Mastercard say they are monitoring Binance’s regulatory compliance developments as more regulators come after the global crypto exchange for operating in their countries without authorization. Visa, Mastercard Monitoring Binance’s Regulatory Troubles Visa and Mastercard have not severed ties with cryptocurrency exchange Binance despite rising regulatory scrutiny. The two payments giants have not blocked Binance and cardholders can still use Visa and Mastercard to deposit funds into their accounts at the exchange. Visa told the Financial Times Friday that it was “aware of the recent FCA statement regarding Binance,” noting that it was in “dialogue with Binance to monitor developments,” the publication conveyed. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning on Binance stating that the exchange is not authorized to engage in regulated activities in the U.K. Mastercard similarly told the publication: We continue to monitor this situation, including...

The working group involved with the research and development of the digital yuan for the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has published a paper describing the digital currency’s progress. The PBOC initiated a task force dedicated to the creation of a digital yuan in 2014, and the recently published document is the project’s first white paper released in seven years. China’s Digital Yuan Is No Different Than Physical RMB After the creation of Bitcoin and a few years after the cryptocurrency economy started getting recognized, the PBOC was one of the first central banks to introduce the idea of creating a central bank digital currency (CBDC). China’s central bank has recently allowed the digital currency working group to publish a white paper that details the CBDC’s current progress. The white paper titled “Progress of Research & Development of E-CNY in China” notes that over the course of history, “the form of currency has evolved.” The PBOC’s digital currency working group stre...

PRESS RELEASE. Position Exchange’s Team is pleased to announce the launch of its new Decentralized Trading & Exchange Community driven platform. What is Position Exchange? Position Exchange is the new Decentralized Trading & Exchange platform, powered by a virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM) and operating on Binance Smart Chain (BSC), aiming to bridge the gap between people and the cryptocurrency markets and enhance trading experiences. The platform is designed to deliver all the advantages of Decentralized Finance whilst bringing the traditional Centralized Finance experience and tools onboard. Position Exchange offers easy and accessible on-chain Derivatives trading with high leverage, low slippage and low costs on Crypto assets and much more to come. “Our Vision is to build the most decentralized and community driven platform in the DeFi industry, where every single user plays an important part of the decisional process by having an effective role in defining and sha...

Over the last few weeks, cryptocurrency markets have fallen in value as most of these assets reached all-time price highs three months ago. Despite the price drops, 2021 has still been an explosive year for crypto gains and fiat-pegged stablecoins have grown massively as well. 53 days ago, the entire capitalization of fiat stablecoins crossed the $100 billion mark, and the stablecoin market valuation continues to grow, swelling 13% since the end of May. Stablecoin Market Valuation Grows by 13% in 30 Days, Tether Issuance Slows Stablecoins have made their mark in the crypto economy over the last five years as these fiat-pegged tokens have grown immensely during that time period. While digital currency markets have dipped in value, the use of stablecoins has remained frothy and today the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in existence is $113 billion. Of course, tether ( USDT ) is the largest stablecoin in terms of market valuation and the amount of transactions the stablec...

The U.S. Department of State’s Rewards for Justice program is offering a reward of up to $10 million “for information on foreign malicious cyber activity against U.S. critical infrastructure.” The department further said that “Reward payments may include payments in cryptocurrency.” The U.S. Department of State announced Thursday that its Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program is offering a reward of up to $10 million “for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against U.S. critical infrastructure in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).” Rewards for Justice is the State Department’s counterterrorism rewards program established by the 1984 Act to Combat International Terrorism. The bureau is administered by the Diplomatic Security Service. “RFJ’s goal is to bring international terrorists to justice and prevent acts of in...

Binance’s regulatory troubles continue with Lithuania being the latest country to issue a warning about the cryptocurrency exchange. Lithuania’s announcement came one day after Italy issued a similar warning. Lithuania Warns Binance Lithuania’s central bank announced Friday that it has issued a warning to Binance UAB about its unlicensed investment services provided in Lithuania. The central bank also “ordered the company to ensure that its publicly available information is not misleading.” The central bank explained that it has assessed publicly available information and found that Binance is “acting as a virtual currency exchange operator and a custodian virtual currency wallet operator” in the country. The bank wrote: The Bank of Lithuania addressed Binance UAB … and warned the company about its unlicensed investment services provided in Lithuania as well as requested it to ensure that its publicly available information complies with legal requirements and is not misleading. ...

PRESS RELEASE. BXX listed on the MEXC Global exchange, and jumped from $0.15 at listing, to $0.50, before settling down to the mid. $0.30s- a more then 100% increase over the course of its first few hours of trading. Pools are also now available on Uniswap 2.0 in both USDT and ETH . Imagine a world where you can borrow for free, remit money across the globe for free, and even earn digital asset rewards from your daily spending- this is the world of the Baanx Group’s platform, a digital assets-as-a-service fintech bridging the worlds of fiat and digital assets. And it is all powered by the BXX token. Baanx modular platform enables fintechs to offer their users- free crypto lending, free remittance, low cost fiat on/off ramps, physical + digital cards, savings seamlessly integrated into any app or website in days, not months. Also key to the Baanx vision is the ability to spend digital assets as easily as cash. These B2B services are, as they say, “better than a bank”. Baanx works w...

Regulators from the CVM, the securities watchdog of Brazil, have approved the first Ethereum-based ETF in Latin America (Latam). The product, presented by blockchain investment company QR Asset, aims to simplify the task of getting Ether exposure for retail and institutional investors. It will be traded with the QETH11 ticker on the B3 stock exchange. Brazil to Debut First Ethereum ETF in Latam Brazil will be the first country in Latam that will trade an Ethereum-based ETF. The Brazilian securities regulator has approved the proposal of QR Asset, a blockchain investment firm, to offer an Ethereum ETF. The product, identified with the QETH11 ticker, will be traded on the B3 stock exchange in Sao Paolo. The ETF’s objective is to provide an easy way for investors to put money behind Ethereum’s performance. QR Asset declared on Twitter that: QETH11 becomes a simple, safe and regulated option for any investor to gain direct exposure to Ethereum through their preferred brokerage. With...

A non-governmental organization (NGO), Save Tigray, has announced it will be using the proceeds from the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to support its goal of averting famine in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region. According to Save Tigray, the NFTs, which are “based on interpreted photos of the tragedy,” will be sold on the charity organization’s NFT marketplace. Making NFTs Based on Photos of Tragedy According to a statement released on July 13, 2021, proceeds from the NFT sales will be donated to organizations that include the World Food Program, International Rescue Committee, UNICEF, and Save the Children. Also in the statement, Save Tigray’s Mirna Saraswati explains how the NGO switched to the idea of raising funds via NFTs sales. Saraswati explained: Last year we planned to create NFTs from Fair Trade Art created by women from Tigray. But the advent of the war in November put an end to those plans. So instead, we are making NFTs based on interpreted photos of the traged...

Authorities in Hong Kong have arrested four people suspected of money laundering a total of $155 million through cryptocurrency wallets and bank accounts. The city’s customs agency said this was its first case in which virtual money had been used to launder dirty cash. Money Laundering Syndicate Recycles $155 Million in Crypto and Fiat Transactions The criminal group is believed to have processed illegal funds for a total of 1.2 billion Hong Kong dollars ($155 million), Hong Kong Customs announced Thursday. In an operation code-named “Coin Breaker,” officers detained the suspected ring leader and three other residents of China’s special administrative region. The money laundering syndicate started its criminal activities last year and has been using three shell companies. The entities opened e-wallet accounts with an unnamed digital asset platform to trade the stablecoin tether ( USDT ). Authorities think the mastermind of the scheme convinced the other individuals to register as ...

Founded on July 1, 2014, Shapeshift has been offering global trading of a variety of digital assets for seven years. Following the company’s recent anniversary, it announced Shapeshift is evolving into a community-owned decentralized platform. Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees explained in a blog post that the firm airdropped FOX tokens to over a million customers in order to “facilitate decentralized governance.” Shapeshift Is Shifting Shapeshift is changing, according to a recent blog post from its founder, and the company’s announcement about an airdrop of the platform’s native FOX tokens to Shapeshift users. The distribution of FOX is meant to make the platform community-owned and governed by FOX holders. Shapeshift’s recent news follows the company’s change toward dropping KYC rules in January 2021, and shifting toward an entirely non-custodial solution. In mid-April, Bitcoin.com News reported on Shapeshift leveraging Thorchain for multi-chain unwrapped swaps. On July 14, Eri...