Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Central Bank of Venezuela announced the new redenomination plan for its fiat currency called “Digital Bolivar.” This new proposal seeks to simplify transactions by slashing six zeroes from the current value of the currency. While it is called digital, it has nothing to do with the proposal of a new central bank digital currency (CBDC), but it claims to have the development of a digital economy in the country as its objective. Digital Bolivar Redenomination Plan Announced The Central Bank of Venezuela issued an official statement yesterday on the implementation of a new redenomination plan for its fiat currency after the measure was leaked by some sources last month. The plan, called by the authorities “Digital Bolivar,” contemplates slashing six zeroes from the current value of the fiat currency to ease the process of making payments and transactions. At the time of writing, there is an exchange rate of 4,000 VES per dollar, which results in uncomfortably large amounts when m...

Award-winning hip-hop artist Megan Thee Stallion has published a video of herself explaining the basics of bitcoin, including what it is, why it is valuable, and how to obtain it. The famed rapper previously gave away $1 million in bitcoin to her fans in collaboration with Square’s Cash App. Famous Hip-Hop Star Breaks Down Bitcoin to Her Fans Popular rapper Megan Thee Stallion, also known as Hot Girl Meg, published a video titled “Bitcoin for Hotties” Tuesday in collaboration with Cash App, a mobile payment service developed by Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. Megan Thee Stallion has more than 24.1 million followers on Instagram and 6.4 million followers on Twitter. She has received several accolades, including three Grammy Awards. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, she became the second female hip-hop artist to win Best New Artist. In 2020, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world on their annual list. Her Bitcoin for Hotties video starts with the star ...

Former acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks has resigned as the CEO of Binance U.S. after just over three months. He cited “differences over strategic direction.” Meanwhile, Binance is facing regulatory scrutiny worldwide, including in the U.K., Malaysia, Japan, Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany, and Lithuania. CEO of Binance US Resigns The CEO of Binance U.S., Brian Brooks, announced Friday on Twitter that he has resigned from Binance. The former acting Comptroller of the Currency and former chief legal officer at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase tweeted: Greetings crypto community. Letting you all know that I have resigned as CEO of ⁦⁦⁦Binance US. Despite differences over strategic direction, I wish my former colleagues much success. Brooks joined Binance at the beginning of May following his resignation as acting Comptroller of the Currency on Jan. 14, before President Joe Biden took office. Responding to Brooks’s announcement, Binance U.S. posted a me...

Fresh off the heels of Binance’s last announcement to discontinue crypto derivatives offerings in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, the company revealed on Friday crypto derivatives products in Hong Kong will cease as well. Effective immediately, users won’t be able to open new derivatives positions and customers with existing derivatives positions have 90 days to close them. Binance Ends Crypto Derivatives Offerings in Hong Kong Binance revealed on August 6 that the exchange will no longer offer crypto derivatives products to customers. The news follows the company’s current issues with global regulators and large financial institutions ceasing to service Binance. On August 3, Bitcoin.com News reported how HSBC became the latest financial institution to suspend operations with the company. Three days later, Binance revealed it is “restricting derivatives products offerings in Hong Kong.” According to the announcement, the change is aligned with the exchange’s compliance init...

The Ethereum blockchain has completed the highly anticipated London upgrade on Thursday and ether fans have been discussing the protocol’s burn rate with great fervor following the fork. 5.9 Ether Is Burned Every Minute, Vitalik Buterin ‘Confident’ About the future after London At press time, Ethereum is burning 5.9 ether per minute or $16.8K using today’s exchange rates against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, in a recent interview from Singapore, Ethereum’s co-founder Vitalik Buterin said the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) “1559 is definitely the most important part of London.” On Thursday morning around 8:30 a.m. (EDT) on August 5, the long-awaited Ethereum London hard fork took place and the blockchain was successfully upgraded. The community was ecstatic, to say the least, and on Twitter, terms like “ethereum” and “EIP1559” started trending. Of course, the most topical conversation about the London upgrade was EIP-1559: The fee market change for ETH 1.0 chain . The EIP essen...

After a great number of well known product brands like Burger King, Axe, Snickers, Milky Way, and Slim Jim have been riding the dogecoin hype, the American meat and cold cut manufacturer ​​Oscar Mayer has also jumped on the dogecoin bandwagon. Similar to Axe, Oscar Mayer has also created a dogecoin-centric product and is auctioning a “10-pack of weenies” that features the famous Shiba Inu. A 10-Pack of Doge-Themed Weenies Oscar Mayer is a well known hot dog and cold cuts as the Kraft Heinz-owned firm has been around for years. In fact, the Mayer brothers started crafting bratwurst, liverwurst, and weisswurst products back in 1883. In recent times the Chicago-based company’s official Twitter account has been tweeting about the notorious crypto-asset dogecoin (DOGE) . The company has joined a number of well known brands getting in on the dogecoin hype. Just recently Axe released a limited edition Dogecan “crypto scented” body spray and a few Burger King locations in Brazil came out ...

The U.S. central bank’s vice chairman Richard Clarida explained on Wednesday that the Federal Reserve could begin tapering large asset purchases this year. Also, that the first interest rate hike since the onset of Covid-19 could happen in 2023. Meanwhile, despite members of the Fed saying inflation will be transitory, corporate bosses from some of the largest institutions are complaining about rising inflation. Looming Jobs Report, Richard Clarida Say Taper Could Happen This Year At the end of 2019, the Federal Reserve and numerous central banks all around the world started initiating monetary easing practices. Since then, the Fed’s monetary supply has ballooned after the onset of Covid-19, eclipsing decades’ worth of money creation in less than a year. The U.S. central bank kept the monetary spigot on and has yet to shut it off, while the cost of goods and services in America has risen dramatically. Furthermore, while the real economic situation is felt by renters, landlords, and...

Global investment bank JPMorgan is now offering six cryptocurrency investment funds to clients despite its CEO, Jamie Dimon, continually advising against investing in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. JPMorgan Chase has quietly begun giving its wealth management clients access to six cryptocurrency investment funds, CNBC reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the move. On Thursday, the bank’s financial advisors were allowed to begin placing private bank clients into a new bitcoin fund created by crypto firm New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), a subsidiary of Stone Ridge, a $10 billion alternative asset manager. This fund is nearly identical to the one NYDIG offers Morgan Stanley’s clients, the people said. Morgan Stanley began offering three crypto investment funds to clients early this year. They are Galaxy Bitcoin Fund LP, the Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP, and FS NYDIG Select Fund. Last month, JPMorgan began offering five cryptocurrency funds to a...

PRESS RELEASE. British Virgin Islands — 6th August, 2021 — EQIFI , a decentralized protocol for pooled lending, borrowing and investing Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and select fiat currencies, has today launched its DeFi platform, including newly introduced fixed- and variable-rate ledning products, as well as the advanced yield aggregator and interest rate swaps. Brad Yasar, CEO of EQIFI, said: “We are incredibly excited to bring our new range of DeFi products to our community and clients. By harnessing the power of DeFi technology, EQIFI is positioned to become an industry world leader. Through blockchain technology, EQIFI democratizes financial products previously only available to a select few, and we are confident that EQIFI is best positioned to bring these products to clients who want to embrace the evolution of digital banking, in an accessible and regulated manner.” Outlined in full below, EQIFI’s new products simplify DeFi by consolidating a range of so...

The White House has endorsed an amendment to the $1 trillion Infrastructure bill that supports proof-of-work over all other consensus mechanisms. However, the crypto community is supporting a different amendment. White House Takes Stance on Infrastructure Bill’s Crypto Tax Amendment The White House has endorsed an amendment to the Infrastructure bill sponsored by Senators Mark Warner, Rob Portman, and Kyrsten Sinema who drafted the original tax provision. This amendment competes with another introduced a day prior that has gained much support from the crypto community. It was sponsored by Senators Ron Wyden, Cynthia Lummis, and Pat Toomey. White House economics reporter for The Washington Post Jeff Stein tweeted late Thursday night: White House is coming out formally in support of Warner-Portman-Sinema crypto amendment, implicitly against the Toomey-Wyden-Lummis plan. Andrew Bates, the White House’s deputy press secretary, also issued a statement Thursday night: “The Administ...

Authorities in Abkhazia have closed down two crypto mining farms that have been illegally connected to the power grid. The facilities were minting digital coins in violation of a mining ban imposed by the government to mitigate electricity shortages. Over 80 Mining Rigs Confiscated From Crypto Farms in Abkhazia Dozens of mining rigs have been running on stolen electricity in two cryptocurrency farms located in the rural areas of Ochamchira District, Abkhazia. Officials from the local power utility, Chernomorenergo, have confiscated 82 mining units, the distribution company announced on its Facebook page . Over the past few years, crypto mining has become a popular income source in the partially recognized, breakaway republic in northwestern Georgia. However, the government in Sokhumi has blamed the growing electricity deficit in the territory on the energy-intensive activity of crypto mining. In 2018, Abkhazia introduced a “temporary” ban on mining and hardware imports, but despi...

The crypto financial services company Huobi and the firm’s stablecoin issuer Stable Universal have published monthly HUSD attestation reports. The audits indicate the funds that back Huobi’s stablecoin are kept in cash in U.S. money market accounts in order to ensure the 1:1 ratio with USD. HUSD Monthly Attestations On Thursday, more than $117 billion is held in stablecoin protocols and the ninth-largest stablecoin in terms of market valuation, Huobi’s HUSD, represents over $498 million. Out of today’s $68 billion in global stablecoin trade volume, Coingecko’s stablecoin by market cap stats show HUSD has seen around $61 million in 24-hour trades. Following the trend of stablecoin producers publishing their latest stablecoin attestation reports, Huobi and the token issuer Stable Universal have also provided monthly audits . HUSD attestation reports stem from the months of January 2021 to May 2021, and the latest report discloses that reserves for HUSD are secured in money market a...

The crypto analytics and market intelligence company Messari revealed on Thursday the firm has raised $21 million in a Series A financing round. The funds will be used to expand Messari’s product suites and it aims to “triple the size of its engineering and research teams.” Crypto Market Intelligence Firm Messari Secures $21 Million Digital currency analytics and intelligence data have seen massive demand this year. A number of crypto analytics providers have been able to raise millions from investors as institutions and the general public has been hungry for crypto coin statistics. On Thursday, the firm Messari announced the company has raised $21 million from strategic investors. The Series A financing saw participation from Point72 Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Uncork Capital, and Underscore VC. Alongside these investors, Messari disclosed that former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, Kraken Ventures, Alameda Capital, Blockchain Ventures, and CMS Holdings joined the funding round....