Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Kazakhstan is facing electricity shortages and cryptocurrency mining has been singled out as the main culprit. Amid an ongoing crackdown in China, the Central Asian nation has become a magnet for crypto miners who are taking advantage of its low electricity rates. Republic of Kazakhstan Sees 7% Increase in Electricity Demand Due to Crypto Miners Kazakhstan plans to boost its power generating capacities in the coming years but right now the country is experiencing electricity shortages. In 2021, consumption has surged by 7% in comparison with last year, a government official revealed at a press conference. The spike in demand is largely due to a growing number of data centers devoted to cryptocurrency mining, Energy Minister Magzum Mirzagaliev told local media this week, referring to numbers released by the grid operator, KEGOC. Stressing that “this is a very big increase,” he stated: We need to make a number of decisions. First, we must be able to ensure that system operators ha...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that the rising popularity of cryptocurrencies poses new challenges to financial stability. “Cryptoization can reduce the ability of central banks to effectively implement monetary policy. It could also create financial stability risks.” IMF Sees New Challenges to Financial Stability From Crypto The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned about the risks posed by the cryptocurrency boom in a blog post published Friday. The post, titled “Crypto boom poses new challenges to financial stability,” is authored by three financial experts from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department: Dimitris Drakopoulos, Fabio Natalucci, and Evan Papageorgiou. Noting that “The total market value of all the crypto assets surpassed $2 trillion as of September 2021 — a 10-fold increase since early 2020,” they said that many entities in the ecosystem “lack strong operational, governance, and risk practices.” These include exchanges, wallets, miners, and ...

One of the largest darknet markets (DNM), White House, announced the market is retiring as the DNM’s administrators say the team has reached its goal. After revealing the retirement plan, White House admins explained that user registration and orders have been disabled. Darknet Market White House Plans to Close Its Doors Soon, User Registration and Orders Have Been Disabled When the DNM Dark Market was seized by global law enforcement, White House marketplace became the second-largest DNM just below the Russian darknet behemoth Hydra. White House also was a monero ( XMR ) only DNM, which means XMR was the only digital currency accepted by White House vendors. White House and the DNM Archetyp Market were the only two DNMs that had a strict XMR only rule. However, the administrators of White House market announced the DNM is closing down voluntarily as the team has reached its goal. White House (WH) admins further emphasized that users should not expect the DNM to return so if a WH...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell confirmed during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee that he has no intention to ban or limit the use of cryptocurrencies. He also commented on the regulation of stablecoins. Powell Says ‘No Intention to Ban’ Crypto The chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, talked about cryptocurrency, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) during a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday. The main focus of the meeting, however, was the Federal Reserve’s and Treasury’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen spoke for the Treasury Department. U.S. Congressman Ted Budd from North Carolina said to Powell: “In a July hearing before this committee, you were asked about CBDCs or the central bank digital currencies and their impact on stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies, and you stated , ‘You wouldn’t need stablecoins, you wouldn’t ne...

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has disclosed that at least 6,000 users were victims of a hacking campaign to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Coinbase customers. The hackers also took advantage of a flaw in Coinbase’s SMS Account Recovery process to gain access to user accounts. Cryptocurrencies of at Least 6,000 Coinbase Customers Stolen by Hackers Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reportedly informed over 6,000 customers this week that their accounts had been compromised and funds were removed. A copy of the letter is posted on the website of California’s Attorney General. In the letter, the exchange explained: Unfortunately, between March and May 20, 2021, you were a victim of a third-party campaign to gain unauthorized access to the accounts of Coinbase customers and move customer funds off the Coinbase platform. At least 6,000 Coinbase customers had funds removed from their accounts, including you. In order to access a user account at Coinbas...

Bitcoin logged price losses once again for the crypto asset’s fifth consecutive September in its lifetime, but as soon as the month ended, billions of dollars came back into the crypto economy. Metrics show that while September has consistently been a bad month for bitcoin, October, on the other hand, has traditionally been a good month for bitcoin since 2013. Bitcoin Has Been Profitable in October 77% of the Time In 2020, the price of bitcoin ( BTC ) closed the month of September at around $10,750 per unit but the following month, BTC spiked 25% to roughly $13,450 per unit. This year, September has been dreary price-wise, and many crypto proponents have asked to be woken up when “ September ends .” On September 26, Civic co-founder Vinny Lingham wrote : “This feels like September 2017 again… Who remembers what happened next?” On October 1, 2021, BTC surged from $43,500 per unit to Friday’s high of $48,500 per BTC . That’s an increase of around 11.49% and the spike happened very ...

About 83.7% of those surveyed by Luno in a recent study believe the price of bitcoin will rise significantly in the next few months. In fact, 59.4% of the more bullish respondents are expecting the leading crypto to rise to as much as $100,000. Bullish Beyond Bitcoin These are the findings of Luno’s Q3 Customer Sentiment Survey that was conducted between August 20 and September 20. A total of 1,870 customers of Luno cryptocurrency exchange from South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the U.K. participated in the study. Aside from bitcoin, study participants were also asked to share their thoughts about the prospects of altcoins like ETH , XRP and BCH . As the study findings suggest, many of the respondents across the four countries are similarly bullish on altcoins as well. South Africans Less Bullish on ETH However, it would appear that Luno customers in the U.K. and Malaysia are more bullish on such cryptos as ETH than their counterparts in South Africa. The exchange’s blog e...

A spokesperson for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Osita Nwanisobi, has said the launch of the much-hyped e-naira central bank digital currency (CBDC) has now been postponed to a later date. Nwanisobi’s announcement came less than 24 hours before the CBN was scheduled to launch the digital currency. Launch Date Clashes With Nigeria’s Day of Independence In a Facebook post that reveals the reasons behind the deference, Nwanisobi points to the clash of the CBDC’s launch date with Nigeria’s day of independence. According to the post, the spokesman explained that: The planned unveiling on October 1, 2021, has now been deferred due to other key activities lined up to commemorate the country’s 61st Independence anniversary. However, despite this postponement, Nwanisobi reassures Nigerians that the CBN and its partners are “working round the clock to ensure a seamless process.” According to the CBN post and Nwanisobi, this is being done “for the overall benefit of the customer, par...