Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Indian government is reportedly planning to introduce cryptocurrency regulation by the time of the next general Budget, which is in February next year. Instead of banning cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, the government is likely to regulate crypto assets as commodities, according to reports. Indian Crypto Law Could Comes as Early as February The Indian government is planning to introduce cryptocurrency regulation in February next year, local news outlet Business Today reported, elaborating: Finance Ministry officials have told Business Today Television that a law for cryptocurrencies would most likely come around by the time of the next general Budget. The Budget 2022-23 is expected to be presented on Feb. 1 during the first half of the parliament’s Budget session, which usually begins in the last week of January. Furthermore, the government is likely to regulate cryptocurrencies as an asset class, similar to how commodities are regulated, with appropriate taxation on trans...

Operation Dark Huntor, a coordinated international effort on three continents to disrupt opioid trafficking on the darknet, has led to the arrests of 150 people. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the operation has also resulted in the seizure of over $31.6 million in cash and cryptocurrencies. Operation Dark Huntor: 150 Arrests, Crypto and Cash Seized The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that “Operation Dark Huntor” has resulted in 150 arrests worldwide. In addition, over $31.6 million in cash and cryptocurrencies were seized. The DOJ described Operation Dark Huntor as “a coordinated international effort on three continents to disrupt opioid trafficking on the darknet.” It was conducted across the U.S., Australia, and Europe in partnership between the Joint Criminal Opioid and Darknet Enforcement (JCODE) and foreign law enforcement “against the illegal sale of drugs and other illicit goods and services.” Coordination efforts were led by Euro...

A group of U.S. banking regulators is working on how banks can be allowed to offer crypto services and hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets. The chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) said, “If we don’t bring this activity inside the banks, it is going to develop outside of the banks … The federal regulators won’t be able to regulate it.” US Regulators to Set Clear Rules for Banks to Deal With Crypto Jelena McWilliams, the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), told Reuters in an interview at a fintech conference Monday that a team of U.S. bank regulators is working on providing a roadmap for banks to engage with crypto assets. The team comprises the FDIC, the Federal Reserve, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Federal Reserve Vice Chair of Supervision Randal Quarles revealed the collaboration between the three U.S. regulators in May. McWilliams said on a conference panel: My goal in this interagency gr...

Adobe Inc., the American multinational computer software company that’s well known for its platforms like Photoshop and Illustrator, has jumped into the non-fungible token (NFT) universe. According to Adobe chief product officer Scott Belsky in a recent interview with The Verge, “NFTs will change creativity.” New Adobe Photoshop Tool Will Assist NFT Creators in ‘Packaging and Preparing, Along With the Attribution Capabilities’ The software company Adobe has launched a Photoshop tool that allows creators to pre-construct the images for non-fungible token (NFT) applications. On October 26, Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer, spoke in an interview with The Verge’s Nilay Patel about the firm’s deep dive into the world of NFTs. The new Adobe Photoshop tool will allow users to add specific credentials so popular markets such as Opensea can read the metadata. During the interview with Patel, Belsky said he was bullish about the NFT industry. Belsky disclosed that the ‘prepare a...

PRESS RELEASE. PlanetWatch, a French start-up which decentralizes and incentivizes environmental monitoring, announced that its utility token, PLANETS, will be listed on Oct. 22 on Bitmart. Claudio Parrinello, PlanetWatch’s CEO said: “PlanetWatch is experiencing explosive growth. With over 6,000 sensors already deployed worldwide, we are happy to see PLANETS becoming available worldwide via multiple exchanges.” PlanetWatch is revolutionizing the way people measure air quality and other environmental parameters by leveraging the Algorand Blockchain, IoT-enabled sensors and AI-based data analysis. Dense sensor networks can be activated in any city quickly and cost-effectively by incentivizing local residents to deploy and operate approved sensors and earn token rewards for data streams. PlanetWatch is gaining traction amongst consumers as well as in the corporate world. Following the successful completion of a seed funding round of about 1 million euros back in July, the company is ...

The American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer, Gamestop, is seeking a non-fungible token (NFT)-focused senior software engineer, according to a new job listing. Similar to the recent job listing stemming from the social media services company Reddit, the retail giant Gamestop seems to be building an NFT marketplace. Gamestop Looks to Hire Engineer to Join Company’s NFT/Blockchain Team On October 25, the corporate entity Gamestop, a retail chain of video game merchandise and consumer electronics, published a job listing seeking a senior software engineer for a possible NFT platform. The candidate, if hired, will join Gamestop’s “NFT/Blockchain team.” “Gamestop is looking for a Sr. Software Engineer to join our NFT/Blockchain team,” the company’s job listing notes. “This role will be remote and will collaborate with a team of engineers, product managers, designers, and business partners distributed across the U.S. In this role, you will help design, ...

After fighting in court since 2015, the former hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiring to commit securities fraud and he was forced to pay $7.4 million in fines. One of Shkreli’s prized possessions, an unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album, was seized by the U.S. Marshals and sold for $4 million. Just recently, the public was told that the unreleased record called “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” was sold to the non-fungible token (NFT) collectors syndicate called “Pleasrdao.” The New Owners of ‘Once Upon a Time in Shaolin’ Long ago, the hedge fund manager Martin Shkreli used to live stream and brag about his unreleased Wu-Tang Clan album he purchased at an auction for $2 million in 2015. However, a few years later, Shkreli was sentenced by the U.S. court system for conspiring to commit securities fraud and he was sentenced to seven years. While spending his prison sentence at the low-security Federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, Shkreli w...

On January 3, 2022, the Bitcoin network will be celebrating its 13th year of life after its creator Satoshi Nakamoto kick-started the protocol. The creator of Bitcoin has always been the community’s most famous and mysterious character. Roughly ten years ago, Satoshi logged off, never to return and it’s very likely the inventor won’t ever come back. Communication Breakdown Satoshi Nakamoto invented the Bitcoin network and released the technology’s white paper on Halloween (October 31) 2008. The paper was authored by “Satoshi Nakamoto” using the email “satoshin@gmx.com” and the creator also attached the web domain name “bitcoin.org” to the paper. The name “Satoshi Nakamoto” is of Japanese descent and it’s widely considered a pseudonym or a falsified name. It is assumed that Nakamoto’s birthday is April 5, 1975, as the date is displayed on the inventor’s P2P Foundation profile. If the birth date is correct, Nakamoto would be 46 years old today. Over the years a great number of sle...

Locations providing crypto ATM services have increased exponentially this year, according to data compiled by a major tracking site. Bitcoin ATMs have doubled in number since January and close to 80 countries now host teller machines exchanging cryptocurrencies with fiat money. Over 30,000 Bitcoin ATMs Operate Around the World In a year when cryptocurrency markets broke all-time highs , the availability of digital coins has increased and bitcoin ATMs have contributed greatly. Their number has recently exceeded 30,000 — more than double the count at the beginning of 2021. Data collected by Coin ATM Radar shows that on Jan. 1, there were 14,016 registered locations supporting automated teller services for leading cryptocurrencies. And, as of Oct. 27, their number has reached a staggering 30,011. These Bitcoin ATMs and other crypto teller services are spread across 76 countries and run by 628 operators, according to the tracking website. The United States is the pronounced leader w...

The Legends of Bezogia , the land where everything always goes up, is a massive open-world sandbox-style game where players can summon their own Bezogi characters from a large selection of different breeds by minting in-game NFTs, which randomly generate Bezogi. Each unique to their own playstyles and lore, Bezogi fight, craft and explore the epic lands of Bezogia. Crypto integrations in the gaming space are becoming ever more sophisticated and Bezoge Earth is taking this to the next level by making The Legends of Bezogia the most comprehensive gaming world where players can interact with the game in numerous ways without actually being obliged to have any cryptocurrencies. The Legends of Bezogia gives the player the power to fully control their character’s destiny in a game that is actually fun to play. The current issue with the crypto gaming space is that the games are just too basic. With a total market cap sitting at $20B, expected to grow exponentially, the NFT gaming indust...

A Nigerian Federal Court judge recently ruled that the two frozen bank accounts belonging to Rise Vest Technologies, which is accused of trading cryptocurrencies, must be reopened. CBN’s Bank Account Freeze Order Dismissed In a ruling that overturns the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s August 17 decision to freeze the bank accounts, Judge Taiwo Taiwo is quoted by The Nation insisting that the central bank could not simply rely on a mere circular when deciding to close an account. In addition, the news outlet quotes the judge explaining in his ruling that the CBN’s February 6 directive to banks is, in fact, not the law. Judge Taiwo notes in his ruling that the CBN had failed to furnish the court with the relevant sections of the law which prove that cryptocurrency trading is indeed illegal. “I have perused the counter affidavit of the Respondent and I see that the reason for freezing the account of the applicant is based on the alleged infraction of the circular of the CBN. The law...

Law enforcement authorities in Ukraine have exposed a crime ring specializing in cryptocurrency theft and laundering of illicit funds for hackers. The gang, which provided services to clients on the darknet, has been dismantled as a result of a joint operation carried out with the United States. Cybercriminals From Ukraine Launder Millions, Offer Flash Drives With Crypto Malware The Cybersecurity Department at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has recently identified a group of individuals who allegedly laundered tens of millions of dollars from darknet sources, the agency announced. The Ukrainians were legalizing illicit funds on behalf of international hackers, the SBU revealed in a press release published Monday. To launder the money, the suspects organized a large-scale scheme involving fake online identities and fictitious persons. Investigators were able to establish that the funds had been transferred through various financial services. Customers were mostly hackers eng...

Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace Localbitcoins has announced the launch of a new mobile application for its global user base. The software is designed for devices running on Android. The app has been released in response to a growing number of mobile traders. P2P Crypto Market Localbitcoins Offers Users Android App Popular P2P crypto exchange Localbitcoins has presented a mobile application for traders around the world. The app has been developed for Android users and according to an announcement published on Monday, it has already seen thousands of downloads. Work continues to create an iOS version as well, the marketplace assured. The Helsinki, Finland-headquartered company said it’s launching the app after signing up 1.7 million customers in 2020, most of whom were using mobile devices to access its platform. Quoted in the press release, Localbitcoins Chief Marketing Officer Jukka Blomberg commented: Our new mobile app shows our commitment to our global user base and e...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has appointed an advisory group for the digital euro project. Called the Digital Euro Market Advisory Group, it was founded with 30 members from business backgrounds. The council will have a say in the design, distribution, and value that this new digital currency can provide for the payments ecosystem. The currency could start its development phase in two years. ECB Integrates Digital Euro Advisory Group The European Central Bank has announced the appointment of the Digital Euro Market Advisory Group, an organization that will give council to the bank in terms of how they can add value to the proposal of a central bank digital currency. The ECB called for parties to express their interest in joining the group in June, and the bank filtered and selected the most experienced applicants. Of the individuals that applied, the ECB selected 30 senior business professionals. Among the selected are members of known banking and economic institutions in Europ...