Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The cryptocurrency market is at an all-time high and the NFT world is booming. ERTHA is one of the hottest P2E (play to earn) gaming Metaverse projects and has already achieved incredible product-market fit, while still being in the private NFT sale round. Erthaverse is a 3D virtual representation of a futuristic planet Earth, divided into 350,000 unique land plot NFTs, differing in resources and features. Landowners are joining a persistent, life-like simulation to build their homes, customize their environment, participate in politics, and earn real income by creating and driving the in-game economy. More than 2000 Hexs have already been sold to individual owners in the first few days of the private sale. Saudi Arabia in the Ertha world, representing an oil-rich country in the real Earth, was sold out in a few hours, demonstrating the tremendous hype around owning NFT land in Ertha. The future income and opportunities are the main criteria when purchasing. Investors are acquiri...

On Tuesday, the digital asset exchange Crypto.com announced the launch of the first official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. The new NFT series will feature UFC digital collectibles that showcase fight night artwork, event posters, championship belts, and athlete profiles . UFC to Drop Official NFTs for Usman vs. Covington 2 Fight During the first week of July, Bitcoin.com News reported on Crypto.com partnering with UFC in a ten-year deal worth $175 million. At the time, sources disclosed that the deal was the UFC’s largest sponsorship deal to date. On November 2, the two announced the launch of official UFC NFTs that will feature UFC artwork, event posters, athlete profiles, championship belts, avatars, artist collaborations, and mystery boxes. The collection of NFTs called “UFC 268 Packs” will drop on November 4, and fight posters and belt designs will be based on the upcoming event “UFC 268: Usman vs. Covington 2,” slated to take p...

Coinbase is acquiring an AI-powered support platform Agara in an effort to deliver “world-class support for customers.” The exchange explained that “Through this acquisition, we’ll be able to provide our customers with new personalized, intelligent, and real-time support options.” The acquisition also reconfirms Coinbase’s strategy to build out its tech hub in India. Coinbase to Improve Customer Support With AI Platform Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced Tuesday: Today, Coinbase is announcing that we are acquiring Agara, an AI-powered support platform with operations in India and the US. “We plan to leverage Agara’s powerful Deep Learning and Conversational AI technology to automate and enhance our customer experience (CX) tools,” explained Manish Gupta, Coinbase’s EVP of Engineering. He added that improving CX “remains a top priority for Coinbase.” In the past few months, the company increased its support staff headcount by five times. It also announced that 24/7 phone...

The mayor of the U.S. city of Miami says that he is going to take 100% of his next paycheck in bitcoin and become the first American politician to accept a salary in cryptocurrency. The mayor is currently trying to build his city into a bitcoin capital of the world. US Politician Wants to Be Paid in Bitcoin The pro-bitcoin mayor of the U.S. city of Miami, Francis Suarez, tweeted Tuesday that he is going to take 100% of his next paycheck in bitcoin. His statement was in response to a challenge by Morgan Creek Digital partner Anthony Pompliano asking on Twitter: “Who is going to be the first American politician to accept their salary in bitcoin?” In his tweet, Mayor Suarez asked Mike Sarasti, CIO and director of Innovation & Tech of the city of Miami, to help make it happen. Sarasti indicated that he will help by tweeting “Mayor. Amazing” in reply, along with two “100” symbols and a bitcoin symbol. The Miami mayor’s statement came as a growing number of professional athletes a...

Singapore, already a major financial center in the world, is now aiming to become a cryptocurrency hub as well. The city-state is seeking to secure its role as a leading player in the crypto space, the head of its central banking institution has indicated in recent comments. Singapore to Establish Itself as Center for Crypto Business Authorities in Singapore are taking steps to cement its position as a key player in crypto business, the official who has been at the helm of the Monetary Authority of Singapore ( MAS ) for a decade has revealed in an interview. It comes as Singapore and other financial hubs around the world are exploring ways to regulate the rapidly growing sector. Quoted by Bloomberg, managing director of MAS Ravi Menon stated: We think the best approach is not to clamp down or ban these things. The MAS is Singapore’s central banking institution responsible for setting the rules for banks and financial firms. The authority is now trying to also introduce “strong r...

The first limited edition of Spellfire NFT cards has already reached the shelves of OpenSea. Spellfire NFTs have a unique mix of capabilities and cannot be compared to anything else on the market. A new conception has combined time-tested gaming and modern twists to have a unique collecting experience of virtual and physical assets generating a lifetime revenue, plus a great time playing a beloved fantasy game. Is the team good at what they do? Spellfire has gained top investors within a few hours. The physical game is ~70% done. 20+ people focused on the game, creating the new Spellfire world for almost 4 years. More than 100 newly created cards are already selling at OpenSea . The digital game is rapidly growing on Unity. Augmented reality cards in the app show their moves. New characters, realms, and event cards join the game every day. Discord and Telegram communities are buzzing. Headlines at BitcoinNews , Dappradar , Zycrypto , AMBcrypto , and many more. T...

At the non-fungible token (NFT)-focused conference, NFT.NYC, developers from the Metalcore Foundation and Studio 369 revealed an NFT-powered mechanized combat video game. The game’s creators have worked on projects for Activision, Disney, Lucas Films, Midway, and the Mechwarrior, Mortal Kombat, and Gears of War franchises. Metalcore Foundation, Studio 369 Reveal Blockchain-Powered Mech Battle Game A game development team behind an organization called the Metalcore Foundation and video game developer Studio 369 , announced a new multiplayer mechanized combat blockchain-powered video game title called Metalcore . The game is being built with Unreal Engine 4 and is a first-person combat game located in an open world. “Players can engage in 100-person PvP mega-battles, smaller-scale cooperative PvE fights, and faction-based, open-world clashes,” the Metalcore team’s announcement detailed. The game is being developed by a team with experience stemming from well known firms like Lucas ...

On November 2, 2021, the Ethereum network’s global hashrate tapped an all-time high (ATH) at 873 terahash per second (TH/s) or close to 1 petahash. Alongside Ethereum’s ATH, a myriad of hashrates have returned back to the highs the network’s once held before the crypto mining crackdown in China. Hashrates Return Following China’s Crypto Mining Crackdown This Past Summer Last summer at the end of June, a great number of cryptocurrency networks saw their hashrates decline significantly, but today many networks have recovered from the large losses. For instance, the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network hashrate plummeted to a low of 69.11 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 28, and today BTC ’s hashrate is coasting along at 169 EH/s. That’s an increase of 144.92% and a variety of other crypto protocol hashrates have also seen significant recoveries in terms of global hashrate. During the same time period the Bitcoin network’s hashrate shuddered last summer, Litecoin’s ( LTC ) hashrate dipped to a l...

On Tuesday, the world’s largest financial derivatives exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group, announced the upcoming launch of ethereum-based micro futures slated to be listed on December 6. The launch follows CME Group’s bitcoin micro futures listing in May, which saw 100,000 micro bitcoin futures traded during the first six days after launch. CME to Launch Micro Ether Futures Pending Regulatory Approval CME Group announced on Tuesday that the company plans to launch micro ether futures on December 6, “pending regulatory review.” According to the CME announcement, each share will account for one-tenth of one ether. “Micro ether futures will provide an efficient, cost-effective way for a range of market participants – from institutions to sophisticated, active, individual traders – to hedge their spot ether price risk or more nimbly execute ether trading strategies, all while retaining the features and benefits of CME Group’s larger-sized ether futures,” the announcement...

On November 1, at block height 707,639, a blockchain parser caught two bitcoin whale transfers that moved approximately 19,876 bitcoin worth $1.2 billion in the mix of 2,819 transactions. Interestingly, the owner used a similar splitting mechanism the old school mining whale blockchain parsers caught, spending strings of 20 block rewards throughout 2020 and 2021. Bitcoin Whale Watching Bitcoin whales are mysterious animals because in a blockchain world of pseudonymity we only see them when they move. Last year and this year as well, Bitcoin.com News has hunted a specific whale entity that spent thousands of bitcoin mined in 2010. Every single time the whale spent the decade-old bitcoin that sat idle the whole time, the entity spent exactly 20 block rewards or 1,000 BTC . After the transfer, the wallets holding 1,000 BTC dispersed the funds into smaller-sized wallets. According to the creator of btcparser.com , the close to 20K BTC transferred at block height 707,639 on November ...

PRESS RELEASE. Education Ecosystem (LEDU), a leader in online project-based learning, is excited to announce that it is presently creating over 1000 video projects for CMC Top 100 blockchains to teach developers how to build new applications related to financial apps, decentralized markets, games, crypto wallets, and more. With more crypto exchanges releasing their APIs and SDKs, Education Ecosystem seeks to plug a gap where crypto developers do not have tutorials and resources to learn how to build crypto products. Education Ecosystem believes that creating these projects, which entail a tutorial and downloadable resources to help the learners will encourage learning and innovation of crypto products across top exchanges and platforms. According to the CEO, Education Ecosystem is rolling out this development as part of its efforts to be the leading learning platform for intermediate to expert level developers on Youtube . While announcing this big development, the CEO noted that ...

Ubisoft, one of the biggest gaming companies in the entertainment world, mentioned blockchain as one of the key points of focus for the future of the brand. The company said it is exploring blockchain as an innovative technology to be included in games in its latest earnings report. While blockchain’s play-to-earn trend has experienced a boom this year, the traditional gaming industry still has yet to embrace blockchain as part of a flagship product. Ubisoft to Explore Blockchain for Future Products Ubisoft, the gaming giant known for mega-successful franchises like Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry, mentioned blockchain technology as a key element for the future of the company. In its latest earnings report, which corresponds to the first half of the 2021-2022 fiscal year, Ubisoft stated it has been exploring blockchain technology since its beginnings, to see how it can be used to further enhance the experience of gamers in virtual worlds. The report states: Ubisoft has been explorin...

Paraguay is one of the destinations being considered by various companies for setting up their bitcoin mining operations. Last week, Chinese company Future Fintech announced formal plans to build a bitcoin mining facility in the country, explaining they were determining the best location for the upcoming farm. In June, local media declared that there were eight Chinese economic groups interested in coming to the country. Paraguay Considered for Its Bitcoin Mining Potential Paraguay, an often overlooked country of South America, has recently been in the sights of mining institutions interested in establishing operations in the country. Paraguay presents several advantages for these groups, like an abundant supply of unused hydro-electrical power that could be put to work. Bitcoin mining activity has been stigmatized as a “dirty” industry, but having this much clean energy, companies could mine without worrying about the effect on the environment. Future Fintech, a Chinese company th...

Digital Currency Group (DCG), a Manhattan-based, crypto-focused VC conglomerate, has reached a $10 billion dollar valuation in a secondary sale where existing investors sold part of their shares to new ones. The funding round was led by Softbank and also included participation from Capitalg, Google’s investment firm. $700 million worth of shares changed hands via the sale. Digital Currency Group Sells $700 Million in Secondary Sale Round Digital Currency Group (DCG), a crypto-focused company, announced a secondary sale where existing investors sold part of their shares to newcomers to the company. The deal, which involved $700 million worth of shares changing hands, was led by Softbank with the participation of Capitalg, Google’s private equity investment firm. This further cements the importance that DCG has in the current crypto-focused world. With this new investment round, the valuation of the company reached $10 billion. While the name DCG might seem obscure and not recogniza...