Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released its latest report on “digital currency governance” this month, addressing stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and “barriers to financial inclusion.” Like most central banks, regulators, think tanks, and politicians, the WEF publication gives lip service to the power of crypto, but never addresses the elephant in the room: instead of actual access to the utility cryptocurrencies already freely provide, the “unbanked” and impoverished individuals of the world are forced to use a co-opted, fiat 2.0. ‘Financial Inclusion’ and ‘Sensible Regulation’: Freedom for Me, Compliance for Thee According to the World Economic Forum’s November 2021 White Paper Series Report “What is the Value Proposition of Stablecoins for Financial Inclusion”: Financial inclusion is a complex global problem that existing systems and offerings have so far failed to solve. Financial inclusion is not really that complex, but existing systems most definitely are failu...

The founder of Paytm, a major digital payment company in India, is “very positive about crypto.” Noting that cryptocurrency is here to stay, he expects it to become a mainstream technology in a few years. Paytm Founder Is ‘Very Positive About Crypto’ Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the founder of Paytm, said at a virtual conference organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Thursday that cryptocurrency is here to stay, PTI reported. He added that crypto is Silicon Valley’s answer to Wall Street. Paytm is an Indian multinational technology company that specializes in digital payments. The company completed an initial public offering (IPO) last week. In its IPO filing, Paytm revealed that it has 337 million registered consumers and 22 million merchants. Sharma opined: I am very positive about crypto. It is fundamentally based on cryptography and will be the mainstream technology in a few years like the internet which is (now) part of daily life. The Paytm founder admitted that cry...

The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance says that he and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett share a similar investment strategy. However, he said he would not convince the Oracle of Omaha to invest in cryptocurrency. “I get worried if he uses crypto. He may not have the necessary skills or the knowledge on how to keep his own crypto safe,” the Binance CEO stressed. Binance’s CEO on Warren Buffett and Crypto Investing Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) talked about Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett and cryptocurrency investing on Yahoo Finance Wednesday. Zhao recently praised Buffett’s investing skills after reading a book about him titled “Warren Buffett: Inside the Ultimate Money Mind.” The book provides “a deep analysis of Buffett’s essential wisdom, an intricate mosaic of wide-ranging ideas and insights that Buffett calls a Money Mind,” according to its description. The Binance boss was asked if he were sitting in a room with Buffett, what he would tell the Oracle of Om...

One of the largest banks in Estonia, LHV, is now offering cryptocurrency trading directly from its app through crypto exchange Bitstamp. The bank says it is the “first bank in the Baltics to start offering crypto trading.” Large Estonian Bank Now Offers Crypto Trading LHV announced this week that it has become “the first bank in Estonia to offer its clients the opportunity to trade in crypto assets.” Starting Monday, LHV customers can trade major crypto assets directly on its mobile app. Transactions are carried out on the cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. Clients’ crypto assets are held on the Bitgo platform, which is part of the Toronto Stock Exchange-listed Galaxy Digital Group. The bank started experimenting with blockchain technology in 2015. Since then, “We have been waiting for the regulatory environment to evolve, for the market to become organized, and for professional market players to emerge,” the bank noted. Madis Toomsalu, chairman of the management board of LHV Grou...

A recent study suggests that 99% of people from Mexico and Brazil and 96% of Americans fail to grasp the basic concepts of cryptocurrencies. Out of all the survey respondents aware of bitcoin, 17% in the U.S., 15% in Brazil, and 14% in Mexico own the crypto asset. The report published by cryptoliteracy.org further explains that 9 out of 10 survey respondents did not know that Bitcoin’s supply is capped off at 21 million. Despite the Bull Run in 2021, Study Shows Crypto Knowledge Is Lacking in the US, Mexico, Brazil According to a study published by cryptoliteracy.org comprehension of cryptocurrency fundamentals is low in 2021. The researchers leveraged a Yougov survey to sample roughly 1,000 participants who are aware of cryptocurrencies from each country. The study consisted of 17 questions pertaining to cryptocurrency, bitcoin, decentralized finance (defi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and general sentiment. One of the key findings in the survey notes that “ownership is the best t...

A Nigerian crypto exchange, Busha, recently raised over $4 million in a funding round led by Jump Capital. Busha, a Nigerian cryptocurrency exchange, is reported to have raised a $4.2 million seed funding round recently. These funds, according to the exchange, will be used to expand its operations across Africa. Financial Freedom According to a report by Disrupt Africa, Jump Capital led the funding round that also featured Cadenza Ventures, Blockwall Capital, CMT Digital, Greenhouse Capital, Raba Capital, and other investors. In his comments following the announcement, Busha co-founder and CEO Michael Adeyeri is quoted explaining the exchange’s key objective and how the latest funding round helps the company. He said: Our immediate mission is to onboard the next one million Africans into the crypto economy. We have seen the significant difference in financial freedom that crypto can make in the lives of our over 200,000 users, and we are very motivated to extend this to more pe...

A great number of digital currencies have swelled in value this year and as the end of 2021 approaches, the market capitalization of all 11,000+ crypto assets in existence is roughly $2.6 trillion. These days, it’s safe to say that dollar-pegged tokens, otherwise known as stablecoins, have a strong presence in the crypto market. Today the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in the world is more than $152 billion or 5.84% of the crypto economy’s USD value. Stablecoins Have Seen Massive Growth Within the Crypto Economy Stablecoins have been a hot topic in the cryptocurrency world as the growth of these dollar-pegged tokens in 2021 has been quite significant. Basically, a stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency that leverages the value of an external reference such as the U.S. dollar or another fiat currency. The largest stablecoin today in terms of market capitalization is tether ( USDT ) as its current market valuation is $73.95 billion. During the last 30 days, USDT ’s mark...

During the last 24 hours, the crypto economy has lost 8% in value as a great number of crypto asset prices dropped significantly during the overnight trading sessions. Crypto markets lost more than $22 billion in value as the leading digital currencies in the top 20 standings lost anywhere between 6% to 20%. Global Markets Lurch in Fear Over B.1.1.529 Variant Global markets are shaken today as headlines declare that a new Covid-19 variant called B.1.1.529 is spreading beyond South Africa where it was discovered. The B.1.1.529 variant is said to be more contagious than the Delta variant and it is said to have around 30 mutations . As soon as the headlines broke, markets in nearly every nation worldwide started to tank, and investments tied to the oil and gas sector dive-bombed. For instance, the international benchmark for a barrel of Brent crude slipped in value by 5.3%. On Friday, the economist and bitcoin advocate Alex Krüger tweeted about how the new variant has roiled global ma...

Bybit recently launched Flexible Staking on its ByFi Center. This new service allows traders to stake BTC , ETH , USDT , and USDC to earn stable and guaranteed yields. Participants will receive yield every day for their staked tokens. Traders can get started by staking at least 0.01 ETH , 0.001 BTC , 50 USDC, or 50 USDT . For newer traders with a lower risk appetite, they can get started with either USDC or USDT , as these flexible staking products have lower entry points. The staked tokens can be unstaked by participants at any point in time. All traders, whether seasoned or new, are eligible to participate in Flexible Staking as no KYC verification is required right now. ByFi Center is Bybit’s asset management platform. It helps both new and veteran traders grow their crypto assets easily. Other than Flexible Staking, ByFi Center also offers DeFi Mining, Dual Asset Mining, and Launchpool. Established in 2018, Bybit is one of the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency trading...

A working group on cryptocurrencies and related activities will soon begin to meet at the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament. Its members are expected to take on the task of clarifying various regulatory aspects related to digital financial assets such as the legalization of mining and the introduction of taxation. Working Group in Russian Parliament to Address Regulatory Gaps in Crypto Space The Russian State Duma is now forming a working group of deputies who will try to deal with outstanding questions regarding the regulation of decentralized digital currencies. The group will hold its first meetings in the near future, the head of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, revealed to RIA Novosti. Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed the establishment of the working group on Nov. 11, the Russian business news agency Prime reported. Aksakov expressed his positive attitude towards the move and added that the house is now gathering the group...

SIDUS HEROES is the first ever WEBGL, AAA-level, Play-to-Earn, NFT and MMORPG game. The game is set in a space metaverse at a time when technological advancements have reached the level of merging with all living beings. All characters belong to one of several blockchain races and embody that chain’s strongest attributes. Dan Khomenko is the co-founder and CEO of SIDUS HEROES . He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the game: Before getting into blockchain gaming, Dan Khomenko worked in FinTech, banking, property development, blockchain and crypto. Dan has co-founded one of the biggest blockchain software development companies and consulted over 500 projects, many of which have now reached the Top 200 on CoinMarketCap. He is also the founder and CEO of NFT marketplace NFT STARS (launched in July 2021) and the CEO of DeFi aggregator SpaceSwap. SIDUS HEROES provides users with multiple gaming scenarios. Users can choose to fight in the Battle Arena, build fi...

Etoro, an Israel-based trading platform, has taken action on its platform regarding the trading of cardano and tron. Now, U.S.-based customers will have limited functionality with these cryptocurrencies on the Etoro platform starting in December. Etoro explained in a post that these new measures were a consequence of “business-related considerations in the evolving regulatory environment.” Etoro Limits Cardano and Tron Trading for US-Based Customers Etoro, one of the most important Israel-based trading companies, has limited tron and cardano trading for users based in the U.S. The announcement was made on November 23, in a blog post that informed customers about the limitations that these assets will see applied to the platform. Users will not be able to open positions for these cryptocurrencies starting December 26, and will not be able to stake these assets anymore starting next December 21. However, this only applies to new positions. Existing positions will have to be maintain...