Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

India’s minister of state for external affairs says that cryptocurrencies must be blocked if they are used for illegal purposes, such as “to launch cyber-attacks in India, to launch other attacks on India, to do other kinds of illegal and unethical work like drug trafficking.” Meanwhile, the Indian government is reportedly making changes to the crypto bill that is listed to be taken up in the current session of parliament. Indian Minister of State for External Affairs on Cryptocurrency and Crypto Regulation Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Meenakshi Lekhi has reportedly stressed that cryptocurrencies need to be blocked if they are used for illegal means to harm India’s sovereignty and integrity. Lekhi is also India’s current minister of state for culture. She was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha in May 2014 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She was reelected to the 17th Lok Sabha in May 2019. Speaking at the sixth Global Technology Summit, jointly organized by the M...

An executive with Blockfi says that “this year has been a huge year for mainstream consumer demand into crypto.” Noting that fear of missing out (FOMO) will be a huge driver for investors, the executive expects some regulatory clarity next year. Crypto FOMO Will Drive Investments in 2022 Flori Marquez, Blockfi’s co-founder and senior vice president of operations, discussed the future outlook for cryptocurrency going into 2022 in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live Friday. Founded in 2017, Blockfi was created to provide credit services to markets with limited access to simple financial products. The crypto-focused financial services firm has institutional backing from investors, including Valar Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Fidelity, Akuna Capital, Sofi, and Coinbase Ventures. “It’s been a huge year for crypto,” she began. While acknowledging that the price of bitcoin has dipped slightly, she put it in perspective: “If you look at year over year returns for bitcoin, bitcoin has return...

Billionaire Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has shared his investment strategy with cryptocurrency as part of his portfolio. He warned that cash is the worst investment because it is eaten away by inflation. Ray Dalio’s Investment Advice: Cash Is Depreciating, Diversify Portfolio Well Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio shared his investment strategy last week. He currently serves as Bridgewater Associates’ chairman and co-chief investment officer. His firm’s clients include endowments, governments, foundations, pensions, and sovereign wealth funds. In an interview with Yahoo Finance, published Friday, he explained that he views cryptocurrency “as an alternative money in an environment where the value of cash money is depreciating in real terms.” Referring to bitcoin, he opined: I think it’s very impressive that, for the last 10, 11 years, that programming has still held up. It hasn’t been hacked and so on. And it has an adop...

A Bank of International Settlements (BIS) executive, Benoît Cœuré, says that crypto is “growing very fast” and ”becoming mainstream in different ways.” Emphasizing that decentralized finance (defi) is a “wake-up call” for financial regulators, he said countries “are likely to agree on a global framework for crypto next year.” BIS Officer Sees Defi as a Wake-up Call for Regulators, Global Policy Expected Next Year Benoît Cœuré, a member of the BIS Executive Committee who is currently head of the BIS Innovation Hub, talked about cryptocurrency, global regulation, and decentralized finance (defi) last week. Cœuré was a member of the European Central Bank (ECB)’s Executive Board and served in various positions at the French Treasury and the French debt management office prior to joining the ECB. He announced Thursday that he has been nominated to lead France’s competition authority. The BIS Innovation Hub chief told the Financial Times that regulators globally have intensified their d...

The Central Bank of Russia has reaffirmed its opposition to cryptocurrency investments citing the volatility of the digital assets as a key motive for its conservative stance. Governor Elvira Nabiullina has recently indicated that the regulator has the means to restrict them. Nabiullina Insists Bank of Russia Can Limit Investments in Crypto Assets Russia’s monetary authority does not welcome investments of Russian citizens in cryptocurrencies, the head of the Central Bank of Russia (CBR), Elvira Nabiullina, said during an online press conference this week. She highlighted their volatility and potential use in criminal activity as major reasons for the regulator’s position. The governor also noted Bank of Russia’s stance that the Russian financial infrastructure should not be employed to facilitate cryptocurrency transactions. She stressed that the regulator is capable of implementing restrictions and reiterated the bank’s skepticism towards these assets. Quoted by the business new...

The end of 2021 is approaching and the market capitalization of meme-based digital currencies like dogecoin and shiba inu has been extremely prominent this year. In fact, the $46.9 billion worth of meme crypto-assets represents 2% of the $2.32 trillion crypto economy. Dogecoin and shiba inu alone capture roughly 85.28% of the meme crypto market valuation today. Meme-Based Crypto Economy Taps $46 Billion in 2021 It’s been a good year for meme-based crypto assets like dogecoin (DOGE), the OG of meme-based assets, which has seen its market valuation swell by 4,375.9% year-to-date (YTD). Dogecoin is the largest meme-based crypto asset in terms of market capitalization as it commands a valuation of around $22.8 billion on Sunday, December 19. The second-largest meme coin, in terms of market capitalization, is shiba inu (SHIB) . The crypto asset SHIB has gained a whopping 46,960,505.7% against the U.S. dollar YTD. Both of these coins have inspired other meme-based crypto assets to thr...

On Sunday, December 19, a dormant address that received 235 bitcoin in 2013 was activated after more than nine years of sitting idle. Bitcoin’s price has dropped lower after reaching its all-time high on November 10, and throughout December, records show a great number of so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ have activated during this period. Dormant Addresses Wake up After Years of Slumber The day that bitcoin (BTC) tapped an all-time price high at $69K per unit on November 10, a miner from 2010 spent 1,000 sleeping bitcoins and 1,000 bitcoin cash (BCH) as well. The 1,000 bitcoins stemmed from 20 block rewards mined well over a decade ago in 2010. This same entity spent another 1,000 BTC and 1,000 BCH the following day. Additionally, a single block from 2010, worth 50 BTC or $2.3 million was spent on November 3. During the month of November, a total of 11 block rewards that were ten years old and mined in 2011, were activated and sent to new BTC addresses. That’s a total of 550 BT...

SBI Group, the financial services company group based in Tokyo, Japan, has announced the launch of a crypto asset fund that consists of seven different digital currencies. The crypto fund launched by the Japanese company includes bitcoin, ethereum, xrp, litecoin, bitcoin cash, chainlink, and polkadot. SBI Group’s New Crypto Fund Leverages 7 Different Digital Assets Three months ago, SBI Holdings, often referred to as SBI Group revealed the company was planning to launch a crypto asset fund. At the time, SBI said that the new fund would launch at the end of November, but the official launch press release published on December 17. In addition to the press announcement, SBI also published a more detailed summary of the digital currency fund. SBI’s crypto fund consists of bitcoin (BTC) , ethereum (ETH) , polkadot (DOT) , chainlink (LINK) , litecoin (LTC) , xrp (XRP) , and bitcoin cash (BCH) . The financial services company is calling it “Japan’s first cryptocurrency fund for general...

The market for crypto mining equipment in Russia has seen strong interest from buyers of both new and used devices, retail data indicates. This year, demand for application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) machines has multiplied exponentially while video cards have been in short supply leading to rising prices. Crypto Miners in Russia Looking to Increase Computing Power Online retailers have registered a surging demand for mining machines, brand new and second hand, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. Searches for devices designed to mine bitcoin ( BTC ), or ASICs , on the Russian classifieds site Avito.ru have increased 14 times year-on-year, when supply rose 13 fold. The price of a mining unit averaged 117,900 rubles (almost $1,600). The most sought-after products were Whatsminer ming rigs manufactured by the Chinese manufacturer Microbt , demand for which spiked 23 times. At the same time, searches for Antminers built by the Beijing-based company Bitmain were 11 ...

Invictus Capital has unveiled its first non-fungible token collection, called “Out of Africa,” through the Invictus NFT Lab. Through this collection, Invictus Capital will showcase fine art via blockchain technology as well as connect artists from Africa with the rest of the world. Invictus Capital to Release NFT Collection Blockchain investment platform Invictus Capital recently unveiled its first non-fungible token (NFT) collection. The unveiling, which was done by way of the Invictus NFT Lab, attempts to combine fine art with blockchain technology, and to bring many contemporary digital artists from Africa to a global market. As explained in the It Online report , this project is expected to begin in January with the distribution of NFT posters. In February, an auction for NFT representations of the original, physical artworks will be conducted. Invictus Capital’s decision to unveil the NFTs has won praise from stakeholders in the art space. For instance, Marelize van Zyl, the ...