Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The New York-based multinational investment management corporation Blackrock has filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a blockchain tech exchange-traded fund (ETF). The Ishares blockchain tech ETF aims to track the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) index called the Factset Global Blockchain Technologies Index. Blackrock Files to Launch a Blockchain ETF The investment firm with $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM) as of January 2022, Blackrock, hopes to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) called the Ishares blockchain tech ETF. That’s according to a SEC filing submitted by Blackrock which says the fund will track the ICE index called the NYSE Factset Global Blockchain Technologies Index (NYFSBLC). According to documents, NYFSBLC was initiated on December 31, 2021. Blackrock’s ETF filing investment objective says the “Ishares Blockchain and Tech ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. and non-U.S. companies ...

One of the largest banks in the Philippines, Unionbank, is reportedly launching cryptocurrency trading and custodial services. “It’s a way to future-proof our banking business,” said a Unionbank executive. Philippines’ Unionbank to Offer Crypto Trading and Custodial Services Union Bank of the Philippines (UBP), also known as Unionbank, plans to offer cryptocurrency trading and custodial services, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Unionbank is one of the largest universal banks in the Philippines with over $15 billion in assets under management (AUM). The bank is one of the first financial institutions in the Philippines to adopt cryptocurrency. Cathy Casas, head of the bank’s blockchain and application programming interface group, explained that the average Filipino investor currently holds about 1% to 2% of their personal assets in cryptocurrency, like bitcoin. She added that if the markets are “stable,” investors would hold between 3% and 5% in 5 years. The Unionbank executive estim...

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has criticized Twitter for using its engineering resources to provide a non-fungible token (NFT) profile picture service. “Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread,” Musk said. Elon Musk Criticizes How Twitter Uses Engineering Resources Tesla CEO Elon Musk criticized Twitter Friday regarding its new non-fungible token (NFT) profile picture service. “This is annoying,” Musk wrote. “Twitter is spending engineering resources on this bs while crypto scammers are throwing a spambot block party in every thread!?” Twitter launched the NFT profile picture service Thursday to allow users to set up an NFT as their profile picture. NFT profile pictures are displayed with a special hexagon shape. “Right now Twitter only supports static image NFTs (JPEG, PNG) minted on the Ethereum blockchain,” the company clarified. Musk’s tweet received many comments. Some agreed with the Tesl...

El Salvador bought the dip as the price of bitcoin plunged to a record low. President Nayib Bukele said Friday that his country has purchased 410 more bitcoins. The Salvadoran government has bought a total of 1,801 bitcoins since the cryptocurrency was made legal tender in the country. El Salvador Buys the Dip The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, tweeted Friday that his country just bought 410 BTC for $15 million. Having paid about $36,585 per coin, Bukele wrote, “Some guys are selling really cheap.” In the same tweet, Bukele also stated that he did not miss the dip after all. “Nope, I was wrong, didn’t miss it,” the Salvadoran president wrote in response to his own tweet on Jan. 14 that says, “I think I might have missed the dip this time.” The price of bitcoin began a steep decline in early November last year from above $67K, based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets. BTC started the year around $47K but fell below $41K on Jan. 8. The crypto then slowly crept back up and ...

Following the large string of block rewards from 2010 spent in November 2021, no block rewards from that year were discovered in December and throughout the next month up until January 21. On Friday, an 11-year-old block reward originally mined on November 22, 2010, was transferred for the first time since being idle for more than a decade. Block 93,276: The First 2010 Block Transferred in 2022 The first recorded 2010 block subsidy reward has been transferred on Friday, after close to two months of zero 2010 block reward spending. The block reward of 50 BTC was worth roughly $1.8 million at the time of transfer. The owner of the BTC address , however, did not spend the corresponding bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoinsv (BSV) , which equates to a touch less than $20K for the 100 unspent coins. The very last 2010 block reward spends occurred when the mega whale spent 20 BTC block rewards with 1,000-decade-old bitcoins when BTC tapped an all-time price high. The 50 BTC spend on Janua...

2022 is ramping up to a buzzing year for the metaverse . Upcoming projects like Next Earth aim to usher in a new era of user-governed virtual worlds. Next Earth is a metaverse that uses blockchain technology to manage virtual land NFTs on a 1:1 replica with Earth. This allows users to buy, sell, and trade virtual land as they please. The platform also has a built-in marketplace where users can buy and sell digital assets, from the virtual Pyramids to pixel-colored Land Art. One of the most impressive features of Next Earth is its focus on environmentalism. 10% of all transactions on the platform are donated to charities like The Ocean Cleanup , Amazon Watch , Kiss the Ground , and SEE Turtles . This helps to support the platform’s goal of creating a more sustainable metaverse. So far, Next Earth has been a resounding success. The platform has 30,000 virtual land owners and 180,000 registered users. Further, the marketplace has seen 2,418 transactions, worth $717,843. This has resu...

Banks in Russia are preparing to dive into the pilot phase of the digital ruble project and some are already testing transactions with the currency. Trials have started with customer-to-customer (C2C) payments and Bank of Russia plans to expand the types of operations in the future. Digital Ruble Pilot Launches With 12 Participating Banks The Central Bank of Russia ( CBR ) completed the prototype of the digital ruble platform in December and is now beginning to experiment with transactions. A dozen banks have been invited to join the first stage of the project’s pilot phase. The monetary authority plans to gradually expand the range of participants to include other financial service providers and types of transactions. Right now, the majority of Russian banks are gearing up to start testing the new central bank digital currency ( CBDC ), Tass reported after contacting the institutions. One of them, Promsvyazbank (PSB), is currently processing C2C payments, Maxim Khrustalev, adviso...

Bitdefender, a cybersecurity and antivirus company, has detected BHUNT, a new kind of malware that targets cryptocurrency wallets via software installs. The malware works on top of installs of unsecured or cracked software, that already comes packaged with the system to be deployed on desktop environments. Once installed, the software extracts passphrases and seeds from popular wallets. BHUNT Malware Spotted in the Wild Bitdefender, a leading cybersecurity firm, has issued a report regarding a new kind of password stealer that focuses on cryptocurrency wallets users have on their PCs. BHUNT, as this new malware is called, enters computers through infected software installs, mostly of cracked software. According to the technical document issued on the software, BHUNT attacks Exodus, Electrum, Atomic, Jaxx, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Litecoin wallets. Once installed, the software can transfer the funds of the users to another wallet, and also steal other private data residing in the infe...

The Central Bank of Iran soon plans to launch the pilot phase of its digital currency project, an official unveiled. The Islamic Republic hopes to a join a growing club of nations that want to take advantage of having a sovereign coin, while it also seeks to implement blockchain technology in other areas. Iran to Begin State-Backed Digital Currency Trials The monetary authority of Iran intends to pilot its central bank digital currency ( CBDC ) in the near future, a high-ranking representative of the financial regulator said, quoted by the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA). The news comes in the fourth year since the initial announcement of the project. According to a statement by Mehran Moharamian, deputy governor for IT at the Central Bank of Iran, the CBI sees digital currencies as a solution for resolving certain inconsistencies and decentralizing resources. Other countries have already begun to benefit from CBDCs, he noted. Moharamian did not provide specific details about t...