Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Masterminds of one of South Africa’s biggest bitcoin Ponzi schemes, Mirror Trading International (MTI), have been asked by the scheme’s liquidators to pay back over $291 million to cover the scam operation’s debts. Liquidators’ Influence Liquidators of the South African bitcoin Ponzi scheme, Mirror Trading International (MTI), have issued summonses against eighteen individuals believed to be the masterminds behind the now-defunct scheme. The liquidators want the named individuals to pay back more than $291 million (4,666,077,528 rand) to cover the scheme’s debts, a report has said. The move to summon the alleged MTI masterminds comes just a few months after liquidators unsuccessfully tried to have the online bitcoin trading platform declared an unlawful business by a South African court. As per a report by Bitcoin.com News, the move was frustrated by a slew of late court filings by lawyers representing MTI investors. Investors were reportedly worried that the liquidators’ motion ...

Economist Nouriel Roubini, a crypto skeptic known as “Dr. Doom,” is developing a tokenized asset intended to be a more resilient U.S. dollar. “Our goal is to create a global store of value … This is something akin to a substitute for Treasuries, or a digital asset that has payment features in it.” Nouriel Roubini’s Tokenized USD Alternative Economist Nouriel Roubini revealed this week that he is developing a suite of financial products, including a tokenized asset, called the United Sovereign Governance Gold Optimized Dollar (USG), to act as a more resilient dollar against high inflation, climate change, and civil unrest, Bloomberg reported. Roubini is a longtime crypto skeptic who called bitcoin “the mother of all bubbles.” He teaches at New York University’s Stern School of Business and has his own economic consulting firm called Roubini Macro Associates. Famed for predicting the housing bubble crash of 2007-2008, his gloomy predictions have earned him the nickname “Dr. Doom” in ...

Several major financial services firms, including Citi, Wells Fargo, and BNY Mellon, are investing in institutional digital asset technology provider Talos, which aims to remove “the barriers to wide-scale crypto adoption.” The latest funding round values the company at $1.25 billion. Citi, Wells Fargo, BNY Mellon Participate in $105M Funding Round for Digital Asset Tech Firm A number of major financial services companies, including Citi and Wells Fargo, have joined a funding round for Talos, a global firm that provides institutional digital asset trading technology. Talos announced a $105 million Series B funding round Tuesday that values the company at $1.25 billion. “Our institutional-grade infrastructure technology supports the full lifecycle of digital asset trading, from price discovery to execution through to settlement,” its website describes, adding that “Talos is removing the barriers to wide-scale crypto adoption.” The funding round was led by global growth equity fir...

Bitso, a Mexico-based cryptocurrency exchange, is expanding its range of crypto investing options. The company has announced it will now allow customers to earn funds just by holding bitcoin or stablecoins in its wallet. The program, called Bitso+, will offer different yields based on the quantities deposited by users, and it is designed to help customers tackle inflation problems in Latam. Bitso Introduces Yield Program for Bitcoin and Stablecoins Bitso, one of the biggest cryptocurrency unicorns in Latam, is expanding its services offerings by introducing new yield services for customers. A new program, called Bitso+, will offer users different yield plans according to the cryptocurrency and the quantities present in the wallet of the exchange. This program, which was available to many users before and is now open for all users, offers up to 6% yield for bitcoin deposits, and up to 15% yield in stablecoins. However, this depends on the amount that the user has in the exchange w...

Kucoin, a Seychelles-based cryptocurrency exchange, has announced it has raised $150 million in a pre-Series B funding round. The negotiation, which was led by Jump Crypto with the participation of other investors including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners, has conferred the exchange a valuation of $10 billion. The exchange will use these funds to keep expanding in the Web3 sector. Kucoin to Expand in the Web3 Arena Crypto exchange Kucoin has announced it has raised $150 million as a part of its pre-Series B funding round. The company, which had raised $20 million in its Series A funding round back in November 2018, has reached a valuation of $10 billion with this capital influx. The pre-funding round investment was led by Jump Crypto, and had participation from other VC firms in the sector, including Circle Ventures, IDG Capital, and Matrix Partners. On this round, Johnny Liu, CEO of Kucoin, stated: The vote of confidence from prominent investors, including Jum...