Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

While cryptocurrency markets have seen poor performances during the first two quarters of 2022, a recently published fundraising report authored by Messari researchers notes that $30.3 billion was raised by crypto projects and startups during the first half of 2022. The $30.3 billion raised across 1,199 fundraising rounds surpasses all the funding blockchain startups and projects obtained last year. H1 Crypto Ecosystem Funding Report Shows Capital Continues to Flow Despite Crypto Winter A significant sum of money has been injected into specific blockchain projects and startups within the crypto industry, according to the “H1 2022 Fundraising Report” published by Messari and Dove Metrics, a subsidiary of Messari Holding Inc. According to the report , centralized finance (cefi) outpaced decentralized finance (defi), as cefi captured more than $10.2 billion in H1. Defi managed to gather $1.8 billion, while Web3 and non-fungible token (NFT) projects and related companies raised $8.6 b...

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has warned that his company could “disable Wazirx wallets on a tech level,” advising anyone with funds on the Indian crypto exchange to transfer them to Binance. The warning followed numerous tweets by CZ and Wazirx’s founder regarding whether Binance acquired Wazirx. Binance’s Warning: Transfer Your Funds The conflict between global crypto exchange Binance and Indian crypto exchange Wazirx has deepened. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) tweeted Friday, advising anyone with funds on Wazirx to transfer them to Binance. He warned: “We could disable Wazirx wallets on a tech level.” The dispute between Binance and Wazirx began when India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED) froze the bank assets of Wazirx as part of its money laundering investigation. Following the ED’s announcement, Binance’s CEO quickly denied that his company had acquired Wazirx — almost three years after the two exchanges announced the acquisition. While Zhao claimed that the acquisit...

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, says he has bought the dip during the recent cryptocurrency market sell-off. He added: “Now crypto itself desperately needs policy. It needs regulation.” Kevin O’Leary Buys the Dip, Comments on Bitcoin Price Kevin O’Leary shared his crypto market outlook and investment strategy during this bear market in an interview with Stansberry Research, published Thursday. “I see bitcoin sort of testing $20,000 all the time, getting a lot of resistance,” he said when asked about the state of the cryptocurrency, adding that BTC seems to be holding between $20K and $23K. “Still very profitable for bitcoin miners that are currently mining at about $7,000 per coin at scale,” he opined. “There has been a knee-jerk reaction against bitcoin miners lately because of ESG [environmental, social, and corporate governance] concerns but they’re also self-correcting by getting into nuclear and hydropower, which you know is plentiful in some countries like...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has accused Twitter of fraud in his countersuit against the social media company. Twitter filed a lawsuit against the billionaire to force him to go through with the $44 billion deal to buy the platform. “The Musk parties bring their counterclaims for breach of contract and rescission on the basis of Twitter’s fraud.” Elon Musk’s Legal Battle With Twitter Intensifies Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has filed a counter-lawsuit against Twitter after the social media giant sued him for terminating the $44 billion deal to buy the platform. Musk’s countersuit, filed Thursday and published Friday, states: This action arises out of Twitter’s misrepresentations to the Musk parties regarding the condition of the company and the ‘key metrics’ Twitter uses to evaluate the number of users on its platform. “Twitter was miscounting the number of false and spam accounts on its platform, as part of its scheme to mislead investors about the company’s prospects by focusing on...

Russian IT specialist Alexander Vinnik, accused of owning and running the infamous crypto exchange BTC-e, has been handed over to the U.S. This week, Greek authorities proceeded with the extradition, after his return from France, despite Vinnik’s defense protesting the move and calling the case a “judicial, diplomatic and humanitarian scandal.” Vinnik Appears in San Francisco Federal Court to Face Money Laundering Charges The presumed co-founder and operator of the notorious crypto exchange BTC-e , Alexander Vinnik, was extradited from Greece to the United States on Thursday. The Russian national is facing charges in the Northern District of California and has already appeared in federal court in San Francisco, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the department’s Criminal Division, was quoted as stating: After more than five years of litigation, Russian national Alexander Vinnik was extradited to the United States y...

Fabio Araujo, Director of the Central Bank of Brazil, has praised the properties of Bitcoin, saying it is a financial innovation using new technologies. To Araujo, Bitcoin was the catalyst for what is today known as Web3. At an event, Araujo also commented about the status of the development of the digital real, stating that his organization hopes to add smart functions to the currency. Central Bank of Brazil Praises Bitcoin as Pioneer of Web3 Tech More and more central banks around the world are dealing with the issue of cryptocurrencies and how to innovate to keep up with these technologies. Fabio Araujo, director of the Central Bank of Brazil, praised Bitcoin as a financial innovation that gave rise to the Web3 movement and talked about how the digital real, the central bank digital currency (CBDC) that is still under research, might have programmable features. In an event promoted by the Sao Paolo Business School, Araujo stated : We started to accelerate this in 2009, with th...

According to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, the country’s annual inflation rate for the month of July was 79.6%, the highest in 24 years. Rising transportation costs, food and non-alcoholic beverages were some of the product categories that contributed to the overall rate increase. Transportation Costs Rose the Most Turkey’s consumer inflation rate in July surged to 79.60% — the highest in 24 years — while the monthly rate stood at 2.37%, the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TSI) has shown. According to the data, transportation costs, which rose by 119.1%, were one of the four main product groups whose prices rose faster than the consumer price index (CPI). The three other product groups whose inflation rate rose faster than 79.6% are food and non-alcoholic beverages which went up by 94.65%, furnishings and household equipment (88.35%), and alcoholic beverages and tobacco (82.66%). However, according to the TSI, while the transportation...