Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

“Freedom in a wallet” is how Member of European Parliament Stefan Berger describes the non-fungible token (NFT) he is now selling on Opensea. The NFT represents a pair of ‘Bergoletten’ slides. Shoes symbolize the first step in every development, says Berger who invested efforts in making sure Europe’s upcoming crypto legislation gets the backing of his colleagues. European Lawmaker Auctions NFT Slides on Opensea Stefan Berger, the German member of the European Parliament (MEP) who was tasked to facilitate the progress of EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets ( MiCA ) regulatory package, has come up with a summer initiative to promote tokenization, something “as groundbreaking for the world as the introduction of the stock market was in the 17th century.” In late July, the member of the group of the conservative European People’s Party urged his followers on Twitter to join an auction on the NFT marketplace Opensea. “My NFT is out now,” Berger announced in a post about the sale which ends...

Skybridge Capital is “pretty optimistic” about bitcoin and ethereum over the next 12 to 24 months. The global asset management firm’s founder explained that the world’s largest cryptocurrency could reach $300K in six years, urging investors to “just relax” and “stay long-term.” Skybridge Optimistic About Bitcoin and Ethereum Anthony Scaramucci, founder and managing partner at global asset management firm Skybridge Capital, shared his firm’s outlook for bitcoin and ethereum in an interview with CNBC Friday. Replying to a question about whether the crypto winter is over, he said: “I want to caution people to see through the current environment,” citing better-than-expected economic data such as inflation and unemployment numbers released last week. “The crypto market, it’s our belief that most of the leverage is completely out of that system. So you are seeing a very strong recovery,” the Skybridge founder described, elaborating: It is a reminder to investors not to pull out, fig...

In just over a month’s time, The Merge is likely to be implemented on the Ethereum blockchain and the network’s proof-of-work (PoW) miners will be forced to mine another coin. So far, it seems ethereum miners are sticking with the PoW Ethereum chain until the very end as profits have increased. While Ethereum will change the consensus ruleset, a great number of crypto community members are attempting to guess where the hashrate will go after The Merge transition. The Crypto Community Wants to Know Where Ethereum Miners Will Go After the Merge — There’s a Myriad of Different Theories On August 11, 2022, Ethereum developers let the community know during a Consensus Layer Call livestream that The Merge will most likely happen on or around September 15th to the 16th. The following day, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin confirmed that The Merge would likely happen on September 15. “The terminal total difficulty has been set to 58750000000000000000000. This means the ethereum PoW netw...

The governor of the Zimbabwean central bank, John Mangudya, recently said his organization “has developed a roadmap for adoption of CBDC [central bank digital currency] in Zimbabwe.” Mangudya also revealed that two fintech startups had been admitted into the central bank’s fintech regulatory sandbox. Stakeholders’ Views Wanted Nearly six months after announcing the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ)’s intention to explore the feasibility of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the bank’s governor John Mangudya recently revealed that the central bank now has a roadmap for the envisaged digital currency. He said the bank’s development of the roadmap is in line with the government’s decision on the CBDC which was made in November 2021. Nevertheless, Mangudya suggested in his second monetary policy statement of the year that the RBZ is now eager to get the views of stakeholders. He said: The role of stakeholders in the CBDC journey is paramount and in that regard, the Bank ...

The Central Bank of Russia plans to begin the comprehensive implementation of the digital ruble two years from now, according to a paper detailing its monetary policy priorities for the 2023 – 2025 period. As the development of the state-issued digital currency continues, the monetary authority intends to gradually connect various financial institutions to the platform. Russia’s Central Bank to Introduce Digital Ruble Currency in 2 Years The Central Bank of the Russian Federation (CBR) has recently published a draft document that sets out the main directions for its monetary policy in the next three years. The paper reveals that one of the key goals for the regulator will be the introduction of a digital version of the national fiat currency, the ruble, and reads: In 2024, the Bank of Russia will begin to gradually connect all credit institutions to the digital ruble platform and increase the number of available payment options and transactions using smart contracts. While the ...

The United States-based venture capital (VC) firm, QED Investors, recently led an investment round that raised more than $50 million for the Nigerian fintech Teamapt. The investment, as well as the VC firm’s hiring of personnel tasked with spearheading its investments in Africa, seem to point to QED Investors’ newfound commitment towards the continent. Teamapt’s Pre-Series C The fintech-focused venture capital firm, QED Investors, recently became an investor in a Nigerian company, Teamapt, a startup that specializes in providing payments and banking platforms. According to a Techcrunch report , QED led an investment round that reportedly raised more than $50 million for Teamapt. Besides QED Investors, the other participants in the investment round — which the Techcrunch report has called pre-Series C — were Novastar Ventures, Lightrock, and BII. The three all became investors in the fintech firm after they participated in Teamapt’s Series B round. Meanwhile, in his response to as...