Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

More than $17 million in restitution will be distributed among investors in the pyramid scheme Bitconnect under a court order in the United States. The notorious crypto investment scheme defrauded thousands of people around the world. Bitconnect Investors From Dozens of Countries to Be Paid Back Millions of US Dollars A total of over $17 million in restitution will be returned to around 800 victims from more than 40 countries who lost money to Bitconnect, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday, quoting an order issued by a federal district court in San Diego. The large-scale crypto investment scheme defrauded thousands of investors globally. The ruling comes after on Sept. 16, 2021, the top U.S.-based promoter of Bitconnect, 44-year-old Glenn Arcaro, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He admitted to marketing Bitconnect’s initial coin offering and digital currency exchange as a lucrative investment with the goal to exploit investor interest in crypt...

Ukraine’s national soccer team has secured a sponsorship deal with a player from the industry that wants to engage fans and promote adoption of cryptocurrencies. As part of the agreement, an EU-based coin trading platform will be the team’s crypto partner for the next three years. Whitebit Exchange Aims to Expand Ukraine’s Crypto Community by Engaging Soccer Fans Whitebit, a European cryptocurrency exchange with Ukrainian roots, has agreed to a long-term partnership with the national soccer team of Ukraine. Under the deal, its logo will be featured during the team’s matches, the crypto news outlet Forklog reported, quoting the company. “We are on the same field with football fans, so we are simply delighted, because we have just entered into a partnership with the National Football Team of Ukraine. With this, we will support Ukrainian sports and expand the Ukrainian crypto community,” the trading platform said in a blog post . Whitebit becomes the team’s official crypto partner un...

Samsung’s asset management arm has launched a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new actively managed ETF is listed and traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It seeks “to provide economic exposure to the value of bitcoin,” Samsung detailed. Samsung’s Bitcoin Futures ETF Samsung Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Asset Management, a member of the Samsung Group of companies, launched a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Friday called “Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF.” The new ETF is a sub-fund of Samsung ETFs Trust III, an umbrella unit trust established under Hong Kong law, the company detailed, adding: The investment objective of the sub-fund is to seek to provide economic exposure to the value of bitcoin by investing predominately in front-month bitcoin futures contracts and/or micro bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Samsung explained that the actively managed bitcoin fut...

On Friday, the Web3 wallet firm Metamask, a subsidiary of the Ethereum-centric company Consensys, announced the beta launch of ethereum staking features will be made available via Lido’s or Rocketpool’s liquid staking services. Users who want to stake ethereum and earn staking rewards can select one of the staking providers within the Metamask Web3 wallet’s interface. Consensys-owned Metamask’s Latest Update Allows Users to Stake Ethereum With Lido and Rocketpool The Web3 wallet provider Metamask announced that the company has added ethereum ( ETH ) staking services to the wallet’s set of tools. “We are extremely happy to announce that you can now stake ETH with Lido or Rocketpool through the Portfolio Dapp,” Metamask said on Friday. “Metamask Staking allows you to interact directly with the Lido and Rocketpool protocols — no sketchy third-parties doing your staking for you,” the company added on Twitter. Essentially, the two liquid staking providers, Lido and Rocketpool, issue ...

A Chivo wallet programmer has opened up about the different problems that the flagship cryptocurrency wallet of El Salvador faced during its initial stages. Shaun Overton, who alleges he was hired to help in the handling of the issues, has talked about ID theft, money laundering problems, and the tech issues he observed while working with the Chivo team. Chivo Wallet Problems Deconstructed Shaun Overton, a developer that supposedly was part of the team for Chivo Wallet, has talked about the different problems that the flagship cryptocurrency wallet, created by the government to popularize the use of bitcoin as legal tender in the country, faced during its initial stages. The statements offered by Overton are part of a legal dispute between Accruvia, a software developer, and Athena Bitcoin, the company in charge of developing and operating Chivo Wallet, which was replaced by Alphapoint in February. According to the local news site El Faro, Overton was brought in by Chivo’s team t...

A Belarusian citizen will have to pay a hefty fine for illegally organizing the exchange of cryptocurrencies online. Law enforcement authorities in the country, where certain crypto activities are legal, do not plan to impose other penalties besides the administrative measure. Cryptocurrency Trader Tries to Challenge Fine in Belarusian Court The Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus has rejected the appeal of a Belarusian against a lower-instance ruling ordering him to pay 2,700,000 Belarusian rubles (around $1 million) to the state for trading digital assets outside the law. The man, identified only by the initial ‘A,’ is accused of using the Telegram messenger to set up an online cryptocurrency exchanger in January 2021. He allegedly made 5,400,000 rubles as income from his illegal activities. According to a post by the Belarusian Ministry of Taxes and Duties, quoted by the crypto news outlet Bits.media, investigators were able to trace his transactions and submit the gather...