Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe recently revealed that some 25,188 of its value-preserving gold coins were sold between July 2022 and Jan. 13. According to the central bank governor, John Mangudya, the gold coins “have proved to be an effective open market instrument for mopping up excess liquidity in the economy.” Gold Coins as Alternative Value Preservation Tool According to the Zimbabwean central bank, about 25,188 “Mosi-oa-Tunya” gold coins valued at over $28 million (ZWD$20 billion) were sold between July 2022 — when the coins were initially introduced — and Jan. 13. From this total, acquisitions by the so-called corporates accounted for 84% “while purchases by individuals accounted for 16%.” Initially launched to act as “an alternative retail investment product for value preservation,” for the wealthy, the bank said lower denomination gold coins introduced in Nov. 2022 “accounted for 38% of all sales.” Commenting on the gold coins’ impact since their introduction, Reserve Bank ...

On Thursday, the fiat-to-crypto onramp business Moonpay announced a multi-year partnership with the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Looksrare. According to the deal, Looksrare will allow marketplace users to buy and sell crypto assets through Moonpay’s services. Moonpay and Looksrare Join Forces to Streamline NFT Transactions Moonpay , the fiat-to-crypto service founded in 2019, revealed that it has entered into a partnership with the NFT market, Looksrare . Launched in August 2022, Looksrare was one of the first NFT marketplaces to actively reward traders with its own token, LOOKS . According to dappradar.com statistics on February 9, 2023, since its inception, the NFT market Looksrare has recorded $1.7 billion in sales. According to an announcement sent to Bitcoin.com News, Moonpay is introducing an NFT checkout integration with Looksrare that allows anyone to buy NFTs with a credit card. “Checkout will be available for all primary and secondary sales on Looksrare,” accordi...

French luxury brand Hermes has won a lawsuit against an artist who depicted its famous Birkin bags in a non-fungible token (NFT) collection. The artist argued that NFTs should be covered under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment but the jury disagreed. Hermes Wins Lawsuit Against ‘Metabirkins’ NFT Creator French luxury design house Hermes has won a lawsuit against Mason Rothschild, the artist behind the “Metabirkins” non-fungible token (NFT) collection which features digital depictions of Hermes’ popular Birkin bags. Rothschild created the Metabirkins NFT collection in 2021, which he described as “a collection of 100 unique NFTs created with faux fur in a range of contemporary color and graphic executions.” The collection has fetched more than 200 ETH in sales, equivalent to $331,684 at the time of writing. Hermes complained and sued the artist early last year for trademark infringement. Rothschild argued that NFTs should be covered under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendme...

Several Federal Reserve governors and presidents say that more interest rate hikes are needed to curb inflation. “We are not done yet with raising interest rates,” Fed Governor Lisa Cook said. “We need to raise rates aggressively to put a ceiling on inflation,” Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari stressed. Fed Officials on Raising Interest Rates Further Several Federal Reserve governors and presidents said this week that more interest rate hikes are needed to curb inflation. Their comments followed a similar statement by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell who said on Tuesday that additional interest-rate increases will be needed to cool inflation. At an event hosted by the Joint Center for Policy and Economic Studies on Wednesday, Fed Governor Lisa Cook stated: We are determined to bring inflation down to our target … So I think we are not done yet with raising interest rates, and we will need to keep interest rates sufficiently restrictive. “We are now movi...

The bitcoin hardware wallet manufacturer Coinkite has announced the launch of a new product, the Coldcard Q1, which features a QWERTY keyboard and QR code scanner. Coinkite details that the battery-powered device utilizes the same security model as the Coldcard Mk4. Coinkite Introduces the Coldcard Q1 Over the past three months, companies have unveiled new hardware wallets for securely storing cryptocurrency assets. In Dec. 2022, Ledger announced the launch of Stax, designed by iPod creator Tony Fadell. The following month, decentralized exchange (dex) aggregation service 1inch Network disclosed its plans to launch a hardware wallet. This month, Coinkite announced the launch of the “higher-end” Coldcard bitcoin signing device and the firm is currently accepting pre-order requests. The new Coldcard Q1 is a battery-powered machine that doesn’t require a connection to a desktop or power source. It boasts a 320×240 pixel LCD screen, which is approximately four times larger than the...

Bitcoin.com is excited to announce that Verse Farms are live on the Verse DEX . Anyone can now deposit select Liquidity Pool (LP) tokens into Verse Farms to earn additional rewards on top of the trading fees already earned for providing liquidity. The first Verse Farm is for the VERSE/ ETH pool with a starting APY of ~80%. More Farms will be added soon. “Yield farming for VERSE tokens helps grow liquidity on the Verse DEX, which improves the trading experience on this important piece of decentralized infrastructure,” said Bitcoin.com CEO Dennis Jarvis. “This is a critical early step towards providing VERSE with broad utility in the Bitcoin.com ecosystem.” VERSE, which launched in December 2022, is Bitcoin.com ’s rewards and utility token. VERSE is fueling the growth and expansion of Bitcoin.com ’s ecosystem, which includes over 37 million self-custody wallets created in its multi-chain DeFi-ready mobile app, the Bitcoin.com Wallet . The ecosystem also includes the award...

Russian authorities have reportedly arrested the second co-founder of seized cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato. The man, who recently promised to restore the platform’s operations from Russia, was detained at the request of Interpol and may face extradition to France. Another Co-Founder of the Russia-Linked Bitzlato Exchange Apprehended in Moscow Anton Shkurenko, co-founder of the recently busted digital asset exchange Bitzlato, has been arrested in Moscow, the Russian Telegram channel Baza reported. According to a post published on Tuesday, the crypto entrepreneur was wanted by French investigators who suspect him of extortion, data theft, and money laundering. Better known to the Russian-speaking market, Bitzlato was taken down in an international law enforcement operation in January. The coin trading platform is said to have processed over $700 million in illicit funds received from criminal entities, including the darknet market Hydra and the Russian crypto pyramid Finiko . ...

With just a few days left before the old naira banknotes are demonetized on Feb. 10 as scheduled, a court in Nigeria has blocked the country’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, and the central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, from further extending the deadline. Opponents of the central bank’s old naira demonetization plan have asked Buhari and Emefiele to extend the deadline again. CBN Asked to Extend Demonetization Deadline Again A Nigerian High Court recently issued a restraining order that stops the country’s president Muhammadu Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Godwin Emefiele from further extending the old naira demonetization deadline, a report has said. In the order, the court’s Eneojo Eneche reportedly said the duo, along with 27 commercial banks, must not extend or interfere “with the currency redesign terminal date of February 10 or issue any directive contrary to the February 10 date.” According to a report, the restraining order was issued after four Nig...