Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

After the fall of Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), and Signature Bank (SNBY), First Republic Bank, a commercial bank and wealth management services provider, is the latest financial institution to receive a bailout. Close to a dozen lenders announced they will deposit $30 billion into the beleaguered bank’s coffers to shore up liquidity. U.S. banks have suffered from the financial contagion that followed the three bank failures last week. According to reports, depositors removed $8.8 billion from Charles Schwab Corporation’s prime money market funds. Impact of Recent Bank Failures on U.S. Banking Industry Spurs Wave of Bailouts Several banks received bailouts in the past week due to the collapse of three major U.S. banks. This event shook the banking industry, and banks of all sizes, including giants like Bank of America and JPMorgan, saw a decline in their stocks. After Silvergate, SVB, and SNBY failed, banks borrowed approximately $164.8 billion from the Federal Reser...

Bitcoin moved to a fresh nine-month high on Friday, as prices moved above the $27,000 level. The surge comes following the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to backstop embattled banks to a record tune of $152.9 billion. Ethereum was also in the green in today’s session. Bitcoin Bitcoin ( BTC ) rose back above $27,000 in today’s session, as markets reacted to the Federal Reserve’s decision to pump liquidity into the U.S. economy. Following a low of $24,624.74 on Thursday, BTC /USD raced to an intraday peak of $27,002.39 earlier in the day. As a result of the move, bitcoin climbed to its strongest point since June 2022, when price was above $28,500. Bitcoin chart by TradingView Since this latest rally, the 10-day (red) moving average is now on the verge of an upwards crossover with its 25-day (blue) counterpart, which many see as a sign of a longer-term bull run. In addition to this, the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) has broken out of a resistance level at 67.00, mov...

The Africa-focused venture capital (VC) firm, Echovc, has launched a fund that seeks to support blockchain startups on the continent. While global blockchain funding has been on a decline over the past year, Echovc founder Eghosa Omoigui claimed that investing now enables the VC to get in “at lower entry valuations on average than in prior years.” Startups Offering Blockchain-Based Solutions Qualify for Funding The pan-African venture capital firm, Echovc, recently said it had launched an $8 million fund which is dedicated to Africa’s blockchain startups. According to the company’s blog post , the fund known as the Echovc Chain will be accessible to startups that are attempting to solve the continent’s challenges using the blockchain. As noted in a report by Techcabal, Echovc’s new fund has been launched at a time when global funding for crypto and blockchain startups has been declining. The drop in funding has already forced some entrepreneurs to sell their startups. Echovc Tar...

An international operation has taken down Chipmixer, a cryptocurrency mixing service that allegedly laundered more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). The operation involved national authorities in the U.S., Germany, Belgium, Poland, and Switzerland — with Europol’s support. International Operation Takes Down Chipmixer The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday “a coordinated international takedown of Chipmixer,” which it described as “a darknet cryptocurrency ‘mixing’ service responsible for laundering more than $3 billion worth of cryptocurrency.” Europol, which provided support for the operation to take down the mixing service, independently announced: National authorities took down the infrastructure of the platform for its alleged involvement in money laundering activities and seized four servers, about 1909.4 bitcoins in 55 transactions (approx. EUR 44.2 million) and 7 TB of data. U.S. federal law enfor...

An investigation into digital asset exchanges in the Russian capital has established that some of them are ready to buy digital coins and deliver paper money in the U.K. The transfer of funds does not usually involve the identification of the clients, Transparency International Russia reveals in a report. Russia-based Cryptocurrency Exchanges Swap Stablecoins for British Cash Russian crypto exchanges that can transfer money abroad without following know-your-customer (KYC) procedures and anti-money laundering (AML) are in the focus of a study conducted by the Russian Chapter of Transparency International. The results were presented in a new report published on Wednesday. The association’s researchers were able to identify more than 20 coin trading platforms operating from Moscow International Business Center, commonly referred to as Moscow City. Through conversations with operators, they also found that eight of them were ready to exchange U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins for British...