Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

In the digital currency realm, smart contracts have enhanced the financial industry through tokenization, decentralized finance (defi) and other agreements in the form of self-executing code. But how exactly do they work? What benefits do they offer? Here’s a concise overview of smart contracts and their profound effect on trust and collaboration in our interconnected society. Smart Contract Origins If you keep up with cryptocurrency news you’ve likely heard of “smart contracts.” Smart contracts, in their current form, are self-executing agreements housed on a blockchain. Fundamentally, the “smart” in smart contracts stems from automation, while the “contract” denotes a binding agreement or function that runs automatically. The idea of smart contracts was first posited by American computer scientist Nick Szabo . Ethereum’s Role & Beyond In the early 1990s, Szabo defined smart contracts as “a set of promises, specified in digital form, including protocols within which the par...

Stablecoins occupy a unique space within the realm of finance, straddling the worlds of traditional and cryptocurrency finance. These digital assets aim to achieve price stability by tethering their market value to external references such as fiat money. Stablecoins blend the characteristics of cryptocurrencies with the stability of traditional assets like the U.S. dollar or commodities such as gold, resulting in digital tokens with limited volatility. By stabilizing their purchasing power, stablecoins offer a level of reliability currently absent in pure, decentralized cryptocurrencies. Let’s delve into what stablecoins are, the various types available, and their origins. Stablecoins: Bridging Crypto and Fiat for Price Stability Today, the bustling stablecoin ecosystem boasts an impressive total value of $123 billion , encompassing numerous projects. Having been a prominent presence in the financial landscape for nearly a decade, stablecoins have firmly established themselves as pi...

The CEO of collapsed Turkish crypto exchange Thodex has been sentenced to 11,196 years, 10 months, and 15 days in prison. He purportedly absconded with more than $2 billion in cryptocurrency belonging to more than 400,000 customers. The court found his crypto trading platform to be a criminal organization. Thodex Chief Sentenced to 11,196 Years in Prison The CEO of collapsed Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, Faruk Fatih Özer, was reportedly sentenced to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison on Thursday. AFP reported that prosecutors had requested a prison sentence of 40,562 years for the 29-year-old crypto exchange boss. Özer was found guilty of various charges including fraud, leading a criminal organization, and money laundering. The court also found Thodex to be a criminal organization and that Özer acted with fraudulent intent from the beginning. In addition, Özer’s sister Serap and brother Guven were found guilty of the same charges. The Thodex CEO refuted the f...

The Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision has affirmed that the U.S. central bank is “a long way” from making a decision on whether to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The Fed official also voiced concerns regarding USD stablecoins, emphasizing that they “could pose significant risks to financial stability, monetary policy, and the U.S. payments system.” Fed Official on Digital Dollars and Stablecoins The Vice Chair for Supervision of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Michael Barr, talked about the Fed’s central bank digital currency progress on Friday at the Seventh Annual Fintech Conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. “As the pace of innovation increases, the payments landscape continues to evolve with the emergence of new programmable payments platforms, including those built on distributed ledger technology and blockchain technology, and new forms of digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and centra...

Lately, the crypto sphere, with bitcoin aficionados in particular, has been buzzing with chatter about the fees pocketed by BTC miners. They’re pondering if these fees will adequately offset the impending 2024 halving and the accompanying drop in revenue. On the other hand, Ethereum, the runner-up in the crypto world, is raking in significantly higher weekly fees. Here’s an insight into the leading blockchain networks and where users are truly shelling out for block space. Bitcoin Proponents Discuss the 2 Leading Blockchains and Transfer Fees Many of today’s leading blockchain networks come with transfer fees, designed to motivate miners or validators to oversee and validate transactions, fortifying the network. Besides ensuring security, these fees deter spam, prioritize transactions, and cater to distinct economic policies based on each blockchain’s consensus guidelines. In the Bitcoin realm, when miners discover a block, they’re rewarded with the fees associated with that part...

America’s biggest bank by assets, JPMorgan Chase, is exploring a blockchain-based deposit token for cross-border payments and interbank transfers. If approved by regulators, the banking giant may create the digital asset, which would be different from its existing JPM Coin as it could be used to send money to accounts in other banks. JPMorgan Considers Digital Token for Cross-Border Payments and Settlement JPMorgan is in the early stages of exploring a blockchain-based digital deposit token, Bloomberg reported quoting a person with knowledge of the matter. The token could be used to speed up cross-border payments and settlement. According to the source who chose to remain anonymous, most of the underlying infrastructure that would be necessary to run the new means of payment has been developed. However, the token will not be issued without U.S. regulatory approval. The bank may launch it less than a year after it gets a green light and offer it to corporate clients, the report un...

A United States Federal Court Judge has ordered the collapsed bitcoin investment platform Mirror Trading International to pay over $1.7 billion in restitution. Commodity Futures Trading Commission director of enforcement Ian McGinley said the CFTC will not hesitate to go after fraudsters who target U.S. citizens. The Commission again warned that court rulings are not a guarantee that victims will recover all their funds. Forex Fraud Allegations United States Federal Court Judge David A. Ezra recently ordered the now-defunct South African bitcoin investment platform Mirror Trading International (MTI) to pay over $1.7 billion in restitution. The order, which stems from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) June 2022 complaint, was issued after the judge determined that MTI had committed forex fraud. According to the Commission’s Sept. 7 press statement , MTI, which is presently in liquidation, was also found liable for “registration violations and failure to comply with C...