Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been approved to launch in Canada. Purpose Bitcoin ETF, an alternative mutual fund, is expected to list and trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. With this approval, the U.S. has fallen behind Canada in approving a bitcoin ETF. First Bitcoin ETF Approved in North America The Ontario Securities Commission approved a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) called Purpose Bitcoin ETF on Thursday. The fund’s filing describes that “This ETF is an alternative mutual fund” that “invests in and holds substantially all of its assets in long-term holdings of the digital currency bitcoin.” The fund manager, Purpose Investments Inc., confirmed Thursday that it has been cleared by Canadian securities regulators to launch Purpose Bitcoin ETF, which the company says is “the first direct custody bitcoin ETF in the world.” Purpose Investments is an asset management company with more than $10 billion in assets under management, its website

The U.S. city of Miami is going full bitcoin. The city commissioners have voted to support the mayor’s resolution to allow payments in bitcoin for salaries, taxes, and fees. The city also supports efforts to make bitcoin an acceptable currency for potentially investing in the state treasury. Miami Gets Deep Into Bitcoin Miami City’s commissioners voted Thursday night to support Mayor Francis Suarez’s resolution that would make Miami a highly bitcoin-forward city. In a video thanking the commissioners for their support, the pro-bitcoin mayor explained that the resolution “directs the city manager, after analysis, to procure a vendor to be able to offer our employees to get a percentage of their salary in bitcoin, allow our residents to pay for fees in bitcoin, and also would allow the city manager to cooperate with the Miami county to allow for taxes to be paid in bitcoin.” He added: It’s also a request of the state legislature that the city of Miami supports efforts to make bitco

Janet Yellen, the new U.S. Treasury Secretary, has warned about “a growing problem” from “the misuse of cryptocurrencies.” She emphasized that “cryptocurrencies have been used to launder the profits of online drug traffickers; they’ve been a tool to finance terrorism.” Janet Yellen Warns of Cryptocurrency Risks The U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted its inaugural Financial Sector Innovation Policy Roundtable on Feb. 9 and 10. “The Roundtable brought together policymakers and regulators with experts from the private sector to exchange views for collaborating on policy issues and innovative technologies,” the department described. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen briefly talked about cryptocurrencies during her opening remarks at the event. “We’re living amidst an explosion of risk related to fraud, money laundering, terrorist financing, and data privacy. As the pandemic has moved more of life online, crime has moved with it,” she opined. One of the problems she outlined concerns

The Bank of New York Mellon, BNY Mellon, has set up a digital asset unit. The oldest bank in the U.S. plans to “hold, transfer, and issue” bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its clients. The bank aims to eventually treat cryptocurrencies like any other assets. BNY Mellon Gets Into Crypto The oldest bank in the U.S., BNY Mellon, announced Thursday “the formation of a new enterprise digital assets unit that will accelerate the development of solutions and capabilities to help clients address growing and evolving needs related to the growth of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.” BNY Mellon is a global investments company with a presence in 35 countries. As of Dec. 31, 2020, the bank had $41.1 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $2.2 trillion in assets under management, according to its website. “BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” said Roman Regelman, the

Core, an anonymous and hyped DeFi project, has announced Delta, a new product and token. Core says this will “close the gap” between options trading and spot markets by “using a combination of liquidity standards to deploy an on-chain options layer with scalability in mind.” Anonymous Developers Behind Delta Project Will Work Towards Promoting Healthier Market Core was initially launched in September 2020 after successfully raising $60 million in locked liquidity. It’s currently preparing to launch a new product and Delta token, Coredex , which will bring a variety of new derivatives and liquidity to the DeFi crypto market. The DeFi market is becoming a popular marketplace among anonymous developers. Earlier this week, a group known as Anon Powered announced the launch of its DeFi platform, Premia . Other notable names in the market include Aave, Hegic, Opyn, Coinlist, and Nexo, to name just a few. But the Core team is planning to do things a little differently thanks to its new

Big moves are happening within the bitcoin mining industry in Russia. An unnamed miner sent what seems to be the largest single batch of mining equipment to the country. Delivery Took Place at the End of 2020 According to Kommersant , the unknown miner shipped almost 20,000 devices on 14 trucks, which have a total power capacity of 70 megawatts. The media outlet’s estimations show that the hardware shipped from Asia is worth approx. between $40 million and $60 million. The Bitriver-powered data center is located in Irkutsk, the largest city of Irkutsk, in the Siberian Federal District, with over 600,000 residents. Citing Igor Runets, CEO and founder of Bitriver data center, says that the delivery took place at the end of 2020, specifically in December. Right after the shipping, the data center’s staff installed the rigs to mine bitcoin ( BTC ). Hardware From Four Major Manufacturer Brands Runets also added that they deployed a separate hangar in Bratsk, in the same region

Buoyed by bitcoin’s recent spike, altcoins including exchange-issued tokens recently made significant gains, while several of these crypto-assets went on to set new all-time highs (ATH). According to Messari data, Binance is leading the pack in this category, after its token went up by more than 150% from $47 on February 1 to an ATH of $148 on February 10. Nevertheless, at the time of writing, the token had retreated and was trading at $123. Centralized Exchange Tokens Lead the Way As a result of this surge, the market capitalization of the BNB token stood at just over $19 billion at the time of writing, while the crypto-asset has now moved up to number 6, as shown by Messari.io top asset rankings. Also, BNB ’s seven-day change of 116% is one of the highest by a centralized exchange. Meanwhile, also seeing similar growth action is Asian crypto platform Huobi whose token touched a new ATH of $13.95 on February 10. After starting the month at $6.54, the token was trading at $12.65

At 3.5 million people, the United Arab Emirates is home to the largest population of Indian migrants globally, making the UAE the top source of remittances for India. Recognizing a need to enhance the cross-border payments experience in one of the biggest remittance corridors in the world, LuLu Exchange, a leading Abu Dhabi-based financial services … Continued The post LuLu Exchange and Federal Bank Enhance Cross-Border Payments Experience into India with RippleNet appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/RsXfN7

Players who enjoy the best-selling video game Minecraft will be able to transfer blockchain-based non-fungible token (NFT) assets into the game. Microsoft and the company Enjin have issued Minecraft-compatible NFTs in order to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Minecraft-Compatible Non-Fungible Tokens The video game Minecraft is the most popular game today and the creators have sold 200 million+ copies since it was launched by Mojang Studios. According to the announcement , the latest blockchain-based items are meant to “champion women in science and technology.” The firm Enjin explained that the program leverages the latest NFTs to reward “inclusive behavior.” “Taking this partnership forward, we are delighted to collaborate with Microsoft on the occasion of 6th International Day of Women and Girls in Science, with the Azure Space Mystery game— an educational initiative that awards special-edition digital badges powered by the Enjin Platform,” the blog

The official Twitter account of Belgium’s Minister of Energy was the recent victim of a high-profile hacking incident. Tinne Van der Straeten’s profile was hacked to promote a bogus giveaway of ethereum tokens. Hacked Twitter Accounts Whoever was behind the incident changed the minister’s verified profile to “Ethereum Foundation” to make it look legit. First reports indicated that a fake giveaway of 50,000 ETH started to spread out over Van der Straeten’s account. But no tweets were seen at the time the minister’s staff restored the account. However, her Twitter profile’s activity during the incident showed that the hacker liked tweets published by bitcoin investor Cameron Winklevoss and venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya. Quoting Van der Straeten’s spokesperson Jonas Dutordoir, The Brussels Times reported that they contacted Twitter immediately. Also, all passwords were changed by the cabinet accordingly. Dutordoir added: An investigation is ongoing to understand how th

Ever since the infatuation between Elon Musk and the meme-based cryptocurrency dogecoin, a number of people have looked at the asset critically. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on the mysterious dogecoin wallet that absorbed more than 27% of the coin’s supply since February 6, 2019. This week, the dogecoin wallet with $3 billion worth of the crypto asset has been creating odd transactions with binary messages, further adding to the speculation that the address might be Musk’s wallet. Cryptic Binary Code, Elon’s Birthday, and Transaction Gibberish The cryptocurrency dogecoin has catapulted seeing ‘much value’ and shibes everywhere have been saying “wow.” The founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, has been one individual who has created a lot of hype around the meme-based crypto asset. But Musk hasn’t been the only one, as people have placed signs in Times Square in New York telling people in the city they should “buy DOGE.” On social media, there are many dogecoin fans shilling the token

As bitcoin has touched new price highs on Thursday nearing the $50k handle, people have been curious as to where the price will go in the future. Meanwhile, despite the gains so far, a number of luminaries, analysts, executives, and proponents from the crypto space believe the leading crypto asset will reach between $60k to six-digits this year. Mike Novogratz Predicts $100K Bitcoin: ‘Other CFOs and CEOs Are Saying, What Should We Be Doing?’ Satoshi Nakamoto’s invention has gained mass appeal in recent times as the leading digital asset bitcoin ( BTC ) has reached its highest value ever in 2021. On Thursday morning (EST), BTC spiked to an all-time high (ATH) at $48,697 per unit. Earlier in the morning at around 2 a.m., bitcoin was exchanging hands for $44,485 and saw an 8.98% increase since then. At the time of publication, at 6:30 p.m. (EST) on February 11, 2021, bitcoin (BTC) is swapping for $47,821 per coin. With BTC so close to the $50k mark, people have been forecasting

A Reddit post that predicted Tesla’s $1.5 billion purchase of bitcoin on Monday has been revealed as a hoax, after the New York Post tracked down the user. Reddit User Says He Was High on Acid When Writing It Tesla’s record-breaking bitcoin purchase stunned the markets earlier this week, causing the price of bitcoin to spike to a new high of over $48,000 per coin. Predicting a purchase of this size would require amazing foresight or insider knowledge, something which Reddit users were keen to figure out following a now-removed post from Jan. 2 by a user known only as Tslainsider. But the identity of that poster has now been revealed by the New York Post, in an article which includes a rather shocking revelation from the 24-year-old political science student stating he was “high on acid” when he wrote it. In an email sent on Tuesday, he told the New York Post: If you want to know the truth: I am a young German guy and I was on acid while I did this post in the last month. I had

Apple Inc. is well position to offer cryptocurrency trading, according to an analyst with global investment bank RBC Capital Markets. Not only will Apple gain instant market share in the crypto space, but the move could also generate the Iphone maker well over $40 billion in annual revenue. In addition, the analyst says that Apple should follow Tesla’s example and add bitcoin to its balance sheet. Analyst Says Apple to Benefit From Offering Crypto Trading, Should Add Bitcoin to Treasury RBC Capital Markets analyst Mitch Steves believes that Apple Inc. has a “clear opportunity” to offer the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, which he says would result in the company immediately gaining market share. Getting into the crypto exchange business will also bring Apple a sizable revenue stream annually, he detailed. His comments followed the news of Elon Musk’s Tesla putting $1.5 billion into bitcoin. The analyst predicts that the Iphone maker could create a sizable new market for gro

Payments giant Mastercard has announced that it is preparing to allow a number of cryptocurrencies to move through its network directly. Customers, merchants, and businesses will no longer need to convert cryptocurrencies into fiat currencies to transfer through the Mastercard network. Mastercard Prepares to Let Cryptocurrencies Move Through its Network Mastercard announced Wednesday that it will start “bringing crypto onto its network.” In a blog post on the company’s official website, Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President of Digital Asset and Blockchain, explained that “digital assets are becoming a more important part of the payments world.” He noted that customers are using Mastercards to buy cryptocurrencies, especially during bitcoin’s bull runs, elaborating: We are preparing right now for the future of crypto and payments, announcing that this year Mastercard will start supporting select cryptocurrencies directly on our network. This is a big change that will require a

Following Tesla’s move to invest $1.5 billion in bitcoin, analysts are predicting that a flood of other companies will follow suit. Mad Money’s Jim Cramer thinks that all companies should put bitcoin in their balance sheets, and Twitter reveals that it is already looking into doing that. Other Companies Will Follow Tesla’s Bitcoin Example, Say Analysts Following the groundbreaking move by Elon Musk’s Tesla to put $1.5 billion of the company’s cash reserve into bitcoin, many people are expecting other companies to make a similar move. Mad Money host Jim Cramer applauded Elon Musk and Tesla for doing more with their cash and being at the forefront. He said Tuesday: Treasurers of all companies should be thinking about diversifying. Have some money in bitcoin. Tesla’s bitcoin buy announcement has also inspired retail traders worldwide to buy bitcoin, including in India where local crypto exchanges have been seeing heavy spikes in cash deposits, new registrations, and trading volu

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has clarified whether central banks will start holding bitcoin now that a growing number of companies, like Tesla, are embracing the cryptocurrency. Lagarde remains skeptical about bitcoin, having recently said it “has conducted some funny business.” ECB Chief Christine Lagarde Denies Central Banks Will Hold Bitcoin Following Elon Musk’s Tesla investing $1.5 billion in bitcoin, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, has clarified whether central banks will hold bitcoin. During a conference call hosted by The Economist Wednesday, Lagarde said that she did not consider bitcoin to be a real currency, emphasizing that central banks won’t be holding it as a reserve currency. She was quoted by Business Insider as saying: It’s very unlikely. I would say it’s out of the question. Lagarde recently called on all countries, particularly the G7 or the G20 nations, to impose more regulations o