Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

One of the biggest asset managers in Israel allocated millions of dollars into the shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Altshuler Shaham is now gaining exposure to bitcoin by investing $100 million in shares, according to a local media outlet. Altshuler Shaham Currently Holds $150M Worth in BTC Per Globes Israel , the multi-million-dollar investment yielded a return of almost 100%. That’s because the exposure was made by the investment house in December 2020, when bitcoin ( BTC ) prices were hovering around the $21,000 level. Afterward, Altshuler Shaham took profits when BTC hit new all-time highs in February. According to Global, the investment house closed its position on about a third of its holdings in GBTC fund. Gilad Altshuler, CEO and co-founder of the asset manager, stated that Altshuler Shaham currently holds $150 million worth in bitcoin as of press time. He added: The $100 million investment has become $200 million, and of the $200 million we have already sold

John Waldron, the chief operating officer (COO) of Goldman Sachs, says the financial services giant is seeing rising customer demand to own and invest in bitcoin. Nevertheless, the COO explained that his organization was still exploring ways of satisfying this demand without running afoul of regulators. ‘How Banks Should Be Regulated When Dealing With Digital Money’ In remarks made during an interview , Waldron, who is also the banking giant’s president, adds that Goldman Sachs “is in discussions with regulators and central banks about how banks should be regulated when dealing with digital money.” Meanwhile, in explaining the financial giant’s unique approach towards satisfying customer demand, Waldron said: We are regulated on what we can do. We continue to evaluate it … and engage on it. In addition to looking for ways of satisfying the growing consumer demand for cryptos, the Reuters report also reveals that “Goldman is also exploring a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and

Through the novel use of hardware security modules in conjunction with a communication module, a collaboration between Bluzelle and Equinix will significantly reduce the barriers preventing the equal distribution of opportunities for potential proof-of-stake (PoS) node validators. Lower Cloud Hosting Barriers Transform The Validator Landscape The gradual transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithms has tackled some of the most urgent problems facing greater blockchain adoption, like scalability and energy consumption. Despite these enormous benefits over the more traditional proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, staking accessibility has been a high hurdle for prospective node validators. For an industry bent on leveling the playing field for all stakeholders and participants, the costs for running a validator node are notoriously high due to the accompanying hosting and security requirements. These costs involve running a robust and highly performant private infrastructure,

The controversial host of Infowars and the Alex Jones Show claims that he has lost a laptop containing 10,000 bitcoins. The laptop was given to him by popular television personality Max Keiser, who confirmed the story. Alex Jones Claims He Lost 10,000 Bitcoins Stored on Laptop Alex Jones, the founder of the right-wing media group Infowars, has revealed that he has lost the laptop containing 10,000 bitcoins given to him by television personality and bitcoin proponent Max Keiser. During the Flagrant 2 show with Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh on Tuesday, he said that Keiser gave him 10K BTC on a laptop 10 years ago. The American far-right web and radio show host is known for his imaginative conspiracy theories. He has been described by New York Magazine as “America’s leading conspiracy theorist,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as “the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America.” A long-time bitcoin critic, Jones refused to warm up to cryptocurrencie

Gold bug Peter Schiff has revealed that his son, Spencer Schiff, has gone all-in on bitcoin. Calling his son “brainwashed” for buying so much of the cryptocurrency, Schiff added that he may need to “disinherit” his son to avoid the youngster burning through his hard-earned money. Peter Schiff’s Son Has Gone Full Bitcoin Euro Pacific Capital CEO and host of the Schiff Radio Show, Peter Schiff, tweeted on Wednesday: My son Spencer Schiff went all in on bitcoin on the last drop below $50k. 100% of his portfolio is now in bitcoin. He sold the last of his silver stocks to raise the cash. If my own son is this brainwashed imagine how vulnerable most kids are. He’s HODLing to infinity or bust. At the time of writing, his tweet has gotten 5.4K comments. It has also been liked 21.6K times and retweeted 3.1K times. The price of bitcoin currently stands at $57,983, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com. Schiff further claimed: “The young generation likes bitcoin because most lack the kno

Win from a prize pool of 50,000 Free Spins in the newly launched tournament by Bitcoin Games 50 players will win loads of Free Spins on a game of their choice Online casinos are known to host regular promotions and tournaments that end up dishing out insane amounts of rewards. Prizes offered in casino tournaments, especially Free Spins, often end up doling out massive cash loot. Players can spin the reels of a desired slot game hundreds, or in this case thousands, of times without spending a single satoshi of their own. A Free Spin is essentially a free round carrying a bet value that you can spin for free, on the house, but keep what you win from the result of that spin. Spins of Victory is the newest tournament launched by Bitcoin Games that promises 10,000 Free Spins to the player that bags the top spot on the leaderboard. A single player can win up to 10,000 Free Spins on the house on any of the games from Playson! Exclusively featuring all the popular slot games from the

Ripple and Youtube had ended a legal battle initiated in April last year amid allegations related to crypto-related scams. The U.S. blockchain company sued the video platform for negligence in acting against crypto scams that impersonated Ripple. Terms of the Resolution Are Confidential During a Twitter thread , Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced both parties have now “come to a resolution to work together to prevent, detect and take down” XRP scams streamed on Youtube. Garlinghouse clarified terms of the settlement are confidential, as the blockchain firm revealed no major details. He added: Social platforms are starting to acknowledge their role in allowing crypto scams to persist and recognize the need to be part of the solution. Some like @xrpforensics are helping detect/track stolen funds, but platforms need to lead the charge or it’s still just whack-a-mole. Ripple’s anger against Youtube woke up on April 2020, when the firm filed a lawsuit against the video platf

Over the last few months, the non-fungible token (NFT) space has heated up and NFTs have become a topical conversation in the cryptocurrency community. Many supporters believe that NFTs are going to be huge and transform everything from the art industry to online gaming. Others believe that NFTs are completely worthless and nothing more than the hype seen during the initial coin offering (ICO) phase in 2017. Non-Fungible Token Assets and Reliable Immutability Data shows that to-date, more than 5.3 million non-fungible token (NFT) asset sales have been recorded on nonfungible.com ’s market history. Out of all these sales, artists, blockchain firms, and NFT dealers have sold $414.5 million worth of NFTs. Out of all 5.3 million sales recorded on nonfungible.com’s list, NFTs sell for an average of $76 per unit. Furthermore, NFTs have gathered mainstream attention and on March 11, 2021, the popular NFT artist, Beeple, sold his work at the world-famous Christie’s auction house. The Chri

During the last few months, a great number of businesses have been adding cryptocurrency support to their payment systems. On Tuesday, the luxury hotel group called The Kessler Collection announced it is now accepting digital currency payments for accommodations. The Kessler Collection’s support means eight luxury hotels will be able to accept payments in crypto assets like bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and more. The Kessler Collection Now Accepts Digital Currency Payments at 8 Luxury Hotels While crypto-assets continue to accrue value, it has sparked numerous merchants and businesses to start accepting digital assets for payment. On March 9, 2021, the Florida-based luxury hotel group The Kessler Collection announced it has partnered with the Atlanta company Bitpay in order to accept crypto-asset payments. The acceptance means that eight luxury hotels in the U.S. now accept bitcoin ( BTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), ethereum ( ETH ), dogecoin (DOGE), and several more assets includi

The highly popular right-wing commentator devoted a 15-minute Youtube video to inform his followers of the merits and potential that bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies, in general, as an anti-government monetary system. The grassroots embracement of bitcoin is the first of its kind in the alt-right American universe. Crypto Adoption is Taking a Surprising Right Turn in the American Political Landscape On March 7, 2021, Ben Shapiro, a prominent American conservative political pundit, released to his Youtube channel a video titled “ Bitcoin: The Future of Finance or Fool’s Gold? ”. In three days the video accumulated more than 800,000 views, suppressing Aatonop’s flagship video, “ Introduction to Bitcoin: what is bitcoin and why does it matter? ” that took four years to get to his current 733,000 views. This is the first time Shapiro discusses bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, or finance in general. The 15 minute Shapiro video is vastly different from Andreas Antonopoulos’s. While Antonopoulos

The NFT industry has been exploding recently with all types of artists, sports brands and gaming companies joining the party. As a result, the top 100 NFT tokens by market cap are now worth well over $7 billion. However, many of the options in the segment offer simplistic game mechanics and a rather shallow experience. VulcanVerse shows how an NFT based game should be done, with amazing graphics, entertaining gameplay, a play-to-earn economy and a rich lore backed by professional authors. Enter the VulcanVerse for Next Level NFT Gaming VulcanVerse is an AAA fantasy decentralized universe that bridges the gap between normal blockchain sandbox games to MMO (massively multiplayer online) game functionality. It offers complex building tools as well as fight, forage and spy mechanics embedded into the game world. VulcanVerse encompasses a 3km by 3km virtual environment set in a Greco-Roman fantasy theme. The game is developed by Vulcan Forged , a multi-dApp platform, game studio, launc

The French government will auction 611 bitcoins that were seized from hackers next week. There will be two sales comprised of 478 lots altogether. Each lot consists of between 0.11 and 20 bitcoins. Paris-based auction house Kapandji Morhange will auction 611 bitcoins on March 17. The company says this is the first auction of seized bitcoin by the French government. At the current price, this amount of bitcoin is worth almost $34 million. According to the auctioneer’s website, two sales will be conducted: one at 9 A.M. and the other at 2 P.M. The first sale consists of 437 lots of between 0.11 and two bitcoins. The second sale consists of 41 lots of between five and 20 bitcoins. The bitcoins were seized from hackers in 2019 and 2020 by France’s Agency for the Recovery and Management of Seized and Confiscated Assets (AGRASC). Most of the bitcoins to be auctioned were seized by the courts in connection to an attack on the cryptocurrency platform Gatehub, local news outlet Cybe

A Colombian entrepreneur has joined forces with a Venezuelan teenager to launch a cryptocurrency in Boyacá, Colombia. The region is now known in the local crypto industry as the home of the most popular emerging local crypto in the country. Over 5,000 People From Other Countries Currently Hold The “Bitcoin Boyacense” Kmuschicoin, popularly known as “bitcoin boyacense,” was created by Germán Viasus, a local environmental engineer, and José Carmelo Campos, a Venezuelan programmer. The creators of the “bitcoin boyacense” say that kmuschicoin can be considered the first “environmental cryptocurrency” globally. Currently, it’s also the most valuable Colombian cryptocurrency in the market. In fact, Viasus pointed out in an interview with local TV program Testigo Directo that it was initially created to sell stocks from the company Tierra Viva. The firm is a Boyacá-based entrepreneurship that transforms solid waste into organic compost through beetles. About the name of the Colombian c

Crypto adoption keeps spreading among the real estate industry in Europe, specifically in Spain. Recently, a leading agency in the Canary Islands announced it would start accepting cryptocurrency payments. Firm Praises Bitcoin’s Decentralized Nature According to Digital Sevilla , Piso Barato Inmobiliaria, a Tenerife-based real estate firm, has enabled the feature that allows customers to acquire properties by paying with bitcoin ( BTC ). Although they mentioned the word “cryptocurrencies,” the firm talked mostly about BTC throughout the announcement. Piso Barato Inmobiliaria argues that a group of experts stated that bitcoin is becoming the “primary currency” of exchange globally, and thus, the firm became interested in digital assets. Future owners of properties, through the real estate agency, can purchase any property in Tenerife. The Tenerife-based agency pointed out: The evolution of expert agents in the real estate market has been so constant that buying a flat in Teneri

Financial services company Etc Group on Tuesday launched its centrally-cleared ethereum exchange-traded product (ETP) on the Deutsche Borse’s Xetra marketplace . Etc Group Launches Ethereum Exchange-Traded Product The listing follows the success of the firm’s bitcoin ETP , which was launched on the same exchange in June 2020. That bitcoin exchange-traded product now has $1 billion assets under management (AUM), it said. In a press release, London-based Etc Group revealed that the ether exchange-traded product (primary ticker: ZETH), tracks the price of ethereum ( ETH ) and is 100% physically backed by the cryptocurrency. ETPs allow investors to gain exposure to an asset, in this case ether, but without having to buy it directly themselves. Approved by Bafin, the German financial regulator, each unit of ZETH is backed by ethereum stored at custody services provider Bitgo Trust Company, “giving the investor a claim on a predefined amount of the underlying ETH ,” said the company.

Crypto adoption is a hot topic in South Korea, and recent figures have been proving it. However, crypto mining activity is also starting to gather interest across the country, per the latest reports from local media outlets. A Single Rig Should Worth $150 ‘or Less’ to Be Considered for Personal Use According to Kyungin Ilbo , custom officials in one of the biggest ports of South Korea, Incheon, are reporting a boost in mining rig hardware imports. The port is also the most prominent air terminal in the nation. During October 2020 and January 2021, authorities from the Incheon Headquarters Customs had intercepted 41 shipments with mining rigs. Although the number is not so high compared to other countries’ reports, in 2019, South Korea had just one case of crypto mining-related shipment interception. Officials believe that the crypto prices plunge seen in 2019 could be the reason behind the little interest among South Korean crypto miners. However, with the current bull-run, miner