Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

While cryptocurrency markets have been red hot and gaining in value, demand for certain assets and liquidity has grown massive. At the same time, a myriad of crypto proponents are chasing significant returns by hunting for liquidity pools with colossal yields. These days certain decentralized finance (defi) applications can give a yearly ROI upwards of 100-400% in some cases depending on the applications leveraged. Pools of Crypto Liquidity Are Growing During the last year and a half, decentralized finance (defi) has grown more robust and today there’s $46.24 billion total value locked in defi apps, according to defipulse stats . While digital currencies like bitcoin (BTC) , ethereum (ETH) , and many other crypto assets have seen significant gains, people are also getting large returns for providing liquidity. Additionally, thanks to Web3 wallets like Metamask, providing liquidity without dealing with a centralized third-party is key to decentralized finance. Last month, Bitcoin.c

Just a few days after announcing the end of its partnership with Moneygram, the fintech firm Ripple Labs is now moving to dispose of its stake in the listed company. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Ripple says it has entered into an agreement with Jefferies in which the latter is expected to execute “the orderly disposition of a portion of the former’s stake in Moneygram.” Ripple and Moneygram Partnership Maybe Revisited As the filed document explains, this agreement mandates Jefferies, a U.S. based diversified financial services company, to “sell up to 8,195,123 shares on behalf of Ripple.” However, this plan to offload the stock, which was expected to have commenced on March 11, is set to “expire upon the earliest of September 30, 2021.” At that point, “the maximum amount shall have been sold, or the occurrence of certain other customary events affecting the issuer.” Still, despite taking these steps to end the business relationship, Ripple di

PRESS RELEASE. CLEVER , a fully Decentralized Finance protocol, is set to bring added liquidity and extra value to its Ecosystem via the supported listing of its native CLVA token on popular decentralized exchange platform Uniswap. Uniswap Listing Next Phase for Clever Ecosystem The listing will occur on March 17 and marks the next phase in the roadmap of Clever DeFi. Clever DeFi just concluded its minting phase, which lasted for 30 days, where investors could purchase CLVA tokens at the lowest price available. The initial 30-day minting phase ended on March 3, 2021, at 12:00UTC, with users spending 726,50 ETH to mint 339,927 CLVA tokens. To achieve adequate liquidity pool pairing on Uniswap, an additional 152,967 CLVA was minted from the Clever Protocol, equating to 45% of the total mint existing. Clever DeFi will implement a strict liquidity schedule on listing to protect users and achieve more excellent price stability. The following schedule over the first 3 Cycles will init

At the end of January, the Texas-based firm Valkyrie Digital Assets filed an exchange-traded fund (ETF) registration for the “Valkyrie Bitcoin Trust” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This month, the cryptocurrency investment manager announced it has filed a prospectus for an ETF with the SEC based on companies that hold the leading crypto asset bitcoin. The Valkyrie Innovative Balance Sheet ETF Bitcoin (BTC) has grown quite a lot in value in 2021 and two months ago, Valkyrie Digital Assets joined the rest of the companies aiming to launch a U.S.-based bitcoin ETF. The struggle to approve a bitcoin ETF in the United States has been real, but the recent approval of three Canadian ETFs gives people hope. Now according to a recent registration statement from Valkyrie Digital Assets, the company plans to launch another ETF based on companies that hold bitcoin ( BTC ) in their treasuries. The ETF is quite similar to the filed prospectus with the SEC issued by t

According to regional reports, the Norwegian billionaire and hedge fund manager, Ole Andreas Halvorsen, is investing funds into an energy-reducing cryptocurrency mining chip hardware company. The company Norway’s fourth richest man is investing in claims to build application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining chips that are allegedly 300%-500% more energy efficient than existing hardware. Norwegian Hedge Fund Giant Dips Into the Crypto Economy Norwegian news reports detail that the billionaire hedge fund manager Ole Andreas Halvorsen is dipping his toes into the cryptocurrency space. A report from Trijo explains that the hedge fund manager and cofounder of the Connecticut-based hedge fund, Viking Global Investors, is now investing in a cryptocurrency-focused firm called Harmonychain . Halvorsen is joining a number of well known luminary investors from the Norwegian region investing funds into the crypto sphere with investors like Kjell Inge Røkke, Bjørn Dæhlie, and Arne Fr

A new survey revealed the latest trend among accredited investors in the United States, targeting the decentralized finance (defi) sphere. The study shows that a vast majority of them are likely to invest in defi this year. 70% of the Respondents Already Invested in Bitcoin According to Xangle , who surveyed 379 accredited investors, 67% of them have some knowledge about defi. Overall, such respondents claimed to have developed a significant interest in the cryptocurrency industry over the past year. But the higher interest goes beyond the respondents, as 72.2% of them stated they were “very likely to invest” in Defi in the next 12 months. Just 17.5% of the surveyed accredited investors are in the category of thinking that they’d be “somewhat likely to invest,” said the research. Moreover, the crypto asset disclosure platform found that respondents invest more now than before the coronavirus pandemic. Per the figures, 70% of the surveyed U.S. accredited investors have invested in

The price of bitcoin cracked a new all-time high on Saturday morning reaching $60,120 per unit at around 6:25 a.m. (ET). Bitcoin now has a 1.12 trillion-dollar market valuation and a dominance level of around 61.9% while ethereum now commands close to 12% of the $1.70 trillion capitalization of all 8,792 digital assets in the crypto economy. The price of bitcoin ( BTC ) has once again captured a new lifetime price high reaching $60,120 per BTC on Sunday, March 13, 2021. During the last 24 hours, BTC has gained 6.9% and over 23% during the last seven days. At press time BTC has around $27 billion in global trade volume. The price of bitcoin ( BTC ) touched an all-time high at $60,120 per unit. Statistics show that bitcoin ( BTC ) has gained 212% during the last three months and 975.83% against the U.S. dollar during the course of 12 months. One-month percentage stats show BTC is up over 24% on Sunday. On Thursday, tether ( USDT ) is BTC ’s biggest trading pair capturing 50

A portfolio manager and member of Blackrock’s Global Allocation Fund says gold is now a less effective hedge against inflation as well as moves in other assets such as stocks. In comments that appear to undercut the precious metal’s renowned status, Russ Koesterich claims that “gold’s ability to hedge against inflation has been somewhat exaggerated.” Gold Less Reliable Across Most Investment Horizons While Koesterich is still cognizant of gold’s status as a “reasonable store of value over the very long-term,” he does however opine that “it is less reliable across most investment horizons.” Already, Koesterich’s firm, Blackrock, which has assets under management worth almost $9 trillion, appears to have acted on this new knowledge. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, Blackrock has started to invest in BTC . Still, as one report notes, gold has for years been viewed as that part of a multi-asset portfolio “that can help to balance out shifts in other holdings, especially equities.” Ye

Japanese authorities aren’t hesitating in hunting down anyone considered a crypto tax evader. A court in Ishikawa has sentenced one of them, a 56-year-old man that will spend one year in prison, plus pay a $200,000 fine. Sentenced Man Didn’t Disclose His BTC Trading Activity of the Period 2017-2018 According to Chunichi , a judge at the Kanazawa District Court imposed a fine of over 22 million yen ($200,000) and gave a one-year-long sentence to Hideji Matsuda, an office worker in Ishikawa, for violating the Income Tax Law. The judge concluded that the man didn’t file accurate tax declarations knowingly on his bitcoin (BTC) trading activity. Per court documents, Matsuda didn’t declare the period 2017-2018. Moreover, the court stated that the office worker falsified data on his tax submissions because he claimed to had just earned 1.2 million yen ($11,000) in profits. In reality, he received a total income of 74 million yen ($678,000) and he didn’t pay any tax whatsoever. When hi

A myriad of gold bugs like to compliment the yellow precious metal for its ostensible scarcity, as estimates say only 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold is produced annually. While new gold discoveries have seemingly slowed, investigative studies also show that in some areas, gold is being smuggled into the economy by the ton, and often never accounted for as far as per annum issuance estimates. Recently, reports show a whole mountain of gold was discovered in the Congo, as the Democratic Republic of the Congo is well known for being a region that sees tons of smuggled gold filtered into the global financial system unreported. Surprise Gold Deposits Continue to Crack the Precious Metal’s Scarcity Proposition It has always been said that the precious metal gold (Au) is scarce, and some reports even say that gold mining on earth will end by the year 2050 . Additionally, estimates also show that there’s roughly 2,500 to 3,000 tons of new gold that is accounted for and enters into the fin

Crypto regulation in Spain remains on the political talks amid the current bull-run seen in the bitcoin prices. Now, the country’s Ministry of the Economy is about to create a new Financial Customer Ombudsman for crypto-related matters. Independent Financial Customer Body Will Abide by the MiCA Ruling Per La Información , Minister Nadia Calviño seeks to extend its guardianship to the financial body to cover topics such as protecting consumers in cryptocurrency services. To make it a reality, the minister will submit the initial proposal to a public consultancy “as soon as possible.” Overall, Calviño also wants to canalize all conflicts between banks and their customers through the Financial Customer Ombudsman, including all businesses in the fintech sector. However, the Ministry clarified they’re expecting to abide by the rulings of the future “Regulation Of The European Parliament And Of The Council On Markets In Cryptoassets and the Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation” (MiCA). S

As questions circle about the network’s capacities following surging transaction costs and accelerating activity in the decentralized finance (defi) arena, Ethereum’s founder Vitalik Buterin opines that layer-2 solutions could help the network scale by a factor of 100x in mere months to meet growing demand. Sidechain Bundling Touted as Workaround to Current Network Congestion Ethereum has passed many milestones over the last 12-months and can be credited as the protocol responsible for popularizing the defi revolution thanks to its smart contract capabilities. Yet, as demand for the network’s service concurrently spiked, it created new headaches for users as surging gas costs made it much more expensive to transact. These developments have coincided with the ongoing ETH2 rollout , which effectively upgrades the original infrastructure to support better performance through improved scalability, increased efficiency, and higher transaction throughput. However, recent activity has cl