Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A group of Spaniards filed the first crypto-related class-action lawsuit before the National Court of Spain on an alleged million-dollar scam. The lawsuit targets an individual accused of allegedly scammed over 300 small crypto investors across Spain. Money Stolen Could Amount Up to $3.58 Billion Per El País , the class-action lawsuit claims that an individual named Javier Biosca Rodríguez allegedly scammed over 250 million euros ($298 million) in cryptocurrencies from the investors. The profile of the victims is mixed, starting from domestic employees, retirees, unemployed, even notaries, a judge, lawyers, tax inspectors, and owners of small businesses who tried to recover from the coronavirus-driven economic crisis. Although it’s not the first class-action suit filed before the National Court of Spain, it’s the first-of-its-kind that involves a crypto-related case, said the local media outlet. The lawyer representing the victims is Emilia Zaballos, who clarified that despite th

U.S. politicians are talking about stimulus again in order to bolster American jobs and President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. At the end of last week, White House press secretary Jen Psaki explained that Biden would meet with bipartisan members of Congress on Monday in order to push his proposal. According to reports, Biden’s proposed plan could be a touch smaller than the estimated $2.25 trillion. Biden Suggests Scaling Back the $2.25 Trillion ‘Build Back a Better America’ Infrastructure Proposal The U.S. government is talking about creating more stimulus in order to provide jobs and “build back a better” America. Last Friday, the press was told that Joe Biden would be meeting with bipartisan members of Congress in order to sell his infrastructure proposal. It was noted that Congress would be heading back to D.C. and Biden would tell them all about his plan to fix roads, public housing, transportation, and communications. During the meeting with bipartisan colleagues, Biden

PRESS RELEASE. BENQI, a liquidity market operating on the Avalanche network, has completed a private funding round. A total of $6 million was raised in a round led by Ascensive Assets. A number of leading investors on blockchain and the emerging Avalanche ecosystem also participated. These include Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Arrington XRP Capital and The Spartan Group. Other backers were Morningstar Ventures, Vendetta Capital, TRGC, Genesis Block, Woodstock and Rarestone alongside Ava Labs and leading liquidity provider Skynet Trading. Built on Avalanche’s highly scalable network, BENQI combines elements of defi and tradfi to create a liquidity protocol in which idle assets can be utilized. By locking these assets into the BENQI protocol, Avalanche users will be able to earn interest on their assets and obtain credit through over-collateralized loans. The decision to build on Avalanche was influenced by its high degree of decentralization, scalability, and low fee enviro

On Wednesday, after bitcoin prices touched a new all-time high, thousands of bitcoins from the August 2, 2016, Bitfinex hack were transferred to unknown wallets. The exact count of BTC moved from the hack is not entirely clear, but one blockchain parser shows that over 12,208 BTC from the 2016 Bitfinex breach worth $754 million today was moved to various addresses. On August 2, 2016, the exchange Bitfinex was hacked for approximately 119,756 BTC , which is worth $7.5 billion using today’s exchange rates. That day, the price per bitcoin ( BTC ) slid 22% but the exchange managed to pay customers back using another token. During the last year, a number of stolen bitcoins from the Bitfinex hack have been moved. As BTC ’s price grew higher, Bitfinex hacker coins have moved more regularly . Leveraging a blockchain parser, Btcparser.com , Bitcoin.com News discovered 11,799 BTC from the 2016 Bitfinex hack transferred at block height 679,212. The number of BTC moved from the hackers’

The largest country in Latin America could have its central bank digital currency (CBDC) soon, as the Brazilian central bank is taking steps towards creating it. Recently, the Banco Central do Brasil (BCB) president hinted at the possibility of having news on the matter “soon.” No Decision Has Been Made on Whether the Digital Real Will Be Interest-Bearing During an online debate hosted by the Bank of Spain, cited by Reuters, Roberto Campos Neto highlighted that the central bank is “making progress” on the plans to digitalize the Brazilian real. He called central banks globally to keep discussing on CBDCs and deepen its talks to advance in further digitalizing the economy: We are making great progress on the digital currency process, and we should have news soon. However, Campos Neto didn’t specify the details on the progress made by the central bank. Still, he pointed out that some topics are still in the pipeline, such as if the “digital real” will be interest-bearing and wha

While crypto assets have seen monumental gains this week, the popular nightclub in Florida, E11even Miami will accept bitcoin and a slew of other digital assets for merchandise, beverages, and tables. Following the pandemic, E11even Miami will be reopening on April 23 and will have crypto asset support when the nightlife establishment reconvenes services. 24-Hour Nightclub E11even Miami to Support Crypto Payments Since 2014, E11even Miami has been a popular nightclub in the Sunshine State and well known for operating 24 hours a day and seven days a week. In recent times, Miami has become a hub for cryptocurrencies as the city’s mayor Francis Suarez is bullish about the digital asset industry. Suarez wants to dedicate “efforts to make bitcoin an acceptable currency” in the city of Miami. Moreover, Samuel Bankman-Fried’s FTX Exchange has acquired a naming-rights deal for NBA’s Miami Heat arena. E11even Miami’s founder Dennis DeGori has seen the positivity toward crypto assets in M

Cryptocurrency markets have been surging during the last 24 hours, as billions of dollars have flooded into the crypto-economy. Bitcoin’s value touched an all-time high (ATH) once again on Wednesday morning (EST), reaching $64,895 per unit. The latest price rise is leading up to the upcoming Coinbase direct listing on Nasdaq. Crypto-Economy Surpasses $2.2 Trillion in Value Digital currency fans are quite pleased on Wednesday morning, as a slew of new gains has been recorded across the entire crypto-economy . The entire crypto-economy is currently valued at $2.2 trillion and is up over 4% today. Bitcoin (BTC) touched a high of $64,895 per unit and is currently trading for $64,229. BTC is up over 2.6% today and up 15.5% during the last seven days. Despite the new ATH, bitcoin (BTC) dominance among the 9,215 cryptocurrencies in existence is only 53% today. BTC /USD on April 14, 2021. Ethereum (ETH) has captured some of that dominance as the crypto asset ether is swapping for $

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of the ZigCoin (ZIG) under the pair USDT/ZIG on Apr 15 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Zignaly is a social, digital asset trading platform. They aim to simplify the world of digital asset trading, making it easy for everyone to include digital assets in their investment portfolio. The current bull run has helped immensely in growing Zignaly, and it has seen more than 10X growth in volume over the past 12 months. Zignaly launched its unique & disruptive profit sharing module late last year, and the traction is impressive, validating their multi-stream revenue model. While business is now mainly focusing on scaling this innovation to enhance the sense of security for investors, Zignaly is also launching the first-ever digital asset trading insurance protocol for its platform. NFTs will power the protocol, and ZigCoin will be the

Coinbase’s IPO via a direct listing on Nasdaq is today. Nasdaq has set a reference price of $250 for the stock which will trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Investors are describing Coinbase’s public debut as a “watershed” moment for the crypto industry. Coinbase’s Reference Price Set at $250 by Nasdaq Investors are eagerly waiting for Coinbase’s initial public offering (IPO). The company has chosen to go public via a direct listing on Nasdaq, which is different from a traditional IPO. “The Class A common stock of Coinbase Global Inc. is expected to list on Nasdaq through a Direct Listing using the ticker COIN,” according to a notice issued by Nasdaq on Tuesday. It details: As a Direct Listing, COIN will be in a regulatory halt until Nasdaq opens trading pursuant to the procedures described in Rules 4120(c)(8) and (9) and 4753. Nasdaq explained that it has given the Coinbase shares a reference price of $250 “Because COIN has not had recent sustained trading in a private place

From crypto trading to defi, the most exciting areas in blockchain fintech development and innovation are attracting serious investments from all industry corners. To introduce more tools and complementary services to the ecosystem, the recipients of these capital allocations are endeavoring to promote greater adoption by removing many existing participation obstacles and taking a more mass-market approach. Projects Focused on Usability and User Experience Lead the Charge Between Atani’s all-in-one trading infrastructure, Enso’s decentralized finance (defi) strategy sharing platform, Don-Key’s social yield-farming initiative, MakiSwap’s AMM for professionals, Sheesha’s Defi mutual fund, The Defiant Defi-driven informational platform, and Consensys’ sizeable cash pile, take a closer look at the impressive fundraising figures that continue to multiply as investor demand spikes. Defi Portfolios Arrive Just in Time As defi’s total value locked (TVL) figures continue their upward march

PRESS RELEASE. Singapore crypto exchange Bityard will launch its first trading contest before May 2021, with up to 60,000 Tether prize pool. The contest registration for each team’s captain is now open. As mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether have been increasing gradually in value, more and more investment institutes and major companies have flooded into the crypto market. So far, the Bitcoin bull market has shown no sign of ending, and some people are expecting Bitcoin to hit $400K this year. The continuous bull market also boosts the number of active crypto investors, which is a very good sign for many crypto exchanges. Bityard, a Singapore based cryptocurrency derivative exchange, will soon launch its first global trading contest with up to 60,000 USDT prize pool before May 2021, and the contest registration for each team’s captain is now open on Bityard’s official site . The trading contests launched by crypto exchanges would improve the user acquisition fo

Kenyan athlete and world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge recently auctioned off his first set of NFTs for a total of 17.9837 ethereum tokens. The auction, which was conducted on the NFT marketplace Opensea, includes some of the key moments in Kipchoge’s career. According to a report , one of these moments, Kipchoge’s 2019 record-breaking run in Vienna fetched $14.8837 ETH while the marathoner’s Berlin Marathon run earned him 3.1 ETH or for over $6,500 at current prices. Meanwhile, in a Twitter post, Kipchoge, who is also an Olympic Champion, said he was grateful that some key moments in his career were now available as NFT. He wrote : I can say that I am really grateful to have the highlights of my career now available as NFT. I hope it will give someone around the world the same positive memories as it does to me. In the meantime, the report states that “Momentible.io created the NFT artwork in collaboration with Kipchoge.” It adds that “the video message is the official approv

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a bitcoin industry working group focused on patent laws, has filed a civil lawsuit in the UK against Craig Wright. For many years now Wright has insisted he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but has yet to prove so to the greater crypto community. COPA is looking to get the UK High Court to rule that Wright is not the rightful owner of the Bitcoin white paper. COPA Files a Case Against Craig Wright Just recently, Bitcoin.com News reported on Craig Wright’s attempt to get websites to remove the Bitcoin white paper over copyright infringement. The attempt didn’t work out so well, as a great number of websites decided to openly host the white paper on their websites in a sign of solidarity. Moreover, COPA questioned Wright’s attempt with a letter and asked the self-styled Bitcoin inventor to prove his claims. Now COPA is taking it a step further as the bitcoin industry working group has filed a civil lawsuit against Craig Wright. “Today, COPA initiated a

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce compares banning bitcoin to shutting down the internet, stating that governments would be foolish to try. She also offers some insights into whether the SEC will approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this year. Governments Would Be Foolish to Try to Ban Bitcoin U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce shared her view of governments banning bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation in an interview at Marketwatch’s Investing in Crypto event last week. She was also asked about the likelihood of the securities regulator approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year. Peirce, sometimes known as “crypto mom,” has been pushing for the SEC to approve a bitcoin ETF for several years. She was asked during the interview whether banning cryptocurrencies is a possibility since some people still believe that governments can always ban bitcoin, including Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio , The Big Short’s Michael

Bulls are taking the reins of the price action in the bitcoin across the board, making a solid breakout above the $60,000 threshold, reaching new all-time highs, and it seems The Simpsons “did it again.” In a new episode broadcasted on Sunday, BTC is highlighted in a ticker news feed with the infinite sign. Gamestop Stock Is Also Featured in the Episode The 18th episode titled “Burger Kings” in Season 32 of the popular animated series featured bitcoin ( BTC ) during a news broadcast, whose ticker news feed at the bottom of the screen listed some U.S. publicly listed companies. However, what caught the crypto community’s attention, and which was a hot topic in the Reddit subforums, is the detail of BTC priced at infinity. Interestingly, after bitcoin’s quote, video game retailer Gamestop (GME) appeared in the scene. Following the sarcastic style characterized by The Simpsons, the famous stock – known for being fueled a few months ago by a community of investors in Reddit – po