Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The premium or arbitrage gap on bitcoin in South Africa recently turned negative following the offloading of coins worth over $75 million by liquidators of MTI. As a result of the temporary supply glut, buying bitcoins on local South African exchanges briefly became cheaper than buying on overseas exchanges. The Impact of the MTI Liquidators’ BTC Sales However, following the conclusion of the liquidators’ sale nearly two weeks ago, the arbitrage gap has now turned positive. As one South African media report notes, the premium of BTC has now recovered and was hovering between 4.8% and 6.5% on April 20. Meanwhile, the same report also quotes, Jon Ovadia, the CEO of a crypto start-up Ovex, explaining why BTC is usually sold at a premium in South Africa. He said: What we have seen is that crypto arbitrage gaps appear in those countries that have foreign exchange controls, such as South Africa. This of course impacts the demand for hard currency assets, such as bitcoin. The CEO

The global pandemic exposed many existing government distribution channels for financial aid as inadequate. With roughly one quarter of the world’s population unbanked, a number of stimulus programs faltered and rolled out too slowly and unevenly – including in developed countries – because of a reliance on traditional bank accounts for payments.  Central Bank Digital … Continued The post Unlocking Financial Inclusion with CBDCs appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/Ry9JXn

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 Beyond Finance Token (BYN) under the pair USDT/BYN on April 20 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Beyond Finance is a synthetic asset trading platform that brings investment opportunities in traditional financial assets to everyone with a permissionless financial service ecosystem leveraging blockchain infrastructure. Aiming to be a leading exchange, Beyond Finance seeks to deliver a seamless and user-friendly service with a competitive UI/UX with gamification experience to make it easy and compelling to trade. Beyond Finance will adopt a Layer 2 solution for enhanced scalability. Initially, it will be launched with an on-off chain hybrid solution, and it will then migrate to a fully operational Layer 2 solution. BYN token’s primary function is to collateralize USDb stable coin and Beyond Finance’s synthetic assets. Users c

On Tuesday, the founder of the decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap tweeted about the trading platform passing $10 billion in weekly trade volume for the first time. Decentralized trading volumes have grown massively, as dex platforms built on Ethereum have seen more than $18 billion in volume during the last week. Meanwhile, the dex Pancakeswap, an app that uses the Binance Smart Chain, has seen trade volumes skyrocket. Uniswap’s 7-Day Stats Capture $10 Billion in Global Trade Volume Decentralized finance (defi) has exploded during the last 12 months, as $58 billion in total value locked (TVL) is held in defi applications today. A great deal of this money is held on the Ethereum ( ETH ) blockchain, but a number of other blockchains are eating into this market. Seven-day and 24-hour dex trade volumes on April 21, 2021. While liquidity pools are growing larger, dex volumes have grown immensely during the last few weeks as well. Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, tweeted about

The cryptocurrency proposed by social media giant Facebook is gearing up to launch using a “phased approach,” its co-creator explains. The Diem Association, which oversees the crypto’s development, has been in talks with regulators to obtain a license. Diem Updates Launch Plan The Facebook-backed cryptocurrency “diem,” formerly called libra, is taking a “phased approach” to launch, co-creator and chief economist of Diem, Christian Catalini, told CNBC in an interview published on Tuesday. The Switzerland-based nonprofit Diem Association, which oversees diem’s development, aims to launch a pilot with a single stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar this year, the news outlet reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. This pilot will be small in scale and will largely focus on transactions between individual consumers, the person explained, adding that there may also be an option for users to buy goods and pay for purchases. The Facebook-proposed cryptocurrency project has fa

Global space provider Wework has announced that it will now accept payment in select cryptocurrencies. The company has partnered with Bitpay and Coinbase for inbound and outbound transactions. In addition, the Softbank-backed company says it will also hold the currency on its balance sheet. Wework Dives Into Crypto Wework announced Tuesday several initiatives regarding cryptocurrencies. The company provides environments for individuals and businesses, from freelancers to Fortune 500 companies. With over 800 locations worldwide in more than 150 cities, Wework says it is the largest global space provider in the world. Japanese multinational conglomerate Softbank Group Corp. (9984.T) has a majority stake in the company. In Tuesday’s announcement, Wework said that it is “now accepting payment in select cryptocurrencies.” The company will also utilize “cryptocurrency for inbound and outbound transactions” in partnership with Bitpay and Coinbase. Furthermore, it will keep cryptocurrencie

On April 21, Bitcoin network fees touched an all-time high according to a number of transaction fee aggregators. The average bitcoin transaction fee is approximately $59.88 and the median fee is around $26.44 USD per transfer. Bitcoin Fees Climb Sky High After the Hashrate Plummeted The cost to send a bitcoin ( BTC ) transaction has never been higher in terms of average fees. In terms of the median value, charts show median fees are nearing an all-time high (ATH) as well, but are not quite there yet . The average fee rate touched an ATH of around $59.88 per transaction on Tuesday evening (EST). Blockchain.com’s “mempool transaction count,” which shows the total number of unconfirmed transactions in the mempool, is around 114,000 transactions waiting in the backlog. A number of BTC fee aggregators including bitinfocharts.com (shown above) indicate transaction fees on April 20 and 21, 2021, are a few nickels away from $60 per bitcoin transfer. BTC fees have been growing higher

PRESS RELEASE. Bitcoin.com Exchange is thrilled to announce the listing of WOZX, being available to trade on the 21st April 2021 at 10:00AM UTC. WOZX was created by the EFFORCE team, including Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak, as the energy savings token to allow contributors of their EFFORCE platform to benefit from the energy savings generated by efficiency projects worldwide. WOZX will start trading with ETH and USDT pairs. At the same time EFFORCE opens to the public its software platform after finishing the closed beta and launching the new EFFORCE Genesis Pool ( https://app.efforce.io/ ). In a constant effort to bridge the gap between the retail market and energy efficiency, the EFFORCE team spent the past few months designing a product roadmap which will help create an increasing understanding about a rather complex, multi-party ecosystem. What is EFFORCE? The Energy Efficiency market is a complex financial system. Thanks to EFFORCE, this market is becoming easily a

Blockchain’s underlying decentralized ledger technology has many practical applications, yet, the value of the technology itself has in practice become secondary to token capitalization. Speculation in Coins and Tokens Routinely Overshadows Promising Developments and Initiatives As major governments and central banks worldwide continue labeling bitcoin and its cohorts as means to engage in criminal activity, primarily because it remains out of their purvey and control, this attention overshadows a more constructive conversation on the actual value of blockchain. With the public discourse centered mainly on bitcoin and its inherent value or threat to legacy systems, the seminal cryptocurrency has in many ways blocked out any meaningful discussion on blockchain technology’s extraordinary potential. Given that many commentators choose to paint blockchain with Bitcoin’s brush, the notion that decentralized ledger technology (DLT) is anything but speculative remains pervasive. In reali

Fresh reports from South Africa suggest another local company, Sygnia, is set to apply to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to list a new cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF). This application will be the second time Sygnia has attempted to list the crypto ETF. A similar application in 2017 was rejected by JSE on grounds that the bourse was “not ready to approve cryptocurrency listings.” However, according to a report which quotes the company’s CEO, David Hufton, Sygnia plans to re-apply for an ETF using the same design structure from 2017. In remarks, Hufton said: A lot of work went into designing the actual structure of the ETF in 2017 which we can reuse. With cryptocurrencies becoming more mainstream, we are hopeful that the JSE will be more receptive to our application this time around. The CEO also reveals that Sygnia intends to “reapply to the JSE any day now.” Meanwhile, a recent report quotes the JSE director, Andre Visser, explaining that certain conditions n

The Ternoa Blockchain has just unveiled the alpha version of its SecretNFT Marketplace, a platform entirely dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The platform, which uses Ternoa’s own CAPS token, comes with many features to promote its adoption among artists and lovers of NFTs. Ternoa launches its NFT platform, SecretNFT The Ternoa Blockchain has just unveiled the first version of its SecretNFT Marketplace, a new platform entirely dedicated to NFTs. The NFT marketplace allows artists to issue authenticated digital artworks in a single edition. Ternoa’s platform boasts a number of innovations, not least the so-called SecretNFT, a feature that makes artists’ works even more unique. This platform represents the first full-scale test of the Ternoa Blockchain, with all NFTs present on SecretNFT Marketplace hosted on the Chaos Net, a Ternoa testnet. All works hosted on the SecretNFT Marketplace are therefore certified on the Ternoa blockchain to avoid any falsification. Since th

Although bitcoin prices plummeted over the weekend, the overall bull-run remains alive, as well as the crypto-related fraud cases in South Korea. The latest figures by the domestic financial watchdog show that such incidents are still on the rise. Police to Dedicate a Special Unit to Investigate Crypto Frauds According to Asia Kyungjae , the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed that crypto fraud reports skyrocketed by over 41.6% yearly. The statistics from the FSS from January to October 2020 show that the 41,6% increase belongs to 555 cases of suspicious transactions. Due to the significant surge of cases, the police promised to increase its efforts in cracking down crypto-related fraud rings across the nation. In fact, authorities launched a dedicated investigation team at the financial crime unit in provincial offices. Among the bureaus involved in the crypto fraud’s investigations include the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, the State

The fallout sparked by reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) printed over $150 million for states’ funding continued a few days after the allegations were initially made. In the latest twist, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) vice-chairman Dan Orbih said the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele’s response to the allegations is “politically motivated.” Money Printing Unsustainable In his riposte, Orbih is quoted by a local news site suggesting that “if drastic measures were not taken to address the situation” then the country might be headed for a worse outcome “than what happened in Uganda.” The politician said: We need the youths to come up with ideas and programmes that will help this government to come out of their mess because the revelations by Godwin Obaseki is a sad reminder of what happened in Uganda under former President Idi Amin. The PDP official also concludes that “no government can sustain the economy of a country with that type of abuse.” In his in

The Canadian publicly traded bitcoin mining company Bitfarms has announced a deal that will see the company developing a 210 megawatt (MW) mining farm in Argentina. Bitfarms says that the company was able to secure a low electricity rate at $0.02 per kWh during the contractual period. Argentine-Based Bitcoin Mining Facility Aims to Acquire 210 MW of Power The company Bitfarms (TSXV:BITF, OTC:BFARF) has announced the firm is expanding to South America, as it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding in order to build a 210 MW bitcoin mining facility. Bitfarms says the purchase agreement started back in October 2020 and initially the farm would be around 60 MW. However, since then the agreement has been “significantly enhanced,” as the power purchase agreement with a utility-grade private power producer in Argentina will allow the firm to “draw up to 210 MW of electricity at its discretion.” Bitfarms also details that the warmer climate in Argentina helps the company mi

A former top regulator and acting head of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks has been appointed the CEO of crypto exchange Binance.us. Brooks will lead the exchange on May 1st and replace the company’s current lead, Catherine Coley. Binance has hired an individual with ties to Washington, as the company’s American trading platform Binance.us will have Brian Brooks lead the exchange. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Osipovich, the former acting boss of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will join the exchange at the end of this month. The hiring follows Binance recently hiring U.S. Senator Max Baucus who served Montana from 1978 to 2014. Brian Brooks was well known as being “ crypto-friendly ” and in November 2020, Brooks discussed China’s dominance in the bitcoin industry. “As a country, we now face a geostrategic competitiveness issue, which is: Do we in the United States want to own the internet 2.0 in the same way we owned intern

PRESS RELEASE. B2Broker is a technology and liquidity provider serving clients in the crypto and foreign exchange (FX) industry with over 165 employees worldwide. Since setting out in 2014, the company has secured some of the most well-known global clients in the financial services industry, resulting in over 350 institutional customers to date. The company has a strong track record of releasing new and updated products to cater for its expanding client base and is now recognised as having the deepest multi-asset liquidity pool in the industry, aggregating multiple liquidity providers. B2Broker has also made big strides in recent years following the acquisition of several licences which has allowed the company to operate under the required jurisdictions. The company became the first regulated Forex liquidity provider in Belarus after securing its NBRB Licence for B2B Payment Solutions and secured FCA AEMI approval to offer e-payment services in the UK and Europe. Core Products &am