Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

In April, Smartlands will launch an alternative investment platform for buying and selling tokenized shares of real-world assets. The platform, built on the Stellar open-source network, will first focus on issuing security tokens that represent a suite of high-yield real estate listings based in Ukraine. Smartlands’ New Platform Is Revolutionizing the Real Economy in Eastern Europe How could blockchain technology revolutionize the real economy? One of the most exciting answers lies in unlocking liquidity. Consider this: The estimated value of tokenizable real estate worldwide is more than $270 trillion , while other real-world assets — like businesses, debt and agricultural holdings — put the total much higher. But the legacy financial system poses problems. Due to regulatory and technological barriers, it’s been difficult for owners of real assets to take advantage of their free equity for other opportunities. Meanwhile, the majority of investors have missed out on the benefits

As the launch date for parachains nears, a new initiative is constructing a decentralized finance (defi) index token that tracks Polkadot projects aimed at helping investors diversify their holdings through a single instrument. Six Projects Provide Soft Commitments to Join Polkadot Index Network Token The growing interest in Polkadot and its novel parachains has seen the blockchain’s native token become the source of frenzied speculation over the last few months, joining the list of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization . Now, with approaching parachain launches for several projects, two organizations are taking steps to help improve access to the ecosystem’s opportunities through the Polkadot Index Network Token (PINT). Chainsafe , a protocol and infrastructure development firm, is collaborating with Stateless Money , a staking service provider, to bring this new index fund and accompanying token to fruition. The PINT token will be governed by a seven-member exp

Her Majesty’s Treasury and the Bank of England have revealed the establishment of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) taskforce. According to the announcement, the group’s purpose aims to explore a potential UK CBDC. UK Entities Invoke a CBDC Taskforce to Explore a Central Bank-Issued Digital Currency Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been popping up throughout a number of countries and most are still in the exploration phase. A few countries like Venezuela, Sweden, and China are ahead of the game by a longshot in comparison to countries like the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom. On Monday, the HM Treasury and the Bank of England (BoE) published an announcement indicating that it plans to join the CBDC race. The two UK entities have established a CBDC taskforce as the Exchequer says the group will be dedicated to “the exploration of a potential UK CBDC.” The press release wants the public to know that bureaucrats and the BoE have “not yet made a decision on wheth

After bitcoin and a myriad of other crypto-assets tumbled in value on Sunday a number of significant whale movements took place. During the morning trading sessions on Sunday (EST), an old school miner transferred three decade-old coinbase rewards with 150 bitcoin worth more than $8.5 million. Later on in the evening, just before the transition into Sunday, two major whale transactions stemming from Binance resulted in three new massive wallets. One wallet contains 58k in bitcoin worth more than $3.3 billion using today’s exchange rates. Over $4 Billion in Bitcoin Moved Yesterday Yesterday on April 18, 2021, Bitcoin.com News alongside the help of Btcparser.com and team members from the Telegram channel Goldfoundinsh*t caught a number of interesting onchain transactions pop up on our radar. This was five days after Goldfoundinsh*t and Bitcoin.com News researchers discovered more than 12k in BTC from the 2016 Bitfinex hack that got transferred to a number of unknown wallets. That d

Luno, one of Africa’s pioneering crypto exchanges, has revealed that South Africa’s cryptocurrency trading is largely dominated by young people with those under the age of 29 accounting for 40% of transactions. The exchange, which claims to have added nearly a million new South African customers in 2020, also reveals that “around 65% of Luno’s users are male and about 35% female.” These figures compare favourably with the industry average of 70% male to 30% female. Rising Retail Demand In addition to achieving a 300% year-on-year growth, Luno reports seeing the number of active users surging by 167% during the same period while “the number of app installs increased 119%.” Meanwhile, a report quotes Marcus Swanepoel, CEO and cofounder of Luno attributing the increase in transactions volumes to rising retail demand for cryptos. Swanepoel explained: While a lot of the attention has been around institutional adoption, retail adoption has been growing at an arguably even more frantic

Over the past 13 years, the world has seen innovation at its finest. The creation of Bitcoin, the development of cryptocurrencies, the launch of blockchain projects, Decentralized Applications (Dapps), and far more. To gauge the financial evolution of blockchain one need only consider the price of Bitcoin in 2013 and compare it to today. In 2013, a single Bitcoin was worth $22. Today, Bitcoin is comfortably over $60,000, with analysts suggesting $100,000 is in sight. With the steady expansion of blockchain technology, the Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) revolution has begun. PARSIQ strives to pioneer the use cases of this BaaS revolution. PARSIQ: An Overview PARSIQ promotes BaaS through its next-gen monitoring and intelligence platform. Users can observe and utilize blockchain data for a number of use cases. These include: Tracking digital assets in real-time Notifications of Blockchain network activity Gathering and processing on-chain data Combining on-chain with off-chain da

French financial services giant Société Générale has issued security tokens on Tezos’ public blockchain as part of its ongoing experimentation with cutting-edge fintech applications. Latest Move Reflects Bank’s Efforts to Fold Cryptocurrency Operations Into Its Ecosystem In its latest milestone in the blockchain arena, French multinational bank Société Générale has issued its very first structured product security token. The token, which represents €5 million of Euro Medium Term Notes (EMTN), represents the first move by the bank to tokenize assets. The insurance arm of the bank, Société Générale Assurances, fully subscribed to the security token offerings. This latest development follows other work the bank has already undertaken through its regulated subsidiary Société Générale – Forge. Since it first tokenized a €100 million covered bond settled in Euros in 2019 on the Ethereum blockchain, the bank has also handled another covered bond worth €40 million for settlement in the Ba

While Americans are still getting their third stimulus payments, discussions of tacking on a fourth round of direct payments to Joe Biden’s trillion-dollar infrastructure proposal have started trending. Just recently, a coalition led by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden and over a dozen Democratic leaders wrote a letter to President Biden asking to get “much-needed relief to American families.” A Coalition of American Bureaucrats Want More Stimulus Payments Distributed Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden and 21 Democratic senators want U.S. President Joe Biden to initiate a fourth round of stimulus payments. The last stimulus payments of $1,400 per individual and more funding for Americans with dependents are still being distributed. The U.S. senators have sent a letter to Biden requesting more “recurring, smartly-targeted, auto-stabilized direct payments” for American citizens. The coalition highlights that they want the direct payments “to be included in President Biden’s next economic

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the launch of its staking service for OIN token (OIN) on Apr 16 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. AscendEX’s innovative staking product allows users to participate in staking and earn rewards directly on the platform. OIN joins a growing portfolio of notable tokens including DOT, ATOM , and XTZ . AscendEX will be receiving validator rewards by running an OIN node which will then be passed along to staking users. OIN is the first DeFi platform that provides liquidity mining through their decentralized exchange and a loan platform starting with the Ontology platform and ultimately expanding to other top platforms through cross-chain functionality. OIN will build the bridge technology to seamlessly integrate Ethereum into its ecosystem, opening up to all of the current DeFi space players. OIN’s dedication to DeFi is reflected in its three-pronged m

Former SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt says that he expects a “fair amount” of crypto regulation coming from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) following the confirmation of the new chairman. Former SEC Chair Expects ‘Fair Amount’ of New Crypto Regulation Harvey Pitt talked about the future of cryptocurrency regulation under the new chairman, Gary Gensler, in an interview with Bloomberg Friday. Pitt is the American lawyer who served as the 26th chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), from 2001 to 2003. With the market debut of Coinbase via a direct listing on Nasdaq, Pitt was asked what he expects to happen with the regulation of cryptocurrencies and cryptocurrency exchanges. The former SEC chair said: I expect to see a fair amount of regulation of cryptocurrencies. Right now, I think the rules are unclear. “Whether or not certain offerings involve securities or not is unclear. There is a definite likelihood that the SEC will move forward. Gary G

The most recent Bank of America Fund Manager Survey shows that about three out of four professional investors think that bitcoin is a bubble. The fund managers also rated bitcoin second on the list of the most crowded trades. Recently, investment bank JPMorgan also warned that cryptocurrency as a sector is in a bubble. Bank of America Survey Shows Most Fund Managers Think Bitcoin Is a Bubble The Bank of America Fund Manager Survey for April shows that the majority of fund managers see bitcoin as a bubble. The survey asks 200 fund managers with $533 billion in assets under management. Answering the question of whether bitcoin is a bubble, 74% of investors replied “yes.” Just 16% said “no” to the question and 10% said they either did not know or did not want to answer the question. In comparison, only 7% of investors think that the U.S. equity market is in a bubble. Most respondents think that the equity market is in “a late-stage bull market.” Chart showing 74% of investors who re

Congressman Kevin McCarthy has urged Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell not to ignore bitcoin like they have been trying to do. He believes it is the future, emphasizing, “I do not want America to fall behind” other countries. Government and the Fed Should Not Ignore Bitcoin GOP leader Kevin McCarthy talked about bitcoin in an interview with CNBC last week. Congressman McCarthy serves California’s 23rd district and is currently the Republican leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. He was asked specifically if he thinks that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell have a good understanding of digital currencies or bitcoin given their recent comments and what advice he has for them. A longtime proponent of bitcoin, McCarthy said in July 2019, “I like bitcoin” and the security of the blockchain technology behind it. Reiterating his view on bitcoin back in 2019, the congressman replied, “I was right then

Brevan Howard, one of Europe’s largest hedge funds with $13.7 billion in assets under management, is reportedly set to start buying cryptocurrencies. The investment firm previously bought a 25% stake in One River Asset Management, which runs a number of cryptocurrency funds. Major Hedge Fund to Start Investing in Cryptocurrencies Investment management firm Brevan Howard is reportedly preparing to start buying cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The firm’s cryptocurrency investments will be overseen by Distributed Global’s co-founders Johnny Steindorff and Tucker Waterman. Distributed Global is an asset management company that focuses on digital assets. Founded in 2002, Brevan Howard describes itself as “one of the world’s leading global macro absolute return managers.” The firm manages assets for institutional investors around the globe including sovereign wealth funds, corporate and public pension plans, foundations, and endowments. The

Rumors concerning the U.S. Treasury cracking down on several financial institutions over money laundering has been spreading like wildfire on social media and forums. There’s been no formal announcement from the U.S. entity and at this stage, the news is widely considered FUD. However, some are assuming the hearsay stems from the recent Russian sanctions announcement last Thursday. On April 15, the U.S. Treasury published a press release explaining government escalated sanctions against the Russian government and the announcement touches upon the use of cryptocurrency addresses for illicit transactions. U.S. Treasury Rumors Flood Social Media, OFAC Cracks Down on 16 Groups That Allegedly Leveraged Crypto Assets On social media and cryptocurrency forums, rumors have spread about the U.S. government cracking down on the crypto industry. For instance, a Twitter account called “Fxhedge” tweeted about the U.S. Treasury on Sunday, April 17. “U.S. Treasury to charge several financial i