Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell has directed his staff to start an ethics inquiry into the financial activities of Fed members, as a number of senior central bank officials are being questioned for their investments. Reports indicated last week that the president of the Dallas Federal Reserve branch, Robert Kaplan, benefitted from “multiple million-dollar-plus stock trades” in 2020. Fed Presidents Profit From Multiple Million-Dollar Stock Deals Members of the Federal Reserve seem to have a mess to deal with as politicians and the media have called out a few members of the Fed for benefitting from major stock deals. Bitcoin.com News has reported on critics looking directly at the Fed’s members and even accusations of Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell doing the same thing. Last Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) published an article that revealed Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan “made multiple million-dollar-plus stock trades in 2020, according to a financial

U.S. Senator Margaret Hassan has requested that government agencies take “additional targeted steps to prevent and prosecute the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.” She expressed her concern over “the rise in the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes.” US Senator Requests Agencies Take Steps to Prevent and Prosecute Use of Crypto for Criminal Purposes U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan wrote a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland expressing her concern about the criminal use of cryptocurrencies Thursday. Garland is the 86th U.S. attorney general, the nation’s chief law enforcement officer who leads the Department of Justice (DOJ). Senator Hasan wrote: I write to express my concern over the rise in the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes, and request that your agencies take additional targeted steps to prevent and prosecute the use of cryptocurrency for criminal purposes. The letter was also forwarded to Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the Department of Hom

Following the successful Alonzo hard fork, the Cardano network now has a large swathe of new smart contracts. However, developers must wait to use them as they are locked in a timelock contract. At the time of writing, metrics show an aggregate total of 2,352 smart contracts since the Alonzo upgrade was implemented. Cardano Has More Than 2,300 Smart Contracts Waiting to Be Deployed The Cardano ( ADA ) network upgraded last week and since then the most topical conversation among ADA proponents is smart contracts. The use of smart contracts on the Cardano network has been a holy grail of sorts for ADA fans and even skeptics. Critics have wondered why ADA has been the third-largest crypto asset by market capitalization well before the protocol had smart contract capabilities. Meanwhile, networks like Terra, Avalanche, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and more have been gathering steam as they already have compatibility with Ethereum and smart contract benefits. Image via smartcontr

According to reports stemming from the Salvadoran Court of Accounts, the regulatory body is planning to investigate the government’s bitcoin automated teller machine (ATM) purchases and Chivo kiosk construction. The investigation follows the recent protest in El Salvador against the adoption of bitcoin as the crowd set fire to a bitcoin ATM. Human Rights Group Cristosal Files Complaint Against Nayib Bukele’s Regime On September 15, a large group of protestors took to the streets in San Salvador to protest the new bitcoin law implemented by Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele. It’s not the first time protests against the law have happened, but this time around a bitcoin ATM was set ablaze . Following the protest, El Salvador’s Court of Accounts is looking into a complaint about the Bukele regime’s bitcoin ATM buys and kiosk construction. A document was witnessed by Reuters staff and the complaint was filed by a human rights and transparency organization called Cristosal. The compla

xSigma, a blockchain R&D lab and subsidiary of ZK International (Nasdaq: ZKIN), is excited to announce the launch of their all-new, official non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, MaximNFT.com. The platform is launched in partnership with Maxim , a legendary men’s magazine available in 75 countries. The burgeoning marketplace will grant exclusive access to Maxim’s own NFT collections. Maxim’s Brand Meets xSigma’s Top Talent The partnership behind the project combines Maxim’s prestigious brand name with xSigma’s world-class software development capabilities. Maxim is a 25-year old men’s lifestyle magazine, covering the world’s finest cars, sharpest clothing, top travel destinations, and most beautiful women. Their content connects with over 10 million men across 75 countries every month, and their covers have featured dozens of female celebrities such as Shakira, Angelina Jolie, Megan Fox, and more. xSigma is ZK International’s R&D lab for building blockchain-based infra

Investors in Ireland are attracted to digital opportunities offering better returns and often find them online, a new survey has indicated. According to the poll, 11% of investors have already bought a digital asset and a quarter of the young Irish are betting on cryptocurrencies. Low Interest Rates, Search for Long-Term Returns Push More Irish Investors Toward Alternatives Investors in the Republic of Ireland are exploring opportunities in the digital space and over half of the participants in a new survey, 56%, say they make investments online. A staggering 80% of the respondents do it to achieve better long-term returns on their money while almost half admit their decisions are influenced by the low interest rates in the traditional banking system. The poll, the results of which have been quoted by the national broadcaster RTE and the Irish Independent, also shows that more than one in 10 of those questioned have put money into one crypto asset or another. The share of cryptocu

The Nigerian currency, the naira, plunged to a new all-time low of N570 for every dollar on September 16, 2021. This new exchange rate means since August 17, the naira has now lost about a tenth of its value on the foreign currency black market. Naira Overvalued In spite of this plunge, which has been attributed to the biting shortage of foreign exchange, authorities insist the naira’s real exchange is unchanged at N411 for every dollar. This means forex buyers that source this commodity on the parallel market are now paying a premium of over N150. Alternatively, the new parallel market exchange rate of N570 may suggest that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is now overvaluing the naira by 40%. In fact, this latter point appears to be corroborated by comments made by the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele. In his comments to a group of investors in late June 2021, Emefiele suggested at the time that the naira was overvalued by 10%. He also hinted that devaluation of the naira was in th

Avalanche, a smart contract-enabled cryptocurrency, has received a $230 million investment from a group of VC companies. The funding round, which is being described as a private sale, was led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, with the participation of other companies. This investment will give these companies participation in on-chain Avalanche governance and exposure to the price via token ownership. Polychain and Three Arrows Capital Put Funds in Avalanche Avalanche, one of the youngest smart contracts-enabled cryptocurrencies, has raised $230 million in a funding round led by Polychain and Three Arrows Capital, two leading VC companies. The funding round, which was categorized as a private token sale, also had the participation of R/Crypto Fund, Dragonfly, CMS Holdings, Collab+Currency, Lvna Capital, and a group of angel investors. About the interest of these venture capital companies, Emin Gun Sirer, director of the Avalanche Foundation, stated: Despite being years youn

Vitalik Buterin, a co-founder of Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has made Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people of 2021. The programmer was listed as an innovator, and Time valued his ability to empower other creators with his continued support for Ethereum and all the things that its prime feature, smart contracts, can help them accomplish. Vitalik Buterin in Time’s Top 100 Influencers The most famous Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, has been included in Time’s top 100 influential people of 2021 list. The magazine lists the most important people according to current events and specifies the unique roles of the individuals on the list. Others included for 2021 are Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, who pushed the inclusion of Bitcoin as legal tender, and Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who is also a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Alexios Ohanian, one of the original builders of Reddit, discussed Buterin’s inclusion this ye

There is no greater fear for cryptocurrency investors than one day forgetting the password to their blockchain wallets, seeing how their own money is right in their hands but still locked away forever from them. If this has happened to you, however, don’t lose hope. There are ways to recover a lost blockchain wallet password, as explained by a leading expert at wallet recovery with years of experience from KeychainX. Step by Step Guide for Recovering a Lost Blockchain Wallet Password Blockchain has over 76 million wallets created since its inception in 2011, and many users might have lost their passwords in the passing decade. But if Blockchain.com support will not help you recover your password, what other options do you have? Luckily, Robert Rhodin, the CEO of KeychainX and an expert in the field of wallet recovery, has written a complete step by step guide to help you with the process of recovering it yourself. Lost your blockchain wallet password? First, if you forget your

Bitcoin prices have been better after the second week of September, hovering around $46.5K to $48.5K per unit during the last two days. Meanwhile, bitcoin proponents still believe a significant second-leg up will be happening this year and a recent survey published by Plan B with 123,410 votes shows people believe bitcoin will reach $100K by Christmas 2021. Furthermore, a price model crafted by Will Clemente called “Illiquid Supply Floor” indicates that bitcoin prices may never drop below $39K again. Plan B’s Bitcoin Price Survey Sees 100K Votes Plan B is a pseudo-anonymous Twitter account ( @100trillionusd ) and the creator of the bitcoin price model called stock-to-flow (S2F). Plan B has stated in previous tweets that September bitcoin ( BTC ) prices may be lackluster, and this week he said “let’s skip September and go straight to October.” He said this because in a tweet he wrote on June 20, Plan B expects bitcoin prices to follow this path: “Aug>47K, Sep>43K, Oct>63K,

The president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Christine Lagarde, says cryptos are not currencies, adding that they are “highly speculative, suspicious occasionally, and high intensity in terms of energy consumption.” She also discussed the need for stablecoin regulation and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Lagarde: ‘Cryptos Are Not Currencies. Full Stop’ ECB President Christine Lagarde shared her view on cryptocurrency, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in an interview with Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, published Thursday. Lagarde was asked whether “cryptocurrencies are a plus for the global economy” or whether it is too early to tell. The ECB chief promptly replied: “Cryptos are not currencies, full stop. Cryptos are highly speculative assets that claim their fame as currency, possibly, but they’re not. They are not.” She continued: I think we have to distinguish between cryptos that are those highly speculative, suspicious occasi

A committee of the U.S. House of Representatives has proposed to subject cryptocurrencies to the “wash sale” rule. Since cryptocurrencies are treated as property by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), they are currently not subject to the wash sale rule. This proposal attempts to close down a big crypto tax loophole. Crypto Included in New Proposal The Committee on Ways and Means, the chief tax-writing committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, proposed to subject cryptocurrencies to the wash sale rule Monday. If adopted, the rules will apply to crypto trades occurring after Dec. 31. The “wash sales” provision in the bill states: This section includes commodities, currencies, and digital assets in the wash sale rule, an anti-abuse rule previously applicable to stock and other securities. The wash sale rule in section 1091 prevents taxpayers from claiming tax losses while retaining an interest in the loss asset. The wash-sale rule was designed to discourage people from sel

On September 8, 2021, Dmitriy Berenzon, research partner at 1kxnetwork, an early-stage crypto fund that helps founders bootstrap token networks, published a comprehensive research post concerning blockchain bridges. Berenzon’s study highlights the current “multi-chain market structure” and bridges that are making a myriad of blockchains compatible. Researcher: ‘We Are Finally in a Multi-Chain Market Structure’ For quite some time now, multi-chain or cross-chain technology has been a holy grail of sorts in the cryptocurrency development space. People want to transact with other blockchains by leveraging bridges to different ecosystems. Dmitriy Berenzon published a detailed article about the subject of cross-chain tech and bridges, and he believes we’ve finally reached a watershed moment. “After years of research & development, we are finally in a multi-chain market structure,” Berenzon stresses in his blog post. Image of bridge technology “as of September 8, 2021; Illustrati

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX is thrilled to announce the Monsta Infinite token (MONI) listing under the trading pair USDT/MONI on Sept. 15 at 1 p.m. UTC. In celebration of the MONI listing, AscendEX and the MONI team will launch seven limited-time promotional events for users to earn token rewards. The events will take place between 12:00 a.m. UTC, on Sept. 16 and 12:00 a.m. UTC, on Sept. 23, 2021. By depositing and trading MONI, users will have the chance to share airdrop rewards worth up to 80,000 USDT . Monsta Infinite is a decentralized game universe where tokens are earned through participation. The project’s efforts are focused on bringing accessibility and decentralization to the gaming world. They believe that greater blockchain adoption can be achieved through gamification. The project is built on top of Binance Smart Chain, which they believe will improve the user experience by making gameplay affordable and accessible. Monsta Infinite implements a sidechain service with EV

On August 5, 2021, the Ethereum network and its participants successfully completed the highly anticipated London upgrade, which saw the implementation of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP)-1559. Since then, 303,681 ether worth more than a billion U.S. dollars have been burned. More Than 300K Ether Burned Following EIP-1559 More than a billion dollars worth of ethereum ( ETH ) has been burned to date, after the London upgrade was implemented 42 days ago. The biggest changes added to the Ethereum blockchain included EIP-1559 and EIP-3554. While EIP-3554 changed the difficulty bomb, EIP-1559 changed Ethereum’s fee rate to a new scheme that makes the crypto asset ether deflationary. Essentially, fees are standardized and calculated based on network demand, as a transaction pricing mechanism introduces a base fee for every block found on the network. The remainder of the fees will be burned and ether proponents assume this will significantly reduce the overall supply of ethereu

While the dogecoin’s token price has floundered during the last seven days, the meme-coin’s rival shiba inu (SHIB) has moved up the ranks in terms of weekly gains. Dogecoin has shed 5.8% during the last week, but shiba inu has spiked 21.3% during the course of the week and 21.1% in the last 24 hours. Shiba Inu Gains 21% in 24 Hours Two days ago, Bitcoin.com News covered the DOGE market action concerning dogecoin’s four-legged fall in recent times. Weekly stats show dogecoin (DOGE) is still down 5.8% during the last seven days but it is still the largest meme-based crypto asset in terms of market capitalization. The second leader in that category is shiba inu (SHIB), an ERC20 token that’s been moving northbound in terms of price in recent times. SHIB is currently swapping for $0.00000824 per unit but has lost 8% during the last 30 days. SHIB has been trading for $0.00000720 to $0.00000824 per unit on September 16, 2021. Today there’s 657,335 SHIB holders according to Etherscan d

As someone who’s been deeply ingrained in the software development community for 20 years, I’ve come to realize that misinformation propels hearsay unlike anything else. There are a number of falsehoods circling the XRP Ledger (XRPL) that I encounter on a regular basis including the misconception that it’s centralized, that there are hidden fees, that … Continued The post Facts & Fiction: Debunking XRP Ledger Misconceptions appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S7jJ3g

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has filed an application with the National Futures Association (NFA) to offer futures and derivatives trading on its platform. The exchange says its new offerings aim to “Further grow the cryptoeconomy.” Coinbase Registers to Offer Crypto Futures and Derivatives Trading Coinbase Global Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) announced Wednesday via Twitter that it has filed an application with the National Futures Association (NFA) to register as a Futures Commission Merchant (FCM). The exchange wrote: This is the next step to broaden our offerings and offer futures and derivatives trading on our platforms. The exchange added that its goal is to “Further grow the cryptoeconomy.” The filing shows that the company is registered as Coinbase Financial Markets Inc. Crypto derivatives have become a huge market and most major cryptocurrency exchanges offer derivatives trading, including Binance, Okex, FTX, CME Group, and Kraken. In April, Coinbase announced that

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, explained that there is not enough investor protection in cryptocurrency. He added that the securities regulator needs more funding and manpower to effectively regulate the crypto sector. SEC Chair Gensler Says More Funding Needed to Regulate Crypto Space SEC Chairman Gary Gensler detailed his agency’s approach to regulating cryptocurrencies before the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday. He assured senators that the SEC is working overtime to create a regulatory framework for crypto assets. Noting the enormity of the task, he told Senator Catherine Cortez Masto that the SEC could use “a lot more people” to evaluate the 6,000 digital “projects” and determine whether they are securities under the U.S. securities law. He said: Currently, we just don’t have enough investor protection in crypto finance, issuance, trading, or lending. Frankly, at this time, it’s more like the Wild West or the old world of ‘b

The world’s largest movie exhibition company, AMC Entertainment, has announced its plan to accept cryptocurrencies by year-end. AMC CEO Adam Aron says the entertainment giant will accept bitcoin, ether, litecoin, and bitcoin cash. AMC Prepares to Accept Cryptocurrencies AMC, the largest movie exhibition company in the U.S., Europe, and the world, has unveiled its plan to accept cryptocurrencies by the end of the year. As of March 31, AMC owned or operated approximately 950 theaters and 10,500 screens globally. AMC CEO Adam Aron tweeted Wednesday: Cryptocurrency enthusiasts: you likely know @AMCTheatres has announced we will accept bitcoin for online ticket and concession payments by year-end 2021. I can confirm today that when we do so, we also expect that we similarly will accept ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash. AMC unveiled its plan to accept bitcoin during an earnings call in August. The CEO detailed on Twitter at the time: “By year end, we will have the technolo