Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Employees of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation may become the first in the country to get their salaries in digital currency. The National Bank of Ukraine is developing an electronic version of the Ukrainian hryvnia and the ministry is considering the option of using the state-issued coin for remuneration. Government Employees to Be Paid With Digital Hryvnia The Digital Ministry is planning to compensate its employees with Ukraine’s central bank digital currency ( CBDC ), once the new hryvnia is ready for testing. In a recent interview with online news portal TSN, Minister Mykhailo Fedorov revealed this is among the department’s first initiatives for the digitalized national fiat, stating: We have it on the table as one of the first pilots, the payment of salaries to employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in electronic hryvnia. Fedorov pointed out that “Ukrainians rank first in the world in terms of adaptability to virtual assets.” This openness to techn

Vienna-based crypto platform Bitpanda has announced the firm has secured $263 million in a Series C funding round. The financing was led by Valar Ventures and Leadblock Partners, Jump Capital, Alan Howard, and Redo Ventures joined the investment round. The latest financing gives Bitpanda an overall valuation of $4.1 billion. Crypto Unicorn Bitpanda Is Now Valued at $4.1 Billion After Capital Raise Digital investment platform Bitpanda revealed on August 17 that the company raised $263 million in a Series C investment round. The Austrian fintech unicorn is now valued at $4.1 billion, which is triple the size of the firm’s previous $1.2 billion private valuation. The company says funds will be used to “strengthen” the team, “double down” on technology, and Bitpanda seeks international expansion as well. Bitpanda notes the Series C was signed this month and will need to be cleared by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). The financing follows Bitpanda’s previous Series B inv

Venezuelan authorities have reconnected affected bitcoin miners to the power grid in Carabobo state, after having been disconnected for undisclosed causes. Sunacrip, the cryptocurrency watchdog in the country, mediated between the regional power utility authorities and the affected miners, and managed to exert pressure to reconnect these miners, who were disconnected last week. Venezuelan Bitcoin Miners Reconnected to Power Grid Venezuelan authorities executed a reconnection operation yesterday for a group of affected bitcoin miners. The miners were reconnected to the national power grid after they were cut off last week without an official explanation. Sunacrip, the national cryptocurrency watchdog, mediated between the affected miners and regional authorities in Carabobo state. This closes the bitcoin miner saga that started last week when all officially registered miners in Carabobo were disconnected by the national power company, Corpoelec. The reconnection occurred after min

A Kenyan regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has cautioned investors and Kenyan citizens against investing with Fxbitinvest, a bitcoin trading company. The warning was issued after the regulator noted Fxbitinvest’s use of exaggerated return-on-investment promises to lure unsuspecting Kenyans. Unrealistic Promises According to a CMA statement issued on August 12, Fxbitinvest is offering prospective investors a return on investment (ROI) of 400% within a space of six hours. In addition, the regulator also identifies the “paybill numbers” that are being used by individuals behind Fxbitinvest to collect funds from Kenyans. The CMA names persons associated with the company either in their capacity as employees or as owners. The identified individuals and their social media handles are Hassan Juma and Godfrey Koome who are both based in Kenya. The third individual, who is supposedly based in North America, has only been identified as an anonymous director. Aggrieved

A young South African electronics engineer has rued his decision to delete a text document containing the keys and password to a crypto wallet that held some 20 bitcoins. According to the engineer, the lost coins had been mined more than ten years ago using a modified personal computer that “boasted an AMD Phenom X3 processor and 512MB RAM.” Low BTC Price and Lack of Exchanges According to a Mybroadband report, the 24-year-old engineer whose pseudonym is Mark Michaels, started mining the cryptocurrency “after reading about the technology on the internet.” At the time, the engineer was only in seventh grade. Although the report quotes Michaels stating he does not recall how long it took him to mine the BTC , it does however note that the value of bitcoin was still far below ($0.08 per BTC ) the one dollar mark at the time. This lowly price as well as the lack of crypto exchanges to sell the BTC eventually caused the then-teenage bitcoin miner to lose interest. The engineer explai

HUMAN Protocol has launched on the Ethereum Mainnet. To complement this launch – which also involved the listing of HMT (the native token of HUMAN Protocol) on FTX and Gate.io on the 10th of August – the HUMAN Protocol Foundation has now released the HUMAN App : the first opportunity for people to earn HMT directly for completing data-labeling tasks, and the first gateway into the HUMAN experience. HUMAN Protocol provides the end-to-end infrastructure – the tools, plugins, integrations, and APIs – to hire, manage, validate, and compensate individuals at scale. It is designed to support the creation of global job markets in which almost any human or machine can publish a job and any Worker with the requested skill set, knowledge, or background can complete the tasks associated with that job. While in theory the Protocol may support any job, the current majority of HUMAN tasks – produced through hCaptcha – involve the labeling of images. These tasks are now available within the H

The Shenzhen office of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has reportedly set out to correct the business activities of about a dozen companies allegedly engaged in cryptocurrency transactions. According to Chinese media, the entities have been targeted in a crackdown on crypto trading in the city. People’s Bank of China Cracks Down on Coin Trading in Shenzhen The branch of China’s central bank in Shenzhen is cracking down on illegal cryptocurrency trading, the Chinese business news outlet Cnstock.com revealed Tuesday. As part of the new campaign, the PBOC has “rectified” 11 companies “suspected of carrying out illegal virtual currency activities,” the report detailed. According to the article, the regulator has also identified a local financial website accused of illegally advertising foreign exchange cash deposit transactions. Furthermore, the People’s Bank of China has investigated eight cases involving illicit online foreign exchange operations and cross-border stock trading.

Lloyds Banking Group, the British parent company of Lloyds Bank, is currently hiring a “digital currency [and] innovation senior manager,” according to a recent job listing posted to BYP Network. Lloyds is one of the largest financial services firms in the world with close to $500 billion assets under management (AUM). The new digital currency job advertisement highlights the new employee will work with the firm’s mobile banking network with “over 30 million customers.” Lloyds Banking Group Is Hiring a ‘Digital Currency and Innovation Senior Manager’ A job listing published on BYP Network explains that Lloyds Banking Group is in need of a digital currency expert. Lloyds notes that the company’s Payments Liquidity & Settlement team is a newly formed venture unit and the group and “global network of bank relationships” details that they “look towards the future, digital currencies.” The job listing follows the recent surge of Fortune 500 firms that have been looking to hire di

Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist says she puts faith in the entire U.S. financial system, the banking system, the power of the central bank, and the Federal Reserve more than bitcoin. Charles Schwab’s Strategist Skeptical of Cryptocurrency Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders shared her thoughts on cryptocurrency and the U.S. financial and banking systems on a Yahoo Finance webinar last week. The Wall Street strategist explained that she trusts the U.S. financial system more than she trusts cryptocurrency miners, stating: I still put some faith in the entire U.S. financial system, the banking system, all of its protections, as well as the power of the central bank, the Federal Reserve, to sort of control the fiat currency that is also the global monetary standard and the world’s reserve currency — versus, say, bitcoin miners. Regarding cryptocurrency, she said: “I am an admitted skeptic to some degree. I’m not on either end of the spectrum, mea

U.S.-based crypto trading platform Bitfront is going to discontinue services in South Korea before stricter rules for the industry are enforced in September, Korean media reported. The exchange, a subsidiary of Japanese tech giant Line, is currently available to Korean traders. Line’s Bitfront Exchange to Discontinue Services for Korean Cryptocurrency Traders With tighter regulations on the horizon, digital asset exchange Bitfront is reportedly joining those platforms that are planning to pull out of South Korea’s cryptocurrency market. The U.S.-registered entity, which was established by the Japanese messaging app company Line, is going to limit its services in the country next month, Korean media revealed. According to Yonhap, the exchange will stop providing Korean-language service in mid-September. “Citing the tougher regulations, Bitfront also said it will discontinue payments with Korean credit cards on Sept. 14,” the news agency detailed in a report on foreign crypto exchan

The Brazilian Federal Police launched Operation Compliance, a probe against cryptocurrency-related money laundering crimes last week. The probe resulted in the execution of several seizure warrants across the country, involving 150 federal policemen active in five different cities. Operation Compliance came about by way of an investigation that identified cryptocurrency-related money laundering crimes on the internet starting in 2018. Brazilian Police Fight Crypto Money Laundering The Brazilian Federal Police were deployed last week to scrutinize several locations that were allegedly linked to cryptocurrency-related money laundering operations. This following an investigation that started back in 2018. Operation Compliance required the involvement of 150 federal policemen, who carried out 34 search and seizure warrants in several cities of the country, including Goiânia, Campo Grande, São Paulo, Laranjal Paulista, Recife, and Vitória. But the Brazilian police did not only limit th

On August 17, 24 Hours of Le Mans, the endurance sports car race held annually in Le Mans, France, and the European art collective the Automobilist revealed the launch of the first-ever 24H Le Mans’ non-fungible token (NFT) collection. 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Automobilist to Launch ‘Legends of Le Mans’ NFT collection The sports car race called the 24H of Le Mans is a popular race held every year in France and it’s the world’s oldest endurance car racing event. The first 24H of Le Mans was held in May 1923 and racers leveraged the public roads in the city adjacent to the Sarthe River. On Tuesday, 24H of Le Mans alongside the collective of automotive and motorsport aficionados called the Automobilist, announced the organizations will be dropping the race’s first NFT collection. According to the announcement the collection was crafted by the Automobilist , and the NFTs will be hosted on the blockchain services platform Bitski . The 24H of Le Mans and Automobilist NFTs will showc

The Chinese multinational technology giant, Alibaba Group, has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. According to regional reports, the Alibaba NFT platform not only provides customers with the ability to purchase and sell NFTs, but the marketplace also allows people to license and sell intellectual property (IP), as it is copyrighted by blockchain technology. Alibaba’s NFT Market Offers Blockchain Copyright Service Alibaba is a large corporation from China that specializes in internet services, technology, and e-commerce solutions. The company, founded in 1999, quickly catapulted to being one of the biggest in the world with $257 billion in assets under its wing. Alibaba has raked in $21.8 billion in revenue so far in 2021 and the company has been involved with cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions for years now. The billion-dollar company has launched its NFT marketplace this week according to a report published on August 17 by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). I

Two U.S. lawmakers have urged the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to establish a joint working group for the regulation of crypto assets. SEC and CFTC Urged to Collaborate on Crypto Regulation U.S. Representatives Patrick McHenry and Glenn “GT” Thompson sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and acting CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam Monday regarding cryptocurrency. McHenry is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee while Thompson is the ranking member of the House Committee on Agriculture. The letter begins by referencing Gensler’s comments to Senator Elizabeth Warren stating that “additional authorities” and “resources” are needed for the oversight of the crypto industry. McHenry previously raised concerns that Gensler wanting jurisdiction over all crypto exchanges, including non-securities ones, is “a blatant power grab that will hurt American innovation.”

Fitch Ratings, the American credit agency and member of the ‘Big Three’ credit agencies, has published a paper on El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin and making the crypto asset legal tender in the country. Fitch believes that after the country enforces the new tender law it will face “volatility risk” alongside “regulatory and operating risks” as well. Fitch Ratings Says El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption Invites New Risks In 21 days, El Salvador’s bitcoin tender law will be enforced after the bill to make bitcoin legal tender in the country was approved by the Salvadoran Congress supermajority on June 9. Since then a number of opinions have surfaced about the country’s choice to adopt bitcoin stemming from organizations like Bank of America, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , members of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and individuals like European Central Bank (ECB) president, Christine Lagarde . Now one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, Fitch Ratings , has

During the last few weeks, a crypto asset called solana has been making its way up the charts and has made it into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Solana reached an all-time price high on Monday, capturing $74 per unit and an 80% gain over the course of the week. In addition to the fresh price highs, the Solana ecosystem has grown significantly with more than 300 projects leveraging the system. Solana Captures an All-Time Price High The crypto asset solana (SOL) has made it into the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of market valuation on Monday. The digital currency SOL reached an all-time high (ATH) as well that day, when it jumped above the $74 handle. According to statistics, during the course of the seven trailing days up until Monday, SOL jumped over 80% in a week, 109% over the last two weeks, and 160% in the last month. Against the U.S. dollar, SOL has gained 1,960.5% during the trailing 12-month period. Solana’s official Twitter page has 393.4K fo

PRESS RELEASE. Lagos – African-founded cryptocurrency exchange , Quidax is integrating with Polygon. Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Quidax’s integration with Polygon is Polygon’s first in Africa and represents a significant milestone as it gains increased developer adoption. As part of the integration, Quidax has listed Polygon’s native token Matic on its exchange. This will allow Quidax customers to trade Matic once it is listed. The listing of Matic on Quidax will also expose the exchange to new customers that want to trade the crypto asset. Beyond listing, Quidax will be bringing Polygon’s architecture to its customers. This will mean that Quidax customers will be able to access projects that are already in Polygon’s ecosystem and benefit from various services including lending, borrowing, staking, gaming, NFTs, and more. According to Buchi Okoro, Co-founder and CEO of Quidax, “the integration co

As blockchain technology expands its horizons, attention is turning towards Hollywood with the introduction of a brand new decentralized series titled “HODL,” which will feature fan engagement tokens and highlight mining services-for-all. Audience to Gain Exposure to Token Incentives and Mining Art imitates life in one of the latest expressions of the blockchain universe as a tale involving a budding entrepreneur introducing a blockchain project advances towards viewers’ screens. Cudos , a decentralized layer 1 and layer 2 blockchain network, has joined with forthcoming TV series “HODL” and fan engagement protocol Sator to deliver a value-added experience for viewers through the mining platform. Short for Hold On For Dear Life, “ HODL ” will revolve around Aveer, a token project named after a lost friend, chronicling the ensuing comedy and drama. The decentralized TV series is set to air in 2022, drawing on influences from actual crypto life while featuring a lineup of real crypto

A Ghanaian blockchain and crypto association, Afroblocks, has warned the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to resist the urge to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that is based on the “old traditional siloed financial thinking.” Afroblocks Not Consulted Afroblocks (formerly Blockchain Society Ghana) instead wants the central bank to emulate “financial projects that are borderless and decentralized like modern-day cryptocurrencies.” According to Omar Majdoub, one of the association’s co-founders, doing this will increase the likelihood of the CBDC’s success. These remarks by Afroblocks’ Majdoub follow the BOG’s recent release of a press statement in which it reaffirms the central bank’s desire to be one of the first countries in Africa to launch a CBDC. As reported recently by Bitcoin.com News, the BOG has selected a Germany-based firm as its technology partner for its CBDC project. The firm, Giesecke Devrient, is tasked with the job of providing “the technology and a solution that

A Venezuelan individual has reportedly purchased an apartment using cryptocurrency, specifically Tether, in the coastal state of Anzoategui last month. This is one of the first purchases of real estate with crypto that has been recorded in the country, but more properties are listed as accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option in several real estate businesses across Venezuela. Venezuelan Buys Real Estate Property Using Tether An unidentified Venezuelan citizen bought a property with usdt, the stablecoin issued by Tether, last month in Anzoategui, a coastal state of the country. The citizen purchased the property using the stablecoin due to how easy transactions are, according to Carlos Grau, manager of Grau Real Estate, the company that assisted with the sale. Grau told Criptonoticias that the transaction was completed instantly, a big improvement on how these sales are usually handled using traditional finance tools. Grau stated: An operation of this kind takes between ei