Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Universal Air Travel Plan (UATP) is bringing more than 300 airline members and travel merchants cryptocurrency payment options. Airlines in the UATP network include Air Canada, Air China, Delta, Frontier, Japan Airlines, Jetblue, Qantas, Southwest, and United. UATP Gets Into Crypto UATP is an airline-owned global payment network accepted by thousands of merchants worldwide for air, rail, hotel, and travel agency payments. UATP announced Wednesday that it has partnered with Bitpay “to offer its network the ability to accept payments quickly and easily in bitcoin, dogecoin, ethereum, litecoin and six other popular cryptocurrencies for travel.” Bitpay tweeted Friday: UATP is tapping into crypto’s growing payment popularity to bring more than 300 airline members and merchants more payment options. Currently, UATP’s members include Aeromexico, Airplus International (British Airways and Lufthansa), APG Airlines, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, Air Niugini, American Airlines

The digital currency network Cardano is two days away from the upcoming hard fork on September 12 and the community is expecting to see functional smart contracts. These can be used for decentralized finance (defi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and other types of decentralized applications (dapps). Cardano has managed to capture the third-largest crypto market capitalization among 10,000+ crypto assets but over the last seven days, cardano has lost more than 16% in value. Cardano Expects to Upgrade in 2 Days With more than $400 billion under the hood, the ethereum ( ETH ) market is by far the largest smart contract platform today in terms of fiat valuation. Ethereum has held this position for a few years now, but a number of other smart contract crypto asset networks have been moving toward ETH ’s position. Besides ETH , today’s top smart contract markets by market valuation include cardano (ADA) , solana (SOL), polkadot (DOT), terra (LUNA), avalanche (AVAX), and more. Ethereum’s fe

PRESS RELEASE. esports company & BSC Utility token Nobility has announced the appointment of Rostik Rusev on its board of advisors as the company gears up for launch. September 10th, 2021, Florida, USA — Nobility (NBL) is a revolutionary new BSC utility token focused on disrupting the esports industry with it’s unique smart contract capabilities. The project has just announced DeFi enthusiast, crypto entrepreneur, and blockchain business leader, Rostik Rusev as an advisor on its board. Crypto Magician in the Shadows Nobility is proud to announce the appointment of the ‘Crypto Magician in the shadows’ to its advisory board. Rostik Rusev is highly revered in the crypto space and will bring to the project a vast wealth of experience from not only the De-Fi space, but also from his previous work in the PR, Entertainment, and Music industries. Previously known as “The Bad Boy of crypto” Rusev made his name as an early pioneer in blockchain PR and will look to use his industry ex

A Panamanian lawmaker has introduced a bill to regulate cryptocurrencies in the National Assembly. Among the proposals in the bill is the legalization of cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin and ethereum, as a means of payment, including for paying taxes. Proposed Crypto Law Will ‘Give Legal Certainty and Safety to Crypto Assets in Panama’ As the Bitcoin Law went into effect in El Salvador making BTC legal tender, Panamanian legislator Gabriel Silva tweeted on Sept. 7, “Today we proposed the Crypto Law.” He elaborated: We want Panama to be compatible with blockchain, cryptoassets, and the internet. This has the potential to create jobs, attract investment and bring transparency. The draft law he presented in the National Assembly is titled “Crypto law: Making Panama compatible with the digital economy, blockchain, cryptoassets, and the internet.” Silva explained that the law “seeks to revolutionize public administration, making it transparent, innovative and also promoting a digit

Nigerian fintech entrepreneurs have slammed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s decision to select Bitt Inc as its fintech partner. They insist that the choice of Bitt Inc, a Barbados based firm, undermines central bank claims that it is “fighting for the naira in the forex market.” Bitt Inc’s Market Capitalization In fact, as the report by Itedgenews explains, some players in the country’s fintech industry are now lobbying for the CBN to rescind this decision. They cite the small number of people employed by Bitt Inc (three) as well as the fintech firm’s “lower market capitalization when compared to any of Nigeria’s major fintech companies” as some of their key concerns. Others, like fintech analyst Abu Idrissee, see the choice of Bitt Inc ahead of local companies as a continuation of Nigeria’s practice of snubbing local solutions. “With an abundance of indigenous online payment processing platforms and over 30 Fintech companies, Nigeria has the talent, expertise, experience, wo

Leading cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have reached agreements with Korean banks to maintain the issuance of real-name accounts, media reports revealed. The deals, although not yet permanent, will allow the trading platforms to register with financial authorities before the Sept. 24 compliance deadline. Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit Maintain Partnerships With Korean Banks Banks have reportedly agreed to keep issuing real-name accounts for South Korea’s top digital asset exchanges. The arrangements will still need to be finalized but the received confirmations will allow the coin trading platforms to complete their registration with the country’s financial authorities before the regulatory deadline expires later this month. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Nonghyup Bank revealed the institution has agreed to extend deals to issue real-name accounts for traders at Bithumb and Coinone. According to a report by the Korea Jongang Daily, the representative confirmed the bank will

NYDIG, a Bitcoin-based fintech firm, has announced it will partner with MVB bank to integrate its Bitcoin services into MVB’s banking as a service solution. The joint effort will allow the development of a white label solution, allowing third parties to complete their financial services with bitcoin functionalities without having to develop these systems in-house. NYDIG and MVB Bank Partner to Integrate Bitcoin NYDIG, a leading fintech solutions company focused on Bitcoin services, has announced a partnership with MVB Bank, a banking-as-a-service provider, to integrate its full bitcoin stack services into its platform. This will allow MVB Bank to offer third parties a full solution that could encompass fiat and bitcoin banking all at once, easing onboarding of its customers to cryptocurrency. MVB Bank currently has over 50 institutional customers among fintech, payments, and gaming companies that use its Victor platform to provide services to their customers. Victor aims to provid

The Republic of El Salvador has made many headlines this week as the country adopted bitcoin as legal tender on Tuesday and became the first-known nation-state to purchase the leading crypto asset. A recent report details that remittance providers like Moneygram and Western Union could lose up to $400 million annually if the Chivo wallet is used more. Furthermore, the creator of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee has written an opinion piece about why Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele announced the bitcoin tender law at the Miami bitcoin conference. Chivo Wallet Could Hurt Remittance Giants Like Moneygram and Western Union, Says Report Ever since El Salvador adopted bitcoin ( BTC ) as legal currency on September 7, 2021, the country has continued to be a topic of discussion. Bitcoin.com News has reported on the many developments in El Salvador from ‘ Bitcoin Beach ’ to the ‘30for30’ trend that took place this week. Moreover, the country started buying mass quantities of bitcoin (

PRESS RELEASE. At the end of August, the new NFT avatar collection known as SIDUS: NFT Heroes released its first batch of characters – in just 10 minutes, the entire batch had sold out! The release of the remaining characters from the collection is scheduled for September 10th at 4:00 am UTC. The team has also announced that the Rare and Legendary upgrade cards needed to modify an NFT Hero to Rare and Legendary status will be launched on the same day. I Want an NFT Hero – How Do I Get One? The public sale for the remaining NFT Heroes starts on September 10th at 4:00 am UTC, on the NFT Heroes website. The price for 1 NFT Hero is the same as before – 0.055 ETH . The remaining Heroes will come with new features and physical traits. After the whole collection of Original NFT Heroes is minted, users will be able to learn the precise percentage of their Hero’s rarity. On the same day, September 10th, SIDUS will be presenting its Rare and Legendary upgrade cards. The upgrade cards are t

Seychelles’ Financial Services Authority (FSA) together with the country’s finance ministry, is reportedly working on a policy to either prohibit or license crypto trading platforms as registered international businesses. Increase in International Investigations of Crypto Platforms According to a report , the move by the FSA happens against the backdrop of a rising number of international investigations into scam crypto trading platforms that have been traced to the island nation. As recently reported by Bitcoin.com News, the Onecoin bitcoin scam became the latest foreign crypto entity to be a target of such an investigation. This after a request for a probe was submitted to the country’s law enforcement. Meanwhile, in the same report, Randolf Samson, who heads the FSA’s anti-money laundering and terrorist financing section, is quoted explaining the rationale behind the regulator’s move. Samson detailed: There are many incorporated companies that are facilitating that activity.

Two central bank governors have shared their opinions about bitcoin after the cryptocurrency became legal tender in El Salvador. The governor of the Bank of Mexico sees bitcoin as a high-risk investment and a poor store of value while the governor of Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, believes bitcoin could collapse. Central Bankers Continue to Warn About Bitcoin The governors of the Bank of Mexico (Banxico) and Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, have shared their views on bitcoin after the cryptocurrency became legal tender in El Salvador. Bank of Mexico Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said Thursday that bitcoin is more like a means of barter than fiat money, Reuters reported, adding that he called the cryptocurrency “a high-risk investment and a poor store of value.” The Banxico governor is an economist; he was appointed by Mexico’s president to serve as governor of the central bank until Dec. 31. He was quoted as saying: Whoever receives bitcoin in exchange for a good or

On Wednesday, the stock and cryptocurrency trading platform Robinhood rolled out recurring crypto investments and now customers can purchase as little as $1 in crypto commission-free daily, weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The company’s announcement discusses the strategy of investment called dollar-cost averaging “in order to help smooth out the price swings.” Robinhood Rolls Out Recurring Crypto Purchases The investment platform Robinhood (Nasdaq: HOOD) is now providing customers with the ability to purchase crypto assets in a recurring fashion. This means that customers can purchase a set amount of digital currency ($1 or more) and buy it every day, week after week, every two weeks, or on a monthly basis. Additionally, Robinhood says that clients can “set recurring investments across multiple coins without ever incurring a fee.” “Today we’re rolling out crypto recurring investments, a new feature that allows you to regularly buy your favorite coins, commission-free and with as litt

Dydx, a decentralized exchange, finally unlocked its airdrop rewards for users. Its governance token, dydx, was locked due to airdrop restrictions since the protocol announced its distribution on August 3rd. Since its release the price has skyrocketed, giving some of the more active users on the platform more than $50K worth of dydx. However, some users were unable to reclaim the airdrop due to location restrictions. Dydx Unlocks Airdrop, Price Skyrockets Dydx, a derivatives decentralized exchange, announced yesterday the unlocking of its airdropped governance token, dydx. The platform had airdropped these tokens on August 3, but users had to wait for an initial transfer restriction period to be able to withdraw funds. The token, which will be used as a reward and also as a governance token, experienced a quick appreciation in price. This contributed to the most active users getting more than $50K worth of tokens. The protocol dropped tokens to each one of the users that traded ev

PRESS RELEASE. GoMeat Services ( https://gomeat.io ) is a digital marketplace connecting consumers with their local specialty (halal/kosher) stores. Since its launch in 2019, GoMeat has processed over 6k orders and garnered over 5k loyal users. GoMeat application and website bring convenience to the doorstep of specialty consumers by providing web-based ordering and same-day delivery options. GoMeat is the first project of its kind serving this $1.7 trillion industry and empowering local specialty stores. Specialty meat refers to any meat prepared following strict guidelines. Any meat slaughtered and prepared according to Islamic principles is called Halal meanwhile the meat prepared according to Jewish guidelines is called Kosher. The same applies to foods and beverages. While specialty meat certainly is a niche but it is a massive one with over 1.8 billion consumers around the world. These consumers are not just restricted to the Middle East as globalization and increased awaren

Mastercard, the American multinational financial services corporation, announced the company is dipping further into the digital asset ecosystem by acquiring the blockchain intelligence firm Ciphertrace. The partnership announcement says the firm will help bolster Ciphertrace’s and Mastercard’s cyber security solutions. Mastercard Purchased Ciphertrace for Undisclosed Sum On Thursday, the financial payments giant Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has revealed the company has acquired the blockchain surveillance firm Ciphertrace. The blockchain company is a Menlo Park, California-based cyber security firm that specializes in tracking “more than 900 cryptocurrencies.” Ciphertrace was founded by Stephen Ryan on May 31, 2016, and it has filed a number of patents throughout the years. In mid-May, Ciphertrace reported on cryptocurrency crime moving toward decentralized finance (defi), and during the first week of August, Ciphertrace claimed it had enhanced monero ( XMR ) tracing capabilities. In

The cryptocurrency solana reached another all-time high on September 9 at $213 per coin. The digital currency’s market valuation has swelled significantly, pushing dogecoin from its position in the top ten last week. Today, solana’s crypto market capitalization has managed to surpass XRP ’s overall valuation, taking the sixth position in the top ten this week. Solana’s Month-Long Tear Continues Solana has managed to continue its ascent higher and higher as a great majority of the crypto economy coins have faltered in value. On Thursday, solana (SOL) reached an all-time high (ATH) at $213 per unit, and it’s a touch over 5.9% lower than that price point at the time of writing. The higher price has ballooned the crypto asset’s overall market capitalization and for the first time, SOL knocked XRP down a spot in terms of the top ten crypto positions. SOL also knocked DOGE down last week and today, solana’s market cap is hovering around $58.9 billion. Year-to-date, SOL has gained a m

Seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady and his supermodel wife Gisele Bündchen are featured in a new commercial for cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The company plans to invest $20 million in the ad campaign. Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen Star in Commercial for FTX Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen are in a commercial for cryptocurrency exchange FTX. The commercial titled “FTX. You in?” was released by FTX Wednesday. The company’s U.S. affiliate plans to invest $20 million in the campaign, the Wall Street Journal reported, adding that the campaign begins Thursday during the National Football League season kickoff game between Tampa Bay and Dallas. It will run during NFL broadcasts throughout October along with digital advertising components. The commercial opens with Bündchen saying to Brady, “Can I talk to you about something?” After showing him something on her cell phone, she asked, “What do you think? Are you in?” Brady replied: “I’m in. Let’s call everyone.” The pair proceeded to ca

PRESS RELEASE. GoCrypto, a solution allowing merchants to accept, store, withdraw and buy cryptocurrencies, announced the integration of Binance Pay into the GoCrypto system giving crypto adopters more options to use crypto as the mainstream means of payment as they are intended to be. The GoCrypto solution, developed by Elly – a fully regulated company, is currently available in 64 countries, and is expanding to new markets as regulations evolve and allow. GoCrypto enables online and brick-and-mortar merchants to accept instant payments with various crypto wallets. The integration of Binance Pay into the GoCrypto payment network enables tens of millions of Binance app users to use 40+ Binance Pay-supported cryptocurrencies at thousands of GoCrypto locations around the world. Elly, the GoCrypto developer, also presented the multichain bridge for its native GoC token, which enables migrations between the SLP protocol on the Bitcoin Cash blockchain and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).