Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Martin Shkreli, the former CEO of several hedge funds and pharmaceutical companies, offered updates about the life of Sam Bankman-Fried in prison. Jeremy Lorenzo (aka Flacco Poops), Shkreli’s source on MDC Brooklyn, the center in which Bankman-Fried is being held, stated that he has been facing some troubles due to inmates believing he was a “chomo” (prison slang for child molester) and that he was now moved to another area with Asian inmates. Martin Shkreli States Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Problems in Brooklyn’s MDC Martin Shkreli, a CEO of various hedge funds and pharmaceutical companies who was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy charges back in 2017, offered insight into the alleged difficulties that Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, is facing while being held at Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC). Shkreli, also known for telling former Terra CEO Do Kwon that jail was “not that bad,” hosted an X space with Jeremy Lorenzo (Flacco Poops), his alleged source

Drivechain, a Bitcoin improvement proposal that presents a way of scaling Bitcoin using sidechains, level two blockchains that receive bridged tokens from a parent chain, is generating a loud buzz on social media from supporters and detractors. While Paul Sztorc, the author of the Drivechain proposal, states that its concept seeks to drive all innovation toward Bitcoin, some believe it might give rise to complexity and other unintended consequences. What Is Drivechain? Drivechain is the name of an improvement proposal ( BIP 300 ) in development since 2018 that seeks to advance Bitcoin features without modifying its core design. Written and proposed by Layer Two Labs founder and CEO Paul Sztorc, the Drivechain implementation aims to scale Bitcoin through sidechains, adjacent blockchains that would be created and eliminated using Bitcoin code. Drivechain has been purposefully written with minimal changes to the base layer in mind while still requiring a soft fork to be activated. Th

According to Joonatan Lintala, the co-founder and CEO of Phaver, the limited progress of the technology behind Web3 social media platforms is one of the reasons why prospective users are reluctant to try them out. Lintala also added that “none of the current generation Web3 protocols are yet ready to support multi-million user levels.” The Advantages of a Web3 Social Media Platform Lintala , however, told Bitcoin.com News that dozens of Web3 companies are currently working towards finding solutions to drive the adoption and embrace of blockchain-based social media platforms. Meanwhile, Lintala said he sided with those asserting that Web3 social media can potentially overcome problems often seen with Web2 platforms. He said the fact that such Web3 platforms are based on “user-controlled interoperable profiles” will assure prospective users that their data will not be controlled by a few entities or used without their consent. Also, in written answers to questions sent to him via Te

Rune Christensen, a co-founder of Maker, the Ethereum-based stablecoin protocol, has proposed to reimplement the protocol on a new chain forked from Solana. This move would be the final part of “Endgame,” an update to the protocol that seeks to grow the stablecoin dai by enhancing “efficiency, resilience, and participation.” Maker Proposal Involves Protocol Reimplementation on Solana Fork Rune Christensen, a cofounder of Maker, the stablecoin protocol behind dai, has proposed reimplementing the protocol on top of a fork of Solana, updating it to manage possible problems derived from technical failures or governance attacks. The move would be part of Maker’s roadmap evolution, called “Endgame,” designed to “enhance efficiency, resilience, and participation” around the Maker protocol. He defended the creation of a blockchain used only to run the backend of Maker, stating that it would “deal with the eight years of technical debt in the protocol.” This would imply each component woul

JPMorgan has provided an analysis of the risks of de-dollarization and the potential for the Chinese yuan to displace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The global investment bank says the renminbi could assume “some of the current functions of the dollar among non-aligned countries and China’s trading partners.” JPMorgan on De-Dollarization and Chinese Yuan JPMorgan’s Global Research published a report on Thursday titled “De-dollarization: Is the US dollar losing its dominance?” Alexander Wise, who covers Strategic Research at JPMorgan, described: The risk of de-dollarization, which is a periodically recurrent theme throughout post-war history, has returned into focus due to geopolitical and geostrategic shifts. JPMorgan outlined two scenarios that could erode the status of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency. “The first includes adverse events that undermine the perceived safety and stability of the greenback — and the U.S.’s overall standing as the

Bloomberg Intelligence’s senior commodity strategist, Mike McGlone, has predicted that the price of bitcoin could “follow the path of the Nikkei, which reached a 33-year high in June.” He highlighted that the largest crypto “has had a close directional relationship with the Nikkei 225.” Bitcoin’s ‘Close Directional Relationship’ With Nikkei Index Mike McGlone, a senior commodity strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence (BI), the research arm of Bloomberg, has pointed out similarities between the Nikkei index and the price of bitcoin. In the latest Bloomberg Intelligence report, the commodity strategist explored whether the Nikkei index or the Nikkei Stock Average (Nikkei 225), the premier index of Japanese stocks, is “a guide for bitcoin or vice versa.” McGlone detailed last week: Bitcoin has had a close directional relationship with the Nikkei 225, and recent crypto weakness may portend contagion. That or the benchmark crypto might recover and follow the path of the Nikkei, which r

The Bank of New York Mellon has provided insights into why the growth of the BRICS economic alliance is unlikely to impact the U.S. dollar’s dominance as the global reserve currency. “We think the most important factor for dollar use into the next decade revolves around technology instead,” said the investment bank’s analyst. BNY Mellon on US Dollar’s Dominance The Bank of New York Mellon Corp. (BNY Mellon) explained in a note, published Friday, that the U.S. dollar is unlikely to lose its global reserve currency status despite the expansion of the BRICS economic bloc. The leaders of the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) recently invited six nations — Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — to join the alliance as new members. Bob Savage, head of market strategy at BNY Mellon, does not believe the expansion of the BRICS group is enough to dethrone the U.S. dollar. Noting that one of the BRICS objectives is t

Dubai’s Bybit cryptocurrency exchange has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered instrument named Tradegpt. The new chatbot can scrutinize the exchange’s existing market data and offer an in-depth price evaluation by employing bitcoin’s current metrics as an example. Furthermore, the Bybit chatbot can recommend apt trading approaches for that day’s sessions and provide additional crypto market knowledge based on real-time Bybit market data. Bybit’s Unveils New AI Tool for Real-Time Crypto Market Insights As AI frameworks and ideas continue to expand, numerous individuals and organizations have been integrating cryptocurrency and blockchain knowledge with these extensive language models (LLMs) and advanced learning algorithms. On September 4, 2023, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit disclosed the deployment of an AI tool named Tradegpt , a component of Bybit’s AI suite called Toolsgpt. Bybit explained on Monday that Openai’s Chatgpt only possesses pertinent data up to S

PRESS RELEASE. [Singapore, September 4th 2023] – The Hourglass Collective is spearheading a new era of Web3 adoption. In a world where technological progress has sprinted from hard industries to consumer-facing revolutions, it’s now in the hands of service-oriented high-tech sectors like robotics, advanced software, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing. OpenAI’s ChatGPT recently made headlines, reaching 100 million users in just two months, even outpacing TikTok’s adoption rate record of nine months. Yet, challenges faced by crypto, Web3, and blockchain technologies in 2022 prompted the need for fresh perspectives and strategies to clarify and elevate their value proposition to the real economy. The solution? The Hourglass Collective. About The Hourglass Collective: A New Model for Blockchain Adoption The Hourglass Collective is a Web3 incubator composed of seasoned professionals from fintech, media, mobile apps, retail, real estate, entertainment, and marketing sector

Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: Worldcoin reaches record verifications in Argentina, Circle partners with Mercado Pago to bring USDC to Chile, and Binance launches a Latam-focused remittance solution. Worldcoin Reaches Record Verifications in Argentina Worldcoin, the biometric ID and digital wallet project, has recently announced it reached a record in daily verifications in Argentina. In a press release, Worldcoin reported that due to the high demand for the project, they had reached 9.5k verifications in a single day in August. Worldcoin achieved this milestone with only four verification stations located in four different cities of the country. Alex Blania, one of the co-founders of the Worldcoin project, detailed this was possible in Argentina because it was “one of the most crypto-forward countries in the world.” He said he considered it an “explosive building ground” for cr

The FTX debtors filed a bankruptcy court document detailing lavish cash transfers and purchases by former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and other company insiders. The section titled “Statement of Financial Affairs for Non-Individuals Filing for Bankruptcy” shows that Bankman-Fried reportedly received more than $1 billion in cash transfers in the year before FTX’s collapse. FTX Bankruptcy Filing Details Lavish Cash Transfers and Purchases for Former CEO Bankman-Fried Recent court documents indicate Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly received cash payments of $68.3 million on Aug. 8, 2022, and $200 million on May 26, 2022. The document lists other payments to Bankman-Fried, including $100 million on June 7, 2022, and $10 million on several other dates. The filings also suggest FTX funds were used to purchase a yacht for former Alameda Research co-CEO Samuel Trabucco, valued at more than $2.5 million. The document details other lavish purchases, including multimillion-dollar real estate in the na

At some point in July, there were as many as 350,000 Kenya-based residents who had subscribed and shown interest in receiving Worldcoin’s crypto token. According to a Kenyan legislator, Worldcoin executives are now expected to appear before a parliamentary committee on Sept. 4. Argentina’s Record Sign Ups A Kenyan parliamentary committee tasked with investigating Worldcoin’s activities in the East African nation recently revealed that as many as 350,000 residents had shown interest in the project before its suspension by the government. According to the committee, Kenyan subscribers were accounting for a quarter of Worldcoin’s global total at some point in July. However, as noted in a report published by The Star, the total number of World ID sign-ups from across 34 different countries had topped 2.26 million by August. In addition, the organization suggested an Aug. 31 blog post that demand for the World ID has continued to grow. To prove this, Worldcoin has pointed to the recor

A U.S. congressman has defended the crypto industry against Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler, who stated that it is rife with noncompliance. The lawmaker’s statement followed a pair of legal cases in which the judges sided with cryptocurrency firms over the securities regulator. ‘Crypto Is Not an Industry Rife With Noncompliance’ U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) has once again slammed the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, for his aggressive stance on the crypto industry. On Saturday, the lawmaker highlighted on social media platform X that the securities regulator already lost legal battles involving Ripple Labs and subsequently Grayscale Investments . He detailed: We will see how pending litigation plays out, but it should be increasingly obvious to policymakers that, despite Gary Gensler’s mass marketing campaign, crypto is not an industry ‘rife with noncompliance.’ In July, District Judge Analisa Torr

A biography of billionaire investor Elon Musk reveals details about his involvement in the Dogecoin project and an idea to launch a social media platform based on blockchain. The book, which should be available later this month, also mentions a failed attempt by former crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried to help Musk’s acquisition of Twitter. Elon Musk Considered Creating Blockchain-Based Social Media Platform With Payments Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has been quietly funding the development of Dogecoin, according to a new biography of the owner of Spacex and Tesla which will be published on Sept. 12. The cryptocurrency, which started as a joke a decade ago, owes a great deal of its popularity to Musk who also established himself as a crypto influencer. Elon Musk’s comments about dogecoin (DOGE) have been suspected of moving its market. In a class-action lawsuit involving the meme coin earlier this year, plaintiffs accused him of insider trading and inflating the price of the crypto.

The U.S. government has charged the founders of crypto mixing and privacy tool Tornado Cash with money laundering, calling them “criminals.” In other news, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled in favor of crypto asset manager Grayscale against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). This and much more just below, in the latest Bitcoin.com News Week in Review. Founders of Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash Accused of Laundering $1 Billion The founders of the cryptocurrency mixing service Tornado Cash were charged last week with allegedly helping to launder more than $1 billion in digital currency, including funds taken by North Korean hackers. Read More Court Rules in Favor of Grayscale Against SEC in Bitcoin ETF Conversion Lawsuit A D.C. court has ruled in favor of Grayscale, the largest crypto asset manager, in its lawsuit challenging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision to deny the conversion of GBTC to a spot bitcoin e

In a recent submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Bitwise has decided to retract its registration for its Bitcoin and Ether Market Cap Weight Strategy exchange-traded fund (ETF). The reasoning behind this action remains unknown, but Bitwise’s chief legal officer, Katherine Dowling, briefly noted that the company has postponed plans to launch the fund. Bitwise Halts Plans for Bitcoin and Ether Market Cap Weight Strategy ETF Launch Subsequent to the postponement of seven spot bitcoin ETFs, Bitwise Asset Management has rescinded its Bitcoin and Ether Market Cap Weight Strategy ETF, as stated in an SEC filing on August 31, 2023. The digital asset manager submitted the fund to the SEC on August 3, 2023. It relies on a five-year-diluted market cap among other qualifying factors to ascertain the weight of each cryptocurrency. Owing to the market cap of bitcoin ( BTC ) and ethereum ( ETH ), the combined allocation of these crypto assets within the proposed ETF w

Online broker Robinhood is going to buy back the stake purchased by a company of crypto exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The fintech intends to pay $605.7 million for the shares that were transferred to the custody of the U.S. government after the bankruptcy of SBF’s businesses. Robinhood to Proceed With Planned Buyback of Shares From USMS Online stock and crypto brokerage Robinhood Markets announced on Friday it had entered into a stock repurchase agreement with the United States Marshals Service (USMS) for shares acquired by crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried’s Emergent Fidelity Technologies. The stock was seized after FTX and Emergent filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and later transferred to the custody of the U.S. government, Reuters noted in a report. The collapse of the exchange, one of the largest in the crypto space, led to the arrest and indictment of SBF, whose trial on fraud and conspiracy charges is set to begin in October. The Menlo Park, California-headqu

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s former chairman Jay Clayton has explained why he believes the approval of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is inevitable. “It is clear that bitcoin is something that retail investors want access to, institutional investors want access to,” he stressed. Former SEC Chief Says Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETFs Inevitable Former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton offered his perspectives on the likelihood of the securities regulator approving a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in an interview with CNBC on Friday. The interview followed the SEC delaying its decisions on several bitcoin ETF applications, including one proposed by Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager. Without stating whether he would approve a spot Bitcoin ETF if he were still the chairman of the SEC, Clayton detailed: It is clear that bitcoin is not a security. It is clear that bitcoin is something that retail investors want acc

U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) has explained that China does not want a war with the U.S. However, he warned that China wants to “bury” the U.S. economically. “I’m not afraid of the United States competing with China head to head and countries around the world. I think that’s good for us. I think we win that competition,” the presidential hopeful stated. RFK Jr on China and BRICS Competing With US U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) shared his views on several topics in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday. RFK Jr. is a son of former U.S. Attorney General and Senator Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of former U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Among the topics RFK Jr. delved into were China’s global influence and the expansion of the BRICS alliance, which currently consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The group recently held its annual summit and invited six countries to join as new members. The BRICS economic blo