Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Robinhood, the fee-free cryptocurrency, stock, and options exchange, raised almost $2 billion in its initial public offering, reaching a valuation of $32 billion. While the company is more valuable than Nasdaq itself, the IPO failed to give the company an expected valuation of $35 billion. Robinhood trading will open today, with its shares trading under the HOOD ticker. Robinhood Misses $35 Billion Valuation Goal Robinhood, the fee-free investing app, has successfully completed its IPO, raising almost $2 billion. However, the company failed to meet the goal of reaching a $35 billion valuation, as its shares sold at $38, in the low end of the proposed $38-$42 range. The company allowed users of the exchange to acquire a third of the shares available before its launch on the market, something unusual in these processes. While Robinhood failed to reach its desired target, its valuation was much higher than what it was at its last funding round, when the company reached $12 billion.

The U.S. Marshals Service, a primary law enforcement agency of the Department of Justice (DOJ), has hired a new custodian for its seized cryptocurrencies. The agency has seized and auctioned off over 185K bitcoins so far. The United States Marshals Service (USMS) has selected Anchorage Digital to provide custody for cryptocurrencies seized in criminal cases, the crypto custody firm announced Wednesday. The USMS is one of the primary law enforcement agencies of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). It was also the first federal law enforcement agency in the country. Anchorage explained: This award means that Anchorage will be responsible for providing a full suite of cryptocurrency services. The services include “custody, liquidation, and such activities as accounting, customer management, audit compliance, managing blockchain forks, wallet creation, transformation of token assets into coin assets, etc., as well as future actions associated with the virtual currency forfeitur

Ripple publishes the quarterly XRP Markets Report for Q2 2021. The post Q2 2021 XRP Markets Report appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S4gQMq

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve discussed the possibility of economic measures and actions at the Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. The Fed said that right now the central bank is not considering cutting back large asset purchases just yet, and the central bank also plans to keep interest rates at near-zero. Speaking about the dollar’s dwindling purchasing power, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said that “inflation could turn out to be higher and more persistent than we originally expected.” The Federal Reserve Will Continue Monetary Easing Practices and Keep Interest Rates Low Americans are getting more concerned about inflation as the days pass and the recent outcome of Wednesday’s FOMC meeting was not very reassuring to economists and financial analysts. Prior to the meeting on Wednesday, market observers thought the central bank might start announcing the tapering back of quantitative easing by curbing the multi-billion-dollar bond and mort

On July 28, Zac Prince, the CEO of crypto finance firm Blockfi, explained that the company has been “engaged in a productive discourse” with U.S. regulators. Prince further said the New Jersey Bureau of Securities had extended the state’s previous order to September 2. Meanwhile, the company also has issues with Vermont’s Department of Financial Regulation (DFR), as the state’s DFR commissioner filed an order against the firm’s Blockfi Interest Accounts (BIAs). Garden State Regulators Give Blockfi an Extension, Vermont Issues Regulatory Complaints Four states have taken issue with Blockfi’s BIAs and regulators have issued notices to the company in recent times. Blockfi’s co-founder Zac Prince revealed the company’s issues with New Jersey regulators on July 19. New Jersey’s public notice and complaints about Blockfi’s crypto BIAs cited the “sale of unregistered securities.” Then on July 22, regulators from Texas and Alabama also sent notice to the company concerning the BIAs. Blo

Bit Mining is going to expand its operations in Central Asia with the purchase of 2,500 crypto mining machines slated for deployment in Kazakhstan. The new devices are expected to increase the Chinese company’s total hashrate capacity by an estimated 165 petahashes per second. Bit Mining Buys New Cryptocurrency Miners for Data Centers in Kazakhstan Shenzhen-based Bit Mining Ltd. announced Wednesday it has secured a purchase agreement for the acquisition of 2,500 new bitcoin mining machines. The price tag of the deal is approximately $6.6 million, the crypto mining firm detailed in a press release. Following the delivery, which is scheduled for next week, the company intends to ship the coin minting rigs to Kazakhstan. Once deployed, the mining devices are expected to increase Bit Mining’s “theoretical maximum total hash rate capacity by approximately 165 petahashes per second (PH/s).” Bit Mining said it’s constantly monitoring the market for cryptocurrency mining hardware and will

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted how many bitcoins Tesla owns after revealing that the fair market value of its bitcoin holdings was $1.47 billion as of June 30. Tesla Holding About 42K Bitcoins Tesla’s technoking , Elon Musk, has commented on how many bitcoins his electric car company owns in response to a rough calculation provided on Twitter by Tesla shareholder Dave Lee. In his calculation, Lee used $1.47 billion as the fair market value of Tesla’s entire bitcoin holdings as shown in the company’s Form 10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Tesla wrote: As of June 30, 2021, the carrying value of our digital assets held was $1.31 billion, which reflects cumulative impairments of $50 million. The fair market value of such digital assets held as of June 30, 2021 was $1.47 billion. Lee also used the price of bitcoin at close on June 30, which was about $35,040. On that day, the high of the BTC price was $35,189.75 and the low was 34,155.90 based on da

A Zimbabwean music production company, Mutscon Music, recently announced that its clients can now pay for services using cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum. According to the company, this decision has partly been necessitated by ongoing pandemic-related movement restrictions. Music Studio Accepts Crypto Mutscon Music has also chosen to accept cryptocurrencies because this form of payment enables Zimbabweans, including those in the diaspora, to directly pay for services rendered to artists. In addition, this option to pay with BTC or ETH makes Mutscon’s services more affordable, a company executive has said. To understand Mutscon Music ’s decision and what this means, Bitcoin.com News reached out to Tonderai Muteta, the company’s director of music. Below are Muteta’s responses to questions from Bitcoin.com News. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): What gave you the idea of accepting crypto payments? Tonderai Muteta (TM): The flexibility of transfer and the need to open more opport

The bitcoin rewards platform Lolli has announced the company has closed a $10 million Series A funding round on Wednesday. Lolli says the new financing will help the firm expand, hire and develop new partnerships. Lolli Raises $10 Million The New York-based Lolli has raised $10 million from investors, according to the company’s announcement on July 28. The company said that the Series A was led by Acrew Capital, Banana Capital, Up North Management, and Animal Capital. The venture capital company Animal was founded by social media moguls Noah Beck, Josh Richards, and Griffin Johnson. Lolli further detailed that investors like Baron Davis, Kenny Beecham, Logan Paul, and Chantel Jeffries participated as well. The CTO and co-founder of Lolli, Matt Senter, said that Acrew Capital’s investment shows the company understands that bitcoin-based businesses are blossoming. “Acrew’s sizable bet on Lolli says two things: bitcoin business is booming, and as the original bitcoin rewards platfo

Digital asset exchange Bitrue is seeking to engage its user community directly by distributing decision-making power for adding new token projects after the listing team thoroughly vets them. Platform Advancing Further Voting Powers in Future Updates Blockchain’s innate ability to decentralize products and services has long been among its key value propositions, especially when providing more democratized access to these same offerings. Governance is rapidly becoming the newest area for blockchain’s democratization efforts, and the community is joining the cause. Bitrue , a digital assets exchange, has joined the ranks of other service providers embracing a more community-based governance approach with its decision to hand over listing votes to users, which took effect on July 27th. Bitrue’s listings team will collect project suggestions based on feedback from social media channels before analyzing the projects’ legitimacy and prospects. Projects that pass a rigorous due diligence

PRESS RELEASE. Helium Network developed a decentralized peer to peer wireless network, which can connect different compatible devices through a series of hotspots. By being a part of this network, people can earn cryptocurrencies (HNT). The Helium hotspot miner network is growing steadily. Hence, it is worthy to think about mining HNT. To help people with mining HNT, Helium Bar has developed an excellent solution. Helium.Bar is nothing but a helium network, which is made out of hotspot miners. Any person who is interested in HNT mining can take a look at it. Helium.Bar is one of the fastest-growing communities in Helium Hotspot mining. This concept was initiated by a team, who had years of experience in the radio network industry. The previous experience helped them to ensure the overall success of this massive helium network. The concept behind Helium Bar is simple and easy to understand. People who wish to mine HNT with it will need to choose a hotspot plan. That’s the only thing

Researchers in Moscow are developing a new service that will allow users to transfer digital data to their heirs, including crypto keys. The Russian “time capsule” will be capable of storing and relaying other private information as well such as a record of the whereabouts of valuable items. Russian Universities to Provide Service Allowing Crypto Investors to Secure the Future of Their Coins Experts from three Russian universities – Lomonosov Moscow State University, National Research Nuclear University, and Moscow State Institute of International Relations – are working to give crypto holders the peace of mind that their digital assets will not be lost after their death. The service will be based on blockchain technology, RIA Novosti reported quoting Russia’s National Technology Initiative Platform. The joint team is now creating a website through which people will be able to store the precious information, encrypted and ready to be transferred to the possession of specified perso

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) says that his company wants “to be licensed everywhere” and “From now on, we’re going to be a financial institution.” Following warnings by a growing list of regulators worldwide, Zhao also revealed that Binance is seeking “a strong compliance background CEO to show our commitment to compliance as this is the top priority of the organization.” Binance’s CEO Unveils Company’s Regulatory Compliance Plans Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has addressed recent compliance issues his exchange has been facing and reports of the exchange hiring a new chief executive. Governments and financial watchdogs are paying closer attention to the cryptocurrency space. A growing number of regulators worldwide have warned Binance about operating in their countries without being properly authorized. They include regulators in Japan, the U.K. , Cayman Islands , Hong Kong , Thailand , Germany , and Lithuania . Commenting on regulatory scrutiny, Zhao told journal

Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz says that cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, have bounced back because institutional investors are buying. Responding to U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto stance, he stated, “We need to do a much better job going to D.C.” to educate lawmakers. Novogratz Says Institutions Are Buying Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz talked about the outlook for bitcoin in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. He was asked how he sees bitcoin’s price action and what he thinks has been driving the price of the cryptocurrency back to the $40,000 level. The pro-bitcoin executive replied: Crypto has bounced back because institutions are buying. He brought up the FTX exchange as an example. The exchange recently raised $900 million from more than 60 investors, putting the company’s valuation at $18 billion. Investors included Softbank Group Corp., venture capital firm Sequoia Capital, private equity giant Thoma Bravo, Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, the Paul Tudor

Ripple announces Apex, the first-ever XRP Ledger developer conference, hosted in partnership with the XRP Ledger Foundation. The post Apex 2021: The XRP Ledger Developer Event appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S4cjwV

Ripple has launched its first On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan in partnership with SBI Remit, a large Japanese money transfer provider, and Philippine crypto exchange Coins.ph. Ripple, SBI, Coins.ph Collaborate to Launch Ripplenet’s On-Demand Liquidity Ripple Labs announced Wednesday “the launch of Ripplenet’s first live On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service implementation in Japan” in collaboration with SBI Remit Co. Ltd. and Coins.ph. SBI Holdings, an investor and shareholder of Ripple, independently announced Wednesday that SBI Remit and crypto exchange SBI VC Trade have launched “Japan’s first international remittance service using crypto assets” in partnership with Ripple Labs. SBI Remit, a subsidiary of SBI Fintech Solutions, is one of the largest money transfer companies in Japan. It has been using Ripplenet since 2017. Coins.ph, a product of Betur Inc., is a crypto exchange and a leading mobile wallet service in the Philippines that is regulated by the

Over the last year and a half, non-fungible tokens (NFT) have seen massive hype and millions of dollars worth of sales executed at auctions. A recent survey produced by bonusfinder.com shows sports fans are doubtful of the NFT craze as the poll’s findings show nearly three out of four people are “moderately skeptical” about the long-term outcome of NFTs as an investment. Sports Fans Are Skeptical of NFTs but 62% Know About the Technology Non-fungible tokens have been a very hot topic in 2021 and worldwide Google Trends (GT) data shows the subject reached an all-time high in terms of Google queries in mid-March. Since then, however, GT data shows interest has dropped significantly as search queries for the term “NFT” slid from a top score of 100 to this week’s score of 38. Just recently, the web portal bonusfinder.com published a survey with 1,009 sports fans in the U.S. revealing what they thought about NFTs. Roughly 64.1% identified as men and 35.7% identified as women and particip

The payment processing giant Paypal has revealed it has partnered with the nonprofit organization the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). According to the announcement, Paypal is researching transactions settled on the payment network that allegedly fund hate groups and extremism. Paypal to Study Transactions With the Anti-Defamation League A report from Reuters notes that Paypal is studying transactions that involve “extremists” and that fund “hate movements.” The company will investigate and disrupt the financial flows that support specific hate groups and alleged “anti-government organizations.” The announcement notes that the initiative will be completed via ADL’s Center on Extremism. According to Paypal’s chief risk officer and executive vice president of risk and platforms, Aaron Karczmer said the company has been working on “sophisticated systems” that help curb illegal activities. When the ADL announced its partnership with Paypal on Twitter, the thread got a massive number of

The South Korean government has proposed an amendment to the tax code to allow the country’s tax authority to seize and sell cryptocurrencies belonging to delinquent taxpayers. “The revision will allow direct seizing without court-approved change in ownership records. Assets held by tax dodgers in the form of digital coins will no longer evade seizure and forfeiture,” said a government official. Korean Government Wants Ability to Seize and Sell Cryptocurrencies of Delinquent Taxpayers South Korea’s finance ministry announced the 2021 Tax Law Amendment Bill Monday, which is part of the government’s annual review of its tax system. The bill includes a proposal to empower the country’s tax authority, the National Tax Service (NTS), to seize and sell cryptocurrencies belonging to tax delinquents starting Jan. 1, 2022, the Korea Times reported. The government explained that the number of cases where tax delinquents use cryptocurrencies to hide their assets is increasing. The bill aims

U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown says cryptocurrencies are not real dollars and they “put Americans’ hard-earned money at risk.” Referring to decentralized finance (defi) as “a shady, diffuse network of online funny money,” he said, “if we want a solution to Americans’ legitimate fears about our banking system, shady start-ups are not the answer.” Senator Brown’s Warning About Cryptocurrencies U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, raised concerns about cryptocurrency in his opening statement at Tuesday’s hearing titled “Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?” Stating that thousands of digital assets, namely cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and investment tokens, have poured into the markets since bitcoin came online, the senator from Ohio said: All of these currencies have one thing in common – they’re not real dollars, they’re not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. And that means they all put A

In mid-May, the co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, donated $1 billion worth of shiba inu (SHIB) tokens to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund (CCRF). Close to three months later, the CCRF organizers say they have been having issues cashing out the SHIB tokens and so far, only $20 million has been paid out. It’s Not Easy Cashing Out SHIB Tokens Roughly two months ago, Vitalik Buterin decided to donate $1 billion worth of shiba inu (SHIB) tokens to India’s Crypto Covid Relief Fund (CCRF). Following the donation, CCRF thanked Buterin for his donation of 50,693,552,078,053 SHIB. “We plan to do a thoughtful liquidation to ensure we meet our COVID relief goals,” CCRF said on Twitter at the time. The nonprofit organization added: We have decided to convert the donation slowly over a period of time. A recent report published by Bloomberg shows that the organizers behind CCRF are having a hard time cashing the SHIB tokens out. CCRF’s founder, Sandeep Nailwal , who is also the co-f

Dvision Network has emerged as one of the fastest-growing NFT and blockchain gaming protocols in recent months. The blockchain protocol has made significant progress since its inception and continues to create new milestones. The latest is a partnership with the leading NFT ecosystem provider and creator of the ERC-1155 token standard Enjin. Enjin is a significant stakeholder in the NFT sector and has played a crucial role in developing blockchain-based gaming, metaverses, and NFT projects. Dvision migrates to Enjin blockchain Dvision has migrated to the Enjin blockchain and will now leverage the potentials of launching its NFT metaverse across five different blockchain protocols. It should be recalled that Dvision Network was initially launched on Ethereum and also supports the Binance Smart Chain network. Since Enjin is committed to online games and NFTs, Dvision has the opportunity to showcase its products to a well-established blockchain community. Furthermore, according to th