Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Bitcoin advocates are celebrating the successful implementation of the Taproot upgrade after block height 709,632. The upgrade was highly anticipated as it was one of the biggest changes since the introduction of Segregated Witness (Segwit) in 2017. After the upgrade was completed, the Bitcoin community discussed the slew of benefits Taproot and Schnorr signatures have to offer and have started measuring Taproot usage as well. Taproot Has Been Activated on the Bitcoin Blockchain At 12:15 a.m. (EST) at block height 709,632, at difficulty period 352, Taproot was officially activated on the Bitcoin ( BTC ) blockchain. The upgrade was long-awaited as it’s an improvement that’s taken seven years to complete. 709632 🎇 — jack⚡️ (@jack) November 14, 2021 Taproot allows users to operate Bitcoin scripts in a myriad of ways in order to improve privacy, scalability, and security. Combining Taproot with an improvement called Schnorr signatures allows for more compact transactions and k

PRESS RELEASE. Miami, FL – As the first and only company publicly known to date to use blockchain technology to fight depression and anxiety, FivebalanceUSA is one of a handful of Companies listed on Coinmarketcap and trading on exchanges that has a real product fighting real world problems. The Company has just signed a linkage agreement with V.O.A to provide services. Fivebalance trades on the Mercatox exchange under the ticker symbol FBN. At time of writing it’s current price is well under a quarter of a penny. This is significant for a number of reasons which will be laid out in this article. Fivebalance has just over 1 billion coins in circulation as verified on Coinmarketcap. The order books on Mercatox exchange look extremely thin, so much that 50 dollar transactions move the price. When speaking with the CEO James McCoy, he has said he wants to see a minimum of 10 cents, but he believed fair value to be a dollar per coin. When asked for the reasoning behind those numbers,

Dutch authorities have seized more than 25 million euros in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether, from dozens of suspects in criminal cases. “Cryptocurrencies are widely used as a means of payment for various types of crime,” said the Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service. Authorities in the Netherlands Seize More Than 25 Million Euros in Cryptocurrencies, Including Bitcoin and Ether The Netherlands’ Public Prosecution Service announced last week that it has seized more than 25 million euros ($28.6 million) in cryptocurrencies in recent months in collaboration with two other agencies. The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), the National Criminal Investigation Service (DLR), and the Public Prosecution Service (OM) collaborated on various investigations in which the emphasis was on seizing crypto wallets, the announcement details. The FIOD is an agency of the government of the Netherlands responsible for investigating financial crimes. The National Crimin

Following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rejection of Vaneck’s bitcoin spot market exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Friday, a number of cryptocurrency advocates discussed the subject this weekend. For instance, the veteran FX trader Peter Brandt told his 581,700 Twitter followers that bitcoin maximalists “should oppose” a spot market bitcoin ETF. Bitcoiner Preston Pysh said bitcoin could care less “about the approval of a spot ETF.” Crypto Community Discusses Recent Bitcoin ETF Rejection — Peter Brandt Says ‘Let’s Not Encourage Wall Street to Convert Bitcoin Into a Vending Machine Asset’ During the first week of November, U.S. lawmakers urged the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But on November 12, the U.S. regulator rejected Vaneck’s bitcoin spot ETF and cited a lack of prevention toward “fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices” in the market. The rejection also follows the approval of the first bitcoin E

The Russian Ministry of Interior has rejected a request filed by clients of Wex to do its part in the blocking of crypto funds removed from a wallet controlled by the now-defunct crypto exchange. Over 10,000 ETH have been recently withdrawn from the wallet and transferred to other platforms. Wex Victims Try to Freeze $46 Million of Cryptocurrency Lost to Bankrupt Russian Exchange The Investigation Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (MVD) has refused to act on a request from victims of crypto exchange Wex to take steps aimed at seizing digital assets worth $45.9 million withdrawn from one of its wallets in September. Details were shared on social media by the CEO of Indefibank Sergey Mendeleev who quoted an official document from the department. The former Wex users have provided the MVD with a detailed scheme of how the funds were transferred from the wallet to other crypto platforms, Forklog reported . They also submitted data from an analytics tool to prov

A South Africa and London-based fintech startup, JUMO, recently revealed it has raised $120 million in a funding round led by Fidelity Management & Research Company. AI-Powered Financial Services According to a report by Techcrunch, financial services giant Visa and Kingsway Capital also participated in the funding round, which now sees JUMO valued at $400 million. This latest capital influx comes a year after the startup successfully raised $55 million in what the report calls a similar but unnamed funding round. JUMO, which was founded in 2015 by founder and CEO Andrew Watkins-Ball, claims to use AI to power financial services, particularly lending in emerging markets where over 1.7 billion people do not have basic access to financial services. So far, the fintech has reportedly served loans worth over $3.5 billion to more than 18 million customers across these markets, granting up to 120 million individual loans. Although JUMO claims to have the opportunity to disburse $29

Santander, a leading financial institution in Spain, is preparing to offer a Bitcoin ETF to its customers in the country. This, while Spanish asset managers have been largely reluctant to embrace crypto products as part of their investment portfolio offerings to customers. Santander Bitcoin ETF in Preparation Santander will be giving the finishing touches to a Bitcoin ETF product in Spain, according to reports from local sources. This reportedly positions the company to be the only financial institution interested in offering this type of product to its customers in Spain. Santander’s Executive Chairman Ana Botín declared that the institution has had a team working on this offering for some time. She stated: Our clients want to buy bitcoin, but we have been quite slow to adopt it due to regulatory issues. We are now about to offer crypto ETFs. The fact is that most asset managers in Spain are still reluctant to put their funds in cryptocurrency-based investments, at least dome

This week Universal Music Group, the Dutch–American multinational music corporation announced the formation of a non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse music group called Kingship, which features four Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs. Following the announcement, the hit record producer Timbaland revealed the creation of a metaverse-based entertainment company called Ape-In Productions (AIP), which will also leverage BAYC NFTs. Universal Music Group Reveals BAYC NFT Supergroup Called Kingship While non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles have been all the rage this year, one particular collection called Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has turned a lot of heads in terms of sales and popularity. Data shows that BAYC has an overall market valuation of $1.82 billion and the collection has seen $658 million in all-time sales volume, according to dappradar.com statistics. BAYC’s trade volume has been among 9,296 traders across 22,122 sales. The average sale price for a single BAYC NFT on November

PRESS RELEASE. The blockchain industry is an ever-evolving world and Litentry is at the forefront of this revolution. Litentry intends to create a truly decentralized identity aggregation solution that will power web 3.0 applications. Its blockchain architecture is advanced and has witnessed massive growth due to its application in different sectors. Litentry has also created a DID Startups Programs that incentivizes innovative teams to build products that will add value to its blockchain. To continue its growth, Litentry has applied for a Polkadot Parachain slot that will transform its ecosystem. This article will open your imagination into the future of web 3.0 that can be achieved when Litentry gets a parachain. A decentralized ecosystem for innovative projects Litentry has built an innovative decentralized based identity ecosystem that has attracted several projects to its blockchain protocol. One of such projects is the Polkadot Naming System (PNS). PNS intends to introduc

Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris has said he remains bullish on gold and has no intention to invest in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin because such investment is a very risky business. Sawiris Says Gold Still Safe-Haven Asset In his remarks published by The National News, the billionaire reveals he believes it is wrong for people to make comparisons between gold and bitcoin. Sawiris, who is also the executive chairman of Cairo-based Orascom Investment Holding, insists gold is still the safe-haven asset. “I’m still very bullish [on gold] and it is a safe haven. People now are comparing Bitcoin with gold; it’s a wrong comparison,” said the billionaire. As a sign of his endorsement of gold ahead of cryptocurrency, one of the companies that Sawiris backs, AKH Gold, is reported to have signed a deal to explore nine blocks in Egypt’s gold-rich Eastern Desert. Similarly, La Mancha Holding — the company which the billionaire chairs — is reported to have launched a $1.4 billion investmen

Goldman Sachs’ head of energy research says, “Just like we argue that silver is the poor man’s gold, gold is maybe becoming the poor man’s crypto.” He sees funds starting to flow from gold into bitcoin as inflation fears escalate, noting that “We’ve argued historically that crypto and gold do not have to cannibalize each other.” Goldman Sachs on Gold and Bitcoin Damian Courvalin, Head of Energy Research at Goldman Sachs, talked about the outlook for gold and crypto in an interview with Bloomberg Thursday. He was asked whether he sees any evidence of investors using other assets, including bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, to hedge against inflation other than gold. “I think it’s actually starting,” he replied, adding: “We’ve argued historically that crypto and gold do not have to cannibalize each other.” Admitting that “it’s a fact, we have seen substitution recently,” he detailed: Just like we argue that silver is the poor man’s gold, gold is maybe becoming the poor man’s crypto.

A former CEO of Citigroup said that every major bank and securities firm will consider crypto trading or services within one to three years. He also hopes that central banks worldwide will adopt digital currencies. Former Citi CEO Expects All Major Banks to Embrace Crypto in 1-3 Years Indian-American banker Vikram Pandit, a former CEO of Citigroup, talked about the outlook for cryptocurrency and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) at the Singapore Fintech Festival event last week. Pandit became the CEO of Citigroup in December 2007 and led the U.S. bank during the financial crisis. Prior to Citi, he joined Morgan Stanley in 1983 and ultimately became president and chief operating officer of the company’s institutional securities and investment banking businesses. He co-founded investment firm Orogen in 2016 where he currently serves as the chairman and CEO. He explained at the fintech conference that all major financial institutions will soon be thinking about trading or provi

Another major cryptocurrency exchange has added support for the meme cryptocurrency shiba inu. Gemini has begun supporting SHIB alongside a few new defi, metaverse, infrastructure, and data management tokens. Meanwhile, the petition for Robinhood to list the shiba inu crypto has garnered more than 531K signatures. Shiba Inu (SHIB) Now Supported on Gemini Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini announced its support for the meme cryptocurrency shiba inu (SHIB) Friday. The company wrote: We are delighted to announce support for shiba inu (SHIB) as well as a range of new defi, metaverse, infrastructure, and data management tokens. The exchange detailed: “shiba inu (SHIB), audius (AUDIO), mask network (MASK), wrapped centrifuge (WCFG), quant (QNT), radicle (RAD), burn (ASH), superrare (RARE), fetch.ai (FET), and numeraire (NMR) are now supported for deposits and custody on Gemini.” The company added: We believe these tokens will provide value to our users and will continue to support defi

Visa’s head of crypto sees a “whole new class” of mainstream consumers entering the crypto space due to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The executive f urther says: “Crypto is becoming cultural. It’s becoming cool.” Visa’s Executive: ‘Crypto Is Becoming Cultural, It’s Becoming Cool’ Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, talked about cryptocurrency during a panel discussion early this week at the Singapore Fintech Festival. He explained that a “whole new class” of mainstream consumers are entering the crypto space because of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Visa executive added that people who are interested in art, music, or culture are “setting up crypto wallets in waves,” noting that they are excited to create their own NFTs and support other creators. Before the NFT boom, Sheffield said crypto assets mainly attracted people who are interested in gold and finance. “It used to be that if you were investing in crypto, you were kind of weird,” he opined, elaborating: Crypto is becomi

PRESS RELEASE. ChangeHero instant cryptocurrency exchange listed SHIB on its platform. Customers can exchange SHIB against over 80 cryptocurrencies without an account. Now crypto enthusiasts can easily exchange or buy SHIB not only with Ethereum based tokens but also with cryptocurrencies of different blockchains. To celebrate the listing, ChangeHero announced a zero fees exchange offer for SHIB. Users can exchange SHIB to any other cryptocurrency or the other way around without any fees. The offer is valid until November 15, 2021, and available only on the web version of the platform. One can make a simple exchange with SHIB using the Best Rate type of transaction on ChangeHero. Please note that the zero fees exchange offer is not valid for the Fixed Rate type of transaction. There are no additional requirements such as a registration for the users to enjoy the offer. Furthermore, there is no maximum limit on the amount of SHIB that can be exchanged in a transaction. About Shiba

A recent report by CR2 on Africa’s fintech transformation suggests traditional financial institutions can still be a part of the fintech financial revolution if they leverage one of their most significant assets: client trust. Partnerships Between Banks and Fintechs The report urges financial institutions that wish to accelerate their advance to success in the fintech space to forge partnerships with fintech startups and technology companies. Having such partnerships, as well as their longstanding client networks and more defined regulatory environment, means financial institutions can still grow their share of Africa’s digital market. To illustrate the importance of the collaboration between banks and fintech, the CR2 report makes reference to the story of how one Nigerian bank, GTB, lost clients after its mobile banking platform went offline. The report then contrasts GTB’s misfortunes with the rise of the VC-backed fintech startup Kudabank, which saw its customer base rise fro

A group of South African cryptocurrency investors have voiced concerns about the fate of their investment in the Fight to Fame (F2F token) after they reportedly were unable to withdraw their funds as promised. Token Sale Attracts Over 2,000 Applicants According to an IOL report , the investors had invested in a token that was promoted by Marius Fransman, a former regional leader of South Africa’s governing party, the ANC. Some media reports suggest Fransman’s company may have received over 2,000 applications from investors that include actors, writers, musicians, and directors that wanted to be a part of the project. Fransman had planned to use the funds that were raised to promote an international TV reality boxing show called “Fight to Fame.” The report adds that Fransman’s company, F2F SA, would host large entertainment events at venues such as big casinos, where the tokens would be the means to access the venue and also to be exchanged for gambling chips. Yet as one anonymous

While the price of bitcoin has been volatile during the last seven days, a number of smart contract platforms have been performing far better this week. Statistics indicate that the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) is $267 billion and the TVL held on Ethereum commands the lion’s share of this value. Ethereum is the largest smart contract platform today, in terms of market valuation, but a number of competitors have increased significantly in value over the last 12 months. 3 Smart Contract Tokens Surpassed Ethereum’s 12 Month Gains by a Long Shot The largest smart contract platform Ethereum (ETH) has a market valuation of around $555 billion and it commands 18.7% of the entire crypto economy’s net value. Metrics also show that there’s $267 billion TVL in defi today, and the Ethereum protocol captures $179 billion or 49.16% of the overall TVL in defi. In terms of trade volume, ether has $15.5 billion in global swaps today, which is much larger than its compet

Following the passing of the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill, the U.S. president appears to be nearing his decision on whether or not he will reappoint Jerome Powell, the current Federal Reserve Board chairperson. According to a few reports Powell may be chosen, but other reports say the Fed’s Board of Governors member, Lael Brainard, could also be a frontrunner for the position. President Biden to Choose Fed Chair ‘Fairly Quickly’ Amid the rising inflation and supply chain woes, U.S. president Joe Biden is thinking about who will run the Federal Reserve when Jerome Powell’s term ends next February. Media pundits say the timing “ is crucial ,” as the U.S. central bank has been discussing tapering back quantitative easing (QE) and adjusting rates upwards. Of course, these have all been just conversations so far and the members of the Fed have yet to decide on tapering back large asset purchases and hiking the benchmark rate. Meanwhile, rising inflation has reared its u

U.S. law enforcement agents have “kidnapped” crypto entrepreneur Denis Dubnikov in Mexico, before transferring him to the Netherlands where he was arrested, his lawyer told Russian media. Dubnikov is suspected of money laundering and faces up to 20 years in prison if extradited to the United States. FBI Accused of Kidnapping Russian Citizen With Cryptocurrency Business The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) has “practically kidnapped” Russian national Denis Dubnikov in Mexico, later arrested in Amsterdam on Nov. 1, his lawyer Arkady Bukh alleged, speaking to Sputnik. The co-founder of crypto trading platforms Coyote Crypto and Eggchange was first held at the airport in Mexico City while on vacation and then boarded a flight to the Netherlands where he was detained by Dutch authorities. The defense attorney explained: Mexico has not let him enter the country. The US intelligence services have put him on a plane to the Netherlands and sent him there having paid for his ti

On November 6, 2021, Alchemy Pay’s Chief of Staff, Karmen Tang, delivered her keynote address at the Epicenter Crypto Conference in Lisbon. Tang took the audience through a brief history of Alchemy Pay and the broad ecosystem they have now built within blockchain infrastructure. The founders of Alchemy Pay come from giants of traditional payments such as Mastercard, QFPay, PayPal, and Tencent. “Experience, expertise and networking have all been key to what Alchemy Pay does. That gives us that edge over others in the crypto payment space,” said Tang. Significant Network Growth In the past year, Alchemy Pay has achieved significant growth and secured new partnerships including access to PayPal payment channels in Q4 of 2020, and to Visa and MasterCard payment channels earlier this year. Today, Alchemy Pay is in over 60 countries, and provides over 200 payment channels for fiat and crypto acceptance. The industry still faces a lack of real-world use cases and in order to solve this A