Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Five years ago, there was a large quantity of digital currencies and blockchains, but there were very few trading platforms that dealt with decentralized exchange. Since the boom of decentralized finance (defi), there’s now a myriad of decentralized exchange (dex) platforms that allow people to swap funds in a private, non-custodial manner. These days the biggest dex applications are catering to a variety of blockchain networks via cross-chain technology. Curve’s TVL Nears $20 Billion, Curve DAO Token Jumps 82%, Pancakeswap and Sushiswap Follow With TVLs Over $10 Billion Defi has exploded in popularity during the last 12 months and there are numerous applications and platforms tending to the needs of traders and liquidity providers. Currently, there’s $245.1 billion in total value locked in defi platforms today across blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, and more. Data from defillama.com indicates that the lending system Aave has the largest d

PRESS RELEASE. BlockBank , the platform disrupting mobile banking by blending it with decentralized finance (DeFi) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, is officially launching its all-encompassing financial application in Q4 of 2021. On a mission to grow worldwide accessibility to DeFi and build users’ financial empowerment, BlockBank’s new mobile and online app will combine the best of the traditional finance and DeFi worlds in a secure, private, and user-friendly space. Two major developments on the BlockBank app are the Robo Advisor, a cutting-edge AI-powered resource for individuals as they enter the crypto market, and a revamped tiered staking rewards system that enables users to earn up to 20% APY. BlockBank aims to ensure that everyone has the tools and resources to confidently enter the exciting crypto market without feeling held back by barriers like a lack of institutional knowledge or limited time for research. And now, with the launch of its application, Block

The uncertainty that prevails in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market is partly to blame for the plunge in cross-border remittances into the country, an official with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. Covid-19 Another Contributing Factor According to a report by local news outlet Punch, the official, Abebe Selassie, said this in response to a question posed to him during a virtual press briefing. However, in his two-part response to the question, Selassie starts by acknowledging the impact the global Covid-19 pandemic has had on cross-border remittances in general. He then asserts that the uncertainty over Nigeria’s exchange rate similarly contributed to the 28% drop in remittances into Nigeria. “A second factor, I think, is the uncertainty in the foreign exchange market that has prevailed in Nigeria over the last year. I don’t think that it has been very conducive to remittances flowing as much as they were before or, indeed, being captured by the official financial s

The Bank Of Spain has finally opened the mandatory registry for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in the country. The bank also dispelled doubts that financial institutions had regarding whether they had to apply for the registry given they already comply with AML legislation. All institutions and persons must apply for the registry if they want to provide crypto-related services in Spain. Registry Opened for VASPs The Bank of Spain has finally opened the registry for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) in the country and clarified its scope and the kind of companies and individuals that should register. According to the statements posted on the Virtual Office of the Bank of Spain, all platforms offering services in Spain must register, even those not located in the country. The Bank of Spain also stipulated that companies can only register via internet, while individuals can go to the offices of the General Registry of the Bank of Spain to deliver the requested document

The budget law for the next year, which was recently approved by the Colombian representative’s chamber, includes a controversial article that allows the state to confiscate a bank customer’s funds to be used for budgetary purposes. Under certain circumstances defined by the law, these could funds may be retrieved if the account holders’ prove their ownership. Colombian Government Craving Unused Funds The new budget law that was approved last week via an express vote by Colombian legislators, has introduced a controversial change, allowing the government to take a client’s funds that have been inactive in bank accounts for more than a year. Article 81 of the mentioned budge law details the procedure followed to do this. It states: The balances of the checking or savings accounts that have been inactive for a period of more than one year and do not exceed the value equivalent to 322 UVR ($24.40), will be transferred by the holding financial entities… in order to finance appropriat

With $78 billion in remittances in 2020 from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) combined, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is home to two of the top three remittance corridors in the world. The region is also undergoing a fast-moving shift to digital and boasts one of the world’s most progressive … Continued The post Ripple Continues to Build Momentum in MENA With First On-Demand Liquidity Deployment in Middle East appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/SBJTFC

PRESS RELEASE. A crypto platform Crypto Gaming United (CGU), which has joined the crypto exchange TimeX on the 18th of october, made $2.5 million in a record-breaking six seconds since public token trading began. One of the co-founders of the project is a crypto-currency, DeFi and blockchain app entrepreneur Sergei Sergienko born in Russia. CGU operates on the principles of uber-economy. Gamers don’t need to spend money on the initial purchase of NFT-characters. The platform rents them out to players in exchange for a share of their daily income. Meanwhile the games themselves reward players with income proportionate to their in-game skill and performance. The open market sale of GCU tokens became the third and final investment round. For context, previously the seed and pre-IDO rounds had ended at $5 million and $10 million respectively. The tokens released during these rounds have a blocking period with a 3 year rights transfer schedule. This means that CGU’s tokens are now on

Sandile Shezi, the South African bitcoin trader accused of defrauding investors, recently made his first court appearance before a Johannesburg magistrate. Shezi out on Bail The bitcoin trader’s court appearance came just days after he honored his pledge to surrender himself to the police. However, according to a report by the Sowetan, Shezi — who is now out on bail — is set to return to court on November 24. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Shezi is facing fraud allegations that stem from his failure to honor promises he made to Allan Ledwaba, an investor in the latter’s Global Forex Institute. Although Shezi has repeatedly denied the allegations, Ledwaba and an unnamed investor still went on to file complaints against the bitcoin trader. The filing of these complaints then culminated in the issuing of the warrant for the bitcoin trader’s arrest. The report in the meantime quotes Ledwaba commenting on Shezi’s arrest and his subsequent court appearance. He said: To

Elon Musk has revealed the real reason he supports the meme cryptocurrency dogecoin. He shared that a lot of people he talks to at his companies, Tesla and Spacex, own dogecoin, noting that “it felt like the people’s crypto.” Lots of People Elon Musk Talks to at Spacex and Tesla Own Dogecoin Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk revealed Sunday the real reason he began supporting dogecoin. He noted that many people he talks to at both companies own the meme cryptocurrency. Responding to a tweet by dogecoin holder Glauber Contessoto , who said the appeal for DOGE is real, referencing a survey that found about a third of U.S. crypto holders own the meme cryptocurrency, Musk wrote: Lots of people I talked to on the production lines at Tesla or building rockets at Spacex own Doge. They aren’t financial experts or Silicon Valley technologists. That’s why I decided to support Doge — it felt like the people’s crypto. The Doge community welcomes Musk’s comment and support. “Most of us don’t c

Payments giant Mastercard has partnered with a cryptocurrency exchange to allow its partners and merchants in the U.S. to offer crypto solutions, including the buying, selling, and holding of cryptocurrencies. “We want to offer all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to whatever it is they’re doing.” Mastercard’s Network Integrates Crypto Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and cryptocurrency exchange platform Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) announced “a multifaceted partnership” Monday at the Money20/20 event. The partnership aims “to make it easier for merchants, banks, and fintechs in the U.S. to embrace and offer a broad set of cryptocurrency solutions and services,” the announcement details. “Bakkt extends Mastercard’s ecosystem of cryptocurrency partners enabling crypto-as-a-service, which provides quick access to cryptocurrency capabilities.” The two companies explained: Mastercard partners will be able to offer cryptocurrency solutions. These include the ability for cons

Player wins a mighty big jackpot in the flashy new sequel Aloha King Elvis! on our crypto casino! A massive 1000x on the exciting Hawaiian-themed slot game The charismatic Elvis Frog has been taking a trip to Hawaii lately in BGaming’s popular new slot game on Bitcoin.com’s very own crypto casino. The titular character King Elvis has now bestowed riches upon one lucky player who landed a massive win on Aloha King Elvis! This big win comes at the onset of Halloween that should allow the player to enjoy his newly acquired riches quite festively. The Hawaiian-themed slot game features two jackpots, namely a Mini and a Major, both applying a 200x and a 1000x multiplier to the player bet amount respectively. A Major jackpot was applied to the lucky player’s bet that propelled his casino wallet’s balance into an exponential frenzy adding an amount equalling roughly 1.9 BTC as per current evaluations. King Elvis bestows generous riches onto the player with a 1000x multiplier ! ‘A

PRESS RELEASE. MetaWars, an innovative, multiplayer strategy blockchain-based game, has successfully raised $2.3 million USD from its supporting investors. MetaWars has collaborated with various investors and partners to incorporate blockchain into the emerging gaming industry and revolutionize NFTs. The game has recently announced their exclusive NFT auction starting from October 21st. The auction will be ongoing until the date of their confirmed TGE, the 27th of October. The NFT auction offers participants a range of NFTs that provide advantageous benefits for players in-game from a minimum price of 0.2 BNB . To know more about MetaWars’ exclusive NFT auction event, visit here . MetaWars, as mentioned, will be hosting their TGE on the 27th of October in collaboration with three launchpads, Polylauncher, Red Kite and GameFi. Their utility token, $WARS, has a total supply of 1,500,000,000 and is required for an in-game token $GAM for staking, upgrades, trading and more on their N

After the price of bitcoin tapped an all-time high above the $67K handle, it then dropped below the $60K zone to $59,510 per unit. Since then, the leading crypto asset has regained some of the losses and bitcoin is still up 2.4% during the last seven days. However, a great number of crypto assets have outperformed bitcoin’s weekly rise, capturing double-digit gains as high as 65.1%. Thorchain, Nexo, Near, Okb, Shiba Inu, Safemoon Values Spike Digital currency markets are on the move again as the $2.733 trillion market valuation of all 10,000+ crypto assets is up 4.6% on Monday. BTC has jumped a bit higher during the latter half of Sunday’s trading sessions into Monday and BTC has gained 2.4% this past week. But there’s over 55 different digital assets that have outperformed BTC ’s weekly gains. The top seven-day gainer this week is thorchain (RUNE) which has jumped a whopping 65.1% this past week. The crypto asset thorchain has a $3.3 billion market capitalization and $208 millio

On Sunday, Elon Musk discussed his relationship with the Dogecoin Foundation and he mentioned a few improvements he’d like to see implemented via Dogecoin Core’s codebase. Meanwhile, Github metrics show developers have been working on Dogecoin Core during the last few months and it seems Dogecoin software engineers are prepping the network to address fees, transaction time, and mining. Dogecoin Proponents Including Elon Musk Patiently Wait for a fee Change Fix, Dogecoin Core Repo Has Been Active At the end of June, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk tweeted about the fee change proposal added to the Dogecoin Core Github repository. At the time, Musk said it was “important to support” it. The following week, people noticed that Dogecoin software developers Ross Nicoll and Patrick Lodder were maintaining the project and looking to add Musk’s suggestions. Lodder’s Dogecoin Core fee change proposal explained that the fix would be “gradually deployed to the network over multiple software releases.

During the last few weeks, a project called Worldcoin has been the subject of numerous headlines and speculation. Worldcoin launched on October 21 and aims to be a universal basic income (UBI) crypto asset that gives free tokens to accounts that are verified with a biometric eye scan. The project has privacy advocates reeling and whistleblower Edward Snowden slammed the project’s creators and said “don’t catalogue eyeballs.” Worldcoin Turns Heads in the Crypto World as It Wants to Scan Your Eyeballs in Exchange for Free Crypto There’s a new cryptocurrency project that is turning heads because of the way it disperses funds to network participants. The project Worldcoin was introduced to the world by Alex Blania and Sam Altman and the team hopes to get one billion people using the crypto asset by the end of 2022. Worldcoin launched on October 21, and the founders have raised $25 million from strategic investors like Blockchange, Coinbase Ventures, Andreesen Horowitz, and Linkedin co-

The 78th United States secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that U.S. lawmakers are considering taxing unrealized capital gains. According to Yellen, the funds collected would help finance things related to climate and social change. While Yellen said that U.S. senator Ron Wyden (D., Ore.) was working on drafting the plan, a great number of Americans have been criticizing the proposal on forums and social media. Janet Yellen Discusses Unrealized Capital Gains Tax Proposal, House Speaker Pelosi Approves The phrase “unrealized capital gains” has been trending on social media and forums during the last 24 hours after the U.S. secretary of the treasury Janet Yellen discussed the subject on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Yellen explained the concept, which aims to tax Americans on unrealized capital gains stemming from liquid assets. Of course, like the controversial $600 IRS monitoring proposal, Yellen stressed that the proposal was aimed at “

PRESS RELEASE. The MetaHUMAN Foundation has announced a grants program to support a new generation of projects looking to adopt and build on top of HUMAN Protocol. Successful applicants will have access to an allocated fund of $10 million, to supercharge the adoption of the Protocol, and realize new possibilities for HUMAN technology across new use cases. HUMAN Protocol is an open-source infrastructure. It is a beginning – a new way to represent and verify human value and contribution – that can be built upon. With each new application, the diversity of work processed by the Protocol expands, and the utility of the HMT token as a means to represent all forms of contribution increases. HUMAN Protocol facilitates a new future of work by offering a permissionless system of exchange. Automated by software, enforced by smart contracts, and settled on the blockchain, HUMAN Protocol means any input or interaction can be tokenized, and its value securely represented. Its primary application

As authorities in the EU are still discussing union-wide cryptocurrency regulations, a major U.S. bank has reportedly lobbied the Irish government to adopt its own rules for the space. BNY Mellon launched its digital asset business in Ireland this year to provide custodian services to institutional investors. Banking Giant BNY Mellon Calls for Irish Crypto Regulations U.S. banking corporation BNY Mellon, which established a crypto unit in Ireland this spring, has urged the country’s finance ministry to introduce crypto regulations while the EU rules for the space are still being developed, the Irish press reported. The bank’s digital hub in Dublin was set up to provide depository services for digital assets to institutions interested in cryptocurrency investments. A report by the Irish Independent unveils that representatives of BNY Mellon met with the Irish Minister of State at the Department of Finance Seán Fleming in May to try to convince the government about the need to adopt

Do Kwon, co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, the company that backs the Terra blockchain ecosystem, is suing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Kwon, who was served a subpoena while appearing at Messari’s Mainnet conference as a presenter, states this behavior was against the SEC’s own policies, and that they needed to go through proper channels to deliver the subpoena. Do Kwon Takes the Fight to the SEC Do Kwon, the co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs, the company behind the design and creation of Terra , a smart contracts-enabled cryptocurrency, is suing the SEC over an incident that happened during the latest installment of Messari’s Mainnet conference. He had been conducting conversations with the SEC about possible actions against Mirror Protocol, a decentralized app that tracks prices of stocks for synthetic assets. The lawsuit explains the SEC had contacted Kwon in May to talk to him about the operation of Mirror Protocol, and the connection of Terraform

The construction of a bitcoin mega-mining farm in Argentina by Bitfarms is raising concerns for legislators. Martín Berhongaray, a national deputy, recently presented a resolution to force the government to disclose information about the installation of the facility, through representatives from the Ministries of Science, Technology and Innovation, Environment and Sustainable Development, and of the nation’s economy. Bitfarms Mega Farm in Sights of Legislators The ambitious project that Bitfarms, a mining behemoth headquartered in Canada, is building in Argentina, has already started to raise concerns with Argentinian legislators. Martín Berhongaray, a national deputy, introduced a law proposal for the government to explain how this deal was conceived and whether the company has passed oversight of the different state institutions linked to the deal, like the Ministries of Science, Technology and Innovation, Environment and Sustainable Development, and of the nation’s economy. The

On Friday, American social news aggregation and discussion website, Reddit published a job listing seeking a senior backend engineer for a non-fungible token (NFT) platform. As part of Reddit’s development team, the new hire would help “design, build and ship backend services for millions of users to create, buy, sell and use NFT-backed digital goods.” Reddit’s Job Application Is Looking for a Senior Engineer for a Possible NFT Platform Reddit seems to be in the midst of creating a non-fungible token (NFT) feature on its platform and from a recent job description it seems to be a marketplace. Reddit is seeking a “senior backend engineer” for its “NFT platform,” the recently added job listing explains. Reddit has already dipped its feet into cryptocurrency solutions and blockchain technology by leveraging Ethereum and Arbitrum . The job listing for a new engineer dedicated to NFT technology has a different focus than the firm’s community points system. “If there is one thing we’ve

PRESS RELEASE. The next-generation NFT Infrastructure – Label Foundation has announced the successful completion of its private sale round. Supported by many leading VCs and famous Grammy-winning artists, the NFT platform raised $1.0 million during the private sale that generated major interest from top investors and venture capitalists in the finance and blockchain industries. A major milestone for Label Foundation The private sale round was led by HG ventures and backed by some of the leading venture capitals and institutions in the blockchain sphere, such as GBIC, Mindfulness Capital, IOST, M6, Adaptive, and Icetea Labs, Alphabit,, and Pragma. These Venture Capital firms have joined forces to fund the next generation NFT infrastructure that provides the P2P incubating platform to foster the education platform. Speaking on the development, Simon Jeung co-founder at HG Ventures, revealed his delight in the development. “As the lead investors in the LABEL Foundation, we are first a

The Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, is expected to formally launch the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) on October 25, 2021. High-Level Endorsement of the CBDC According to a statement released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the formal event marking the e-naira’s launch will be held at the Buhari’s official residence. After the initial launch was postponed due to different factors, the CBN suggests in the statement that it has done enough to prepare for the launch this time around. The press statement explains: Following a series of engagements with relevant stakeholders including the banking community, fintech operators, merchants and indeed, a cross-section of Nigerians, the CBN designed the digital currency, which shall be activated on Monday, October 25, 2021. Describing the e-naira launch as a major step forward in the evolution of money, the CBN insists its CBDC will be available to everyone. The CBN to Promptly Address Challenges Encountered

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey has warned that hyperinflation will soon happen in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. “Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It’s happening,” he predicted. Many people disagreed with him, however. US Will Soon Experience Hyperinflation, Says Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey The CEO of Twitter and Square Inc., Jack Dorsey, tweeted a warning about hyperinflation in the U.S. Friday. “Hyperinflation is going to change everything. It’s happening,” he wrote. Comments flooded his tweet. At the time of writing, it had garnered more than 7K comments and had been liked 70.1K times and retweeted 22.9K times. In a follow-up tweet, Dorsey emphasized: “It will happen in the U.S. soon, and so the world.” The Twitter CEO’s tweet came as consumer price inflation is running near a 30-year high in the U.S. and there are increasing concerns that the problem could be worse than what policymakers led on. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged Friday tha

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared what he believes to be the most important dogecoin improvements. He also clarified that he does not have anything to do with the Dogecoin Foundation and is not investing in the shiba inu (SHIB) token. Musk confirmed that he is only holding three cryptocurrencies. Elon Musk on Dogecoin Improvements, Shiba Inu Token Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk made several tweets about cryptocurrency, bitcoin, dogecoin, and the shiba inu token Sunday. Regarding Dogecoin’s improvements, he was asked whether he had any recent interactions with the Doge development team. While admitting that he had not interacted with them lately, Musk shared: What matters imo is lowering fees, decreasing block time & increasing block size. A single layer network with exchanges as de facto layer 2 seems like the simplest solution for a medium of exchange. Dogecoin co-creator Billy Markus chimed in and responded to Musk’s Doge improvement tweet. He stressed that in his opinion, “