Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

While bitcoin’s price has neared the all-time price highs captured in February, old coins that have sat idle for many years have started to wake up from slumber. On March 4, at block height 673,162, a block reward worth 50 bitcoin from 2010 was transferred for the first time in over a decade. Also, a whale from 2013 has emerged from slumber as well, after 10,000 bitcoin that sat idle for over seven years was transferred on March 11. 2010 Block Reward Worth $2.8M Spent Last Week One thing is for sure, a great number of crypto proponents have always been fascinated by early adopters, old-school miners, and large bitcoin whales. In the crypto space, it’s not uncommon for an owner to hold coins for over five years, to even ten years without spending any amount of funds. In 2020 and into 2021, Bitcoin.com’s newsdesk with the help of Btcparser.com has been following an old-school mining whale who has transferred 9,000 bitcoins from 2010 block rewards since March 11, 2020. Bitcoin.com ha

Gold bug and bitcoin opponent, Peter Schiff has alleged that the Digital Currency Group (DCG)’s plan to acquire GBTC shares worth $250 million could be an indication that Grayscale Investment will be reducing the value of its AUM. In addition, Schiff claims in his tweet that “Grayscale will be selling bitcoin to help raise the cash needed to fund the buyback.” Schiff Rebuffed However, the BTC opponent’s latest attacks on Grayscale are immediately rebuffed by the company’s CEO Micheal Sonneinshein. In telling off the gold bug, the CEO said: Get your facts straight — Grayscale is not selling bitcoin to fund share repurchases. In its statement that announced the plan to buy GBTC shares, the DCG revealed it will “use cash on hand to fund the purchases.” Additionally, Grayscale’s parent firm said “will make the purchases on the open market, at management’s discretion, in compliance with Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.” However, in his tweet, Schiff, who has

On March 12, the publicly-listed firm Microstrategy announced the company purchased an additional 262 bitcoin for $15 million in cash. The company’s CEO Michael Saylor announced the acquisition of the coins during the morning hours on Friday (ET) to his 623,000 Twitter followers. Microstrategy Tells US Regulators It Swapped $15 Million in Cash for 262 Bitcoin Seven days ago, on March 5, Bitcoin.com reported on Microstrategy leveraging $10 million in cash to purchase 205 bitcoin (BTC) . On March 12, Microstrategy announced another acquisition of $15 million worth of bitcoin in a Form 8-K Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. The March 12 SEC filing explains the firm’s move to purchase the 262 bitcoin (BTC) . Meanwhile, bitcoin bull and Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor revealed the purchase via Twitter on Friday morning. Similar to Saylor’s prior tweets, the CEO explained how much Microstrategy purchased, the price the company paid, the number of bitcoin the company now ho

An anonymous group has claimed that Blockfi, which has an estimated $1.8 billion in customer assets invested in Grayscale Investment’s GBTC, is facing potential insolvency issues associated with the negative premium on the GBTC shares. Using the negative premium of minus 7.89% on the GBTC shares to illustrate the extent of the problem, the anonymous group posits that Blockfi faces a loss of $232 million. Anonymous Group Alleges Blockfi Insolvency Threat According to a statement posted on the anonymous group’s website, Blockfi, which is promising its investors an annualized interest rate of 6%, can make only make a profit for its investors if the premium on GBTC shares is above 8%. This happens because Blockfi still has to pay a management fee of 2% on top of the 6% that it promises to pay its investors. Yet, as recently reported by Bitcoin.com, the premium (or discount) on the GBTC briefly dropped to a record low of nearly minus 12% on March 4. At the time of writing, however, t

One of the biggest asset managers in Israel allocated millions of dollars into the shares of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). Altshuler Shaham is now gaining exposure to bitcoin by investing $100 million in shares, according to a local media outlet. Altshuler Shaham Currently Holds $150M Worth in BTC Per Globes Israel , the multi-million-dollar investment yielded a return of almost 100%. That’s because the exposure was made by the investment house in December 2020, when bitcoin ( BTC ) prices were hovering around the $21,000 level. Afterward, Altshuler Shaham took profits when BTC hit new all-time highs in February. According to Global, the investment house closed its position on about a third of its holdings in GBTC fund. Gilad Altshuler, CEO and co-founder of the asset manager, stated that Altshuler Shaham currently holds $150 million worth in bitcoin as of press time. He added: The $100 million investment has become $200 million, and of the $200 million we have already sold

John Waldron, the chief operating officer (COO) of Goldman Sachs, says the financial services giant is seeing rising customer demand to own and invest in bitcoin. Nevertheless, the COO explained that his organization was still exploring ways of satisfying this demand without running afoul of regulators. ‘How Banks Should Be Regulated When Dealing With Digital Money’ In remarks made during an interview , Waldron, who is also the banking giant’s president, adds that Goldman Sachs “is in discussions with regulators and central banks about how banks should be regulated when dealing with digital money.” Meanwhile, in explaining the financial giant’s unique approach towards satisfying customer demand, Waldron said: We are regulated on what we can do. We continue to evaluate it … and engage on it. In addition to looking for ways of satisfying the growing consumer demand for cryptos, the Reuters report also reveals that “Goldman is also exploring a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and

Through the novel use of hardware security modules in conjunction with a communication module, a collaboration between Bluzelle and Equinix will significantly reduce the barriers preventing the equal distribution of opportunities for potential proof-of-stake (PoS) node validators. Lower Cloud Hosting Barriers Transform The Validator Landscape The gradual transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithms has tackled some of the most urgent problems facing greater blockchain adoption, like scalability and energy consumption. Despite these enormous benefits over the more traditional proof-of-work (PoW) blockchains, staking accessibility has been a high hurdle for prospective node validators. For an industry bent on leveling the playing field for all stakeholders and participants, the costs for running a validator node are notoriously high due to the accompanying hosting and security requirements. These costs involve running a robust and highly performant private infrastructure,

The controversial host of Infowars and the Alex Jones Show claims that he has lost a laptop containing 10,000 bitcoins. The laptop was given to him by popular television personality Max Keiser, who confirmed the story. Alex Jones Claims He Lost 10,000 Bitcoins Stored on Laptop Alex Jones, the founder of the right-wing media group Infowars, has revealed that he has lost the laptop containing 10,000 bitcoins given to him by television personality and bitcoin proponent Max Keiser. During the Flagrant 2 show with Andrew Schulz and Akaash Singh on Tuesday, he said that Keiser gave him 10K BTC on a laptop 10 years ago. The American far-right web and radio show host is known for his imaginative conspiracy theories. He has been described by New York Magazine as “America’s leading conspiracy theorist,” and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as “the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America.” A long-time bitcoin critic, Jones refused to warm up to cryptocurrencie

Gold bug Peter Schiff has revealed that his son, Spencer Schiff, has gone all-in on bitcoin. Calling his son “brainwashed” for buying so much of the cryptocurrency, Schiff added that he may need to “disinherit” his son to avoid the youngster burning through his hard-earned money. Peter Schiff’s Son Has Gone Full Bitcoin Euro Pacific Capital CEO and host of the Schiff Radio Show, Peter Schiff, tweeted on Wednesday: My son Spencer Schiff went all in on bitcoin on the last drop below $50k. 100% of his portfolio is now in bitcoin. He sold the last of his silver stocks to raise the cash. If my own son is this brainwashed imagine how vulnerable most kids are. He’s HODLing to infinity or bust. At the time of writing, his tweet has gotten 5.4K comments. It has also been liked 21.6K times and retweeted 3.1K times. The price of bitcoin currently stands at $57,983, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com. Schiff further claimed: “The young generation likes bitcoin because most lack the kno

Win from a prize pool of 50,000 Free Spins in the newly launched tournament by Bitcoin Games 50 players will win loads of Free Spins on a game of their choice Online casinos are known to host regular promotions and tournaments that end up dishing out insane amounts of rewards. Prizes offered in casino tournaments, especially Free Spins, often end up doling out massive cash loot. Players can spin the reels of a desired slot game hundreds, or in this case thousands, of times without spending a single satoshi of their own. A Free Spin is essentially a free round carrying a bet value that you can spin for free, on the house, but keep what you win from the result of that spin. Spins of Victory is the newest tournament launched by Bitcoin Games that promises 10,000 Free Spins to the player that bags the top spot on the leaderboard. A single player can win up to 10,000 Free Spins on the house on any of the games from Playson! Exclusively featuring all the popular slot games from the

Ripple and Youtube had ended a legal battle initiated in April last year amid allegations related to crypto-related scams. The U.S. blockchain company sued the video platform for negligence in acting against crypto scams that impersonated Ripple. Terms of the Resolution Are Confidential During a Twitter thread , Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse announced both parties have now “come to a resolution to work together to prevent, detect and take down” XRP scams streamed on Youtube. Garlinghouse clarified terms of the settlement are confidential, as the blockchain firm revealed no major details. He added: Social platforms are starting to acknowledge their role in allowing crypto scams to persist and recognize the need to be part of the solution. Some like @xrpforensics are helping detect/track stolen funds, but platforms need to lead the charge or it’s still just whack-a-mole. Ripple’s anger against Youtube woke up on April 2020, when the firm filed a lawsuit against the video platf

Over the last few months, the non-fungible token (NFT) space has heated up and NFTs have become a topical conversation in the cryptocurrency community. Many supporters believe that NFTs are going to be huge and transform everything from the art industry to online gaming. Others believe that NFTs are completely worthless and nothing more than the hype seen during the initial coin offering (ICO) phase in 2017. Non-Fungible Token Assets and Reliable Immutability Data shows that to-date, more than 5.3 million non-fungible token (NFT) asset sales have been recorded on nonfungible.com ’s market history. Out of all these sales, artists, blockchain firms, and NFT dealers have sold $414.5 million worth of NFTs. Out of all 5.3 million sales recorded on nonfungible.com’s list, NFTs sell for an average of $76 per unit. Furthermore, NFTs have gathered mainstream attention and on March 11, 2021, the popular NFT artist, Beeple, sold his work at the world-famous Christie’s auction house. The Chri

During the last few months, a great number of businesses have been adding cryptocurrency support to their payment systems. On Tuesday, the luxury hotel group called The Kessler Collection announced it is now accepting digital currency payments for accommodations. The Kessler Collection’s support means eight luxury hotels will be able to accept payments in crypto assets like bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and more. The Kessler Collection Now Accepts Digital Currency Payments at 8 Luxury Hotels While crypto-assets continue to accrue value, it has sparked numerous merchants and businesses to start accepting digital assets for payment. On March 9, 2021, the Florida-based luxury hotel group The Kessler Collection announced it has partnered with the Atlanta company Bitpay in order to accept crypto-asset payments. The acceptance means that eight luxury hotels in the U.S. now accept bitcoin ( BTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), ethereum ( ETH ), dogecoin (DOGE), and several more assets includi

The highly popular right-wing commentator devoted a 15-minute Youtube video to inform his followers of the merits and potential that bitcoin, and cryptocurrencies, in general, as an anti-government monetary system. The grassroots embracement of bitcoin is the first of its kind in the alt-right American universe. Crypto Adoption is Taking a Surprising Right Turn in the American Political Landscape On March 7, 2021, Ben Shapiro, a prominent American conservative political pundit, released to his Youtube channel a video titled “ Bitcoin: The Future of Finance or Fool’s Gold? ”. In three days the video accumulated more than 800,000 views, suppressing Aatonop’s flagship video, “ Introduction to Bitcoin: what is bitcoin and why does it matter? ” that took four years to get to his current 733,000 views. This is the first time Shapiro discusses bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, or finance in general. The 15 minute Shapiro video is vastly different from Andreas Antonopoulos’s. While Antonopoulos