Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The New Civil Liberties Alliance has objected to FinCEN’s proposed crypto wallet rule, calling it “unlawful.” In addition, the group says that the U.S. Treasury’s “planned ‘crackdown’ on cryptocurrency holders’ private wallets is an unconstitutional power grab.” FinCEN’s Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Is Unlawful, Says NCLA The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed its comments on Monday objecting to FinCEN’s proposed rule , entitled “Requirements for Certain Transactions Involving Convertible Virtual Currency or Digital Assets.” The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department. The NCLA warned: The U.S. Treasury Department’s planned ‘crackdown’ on cryptocurrency holders’ private wallets is an unconstitutional power grab … The proposed rule represents a radical — and unlawful — extension of FinCEN’s financial surveillance. The group calls FinCEN’s proposal a “large-scale state intrusion

Goldman Sachs has revealed that it will be offering bitcoin investments to its wealth management clients. The investment bank reportedly plans to offer a “full spectrum” of bitcoin investments, “whether that’s through the physical bitcoin, derivatives or traditional investment vehicles.” Goldman Sachs to Begin Offering Bitcoin Investments to Wealthy Clients Goldman Sachs is the second major bank to say that it will be offering its wealthy clients access to bitcoin investments. CNBC reported on Wednesday that the bank is close to offering its first investment vehicles for bitcoin to clients of its private wealth management group. Mary Rich, who was recently named global head of digital assets for Goldman’s private wealth management division, explained that the bank aims to start offering bitcoin investments in the second quarter. She said in an interview last week, “We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ec

On March 28, the Scottish school in Edinburgh called the Morningside School of Music decided to accept cryptocurrency payments for tuition. Morningside’s director Linda Boyd said the school had noticed the trend of larger firms joining the crypto economy and it’s “just a matter of time before smaller businesses like ours start doing the same,” she said. Playing to the Beat of a Different Drum According to the Morningside School of Music director Linda Boyd, the well known music academy in Scotland is now accepting digital assets as a form of payment. Boyd said during the announcement that the school used bitcoin ( BTC ) in the past to pay for certain items. “We sometimes use things like Bitcoin to pay for goods for the school, so we know how fast and easy it is and want our music students to be able to do the same,” Boyd detailed in a recent interview. She added that many of the school’s adult pupils are employed in the fintech industry and a number of the students suggested the

Bitcoin’s meteoric rise has inspired many forex and CFD traders to seek a new broker that will offer them access to the crypto market. FTXB, as the premier online platform for CFD trading, is a great place for you to start trading on bitcoin and many other crypto pairs. FXTB Offers CFDs for Bitcoin and Many More Crypto Pairs FXTB , operated by Forex TB Limited, is an online CFD trading broker regulated by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. The platform offers CFD traders access to the exciting volatility of bitcoin as well as over 40 other crypto assets including ether, ripple, dash and many more. As a regulated company within the European Economic Area, many traders put their trust in FXTB in 2020 – winning it the title of Fastest Growing CFD Broker in Europe. CFD traders will find everything they need to start trading bitcoin at FXTB. This includes a powerful and intuitive trading platform that is available for both desktop and mobile web so you can access the markets

The Canadian anti-money laundering agency, Fintrac, says it recorded official capital inflows originating from Hong Kong that totaled more than $34 billion in the past year. The outflows, which are the highest since 2012 when the earliest Fintrac records are available, “are the first evidence of a significant flight of capital overseas from the Asian financial hub following the security turmoil.” Accounts Frozen As detailed by one report , the city’s record capital transfers, which are “up 46 per cent from 2016 and 10 percent from 2019, came in a year when Hong Kong police froze the accounts of several people linked to pro-democracy protests.” This freezing of bank accounts, in turn, triggered “concerns among some residents about asset safety.” Meanwhile, Darren Gibb, a spokesman for Fintrac suggests that some of the fleeing Hong Kong residents could be using cryptocurrencies to move funds ashore. He said: The Fintrac data captures only a fraction of total legal inflows into the

The cryptocurrency bull run has been the most notorious headline highlighted in the last few months, but more figures are being watched beyond bitcoin prices. A new report released by Pricewaterhousecoopers (PWC) revealed that crypto merger and acquisition (M&A) deals skyrocketed in 2020. 2021 Is on Track to Surpass Last Year’s Numbers, PWC Says Quoted by Bloomberg , the consulting firm pointed out that the crypto M&A sector more than doubled last year to $1.1 billion from 2019 figures. Geographically speaking, the United States is still taking the lead by itself, as deals taking place in the region accounted near $785 million. Still, Europe and Asia together, as EMEA region, generated $303 million in crypto M&A deals, said PWC. Henri Arslanian, global crypto leader of PWC, highlighted the fact that 2020 numbers posse a record for the sector. However, he added that 2021 is on track “to significantly surpass it from every single metric.” The study says that findings su

Following an initial seed capital round of $1.4 million, Purestake has raised a $6 million strategic round of financing from a consortium of investors to accelerate development, as the team aims to bring the Moonbeam network live in the second half of the year. Ethereum-Compatible Smart Contract Initiative Aims To Deliver Mainnet By Mid-2021 Ethereum may be the blockchain of choice for many decentralized application (dapp) and smart contract developers at present, but that paradigm is quickly shifting as more roads lead towards Polkadot, an up-and-coming cross-chain communication protocol. Among the fascinating projects hoping to build on Polkadot’s forthcoming parachains is Moonbeam, a protocol that assists developers with deploying multi-chain projects. By incorporating the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Web3 compatibility, Moonbeam facilitates direct connections with the Ethereum network, helping smart contracts and dapps operate flawlessly on multiple blockchains simultaneo

South Korea’s “crypto boom” is a term that the local media has widely adopted to refer to the current hype seen across the Asian nation. In fact, a recent study unveiled a rising trend in the number of South Koreans making small-scale crypto investments. New Crypto Investors Seem Unafraid of Strict Regulations According to the “Virtual Currency App Market Analysis” research made by big data firm IGA Works, quoted by Edaily , almost 60% of the newest crypto investors in the country are aged 20-30. Remarkably, such a segment of traders often prefers to allocate “smaller amounts” of money into cryptos, specifically up to $100. But the study went more in-depth and clarified that South Korean crypto investors aged 20 through 30 are looking for bitcoin ( BTC ) and “top 10-by-market-cap altcoins” investments. A trader identified just as “Mr. A” claimed that he allocates around 100,000 Korean won ($88) every month from his payday on BTC and such altcoins. IGA Works says that the number

PRESS RELEASE. Blockchain-based virtual reality platform Dvision Network is finally releasing the first limited-edition NFT item that will be placed for auction on OpenSea Marketplace. Dvision revealed this in a tweet on March 30, 2021. Dvision Boy First Character from Limited Edition Series According to the tweet, the first item to be auctioned is the “Dvision Boy” character. The NFT character is the first in the highly anticipated Limited Edition series and will usher in a new era for the Dvision ecosystem. The auction on OpenSea marketplace will start at 3 PM KST on March 31 and last for a week. NFT lovers and investors will be able to place bids on the NFT item until the deadline elapses. Dvision Boy is the first and primary NFT character that will be used as an avatar inside the Dvision Metaverse. Dvision further revealed that the person who purchases ‘’Dvision Boy” will be entitled to various incentives when the Dvision Metaverse is fully launched later in the year. It s

The American global markets company Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) has announced the launch of a new bitcoin futures product on May 3, 2021, if U.S. regulators approve the product. The new contract is a micro bitcoin futures product that represents 0.1 bitcoin rather than CME’s other contract that equals five bitcoin. The smaller contract aims to make investment in bitcoin futures more accessible “to a broad array of clients.” CME Group to Launch Micro Bitcoin Futures Contract The well known derivatives marketplace CME Group has announced the launch of a new futures product that’s smaller than the contract that represents five bitcoin ( BTC ). The new product, pending regulatory approval, will be a micro-futures contract that offers exposure to 0.1 BTC . Essentially, that’s one-tenth the size of one bitcoin and the company thinks that investors will be interested in the smaller product. Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products

The shortest air mile distance between Johannesburg and London is 5,635 miles.  Historically, moving money between banks or money service providers in those two cities takes days to cover that distance. That literally means it would still be faster to put money on an airplane and physically fly it between the two cities.  International payments … Continued The post Mercury to Boost Remittance Time and Money Savings to South Africa Using ODL appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/RwjNwK

Toho’s classic Godzilla storyline leaves behind the Tokyo and New York skylines as it wades into the decentralized universe with freshly minted collectibles set for auction on the WAX Blockchain. Appeal To Collectors Complements Forthcoming Premiere Of Godzilla vs. Kong From trading cards to collectibles, the name Topps has been synonymous with collecting for over 70 years. Little did they know that their digital transformation that materialized back in 2012 would set the stage for today’s NFT-mania and their embrace of non-fungible tokens. Since disclosing a collaboration with the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) in May of 2020, Topps has been at the forefront of digitizing sports and entertainment trading cards, helping faithful collectors buy, sell, and trade unique collectibles through WAX’s blockchain-based platform. The platform claims to have been responsible for handling more than 100 million transfers of digital assets to date. Fast-forward to the present, and Topps is bu

On Monday, the publicly-listed Canadian company Mogo announced the firm is extending the bitcoin rewards program applied to the firm’s prepaid Visa card to the operation’s Mogomortgage product. Mogo members leveraging the Mogomortgage platform can earn up to $3,100 in bitcoin if they engage in a new mortgage or refinance an existing real estate loan. Mogo CEO Highlights the Beginning Stages of Consumers Adding Bitcoin to Their Financial Portfolios During the last few years, the Vancouver-based Mogo Inc. , (NASDAQ:MOGO) (TSX:MOGO) has gradually been gravitating toward cryptocurrency solutions. Back in 2018, Mogo revealed a partnership with DMG Blockchain Solutions and planned to launch a bitcoin mining facility in British Columbia. At the end of December 2020, Mogo executive Greg Feller explained that Mogo was joining the trend of firms holding BTC on their balance sheets. Mogo disclosed the company invested 1.5% of Mogo’s total assets into bitcoin at the end of the third quarter

As central banks on the African continent fight to keep cryptocurrencies from going mainstream, many more migrant workers are increasingly turning to money-sending platforms that use cryptocurrencies when moving funds across borders. More Than Just an Investment Thus in addition to becoming a “hot investment for hedge funders and corporate moguls,” crypto-assets like bitcoin are now seen as “a cost-effective way to transfer money throughout the developing world.” Also adding to the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, are lockdown measures imposed in many countries starting in March 2020. In a bid to halt the spread of Covid-19, governments around the world imposed restrictions on human movement and this, in turn, made the normally reliable money transfer channels less accessible. With movement now heavily curtailed, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies naturally emerged as the next secure and cost-effective alternative means of transferring money across borders. As various studi

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of the Hermez Network Token (HEZ) under the pair USDT/HEZ on Mar 29 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Hermez is a zk-rollup that allows for scaling payments and token transfers on top of the Ethereum public blockchain. Hermez uses the Ethereum public blockchain for data storage instead of computation. In addition, utilizing zero-knowledge proofs attaches an easily verifiable on-chain proof that the off-chain computations have been carried out correctly. The Hermez Network Token (HEZ) acts as the Hermez network’s economic lifeblood. Their model allows the network to be permissionless and censorship resistant for user transactions. Hermez integrates an auction where everyone intending to become a coordinator, the batch creator in the Hermez ecosystem, bids the number of tokens they are willing to donate to obtain the right to creat

Decentralized finance (defi) has seen extreme demand and innovative use-cases during the last 12 months. Defi oracles, decentralized exchange (dex) platforms and automated money makers (AMM) have swelled in value, as statistics show over $43 billion is locked into defi protocols today. Meanwhile, a new project has recently stepped out of the gate called XFai, a dex liquidity oracle that aims to capture untapped liquidity from small to medium cap tokens. On April 8, 2021, XFai plans to host a Liquidity Generation Event (LGE), and this week it was announced that Bitcoin.com’s founder and angel investor Roger Ver has invested in XFai. XFai’s Dex Liquidity Oracle Aims to Empower Decentralized Finance and Capture Untapped Liquidity Defi concepts and decentralized exchanges are all the rage these days, and a great number of dex platforms have outperformed their centralized exchange (cex) counterparts. Today, data shows the total value locked (TVL) into defi is over $43 billion, and dex p

In the SEC v. Ripple lawsuit, the court has rejected the SEC’s attempt to block XRP holders’ Motion to Intervene and has set submission deadlines for the motion to be filed as well as for responses from the SEC and Ripple. Judge Dismissed SEC’s Attempt to Stop XRP Holders From Intervening in Ripple Lawsuit In the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) v. Ripple Labs case, the district court of the Southern District of New York “has reviewed the parties’ and proposed intervenors’ letters dated March 19 and 26, 2021,” according to the court document filed Monday. The SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple Labs Inc., CEO Brad Garlinghouse, and co-founder Christian Larsen in December, charging them with conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered XRP securities offering. On March 19, Deaton Law Firm wrote a letter to District Judge Analisa Torres on behalf of XRP holders, as proposed intervenors. It was signed by over 10,000 XRP holders at the time of filing. The SEC responded on M