Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Pulse DeFi LTD Is a new London-based platform for digital token farming, staking, lending and borrowing. It provides a full range of services that can replace the old established financial system, but with decentralization at the forefront. Pulse DeFi LTD Wants You to Be Able to Trust the Economy Again At the top of the homepage of Pulse DeFi LTD stands a single quote, attributed to the inventor of bitcoin, which explains the main drive behind the platform: “The root problem with conventional currency is all trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.” – Satoshi Nakamoto The old financial system is plagued with corruption and people can not trust the economy to be fair when they see governments and banks operate with complete disregard for their fortune. Pulse DeFi LTD aims to fix this issue by using the power of blockchain technology and decentralizatio

Darknet market revenues hit a new all-time high in 2020, despite declining individual purchases from marketplaces. Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis also spotted a singular driver behind the new record witnessed over the last year. Hydra Market Is the Major Driver Behind Revenue Figures in 2020 According to the Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report , darknet markets brought in a total of $1.7 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in 2020. But the report unveiled that Hydra Market, one of the largest illegal marketplaces in the darknet, boosted the total revenue significantly. In fact, Chainalysis details that without Hydra’s figures, darknet market revenue should have stayed “roughly flat” from 2019 to 2020. As a particular fact, Hydra Market is a one-of-its-kind darknet marketplace, as it only serves Russian-speaking countries. The research revealed that Hydra could be considered the largest darknet market globally, accounting for over 75% of the 2020 revenue. According to the ana

New legal provisions on distributed ledger technology (DLT) went into effect on Feb. 1 in Switzerland. After the implementation, two local companies announced that they had issued the first tokenized asset under the brand-new law. ‘Fine Wine’ Token Is Available for Sygnum Bank’s Clients Per the announcement , Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum and Fine Wine Capital AG launched collectible premium wine-backed tokens, becoming the first ones under the new blockchain rules. Assets tokenized through Sygnum’s platform, Desygnate, will be recognized under a new category of ledger-based securities in the law. According to the digital asset bank, the “Fine Wine” token is available in the “Art & Collectibles” category for Sygnum’s clients. The “Swiss Federal Act on the Adaptation of Federal Law to Developments in Distributed Ledger Technology” allows companies to develop a framework that links financial and real assets ownership to a DLT-based asset token. Alexandre Challand, Fine Wine C

According to a report by Glassnode, bitcoin’s declining stablecoin supply ratio (SSR) indicates an increased supply of newly minted coins on exchanges. In turn, this increase in supply means exchanges are currently “highly liquid and ready to buy up assets such as bitcoin.” Stablecoin Supply Growth As explained in the report , the SSR is a ratio of the total value of all bitcoins versus stablecoins. This metric “decreases when (either) the price of BTC is low or when more stablecoins are entering circulation.” However, with BTC prices are already high, this leaves the increased stablecoin supply as the only possible reason behind the low ratio. Already, Messari data shows that the total stablecoin market capitalization currently stands at approximately $39 billion as of February 1. From this total, the USDT stablecoin accounts for $28 billion or approximately 71% share of the market. However, as the Glassnode report notes, it is the USDC stablecoin that is seeing “massive exc

PRESS RELEASE. The AdGram service was founded a year ago and is currently the largest advertising exchange in Telegram. AdGram helps brands place large advertising volumes in channels and groups quickly and efficiently. Channels and groups benefit from expansion of their audience, it is easy to find advertisers and increase the earnings from advertising placements via AdGram . Over the last 12 months, the service has gained a huge experience in communications with both advertisers and administrators from different countries, which has highlighted issues with settlements in multiple currencies. After overcoming these obstacles, it was decided that cryptocurrency could be the key to solving this problem. With the termination of the Telegram team’s work on the TON project in May 2020 (the messenger lost one of its monetization methods), Free TON was launched which took over the development and popularization of TON Crystal using the open source code from the original TON. The unique

21Shares AG, a Zurich-based investment provider, is launching what is being dubbed as the world’s first Polkadot exchange-traded product, or ETP. The DOT ETP will be listed on the Swiss exchange SIX on Thursday, February 4, said the company in a statement on Tuesday. DOT is the native token of the Polkadot network. DOT has since been added to 21Shares’ Crypto Basket ETP (HODL), which tracks five major assets including bitcoin ( BTC ) and ethereum ( ETH ). Since its addition on Jan. 29, DOT now accounts for 27% of the product behind BTC at 50%. Hany Rashwan, chief executive officer of 21Shares, said the firm has seen “unprecedented demand” from institutional investors wanting exposure to crypto-assets. He stated that demand for its range of crypto ETPs has soared 500% since the third quarter of 2020, but there has been “a recent surge in interest” for DOT. “After investors purchase their first bitcoins through our ETPs, there is a natural transition to invest in other crypto asse

One River Asset Management’s CEO says his firm now holds bitcoin worth “well over” $1 billion. He revealed that the institutional interest in bitcoin is “astounding,” noting that almost all major institutions in the U.S. are having discussions about the cryptocurrency. He believes that bitcoin will be worth more than gold, placing its value at approximately $500K. One River Asset Management’s CEO Is a Bitcoin Bull The CEO and co-founder of One River Asset Management, Eric Peters, shared his view on bitcoin at length in an interview with Bloomberg last week. Firstly, he revealed that his asset management firm now holds bitcoin “well in excess of a billion dollars at this point.” He then discussed the case for institutional investors to own cryptocurrencies currently. “We are in a unique period right now,” Peters began. It is the period seen many times throughout history where “governments become extremely indebted, monetary policy becomes less effective, and ultimately governments

On February 2, the crypto asset manager, Bitwise Asset Management, announced it had filed a Form 211 with the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). If the proposal is approved Bitwise will be able to deploy its shares publicly via over-the-counter (OTC) desks and secondary markets. Bitwise Plans to Compete With Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust The popular cryptocurrency index fund provider, Bitwise Asset Management , hopes to get regulatory approval from America’s financial regulators in order to publicly list the Bitwise Bitcoin Fund on OTC markets. The Bitwise Bitcoin Fund (BBF) if approved, will follow the public quotation of the firm’s Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund that recently obtained regulatory approval. The BBF will trade on OTCQX Best Market and currently Bitwise hasn’t chosen a ticker for the fund yet. Bitwise President Teddy Fusaro explained during the announcement that the fund has been managed since 2018 and the company looks forward to an OTCQX public quotat

Global music distribution service Ditto has unveiled the latest addition to its service lineup for musicians with a blockchain-based financing platform named Opulous. Opulous Peer-to-Peer Lending Platform Serves as a Loan Pool Designed to Help Artists Ditto continues its efforts to improve the value chain for artists. Unlike other decentralized finance (defi) protocols, Opulous reflects asset-based lending, which bridges the physical and digital worlds. The Opulous’ defi lending mechanism, which is being developed on the Algorand public blockchain , leverages music copyrights’ tangibility through a smart contract setup that automatically handles principal and interest payments along with distributions to investors. For musicians already receiving royalties, this presents a unique opportunity to monetize their assets or contribute to the pool to stake other artists. When seeking capital, artists can access funds by collateralizing loans from Opulous’ Music Copyright Pools with t

During the last year, Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem has grown exponentially to form a multi Billion Dollar market. As Decentralized Finance expands, it becomes more and more relevant to have cross-chain connections that enable crypto assets to flow instantly and seamlessly across blockchain networks. These make it possible for DeFi platforms to be an effective alternative to centralized exchanges. Today, pNetwork launches the first EOS to Ethereum cross-chain connection to enable the EOS crypto asset to be moved into Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. EOS on Ethereum EOS , the native token on the EOS blockchain, is a top20 cryptocurrency by market cap and the engine powering one of the most active dApps ecosystems. The asset counts over $ 3.5 Billion in daily trading volumes, figuring as the 9th most traded cryptocurrency. At present, only a fraction of the total is happening in a decentralized fashion. While the DeFi ecosystem on EOS continues to grow, it has not yet reached Ethereum’s s

As the so-called ‘meme coin’ is actively making the headlines within the crypto sphere, a publicly-traded company is joining the dogecoin frenzy. Kronos Advanced Technology announced they’ll start accepting dogecoin as one of its payment methods. Kronos Also Accepts Other Cryptocurrencies Such as Bitcoin and Ether According to the announcement , the Los Angeles-based firm is adding dogecoin (DOGE) to its accepted payment form. In fact, customers will be able to purchase air purifiers, and personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies via the meme coin. Adopting dogecoin as a payment method was not as part as just of a crypto adoption-driven maneuver. The company praised the popularity of the token and its uniqueness within the industry. Also, Kronos pointed out that dogecoins transactions’ speed is a positive note for the Shiba Inu inspired meme token. So far, the company accepts several cryptos as payment methods, such as bitcoin ( BTC ), ethereum ( ETH ), litecoin ( LTC ), among

Following the Wallstreetbets saga last week, a great number of the popular shares being fueled by social media have started to tank in value. Gamestop shares dropped over 60% on Tuesday, while AMC dropped more than 49% shaking investors who bought into these stocks to the core. Meanwhile, a number of cryptocurrency advocates believe the only true way to stick it to the bankers and Wall Street is to leverage digital assets like bitcoin. Reddit’s Favorite Stocks Begin to Feel Pain Last week, news.Bitcoin.com published numerous reports on the fiasco that started on the Reddit forum r/wallstreetbets and then went viral across the internet. Redditors, meme lords, and retail investors attempted to short squeeze Gamestop (GME) shares and at first they were successful in shaking out billions from hedge funds. The trend also moved into a few other stocks like AMC theaters and the mobile company Nokia. However, after a few days of headlines, these stocks and even silver started to feel th

Michael Saylor, the ‘bitcoin slayer’ that needs no introduction, continues his attacks on everything non-bitcoin, this time unleashing his wrath on gold. It Feels Great, Says Saylor of Owning More Than 71K Bitcoins In an interview with Andrew Henderson of Nomad Capitalist, a legal finance advisory, Saylor, condemning gold as a “dying asset” and “dead money,” offered his view of the future of investment: gold is out, bitcoin is in. To recap Saylor’s ascent to bitcoin supremacy, his firm Microstrategy made headlines for its relentless bitcoin shopping spree during 2020, buying 29,646 coins in December alone. 2021 is no different, with Saylor announcing today another purchase of 295 bitcoins, bringing his total to 71,079. MicroStrategy has purchased approximately 295 bitcoins for $10.0 million in cash, at an average price of ~ $33,808 per #bitcoin . We now #hodl ~ 71,079 bitcoins acquired for $1.145 billion at average price of ~ $16,109 per bitcoin. https://t.co/lmj3QCgKbw — M

Spacex and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been trying to get to the bottom of what happened with the popular trading app Robinhood when it stopped people from buying shares of hot stocks, like Gamestop. The shares of these stocks became popular due to the Wallstreetbets movement. Elon Musk Says People Want the Truth From Robinhood During an interview on The Good Time Show via the Clubhouse app Sunday night, Elon Musk grilled the CEO of trading app Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, over the company’s decision to restrict hot stocks last week, including Gamestop. On Friday, Robinhood also restricted crypto trading, citing “extraordinary market conditions.” “What happened last week? Why can’t people buy the Gamestop shares? The people demand an answer and they want to know the details and the truth,” Musk said. Tenev began by explaining the structure of his company. “Robinhood is actually a couple of companies,” he described. Robinhood Financial processes trades, Robinhood Securities clears and settle