Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

PRESS RELEASE. Singapore, September 22 , 2021 – Alchemy Pay is now using Chainlink Price Feeds to enable users to buy crypto on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and obtain loans in leading DeFi lending platforms directly from wallets using Alchemy Pay’s ERC-20 utility token, ACH. Chainlink Price Feeds help assure users that they are receiving fair market exchange rates when purchasing assets directly via their wallets on DEXs like Uniswap, Sushiswap, and ForTube using their ACH, as well as when collateralizing DeFi loans with ACH. “It is crucial to the success of our payment gateway solution that the value of ACH is accurately shared throughout the ecosystem,” said Alchemy Pay CEO, John Tan. “The accuracy of Chainlink Price Feeds is underpinned by the robust technology Chainlink has deployed to protect against downtime and manipulation.” Since the price of assets is not a data feed inherently available on the blockchain, a solution is needed to fetch it off the blockchain (off-cha

On September 22, the team behind the Wallstreetbets defi application called Wsbdapp announced the launch of a non-fungible token (NFT) collection featuring 15,000 generative NFTs. According to the team, the NFTs provide utility like VIP access to special metaverse events and yield farming boosts. Wsbdapp Project Launches NFT Collection During the first week of September, Bitcoin.com News reported on the Wallstreetbets’ ( wsbdapp ) platform, which allows users to transact with decentralized finance (defi) protocols like a decentralized exchange (dex). The project partnered with the defi project Balancer a few days later and this week, the Wallstreetbets (WSB) defi project has launched a collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of WSB and strategic partner of the Wsbdapp project details for quite some time WSB memes were given out to the public free of charge. “The Wallstreetbets community has been giving out memes for free for too long; Apple shoul

Today, we are proud to announce our partnership with Bhutan’s central bank, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA), who will use Ripple’s CBDC solution to pilot a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in phases. This move is driven by the nation’s desire to enhance digital and cross-border payments, expand financial inclusion efforts and extend its commitment … Continued The post Bhutan Advances Financial Inclusion and Sustainability with Ripple’s CBDC Solution appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S851zx

This year a great deal of popular hip-hop superstars like Eminem, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Lil Pump, and many more have been getting into the non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles scene. On Monday, the American rapper Snoop Dogg revealed that he is an avid collector of NFTs. Snoop claims to be a pseudonymous Twitter account dubbed “Cozomo de’ Medici,” an online character known to hold millions of dollars in NFTs. Snoop Reveals His Pseudonymous Twitter Account This past Monday, Snoop Dogg revealed on Twitter that he is “ Cozomo de’ Medici ” an NFT collector that joined Opensea.io in August and also started a Twitter account the same month. The wallet on Opensea owns close to $17 million worth of non-fungible tokens from various NFT collections like Cryptopunks, Cosmoflowers, and Snoop Dogg cash. At the time of writing, Cozomo’s Opensea account has approximately 207 NFTs. Cozomo’s NFT account purchases NFTs regularly and the account has a variety of different kinds of digital collectibles. T

On Tuesday, the fast food restaurant chain Burger King announced the company has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) campaign called the “Keep It Real Meals” initiative. The campaign is in collaboration with the NFT marketplace Sweet and will feature celebrities like Nelly, Anitta, and LILHUDDY. Six Million Meal Boxes With Burger King NFTs The NFT marketplace Sweet has revealed a partnership with fast food giant Burger King on Tuesday. Burger King has entered the NFT fray and the new campaign is quite different from other NFT concepts. The Burger King “Keep It Real Meals” initiative will showcase QR codes tethered to close to six million meal boxes. Scanning the QR codes will unlock a digital collectible and Burger King’s announcement says “collecting them can lead to unlocking bonus NFTs.” The campaign will feature three celebrities including the American social media personality LILHUDDY, the Brazilian singer Anitta, and the American rapper, singer-songwriter, and entrepreneur,

The U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted Suex, a cryptocurrency broker based in Russia, for its money laundering activities. The platform is suspected of processing hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto transactions related to scams, ransomware attacks, darknet markets, and the infamous BTC-e exchange. OFAC Adds Russian Crypto OTC Exchange Suex to Blacklist The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury has added Suex to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List. The move, announced Tuesday, effectively prohibits U.S. citizens from engaging with the platform. OFAC also published a list of cryptocurrency addresses linked to Suex. The company behind the crypto broker, Suex OTC s.r.o., is an entity registered in the Czech Republic. However, it operates mainly from branches in the Russian Federation, including its offices in the capital Moscow and the country’s second-largest city, Saint Petersburg. It’s believed that

South Africa’s Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DOJCD) has denied claims that it has received a 50 bitcoin ransom demand from hackers that attacked its systems on September 6, 2021. Reports of Ransom Demand Deemed ‘Completely Untrue’ Instead, the DOJCD insists that its tech experts, “industry partners and selected organs of state have been working hard to contain the problem and to restore systems affected by the ransomware attack.” Consequently, the department stated in a tweet that an article published by Mybroadband on September 20, is, therefore “completely untrue.” A tweet shared by the country’s Ministry of Justice and Correctional Services explained: The DOJCD would like to place it on the record that it has not received any ransom demand following the ransomware attack as suggested by an article on https://ift.tt/3lH8NXy published on 20 Sept 2021. The Mybroadband article to this effect is completely untrue. The South African tech news site Mybroadba

Mars4 – centered ecosystem where you can explore a virtual Mars Metaverse, own and customize your land property with MARS4 dollars and even reap the rewards of the world’s first revenue-generating NFT! Attractive tokenomics of Mars4 leverages NFT Mars Land, Gamification and Token Redistribution. Mars4 is a unique metaverse. The Mars4 project’s development team has modeled their detailed 3D map of Mars’ terrain after NASA’s Mars data. Think of it as Mars’ equivalent of the 2001 Google Earth 3D map. Mars4 NFT owners can take a virtual trip to Mars and leverage gamification features to earn attractive yields while exploring the fourth planet. Mars4 is a project of the Mars4 Foundation , an organization that invests in space exploration, aerospace, and suborbital aerospace companies. How does Mars4 work? Mars4 leverages token yield farming and gamification elements to create an attractive decentralized finance investment option. Additionally, Mars4 helps space exploration enthusias

Ryan Selkis, the founder of Messari, a cryptocurrency research company, has announced he will be running for the U.S. Senate in 2024. The entrepreneur made the announcement on Twitter after finding out one of the speakers at Messari’s Mainnet conference, whose identity could not be confirmed, was served with a subpoena by the SEC. This is one of the first serious political bids that a crypto entrepreneur has made in the U.S. Messari CEO Ryan Selkis Announces Senate Bid for 2024 Ryan Selkis, founder and CEO of Messari , a crypto research firm, has announced he will be running for Senate in 2024. Selkis apparently made the decision after one of the speakers from Mainnet, a conference organized by Messari, was served a subpoena by SEC staff that had attended the conference. Selkis stated: If you’re wondering when I actually decided to run for Senate, it was when these f**kers came to my event, didn’t buy a ticket, and served one of the speakers a subpoena. Enough talk. More war on o

Members of the Iranian parliament, the Majlis, have voiced concerns over Tehran’s restrictive policies towards innovations such as cryptocurrencies. Following the release of a study recommending a new approach towards the crypto industry, the lawmakers have called for the adoption of friendlier regulations. Iranian MPs Urge for Change in Crypto Policies After Research Some parliamentarians in Iran have set out to change the government’s regulatory attitude towards cryptocurrencies, citing opportunities to use them to improve the nation’s sanctioned and troubled economy. “Taking a restrictive approach only pushes innovative solutions underground,” the spokesman of the Majlis Economic Commission, Gholamreza Marhaba, told Iranian media. Commenting on the results of the research on the matter carried out by the commission, he also stated: Our studies show that 50% of crypto activities are in the informal market. This is while supportive regulations can help enhance contribution of the

Ripio, a Latin American (Latam) exchange headquartered in Argentina, raised $50 million in its latest funding round, led by Digital Currency Group (DCG). The exchange, which has a stronghold in countries like Argentina and Brazil, will use these new funds to further expand to new countries in the area and consolidate its spot as one of the pioneering companies in the crypto exchange business. Ripio Gets $50 Million in Series B Funding Round Ripio, one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latam, has raised $50 million in its series B funding round, aiming to keep growing in the region. The funding round was led by Digital Currency Group (DCG), the famous New York-based cryptocurrency venture capital firm. The round also had the participation of bitcoin investor Tim Draper, Amplo (investors of Robinhood), Marcos Galperin (CEO of Mercado Libre), and Martin Migoya (CEO of Globant). These funds will help Ripio to keep growing its brand in Latam, after having acquired Bitcointrade

Amid regulatory scrutiny worldwide, global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to Australian users in 90 days. Changes Coming to Binance Australia Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced some changes to its offerings in Australia Tuesday. The exchange will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to existing Australian users. Binance explained: Effective from 2021-09-24 09:00 AM (UTC), existing Australian users will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for these products. “Users will be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they will not be able to increase or open new positions,” Binance added. “Users will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions after 2021-12-23 11:59 PM (UTC). Thereafter all remaining open positions will be closed.” Binance Australia has recently gone through some changes. On Aug. 30, the company

On September 19, 2021, the software developer and cofounder of Casa, Jameson Lopp, announced a new project called bitcoinpoliticians.org which sifts through Congressional financial disclosures and records them into a database. Lopp says the aim is to create “more transparency around bitcoin ownership” and so far he’s analyzed about 13% of Congressional financial disclosures. Jameson Lopp Launches Bitcoin Politician Project These days politicians owning bitcoin has become a rising trend during the last few years in contrast to the early days when bureaucrats criticized the concept regularly. There’s definitely a great number of politicians that still hate bitcoin and the crypto economy, but now lawmakers are starting to see the benefits of the technology and there’s a number of bureaucrats in a variety of countries who now own the leading crypto asset. Members of Congress and other U.S. federal leaders are required to disclose their finances to the public, as was the case with the r

PRESS RELEASE. INTERNET CITY, DUBAI – LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, is proud to list THN on September 22, 2021. For all users of LBank Exchange, the THN/ USDT and THN/ ETH trading pairs will be officially available for trading at 21:00 (UTC+8) on September 22, 2021. In recent months, NFTs have risen in popularity with artists and creators for their transformative role in ownership, commerce, and how creators connect directly with buyers, fans, and collectors. The Throne ecosystem is designed from the ground up to provide digital creators and new collectors an optimized experience. THN, the native token of Throne, will be listed on LBank Exchange a t 21:00 (UTC+8) on September 22, 2021. Introducing Throne Throne (THN) is an NFT ecosystem led by a collective of blockchain engineers and an accomplished team from the music and art world, brought together by the utilization of Ethereum. Founding shareholders include Gee Roberson the former manager of Ka

On September 21, the non-fungible token (NFT) fantasy football platform Sorare announced the company raised $680 million in a Series B funding round led by Softbank. The capital raise gives Sorare a new valuation of around $4.3 billion and the company plans to open a U.S.-based office. Sorare Reveals $680M Capital Raise Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have seen phenomenal growth this year and the company Sorare aims to tether the billion-dollar NFT industry to the multi-billion-dollar fantasy sports market. The market size of fantasy sports in the U.S. alone topped $8.4 billion in 2019. On Tuesday, the NFT fantasy football platform Sorare revealed the company has raised $680 million in a Series B financing round led by Softbank. The latest Sorare capital raise saw participation from Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP, and Liontree as well. The capital raise is a milestone as it is one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds and the funds have propel

Stock trading and investing app Robinhood has reportedly been testing new features, including a crypto wallet and cryptocurrency transfers. “The ability to deposit and withdraw cryptocurrencies is tricky to do with scale, and we want to make sure it’s done correctly and properly.” Robinhood to Add Crypto Wallet and Transfer Features Investing app Robinhood is “quietly” testing several new features, Bloomberg reported Monday, describing: Robinhood Markets Inc. is testing new crypto wallet and cryptocurrency transfer features for its app. Evidence of the new features has appeared in a beta version of Robinhood’s iPhone app, the publication conveyed, adding that the planned offerings were discovered by software developer Steve Moser. Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev previously said that adding a crypto wallet is a priority for the company’s developers but did not indicate when the launch would be. He said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call: It’s something that our teams are w

On September 21, 2021, an Avalanche-based decentralized finance (defi) platform Vee Finance announced that it suffered from an incident that siphoned 8,804 ether and 213 bitcoin out of the system. The team has suspended the defi platform contracts and stressed that the stablecoins have not been “affected by the attack.” Defi Project Vee Finance Suffers a Loss of $35 Million From Hack The Avalanche (AVAX) blockchain has been a popular network in recent times and it has attracted a number of defi applications like Benqi.fi, Trader Joe, Lydia Finance, Shroom Finance, and Osiris. The Vee Finance platform is another defi platform that has gathered a number of users and coins which added to the platform’s total value locked (TVL). However, on September 21, the team explained that the project was “attacked” and updated the Vee Finance community via Twitter and an incident report . “Vee.Finance Incident Announcement,” the tweet details. “The Vee Finance team has suspended the platform con

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has dropped its plan to launch a lending program after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) threatened to sue the company. Coinbase Will Not Launch Lending Program Coinbase announced Friday that it has decided not to launch the Lend program. The exchange wrote: Our goal is to create great products for our customers and to advance our mission to increase economic freedom in the world. As we continue our work to seek regulatory clarity for the crypto industry as a whole, we’ve made the difficult decision not to launch the USDC APY program. “We have also discontinued the waitlist for this program as we turn our work to what comes next. We had hundreds of thousands of customers from across the country sign up and we want to thank you all for your interest. We will not stop looking for ways to bring innovative, trusted programs and products to our customers,” Coinbase added. Coinbase unveiled the Lend program in June wh

Reports of the detention of Dmitry Vasiliev, ex-head of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Wex, have been confirmed by authorities in Poland. The former executive of the platform, allegedly involved in the theft of funds worth millions of dollars, faces possible extradition to Kazakhstan. Prosecutor’s Office Confirms Vasiliev Is in Custody in Poland Dmitry Vasiliev, who once managed the largest Russian crypto exchange, was apprehended at the Warsaw airport in early August but the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza broke the news last week, quoting undisclosed sources. A representative of the regional Prosecutor’s Office in the capital city has now confirmed the arrest to Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency. The 34-year-old Russian citizen headed the now-defunct Wex, a successor of the infamous BTC-e exchange, before it was sold to a Ukrainian businessman-turned separatist fighter, Dmitry Havchenko, in late 2018. The digital asset trading platform halted withdrawals earlier that

Crypto users access their wallets and exchanges day in and day out and making sure it remains secure is one of their top concerns. While most of these apps have great security features like multi-factor authentication and biometrics, what happens to your data while it travels through the network is still an area of concern. This is where a secure VPN with good encryption from a reliable service like PureVPN comes in. PureVPN Protects Crypto Users Online PureVPN has been in the VPN industry for more than 15 years and has the trust of more than 3 million users. With PureVPN enabled, all your network traffic gets encrypted before leaving your device using a secure 256-bit encryption making it virtually impossible for anyone to snoop into your data and hack your account. This can give you peace of mind to access your exchanges securely no matter whether you are at an airport, in a mall or any other public wifi! To enhance your security even more, PureVPN apps come with two more very i

The Zimbabwean currency’s collapse in 2008 and record hyperinflation are widely seen as textbook examples of what can go wrong with a centralized currency. For instance, some cryptocurrency enthusiasts — as well as opponents of the fiat currency system in general — have routinely pointed to the Zimdollar’s collapse when arguing for an alternative monetary system. In other instances, entrepreneurs like those behind Zimbocash , a decentralized currency and payments platform for all Zimbabweans, have already launched such an alternative. They hope that this alternative to a central bank-issued fiat currency will demonstrate to all that sound money which enables people to save is still possible. To learn more about this Zimbocash system, Bitcoin.com News reached out to Laswet Savadye, Head of Subscriber Network. Below are Savadye’s responses to questions sent to him via Whatsapp. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you start by telling us what brought about this idea? Laswet Savadye (LS): We

According to findings from the Continental Migration Report 2021, remittances to African countries are projected to decrease from the $44 billion recorded in 2020 to $41 billion. The Covid Effect As expected, the Covid-19 pandemic is identified as one of the main causes of the decline. However, despite this projected 5.4 per cent drop, a report by Africa News explains that remittances are now showing “greater resilience and reliability as a source of capital in Africa than foreign direct investment flows.” Consequently, the Continental Migration Report 2021, which was produced by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), “recommends that governments across the world should take effective action to facilitate and boost remittances in view of supporting the fight against COVID-19.” In addition to the pandemic, remittances to Africa continue to be hampered by high sending costs, the report noted. For instance, when sending $200

Pnetwork, a multi-chain bridging protocol, announced it was hacked yesterday, losing 277 pbtc (its bridged version of bitcoin) on Binance Smart Chain. The protocol acknowledged that an attacker managed to exploit a bug in its codebase to take control of the stolen bitcoin. The bridging contracts are currently working as usual but with extra security measures enabled. Pnetwork Protocol Hacked: 277 Bitcoin Lost Pnetwork, a decentralized finance bridging protocol, informed users it was the victim of a hack, losing 277 bitcoin in the attack. Pnetwork eases mobility of assets like bitcoin and ether among several chains. This contributes to extending the liquidity of each decentralized finance environment on different chains. Pnetwork reported that a bug in its codebase was used to perpetrate this attack. The bug allowed the attacker to siphon 277 bitcoin that was being bridged to the Binance Smart Chain network. No other bridges or networks were affected in the process. The protocol’s

The Bank of Venezuela, one of the biggest state banks in the country, is now experiencing an outage that has left its customers without services for five days. The bank published a PR statement stating this was the result of a “terrorist attack” on the national financial system, being perpetrated in the form of a massive hack. More than 16 million customers are still without banking services at the time of writing. Bank of Venezuela Hacked In “Terrorist Attack” The Bank of Venezuela, one of the biggest financial institutions in the country, servicing more than 16 million customers, is facing an outage that has left its online platform without service for five days. Bank customers starting complaining about the outage for these services on September 15, when some of them took their concerns to social media. At that time, a worker of the bank told local media that the outage was the product of several adaptations that were being made to the online platform of the bank to support th