Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Authorities in Russia are gearing up to amend various pieces of legislation to facilitate the issuing and function of the digital ruble. Officials in Moscow believe this version of the national fiat needs to be regulated separately from other digital forms of money such as cryptocurrencies. Russia Prepares to Trial Digital Ruble, Officials Say CBDC Needs Its Own Regulations Russian lawmakers are planning to begin work on legal changes necessary to implement the digital ruble concept in January 2022. These efforts will commence alongside the launch of an experiment for the central bank digital currency ( CBDC ), the chairman of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee, Anatoly Aksakov, told the Russian daily Izvestia. Aksakov pointed out that at least eight federal laws and five codes — the Civil, Tax, Budgetary, Criminal, and Administrative Code — need to be amended for the digital ruble’s implementation. The new provisions will concern a number of areas such as the powers of B

Square Enix, one of the biggest developers and publishers in the gaming world, has acknowledged the importance that NFTs and blockchain gaming could have for the future of the company. In its latest briefing session, Square Enix contemplated a “robust entry” into the blockchain games sector as part of its medium-term strategy process. Square Enix to Enter Blockchain Market Square Enix, developers of popular gaming franchises such as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts, has revealed intentions of expanding its business model to now tackle the blockchain gaming market. The company made these remarks in its latest results briefing session on November 5, where Square Enix stated it would make a ‘robust entry’ into the blockchain gaming arena as part of its medium-term business strategy process. In the briefing, Square Enix recognized the change in attitude gamers are experiencing, wanting to have more control over the universe with which they interact. Furthermore, the comp

Solana Ventures, the investment arm of the Solana blockchain, FTX, and Lightspeed, a venture capital firm, have announced the launch of a joint web3 gaming initiative. The fund will have $100 million at its disposal to invest in gaming projects using blockchain-based systems in the Solana network. The fund has already made its first investment in Faraway, a Solana-based gaming company. Solana Ventures, FTX, and Lightspeed Put Funds Behind Blockchain Gaming A new blockchain gaming fund has been launched by Solana Ventures, the investment arm of the Solana blockchain , FTX, and Lightspeed, aiming to fund the most innovative blockchain gaming proposals built on the Solana network. The joint effort will invest $100 million in these kinds of initiatives to kickstart development in the Solana ecosystem. Amy Wu, a partner at Lightspeed, expressed excitement about this joint effort and what they are trying to achieve with the investment. She stated: We are looking to back great teams, b

The Senate in Kazakhstan has approved amendments aimed at preventing the legalization of illicit funds which will affect companies dealing with digital assets, among others. The new legislation subjects crypto service providers to the country’s financial monitoring regime. Senators Back Law Concerning Crypto Services in Kazakhstan Members of the upper house in Kazakhstan’s parliament, the Senate, have recently adopted new legislation tailored to improve the prevention of the laundering of proceeds of crime and the financing of terrorism. Key provisions adopted with a new law pertain to the establishment of the legal institute of ‘public officials’ and their financial auditing. The amendments have been designed to improve the nation’s anti-money laundering framework as a whole and some of them concern cryptocurrency platforms. A report by Sputnik Kazakhstan reveals that the authors have proposed “to regulate the operation of virtual asset providers.” During a plenary session, Sena

PRESS RELEASE. Since blockchain technology and crypto have become the power of the next industrial revolution in recent years, Africa has been making concerted efforts to ensure inclusion in the conversation. As a multipurpose African bank with over 200,000 customers around the world, DafriBank brings the Digital Bank of Africa (DBA) project into existence, and aims for making it Africa’s number 1 cryptocurrency. Taking a step forward, DBA is listed on trading platforms like LBank Exchange, to further expand its global influence and reach. Introducing DafriBank DafriBank is a multipurpose African bank that explores an easy and better way to save, make payments, manage customer’s money and business anytime, anywhere. The traditional banks are finding it difficult to cope with the demands of digitally-focused modern businesses, which has limited their growth. DafriBank solves this problem by providing exceptional digital banking services that are fast, secure, and cost-effective. Its

This weekend, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea surpassed $10 billion in all-time sales. Statistics show that 629,867 traders contributed to the $10 billion in sales and the average sale price since the NFT market’s launch is $872 per NFT. Opensea Cracks $10 Billion in All-Time Sales NFTs have become very popular in 2021 and the trend continues toward the end of the year. Just recently, Bitcoin.com News covered the NFT industry and market action data compiled by nonfungible.com. The report had shown 2021’s third quarter broke records surpassing the NFT metrics recorded in Q1 and Q2. Now the leading NFT marketplace Opensea has reached a record milestone surpassing $10 billion in all-time NFT sales. Opensea is the largest NFT market in terms of all-time settlement and the second largest NFT project is Axie Infinity. Axie Infinity has seen $2.99 billion in all-time sales and recently launched an NFT marketplace. Axie Infinity sales is 29.90% of Opensea’s all-time sale

Global investment bank JPMorgan has doubled down on its bitcoin price prediction of $146K. The bank’s analyst explained that the price of the cryptocurrency could reach that level if its volatility subsides and institutional investors start investing in bitcoin more than gold in their portfolios. JPMorgan Renews $146K Bitcoin Price Prediction JPMorgan released an inaugural report of its new publication last week focusing on the outlook for alternative investments, including digital assets. A new report is expected to be released every two to three months. The firm’s analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou has predicted that the price of bitcoin could reach $146K in the long term, with a short-term price target of $73,000 for 2022. “Digital assets are on a multi-year structural ascent, but the current entry point looks unattractive in our opinion for an investment horizon of 12 months as bitcoin appears to have returned to overbought territory,” he explained. The JPMorgan analyst added: “

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has asked his Twitter followers whether he should sell his Tesla stock. He has also promised to abide by the results of the poll. Many people urge Musk to sell his Tesla shares and put money into cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin. Elon Musk Asks Twitter Followers to Decide Whether to Sell His Tesla Shares; Most Said Yes Tesla CEO Elon Musk set up a poll on Twitter Saturday asking his 62.7 million followers to decide whether he should sell 10% of his Tesla stock. “Much is made lately of unrealized gains being a means of tax avoidance, so I propose selling 10% of my Tesla stock. Do you support this?” Musk tweeted. In a follow-up tweet, he noted that he does “not take a cash salary or bonus from anywhere,” emphasizing, “I only have stock, thus the only way for me to pay taxes personally is to sell stock.” The Tesla boss also promised: I will abide by the results of this poll, whichever way it goes. Musk’s poll has drawn much media attention. It r

Billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller has warned that everything is in a bubble, mentioning cryptocurrency, meme stocks, equities, and bonds in particular. “This bubble is in everything, every asset on the planet,” Druckenmiller stressed. Druckenmiller’s Warning: Every Asset Is in a Bubble Stan Druckenmiller discussed bubbles and value investing last week in a conversation with American billionaire investor and hedge fund manager Seth Klarman at the Boston Investment Conference. Druckenmiller is chairman and CEO of Duquesne Family Office LLC. He was previously a managing director at Soros Fund Management where he had overall responsibility for funds with a peak asset value of $22 billion. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, his personal net worth is currently $6.8 billion. Klarman, who is the CEO of hedge fund Baupost Group, reportedly asked him: “If the bond market is what everybody’s keying off of and the bond market is in a bubble, then everything’s a bubble, is that

The Onecoin Ponzi scheme is still making headlines as reports from a trial in Germany revealed the missing ‘Cryptoqueen,’ Ruja Ignatova, purchased a London penthouse worth $18.2 million with proceeds from the Onecoin operation. The Münster court’s findings stem from the trial against Martin Breidenbach, Ignatova’s German attorney, who is being accused of money laundering. ‘Cryptoqueen’ Ruja Ignatova’s $18.2 Million London Penthouse – Apartment Stuffed With Fine Art, Rare Andy Warhol Piece Ruja Ignatova, Onecoin’s ‘Cryptoqueen,’ purchased a luxury penthouse apartment in London via a shell company, according to recent reports from the BBC. The report notes that Martin Breidenbach is on trial in Münster, Germany with two other individuals over alleged money laundering charges that are connected to the Onecoin pyramid scheme and Ruja Ignatova. Reports published years ago show that Breidenbach started working with Onecoin in 2014. The lawyer worked with the law firm Breidenbach Recht

Decentralized finance (defi) protocols continue to shine as the total value locked in defi is over $260 billion. While Ethereum started the defi trend and holds the lion’s share of TVL in defi, a great number of decentralized applications (dapps) are supporting a slew of alternative blockchains. Today’s Most Popular Dapps Support More Than One Network On November 7, the total value locked in defi is $260 billion according to defillama statistics on Sunday. When defi first started making waves, most of the dapps that people interacted with leveraged the Ethereum ( ETH ) blockchain. Toward the end of 2021, all that has changed as cross-chain technology is hotter than ever and dapps are now supporting a myriad of networks. For instance, Curve, the automated market maker (AMM) protocol, holds the largest percentage of TVL with its $20.08 billion commanding 7.71%. Curve also connects with seven different blockchain networks with Ethereum included. Chains include Avalanche, Harmony, Pol

Restaurant chain Jack in the Box has sued cryptocurrency exchange FTX alleging that the crypto company “brazenly and illegally copied or derived its ‘Moon Man’ mascot” from its own mascot. The lawsuit details that FTX’s refusal to stop using Moon Man has caused Jack in the Box “considerable economic damage and irreparable harm, including by devaluing the goodwill associated with Jack.” Jack in the Box Says FTX’s Moon Man Is an ‘Inferior Version of Jack’ One of America’s largest hamburger chains, Jack in the Box (JITB), has sued cryptocurrency exchange FTX, co-founded by CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, over its mascot. Jack in the Box operates and franchises more than 2,200 restaurants in 21 U.S. states and Guam. According to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. district court of Southern District of California on Nov. 3, FTX US is accused of copyright infringement, trademark dilution, trademark infringement, false designation of origin, and unfair competition. FTX recently launched a series of adve

Congress has passed the Biden administration’s bill aimed at improving infrastructure, fighting climate change, and bolstering social services. The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, which also expands the definition of a broker, awaits U.S. president Joe Biden’s signature after passing with a vote of 228–206 on Friday. Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill Passes to the Tune of $1.2 Trillion The bipartisan infrastructure bill has been a hot topic in recent times and on Friday the bill passed in Congress and now awaits president Biden’s approval. The passing followed weeks of delays and debates as 13 Republicans joined a large majority of Democrats in order to help forward the proposal. BREAKING: The $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill was just passed by the House and will now go to President Biden's desk. They can't stop spending and asset prices can't stop going up. — Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) November 6, 2021 Bitcoin.com News reported on the bill three days ago when it w

The digital euro should be an attractive means of payment but its design should prevent it from becoming so successful as a store of value that it threatens banks and private money, according to Fabio Panetta, a high-ranking executive at the European Central Bank. Panetta stressed that both this paradox as well as the need to issue a successful CBDC need attention. Europe’s Digital Currency to Complement Cash and Be Monterey Anchor While cash currently provides people with access to central bank digital money, its importance in payments is declining as consumers increasingly prefer to pay digitally and shop online. Internet sales in the euro area have doubled since 2015 and only around 20% of the cash stock is now used for payments, compared to 35% a decade and half ago, Fabio Panetta, member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank noted in a speech at the Elcano Royal Institute in Madrid. “As people start to use cash more as a store of value rather than a means of paym

China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital yuan, has been used in transactions worth nearly $10 billion, according to an official with the Chinese central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). In addition, the government digital wallet has been downloaded by about 140 million people. Digital Yuan’s Adoption Rises, Nearly $10 Billion Transacted Mu Changchun, the director-general of the digital currency institute of China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), shared the adoption progress of the digital yuan at Hong Kong’s Fintech Week conference Wednesday. He revealed that some 140 million people had downloaded the wallet for China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eCNY, as of October. Furthermore, the digital yuan has been used in transactions totaling about 62 billion yuan ($9.7 billion), Reuters reported. While China has been actively testing its digital yuan, the PBOC official said that there is no official launch date for the digital cur

Crypto proponents and market observers can now gain insight into Solana’s and Serum’s liquidity infrastructure ecosystem via the analytics and decentralized indexing provider Aleph.im. The cross-blockchain computing project says the induction of Serum Markets will “help surface valuable trading data on Project Serum.” Aleph.im Adds Project Serum Support During the last quarter of the year, the Solana (SOL) protocol and its native asset saw significant growth. In the last three months, SOL has gained a massive 542% and the market cap has entered the top ten crypto markets by capitalization. Today, SOL holds the fourth largest market position with an overall market valuation of $72 billion. On November 4, the cross-blockchain computing and decentralized indexing provider, Aleph.im , announced it is now offering analytical insights into Project Serum . Serum is a Solana protocol that bolsters liquidity infrastructure and provides decentralized applications (dapps) with the ability to

Bank of America’s chief operating officer does not see cryptocurrency as competition. Instead, he views it as an asset class, noting that “people like it for all sorts of different reasons.” Bank of America’s COO on Crypto: ‘I Don’t View It as Competition at All’ Bank of America COO Tom Montag talked about cryptocurrency Thursday in an interview with Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager at a conference hosted by the blockchain analytics firm in New York. Montag is also president of Bank of America’s Global Banking and Markets and a member of the company’s executive management team. He is responsible for all of the businesses that serve companies and institutional investors. He said cryptocurrency reminded him of derivatives in their early days. He also admitted that he does not understand stablecoins. “I don’t understand that as well as everyone in the room … Is there really a dollar behind stablecoin?” The Bank of America COO was also asked whether banks are competing with crypto.

Square Inc. has reported bitcoin revenue of $1.82 billion in the third quarter, an 11% increase from the same period last year. Its bitcoin gross profit was $42 million during the time period, a 29% increase year-over-year. Square’s Bitcoin Profit up 29% in Q3 In the company’s Q3 2021 Shareholder Letter, published Thursday, Square Inc. reported total net revenue of $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year-over-year. The company’s bitcoin revenue is generated from its mobile payment service, Cash App. The platform generated $2.39 billion in revenue and $512 million in gross profit in Q3, a 16% and 33% increase year-over-year, respectively. Square wrote: Cash App generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue and $42 million of bitcoin gross profit during the third quarter of 2021, up 11% and 29% year over year, respectively. Bitcoin gross profit accounted for approximately 2% of Square’s total bitcoin revenue in Q3. The company explained that bitcoin revenue is the total sale

PRESS RELEASE. Recently, LBank Exchange held an AMA session with the Polygon team, discussing Polygon’s achievements, collaborations, NFT and Gaming markets, Nightfall solution, future plans and so on. Here’s the summary of this AMA. Ethereum is the blockchain development platform of choice, but it has limitations such as low throughput, poor UX, and no sovereignty. As a protocol and a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, Polygon breaks through these limitations by aggregating scalable solutions on Ethereum and supporting a multi-chain Ethereum ecosystem. Polygon Outperforms Ethereum In-terms Of Active Users As a layer 2 solutions aggregator built on top of Ethereum, Polygon has made some great achievements since its birth, its POS chain has over 2000 DApps live and processes over 7 million transactions daily. In fact, Polygon now has more daily active users than Ethereum. MATIC, the token for the polygon network, is already live on tradin

Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a Russian national with a cryptocurrency business, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow has confirmed. The man involved in the establishment of two crypto exchange platforms was apprehended earlier this month, reportedly on a request from U.S. law enforcement. Russian Founder of Cryptocurrency Exchangers Detained in Holland Denis Dubnikov, co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange platforms Coyote Crypto and Eggchange, has been arrested in Amsterdam, on Nov. 1. A report by crypto news outlet Forklog quoted the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Maria Zakharova, who confirmed the news which spread on social media. The Russian citizen was initially held and placed in an isolation ward at the airport in Mexico City. He was then boarded on a flight to the Netherlands where he was eventually arrested by Dutch authorities, allegedly on a request submitted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the publication detaile

A growing number of mayors in cities across the U.S. have said they want to be paid in bitcoin. The mayor of Miami said he is going to take his entire salary in the cryptocurrency, two other mayors will be converting their paychecks into bitcoin, and the mayor-elect of New York City will take his first three paychecks in crypto. More Mayors of US Cities Ask to Be Paid in Bitcoin A growing number of mayors in U.S. cities want to be paid in bitcoin. At the time of writing, at least three mayors and one mayor-elect have said that they will take their next paychecks in bitcoin. The first mayor to say that he will be paid in bitcoin is the mayor of Miami , Florida, Francis Suarez, who tweeted Tuesday, “I’m going to take my next paycheck 100% in bitcoin.” Responding to Suarez’s tweet, the mayor-elect of New York City , Eric Adams, tweeted that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin when he takes office as mayor of NYC. Following Adams’ tweet, Suarez said in an interview with