Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Bitcoin options markets are set to see a large expiry on Friday as more than 77,000 BTC worth over $4 billion in derivatives contracts are set to expire. The lion’s share of bitcoin options stems from the derivatives trading platform Deribit, as the exchange has more than $11 billion in open interest today. Sizzling Hot Bitcoin Options Markets Continue to Bubble, Traders Brace for Max Pain Crypto derivatives markets, particularly futures, perpetual swaps, and options have continued to see relentless demand in recent weeks. As far as options are concerned, a great number of puts and calls will expire in two days and a touch over 12 hours from now. On April 26, the data analytics company Skew.com tweeted about the 77k BTC worth over $4 billion that will be expiring this week. “77k bitcoin options expiring this week,” Skew tweeted . “$50k and $52k strikes open in good size,” the analytics provider further noted . Image via Skew.com’s Twitter account. “This is a very huge indicat

Mastercard is launching a new cryptocurrency rewards credit card featuring real-time rewards in partnership with crypto exchange Gemini. Cardholders will earn up to 3% back in real-time in bitcoin or a number of supported cryptocurrencies. Payments giant Mastercard is launching a new crypto rewards credit card this summer in partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, the two companies announced Tuesday. Mastercard will be the exclusive card network with Webbank as the bank issuing the card. Holders of the new credit card will earn up to 3% back on qualifying purchases in bitcoin or any of the more than 30 cryptocurrencies supported by the exchange. Cryptocurrency rewards will automatically be deposited into the cardholders’ accounts at the exchange. There is also no annual fee for the card. The project was introduced early this year and so far more than 140,000 people are on the waitlist. When launched, those who are on the waitlist will receive first access to apply for

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has confirmed that he owns bitcoin and has not sold any of his holdings. His company Tesla, however, has sold some of its bitcoins, which Musk says it’s “essentially to prove liquidity of bitcoin.” Tesla’s Master of Coin says the company believes in the value of bitcoin and will keep holding the cryptocurrency long term as well as accumulating from car sales. Tesla Sold 10% of Its Bitcoin Holdings, Made $272 Million Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, announced its first-quarter earnings results on Monday. Prior to the earnings call, bitcoiners were hoping to hear how many more bitcoins Tesla had purchased since its original investment of $1.5 billion early this year. However, Tesla revealed that it actually sold some BTC during the quarter. Zachary Kirkhorn, Tesla’s chief financial officer whose title was changed to Master of Coin , said during the earnings call: We also invested $1.5 billion in bitcoin during the quarter, then trimmed our position by

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Part-collateralized, part-algorithmically stabilized stablecoin, FRAX is the world’s first fractional-algorithmic stablecoin. The Frax protocol is ideologically pure, extremely stable, and highly scalable on-chain money that consists of a two-token system. The stablecoin Frax (FRAX), and the governance token Frax Shares (FXS). As Cryptocurrencies Rise so Too Stablecoins Amongst economical uncertainty and global financial instability, cryptocurrencies have been evolving rapidly. Cast aside as ‘fake’ online money by the masses for years, the canyon between fiat and crypto was stark until stablecoins began to bridge the gap. Paired directly to fiat currency prices, stablecoins have provided the much-needed stability required for many merchants, global institutions, and countries to participate in the crypto space. As the demand for cryptocurrencies continues to rise, so too does the demand for stablecoins and their development. This is evidenced by the current stablecoin market capita

Digital currency markets have been regaining some of the losses felt last week as the entire crypto-economy has jumped back over the $2 trillion valuation mark. Bitcoin has risen above the $55k zone, while other digital assets have seen more precipitous gains. Out of the top ten leading crypto assets on Tuesday, XRP and UNI have amassed double-digit percentage gains during the morning trading sessions. Crypto Markets Rebound Bitcoin and a number of crypto assets have been doing much better during the first couple of days this week in comparison to last week’s losses. Currently, bitcoin ( BTC ) is swapping for $55,178 per unit and is up 2.9% during the last 24 hours. Seven-day stats show BTC is still down a touch over 1.3%. Top five digital asset markets on Tuesday, April 27, 2021, at 8:00 a.m. EST. Tuesday’s data shows that bitcoin ( BTC ) markets have around $20 billion to $51.70 billion in global trade volume, while messari.io stats show “real volume” could be around $9.16 b

A new survey revealed the different stances of Russians toward cryptocurrencies and fiat currency. Specifically, some of the respondents believe digital assets will replace fiat in ten years. Residents in Moscow Believe Cryptos Will Replace Fiat, While Others Are Skeptical According to Nord News , the research was conducted by Otkritie Bank, a Moscow-based financial institution and one of the top ten banks in the country. It found that 14% of the 1,000 surveyed had an optimistic belief in digital currencies and the future years ahead. The bank collected responses from people aged 18-65 across the largest cities in Russia between April 12 and April 16. Although 8% of the respondents from the Northwest region think crypto assets will oust fiat currency in ten years, 21% of the residents in Moscow believe otherwise. In fact, four out of ten in the Russian capital city foresee banks reinventing themselves into “digital ecosystems,” as the crypto industry keeps developing and extending

A South African High Court recently served Mirror Trading International (MTI)’s Johann and Nerina Steynberg with a provisional sequestration order. The court’s decision follows a successful court application by the five joint provisional liquidators of the now-defunct online bitcoin scam. Sequestration Not Final According to a report , the order was reportedly served on the Steynbergs’ residential address at Eagle Crest in Polokwane. However, the report adds that the Steynbergs still “have until the return date of July 20, 2021, to give reasons why final sequestration should not be granted on that date.” Meanwhile, a copy of this court order was also delivered to the South African Revenue Services. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, MTI collapsed after Johann Steynberg, who reportedly fled to Brazil in late December 2020, blocked fellow co-founders from accessing the firm’s bank accounts. However, before fleeing, the CEO had ceded control of the company’s funds to his wif

The European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde is keeping the central bank’s monetary easing policies unchanged according to her statements from a press conference last Thursday. Moreover, the central bank’s Twitter account recently shared a video of Lagarde defending negative interest rates, as the bank’s President stresses that they “support companies and people in the eurozone.” ECB President Christine Lagarde Wants to Preserve Favorable Financing Since well before Covid-19, a great number of central banks started to initiate monetary easing practices and pushing interest rates down to zero or below. On Thursday, Lagarde spoke during a press conference after the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to keep policies the same after keeping rates below zero and issuing lots of fiat. Lagarde says that the financing conditions must be maintained to fend off the economic effects of the global pandemic. “Preserving favorable financing conditions over the pandemic period remains

The Central Bank of Iran has authorized banks and currency exchangers to use cryptocurrencies mined by licensed crypto miners in the country to pay for imports. Meanwhile, a bill is being drafted to provide regulatory clarity regarding crypto-related activities. Using Cryptocurrencies to Pay for Imports The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has announced that banks and licensed currency exchangers can use cryptocurrency mined by licensed crypto miners in Iran to pay for imports, the Financial Tribune reported on Saturday. The publication described: The central bank says that lenders and licensed currency exchange offices have been notified about the regulatory framework for crypto payment. In October last year, the Iranian government amended its cryptocurrency regulation to enable the country’s central bank to fund imports with bitcoin legally mined in the country. Licensed crypto miners are required to sell their coins directly to the central bank. The measure was proposed by the CB

The chairman of South Korea’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), Eun Sung-soo, has warned that all of the cryptocurrency exchanges in the country could be shut down. South Korea currently has about 200 cryptocurrency exchanges, he said. All Crypto Exchanges Could Be Shut Down in South Korea At the general meeting of the National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee last week, The Korea Times quoted Chairman Eun as saying: All of the nation’s 200 cryptocurrency exchanges could be shut down after September once a special financial law takes effect. Chairman Eun explained that cryptocurrency exchanges are required to be registered with the FSC under the revised Special Funds Act (Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information). “We are now accepting applications for them to officially register their business by the timeline, but no exchange operators have applied to date,” he revealed. Since no companies have been registered,

The covid-19 crisis is worsening every day in India, as the country keeps hitting record daily numbers of cases and its death toll. The crypto community is starting to show solidarity with the country, as big players such as Ethereum co-founder and a well-known investor announced crypto donations to provide support. Buterin Also Contributed With Makerdao Funds Indian tech founder Sandeep Nailwal – founder of the Ethereum scaling platform Polygon – set up a fund to help with the crisis, and Vitalik Buterin and Balaji Srinivasan publicly announced their donations. On April 24 via Twitter, Nailwal revealed the campaign he launched to deal with the devastated country by the pandemic, calling off especially for help to the crypto community: Can’t take this sitting down anymore, I am going to run a Covid relief campaign in lieu of what’s going on in India. Need help from the Global crypto community. I will take full responsibility for transparency, funds usage, and regulatory complian

During the first week of April, South Korea’s ‘kimchi premium’ on domestic cryptocurrency exchanges had jumped over 18%, but then leveled off, equalizing with global exchange rates over the last two weeks. On Monday, as bitcoin prices spiked 8% higher surpassing the $54k zone, in South Korea, the premium on bitcoin climbed 4.56% higher than the most trading platforms worldwide during the last 24 hours. ‘Kimchi Premium’ on Domestic South Korean Exchanges Starts to Rise Again Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency markets have improved on Monday as the entire crypto-economy has risen by 3% since yesterday. BTC prices tapped a high of $54k during the early morning trading sessions and BTC currently rests just below the $54k zone at the time of writing. In addition to the bitcoin price jump, the well known ‘kimchi premium’ in South Korea has returned. Currently, domestic exchanges like Korbit and Bithumb are trading for $3k more than most foreign exchanges. BTC /KRW chart for Bithumb

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Major U.S. financial group Charles Schwab has conducted a survey and found that young British investors are twice as likely to buy cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, as they are to buy stocks. The company says it is watching the crypto space closely but needs “additional clarity from regulators” before considering providing any crypto services directly to customers. Charles Schwab’s Crypto Survey U.S. financial group Charles Schwab, which has about 31.9 million active brokerage accounts, revealed the results of its investment survey last week, Reuters reported. The survey, conducted between February and March, received 1,000 responses. Respondents were U.K. investors aged over 18 who hold at least one type of investment out of a list of assets, including equities, bonds, certificates of deposit (CDs), exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and contracts for difference (CFDs). Charles Schwab found that 51% of millennial and Gen Z investors aged between 18 and 37 traded or owned cryptocurren

An NFL player for the Kansas City Chiefs, Sean Culkin, will convert all of his salary to bitcoin. A proponent of the cryptocurrency, Culkin said, “I believe we are in the beginning stage of bitcoin’s shift away from being extremely speculative, to a legitimate asset class viewed as a store of value.” NFL Player Wants to Be 100% Paid in Bitcoin Sean Culkin, a tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, said he would take his 2021 salary in bitcoin. He is reportedly the first NFL player to convert all his salary to the cryptocurrency. Culkin tweeted Monday: I fully believe bitcoin is the future of finance and I wanted to prove that I have real skin in the game — not just trying to make a quick buck. I will be converting my entire 2021 NFL salary to bitcoin. The Kansas City Chiefs will pay Culkin’s salary in dollars, which will automatically be converted to bitcoin on a weekly basis through Strike by Zap, The Street reported, noting that his base salary is $920,000. Culkin has been a bi