Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Following the day the Tesla founder, Elon Musk, added the Bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter profile, the popular Carolina Panthers offensive tackle, Russell Okung told his social media followers to put the Bitcoin hashtag in their bio. Okung has managed to get hundreds of people to do it, but more recently the NFL player started a decent train of celebrities with very large Twitter follower counts to join the bandwagon too. Russell Okung: ‘Plant the Flag to Declare You’re Ready for the Future’ Last week, Elon Musk put the Bitcoin hashtag in his Twitter bio, and after he did that, the price of bitcoin ( BTC ) coincidently saw significant gains. Musk also tweeted, “In retrospect, it was inevitable,” and a great number of crypto supporters celebrated the Tesla founder’s social media teases. After Musk did this on Twitter, the NFL player who plays offensive tackle for the Carolina Panthers, Russell Okung told his Twitter followers to follow Musk’s recent move. “Everyone put #Bitcoin in ...

A chief economist at UBS, the largest bank in Switzerland, says cryptocurrency has a fundamental flaw. Bitcoin’s fixed supply could cause the collapse of its value and spending power, making it unattractive to use as a currency, he claims. A UBS Chief Economist Says Bitcoin’s Fixed Supply Is a ‘Fundamental Flaw’ Paul Donovan, Chief Economist of UBS Global Wealth Management, explained last week why people won’t want to use bitcoin as a currency. UBS is the largest bank in Switzerland. “The debate about bitcoin and other crypto tends to be very passionate. Crypto supporters say that economists are just dinosaurs, and economists say that crypto supporters are just selling a bubble.” He also pointed out that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been volatile in price terms. “If we look objectively at the issue, I think an important question is whether bitcoin and other crypto could be currencies,” the UBS chief economist continued, emphasizing, “And, I don’t think that they can.” ...

U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry is pro-bitcoin. He is now hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper on his official congressional website and has called on other lawmakers to embrace innovation like Bitcoin. He believes that the cryptocurrency is unstoppable and governments cannot kill it. Pro-Bitcoin US Lawmakers A growing number of U.S. lawmakers have recently spoken in support of Bitcoin. Among them is Congressman Patrick McHenry from the state of North Carolina. On Friday, he talked on CNBC’s Squawk Box about how to approach regulation after last week’s market swings. “You can’t put technology back in the box. Innovation is here. We have to embrace. We have to broaden access to our markets, we have to broaden access to our financial products,” he said. McHenry has long been a Bitcoin advocate. Last week, when the lawyer of the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, threatened to sue a few website owners for hosting the open-source Bitcoin whitepaper on their websites, McHenr...

The heavy hitters in traditional finance have been concerned about the recent stock market action fueled by Redditors and a colossal number of retail investors. This week a Goldman Sachs executive warned that if these short squeezes continue it could “snowball through the market.” Moreover, Interactive Brokers founder Thomas Peterffy made similar comments this week saying these types of systemic risk can “take down the entire system, theoretically.” Wallstreetbets Trend Could ‘Snowball Through the Market’ 2021 has been an interesting year so far and this week a Reddit forum called r/wallstreetbets sparked a whole new hot topic. Four days ago, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the stock market fiasco that started with short squeezing Gamestop (GME) shares. But GME shares were not the only stocks that felt the push as the wallstreetbets (WSB) trend started leaking into a number of other types of shares. The stock market story and Wallstreetbets (WSB) trend has shaken financial markets t...

Ripple Labs has officially responded to the complaint by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Besides explaining that the XRP cryptocurrency is not a security, Ripple accuses the securities regulator of being out of step, picking winners and losers, as well as distorting facts regarding the cryptocurrency. In the court document filed on Jan. 29, Ripple claims that XRP is not an “investment contract,” insisting that the crypto “is a virtual currency and thus, outside the SEC’s jurisdiction.” Furthermore, the company stated that it never held an initial coin offering (ICO), never offered future tokens to raise money, and has no relationship with the vast majority of XRP holders. The SEC, however, is “out of step domestically and globally,” claims Ripple. The company noted that no other regulators in the world have considered XRP to be a security. Ripple alleges that “Basically, on its way out, the Trump administration sought to undo the determination that XRP was...

Payments giant Visa Inc’s CEO Alfred Kelly has revealed his firm’s plans to enable cryptocurrencies trading on its network. Kelly, who is also chairman of the firm, explains that there is no reason not to add cryptos when these are increasingly becoming “a recognized means of exchange.” Digital Gold Segment In an earnings call with analysts, Kelly opines that due to Visa’s “global presence, its partnership approach as well as its trusted brand”, the fintech giant is “uniquely positioned to help make cryptocurrencies more safe.” The CEO adds that Visa also wants to make cryptos “more useful and applicable for payments.” However, to achieve this, Kelly says his organization will divide the crypto market into two segments, namely cryptocurrencies and digital currencies. Describing the assets that will be included in the cryptocurrency segment, the CEO says these will be viewed “as digital gold.” According to Kelly, such currencies are “predominantly held as assets that are not used a...

Here’s the note I sent to Ripple employees today regarding Ripple’s preliminary legal response to the SEC’s complaint. Hi Ripple team, Since the SEC filed its complaint at the end of December, its side of the story has been the only one shared publicly. Our initial response was finally filed today. The “Answer” is a … Continued The post SEC Update — Preliminary Ripple Response appeared first on Ripple.

Just recently, the Bitcoin Cash community has been discussing the large number of transactions the network has been seeing on a daily basis during the last month. Statistics show that bitcoin cash daily transactions have been increasing every day since the last week of 2020. Bitcoin Cash miners have processed upwards of 300,000+ daily transactions on various days during the past week. The crypto economy and myriad of blockchain networks have been getting a lot more attention during the last few months. Not only has a number of digital assets jumped tremendously in value, but many of these tokens are seeing increased usage as well. More recently, Bitcoin Cash proponents have been noticing that the BCH chain is handling a whole lot more transactions than usual. Since the last week of December 2020, BCH transaction counts per day have steadily risen northbound and have come awfully close to matching the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network’s daily output. At the time of writing, onchain data ...

The founder and chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund firm, has clarified his view on bitcoin and cryptocurrency. Ray Dalio also reveals that he and his colleagues at Bridgewater “are intently focusing on alternative storehold of wealth assets.” Bridgewater Founder Ray Dalio ‘Greatly’ Admires Bitcoin Ray Dalio, founder and chief investment officer of Bridgewater, has clarified his view on bitcoin and revealed what his company has in store for cryptocurrency. With about $140 billion in assets under management, his hedge fund is the largest in the world. AICIO Magazine and Wired Magazine have called Dalio the “Steve Jobs of Investing,” and TIME Magazine has named him one of the 100 Most Influential People. In a research note published on the Bridgewater Associates’ website on Thursday, Dalio wrote: “I am writing this to clarify what I think of bitcoin. Please pay attention to what I am saying here and not what those in the media are saying...

Fidelity Digital Assets President Tom Jessop has shared his view on the future of bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation under the Biden administration. He confirms that Fidelity is seeing strong demand for bitcoin from institutional buyers. Fidelity Digital Assets’ Head Optimistic About the Future of Bitcoin Jessop explained what he expects in terms of cryptocurrency regulation from the Biden administration in an interview with CNBC last week. Jessop is head of Corporate Business Development for Fidelity Investments and president of Fidelity Digital Assets. He began by talking about Joe Biden’s pick as the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler. Given the MIT blockchain professor’s experience in the space, Jessop said, “I think it paints a more generally constructive attitude, or a picture, in terms of what we might expect going forward.” The Fidelity Digital Assets head also believes that positive crypto regulations implemented during the...

The Pirate Bay has been the world’s most popular torrent web portal for the last eighteen years. Despite a few hiccups during that time, the site remains accessible via mirrors and proxy websites. In addition to remaining online, Pirate Bay has been accepting bitcoin for donations since 2013 acquiring more than $4.5 million worth since then. The Pirate Bay’s Bitcoin Stash Since 2003, when it was founded by the Swedish think tank Piratbyrån, the Pirate Bay has been the most popular, and perhaps the most beloved torrent website in the world. The web portal is basically an index of digital content hosted online so users can download, own, and seed the content via Bittorrent technology. Of course, in 2009, the Pirate Bay founders Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde, and Fredrik Neij got into some trouble over copyright laws. While the founders dealt with prison sentences during that time, the Pirate Bay continued to operate and in 2013, the web portal announced it was accepting bitc...

A cryptocurrency fund manager has been charged in a U.S. federal court. He allegedly took over $5 million from investors interested in investing in his crypto funds, promising them high returns. In reality, he was running a Ponzi scheme and is now facing up to 30 years in prison. Crypto Fund Manager Arrested for Running a Ponzi Scheme The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that Jeremy Spence has been arrested and charged in Manhattan federal court in a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme. The 24-year-old from Bristol, Rhode Island, is also known as “Coin Signals.” Spence is “a cryptocurrency trader who solicited funds for various cryptocurrency funds that he operated, with commodities fraud and wire fraud offenses,” the DOJ described, adding: Spence took cryptocurrency worth over $5 million from more than 170 individual investors after making false representations in connection with these cryptocurrency funds. U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss explained that the defenda...

A U.S. federal judge has rejected a motion filed by a former Ethereum Foundation developer over allegations of assisting North Korea to bypass sanctions. Prosecutors claim, Virgil Griffith, aided the regime by providing critical information on cryptocurrencies. Prosecutors Say Griffith’s Speech Was About the Use of Cryptos to Circumvent Sanctions Per Law360 , a jury is now set to determine if Griffith violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by giving a speech at the Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference in 2019. Kevin Castel, a U.S. District Judge, denied Griffith’s motion because the “short and vague” four-page indictment lacked specific details of his alleged criminal actions. He further commented on the matter: Examining the indictment in light of the parties’ arguments, the court concludes that it provides adequate notice of the charges against Griffith sufficient to enable him to prepare for trial and, if it becomes necessary, plead double jeopa...

The Indian government has finally moved forward with a cryptocurrency bill. Entitled “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021,” the bill has been listed for consideration in the current parliamentary session of Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. It seeks to create a framework for India’s official digital currency to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) but prohibit all cryptocurrencies. Indian Government Set to Introduce Cryptocurrency Bill in Current Parliamentary Session After almost two years of waiting, the Indian government has finally moved forward with a cryptocurrency bill. According to Lok Sabha’s bulletin dated Jan. 29, the bill entitled “The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2021” is listed for consideration in the current parliamentary session. The budget session of Parliament commenced on Friday and will conclude on April 8, with a recess between Feb. 15 and March 8. The union budget w...