Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The international Pionex cryptocurrency exchange has been one of the fastest growing trading platforms in Asia in 2020 and it is now set to capture even more of the global market in 2021. What makes Pionex so popular is the trustworthy team of professionals behind it and the top notch automated trading tools that it offers for free to all clients. A Professional Crypto Exchange You Can Trust With so many platforms, exchanges and protocols competing for your crypto these days it can be hard to know which to choose. The number one principle that should guide you is to find a company you can trust, and one of the best options for that is Pionex . It has around 100,000 users and it is one of the biggest Binance brokers while it aggregate liquidity from Huobi Global at the same time. Pionex already has a U.S. MSB license and is pending for a Singapore MAS license. It never issued its own token like other exchanges and it is more likely to reach NASDAQ with an IPO than just pull another...

Coronavirus-driven lockdowns and social distancing limits affect people’s way of entertaining themselves, such as going to karaoke. In South Korea, that activity is too popular, and despite the COVID-19 outbreak, the crypto industry is trying to capitalize on it. Somesing: A Blockchain-Based Karaoke App Per Fn News , Somesing, a blockchain-based karaoke app, already hit the 400,000 users’ milestone. The figure is significant, considering that it’s doubling the user base (195,000) for the last six months. Karaoke’s hobby is like the norm in several Asian countries, and the coronavirus pandemic knocked down this sector heavily. In fact, according to figures published by local media, at least 2,137 “noraebang” businesses had to shut down across South Korea since the outbreak started. The number is the lowest level ever recorded, stated the Shopping Center Information Research Institute. “Noraebang” is the Korean name given to private singing rooms, translated into Western countries’...

Tesla is facing more scrutiny over its $1.5 billion dollar bitcoin purchase. A Tesla board member who reportedly approved the company’s bitcoin buy deal is a cryptocurrency investor who also sits on the boards of two major crypto firms. Experts Question Conflict of Interest in Tesla’s Bitcoin Purchase Tesla is further under scrutiny over its bitcoin purchase as experts now question whether there is a conflict of interest surrounding a director who approved the company’s big bitcoin purchase, the Telegraph reported Tuesday. Tesla recently revealed that it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in January and plans to accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment for its products in the near future. The conflict of interest question surfaced when it emerged that a Tesla director who approved the company’s bitcoin buy is also a crypto investor with ties to two crypto firms, the publication described. Antonio Gracias is listed on the Tesla website as an independent director and a member...

On Tuesday, the cannabis firm Synbiotic SE, a publicly-traded company in Germany that’s listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Xetra, has announced it is leveraging bitcoin to hedge against the euro. Synbiotic’s chief executive officer, Lars Müller explained that the company decided to hedge with the leading crypto asset in order to protect the firm from further risk of euro and dollar devaluation. Synbiotic CEO: ‘Bitcoin Is the Exact Antithesis of Traditional Currencies’ A German cannabis company is joining the growing list of firms that are adding bitcoin ( BTC ) to their treasuries. Synbiotic SE announced on Tuesday that it is holding BTC in order to hedge against fiat currency inflation. Synbiotic’s CEO, Lars Müller explained that the cannabis firm has already started to shift “free liquidity into bitcoin.” “Our decision focused less on price fluctuations than the risk of devaluation of euro and dollar. Bitcoin is the exact antithesis of traditional currencies: its volume...

A U.S. publicly-listed Chinese sports lottery firm is extending its arms into the crypto industry by announcing another related maneuver. 500.com Ltd announced it has acquired Btc.com, the well known bitcoin mining pool. Jihan Wu Is the ‘ Biggest Beneficial Owner’ of the Mining Pool Per the announcement , the online lottery service provider bought the company from Blockchain Alliance. 500.com performed the transaction by issuing newly class A shares, representing almost a 10% stake in the listed Chinese company. According to the filings, 500.com Ltd made the share exchange agreement with Blockchain Alliance Technologies Holding Company, a Cayman Islands-based firm. Currently, the Chinese lottery provider giant has a market capitalization of $860 million, and the transaction specifies some conditions. One of them includes the profits generated by Btc.com, which in case that such net figures are no less than $20 million by the end of 2021, the current shareholders will get up to a 5...

PRESS RELEASE. xSigma is a decentralized exchange and liquidity mining platform that supports stablecoin swaps. It enables dollar-pegged assets to be traded onchain with minimal slippage and lower fees than existing AMMs. The project is gearing up for its public launch, when early adopters will have the opportunity to earn rewards for providing liquidity and traders can execute swaps in a highly liquid environment. Backed by a NASDAQ-listed company, and developed by an experienced team that includes former Google engineers, xSigma has secured the support of several high profile figures. These include NBA star Dwight Howard, who has committed to participating in the xSigma launch as an early liquidity provider (LP). Expectations are high ahead of xSigma’s debut, with a sizable community forming on Telegram, aided by extensive media coverage that has fueled interest in the decentralized exchange. The launch of xSigma coincides with the total value locked into defi protocols surpassin...

A new poll of finance managers by Gartner Finance finds that a majority are not planning to hold bitcoin as a corporate asset. In their responses, most of the 77 finance leaders interviewed cite bitcoin’s volatility as one characteristic of the crypto asset that is “extremely difficult to mitigate.” The Concerns of Finance Executives The survey’s findings appear to contradict the growing sentiment that many more listed companies will follow in the footsteps of Telsa, Microstrategy, and Square Inc. In a statement released alongside the survey’s findings, Alexander Bant, chief of research at Gartner Finance reveals that 84% of the respondents believe that “bitcoin’s volatility posed a financial risk.” In addition to the cryptocurrency’s volatility, the executives also name six other areas of concern. As shown by the survey’s findings, about 39% of the respondents cite their board’s risk aversion as another factor that contributes to the decision not to hold BTC . About 38% cite the...

On Wednesday, as the leading crypto asset bitcoin has been riding above the $50k handle, the well known firm Blockchain.com announced the company has raised $120 million in a strategic financing round. Blockchain.com says the financing comes at a momentous occasion, as the firm’s wallets have seen 65 million created to-date in over 200 countries. London Firm Blockchain.com Raises $120 Million from Macro Investors Blockchain.com is a popular cryptocurrency company that has been around since 2012. On February 17, 2021, the company’s cofounder and CEO, Peter Smith, revealed Blockchain.com has raised $120 million from a number of macro investors. Smith also recalled how the company raised money in 2014 and they only had around two million wallets issued at the time. “Six years later, we’ve come a long way,” Smith wrote on Wednesday. “Bitcoin just crossed the monumental price target of $50k. Over 65 million wallets have been created in 200+ countries. And 28% of all bitcoin transaction...

According to various reports, the cryptocurrency network Verge has suffered a 51% attack that led to a massive 560,000+ block reorganization. Analysts believe the Verge network attack could be the deepest blockchain reorganization (reorg) in history with roughly 200 days worth of verge transactions wiped. Reports Show Verge Network Experienced a Massive 560,000+ Blocks Reorg The blockchain Verge and its native token XVG once made headlines for being added to the popular adult website Pornhub. This week, the Verge network has been 51% attacked according to multiple analysts and observers on social media. Verge has suffered from a total of three 51% attacks. One back in April 2018, and then another 51% attack a month later, when a malicious XVG attacker rejected a number of blocks. The network data analyst at Coin Metrics, Lucas Nuzzi tweeted about the issues with XVG on February 15. The past 200 days worth of XVG transaction history just vanished,” Nuzzi told his 9,000 Twitter fo...

PRESS RELEASE. BitMax.io (BTMX.com), an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of MahaDao under the trading pair of MAHA/USDT and ARTH/USDT on Feb 15 at 9:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. EST. MahaDAO is a set of DeFi protocols governed by a decentralized autonomous organization. Its smart contract-controlled vaults are used to mint ARTH, a decentralized algorithmic stablecoin that maintains buying power irrespective of which direction the market moves. Different from USDT and Dai, ARTH is pegged against various uncorrelated assets, seeking to provide users a stable intrinsic value that will not be affected by inflation. MAHA is a governance token within the ARTH ecosystem. Community members can use MAHA to vote on saving rates, stability fees, strategies, and future actions to collectively manage the parameters which in turn can help supporting the value stability of ARTH. The MahaDAO team brings together...

Gold bug Peter Schiff has revised his bitcoin prediction after the price of the cryptocurrency exceeded his expectations, reaching an all-time high above the $50K level. He now says, “I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can’t be ruled out.” Nonetheless, the long-term bitcoin skeptic warns that the price can also drop to zero and one should buy gold instead. Peter Schiff Now Predicts Bitcoin Can Reach $100K Euro Pacific Capital CEO and host of the Schiff Radio show, Peter Schiff, was mocked by the bitcoin community on Tuesday after the price of bitcoin crossed the $50K mark. The gold bug thought leader had predicted and emphasized repeatedly that bitcoin’s price would never reach that level. After he was proven wrong on Tuesday, Schiff revised his stance, tweeting: Now that bitcoin has hit $50,000 I must admit that a move up to $100,000 can’t be ruled out. Nonetheless, he warned: “A move down to zero can’t be ruled out either. While a temporary move up to $100K is possible,...

A government-owned entity in Dubai has started accepting bitcoin, ether and tether as payment for its services, according to local media reports. Kiklabb is a free trade zone that helps companies set up shop in Dubai, a wealthy city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Kiklabb issues trade and other licenses as well as processes visas. The entity also leases office space to its customers on-board the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise liner anchored at Port Rashid in Dubai. Payments for these and other services can now be made in bitcoin ( BTC ), the Gulf News reported on Feb. 16. Tasawar Ulhaq, chief executive officer of Kiklabb, said the decision was made in response to a “growing interest in cryptocurrency with several customers in blockchain and fintech (financial technology) sectors.” He noted that crypto-based payments allowed for more accessibility for global entrepreneurs looking to start a business in the UAE. “It really was just a matter of time before we recognized bi...

A crypto “smart city” could become a reality in Nevada’s desert, as a blockchain firm applied to make it possible. The investment company asked the state of Nevada to form a local government in Storey County. Crypto City Aims to Host 33 Million Square Feet of Commercial Space According to a report published by the Associated Press, Blockchains LLC wants to build the crypto city within its 67,000 acres of land located in Reno’s east. But the application is not limited to Blockchains LLC. The firm’s CEO, Jeffrey Berns, wants that local authorities grant other companies the green light to do similar projects in the state. Per the company’s CEO, if they get the approval, the firm will establish its own laws, as they’ll be granted power on building schools and even law enforcement. The crypto city also expects to deploy an economy based on digital currencies, where residents could purchase goods and pay for services via crypto assets. However, they don’t want to limit the project to...

Simone Mazzuca is innovative in his style of management. Being the founder of Wallex and creator of the EURST, he is agile and motivated with a strong orientation to bridge traditional finance with the new digital world. He focuses his energies on management and advisory robustness that leads to the creation of borderless opportunities within the financial sector and oversees the success of his clients by the achievement of their objectives. The Founder of Wallex and Creator of EURST The impact of digitization on the world economy has presented the fourth industrial revolution, transforming the economic structure, economic policies, systems impact and governance. The digital era has changed patterns of consumption, production, business models making it an important issue from a financial perspective. Over the next decade an estimated 70% of new value will be based on digitally enabled platform business models. With these technological advancements evolving at an exponential rathe...

The government of Spain continues to harden its stance against widely adopting cryptocurrencies. The Spanish Secretary of State for the Economy recently expressed her concerns on risks that she thinks cryptos possess for the national economy. Secretary Doesn’t Like Bitcoin as It Cannot Be ‘Supervised or Sanctioned’ During the Online Fintech Summit 2021 , Ana de la Cueva said that cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin ( BTC ) carry “a risk of default, given that the user does not have the protection offered by traditional payment systems against a default by the counterparty.” In fact, the Secretary blasted off on the lack of a “centralized guarantee system” in bitcoin. Interestingly, at the beginning of her speech, De La Cueva mentioned that the cryptocurrency’s technology is based on blockchain. However, she later pointed out that there is no standard “clarity” on the nature of bitcoin. The Secretary repeated the same rhetoric of Spanish state entities on crypto assets, saying that th...

The price of Polkadot’s native token hit an all-time high (ATH) this week, soaring above $30, as the company laid out the next steps of its plans and the systems to finalize the network launch. Polkadot Roadmap Outlines Layer 0 Deployment Initiatives Polkadot released a roadmap highlighting that it is currently in its Rococo phase, the first of three major phases until the network goes live. Here is a breakdown of the roadmap. Rococo Testnet Rollout Polkadot (DOT) plans to continue with its launch of parachains, also referred to as application-specific data structures. These parachains, just like with parathreads, are what will allow Polkadot to pair with other more established networks, such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, through a mechanism called Cross-Chain Message Passing-lite. Polkadot is still in the Rococo phase of testing its parachains. Once the code is evaluated and approved, we can expect to see Polkadot submit its vote via onchain governance to power the parachains and ...