Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A Chinese tea retailer is looking to make its inception into the bitcoin mining business. Publicly-listed Urban Tea announced the expansion of its operations by appointing two executives to pursue its crypto plans. Urban Tea Praises Cryptocurrencies’ Widespread Popularity Per the announcement , Urban Tea Inc. hired Fengdan Zhou as the company’s new chief operating officer and Dr. Yunfei Song as an independent director. The tea retailer expects the new roles to lead the “company’s critical strategic expansion in blockchain and cryptocurrency mining.” Zhou will look forward to implementing the bitcoin ( BTC ) business plan of the firm. Her experience includes having worked in blockchain data centers across Southeast Asia and managing crypto mining farms. Moreover, she has expertise in crypto hardware wallet development, the announcement details. Also, Dr. Song comes from an academic background, specifically being a scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In fact, his expertise...

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has clarified his position on bitcoin. Emphasizing that he is an engineer, not an investor, Musk says that bitcoin “is simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash.” Musk also disputed gold bug Peter Schiff’s claims about bitcoin and commented on the price of the cryptocurrency. What Elon Musk Thinks About Bitcoin The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Changpeng Zhao, was interviewed by Bloomberg Thursday after the demand for dogecoin on his exchange soared. He commented on Elon Musk’s enthusiasm towards the meme cryptocurrency during the interview. “I’m surprised that Elon’s so gung-ho on dogecoin,” Zhao began, noting that “This is a decentralized, free world and anybody can like anything. He [Musk] can like dogecoin for any reason he likes.” Emphasizing his strong belief that Musk is not associated with dogecoin, the Binance CEO pointed out that Musk’s electric car company, Tesla, bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, not dogecoin. Musk saw the in...

Day trader Dave Portnoy has admitted that he is an idiot when it comes to bitcoin after the price of the cryptocurrency continually hit all-time highs. He panic-sold his bitcoins when its price was just around $11,000 and has now vowed to never buy the cryptocurrency again. Dave Portnoy Regrets Panic-Selling Bitcoin at $11K American day trader and founder of Barstool Sports blog Dave Portnoy admitted Thursday that he is an idiot when it comes to bitcoin and said that he will never buy the cryptocurrency again. Portnoy bought his first bitcoin on Aug. 13, 2020, when the Winklevoss twins, who are his neighbors, went to his home and personally walked him through how to buy bitcoin on their cryptocurrency exchange Gemini. Portnoy invested $200K in BTC that day when the price of the cryptocurrency was around $11,172, according to markets.Bitcoin.com. He subsequently bought two other cryptocurrencies: chainlink and orchid. However, when the price of some of his cryptocurrencies topple...

Microsoft founder Bill Gates is no longer a bitcoin bear. He has now taken a neutral stance on bitcoin as an investment. However, as an innovation, he says that cryptocurrency is one that the world would be better off without because it allows for certain criminal activities. Bill Gates Changes His Mind About Bitcoin Bill Gates spoke about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in two separate interviews Thursday. One was with CNBC where he was asked what he thinks about bitcoin “in the context of climate change seeing how bitcoin takes an enormous amount of energy to digitally mine.” Gates simply replied: I don’t own bitcoin. I’m not short bitcoin. So, I’ve taken a neutral view. “Bitcoin can go up and down just based on the mania or whatever the views are, and I don’t have a way of predicting how that will progress,” Gates continued. The Microsoft founder added: “I do think moving money into a more digital form and getting transaction costs down, that’s something the Gates Foundation does...

The mainstream has caught a whiff of the gains cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have seen, but many people are not aware of the passive income crypto users are getting as well. While financial incumbents are giving people with savings accounts a measly 0.35% to 0.60%, digital currencies can give people 1-17% or even more by leveraging certain tactics. Crypto Returns That Outpace the Savings Account You may have heard the term “make your money work for you” in the past, and that’s what savings accounts do if they earn a percentage of interest over time. Certainly, a person can be a bit riskier and invest in stocks and such but with a savings account, the money simply sits there and accrues a return over a period of time. The more money held, the more interest an account will get but these days banks don’t like giving interest. We can see that some of the top banks in the world will only give 0.35% to 0.60% returns according to the best savings account rates on bankrate.com ...

Crypto mining operations have been witnessing some changes within the industry in terms of locations. A recent interview with the CEO of the mining giant Bitriver, revealed that Russia is becoming a preferred hotspot for crypto miners. Russian Mining Giant to Build Two Additional Facilities to Cope With the High Demand According to Igor Runets, CEO and founder of the Russian mining company Bitriver, American and European investors are moving their infrastructure from China, Africa, and Latin America to Russia. The main reason behind the shifting move is the expensive costs of electricity in such regions. That said, most crypto miners are looking to cut costs amid the bitcoin ( BTC ) bull-run seen over the last few months. Bitriver CEO told Kommersant that its existing capacity as a mining company is at the top. Runets said the company is hoping to reach 1 gigawatt (GW) “in the next 18 months.” Such expectations encourage Bitriver to increase its capacity by building two new crypt...

Controversy still surrounds a liquidated New Zealand cryptocurrency exchange, which allegedly got hacked again. Adding to the $30 million stolen in 2019, Cryptopia reports that it was the target of a another theft incident on February 1, 2021. Hackers Accessed a Dormant Wallet Which Holds XSN Tokens According to Stuff.co.nz , the hackers took around NZD 62,000 ($45,000) worth of cryptocurrencies from the troubled exchange. The alert first came from Stakenet, a U.S.-based blockchain firm. The investigation unveiled that hackers accessed a wallet that has been dormant since the hack in January 2019 , where Cryptopia suffered a loss of over $30 million worth in cryptos. The wallet belongs to Stakenet and is under the control of Cryptopia’s liquidators, Grant Thornton. Per the findings, the dormant wallet was holding around $1.96 million worth of XSN, Stakenet’s native token. A spokesman from the U.S. blockchain company commented on the matter: We had no prior warning of any intend...

Police in Malaysia’s Jahor state have busted a seven-men gang that stole 8.6 million Malaysian ringgits ($2.15 million) worth of electricity to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. ● Police said they seized 1,746 bitcoin ( BTC ) mining machines across 21 premises in raids carried out between Feb.15 and Feb.16, the Malay Mail reported . The miners are claimed to be worth a combined 2.6 million ringgits ($650,000). ● Seven local suspects aged between 24 and 64 were nabbed in the operation, which involved domestic power company Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). ● “The syndicate, which has been active since the beginning of last year, carried out its activities on the top floor of a shophouse to avoid detection by the authorities,” said Johor’s police chief, Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay. ● Ayob Khan added that police are still investigating the operation, whose alleged mastermind and other gang members are still at large. ● “Investigators are not ruling out the possibility th...

A recent study unveiled that top-tier cryptocurrency exchanges increased their market share since October 2020, in the context of lower-risk exchanges. The bitcoin bull market fueled that both retail and professional traders utilized such risk, data shows. Stricter Regulations Boosted Transparency Levels in Crypto Exchanges Per information from crypto market data provider cryptocompare.com, top-tier crypto exchange gained 13% market share from October 2020 to January 2021. In fact, it increased from 61% ($347 billion) to 74% ($1.41 trillion). But the study — which covered over 160 exchanges — clarified the following about the market share’s proportion: Based on the most recent ranking update, the proportion of Top-Tier exchange volume in Jan 2021 would be 88% to reflect the increase in the number of Top Tier exchanges meeting the minimum threshold – 68 in July 2020 vs 76 in current update. Cryptocompare highlighted that exchange’s standards “improved” as regulatory requirement...

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) resident representative for Nigeria, Ari Aisen recently discussed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive that targets crypto entities. In remarks made during a special virtual press briefing, Aisen repeats some of the CBN’s claims that cryptocurrencies were being used “for illegal transactions such as money laundering and drug trafficking.” CBN Acting in the Interests of Financial Sector Stability According to a report , Aisen, who says that other central banks have taken similar action, believes that “some care should be taken” concerning the use of cryptocurrencies. In an apparent justification of the directive, Aisen suggests that the CBN only wants a solution that will be “in the interest of the payment system and the sustainability of the financial sector.” However, during the same briefing, Aisen also calls on Nigerian monetary authorities to consider the “unification of foreign exchange rates.” While the CBN maintains the naira’s e...

PRESS RELEASE. While Ethereum has given way to a brave new world of decentralized financial applications that are completely permissionless, accessible and groundbreaking in many ways. However, it has done so on an experimental basis and with great costs. Ethereum provides a foundation on which these decentralized applications can be built upon but it is not ready for worldwide spread adoption. Simple transactions on the Ethereum network can cost upwards of $10 and interacting with smart contracts can even be several times more expensive. While Ethereum’s undeniable success has allowed it to garner a powerful DeFi community, and massive volumes both in decentralized trading and total value locked (which currently sits close to $40B in total) its infrastructure is simply not ready for widespread use. When the network is highly used, congestion leads to block space competition which drives up standard gas fees. This is where NEXT.chain comes in. Building on the shoulders of giants l...

At the end of December, the Carolina Panthers offensive lineman, Russell Okung told the public he would be getting half of his 13 million-dollar salary paid in bitcoin. Moreover, Okung made the decision at the right time, as the National Football League (NFL) just capped the league’s salaries at $180 million. Looking at it from a different perspective, some people think that Okung is now the highest salaried NFL player today because of his decision to stack satoshis. Okung’s Bitcoin Salary Matches His Entire Annual Wage Thanks to Crypto Gains The professional football player, Russell Okung, is well known for his stance toward bitcoin and well before he was paid in BTC , he relentlessly asked to receive his salary in crypto. At the end of December 2020, Okung shocked the world when he announced he would be getting half of his $13 million salary paid in BTC . As bitcoin has continued to climb higher in value week after week since then, a number of people have noted that Okung has ma...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has reaffirmed that it is important to ensure that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not used for illicit financing. In addition, she stresses the importance of regulating institutions that deal with bitcoin. Janet Yellen Claims It’s Important to Make Sure Bitcoin Is Not Used for Illicit Financing U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen answered some questions regarding bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with CNBC Thursday. Yellen said she considers bitcoin a “highly speculative asset,” emphasizing its high levels of volatility in recent years. Responding to a question about whether bitcoin and cryptocurrencies need to be regulated, the treasury secretary said: I think it’s important to make sure that it is not used as a vehicle for illicit transactions and that there’s investor protection. And so regulating institutions that deal in bitcoin, making sure that they adhere to their regulatory responsibilities, I think is cer...

The world’s largest asset manager with almost $9 trillion in assets under management, Blackrock, has started investing in bitcoin. Sharing his view on what’s driving up the price of the cryptocurrency, the firm’s chief investment officer says the technology and the regulation have evolved to where people find bitcoin should be part of their portfolios. In addition, people are looking for investments that could appreciate as inflation and debts move higher. Blackrock Has Entered the Bitcoin Space Blackrock’s chief investment officer of global fixed income, Rick Rieder, talked about bitcoin in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday. The New York-based asset management firm had $8.68 trillion of assets under management at the end of the fourth quarter. Rieder confirmed that Blackrock has “started to dabble” in bitcoin. When asked about what portfolio allocation should be in the cryptocurrency, he replied: “I wouldn’t put a number on the percentage allocation one should have, [since it] ...

Bitcoin’s market capitalization has crossed the $1 trillion zone after the price per coin surpassed $53,650 per unit. The valuation comes 145 months after the launch of the Bitcoin network on January 3, 2009. ‘The First Trillion Is the Hardest’ The price of bitcoin (BTC) has surpassed the territory needed to have a $1 trillion market capitalization. The valuation is a milestone to many crypto supporters who have rallied for the leading currency for the last decade. For the last two weeks, digital currency advocates discussed BTC ’s slow and steady approach toward the 1 trillion dollar zone. For instance, on February 16, The Block’s director of research Larry Cermak said : If Bitcoin hits ~$53,650, it’s gonna be a trillion-dollar asset. Fully diluted it’s already at $1.04T. At 10:42 a.m. (EST) the price of BTC touched an all-time high at $53,743. The conversation about reaching the 1 trillion dollar milestone was a topical conversation all week, as bitcoiners said it was a l...