Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The price of bitcoin and a number of digital assets saw significant gains on Monday, as the entire market capitalization of the crypto economy has gained 2.4% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin’s value passed the psychological $50k zone after hitting a low of $43,021 the day prior on Sunday. Bitcoin (BTC) touched a high on Monday, March 1, at $50,244 per unit at around 7:26 p.m. (ET). At the time of publication, BTC ’s overall market valuation is around $926 billion and there’s $22.83 billion in global trade volume. The current price is over 15% higher than the low of $43,021 per unit on February 28. Out of all the crypto-assets in existence, BTC ’s market dominance in terms of market valuation against the $1.44 trillion in value is 61.02% today. Bitcoin is still down 8% for the week but is up 44.92% against the U.S. dollar during the last 30 days. The second-largest market capitalization is ethereum (ETH) , which is now trading for $1,583 per coin. ETH has jumped over 9% during ...

Thanks to TON Labs, BSN will now be able to produce real-life applications that require a scalable backend and use cases in compliance with China’s regulatory framework while still using an inherently decentralized network to do so. China’s Developers Gain Access to TON Technology China’s Blockchain-based Service Network ( BSN ) and TON Labs announced today that they have struck a partnership agreement to p r ovide China’s developers with access to TON Technology through BSN’s Open Permissioned Blockchain (OPB) Initiative in order to build applications and create use cases in compliance with Chinese regulatory demands. OPB Initiative is designed for public chains to enter the Chinese market legally. It makes public chains regulatory compliant by removing the mechanism of using cryptocurrencies to pay for gas fees and offering permissioned controls over node deployment. The TON protocol, originally developed by Telegram, was ultimately abandoned by its founders back in A...

Since the company Microstrategy shifted a lot of its treasury reserves into bitcoin, a great number of companies have followed the firm’s lead. According to the web portal, bitcointreasuries.org, data shows that 42 companies are now represented on the list and the businesses hold more than $65 billion worth of bitcoin. The Corporate Bitcoin Stash- 6.43% out of the 21 Million Capped Supply It has become a trend to add bitcoin (BTC) to a company’s balance sheet and the company Microstrategy invoked the trend when the business purchased $250 million worth of BTC . Since then, a great number of companies have followed suit and BTC ’s value has skyrocketed as well. For instance, at the end of 2020, 29 firms held around 1.1 million bitcoin worth more than $30 Billion using exchange rates on December 28. Moreover, at the time, the 29 companies owned 5.48% of the entire 21 million BTC supply. Today, according to bitcointreasuries.org statistics the numbers have changed a great deal. Th...

Last Sunday, the price of bitcoin touched an all-time price high at $58,354 per unit and surpassed a $1 trillion market capitalization. Bitcoin’s value has dipped since then, but the decentralized crypto asset’s market still captures a large $900 billion valuation. On February 26, the director of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) warned that bitcoin’s growing value and success may lead to a technocratic dystopian society that rivals “the kings and emperors that ruled over empires in centuries past.” Hyperbitcoinization: ‘A Voluntary Transition From an Inferior Currency to a Superior One’ Almost seven years ago back in 2014, Daniel Krawisz wrote about and created the term “hyperbitcoinization,” in order to describe how fiat currencies will rapidly lose value and Bitcoin supplants them. Krawisz explained what demonetization is and one specific type that is often talked about these days called hyperinflation. Essentially, in economics, the term hyperinflation stands for...

On March 1, the startup General Protocols announced the company has raised $3 million in a Series A financing round led by a number of strategic investors. General Protocols is the firm behind the Anyhedge protocol, the first decentralized finance (defi) project built on the Bitcoin Cash network. ‘The Untapped Power Behind the Concept of Programmable Money’ The company General Protocols has revealed on Monday the startup has completed a Series A financing round that was funded by a number of investors. News.Bitcoin.com has reported on General Protocols on a number of occasions, as the startup believes “smart contracts on programmable money are the foundation of a multi-trillion dollar shift toward non-custodial and trustless networks.” At the end of December, General Protocols alongside the Detoken decentralized exchange (dex) launched the Anyhedge protocol into the wild. Being the first public defi protocol built on top of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network, Detoken and Anyhedge...

PRESS RELEASE. Decentralized storage is a crucial infrastructure in the technical field. With the Filecoin mainnet launch in October of 2020, Filecoin and IPFS are now leading the decentralized storage field. One of the star projects of the IPFS/Polkadot ecosystem, Crust Network proposes to implement key concepts of Filecoin based on the Substrate technical framework within the Polkadot ecosystem, and also address several design and technical issues of Filecoin. After several rounds of internal testing, Crust Network has launched its Decentralized Storage Market on Crust Apps and opened storage functions to users for public testing from the end of February. Crust Preview Network, Apps and DSM Based on the Substrate and PolkadotJS stack, Crust is building a decentralized storage network. Crust uses IPFS as the underlying data storage, retrieval and exchange protocol, and includes layered solutions on storage proof, PoS-derived consensus, storage market and storage applications. The...

Just days after the conclusion of its long-running feud with the Office of the Attorney General of New York, Tether says it is now a victim of an extortion attempt. According to the stablecoin issuer, the blackmailers are threatening to release documents they claim “will harm the bitcoin ecosystem” if their demand for the payment of 500 bitcoins is not met. Tether Not Paying the Ransom However, in its statement dismissing the threat, Tether says the blackmailers were attempting to extort money using “forged documents.” According to Tether, the documents purport to show an interaction between Tether personnel and representatives of Deltec Bank. Still, in a Twitter thread , Tether says it will not send the 500 BTC which the blackmailers want to be paid by March 1. The stablecoin issuer also says a formal report about the ransom demand has been made to law enforcement. Tether tweeted; We have reported the forged communications and the associated ransom demand to law enforcement. A...

A Spanish Court has issued an order compelling a division within the country’s police to investigate the possible existence of “computer fraud” on the Bittrex cryptocurrency platform. The order was issued following the filing of a complaint by a Tenerife based Bittrex user who claims to have lost 1.3 BTC (or $58,000) that was stored on the exchange platform . Cybercriminals Blamed According to a Spanish media report , the unnamed user’s problems started when initial attempts to access his funds were unsuccessful. However, after gaining access some 48 hours later, the user reports that “the money had literally disappeared.” The user contacted representatives of Bittrex who then “attributed the theft to the actions of cybercriminals.” Meanwhile, in its February 9 order, the Spanish Court says it wants law enforcement to carry out “a line of technological research that allows the author (of the theft) to be identified.” The court also wants “the Bittrex insurance company” to be invol...

Chiliz $CHZ – the digital currency for sports and entertainment – has announced listings on the Bitcoin.com Exchange , HitBTC and Changelly platforms. Chiliz is the on-platform currency of fan engagement platform Socios.com , which is built on the Chiliz blockchain infrastructure. Socios.com allows sporting and entertainment organisations to monetize their global fanbases through digital assets known as Fan Tokens. 23 major sporting organisations have partnered with Socios.com to launch Fan Tokens including FC Barcelona, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan. Many more major clubs will launch Fan Tokens in 2021. Several Fan Tokens have already been listed on major exchanges, with the Fan Token market cap currently exceeding $194M USD. PRESS RELEASE. Chiliz ($CHZ) – the leading digital currency for sports and entertainment, will be listed on the Bitcoin.com Exchange on March 03rd at 10am UTC. CHZ will be listed on Changelly in one week’s time. In addition to thes...

The firm Rakuten Inc., often referred to as “the Amazon of Japan,” announced customers can now load up Rakuten Pay accounts with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, ethereum, and bitcoin cash. In order to commemorate the latest crypto service, Rakuten is also offering bonus points to people leveraging “Rakuten Cash” via crypto assets. Crypto Can Pay for Rakuten Goods and Services, Alongside Mister Donut, Familymart, and McDonald’s The massive Japanese electronic commerce and online retail company based in Tokyo is now allowing crypto users to leverage the company’s Rakuten Pay service in order to load up on Rakuten Cash. The payment service with crypto asset support provides clients with access to a wide range of Rakuten’s services and products including the firm’s travel services, Kobo e-books, and mobile. Moreover, users can load their Rakuten app with BCH , BTC , or ETH in order to purchase items at Familymart, McDonald’s, 7-11, and Mister Donut to name a few. Digital currency pro...

Mad Money host Jim Cramer thinks he has a solution to save troubled video game retailer Gamestop with the help of bitcoin. He suggests that Gamestop should raise money to buy the cryptocurrency, then convert its 5,000 locations into bitcoin stores. He believes his idea will work. Jim Cramer Has Idea to Use Bitcoin to Save Gamestop Mad Money Jim Cramer said on CNBC last week that he believes he has come up with a viable plan to help video game retailer Gamestop (GME). He said his idea will fix the company’s valuation. The Gamestop stock surged by over 100% last week after the company announced that its CFO Jim Bell would resign. His idea is for Gamestop to “become a dealer in crypto.” He noted that it is what Square and Paypal are doing, which he initially thought “seemed ridiculous” but then it “was ok.” Cramer is the host of Mad Money on CNBC and a former hedge fund manager who co-founded the financial website Thestreet.com. Cramer also pointed out that Nvidia is coming up with g...

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, has begun investing in bitcoin. Having previously called the cryptocurrency “garbage,” he has now changed his mind and believes that cryptocurrencies are here to stay. He is also getting used to the volatility of bitcoin and believes that institutional investors are willing to hold through price fluctuations. Kevin O’Leary Now a Bitcoin Believer Canadian investor and television personality Kevin O’Leary has changed his mind about bitcoin. He previously called the cryptocurrency “garbage” and a “giant nothing burger,” but now he has invested in bitcoin and thinks that it is no longer a fad. “I actually think that digital currencies are here to stay,” he said in an interview with CNBC last week. “Most people that are willing to hold them, including institutions over the last 90 days, are willing to deal with the volatility.” O’Leary elaborated: I am fascinated. I’m investing. I’m holding a 3% weighting in it between ethereum and bit...

Asset management firm Stone Ridge has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its open-end mutual fund to invest in bitcoin. “This is a big deal. Stone Ridge filing opens the door for every mutual fund to add bitcoin,” said a fellow asset manager. Stone Ridge Wants Its Mutual Fund to Invest in Bitcoin Stone Ridge Trust filed Form N-1A with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week. The filing, which is expected to become effective on April 26, relates to the Stone Ridge Diversified Alternatives Fund. The fund “seeks to generate total returns from diverse investment strategies that we believe have the potential for attractive returns and are diversifying from stocks and bonds,” the filing details. “These strategies include reinsurance, market risk transfer, style premium investing, alternative lending, single-family real estate, healthcare royalties, and bitcoin.” For the bitcoin investment strategy, the filing explains: [The fund] seek...