Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Ever since Tesla announced the company held $1.5 billion in bitcoin on its balance sheet during the first week of February, the company’s stocks have dropped over 30%. One analyst says that Tesla’s shareholders would be “very supportive” if the company announced it would sell the bitcoin. Additionally, the shares of Microstrategy’s firm have also dropped considerably during the last 30 days, after multiple bitcoin treasury purchase announcements. Critics Say Tesla Should Sell Bitcoin After Tesla announced to the world that there was $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin ( BTC ) on its balance sheet, the price of BTC shot up considerably that day. However, 30 days after the fact, it seems shareholders of Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) are not so hip to the idea. Furthermore, on social media and forums, critics and even lawyers, have called out companies like Tesla for making such decisions. Tesla shares have not fared so well since the purchase, even though the firm did profit nicely from BTC val

The chairman of investment firm Sanders Morris Harris, George Ball, says cryptocurrencies are an effective hedge against currency debasement. In addition, he says that cryptocurrencies are attractive as a small part of portfolios. George Ball Advocates for Crypto as Hedge Against Currency Debasement George Ball talked about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in an interview with Yahoo Finance last week. He described two main reasons why cryptocurrencies are now ideal targets for investment by wealthy individuals and institutional investors. Ball is currently the chairman of investment firm Sanders Morris Harris, a dually registered broker dealer and RIA firm established in 1987. Its parent company, Tectonic Financial, has approximately $4 billion in client assets under management. He was a former CEO of Bache & Co. (later Prudential Securities), which had been purchased by Prudential Insurance Company of America where he served as a member of the Executive Office. He argued th

On Sunday, March 7, 2021, the price per bitcoin jumped over the $50k handle once again, as the digital asset’s overall market capitalization is around $925 billion. One thing is for certain, there will never be more than 21 million bitcoin and today there’s roughly 18,647,525 bitcoin in circulation. Interestingly, anyone who owns 21 bitcoin or one-millionth of the entire supply is currently a millionaire today. The ’21 Million Bitcoin Club’ Back in 2017, finance publications reported on a number of crypto proponents “ gunning ” for exclusive membership into the ’21 million club.’ The 21 million club refers to the number of bitcoins that will ever be produced and by the year 2140, that number will be 21 million BTC . During the last few years, many enthusiasts have tried to join the 21 million club by obtaining a single bitcoin, which is exchanging hands for a touch over $50k on Sunday morning. For years now people can find a myriad of forum posts about people who have finally made

After Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. Senator for Massachusetts called bitcoin a speculative asset, Ro Khanna, the U.S. House Representative for California has spoken in favor of the crypto asset. In his Twitter statement, Khanna says “bitcoin just like digital gold cannot be devalued.” Khanna also lauds the crypto asset’s decentralization, an attribute which he says “promotes transnational exchange whilst providing a check against economic mismanagement.” Awareness of the Concerns In her recent comments about the crypto asset, Warren said she agreed with the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen’s contention that BTC is a speculative asset. Further, in a bit of apparent advice to cryptocurrency investors, Warren warns this is “going to end badly.” For her part, Yellen says BTC is extremely inefficient due to the crypto asset’s perceived disproportionate energy use. Meanwhile, in his tweet, Khanna appears to be cognizant of the concerns that are often peddled by opponents o

The premium on Grayscale Investment’s GBTC, which turned negative for the first time on February 23, is continuing its downward slide. As the latest Glassnode data shows, the GBTC was trading at a record low discount of -11.92% on March 4, 2021. According to the same data, this new low is a significant reversal from the December 21 premium of nearly 40%. The Competition This growth in the discount on GBTC comes as Grayscale Investments gradually shifts focus to altcoins. As reported by news.Bitcoin.com, Grayscale added 174,000 litecoins or almost 80% of the newly minted LTC in February of 2021. Similarly, the investment company also added 243,000 ETH to its ethereum holdings during the same period. However, it is the discount on the GBTC that has sparked debate about what it might mean for holders of the investment product. Some have pointed to the launch of Purpose Bitcoin ETF as the primary reason for widening discount on the GBTC. After its launch on February 18, the ETF had

The Technological District of Mar del Plata, Argentina, will host a massive crypto mining operation backed by a domestic startup accelerator. Lothal Mining is the company that will run the operations of the mining firm in the Argentinean city. Firm Will Mine Ethereum During the First Stage Per local newspaper La Capital , Grupo Neutrón invested almost 45 million pesos ($310,000), and there are plans to allocate additional funding of 200 million pesos ($2.21 million). The infrastructure is ready, and in a first stance, the firm will mine ethereum ( ETH ). However, the company plans to expand to other cryptocurrencies. The funding provided by the startup accelerator seeks to acquire hardware, refrigeration equipment, building the mining farm, hiring staff to perform electrical maintenance, among other activities. Also, officials of the Ministry of Industry of the Nation were in the mining farm to check the project’s launching. Maximiliano Gonzáles Kunz, Grupo Neutrón’s CEO, pointed

Ripple chief executive officer Brad Garlinghouse said Friday that the company’s business in the Asia-Pacific region has not suffered from the ongoing regulatory issues in the U.S. Ripple’s Business in Asia and Japan Sees Growth Ripple is facing a $1.3 billion lawsuit from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In December, the SEC charged Ripple, creators of the eponymous XRP cryptocurrency, and its top executives with selling unregistered securities since 2013. The blockchain payments firm denies the charges, but that has not stopped a number of U.S. crypto exchanges, including Coinbase, from delisting XRP , the world’s seventh most valuable digital asset by market capitalization. Garlinghouse, who is accused of personally gaining up to $600 million from the unregistered sale of XRP in an ICO offering, told Reuters in a Mar. 5 interview that business in areas like Japan was flourishing. It (the lawsuit) has hindered activity in the United States, but it has not

American financial advisor Suze Orman says she loves bitcoin. She has provided some advice on how to invest in the cryptocurrency a month, noting that she prefers to buy bitcoin through Paypal’s crypto service because the payments giant has made it easy to do so. Suze Orman Loves Bitcoin Suze Orman said she loves bitcoin in an interview with Yahoo Finance published Friday where she shared her bitcoin investing strategy and advised listeners how they should start investing in the cryptocurrency. She founded the Suze Orman Financial Group in 1987 and her Suze Orman Show ran on CNBC from 2002 to 2015. She has written 10 consecutive New York Times bestsellers about personal finance and was named twice on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people. In addition, she won two Emmy Awards and eight Gracie Awards. In 2016, she was appointed as a personal finance educator for the United States Army and Army Reserve. Orman was asked Friday, “what is your take on bitcoin?” Referen

Global investment bank Goldman Sachs is seeing huge institutional demand for bitcoin with no signs of abating. A survey of Goldman’s institutional clients shows that 61% expect to increase their cryptocurrency holdings. Meanwhile, 76% say the price of bitcoin could reach $100,000 this year. Goldman Sachs Sees No Signs of Institutional Demand for Bitcoin Abating In a podcast published Friday, Mathew McDermott, head of Digital Assets for Goldman Sachs’ Global Markets Division, discusses the cryptocurrency trading environment for institutional investors. He explained that his team conducted a cryptocurrency survey across the firm’s institutional client base, from “hedge funds, to asset managers, to macro funds, to banks, to corporate treasurers, insurance, and pension funds.” He clarified that “all of our institutional client discussion is really focused around bitcoin.” His team received responses from 280 institutional clients and published the results of the survey this week. “Wha

A number of National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners have formed an NBA blockchain advisory committee for the American professional basketball league. The advisory committee is composed of well known billionaires and blockchain advocates who own the teams the Nets, Mavs, Wizards, Celtics, Kings, and Jazz. Billionaire NBA Team Owners Invoke a Blockchain Advisory Committee for the National Basketball Association The American professional basketball league, the NBA, may incorporate blockchain and crypto solutions into the industry in the near future. Sportico.com contributors Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discussed the new NBA blockchain committee with one of the members, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Soshnick and Novy-Williams also mentioned the popular Flow blockchain application backed by Dapper Labs, which has been producing “NBA Top Shot” non-fungible token (NFT) assets. The Sportico authors say that NBA Top Shot sales have been very productive producing $30

The cryptocurrency community is in a tizzy this weekend after the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, tweeted about a new application that allows people to purchase tweets with ethereum. The application is called Valuables and it allows individuals to purchase a digital certificate of the tweet, which is signed and verified by the tweet’s creator. Tokenized Tweets for Sale Tokenization and non-fungible token (NFT) asset industry have swelled during the last six months and a great number of artists, celebrities, and social luminaries have jumped on the bandwagon. There have been 5,368,992 NFT sales equating to $381 million in sales to-date since nonfungible.com started tallying up the market history. Now a project called Valuables or the Web3 compatible web portal v.cent.co is attempting to make tweets valuable by tokenizing them via the Matic blockchain . But there is a lot of controversy over whether or not tweets can be valued and stored in a meaningful way on a blockchain. http

A recent JP Morgan poll found that 22% of the respondents said their respective organizations were likely to trade or to invest in cryptocurrencies. This figure (22%) is double the percentage of respondents (11%) who said yes when asked if their respective organizations were already trading or were invested in cryptocurrencies. The Institutional Embrace of Cryptos According to a report , the findings of this latest poll represent fresh evidence that backs the claim that more mainstream institutions are embracing crypto assets. Already, since the start of the year 2021, major corporations like Tesla have revealed their cryptocurrency holdings. Similarly, large hedge funds like Blackrock have signaled their intention to get exposure to crypto-assets like bitcoin ( BTC ). Still, as the same report shows, an overwhelming majority (78%) of investors whose institutions are yet to embrace cryptos; said there were no plans to invest or to trade in cryptocurrencies. Additionally, nearly a

A U.S. District Court has indicted three individuals behind the now-defunct Geek Group for their role in running an illegal money transmission business that used bitcoin to move funds across states. According to the indictment documents, it was Christopher Allan Boden then president of the Geek Group, who “sold bitcoin to numerous customers, in exchange for U.S. currency, primarily cash.” Violation of Money Transmission Laws The indictment of Boden and his accomplices comes more than two years after federal law enforcement raided the Michigan-based not-for-profit organization. Immediately after the raid, the Geek Group, which had previously been involved in charity work, announced the shut down of the organization. Meanwhile, as the indictment documents show , Boden would obtain the BTC from Daniel Reynold Dejager, who lived in Washington. As part of their conspiracy, Dejager would “periodically travel to Michigan to meet with Boden.” According to their adopted practice, Boden a