Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

PRESS RELEASE. Chicago, Illinois, USA – Hummingbot.io , a premier open-source algorithmic trading project, has chosen to incorporate Beaxy Exchange into its most recent software release, allowing Beaxy users to take advantage of 24/7 automated high-frequency trading on a U.S. based cryptocurrency exchange. Previously, traders could use the open source codebase to run their own versions of Hummingbot. Now, a version exists which was custom tailored by the Hummingbot Development Team to ensure a streamlined integration with beaxy ’s trading interface. Hummingbot differs from other trading bots in several respects. It is an open source program and is free to download and use. The core strategy of the bot enables a trader to function as a market maker on multiple exchanges – put simply, the bot will place both limit buy and limit sell orders for others in the market (termed “takers”) to meet. While there are numerous strategy templates and operating styles, the bottom line is that Hum...

The founder of Bytetree Asset Management, Charlie Morris, has suggested the reduction of the GBTC management fee as one way Grayscale Investment can ease the current selling pressure and possibly reduce the discount on the shares. Morris says if no action is taken, “the selling pressure will build” and “could morph into a systemic risk.” Recent GBTC Buyback Insignificant On the other hand, Morris, who is also the chief investments officer (CIO) at Bytetree, thinks Grayscale’s recent $250 million GBTC may be too insignificant to make a difference. However, in his Bytetree Market Health Update , Morris does acknowledge that 2020 was a year of “record inflows” for Grayscale Investment. During this period, the premium on GBTC shares averaged 30% while the value of assets under management (AUM) soared to over $30 billion. However, when the premium began to ease, the inflows into the trust similarly began to slow down. This subsequently led to the premium on the GBTC shares turning into...

On the week of March 7 through the 13th, the term “NFT” touched an all-time record high in terms of popular search queries according to Google Trends (GT). The highest score is 100 and this week, GT shows interest has dwindled a hair down to 97. Meanwhile, while the NFT hype affects the cryptocurrency and blockchain community, not everyone is thrilled with this technology. Some critics think NFT tech needs to be more robust in order for collectibles to last more than a decade without them disappearing. The Rift Between NFT Hype and NFT Criticism Over the last few weeks, the NFT craze has jumped to new levels as people have sold artwork for millions of dollars, unique audio recordings of farts have been tokenized , and even blockchain-backed signature dance moves are NFTs. And of course, by now everyone has heard about Beeple, the digital artist who sold an NFT via Christie’s auction house for a whopping $69 million . This sale propelled NFT mania to new heights, and Christie’s auct...

Thailand’s central bank has declared a stablecoin pegged to the Thai Baht illegal, citing violation of the country’s currency law. The Bank of Thailand (BOT) is currently working on a regulatory framework for stablecoins. Thailand Bans Baht-Pegged Stablecoin The Bank of Thailand, the country’s central bank, issued a press release Wednesday declaring a stablecoin called the Thai Baht Digital (THT) illegal. “It has come to the BOT’s attention that a new stablecoin, THT, has been created abroad on the Terra platform. One unit of THT is denominated in and valued at one Thai baht,” the announcement describes. The central bank claims that “Although THT is currently not used as a medium of exchange, it could cause fragmentation to the Thai currency system should THT or other similar stablecoins come to replace, substitute or compete with baht issued by the BOT,” asserting: This would ultimately affect the general public’s confidence in the stability of the national currency system, whi...

Citibank’s David Bailin believes that bitcoin will do well because of the level of interest from investors. While stating that the cryptocurrency can be part of a portfolio, the executive sees better investment opportunities than bitcoin in “giant unstoppable trends.” Bitcoin ‘Is Going to Do Well,’ Citi Executive Predicts David Bailin is Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer (CIO) at Citi Private Bank, a subsidiary of Citigroup dedicated to serving wealthy individuals and families. He is listed on the Citibank website as a “wealth expert.” Bailin talked about bitcoin in an interview with Yahoo Finance Wednesday. He said: I tell people there’s no doubt that I think bitcoin is going to do well because of the level of interest that’s coming from everyone. However, the Citi executive noted that it “scares” him “on a fundamental basis.” Bailin joined Citi in 2009 as the Global Head of Managed Investments and was promoted to Global Head of Investments in October of 2017. Bai...

A German man has shared his story about how he fell for the Elon Musk bitcoin giveaway scam. He lost 10 bitcoins to the scam, worth almost $600K at the current price. “I’d just thrown away the game changer for my family, my early retirement fund, and all the upcoming holidays with my kids,” he revealed. Fake Elon Musk Bitcoin Giveaway Scams Continue to Dupe Investors With the price of bitcoin repeatedly hitting record highs, Tesla investing $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency, and Elon Musk’s various crypto tweets, there has been a rise in bitcoin giveaway scams using the Tesla executive’s name. The BBC reported this week that a German man from Cologne, Sebastian, lost 10 bitcoins to an Elon Musk bitcoin giveaway scam. At the current BTC price of $59,115, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com, his bitcoins are worth about $600K. One night, after his wife went to bed, Sebastian received a Twitter notification that Musk had tweeted “Dojo 4 Doge.” This was on Feb. 21. While wonderin...

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase $6.5 million “for reckless false, misleading, or inaccurate reporting as well as wash trading.” This enforcement action came as Coinbase is getting ready for its initial public offering (IPO) on Nasdaq. CFTC Takes Action Against Coinbase The CFTC announced Friday that it has issued an order settling charges against cryptocurrency exchange operator Coinbase Inc. “for reckless false, misleading, or inaccurate reporting as well as wash trading.” The regulator wrote: The order requires Coinbase to pay a civil monetary penalty of $6.5 million and to cease and desist from any further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act or CFTC regulations. The order described that between January 2015 and September 2018, “Coinbase recklessly delivered false, misleading, or inaccurate reports concerning transactions in digital assets, including bitcoin,” on its GDAX platform. The CFTC found that while Coinb...

A Shenzhen-listed information and communications technology (ICT) company ZJBC has plans to invest in the bitcoin mining sector according to a recent announcement. ZJBC says that it aims to spend up to $155 million on Microbt manufactured ASIC mining rigs. Chinese ICT Firm ZJBC to Invest $155 Million Into Microbt Hardware A well known firm listed in Shenzhen (SZSE) with $900 million in market capitalization, Zhongjia Bochuang (ZJBC) has partnered with Microbt, according to the company announcement published on March 9th, 2021. ZJBC is an ICT firm and it plans to spend $155 million with Microbt on specialized ASIC mining hardware . Microbt’s Whatsminer bitcoin mining equipment has seen a lot of demand in recent times, and the company’s Whatsminer M30S++ (112TH/s) is the top-performing ASIC on the market today. Regional reporter Priyeshu Garg says that the firm won’t invest the $155 million all at once. A translation of the announcement says: “The scale for the first year will be n...

A bitcoin ATM provider has announced a deployment of new machines across several states in the U.S. Bitcoin Depot is set to launch over 100 new bitcoin ATMs in 24 states soon. Bitcoin Depot Expects to Grow by 200% in 2021 According to the company , almost 115 BTC ATMs will be installed, doubling its current count in the last six months. Globally, the ATM network has surpassed 2,000 kiosks, boosted with launching the new ATMs in the United States. Per the distribution, 14 new kiosks will be deployed by the Atlanta-based company across Alabama, 13 in Minnesota, 12 will be installed in Florida, and the last 12 across California. Brandon Mintz, Bitcoin Depot President and CEO, commented on the expansion: Cryptocurrency offers a lot of opportunities for people that don’t have access to traditional financial services, like banks. Our kiosks allow them to essentially self-bank through the digital wallet on their phone by turning their cash into cryptocurrency, which can be used to tran...

South Korean tax authorities are unstoppable in keeping crypto holders in their eyes and making them accountable to pay taxes. The National Tax Service (NTS) has issued a warning to the crypto traders that they have to report their earnings even from tokens held in foreign exchanges. No Details on How the Agency Will Supervise the Process According to MBC , the agency alerted that South Koreans who are using overseas exchanges are also responsible for reporting all their profits gained. By doing so, crypto holders should pay correspondent taxes on them from 2022. That year is where the government seeks to deploy the new tax laws on cryptocurrencies. As Bitcoin.com’s newsdesk recently reported , the South Korean central government is expected to introduce a 20% on crypto trading profits from domestic crypto exchanges, only if gains cross the $2,300 threshold. The NTS is concerned about crypto traders using foreign crypto exchanges to bypass their tax obligations in South Korea. St...

In just over two weeks, a company called Wisemining plans to launch a new product called Sato, a boiler that can provide heat to a home by leveraging ASIC mining rigs for heat production. It also means that the heater provides revenue in the form of cryptocurrency, which offsets the costs of heating a home a great deal. Bitcoin Mining and Cogeneration While bitcoin ( BTC ) and a slew of crypto assets have seen values increase a great deal, there’s been a lot of criticism aimed at digital currency mining and how it utilizes lots of electricity. Despite the numerous rebuttals written over the years and even books that explain that proof-of-work (PoW) mining’s electrical consumption is way overhyped, people continue to spread the myths. Another subject that is often missed is the fact that bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining can bolster cogeneration concepts. Essentially, cryptocurrency miners have the ability to provide cogeneration ideas for a myriad of heat-producing mechanisms. T...

During the last week, the Bitcoin network’s hashrate has jumped to a record high of 185 exahash per second on March 14, 2021. The hashpower has relentlessly continued to rise, climbing a whopping 18,400% in five years since January 21, 2016. Bitcoin Price Jumps Over 1,500% in a Year, Hashrate Climbs 18,400% in Five Years The price of bitcoin ( BTC ) touched an all-time high (ATH) reaching $61,782 per BTC on March 13, 2021. It happened pretty much one year after the crypto asset’s most recent market bottom on March 12, 2020. The price had risen over 1,500% since that day, otherwise known as ‘Black Thursday,’ which saw BTC prices slide to $3,850 per unit. BTC prices are down over 6% since the recent ATH and the value of the leading crypto asset has driven mining profitability. A touch after BTC hit the ATH in value, BTC miners ramped up the hashrate to 185 exahash per second (EH/s) the day after on March 14, 2021. Bitcoin mining is extremely competitive and with the hashrate ...

PRESS RELEASE. Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 19th 2021 – Affinity Design – Rarify Apps just launched a new deFi application only possible on layer 2 tech. After only a week since the claiming app debut, the price of Rare Coin soared well over 1000 USD on the Honeyswap DEX after the app garnered over 3 thousand daily active claimers. This was all possible due to xDai chain’s speed and low fees that let users claim a small fraction of “Rare” for only ten cents per claim. As gas fees on Ethereum continue to rise, yield farming on the platform has begun to wreck yield and make it outright impossible for the little guys to earn a fair share. By building on the xDai chain (a stable coin layer 2 solution) the barriers of cost to entry are eliminated as fees are fractions of a penny and can transact in under 5 seconds. This makes it possible to distribute the total supply of “Rare Coin” to anyone who makes a daily claim on the rare.claims app (available now) or earn more for locking u...

The United Kingdom’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned Coinfloor’s bitcoin advert for “irresponsibly” promoting investments in the crypto asset. The watchdog claimed the crypto exchange’s marketing campaign had targeted pensioners who were “unlikely to know” much about the topic. ASA’s ruling comes after the regulator received two complaints concerning the advert. According to a report , the ASA said it is particularly concerned with the advert’s use of the phrase “there is no point in keeping your money in the bank”. While acknowledging Coinfloor’s effort to inform investors of the risks associated with cryptocurrency investment, ASA however, asserts that the exchange’s disclaimer, which is printed in small print, is “insufficient to counteract the overall message”. Meanwhile, ASA is also alleging that the advert is “misleading because it had failed to make clear the risks associated with bitcoin investments.” The watchdog also assails the advert for not being “socia...

A few months ago a trend started where well known businesses like Microstrategy, Square, and Tesla started adding bitcoin to their company balance sheets. Now a Canadian condominium company has decided to invest in bitcoin in order to replace some of the firm’s reserve fund with crypto. Thornton Place Condominium Corporation leveraged the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken to process the transaction. Canadian Condo Company Purchases Bitcoin for Reserves Crypto assets and the leading digital currency bitcoin ( BTC ) have been gathering steam in 2021 as assets like BTC have touched all new price highs. For instance, BTC reached an all-time high (ATH) touching $61,782 per BTC on March 14, 2021. In 2020 and into 2021, a great number of companies have been trading cash and stocks from their treasuries in order to replace them with bitcoin ( BTC ). In recent times, firms have also been adding ethereum (ETH) to their balance sheets as well. On March 17, the Canadian condo business called ...