Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Bitcoin prices surpassing the $60,000 milestone undoubtedly woke up a massive wave of joy across the crypto community. However, such an accomplishment didn’t bring happiness to a married couple, who split up after a dispute on whether to sell bitcoins at that price level or not. Wife Left the House to Stay With Her Sisters According to a post on Reddit , a user named “Parking_Meater” gave his particular testimony on how the bitcoin ( BTC ) bull-run ended up hurting his marriage. His wife left the house as he didn’t agree to sell the BTC when prices posted the new all-time high at that time. In fact, Parking_Meater was caught by his wife adding more money to his bitcoin position. He detailed how the marital situation worsened in a matter of minutes: She just left to go stay at her sisters. She is super mad that I didn’t sell at 60k and looks at the price often scolding me. I keep telling her we don’t need the money and have the cash. We live nice. However today she caught me buyi...

Herman Neglyad, the deputy of the Russian anti-money laundering body, Rosfinmonitoring, has said his organization will monitor cryptocurrency transactions that involve the conversion from crypto to fiat. Neglyad made this revelation during a recent meeting of the State Duma Committee on financial markets. Banks Already Cooperating According to a Russian news site , Regnum, the anti-money laundering body is already getting cooperation from banks. “Banks have already begun to pay attention to exchange operations, that is, when they see that an operation has come after the exchange of virtual assets for hard currency, they have already begun to evaluate them and actually inform us about these operations,” said Neglyad. Also, the Rosfinmonitoring official adds that his organization, alongside the country’s central bank will introduce “a separate code, distinguishing a separate group of such suspicious transactions, that is, to further orient traditional financial institutions to this ...

Oaktree Capital’s Howard Marks has warmed up to bitcoin. He admitted that he had a knee-jerk reaction to the cryptocurrency and dismissed it too soon. Since then, the price of bitcoin has risen tenfold as demand for the cryptocurrency soars among retail and institutional investors. Howard Marks Changes Stance on Bitcoin Howard Marks, co-founder and co-chairman of Oaktree Capital Management, talked about bitcoin during an interview with CNBC last week. As institutional investors become increasingly interested in bitcoin and major companies have announced their investments in the cryptocurrency, Marks said: “I’m opening my mind on bitcoin. I was ‘knee-jerk’ skeptical.” He clarified: While bitcoin doesn’t have an intrinsic value, the same can be said of the dollar and many, many other things that have value like paintings and diamonds. I’ve been more sensitized to the supply-demand case. The Oaktree Capital founder similarly told The Korea Economic Daily on March 15 that back in 2...

The Bridgewater Associates co-founder and chief investment officer, Ray Dalio, says that there is a good probability that the government will outlaw bitcoin in the same way gold was outlawed in the U.S. in the 1930s. Ray Dalio Thinks Governments Can Outlaw Bitcoin Ray Dalio shared his view on whether the government could outlaw bitcoin in an interview with Yahoo Finance Wednesday. He is the co-founder and chief investment officer of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund firm. His clients include endowments, governments, foundations, pensions, and sovereign wealth funds. Dalio believes that bitcoin may suffer a similar fate as gold did in the U.S. during the 1930s. “Like back in the ’30s in the war years … cash and bonds were such bad investments relative to other things, there was the movement to those other things still, and then the government outlawed them … They outlawed gold,” he recalled, elaborating: That’s why also outlawing bitcoin is a good probability....

PRESS RELEASE. 27th March 2021, Al Murar, Dubai – Diamondcon is one of the fastest rising Call of Duty league players in the world, and part of the Subliners eSports team . He is the first ever professional eSports player to introduce an NFT into the ever-growing community of FPS gaming. Having established a considerable following on Twitch and Twitter, his followers will soon be able to purchase an NFT of Diamondcon and claim bragging rights to that 200 IQ game clip. Coming soon 👀 pic.twitter.com/FpGXtQ24rw — NYSL Diamondcon (@Diamondcon_) March 19, 2021 NFTs: Hot off the Press Gamers spend loads of cash on skins, game passes and in-game purchases, yet they never owned any of them. NFTs will be the change that revolutionizes the gaming industry. Money spent in gaming will no longer be a bad investment. No one knew about NFTs a year ago, and now it’s the new craze. Remember when they said that streaming will never be a career? Look where the industry is now. The Diamond...

A popular Instagram personality has been charged in the U.S., accused of stealing bitcoins worth millions of dollars from his followers. He allegedly convinced the “victims to sell him their bitcoin at attractive, but inflated, values” but he never wired them the money for the coins sent to him. Instagram Influencer’s Bitcoin Scam The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that a popular Instagram personality known as “Jay Mazini” has been charged with wire fraud related to a bitcoin scam. The Justice Department wrote: A complaint was filed in federal court in Brooklyn yesterday charging Jegara Igbara, also known as ‘Jay Mazini,’ with wire fraud related to a scheme in which the defendant allegedly induced victims to send him bitcoin by falsely claiming to have sent wire transfers of cash in exchange for the bitcoin. The DOJ explained that “In reality, Igbara never sent the money, and stole at least $2.5 million worth of bitcoin from victims.” Acting U.S. Attorney ...

On Friday, the publicly listed firm Hut 8 announced the purchase of $30 million worth of Nvidia’s dedicated crypto mining GPUs called the Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP). Nvidia CMPs mine the crypto asset ethereum and Hut 8 expects its aggregate operational power will be 1,600 gigahash. Hut 8 Purchases $30 Million Worth of Nvidia’s Dedicated GPU Miners On the heels of joining Foundry’s U.S. bitcoin mining pool, the firm Hut 8 Mining (TSX: HUT) revealed it has purchased $30 million worth of Nvidia CMPs. The Nvidia CMP HX product is described as a “dedicated GPU for professional mining.” Nvidia’s web portal also details that the miner supports mining on the Ethereum (ETH) network and claims to be optimized for high performance. Nvidia CMPs offer four different versions which include the 30HX, 40HX, 50HX, and 90HX. The top Nvidia CMP claims to obtain 86 MH/s while the low-end version does around 26 MH/s. Hut 8 details that with the purchase of the new Nvidia CMPs, the comp...

The price of bitcoin dropped around 8% during the last seven days, but prices started to improve during Friday’s mid-afternoon trading sessions. Today, bitcoin is swapping for prices between $54,400 to $54,800 per unit and commands a $1.02 trillion market valuation. The overall market capitalization of all 8,500+ coins in existence is around $1.59 trillion on Saturday morning. Bitcoin ( BTC ) prices have seen some improvements after the price slid from $57,207 to a low of $50,360 on Thursday. BTC is up today over 3%, but down 5% for the week on March 27, 2021. Bitcoin dominance among all the other coin valuations combined is around 59.3% while ethereum ( ETH ) captures 11%. Bitcoin is still up over 16% for the month, 109% during the last three months, and 763% against the USD for the year. The top trading pair with bitcoin ( BTC ) today is tether ( USDT ) which commands 55% of the crypto asset’s trades. This is followed by USD (16.85%), BUSD (5.92%), JPY (4.19%), EUR (3.84%), ...

The blockchain and crypto firm DMG Blockchain Solutions has revealed a partnership with the crypto asset mining business Argo Blockchain. The two firms have decided to launch a bitcoin mining pool that’s focused on leveraging clean energy resources. DMG Blockchain Solutions (TSX-V: DMGI) and Argo Blockchain Plc (LSE: ARB) have recently entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to establish Terra Pool. The new bitcoin mining pool aims to utilize clean energy resources and will combine both DMG’s and Argo’s hashrate that uses hydroelectric-power. In recent months, bitcoin ( BTC ) mining and all proof-of-work (PoW) mining, in general, has been criticized for how energy-intensive these networks can be. DMG’s and Argo’s Terra Pool plans to keep bitcoin mining climate-friendly by focusing on clean energy solutions. “DMG’s increased innovative strength and continued focus on eco-friendly bitcoin mining has the opportunity to drive transformations in how the bitcoin mining community ac...

The non-fungible token fever witnessed over the last few months is catching the copyright management agencies’ attention. One of them, located in Italy, has chosen a blockchain company to create its own NFTs. SIAE Expects to Guarantee Copyright Protection With NFTs for the Next 139 Years According to the announcement , Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori (SIAE), founded in 1883, picked Algorand to manage the rights of over 95,000 authors in the form of non-fungible tokens. Both parties had been working on the project since 2019, said Algorand. In a first instance, 4 million NFTs were created to represent selected SIAE authors’ rights. Per SIAE, by digitizing these rights on blockchain technology, authors could ensure that their copyrights are globally protected on a transparent, open infrastructure. Gaetano Blandini, the general manager of SIAE, pointed out that the move seeks to guarantee protection for the next 139 years. He added: We are not interested in building techno...

Recently, Bitcoin Cash proponents have been introduced to a new application that competes with the content subscription service Onlyfans. The web portal Onlycoins is a service that is similar to Onlyfans but instead, creators can earn bitcoin cash by posting quality content and gathering subscribers. Youtuber David Bond Features Bitcoin Cash-Fueled Onlyfans Clone The popular Youtuber and BCH supporter David Bond recently published a video for his 501,000 subscribers about a new app that competes with the popular content subscription service Onlyfans. Bitcoin Cash fan and popular Youtuber David Bond discusses the Onlycoins app in his latest video . The London-based Onlyfans basically allows creators to earn money from their fans and individuals get paid from pay-per-view (PPV) features and one-time tips. Bond told his subscribers about a new app called Onlycoins , a platform that offers similar services but pays in BCH and doesn’t take a 20% cut. Because Onlyfans provides the...

By embedding Coinbase-powered solutions in its platform, Skrill adds 11 more American states to its service list, enabling more users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies easily. Integration Opens Doors for Paysafe’s Skrill Users to Instantly Buy and Sell Cryptocurrencies In another strategic move designed to grow its presence in the American cryptocurrency ecosystem, Paysafe’s digital wallet, Skrill, has finalized a deal with Coinbase, a leading digital currency platform provider. With the deal signed off , Skrill will receive a new cryptocurrency white-label solution provided by Coinbase, enabling the wallet to expand its services across 11 new US territories. This new white-label solution allows Skrill to serve its digital wallet customers in Alaska, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming. This first step of Skrill’s US crypto extension, with other states scheduled to be included imminently, further enhances the ...

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX , formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of Persistence tokens (XPRT) under the pair USDT/XPRT on Apr 1 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. There will be an auction on Mar 31 at 9:00 a.m. EDT. Persistence is an interoperable protocol built to facilitate the creation of next-gen financial products. It is an ecosystem of financial products serving both institutional and crypto-native users. Persistence One has a growing suite of core product features, including pStake, Comdex, pLend, Audit.one and Asset Mantle. Through these features, Persistence is leveraging blockchain technology to facilitate seamless asset exchange. The XPRT token secures the network through staking, is used to pay for fees, and defines the weightage of the vote for governance proposals to make critical decisions regarding the Persistence main chain’s evolution. The need for a solution like Persistence ha...

In a fresh twist to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s fight against Ripple Labs, US judge Sarah Netburn has directed both parties to hold “a telephonic discovery conference on Tuesday, April 6, 2021.” The judge’s order directs the parties to discuss a motion to compel filed by Ripple’s lawyers. Motion to Compel On March 15, lawyers representing current Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Christian Larsen had asked Judge Netburn to compel the SEC to produce documents relating to the regulator’s lawsuit against the fintech firm. In their motion, Ripple’s lawyers argued that seeking this court order had been necessitated by the regulator’s refusal to produce the requested documents. Specifically, the lawyers allege that the SEC had failed to provide “a single document concerning bitcoin or ether–two virtual currencies that are closely analogous to XRP .” Furthermore, in their motion, the lawyers also allege that the SEC is failing to produce internal documentation th...

In an industry first, a physical exhibition for digital art in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFT) is set to launch in China, showcasing notable works from leading artists in the NFT space and the winning entries from a global digital artwork competition. Initiative Designed to Forge Greater Connections Between the Physical and Digital Art Realms As greater mainstream attention turns to the NFT collectible and art mania that delivers new auction records every passing month, one group of industry leaders is bringing digital art to the physical realm. With its inaugural event titled, “Virtual Niche – Have you ever seen memes in the mirror?” a group of leading NFT evangelists and platforms are attempting to bring the Bitcoin and Polkadot communities together alongside the more traditional art world. On March 26th, the 14-day event will begin in the UCCA Lab in Beijing before transitioning to Shanghai’s JinArt Center. The exhibition, which features hosts and sponsorship from both th...

Following the interview with Ma Changchun, the head of the People’s Bank of China-run Digital Currency Research Institute, a recent report indicates that residents from Beijing and Shanghai can now apply for a digital yuan wallet. According to the report, six different Chinese banks will participate in the process. Beijing and Shanghai Residents Can Apply to Test the Digital Yuan Wallet A recent report published by China’s Securities Times, explains that residents from China are now able to apply for the digital yuan wallet. The wallet is compatible with the People’s Bank of China’s digital currency project. The report indicates that residents who live in Shanghai and Beijing can now apply for the wallet through six state-owned financial institutions. The regional report also says that the banks involved with the digital wallet application procedure include the Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications, Bank of China, Bank of Communications, China Construction Bank, and ...

A number of options traders are betting that bitcoin prices will tap $80,000 by May 2021. Meanwhile, over 100,000 bitcoin options worth more than $6 billion are set to expire on Friday, smashing the previous record expiry seen in January. $6 Billion in Bitcoin Options Set to Drop, April Bets Target $80,000 per Bitcoin Today on March 26, 2021, the crypto ecosystem is about to witness one of the largest options expiries to-date as more than 100k bitcoin options will expire. Today’s $6 billion worth of expiries exceeds the last record back in January when $4 billion worth of bitcoin options expired. Data from skew.com shows there’s close to $15 billion in open interest across exchanges offering bitcoin options. The exchange Deribit captures more than $12 billion of the aggregated open interest. Deribit leads in both open interest and options volumes and is followed by Bit.com and Okex. Huobi has the least open interest in terms of bitcoin options while Binance has the least volume o...