Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Irish police are on high alert due to the rising number of cases related to a bitcoin-related scam targeting high-net-worth people in the country. The situation has become worrisome because suspicious high-value transactions have already been noticed by authorities. Authorities Already Searched One Property Tied to One of the Suspects According to The Irish Times , Gardaí (Ireland’s police) investigates what they consider a major crypto scam whose criminals could be residing in the country. A local bank already raised concerns about a suspicious transaction of 500,000 euros ($586,500) from a dormant account. After inquiries conducted by Gardaí on the older customer who wanted to invest such an amount of money into what he believed was a legit crypto business opportunity, he accepted the police’s advice to not send the fiat money. But per the media outlet, it seems other similar transactions took place before they acted to block the 500,000 euros move to the criminals’ wallet. In f...

On Thursday, Bitcoin Cash proponents were introduced to a new website that features a project called Smart Bitcoin Cash or Smartbch for short. Essentially, the project is a sidechain for Bitcoin Cash that is compatible with Ethereum’s EVM and Web3 API, which means people will soon be able to leverage decentralized applications (dapps) without paying lots of money for transaction fees. Bitcoin Cash Fans Introduced to a Unique Ethereum and Web3-Compatible Sidechain At the time of writing, Ethereum is the dominant chain when it comes to Web3 applications and decentralized finance. However, ethereum (ETH) fees to interact with a Web3 compatible dapp or some type of smart contract can be very expensive these days. The Smartbch project aims to change all that and the creators plan to make throughput as large as one billion gas every 15 seconds. The new website called smartbch.org says the sidechain will essentially maximize throughput of EVM and Web3 tools. The website gives a person...

According to Bloqport’s latest data, bitcoin, which ended the month of March with an overall gain of 29%, has now been in the green for six consecutive months. The data also shows that the crypto asset’s value has nearly doubled from its December 2020 closing price of $29,383 to its current value of $58,647. With this run, bitcoin has already outperformed many other assets including gold. An Institution-Fueled Bull Run As shown by the research and analytics firm’s data , BTC ’s current run began at the start of Q4 of 2020, a period that coincides with increased reports of institutional investors acquiring the crypto asset. As reported by Bitcoin.com News, Microstrategy and Square Inc had kickstarted a new wave of large corporations and hedge funds buying into the crypto asset. For instance, on October 7, 2020, Square Inc announced it had converted 1% of cash reserves (or $50 million at the time) into BTC . Since then, more corporations including Elon Musk’s Tesla have revealed t...

While bitcoin prices have been consolidating just under the $60k handle, a number of other alternative digital assets have seen steep gains. Two coins, in particular, the decentralized storage network filecoin token and the notorious meme token dogecoin have jumped well over 10% during the last 24 hours. On Thursday, April 1, 2021, otherwise known as “April Fool’s Day,” the popular cryptocurrency dogecoin (DOGE) jumped over 12% during the last 24 hours. The spike in price was immediately after the famous Tesla executive Elon Musk tweeted : SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 1, 2021 Dogecoin kind of slumped during the course of March but did very well during the first two months of the year. During the last seven days, DOGE is up 19% against the U.S. dollar and 973% during the last three months. On Wednesday afternoon (EST), dogecoin was exchanging hands for $0.058 per coin. Meanwhile, filecoin (FIL) has been duking i...

xSigma is a decentralized exchange for stablecoin swaps backed by a NASDAQ-listed corporation. In the first month since it was launched the DEX reached an impressive $112 million in total trading volume. xSigma developments continue with a Gas Cashback, a new roadmap, a staking pool being launched and a platform picked for Layer-2 implementation. xSigma DEX Sets New Records in First Month Backed by ZK International Group, a NASDAQ-listed and China-based corporation, xSigma launched its stablecoin DEX on February 24, 2021. The exchange has an incredible kickoff that day and the entire ecosystem around it set new record highs for the DeFi sector in its first month of operation. These include a total trading volume of $112 million and a daily exchange volume that reached $15 million. The first month also saw the number of SIG token holders, the platform’s native utility token, climb over 2,600. In total for the first month of operations, SIG trading volume has surpassed $50 million o...

Following the release of new Garbage Pail Kids non-fungible token (NFT) assets and the recent Godzilla NFT collectibles from Topps, the leading pop-culture consumer products company Funko Inc., revealed the company is also joining the NFT fray. Funko announced on Thursday that the company has acquired Tokenwave, LLC and the investment aims to project the firm into the digital assets and NFT markets. Funko Pop! NFTs Coming This Summer The publicly listed firm Funko (Nasdaq: FNKO) is a well known American company launched in 1998 by Mike and Claudia Becker. Since then the company has catapulted to one of the top pop-culture brands throughout the last two decades. Funko makes a myriad of products, but the company is best known for licensed bobbleheads and vinyl figures. The investment into Tokenwave, LLC aims to “extend the company’s pop culture platform to include digital assets.” Tokenwave is the developer of Tokenhead , an application for smartphones that allows people to collect...

A U.S. court in Miami has dismissed an amended complaint in the lawsuit that accused nine defendants including Kraken founder Jesse Powell, Bitcoin.com founder Roger Ver, Bitmain’s Jihan Wu, and a few open-source Bitcoin Cash developers of collusion. U.S. Magistrate Judge Chris McAliley dismissed the amended complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure on March 31, 2021. Cased Dismissed Back in 2018, after the Bitcoin Cash ( BCH ) and Bitcoinsv ( BSV ) network split, a Florida-based blockchain company called United American Corp – “Unitedcorp (UAC)” attempted to sue a number of well known cryptocurrency veterans and developers. UAC and its lawyers said that the nine defendants were allegedly involved in a scheme in order to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for bitcoin cash ( BCH ). The court case went on for over two years and on February 3, 2020, Judge Chris McAliley dismissed the case against the defendants without prejudice, which meant that the firm could amend the comp...

In its latest salvo to fix the world’s most concerning problems, Kucoin is adding a brand new coin to its exchange platform. Designed to keep the world’s key waterway open and prevent future trade blockages, the innovative Suez Protocol will reward owners in smiles. Too soon? Determined to Help Fight Future Trade Blockages, Kucoin Unveils Suez Listing With all eyes on the Suez Canal after a near-weeklong blockage that interrupted global trade and spiked container shipping rates, one crypto project is pioneering a way to ensure these disruptions can quickly be remedied. Titled Suez Token (SUEZ), this new initiative is being hailed by industry evangelists and global trade experts alike as the silver bullet to resolve all future canal blockages magically. Set for a primary listing on Kucoin, renowned for bringing up and coming projects to its exchange platform, this multi-purpose blockchain will be perfectly placed to tackle the next Suez incident. Interacting With This Uncann...

Some people will never believe in bitcoin and the cryptocurrency economy Satoshi’s invention has created. A lot of cryptocurrency believers are familiar with the mainstream pundits and economists claiming bitcoin will go to zero, but oftentimes it’s the ones they care about the most that hope to see bitcoin fail. On Wednesday evening on Reddit, one bitcoiner said his father laughed him off because of bitcoin. Bitcoin and Loved Ones: Why Are Family and Friends Waiting to Say ‘I Told You So?’ It’s understandable that bitcoin ( BTC ) and the rest of the crypto coins in existence might be difficult to conceptualize for someone who just heard about the technology. Crypto fans are also quite used to the status quo financial incumbents and government authorities talking down on decentralized crypto assets. But a lot of people don’t discuss how friends and family members make them feel when they criticize bitcoin, grow envious of the asset’s value rise, and even want it to fail so they can ...

PRESS RELEASE. OccamRazer is a decentralized fundraising vehicle, or launchpad, with a full suite of compliance and RegTech tools as well as feature-rich UX suitable to accommodate a vast variety of fundraising profiles, acting as the key that will unlock the Cardano ecosystems’ liquidity. As AMM-based vehicles for decentralized fundraising, such as IDOs, are known to be an ill fit due to extreme volatility, front-running, and inability to reflect the intricacies of the fundraising process, Occam.fi introduce a new family of protocols. Continuous and discrete in nature, these protocols would fill this niche and offer smart-contract vehicles designed for various fundraising use-cases, private and public, over- and under-subscribed, fungible and otherwise. The Occam Association Occam.fi will never take the short and easy route, and that’s why the OccamRazer is not launching alone. As well as OccamRazer, the Occam.fi ecosystem will be supported by a soon-to-be-launched DEX and credit...

The company behind the world’s largest stablecoin disclosed a report by aiming to show “transparency commitment” to clarify whether Tether’s reserves are fully backed or not. Tether Holdings Limited published its “Assurance Opinion” issued by an auditing firm based in the Cayman Islands. Accounting Firm Recognizes Two Ongoing Legal Cases According to the statement , Tether Holdings Limited stated that USDT tokens have “always been fully backed.” The report was signed by Moore Cayman on March 26, 2021, and compiled on February 28, 2021 “at 11:59 PM UTC.” Per the accountant’s report, consolidated total assets amount to at least $35,276,327,156, which, according to Tether Holdings Limited, exceeds the total amount required to redeem the tokens: Consolidated total liabilities amount to $35,154,786,806 of which $35,111,966,857 relates to digital tokens issued. The group’s consolidated assets exceed its consolidated liabilities. Still, Moore Cayman highlighted the two ongoing civil...

Chipotle Mexican Grill says it is giving away bitcoin and free burritos to celebrate National Burrito Day. The company has created a game where each participant will have 10 tries to guess a valid six-digit code for a chance to win a free burrito or up to $25,000 in bitcoin. Free Burritos and Bitcoin Giveaway Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) announced Tuesday that “it will give away $100,000 in free burritos and $100,000 in bitcoin to celebrate National Burrito Day on April 1.” According to QSR Magazine’s annual ranking of fast-food chains in the U.S., Chipotle is the 11th largest chain based on sales. In collaboration with Coil founder Stephan Thomas, Chipotle is launching an interactive game on National Burrito Day called “Burritos or Bitcoin.” The game will go live on April 1 at 9:00 A.M. PT and will end at 6:00 P.M. PT on the same day. Chipotle says: This occasion makes Chipotle the first U.S. restaurant brand to offer a cryptocurrency giveaway to consumers. Thomas has be...

Fresh reports from South Africa suggest that a total of 1,200 bitcoins belonging to the now-defunct Mirror Trading International (MTI) were recently transferred from FX Choice to an appointed liquidator. The reports add the transfer had been sanctioned by the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), the country’s financial industry regulator. Confirmation of the Transfer According to a South African media report, the 1,200 BTC had been stuck in MTI’s account with FX Choice since June 2020. Similarly, Bitcoin.com News reported in August 2020, that FX Choice had blocked MTI’s account after an investigation into bitcoin trading firm found “compliance concerns.” And now, in a new statement issued on March 29, 2021, a representative of FX Choice confirms the transfer of funds. The representative said: The FSCA has authorised the dispersal of MTI’s frozen funds at FXChoice to the appointed liquidators. We confirm that the transfer has now been completed and we consider the matter ...

PRESS RELEASE. The most awaited Aladdin Exchange $1,000,000 event is finally live. The giveaway event is open to the public. People can register on the exchange’s official platform and win prizes. The Aladdin Exchange team announced that the event starts on March 29, 2021, and ends on April 27, 2021. With more than 2 million people already registered, Aladdin Exchange keeps doors open for those who want to register and participate in the simulated trading event . To successfully register and be eligible, users must complete the verification process. Users need to verify the SMS and Aladdin Pro Wallet verification (Level 3) in order to compete and win big rewards. After the registration process, users will get coins to participate in the simulation trading competition. Users who make more profit during the giveaway will be entitled to prizes. 316,752 participants will get the chance to win up to 1,000,000 USD. The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place holders will win $100,000, $50,000, and $1...

Spanish financial authorities don’t seem to be happy with the massive crypto-related advertising campaigns deployed across Madrid’s streets. The National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) is rushing to approve a regulation on such ads that promote bitcoin in Spain. Proposal Comes in the Wake of a Bitcoin Advertising Campaign Ran by a Local Exchange During a speech at the “Observatory of Finance” conference hosted by El Español, Rodrigo Buenaventura, CNMV president, was vocal on his stance against these ads, considering them “risky.” He referred to all crypto-related advertising, rather than just only promoting bitcoin ( BTC ). Although, he didn’t mention specifically the reasons behind the sudden interest in regulating crypto advertising on streets, it came just after a local crypto exchange, Bit2me, deployed a massive campaign promoting bitcoin in Madrid. In fact, the firm put over 800 posters across the Spanish capital city, and some of them very close to the CNMV headquarte...

The key to properly filing taxes on cryptocurrency comes down to excellent record-keeping, the correct IRS tax forms, and knowledge about what qualifies as income versus capital gains. Handle Tax Filings With Care to Avoid Any Audits Although the traditional April 15th deadline for filing US taxes has been pushed to May 17th, there is no time like the present for organizing cryptocurrency transaction records. At this point, all cryptocurrency transactions are taxable in some constellation, so it’s vital to familiarize yourself with the nuances to ensure you fill in the accompanying tax forms correctly. To give you the inside scoop on streamlining your filings, Bitcoin.com has enlisted advice from Shane Brunette, the CEO of Cryptotaxcalculator . How Capital Gains In Crypto Work Like a stock sale can result in a positive return, resulting in capital gains tax exposure, cryptocurrencies operate similarly. However, exchanging cryptocurrency for fiat currency is only one type of taxa...