Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Next month in New York, the popular auction house Christie’s plans to auction a rare lot of Cryptopunk non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. The sample of work sold will be approximately nine rare Punks, courtesy of the project’s creators Larva Labs. Nine Rare Cryptopunks Going to Auction On May 13, 2021, the British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie plans to auction nine one-of-a-kind NFTs from the Cryptopunk project. Christie’s said it will be the first of a kind occasion of “groundbreaking work offered at a traditional auction house.” The single lot of nine Punks stems from the NFTs creators Larva Labs. “The Cryptopunks are the alpha and omega of the [cypto art] movement,” Noah Davis, a specialist in Post-War & Contemporary Art at Christie’s, New York said during the announcement . “This is a historic sale,” Davis added. Several Worlds Into a Single Project- Cryptopunks Inspired the NFT Space The Cryptopunks project came from the minds of Matt Hall and John ...

Adding to the South Korean cryptocurrency industry’s stricter regulations, the central government is focusing on the “crackdown” of illegal crypto transactions. A meeting over the week held with high-ranked politicians resulted in a campaign that will soon be deployed. Government Seeks International Help to Monitor International Crypto Exchanges According to Chosun , the South Korean Government met with politicians, law enforcement, and financial watchdog authorities to take down illicit transactions from what they named an “overheated market.” The meeting was led by the Second Deputy Secretary of State Moon Seung-wook, who called authorities from the Financial Services Commission, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Justice, and the National Police Agency. The purpose of the reunion was to address the “current situation of the virtual asset markets” in South Korea. They concluded that it’s a must to launch a campaign against market manipulation, money laundering...

The Shanghai-based online game operator, The9 Limited, has revealed the company is planning to acquire 2,000 Canaan Avalonminers for over $6 million in a stock deal. The9’s binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) explains that the new units will give the company 0.1 exahash of bitcoin hashpower. On April 9, the publicly-listed gaming and internet company The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY) revealed the firm’s intentions to acquire 2,000 bitcoin ( BTC ) miners. The new miners will give the company a total hashrate of approximately 100 PH/s or 0.1 exahash (EH/s) of processing power. According to the announcement, The9 entered into a legally binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with an “unrelated bitcoin mining machine owner.” The machines will be exchanged for Class A ordinary shares. The9 said that the firm will issue approximately 8,127,390 shares based on the share price of around $24.81. But during the next six months, the number of shares could be reassessed. But the new ...

The Lone Star State of Texas is solidifying its role as a bitcoin mining and blockchain hub. This week two major bitcoin mining companies established operations in Texas. The company Riot Blockchain purchased a mining site in Rockdale and the bitcoin mining firm Blockcap announced establishing headquarters in Austin. Blockcap Sets Up Headquarters in Austin, Former Texas Governor Rick Perry Welcomes the Mining Company On April 9, 2021, the firm Blockcap announced that it was establishing headquarters in Austin Texas, and the company will join a number of companies that reside in the Lone Star State. Just recently, Blockcap announced that the company raised over $75 million and revealed a number of large-scale acquisitions of BTC mining rigs. During the announcement, the former governor of Texas, Rick Perry welcomed Blockcap for bringing innovation to Texas. “The State of Texas welcomes Blockcap and its decision to establish its headquarters in our capital, which is yet more evidenc...

Southampton Football Club, a soccer team currently ranked 13th in England’s Premier League, recently signed a new sponsorship deal that includes an option for the club to be paid certain performance-based bonuses in bitcoin. The deal also extends the club’s partnership with the Coingaming Group as Main Club Partner for a further three years. Also, as part of the new agreement, Coingaming Group’s brand, Sportsbet.io will continue as the club’s front-of-shirt sponsor. In a statement issued on April 8, the club explains the rationale behind the decision to include bitcoin bonuses. It said: (The BTC bonus) allows the club the opportunity to take advantage of the new, high-growth currency if it feels it will bring significant future benefits. According to the club’s statement, Southampton can elect to get paid in bitcoin at the end of the football season. Meanwhile, Southampton Football Club’s Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), David Thomas also commented on the new sponsorship packag...

Just as April ushers in feelings of renewal and energy with the start of Spring, this month also signals one of Ripple’s favorite programs: Development Month. To support employees, we have built a Learning and Development program to ensure all Ripplers have the tools, guidance and programs needed to succeed at Ripple and beyond.  It … Continued The post Designing a Career Path appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/RxLnMW

PRESS RELEASE. 9th April 2021, Delaware, United States – Social media has reshaped the digital landscape, yet people worldwide feel more disconnected than ever. The big giants have all innovated successfully, but constant monetisation efforts for the sake of corporate profit have done away with interpersonal connections, and have therefore transformed the user into the product. Omni are taking this concept and making it a thing of the past by creating a true alternative to today’s social media platforms. Omni will introduce a holistic, user-focused ecosystem that rewards engagement and forges new connections between users. Omni combines the best features available today in the social media world into a singular app suitable for messaging, streaming, sharing, and interacting with content and its creators. This is all packaged nicely with market-leading gamification that yield the user profit linked to the performance of the company in the form of OMNI coins. Announcing the Omni Whit...

The American independent investment bank and financial services company, Piper Sandler has published its latest “Taking Stock With Teens” survey which notes that 9% of U.S. teenagers have traded cryptocurrencies. 7,000 teenagers were polled and roughly 81% of those who have traded digital currencies were male. 9% of American Teens Claim to Have Traded Crypto Assets, But Cash Is Still King Among US Teenagers Piper Sandler Companies has published a new study that surveyed 7,000 American teenagers. According to the findings as far as payments are concerned “cash is (still) king for teens” and this is followed by Apple Pay and Venmo. Food, video games, and clothes purchases are very important to American teens and 9% of the crowd has traded digital currencies. Piper Sandler’s survey shows that only 19% of the respondents who have traded crypto were female. A great majority or 81% of the teen participants who have traded crypto assets were male. Piper Sandler’s survey is part of a sem...

The China-based smartphone and internet app maker Meitu has announced the acquisition of $10 million worth of bitcoin for its treasury after the firm purchased digital assets two times prior last month. The company’s cryptocurrency holdings now stack up to $100 million worth of ethereum and bitcoin. Meitu Stacks Another 175 Bitcoin, $100 Million in Crypto Recorded on its Balance Sheet Meitu has revealed another cryptocurrency purchase after it announced two purchases last month. According to the announcement , on April 8, 2021, Meitu HK which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, purchased a touch over 175 BTC . The company detailed it paid $10 million for the acquisition and to date, Meitu now holds $100 million worth of ethereum ( ETH ) and bitcoin ( BTC ) on its balance sheet. “The board is pleased to announce that on April 8, 2021, Meitu HK had, pursuant to the Cryptocurrency Investment Plan, further acquired in open market transactions, an additional 175.67798279 units of...

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), the bitcoin investment arm of Stone Ridge Asset Management, is creating bitcoin-powered products and services for the $6 trillion global insurance industry. The company has formed strategic partnerships with major insurers, including Starr, Liberty Mutual, New York Life, and Mass Mutual. Tapping Into $9 Trillion Insurance Industry NYDIG, a leading provider of technology and investment solutions for bitcoin, is bringing BTC to the global insurance industry. The company revealed on Thursday a plan to create “bitcoin-powered products and services for the $6 trillion/year global insurance industry.” Having previously raised funds from New York Life and Mass Mutual , two major insurers focusing on life insurance and annuities, NYDIG has now “raised $100 million of additional growth capital” from property and casualty (P&C)-focused insurers. They include Starr Insurance and Liberty Mutual. “The global property & casualty (P&C) ind...

Total Processing, a merchant services company has published a study this week about the most-watched cryptocurrency videos on Youtube during the last year. Even though bitcoin has climbed 700% since last April, ethereum has climbed 1,100% and videos pertaining to ethereum have accumulated the most views since April 2020. Ethereum Videos Are the Most Viewed Crypto Asset Videos on Youtube Digital currencies have exploded in popularity during the last 12 months, and it’s hard to believe how much some coins have gained. There’s a lot of statistics that show the enormous growth of cryptocurrencies like onchain data, the community’s representation on social media, and crypto trading statistics. A firm called Total Processing decided to analyze the data on Youtube during the last year in order to calculate the most viewed crypto-centric videos. Data shows that the smart contract blockchain Ethereum has captured the most views in the last 12 months. Stats from Total Processing’s data show...

The Free TON DeFi Alliance creates the necessary infrastructure to attract and maintain strong teams and projects, attracts liquidity from other projects to Free TON and creates partnerships with major companies with large amounts of liquidity and/or a large number of transactions. Free TON DeFi Alliance Forms Free TON DeFi Alliance is a new organization of like-minded people and businesses who share a common goal – to create an environment for substantial and sustainable Free TON DeFi ecosystem growth. The Alliance’s declared goals and focus are centered around economical aspects of the Free TON DeFi ecosystem: liquidity accumulation, new partner businesses engagement, bringing new projects and products to be built in Free TON blockchain, marketing and promotion, and new development teams support. The Alliance, also, sets a goal to become a security and auditing center of expertise, which is very important in the DeFi field. The Alliance set up a partnership with the Free TON ...

The Swedish central bank keeps making steps towards modeling its e-krona pilot project by issuing a detailed report of the results of phase one for the path ahead. Riksbank is still optimistic about launching its central bank digital currency (CBDC), but there are hurdles to clear out on the road. Riksbank to Spend Another Year Exploring Solutions for the Pilot According to the report named “E-krona pilot phase 1,” the central bank highlighted that cash usage in Sweden is “declining.” That said, Riksbank sees potential problems arising from the decline in cash and is therefore running a project to investigate the possibility of producing a digital complement to cash.” However, the central bank wants to take another year to make in-depth explorations to assess how current technical solutions could suit the e-krona project. Currently, the Swedish central bank is using the R3’s Corda blockchain platform. Over the required additional year, the Riksbank wants “market actors” to be inv...

According to Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel, the Chinese government, which detests the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status, could be using bitcoin as a financial weapon against the U.S. While he concedes that China has no intentions of making the yuan renminbi a reserve currency, Thiel still thinks the Asian country may have longed bitcoin because it weakens the dollar’s influence. Reserve Currencies Speaking at the recent Richard Nixon Foundation seminar , Thiel also suggested that China ideally prefers to have two reserve currencies that counter the dollar. He says the Asian country already uses the euro currency as a weapon against the dollar although he claims the “last decade hasn’t quite worked out that way.” According to Thiel, a self-professed bitcoin maximalist, bitcoin has now become the second reserve currency that China uses to fight the dollar’s influence. Consequently, Thiel thinks the U.S. government should start asking tough questions about “how this works.” ...

A privately-held investment firm from Chicago, Marlton Partners, has urged Grayscale Investments to embrace the modified Dutch auction tender offer for GBTC shares. According to Marlton, such a tender offer “would materially narrow — if not eliminate — the discount to net asset value (NAV).” This, in turn, offers stockholders confidence “in the sponsor’s ability to manage the fund’s discount.” Billions in Lost Value Despite GBTC’s competitive advantage as the world’s largest bitcoin fund, GBTC shares continue to trade “at a significant discount to NAV.” According to Marlton Partners, this discount on NAV “currently represents over $3.1 billion in lost value to trust stockholders.” Meanwhile, in an open letter addressed to the Grayscale Investments management, Marlton Partners’ managing member, James C. Elbaor, insists that current efforts to eliminate the discount have been proven to be inadequate. To bolster this argument, Elbaor points to Digital Currency Group (DCG)’s recent an...

DeFi Yield Protocol (DYP) continues to attain popularity within the decentralized finance sector. Since the launch of the staking dAPP three months ago, DYP Protocol has experienced massive growth in its community. DeFi Yield Protocol The yield farming platform has over $39 million locked in its ETH staking contract and has paid 7,064 ETH worth over $14 million to liquidity providers. DYP has also experienced a 20x increase in liquidity on popular decentralized exchange Uniswap. At the moment, more than $21,000,000 in liquidity on Uniswap on the DYP/ ETH . DYP has also expanded its ecosystem with the integration of Binance Smart Chain (BSC) in February. DeFi Yield Protocol (DYP) allows users that provide liquidity to earn decent returns. It also utilizes an anti-manipulation feature that prevents whales from manipulating the price of its native token, DYP. This is by converting all DYP rewards into ETH daily and sending distributing it directly to holders wallets. This ensures ...

Spanish travelers will soon be available to fill out claims for incidents related to airline delays, baggage losses, overbooking, among others, and be compensated with cryptocurrencies. The possibility is now a reality thanks to a partnership between a domestic crypto exchange and an airline platform. Platform Allocated Euros in an Account on the Crypto Exchange to Arrange Payments According to El Mundo Financiero , Criptan, based in Valencia, Spain, signed an agreement with Wings to Claim– a Spanish legal association that owns a platform specialized in handling travel-related incidents and now could compensate travelers cryptos instead of euros. The platform allocated euros within an account using the crypto exchange Criptan. If any customer entitled to compensation wants to receive money in cryptos, the exchange will reimburse the money in coins such as bitcoin ( BTC ). Among the reasons behind incorporating cryptos into Wings to Claim, the platform argued that they didn’t want ...

Another exciting week in the NFT universe has unfolded as Kiwie digitizes graffiti in new collectibles, the original meme makes its way to market, and a new integration between Videocoin and Filecoin supports video-based NFTs. The Fat Monster Meets the Mint Latvian-based art collective Kiwie is bringing its iconic Fat Monster character to the blockchain as it becomes the first group to create and auction NFTs from physical graffiti installations. The new initiative designed to connect the online and offline art worlds will involve building virtual 3D models of spray-painted figures. Each will be accompanied by a geotag to connect ownership of art to the NFT. Auction winners will also receive a metal card denoting a claim to each Fat Monster NFT. From there, the NFTs can be traded, and if the physical art installation is ever removed or erased, the NFTs become unique “Ghost Monsters.” On April 13th, the first batch of five existing Fat Monsters will be minted and auctioned on Rarib...