Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

From crypto trading to defi, the most exciting areas in blockchain fintech development and innovation are attracting serious investments from all industry corners. To introduce more tools and complementary services to the ecosystem, the recipients of these capital allocations are endeavoring to promote greater adoption by removing many existing participation obstacles and taking a more mass-market approach. Projects Focused on Usability and User Experience Lead the Charge Between Atani’s all-in-one trading infrastructure, Enso’s decentralized finance (defi) strategy sharing platform, Don-Key’s social yield-farming initiative, MakiSwap’s AMM for professionals, Sheesha’s Defi mutual fund, The Defiant Defi-driven informational platform, and Consensys’ sizeable cash pile, take a closer look at the impressive fundraising figures that continue to multiply as investor demand spikes. Defi Portfolios Arrive Just in Time As defi’s total value locked (TVL) figures continue their upward march...

PRESS RELEASE. Singapore crypto exchange Bityard will launch its first trading contest before May 2021, with up to 60,000 Tether prize pool. The contest registration for each team’s captain is now open. As mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether have been increasing gradually in value, more and more investment institutes and major companies have flooded into the crypto market. So far, the Bitcoin bull market has shown no sign of ending, and some people are expecting Bitcoin to hit $400K this year. The continuous bull market also boosts the number of active crypto investors, which is a very good sign for many crypto exchanges. Bityard, a Singapore based cryptocurrency derivative exchange, will soon launch its first global trading contest with up to 60,000 USDT prize pool before May 2021, and the contest registration for each team’s captain is now open on Bityard’s official site . The trading contests launched by crypto exchanges would improve the user acquisition fo...

Kenyan athlete and world record holder, Eliud Kipchoge recently auctioned off his first set of NFTs for a total of 17.9837 ethereum tokens. The auction, which was conducted on the NFT marketplace Opensea, includes some of the key moments in Kipchoge’s career. According to a report , one of these moments, Kipchoge’s 2019 record-breaking run in Vienna fetched $14.8837 ETH while the marathoner’s Berlin Marathon run earned him 3.1 ETH or for over $6,500 at current prices. Meanwhile, in a Twitter post, Kipchoge, who is also an Olympic Champion, said he was grateful that some key moments in his career were now available as NFT. He wrote : I can say that I am really grateful to have the highlights of my career now available as NFT. I hope it will give someone around the world the same positive memories as it does to me. In the meantime, the report states that “Momentible.io created the NFT artwork in collaboration with Kipchoge.” It adds that “the video message is the official approv...

The Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a bitcoin industry working group focused on patent laws, has filed a civil lawsuit in the UK against Craig Wright. For many years now Wright has insisted he is Satoshi Nakamoto, but has yet to prove so to the greater crypto community. COPA is looking to get the UK High Court to rule that Wright is not the rightful owner of the Bitcoin white paper. COPA Files a Case Against Craig Wright Just recently, Bitcoin.com News reported on Craig Wright’s attempt to get websites to remove the Bitcoin white paper over copyright infringement. The attempt didn’t work out so well, as a great number of websites decided to openly host the white paper on their websites in a sign of solidarity. Moreover, COPA questioned Wright’s attempt with a letter and asked the self-styled Bitcoin inventor to prove his claims. Now COPA is taking it a step further as the bitcoin industry working group has filed a civil lawsuit against Craig Wright. “Today, COPA initiated a...

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce compares banning bitcoin to shutting down the internet, stating that governments would be foolish to try. She also offers some insights into whether the SEC will approve a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) this year. Governments Would Be Foolish to Try to Ban Bitcoin U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Hester Peirce shared her view of governments banning bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulation in an interview at Marketwatch’s Investing in Crypto event last week. She was also asked about the likelihood of the securities regulator approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) this year. Peirce, sometimes known as “crypto mom,” has been pushing for the SEC to approve a bitcoin ETF for several years. She was asked during the interview whether banning cryptocurrencies is a possibility since some people still believe that governments can always ban bitcoin, including Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio , The Big Short’s Michael ...

Bulls are taking the reins of the price action in the bitcoin across the board, making a solid breakout above the $60,000 threshold, reaching new all-time highs, and it seems The Simpsons “did it again.” In a new episode broadcasted on Sunday, BTC is highlighted in a ticker news feed with the infinite sign. Gamestop Stock Is Also Featured in the Episode The 18th episode titled “Burger Kings” in Season 32 of the popular animated series featured bitcoin ( BTC ) during a news broadcast, whose ticker news feed at the bottom of the screen listed some U.S. publicly listed companies. However, what caught the crypto community’s attention, and which was a hot topic in the Reddit subforums, is the detail of BTC priced at infinity. Interestingly, after bitcoin’s quote, video game retailer Gamestop (GME) appeared in the scene. Following the sarcastic style characterized by The Simpsons, the famous stock – known for being fueled a few months ago by a community of investors in Reddit – po...

The investment company Galaxy Digital Holdings has revealed it is joining the growing list of firms looking to sponsor a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Novogratz’s crypto firm applied with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday to launch a product called the “Galaxy Bitcoin ETF.” Galaxy Digital Wants to Provide a Bitcoin ETF Galaxy Digital Holdings (TSX: GLXY) filed a Form S-1 registration with the SEC on Monday in order to get approval for a new bitcoin ETF. The “Galaxy Bitcoin ETF” filing was submitted on April 12, 2021, and joins the seven other bitcoin ETF contenders waiting for approval from the U.S. regulator. Galaxy Digital is an investment company led by Michael Novogratz , a former executive from the macro-strategy hedge fund Fortress. “Galaxy Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that issues common shares of beneficial interest that trade on NYSE Arca,” The Galaxy ETF filing notes. “The trust’s investment objective is to reflect the performance of ...

Africa remains the home to a large proportion of the world’s population that is unbanked according to a 2017 World Bank Global Index survey. Many of those who are unbanked cite their lack of official identification particulars as one of the main reasons for their predicament. Cryptos Narrowing Financial Exclusion Gap Therefore, in their effort to reduce the number of people that have no access to banking services, Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin , a decentralized digital currency and network that is available to anyone. Now, more than ten years later, the crypto asset has had successes in narrowing the financial exclusion gap as some financial services are now available to those lacking identification documents. Local.bitcoin.com is a peer-to-peer bitcoin cash ( BCH ) marketplace that’s available in every nation in the world. However, the rising fees on networks such as bitcoin ( BTC ) or ethereum ( ETH ) mean the respective crypto assets may eventually become less accessible...

The U.S. government is reportedly concerned that China’s digital yuan could threaten the U.S. dollar’s status as the world’s dominant reserve currency. Officials at the Treasury, State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Council are increasing their efforts to understand the implications of China’s central bank digital currency. Digital Yuan Could Be a Threat to US Dollar The U.S. government is reportedly increasing scrutiny of China’s digital yuan. Some government officials are concerned that the Chinese central bank digital currency “could kick off a long-term bid to topple the dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency,” Bloomberg reported Sunday, citing people familiar with the matter. Officials at the Treasury, State Department, Pentagon, and National Security Council are strengthening their efforts to understand the potential implications of China’s digital currency. Particularly, they want to understand how the digital yuan will be distributed and whether it cou...

The price of bitcoin has crossed a new all-time high (ATH) on Tuesday, as the leading crypto asset has jumped to $63,275 per unit during the early morning trading sessions (EST). At the time of publication, the entire market economy with over 9,203 cryptos is valued at $2.153 trillion with $164 billion in global trade volume . Bitcoin Price Touches New Highs Bitcoin ( BTC ) has finally crossed the psychological resistance at the $60k mark and even brushed past the last all-time price high. At around 5 a.m. (EST), bitcoin’s price jumped to a new ATH reaching $63,275 per BTC . At the time of writing, BTC is just under the $63k handle and has a market valuation of around $1.177 trillion today. That’s approximately 54% of the entire $2.153 trillion crypto market economy, while ethereum ( ETH ) captures 11.9% on Tuesday. Top five crypto asset markets on April 13, 2021. Ethereum is swapping for $2,225 per ETH and has a market valuation of around $256 billion. The forerunner today is...

TIME Magazine will be holding bitcoin on its balance sheet, the company’s president has confirmed. TIME is also partnering with Grayscale Investments to produce a video series on cryptocurrency and has agreed to be paid in bitcoin. TIME Magazine Will Hold Bitcoin on Balance Sheet TIME Magazine has partnered with Grayscale Investments to produce a crypto video series. The company will be paid in bitcoin and has committed to keeping the cryptocurrency on its balance sheet. Founded in 1923, TIME Magazine provides guides for current affairs, politics, business, health, science, and entertainment. Published biweekly, the company says every week over 20 million subscribers worldwide turn to its magazine for exclusive coverage. Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein tweeted Monday explaining that the videos explaining the crypto space will come out in the summer. He also confirmed that Keith Grossman, President of TIME, has agreed to take his payment in bitcoin and will hold BTC on the balan...

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX, formerly BitMax, an industry-leading digital asset trading platform built by Wall Street quant trading veterans, has announced the listing of the OptionRoom Token (ROOM) under the pair USDT/ROOM on Apr 13 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. OptionRoom is a user-governed oracle and forecast protocol built on Polkadot. OptionRoom can serve as an OaaS — Oracle as a Service where oracle requests are solved by governance. Oracle requests cost a fee and a solution incentive paid in ROOM, rewarded to request solvers. OptionRoom allows users to create and participate in event derivatives pegged to real-world outcomes by governance consensus. OptionRoom’s mission is to create a self-reliant protocol with multiple use cases powered by the community. By rewarding honest protocol participants and punishing bad actors, OptionRoom aims to create a governance that is pegged to the real world without relying on outside data streams. OptionRoom has three critical distinguishing produc...

The Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela (GNB) is known for having a tough stance against crypto mining rig counterfeits, as several operations have been assigned to combat the issues over the last few months. This time, the Venezuelan authorities seized 76 mining rigs after allegedly detecting inconsistencies in the transport documentation. Rigs Are Presumably ASIC Miners According to a press note published by the GNB, the procedure took place in a checkpoint on the Bolivar state, specifically in the Puente Angostura. An individual transported the bitcoin ( BTC ) mining equipment on a Ford vehicle Triton, and he was stopped by the military units in a routine check procedure, stated the authorities. However, the Bolivarian National Guard detected some “inconsistences in the documentation” required to transport the crypto mining rigs legally. Members of the military then proceeded to seize the 76 pieces of bitcoin mining equipment, as they suspected the documentation didn’t com...

On April 12, the international provider of colocation services for low-carbon cryptocurrency mining Bitriver announced it is launching a pre-sale of tokens backed by 100 megawatts (MW) of mining power in Siberia. The ERC20 tokens called “bitriver token (BTR)” will represent a single watt-hour (Wh) of Bitriver’s power in Bratsk. A Low-Carbon Crypto Mining Token The blockchain and mining firm Bitriver announced the organization is launching the public sale for its new tokens called “ bitriver token (BTR) ” on April 19, 2021. Each token represents a single watt-hour (Wh) of Bitriver’s low-carbon cryptocurrency mining power and the tokens will have utility as well. According to the company’s announcement, the tokens will be able to be used to pay for Bitriver’s colocation services and “will be bought back by Bitriver at original listing price after a five-year period.” Right now BTR is available to pre-sale investors with a minimum order quantity of 100,000 BTR tokens per order. As f...

Spanish authorities are enforcing their tough stance on the cryptocurrency industry, and the national tax agency seems to be taking it very seriously. Now, the Hacienda issued 14,800 warning letters to Spaniards under their watch for allegedly having failed or need to declare crypto holdings. Fines Could Be ‘Over $5,900’ if a Crypto Holder Fails to Declare Mandatory Tax Filings According to Telemadrid , Spain’s tax agency was clear on making cryptos taxable, and notifications have already arrived to their correspondent receivers. Spanish crypto holders should declare their earnings in the tax filings, and if they fail to do it, Hacienda said they could incur fines of over 5,000 euros ($5,900). However, Hacienda clarified domestic crypto holders are not accountable for their crypto buying operations, but only the profitable sales. Experts quoted by the local media outlet explained that Spaniards should declare profitable sale operations “made over 2020” on this occasion: Either b...

Gambling may be no stranger to the blockchain, but poker’s appeal amongst players has only expanded further as poker sites embrace bitcoin and Covid-19 moves gameplay increasingly online. Famed Game Puts Spotlight on Varied Blockchain Use Cases Although online betting and gaming were already widely popular before the emergence of blockchain, as the technology has played a pivotal role in gaming’s ongoing transition. Online poker was one of the earliest games to join the blockchain framework due to the inherent fairness and equity that accompanies distributed ledger technology, not to mention the legal woes it faced. Users from all over the world could join these platforms and verifiably trust that their funds would be kept safe. The discretion of using bitcoin to transact didn’t hurt either, given the anonymous nature of this payment method, allowing players restricted by regulation and geography to participate. Bitcoin and blockchain have become a mainstay of the poker ecosyste...