Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Ternoa Blockchain has just unveiled the alpha version of its SecretNFT Marketplace, a platform entirely dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The platform, which uses Ternoa’s own CAPS token, comes with many features to promote its adoption among artists and lovers of NFTs. Ternoa launches its NFT platform, SecretNFT The Ternoa Blockchain has just unveiled the first version of its SecretNFT Marketplace, a new platform entirely dedicated to NFTs. The NFT marketplace allows artists to issue authenticated digital artworks in a single edition. Ternoa’s platform boasts a number of innovations, not least the so-called SecretNFT, a feature that makes artists’ works even more unique. This platform represents the first full-scale test of the Ternoa Blockchain, with all NFTs present on SecretNFT Marketplace hosted on the Chaos Net, a Ternoa testnet. All works hosted on the SecretNFT Marketplace are therefore certified on the Ternoa blockchain to avoid any falsification. Since th...

Although bitcoin prices plummeted over the weekend, the overall bull-run remains alive, as well as the crypto-related fraud cases in South Korea. The latest figures by the domestic financial watchdog show that such incidents are still on the rise. Police to Dedicate a Special Unit to Investigate Crypto Frauds According to Asia Kyungjae , the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) revealed that crypto fraud reports skyrocketed by over 41.6% yearly. The statistics from the FSS from January to October 2020 show that the 41,6% increase belongs to 555 cases of suspicious transactions. Due to the significant surge of cases, the police promised to increase its efforts in cracking down crypto-related fraud rings across the nation. In fact, authorities launched a dedicated investigation team at the financial crime unit in provincial offices. Among the bureaus involved in the crypto fraud’s investigations include the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, the State ...

The fallout sparked by reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) printed over $150 million for states’ funding continued a few days after the allegations were initially made. In the latest twist, the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) vice-chairman Dan Orbih said the CBN governor Godwin Emefiele’s response to the allegations is “politically motivated.” Money Printing Unsustainable In his riposte, Orbih is quoted by a local news site suggesting that “if drastic measures were not taken to address the situation” then the country might be headed for a worse outcome “than what happened in Uganda.” The politician said: We need the youths to come up with ideas and programmes that will help this government to come out of their mess because the revelations by Godwin Obaseki is a sad reminder of what happened in Uganda under former President Idi Amin. The PDP official also concludes that “no government can sustain the economy of a country with that type of abuse.” In his in...

The Canadian publicly traded bitcoin mining company Bitfarms has announced a deal that will see the company developing a 210 megawatt (MW) mining farm in Argentina. Bitfarms says that the company was able to secure a low electricity rate at $0.02 per kWh during the contractual period. Argentine-Based Bitcoin Mining Facility Aims to Acquire 210 MW of Power The company Bitfarms (TSXV:BITF, OTC:BFARF) has announced the firm is expanding to South America, as it has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding in order to build a 210 MW bitcoin mining facility. Bitfarms says the purchase agreement started back in October 2020 and initially the farm would be around 60 MW. However, since then the agreement has been “significantly enhanced,” as the power purchase agreement with a utility-grade private power producer in Argentina will allow the firm to “draw up to 210 MW of electricity at its discretion.” Bitfarms also details that the warmer climate in Argentina helps the company mi...

A former top regulator and acting head of the U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, Brian Brooks has been appointed the CEO of crypto exchange Binance.us. Brooks will lead the exchange on May 1st and replace the company’s current lead, Catherine Coley. Binance has hired an individual with ties to Washington, as the company’s American trading platform Binance.us will have Brian Brooks lead the exchange. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Alexander Osipovich, the former acting boss of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) will join the exchange at the end of this month. The hiring follows Binance recently hiring U.S. Senator Max Baucus who served Montana from 1978 to 2014. Brian Brooks was well known as being “ crypto-friendly ” and in November 2020, Brooks discussed China’s dominance in the bitcoin industry. “As a country, we now face a geostrategic competitiveness issue, which is: Do we in the United States want to own the internet 2.0 in the same way we owned intern...

PRESS RELEASE. B2Broker is a technology and liquidity provider serving clients in the crypto and foreign exchange (FX) industry with over 165 employees worldwide. Since setting out in 2014, the company has secured some of the most well-known global clients in the financial services industry, resulting in over 350 institutional customers to date. The company has a strong track record of releasing new and updated products to cater for its expanding client base and is now recognised as having the deepest multi-asset liquidity pool in the industry, aggregating multiple liquidity providers. B2Broker has also made big strides in recent years following the acquisition of several licences which has allowed the company to operate under the required jurisdictions. The company became the first regulated Forex liquidity provider in Belarus after securing its NBRB Licence for B2B Payment Solutions and secured FCA AEMI approval to offer e-payment services in the UK and Europe. Core Products ...

When a country faces a severe economic crisis or living in a long-lasting political turmoil, cryptocurrencies are often discussed as an alternative to deal with the tough times. Although cryptos are not an unfamiliar issue in Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) has been recently showing interest in digital assets to face the economic crisis. Party Delegates Want to Assess Feasibility of Cryptos in the ‘Current Economic Conditions’ According to Directorio Cubano , some members of the PCC suggested that the country should make its inception into the crypto sphere as “an alternative to face the current economic crisis” that the island is living. Cuba is facing an economic crisis due to international sanctions imposed several years ago, and the pandemic has hit the country on many fronts, specifically the tourism industry. During the 8th congress of the Communist Party of Cuba, the delegates asked to include cryptocurrencies as part of the update of their “guidelines of the econom...

Just recently, Shapeshift founder and CEO Erik Voorhees published a blog post about a new project called Thorchain, a protocol that allows for decentralized exchanges without wrapping or bridging technology commonly used today. Thorchain launched on April 13, 2021, and the Shapeshift founder recently revealed his company is first to leverage the multi-chain protocol in order to provide decentralized swaps in a noncustodial fashion. Shapeshift Leverages Thorchain for Multi-Chain Unwrapped Swaps Back in September 2018, the popular trading application Shapeshift changed its business model to a mandatory membership program and users had to submit specific identity criteria in order to swap coins. Then years later in January 2021, Shapeshift’s CEO Erik Voorhees announced the exchange would be dropping KYC rules. “Because of this fundamental change to our business model, ShapeShift’s users no longer need to provide personally identifying information to us,” Voorhees said at the time. No...

The Biden administration is reportedly developing a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency markets. The new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, is waiting for direction from the Treasury to establish cryptocurrency regulation. New Crypto Regulation Being Developed by Biden Administration Fox Business’ Charlie Gasparino reported Monday that the Biden administration is in what’s been described to him by people close to them as “the early stages of developing a regulatory approach to the crypto markets.” He noted that the number one priority is infrastructure, followed by taxes. Another area, which he said is being debated within the Biden administration, concerns crypto regulations by the SEC. Last week, MIT crypto professor Gary Gensler was confirmed to lead the commission. He previously served as the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Gasparino explained: SEC Chair Gensler is waiting for some direction from ...

Venmo has announced the rollout of its “crypto on Venmo” service, allowing over 70 million users to buy, sell, and hold four types of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, using the popular Venmo app. Venmo’s new crypto service further shows Paypal’s commitment to the crypto space, the company detailed. Venmo Launches Crypto Service Venmo, a service by Paypal, announced Tuesday the launch of “ crypto on Venmo ,” which it described as “a new way for Venmo’s more than 70 million customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency directly within the Venmo app.” The rollout begins today. The announcement continues: Customers using crypto on Venmo can choose from four types of cryptocurrency: bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin and bitcoin cash. When they make transactions, customers can also choose to share their crypto journey with their friends through the Venmo feed. Users can start investing in cryptocurrencies with just $1 using the Venmo app. Customers can use funds from their Venmo balanc...

Cryptocurrencies have been on an incredible trajectory over the past 12 months, with the total market capitalization growing from $198 billion in April 2020 to more than $2 trillion today. This meteoric rise is coupled with increasing adoption from consumers driven by major announcements from household names, such as Square, Visa, and PayPal, which now accept digital assets as means of payments or settlements. Electric car maker Tesla announced in February that it would accept bitcoin as payment for its cars, as well as also demonstrating its commitment to crypto by making a $1.5 billion bitcoin purchase for its balance sheet. Simultaneously, the industry has experienced a resurgence of institutional adoption like never before. Hedge funds have rushed into the market, stock investors have flocked to publicly-listed crypto companies, and commercial banks are adding more crypto services. All while central banks worldwide eagerly watch on, with many mulling their own digital currencie...

The South African cryptocurrency investment platform, Revix, has reportedly raised about $4.1 million from its latest capital raise round. According to the firm, part of the raised capital will be used “to launch Revix’s mobile application, a variety of Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) investment opportunities.” Furthermore, Revix says it also plans to use part of these funds to finance the firm’s expansion into the European Union. According to a report that shares details of the crypto platform’s future plans, Revix also intends to “offer a behavioural loyalty and rewards programme, where customers can earn points that can be redeemed for bitcoin.” In expanding on this, Revix founder and CEO, Sean Sanders said: We’re building a behavioural loyalty model that incentivises investors to undertake smart investment decisions, such as diversifying their investment portfolios, growing the investment community, improving their financial knowledge and making smart long-term investment d...

The Ukrainian parliament is enforcing its tough stance against people who don’t disclose their cryptocurrency holdings on the tax fillings. The measure comes in the wake of a recent publication that showed alleged mistakes in declarations from public servants. Offenders Could Spend up to Two Years in Jail According to an official document released by the country’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, the bill that seeks to criminalize such wrongdoing passed with 283 votes. The proposal aimed at imposing jail times and fines on offenders. The bill details show that the authorities will prosecute those who possess over $4,050 worth of non-declared crypto holdings. In fact, offenders could spend up to two years in jail, and even pay fines ranged between $162,100 and $202,950. Also, the bill clarifies that erroneous data are not exempt from being targeted by the authorities. Still, those who admit before a court any wrongdoings are also being covered by the criminalization of the proposal...

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 Oddz Protocol Token (ODDZ) under the pair USDT/ODDZ on Apr 19 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Oddz Finance is the world’s first on-chain option trading platform built on the Binance Smart Chain, Polkadot, and Ethereum Blockchains with a built-in oracle solution. Its distinguishing features include instant trades, interoperable options trades, transparent premium discovery methods, and custom option trading techniques. The Oddz Protocol’s native token is ODDZ, which is designed to incentivize and promote the community’s active participation. The ODDZ tokens represent power for users and are central to the incentive structure and governance of the Oddz Protocol. The ODDZ token holders represent an integral part of the Oddz ecosystem. They vote on various proposals for the protocol’s growth. Moreover, the primary motive of ...

On Monday, the oracle provider API3 announced a ten-year partnership with the Open Bank Project in order to connect more than 400 banking APIs to blockchain smart contracts using API3’s Airnode. The collaboration between API3 and the Open Bank Project aims to bridge conventional banking with blockchains and Web 3.0 applications. API3 DAO Partners With the Open Banking Project Connecting Over 400 Banking APIs to Blockchain During the last few months, there’s been greater interest in oracle providers like Chainlink, Band Protocol, API3, and DIA. Recently, Bitcoin.com’s news reported on a number of oracle-based tokens gathering two-digit gains. Further, our newsdesk covered how Chainlink’s modular oracle for the Substrate framework aims to empower developers and decentralized finance (defi) applications with trusted off-chain information. On April 19, API3, the project that claims to provide “decentrally governed and quantifiably secure data feeds,” revealed a partnership with the...

Major investment bank Morgan Stanley believes that central bank digital currencies are not a threat to the existence of cryptocurrencies. The bank believes that both types of digital currencies can coexist because they serve different purposes and have different appeals. Cryptocurrencies and CBDCs Can Coexist Morgan Stanley’s analysts, including chief economist Chetan Ahya, discussed the impact of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in a report published last week. They wrote: Cryptocurrencies will still exist, as they continue to serve other use cases … For instance, some cryptocurrencies can function as a store of value … as some segments of the public do not place their full faith in fiat currencies. The analysts explained that the uses and appeals of central bank digital currencies and cryptocurrencies are different. They added that cryptocurrencies can be both a store of value, similar to gold, and a speculative asset. A growing nu...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas president says bitcoin is clearly “a store of value.” Emphasizing the differences between cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, and central bank digital currencies, he said the latter “won’t necessarily be a store of value.” Fed Bank Chief Calls Bitcoin a Store of Value The president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Robert Kaplan, talked about bitcoin and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) Friday at the Texas A&M Bitcoin Conference 2021 hosted by Mays Business School. Firstly, Kaplan explained that he would distinguish between bitcoin and central bank digital currencies. “I would differentiate between a cryptocurrency, like bitcoin, and the discussions that are being had about digital currency,” such as the digital yuan experiment in China, he described. He proceeded to explain that the challenge on bitcoin is “how widely it will be adopted.” The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas chief elaborated: Right now, it’s clear it’s a store of val...

After the well-known crypto crackdown launched by the Chinese government four years ago, it seems there is now a change in the tone from the country’s central bank. At least that’s what has been suggested recently by the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBoC). Central Bank Clarifies Its Regulatory Framework on Cryptos Will Remain Unchanged During a panel hosted by CNBC at the Boao Forum for Asia, Li Bo is now naming bitcoin ( BTC ) with the “investment alternative” term for the first time since the crackdown. However, he made some clarifications on the meaning of his stance towards cryptocurrencies: We regard Bitcoin and stablecoin as crypto-assets. These are investment alternatives. They are not a currency per se. And so, the main role we see for crypto assets going forward, the main role is investment alternative. Such a statement implies an unprecedented change in Beijing’s tone on cryptos, even with experts quoted by CNBC considering these comments as “progres...