Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

TrustSwap — a DeFi project offering a wide range of different services — recently announced the launch of a new program that was created to provide an incentive for smaller stakers. The program, known as the FlashDrop program, will essentially reward up to 3,000 users that have staked a certain amount of SWAP tokens. In doing so, it will create opportunities for the loyal SWAP community, and it will hopefully attract new users interested in participating in the program. What Do You Need to Know About FlashDrop? The crypto industry is rich with various projects, and there are millions who may still be unaware of TrustSwap . This program will help put the project on their radar, and show them all the benefits and advantages of this emerging DeFi project. When it comes to FlashDrop, there are a few important things to note. 1) Where is it being launched? First of all, it will be conducted from YIELD App, which is another DeFi-based platform that actually launched on TrustSwap’s Laun...

On April 20, a video stemming from the Youtube channel called “1stmil.com” has the Bitcoin Cash community talking. The host of the channel sitting in a Tesla dealership parking lot explains in his recent video that if Elon Musk gets Tesla to accept bitcoin cash directly for cars, he plans to commit to purchasing 111 Tesla Model 3s. 111 Tesla Model 3s to be Purchased if Elon Musk Gets Tesla to Accept Bitcoin Cash Not too long ago, Tesla the electric car manufacturer announced accepting bitcoin ( BTC ) for payments and also mentioned that the coins wouldn’t be sold for fiat. Just recently, the host of the Youtube channel 1stmil.com claims he will buy 111 Tesla Model 3 cars . However, the host of the educational Youtube channel that teaches “people learn how to make their first million dollars,” wants Elon Musk to accept bitcoin cash (BCH) in exchange for the offer. 1stmil.com’s host is a Tesla fan and the model can be seen in a variety of his prior videos. Host of the educationa...

Guggenheim CIO Scott Minerd has warned of a “major correction” in bitcoin in the near term. Claiming that bitcoin is “very frothy,” he is forecasting a 50% decline in the price of the cryptocurrency. Scott Minerd’s Latest Warning About Bitcoin The chief investment officer (CIO) of Guggenheim Partners, Scott Minerd, is back with another bearish prediction for bitcoin’s price. Minerd is also the chairman of Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners. Guggenheim Investments has about $270 billion in total assets under management across fixed income, equity, and alternative strategies. He said in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday that bitcoin has run too far, too fast. The executive opined: Given the massive move we’ve had in bitcoin over the short run, things are very frothy, and I think we’re going to have a major correction in bitcoin. “I think we could pull back to $20,000 to $30,000 on bitcoin, which would be ...

The famous gap in cryptocurrency prices in South Korean crypto exchanges and overseas ones known as “kimchi premium” raises some concerns among the nation’s government. The latest reports suggest that the country is planning to regulate international remittances tied to kimchi premium-driven transactions. Remittances to Exploit Kimchi Premium Could Be Flagged as Money Laundering According to Maeil Kyungjae , South Korea’s government has found that some domestic investors actively send their fiat abroad to buy crypto from sellers in China. The maneuver allows these crypto traders to sell the digital assets bought from the over-the-counter Chinese sellers and other locations in South Korean exchanges to exploit the advantages of the kimchi premium. Moreover, South Korean authorities suspect that the fiat transacted with Chinese sellers could be subject to prosecution, as the domestic traders could be committing money laundering. That said, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) is...

The premium or arbitrage gap on bitcoin in South Africa recently turned negative following the offloading of coins worth over $75 million by liquidators of MTI. As a result of the temporary supply glut, buying bitcoins on local South African exchanges briefly became cheaper than buying on overseas exchanges. The Impact of the MTI Liquidators’ BTC Sales However, following the conclusion of the liquidators’ sale nearly two weeks ago, the arbitrage gap has now turned positive. As one South African media report notes, the premium of BTC has now recovered and was hovering between 4.8% and 6.5% on April 20. Meanwhile, the same report also quotes, Jon Ovadia, the CEO of a crypto start-up Ovex, explaining why BTC is usually sold at a premium in South Africa. He said: What we have seen is that crypto arbitrage gaps appear in those countries that have foreign exchange controls, such as South Africa. This of course impacts the demand for hard currency assets, such as bitcoin. The CEO ...

The global pandemic exposed many existing government distribution channels for financial aid as inadequate. With roughly one quarter of the world’s population unbanked, a number of stimulus programs faltered and rolled out too slowly and unevenly – including in developed countries – because of a reliance on traditional bank accounts for payments.  Central Bank Digital … Continued The post Unlocking Financial Inclusion with CBDCs appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/Ry9JXn

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 Beyond Finance Token (BYN) under the pair USDT/BYN on April 20 at 1:00 p.m. UTC. Beyond Finance is a synthetic asset trading platform that brings investment opportunities in traditional financial assets to everyone with a permissionless financial service ecosystem leveraging blockchain infrastructure. Aiming to be a leading exchange, Beyond Finance seeks to deliver a seamless and user-friendly service with a competitive UI/UX with gamification experience to make it easy and compelling to trade. Beyond Finance will adopt a Layer 2 solution for enhanced scalability. Initially, it will be launched with an on-off chain hybrid solution, and it will then migrate to a fully operational Layer 2 solution. BYN token’s primary function is to collateralize USDb stable coin and Beyond Finance’s synthetic assets. Users c...

On Tuesday, the founder of the decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap tweeted about the trading platform passing $10 billion in weekly trade volume for the first time. Decentralized trading volumes have grown massively, as dex platforms built on Ethereum have seen more than $18 billion in volume during the last week. Meanwhile, the dex Pancakeswap, an app that uses the Binance Smart Chain, has seen trade volumes skyrocket. Uniswap’s 7-Day Stats Capture $10 Billion in Global Trade Volume Decentralized finance (defi) has exploded during the last 12 months, as $58 billion in total value locked (TVL) is held in defi applications today. A great deal of this money is held on the Ethereum ( ETH ) blockchain, but a number of other blockchains are eating into this market. Seven-day and 24-hour dex trade volumes on April 21, 2021. While liquidity pools are growing larger, dex volumes have grown immensely during the last few weeks as well. Hayden Adams, the founder of Uniswap, tweeted about...

The cryptocurrency proposed by social media giant Facebook is gearing up to launch using a “phased approach,” its co-creator explains. The Diem Association, which oversees the crypto’s development, has been in talks with regulators to obtain a license. Diem Updates Launch Plan The Facebook-backed cryptocurrency “diem,” formerly called libra, is taking a “phased approach” to launch, co-creator and chief economist of Diem, Christian Catalini, told CNBC in an interview published on Tuesday. The Switzerland-based nonprofit Diem Association, which oversees diem’s development, aims to launch a pilot with a single stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar this year, the news outlet reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. This pilot will be small in scale and will largely focus on transactions between individual consumers, the person explained, adding that there may also be an option for users to buy goods and pay for purchases. The Facebook-proposed cryptocurrency project has fa...

Global space provider Wework has announced that it will now accept payment in select cryptocurrencies. The company has partnered with Bitpay and Coinbase for inbound and outbound transactions. In addition, the Softbank-backed company says it will also hold the currency on its balance sheet. Wework Dives Into Crypto Wework announced Tuesday several initiatives regarding cryptocurrencies. The company provides environments for individuals and businesses, from freelancers to Fortune 500 companies. With over 800 locations worldwide in more than 150 cities, Wework says it is the largest global space provider in the world. Japanese multinational conglomerate Softbank Group Corp. (9984.T) has a majority stake in the company. In Tuesday’s announcement, Wework said that it is “now accepting payment in select cryptocurrencies.” The company will also utilize “cryptocurrency for inbound and outbound transactions” in partnership with Bitpay and Coinbase. Furthermore, it will keep cryptocurrencie...

On April 21, Bitcoin network fees touched an all-time high according to a number of transaction fee aggregators. The average bitcoin transaction fee is approximately $59.88 and the median fee is around $26.44 USD per transfer. Bitcoin Fees Climb Sky High After the Hashrate Plummeted The cost to send a bitcoin ( BTC ) transaction has never been higher in terms of average fees. In terms of the median value, charts show median fees are nearing an all-time high (ATH) as well, but are not quite there yet . The average fee rate touched an ATH of around $59.88 per transaction on Tuesday evening (EST). Blockchain.com’s “mempool transaction count,” which shows the total number of unconfirmed transactions in the mempool, is around 114,000 transactions waiting in the backlog. A number of BTC fee aggregators including bitinfocharts.com (shown above) indicate transaction fees on April 20 and 21, 2021, are a few nickels away from $60 per bitcoin transfer. BTC fees have been growing higher...

PRESS RELEASE. Bitcoin.com Exchange is thrilled to announce the listing of WOZX, being available to trade on the 21st April 2021 at 10:00AM UTC. WOZX was created by the EFFORCE team, including Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak, as the energy savings token to allow contributors of their EFFORCE platform to benefit from the energy savings generated by efficiency projects worldwide. WOZX will start trading with ETH and USDT pairs. At the same time EFFORCE opens to the public its software platform after finishing the closed beta and launching the new EFFORCE Genesis Pool ( https://app.efforce.io/ ). In a constant effort to bridge the gap between the retail market and energy efficiency, the EFFORCE team spent the past few months designing a product roadmap which will help create an increasing understanding about a rather complex, multi-party ecosystem. What is EFFORCE? The Energy Efficiency market is a complex financial system. Thanks to EFFORCE, this market is becoming easily a...

Blockchain’s underlying decentralized ledger technology has many practical applications, yet, the value of the technology itself has in practice become secondary to token capitalization. Speculation in Coins and Tokens Routinely Overshadows Promising Developments and Initiatives As major governments and central banks worldwide continue labeling bitcoin and its cohorts as means to engage in criminal activity, primarily because it remains out of their purvey and control, this attention overshadows a more constructive conversation on the actual value of blockchain. With the public discourse centered mainly on bitcoin and its inherent value or threat to legacy systems, the seminal cryptocurrency has in many ways blocked out any meaningful discussion on blockchain technology’s extraordinary potential. Given that many commentators choose to paint blockchain with Bitcoin’s brush, the notion that decentralized ledger technology (DLT) is anything but speculative remains pervasive. In reali...

Fresh reports from South Africa suggest another local company, Sygnia, is set to apply to the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to list a new cryptocurrency exchange-traded fund (ETF). This application will be the second time Sygnia has attempted to list the crypto ETF. A similar application in 2017 was rejected by JSE on grounds that the bourse was “not ready to approve cryptocurrency listings.” However, according to a report which quotes the company’s CEO, David Hufton, Sygnia plans to re-apply for an ETF using the same design structure from 2017. In remarks, Hufton said: A lot of work went into designing the actual structure of the ETF in 2017 which we can reuse. With cryptocurrencies becoming more mainstream, we are hopeful that the JSE will be more receptive to our application this time around. The CEO also reveals that Sygnia intends to “reapply to the JSE any day now.” Meanwhile, a recent report quotes the JSE director, Andre Visser, explaining that certain conditions n...

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...