Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The critically acclaimed rap phenomenon Marshall Mathers, professionally known as Eminem has revealed he is jumping into the non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles game. Eminem is auctioning three types of NFTs via Nifty Gateway and each design was created by the hip-hop legend. Slim Shady Enters the NFT Fray Week after week, the NFT universe continues to grow larger and a great number of celebrities are joining in on the NFT bandwagon. The space has continued to swell with a myriad of different NFT projects, concepts, and marketplaces. Bitcoin.com has reported on a number of popular projects and luminaries minting non-fungible token collectibles like actress Lindsay Lohan , Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Rob “Gronk” Gronkowski’s NFTs, Tom Brady’s Autograph project , Topps Garbage Pail Kids and Baseball cards, Annoying Orange NFTs, and NFT collectibles by Kenyan filmmaker Rich Allela. Now the multi-platinum recording artist and ofte...

Today, April 26th, 2021, the virtual gallery of OVR.ai was inaugurated to showcase artists working with non-fungible tokens (NFT) and beyond. Considering the hype around the NFT phenomenon this year and also given that the Coronavirus pandemic prevents most artists from exhibiting works in museums and participating in exhibitions, as well as also people from being able to visit art galleries, the company OVR decided to introduce a museum in its blockchain-based virtual world, allowing the top artists in the field to exhibit their NFTs. Starting today, it is possible to download the OVR app (available on both Android and iOS) and visit this section of the virtual world dedicated to art. The NFT Artists of OVR Among the artists exhibiting their Non Fungible Tokens today for the opening of OVR’s gallery is Italian artist Giovanni Motta , born in 1971, who has just opened his solo exhibition in Shanghai, selling out before the opening. Motta will have a dedicated gallery on OVR, as...

Bill Miller, the founder and chief investment officer of Miller Value Partners, does not think bitcoin is a bubble. Instead, he said it is at the beginning of mainstream adoption. Remaining bullish on the cryptocurrency, the famed value investor explained that bitcoin’s price will rise as the demand for the crypto is growing faster than its supply. Bill Miller Bullish on Bitcoin Longtime value investor Bill Miller is the founder of Miller Value Partners and currently serves as the chairman and chief investment officer. He is also the co-portfolio manager for Opportunity Equity and Income Strategy funds. Prior to Miller Value Partners, he co-founded Legg Mason Capital Management. He was asked in an interview with CNBC last week whether there is a lot more upside to the price of bitcoin. Miller replied: “There are many many different ways to look at bitcoin. The simplest way is just the supply and demand.” Emphasizing rising institutional interest in the cryptocurrency as it enters ...

Veteran investor Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with billionaire investor George Soros, is still worried about governments outlawing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. “If cryptocurrencies become successful, most governments will outlaw them, because they don’t want to lose their monopoly,” he said. Jim Rogers Still Worried About Government Banning Bitcoin Renowned investor and George Soros’ former business partner who co-founded of the Quantum Fund and Soros Fund Management, Jim Rogers, still believes that the government can ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Noting that he “never bought or sold any cryptocurrencies,” Rogers told Kitco News’ Michelle Makori last week: If cryptocurrencies become successful, most governments will outlaw them, because they don’t want to lose their monopoly. “Every government in the world is working on computer money now, including the U.S. The Chinese are there already. I cannot imagine that governments are going to say ‘ok, th...

Two Turkish cryptocurrency exchanges are being investigated by the authorities in Turkey after they abruptly halted trading. The authorities have blocked access to the bank accounts of the second exchange and detained four people so far. Sixty-two people have been detained in connection with the first exchange whose CEO has fled the country. Second Turkish Crypto Exchange Being Investigated Following the alleged exit scam pulled by cryptocurrency exchange Thodex, another crypto trading platform is being investigated by Turkish authorities, the state-run Anadolu news agency said Friday. Vebitcoin, a Turkey-based crypto trading platform, became the second crypto exchange to face troubles within about a week after the country’s central bank banned crypto use for payments. Vebitcoin posted a notice on its website on Friday stating: “Due to the recent developments in the crypto money industry, there was a much higher density in our operations than expected. We would like to state with ...

Bitcoin prices have dropped below the $50k region during this week’s trading sessions sinking to a low of $47,555 on Friday. The popular creator of the stock-to-flow (S2F) bitcoin price model, Plan B has discussed the recent price dip and stressed that “nothing goes up in a straight line.” Plan B believes this price drop might be a “mid-way dip,” similar to the crypto bull runs in prior years. ‘Looks Like the Mid-way Dip,’ Says Plan B During the first week of March, Bitcoin.com News reported on Plan B’s popular but also controversial stock-to-flow (S2F) price model . In that report, Plan B was very confident and BTC ’s price surpassed the model by 26%. People believe that the S2F price model predicts bitcoin’s price reaching six-digit price ranges in the future. Since that report in March, however, BTC ’s price has dropped -26.72% after the crypto asset’s all-time high of $64,895 per unit. Plan B doesn’t seem phased by the drop and after prices fell, the S2F creator consoled hi...

Ripple Labs cofounder Chris Larsen has a bone to pick with bitcoin and crypto networks that leverage proof-of-work (PoW). Larsen’s latest write-up explains that the crypto industry needs to reconsider PoW because of the effects on the environment. The Ripple executive believes that other types of consensus algorithms have been effective at being secure while only “using a tiny fraction of the energy.” Ripple Cofounder Believes Crypto Networks Leveraging Proof-of-Work Should Consider Alternatives While the global economy struggles after a year of Covid-19 lockdowns and business shutdowns, a great number of people are very interested in tackling climate change. Ripple Labs cofounder Chris Larsen has written a blog post about the environment and why the crypto industry should reconsider leveraging PoW. Larsen believes that if the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network’s verification model doesn’t get addressed, then at some point, it will lose out to a crypto asset network that does. “With more ind...

On May 3, tokens stemming from the Chia network, a smart transaction blockchain created by the Bittorrent creator Bram Cohen, will start trading and transactions will be fully enabled. Rather than leveraging the proof-of-work consensus algorithm, Chia will utilize a model called proof-of-space which relies on storage. With Chia’s transactional launch pending, the project has sparked shortages over the demand for hard drives and solid-state drives (SSDs). Chia Network Fuels High-End Hard Drive and SSD Shortages Bram Cohen , the inventor of the popular torrenting application Bittorent has created a cryptocurrency that’s set to launch next month. Because Cohen is behind the Chia project , the pre-stages of the digital currency network have seen significant exposure since Chia was announced. Chia’s team believes that the project can allow anyone the ability to verify transactions without being dependent on “single-use hardware or a big electricity bill.” Chia released the project’s Bus...

A Kenya-based digital media company, Picha Images, is reportedly set to hold one of the first non-fungible token (NFT) auctions in Africa. The auction event, which is set to be held between April 26 through May 3, 2021, will initially feature the works of Rich Allela, the award-winning photographer and filmmaker from Kenya. Perpetual Royalties According to a report , in return for purchasing the NFTs, the buyers will get a “hacker-resistant proof of ownership of a digital piece of art.” Inversely, the NFTs give artists, who have been getting “a raw deal,” a chance to earn more. Meanwhile, in its own statement, Picha Images claims the creation of NFTs shows that the company is “placing the wellbeing of their creative artists first by exposing them to a way to secure their work, maintain the copyrights to their creations and earn royalties in perpetuity.” NFTs Empower Artists On the other hand, Allela is quoted commending Picha Images, which harnesses artificial intelligence...

A dogecoin investor has shared his story of how he became a crypto millionaire in a little over two months after learning about the meme cryptocurrency and pouring all his savings into it. He said he was inspired by Elon Musk’s tweets about dogecoin. A Doge Millionaire Shares His Story Glauber Contessoto, a 33-year-old who works at a music company in Los Angeles, has shared his story of how he became a dogecoin millionaire in just a little over two months. He invested over $180,000 in dogecoin on Feb. 5 when its price was about 4.5 cents, the investor told CNBC Make It in an interview published Friday. He learned about the meme cryptocurrency on Reddit and was inspired by Tesla’s technoking Elon Musk who tweeted about DOGE on several occasions. Contessoto explained that he was drawn to dogecoin for a few reasons. Besides loving the Reddit community surrounding dogecoin, he said he appreciates that the crypto was inspired by Shiba Inu “Doge” meme. He is also very bullish on the co...

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce believes that the U.S. government cannot ban bitcoin, stating that “it’s very difficult to ban something that’s essentially a peer-to-peer technology.” The commissioner is hopeful that with the new chairman who has deep knowledge of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, the SEC can take a fresh look at some of the reasons used to reject bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). SEC Commissioner Says ‘Very Difficult’ to Ban P2P Technology Hester Peirce, a commissioner at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) who is also known in the crypto community as “crypto mom,” was asked whether there is a possibility that the Biden administration could ban bitcoin in an interview with Fox Business’ Charles Gasparino on Thursday. With new cryptocurrency regulations in the works, investors are concerned whether the government will ban cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. Some people have warned that governments can outlaw bitcoin if it becomes a risk to their fina...

The digital currency and stablecoin issuer Paxos has been granted conditional approval for a bank charter under the Paxos National Trust in New York. The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a preliminary conditional approval which means the regulating entity still has to authorize the firm’s future banking plans. Paxos Granted Preliminary Conditional Approval for a US Bank Charter The New York-based financial institution and technology company Paxos has been granted preliminary conditional approval for a bank charter by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC published information on the conditional approval on April 23, 2021, showing authorization of the company’s application to charter the Paxos National Trust. “The OCC granted a national trust bank charter to Paxos after [a] thorough review of the company and its current operations,” the OCC’s press release notes. “In granting this charter, the OCC applied the same rigorous review and sta...

PRESS RELEASE. Blockchain-powered supply chain management platform, Morpheus.Network, has launched an updated platform, forged an Agribusiness agreement with the Argentinian government, and was a winner in the 2021 “Future of Ports” competition. Burlington, ON — Morpheus.Network is one of the world’s leading supply chain ecosystems and is changing the face of the global trade industry in 2021. The company has just launched its updated enterprise-grade, next-generation supply platform, agreed to a global Agribusiness project with SENASA and was one of the 5 winners of this year’s prestigious Gulftainer “Future of Ports” competition. What is Morpheus.Network? Morpheus.Network is a supply chain ecosystem with the ability to extend itself on top of existing industry technologies through its blockchain technology. The Morpheus.Network platform exists on the cloud in between blockchain and IoT, with the potential to be integrated with different technologies and devices in one single f...

Bitcoin’s global hashrate dropped ten days ago following a coal mine accident that caused significant grid blackouts in Xinjiang, China. While initial estimates had shown more than 40% of the hashrate dropped, statistics from a five-day average show the hashpower only lost around 25%. Meanwhile, Chinese miners located in Sichuan may put more pressure on hydropower, as province officials have revealed electricity rates are scheduled to increase 150% this year. Sichuan Electricity Trading Division Report Notes Electrical Prices in the Region Will Increase by 150% Mining bitcoin is extremely competitive and miners are spread out all around the world in order to obtain the cheapest electricity rates they can acquire. Because electrical costs in China are far less than a great number of regions around the world, a large portion of bitcoin miners reside in the country. At one time years ago it was estimated that more than 65% of the hashrate was in China, while more recent studies have s...

The U.S. state of Louisiana has passed a resolution to commend bitcoin for its success as well as commend the cryptocurrency’s pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, “for his contribution to economic security.” State Resolution Recognizing Satoshi and Bitcoin The Louisiana House of Representatives resolution by Representative Mark Wright entitled, “Commends Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency industry,” has been enrolled and signed by the Speaker of the House. House Resolution 33 (HR 33) reads: Resolution to commend Bitcoin for its success in becoming the first decentralized trillion dollar asset and to encourage the state and local governments to consider ways that could help them benefit from the increased use of this new technology. The resolution proceeds to describe various attributes of bitcoin, starting with its creation in 2008 “by the pseudonymous author Satoshi Nakamoto.” Noting that the cryptocurrency “could potentially replace gold as a monetary reserve,” the document h...

A Turkish cryptocurrency exchange with about 400,000 users has been accused of pulling an exit scam. Its CEO has reportedly fled Turkey, allegedly taking $2 billion of customer funds with him. The police have an arrest warrant for the CEO and 62 people have already been detained in connection with the case. Crypto Exchange Accused of Exit Scam Turkish cryptocurrency exchange Thodex is offline and its CEO has reportedly gone missing. Thousands of investors are worried that their funds have been stolen since they are unable to access their accounts. A statement on the exchange’s website details that the platform is “temporarily closed” to address an “abnormal fluctuation in the company accounts.” Local media reported that Thodex’s founder, Faruk Fatih Ozer, has fled the country to Albania, allegedly taking $2 billion of investors’ funds with him. Demiroren News Agency published a photo which it claims to be Ozer leaving Istanbul Airport. Turkish authorities have issued an internati...