Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

In its bid to help users avoid high gas fees on Uniswap, a Kenya-based fintech firm, UTU, recently launched a liquidity pool on the decentralized exchange (dex), Pancakeswap. This launch enables prospective UTU coin buyers to acquire the token “with low fees and fast confirmation times.” In a statement posted on the firm’s blog, UTU, which wants to end the anonymous star ratings, reviews, and scores as the de facto trust mechanisms, says this move had been necessitated by the feedback received from users. The statement explains: You have expressed your concerns about the high gas fees on Uniswap and how much of a hurdle these fees are to purchasing UTU coin. However, the statement still warns users to be on the lookout for scams and fake liquidity pools. In addition, the statement also lists down some of the steps that users must adhere to if they are to successfully buy UTU tokens on Pancakeswap. In the meantime, the tech start-up reveals that as much as $150,000 in see...

Ethan Allen, a U.S.-based furniture company, has been getting strange traction in markets this year, due to an interesting coincidence. The company’s stock ticker is the same as ethereum’s ticker, something it shares with one of the hottest cryptocurrencies right now. This has caused confusion among investors, who have bought Ethan Allen without doing research and thinking they are buying ethereum. Ethan Allen Enjoys Ethereum’s Market Ticker Ethan Allen, a Nasdaq-listed custom furniture company based in Vermont, has been getting a special kind of attention in the market this year, as its shares are going up for no apparent reason. But what’s the cause of all this? Confusion it seems. It turns out that Ethan Allen’s shares its ticker ( ETH ) with ethereum , one of the most popular cryptocurrencies in the market right now, making investors ape in furniture company shares rather than in digital currency. And while this might sound incredible to some, the comments on the social board...

Two brothers have shared the story of how they became millionaires after investing in Shiba Inu, the cryptocurrency nicknamed “dogecoin killer,” for just under two months. Before the investment, the covid-19 pandemic almost killed their business, and the government’s stimulus checks did not last long. Shiba Inu Crypto Investors Become Millionaires Two brothers from Westchester, New York, have shared their story of how they went from nearly jobless, and relying on the government’s stimulus checks, to becoming multimillionaires by investing in cryptocurrency, CNN reported Friday. Tommy, 38, and James, 42, put $200 each into Shiba Inu (SHIB), the ERC-20 token nicknamed “dogecoin killer,” in late February. One Shiba Inu coin was worth a fraction of a cent at the time but one of their friends, whom they called “a crypto expert,” told them that the coin could be a big moneymaker. In just two months, the brothers became millionaires. Before investing, Tommy said: I kind of thought abou...

A new report shows that the banking system consumes more than twice the amount of energy that bitcoin does. The authors analyzed bitcoin’s energy usage and compared it to the banking and gold industries. Banking System Consumes Much More Energy Than Bitcoin Galaxy Digital published a report last week entitled “On Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption: A Quantitative Approach to a Subjective Question.” The authors described, “This report took a quantitative approach, comparing Bitcoin’s energy usage to that of other industries.” Within the report was an energy consumption comparison between the banking system, gold, and bitcoin. According to the report, the Bitcoin network consumes an estimated 113.89 TWh/yr in total. The estimate comprises miner demand, miner electricity consumption, pool electricity consumption, and node electricity consumption. While the report estimates that the gold industry utilizes roughly 240.61 TWh/yr, it says that the banking system consumes the most energy. ...

Bitmain, one of the largest application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) manufacturers in the world, is reportedly working with the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) in order to leverage TSMC’s 5nm semiconductors. Industry sources say that the 5nm chips being created for Bitmain will start production in the third quarter. Chip Maker TSMC Reportedly Producing Semiconductors for the Mining Rig Manufacturer Bitmain Faster bitcoin mining rigs manufactured by Bitmain may be coming at the end of 2021 or possibly next year. A recent report published by digitimes.com says that Bitmain has placed 5nm chip orders with the Taiwan-based chipmaker. TSMC has reportedly been contracted by Bitmain so the company can leverage the foundry’s N5 fabrication process (5nm). Currently, the world’s fastest bitcoin miners on the market crafted by firms like Bitmain, Canaan, and Microbt leverage chips between 12nm to 7nm. The digitimes.com reporters Monica Chen and Jessie Shen claim tha...

Bitcoin and a slew of digital currency markets are seeing significant losses on Sunday as a majority of coins are down between 2-15% during the last 24 hours. The entire crypto-economy has dropped more than 6% and bitcoin dominance is down to 40% the lowest the metric has been in two years. Crypto Markets Face New Lows Cryptocurrency markets lost billions on Sunday, as the price of the leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) slid from $49,800 to a low of $44,070 per unit. BTC lost 5.5% today and during the past seven days, bitcoin shed more than 20% in value. Bitcoin ( BTC ) dominance levels have dropped to the lowest levels in two years. Crashing to a low of 40% on Sunday, while ethereum ( ETH ) captures 18.9%. Besides ETH , coins like BNB , ADA , XRP , DOT, and others have been eating away at BTC ’s dominance index. BTC /USD on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. (ET). At press time, bitcoin ( BTC ) is trading for $44,644 per unit. The second-largest crypto asset, in terms of market valuati...

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Spacex, has doubled down on its bet that dogecoin can become a currency able to address Tesla’s new set of environmental requirements. The entrepreneur has tweeted he is now working with Dogecoin developers to improve the currency, hoping it can evolve to be more energy efficient in the future. Elon Musk’s Dogecoin Vision Elon Musk is at it again. Having raised awareness about the energy consumption and the carbon footprint of the Bitcoin (BTC) network, he has now presented a contender of his own to fulfill the role of a green, sustainable currency for the future: Dogecoin. Earlier this week, Musk revealed he was working with Dogecoin developers to find a way of making improvements to the currency to make it more efficient. This would be in line with what Tesla expressed in its press release when it announced it would not accept bitcoin payments due to environmental issues, stating it was looking other at cryptocurrencies that used less than 1% of Bit...

Shark Tank star and the owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks, Mark Cuban, has made an argument that accepting cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, will actually help the environment. He told Elon Musk, whose electric car company Tesla has suspended accepting bitcoin, citing environmental problems. Mark Cuban vs Elon Musk Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Mark Cuban has a message for Elon Musk after the Tesla CEO announced that his electric car company has suspended accepting bitcoin for payments. Cuban tweeted Wednesday: We at Mavs.com will continue to accept BTC / ETH /DOGE because we know that replacing gold as a store of value will help the environment. Tesla cited environmental issues as the reason for the suspension of bitcoin payment acceptance. “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” Tesla wrote . In his tweet to Musk, Cuban cited an article ...

Norwegian billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke says bitcoin becoming mainstream is inevitable. Unlike Tesla, which stopped accepting cryptocurrency, Rokke’s company is now considering accepting bitcoin as a means of payment, emphasizing that Elon Musk’s comments about the cryptocurrency’s environmental issues have not changed anything. Norwegian Oil Mogul Dives Deeper Into Bitcoin Norwegian oil billionaire Kjell Inge Rokke believes that bitcoin could be worth millions of dollars. He owns almost 70% of the industrial investment company Aker ASA, which owns oil producer Aker BP that recently branched out into green technology and renewable energy. Rokke’s enthusiasm for bitcoin has made an impact on Aker, which now says it is open to the idea of accepting payments in BTC , Bloomberg reported Saturday. “We’re curious about this technology,” Aker CEO Oyvind Eriksen was quoted as saying. He explained that the payment system has not been configured to accept cryptocurrency yet, but noted that...

Over the course of the last week, the concern tied to the environmental impact bitcoin mining produces continues to be a very topical discussion. On May 14, the musician and activist, Sean Ono Lennon, the son of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, said that he’s more concerned with consumerism than those complaining about bitcoin’s use of electricity. Sean Ono Lennon Pokes Fun at Wasteful Consumers Complaining About Bitcoin’s Electricity Use Sean Ono Lennon , the son of the Beatles’ John Lennon, is a fan of the leading digital currency bitcoin (BTC) . Back in November 2020, Lennon discussed the subject on the “Orange Pill” podcast with hosts Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert. During the interview, Lennon told the “Orange Pill” podcast hosts that he felt like “bitcoin is something that empowers individuals.” The British-American musician further added that bitcoin “empowers people in a way they’ve never been empowered before.” Sean Ono Lennon is a musician, songwriter, and activist and the son o...

On May 15, the Bitcoin Cash upgrade was applied successfully to the blockchain, bringing a slew of features directed toward improving the overall experience of users. This particular upgrade marks the start of a new upgrade schedule that will allow developers to invest more time in testing new features added to the protocol in the future. Bitcoin Cash Update Applied Successfully The latest Bitcoin Cash update , which proposed a set of important changes, was applied successfully to the network Saturday afternoon. This specific upgrade provided improvements that would tackle user experience and offer better security against double-spending. Happy Bitcoin Cash Upgrade Day 🥳 — Bitcoin Info (@bitcoininfo) May 15, 2021 The new features were applied to the chain with no problem, and at the time of writing, 82 blocks have been mined with the new rules, according to Coin Dance . This update marks a new era in how developers manage protocol updates, contrasting with how things were do...

Cobie, the host of the Uponly podcast and a popular crypto Twitter personality, bolstered a fundraising session for John Oliver, a six-year-old kid that is currently battling leukemia. The initiative was quite successful, getting the attention of the likes of FTX executive Sam Bankman Fried, and managed to raise more than $800,000 to pay for Oliver’s treatment. Cobie Livestream Mob Raised $800K Cobie, otherwise known as “Crypto Cobain,” hosted a livestream event for John Oliver Zippay, a 6-year-old child who is currently battling leukemia. The idea of fundraising for the child came from another crypto Twitter influencer nicknamed “Ice Bagz.” The crypto pundit Ice Bagz saw the story of John Zippay and decided to contribute to the family of the child dealing with medical bills due to the situation. The fundraising event was a big success and managed to get attention from all corners of crypto Twitter. One of the big highlights was the appearance of Sam Bankman Fried , CEO of FTX Ex...

Cryptocurrencies have been a cause for concern in Teheran as the digital assets have attracted capital from other, traditional markets. The parliament’s leadership has now asked the tax agency to profile the owners of Iranian platforms facilitating cryptocurrency trading and report to the Majlis. Parliament Speaker Asks Tax Agency to Report on Crypto Trading Platforms The Islamic Consultative Assembly, Iran’s legislative body also called the Majlis, has joined the debate over how to regulate decentralized financial assets such as bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies have enjoyed a growing popularity among Iranians in the past year, amid rising crypto prices and plunging Iranian stocks. Calling for a cautious approach to dealing with related issues, the parliament’s speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf stated: Imposing a ban on crypto trade in and of itself is not enough. The Central Bank of Iran is in charge of authorizing exchange shops. The CBI needs to develop precise regulations vis-à-vis the ...

A popular international music festival, Exit, is now accepting cryptocurrency for tickets, products, and services. This year’s 20th-anniversary edition of the European event will be held in early summer and the festival’s online store already offers discounts for impatient music fans and visitors. Fans to Pay With Crypto for Festival Passes and Accommodation Bitcoin, the organizers say, is a fast and secure currency that has dramatically challenged the current norms of finance and governance. That’s why the festival now offers crypto enthusiasts among music fans the option to pay for tickets and passes, airport transfers, camping accommodation, and more using their digital coins. In a press release on the introduction of crypto payments, Exit stated: With the growth of blockchain, digital currency and non-fungible tokens, Exit recognizes that festivals should adapt and embrace new technologies to cater for their audience needs. “The potential of blockchain, digital exchange, an...

This week a great number of bitcoin supporters and skeptics have been arguing over whether or not bitcoin mining is harmful to the global environment. However, crypto supporters have been saying that concerns over the Bitcoin network’s energy supply are absurd, in contrast to the carbon used and the military violence that backs a number of fiat currencies including the U.S. dollar. One could even go as far as to say that the American dollar alone has left boot prints on large groups of humans over the years and desecrated entire countries. Musk and Dorsey Still Use US Dollars When They Know the Currency Leverages Massive Amounts of Carbon and Military Force Elon Musk and his electric car company Tesla ignited a ferocious debate over bitcoin mining and how it affects the global environment. Similarly, the founder of Square and Twitter, Jack Dorsey, added fuel to the argument when his company’s CFO said the payment firm has no current plans to buy more bitcoin ( BTC ). Dorsey then ...