Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

There’s a lot of buzz in China around the Bee mainnet soft launch following the recent hype surrounding Filecoin and Chia. Reports detail that Swarm is set to kickstart the mainnet on June 13, and droves of miners from China are getting prepared to obtain rewards from the distributed storage platform and content distribution service. Swarm Preps to Launch Mainnet and Native Token BZZ This Sunday, the anticipated Bee mainnet launch is supposed to happen according to a blog post published by the Swarm Foundation. The Swarm project details can be found on ethswarm.org which details that Swarm is a distributed storage platform and content distribution service that leverages an ethereum web3 stack. Here is a detailed video showing our friends in #China how to install a Bee node. Install your Bee node, become a part of the network and take part in the 1 million BZZ token airdrop at the same time. https://t.co/HjzU3uX5rL #ethswarm #Ethereum — Ethereum Swarm (@ethswarm) February 21, ...

On Friday, June 11, 2021, data shows that Taproot could get locked-in this coming weekend, as the signal ratio is 98.3% and a touch more than 100 additional signaling blocks are needed to lock in the upcoming soft fork. Bitcoin Upgrade Taproot Inches Toward Lock-in, Success Means Activation in November Participants involved with the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network are preparing to see a softfork in November if the signaling status of “Speedy trial support for versionbits #21377” gets locked in this weekend. According to the Github “Taproot-Activation” documentation , the Bitcoin Taproot upgrade involves an “upgrade that can be deployed as a forward-compatible soft fork.” The upgrade also combines the “Schnorr signature scheme with MAST ( Merklized Alternative Script Tree ) and a new scripting language called Tapscript, Taproot will expand Bitcoin’s smart contract flexibility, while offering more privacy by letting users mask complex smart contracts as a regular bitcoin transaction.” Bit...

Nigeria is likely to have its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) by the end of the year, an official with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said. In his remarks following the bankers’ committee meeting, Rakiya Mohammed, who is the director of information technology at CBN, also revealed that this “digital currency would be accessible to all Nigerians.” Stakeholder Involvement However, according to a report which quotes the IT director, the CBN’s digital currency will be unlike privately issued cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which a Nigerian senator has previously blamed for making the naira currency “almost useless.” Emphasizing the importance of this digital currency initiative, Mohammed said: We have spent over two years studying this concept of the central bank digital currency and we have identified the risks. And it is one of the reasons why I said we are setting up a central governance structure that would involve all industry stakeholders to access all the ris...

The Bank of Namibia (BON) has warned individuals investing in cryptocurrencies that it will not entertain their complaints should they get scammed. The institution argues that since its mandate does not currently cover digital currencies, it lacks the “legal power” to follow up on such complaints. Growing Namibian Interest in Crypto This latest BON warning about risks associated with cryptocurrency trading comes as Namibia is seeing increased reports of crypto investors losing money to scammers. As noted in one report, the scammers are using the promise of high returns as well as training opportunities to lure their victims. In the meantime, in his response to an inquiry from a local media outlet, the central bank’s spokesperson, Kazembire Zemburuka, asserts that as Namibia’s sole issuer of legal tender, the BON “does not recognise, support and recommend the possession, utilisation and trading of cryptocurrencies by members of the public.” While Namibia, like many other African s...

A Cryptopunk NFT was recently sold for $11.8 million during an auction organized by Sotheby’s. The sale, which also featured works of other artists, was organized virtually. Sotheby’s anticipates strong demand for this kind of digital good in the future, even as NFT fever has somewhat subsided in recent weeks. Cryptopunk NFT Sold for Almost $12 Million Sotheby’s, a leading art and luxury auction house, announced yesterday the sale of a Cryptopunk NFT for almost $12 million. The auction, titled “ Natively Digital ,” presented a group of curated works in the form of NFTs. While the feature of the auction was the Cryptopunk NFT, it also featured 27 other digital artworks. The Cryptopunk NFTs are the very first series of NFTs minted on the Ethereum network by Larva Labs back in 2017. While they were created and distributed for free at that time, they are now highly valued for their origin. There are 10,000 Cryptopunks in total, but the one auctioned was especially strange. Dubbed by ...

PRESS RELEASE. FootballCoin has launched a new version of its fantasy football game for EURO 2020, with a host of new features, NFT cards, and prizes. 11th June 2021, Dubai, UAE — Pioneering Football Fantasy Blockchain platform FootballCoin has launched the new version of its game for EURO 2020 . The announcement comes with increased prizes for all daily contests and a 100.000 XFC prize for the top managers in the game. EURO 2020 Fantasy Football For anyone who is either getting ready to watch the Euro 2020 matches, enjoys fantasy football or is passionate about cryptocurrency and the exciting world of NFTs; there could be no better entertainment than FootballCoin this summer. Euro 2020 Fantasy is a free-to-play game with NFT Player cards, and includes every match from the tournament in the FootballCoin daily contests. Players can register and play for free for the chance to win prizes in the platform’s native XFC coin, or convert those prizes into fiat currency. NFT Player ...

Homebuyers in the United States have found difficulties acquiring single-family homes after the year-long business shutdowns and lockdowns that followed Covid-19. It seems there’s a new wave of homebuyers in the U.S. real estate market, with buyers stemming from hedge funds, pension funds, clearinghouses, and financial services companies. The weight of real estate property under the U.S. banking system’s wings today has analysts and economists very concerned about the next financial crisis. Wall Street Bankers Are Buying up All the Single Family Homes in the US, New Breed of Buyers Pay 20 Percent Above Asking While the U.S. government and the Federal Reserve have told American citizens the nation’s economy is hunky-dory, investigators looking at statistics know something is not right. The public is well aware that the U.S. central bank increased its monetary supply more in 2020 than any year prior in the country’s history. Following the infamous ‘Black Thursday’ on March 12, 2020,...

An official at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and former member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB), Benoit Coeure, insists that bitcoin has not passed the test of being a means of payment. He calls El Salvador’s move to make the cryptocurrency legal tender “an interesting experiment.” BIS Official Doubts Bitcoin Can Function as Means of Payment in El Salvador Benoit Coeure, head of the Innovation Hub at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), commented on El Salvador’s move to make bitcoin legal tender Friday. He said at the launch of a regulatory research hub at the Bank of England (BoE): El Salvador, that is an interesting experiment indeed. A member of the BIS executive committee, Benoit Coeure was appointed head of the bank’s innovation hub in 2020. He was previously a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB). From 2013 to 2019, he chaired the BIS Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. El Salvador...

This week the United States senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, appeared on the Fox News television broadcast Hannity and discussed the leading crypto asset bitcoin. Cruz told Hannity he believes people are investing in bitcoin because they believe America is on the verge of an inflation crisis. Ted Cruz: ‘We’re Seeing Inflation — I Think People Are Going to Bitcoin as a Hedge Against That’ Following negative statements about bitcoin from U.S. senator Elizabeth Warren from Massachusetts, the Republican senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, gave his opinion about bitcoin this week. Cruz appeared on the Fox News television show Hannity with the conservative host Sean Hannity. The Texas senator had a lot to say about Joe Biden and explained that he thinks the Biden administration is undermining the American economy and foreign policy. “If you look at Biden’s foreign policy and you break the world into two groups, our friends and our enemies,” Cruz said during the interview with Hannity, “What does...

PRESS RELEASE. Bitcoin.com Exchange is thrilled to announce the listing of CWAP, being available to trade on the 11th June 2021 at 10:00AM UTC. CWAP was created by the DeFire team, as the native currency which sets the ‘right’ economic incentives via its platform. CWAP will start trading with USDT and BTC pairs. What is DeFire? DeFire is an order router across decentralized execution venues, or in layman terms, a DEX aggregator. What does it all mean? DeFire provides optimal order execution across the universe of decentralized exchanges and other order routing services. In other words, DeFire is in the business of offering the best rate for DeFi trading. The nature of value dynamics within the DeFi ecosystem flows from order flow originators (casual traders, institutional traders, wallets with DeFi facilities, etc.) to execution venues (DEX’s and lending platforms) as it is up to the trading agents where they choose to send their order flow. DeFire algorithmically optimizes thi...

The central banks of Switzerland and France are joining hands with the Bank for International Settlements to test wholesale central bank digital currencies in cross-border transactions. The experiment will be conducted with the help of a private sector consortium led by Accenture. European Central Banks to Collaborate on CBDC Project The Swiss National Bank (SNB), Banque de France, and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub have announced this week they’ll cooperate on trials exploring the use of wholesale central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) for cross-border settlements. The tests will be supported by an Accenture-led private sector consortium that also includes Credit Suisse, Natixis, R3, SIX Digital Exchange, and UBS. #BISInnovationHub @banquedefrance and the Swiss National Bank launch #ProjectJura – a collaborative experiment into wholesale #CBDC @SNB_BNS_en https://t.co/vtbMCSJA6i pic.twitter.com/lV7mKI7R0S — Bank for International Settlements (...

While the cryptocurrency market is gradually reclaiming the market capitalization it lost in May, the NFT ecosystem is in full bloom. New projects and platforms are flooding the world of NFTs, bringing fans and collectors a wider ensemble of epic collectibles. In this NFT roundup, we take a look at what’s new for the NFT community. Hoard Exchange NFT Marketplace to Help Users Loan and Stake NFTs Hoard Exchange , one of the largest digital goods marketplaces, has launched its NFT marketplace on Ethereum mainnet. The platform allows users to trade, rent, lend, and borrow in-game consumables, digital art, domain names, and various NFTs. The platform, committed to offering its users true ownership of virtual items, seems poised to take a significant stake in the NFT industry. Any user who holds NFTs and stablecoins can generate extra income through the platform through the lending and borrowing options. Enjin & Health Hero Team Up for NFT-Based Wellness App Full-stack blockchain...

A court in Russia’s Perm region has decided to block a number of websites describing how to exchange cryptocurrency for fiat cash. Local prosecutors claim the dissemination of this type of information is against the law in Russia as it may facilitate the laundering of illicit funds. Kungur City Court Blocks Crypto-Related Sites The Kungur City Court in the Russian Perm Krai region has upheld a request filed by the Beryozovsky District Prosecutor’s Office to take down several internet sites detailing various methods of cashing out bitcoin. The prosecutors who discovered the crypto platforms insist the publishing of such content violates Russian legislation on combating the legalization of crime proceeds. “It was established that information on methods of cashing out the Bitcoin cryptocurrency was freely available for viewing and using on certain Internet resources,” a press release explained, further noting: Taking into account that the legislation considers the exchange of virtu...

BarterTrade , is a cryptocurrency trading ecosystem that upgraded to more advanced V2 on 6th May, 2021, implementing significant benefits and new features for traders. Understanding crypto traders’ needs is a key ingredient of the relaunch, which includes features such as a 0% trading fee, institutional liquidity, auto KYC and a new customer support. Bartering or Trade with V2 Upgrade The V2 BarterTrade crypto exchange ecosystem brings in a plethora of improvements and features, carefully selected and designed to ensure a seamless user experience. This includes: 0% Fee on BART Trades : BART, the native token of BarterTrade allows users to access a 0% trading fee Social Trading : A fast-growing Industry feature which affords invaluable help to new traders who want to follow and learn from successful, experienced traders. Live Chat Support : No more bots. BarterTrade believes that the human touch is crucial in offering the best service to its users, and uses a improved support sys...