Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

On Saturday, Bitcoin’s SHA256 hashrate managed to climb back above the 100 exahash per second region after it slid to a low of 91 EH/s three days ago. Meanwhile, in five days the network’s mining difficulty change is approaching and it could see the difficulty drop over 20%. Bitcoin Hashrate Climbs Back Above 100 EH/s, Difficulty Could Drop More Than 20% Next Week Statistics show that bitcoin (BTC) miners are processing blocks a lot faster, as the hashrate has improved during the last 48 hours. On June 26, 2021, the network’s hashrate jumped back above the 100 EH/s zone . The hashrate fell to 91 EH/s on June 23, 2021, following the crackdowns in China stemming from five Chinese provinces with the most recent being Sichuan. Between then and over the last three days, the hashrate has increased 9-13%. The next mining difficulty drop is expected to happen in five days and at current processing power, it could drop around 20.57%. At the time of writing, the network’s mining diff

Iranian authorities have so far authorized 30 facilities for cryptocurrency mining. The crypto mining farms are spread across several regions, including Tehran Province. The government has put out the data amid a crackdown on illegal miners in the country. A Third of Authorized Mining Farms Are Based in Two Provinces The Iranian Ministry of Industries, Mining, and Trade has issued licenses to 30 cryptocurrency mining centers, the Financial Tribune revealed this week, quoting official figures published on the department’s website. One of these mining farms is based in Tehran Province where the nation’s capital is situated. Semnan Province, the administrative region to the east of Tehran, is home to the largest number of licensed facilities, with six crypto farms. Alborz Province is next with four, followed by Mazandaran, East Azerbaijan, and Zanjan provinces. The ministry has also issued 2,579 establishment permits for new industrial units across the Islamic Republic, 305 of whic

Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to have “the talk” at the bitcoin event called “The B Word,” which aims to show institutional investors how they can embrace bitcoin. Elon Musk vs. Jack Dorsey at Bitcoin Event Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk and Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey have agreed to have a discussion at a bitcoin event called “ The B Word .” According to its website, The B Word event will take place on July 21. It is a “Bitcoin focused initiative that aims to demystify and destigmatize mainstream narratives about Bitcoin, explain how institutions can and should embrace it, and raise awareness around areas of the network that need support,” its website details. Dorsey, who will be a featured speaker at the event, tweeted promoting the event on Thursday. “As more companies and institutions get into the mix, we all want to help protect and spread what makes bitcoin open development so perfect. This day is focused on education and actions to do ju

The chief investment officer of asset management firm Guggenheim, Scott Minerd, thinks he knows where the real bottom of bitcoin’s price is. He warns that the price of the cryptocurrency could fall to the $15K level. Guggenheim’s Scott Minerd Sees Bitcoin Bottom The chief investment officer (CIO) of Guggenheim Partners, Scott Minerd, is back with another bearish prediction for bitcoin and a forecast of where the “real bottom” of the bitcoin price is. 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 Friday: The real bottom, when you look at the technicals, $10,000 would be the real bottom. You know, that’s probably a little extreme, so I would say $15,000. This prediction followed his comment Tuesday on Twitter when he wr

Just before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published the organization’s 12-month review, a working group called the Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) released its 2.0 version of the TRP crypto application programming interface (API) in order to “simplify the end-user crypto exchange experience.” TRP is backed by big banks like Fidelity Investments, Standard Chartered, and ING Bank and 25 virtual currency service providers (VASPs). Travel Rule-Focused Crypto Working Group Releases Protocol Version 2.0 The Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) is an organization that aims to enhance crypto financial transaction data in order to comply with KYC/AML policy. The organization is backed by large financial institutions and crypto exchanges and custodians like Bitgo, Coinbase, Kraken, and Gemini. The Travel Rule Protocol (TRP) was revealed last year as 25 American-based VASPs published a paper showing how the businesses aim to comply with the FATF Travel Rule. The organization also released a TRP cr

The blockchain intelligence and surveillance firm Chainalysis announced the company has raised $100 million in Series E funding from investors such as Coatue, Benchmark, Accel, Addition, Dragoneer, Sequoia Heritage, and SVB Capital. The financing brings the company’s valuation to $4.2 billion and it aims to expand its resources and deepen data to cover more cryptocurrencies and focus on use cases like decentralized finance (defi). Chainalysis Raises $100 Million, Blockchain Intelligence Firm’s Valuation Now Over $4 Billion The blockchain Satoshi designed is a transparent ledger and transactions can be traced all the way back to the genesis block. This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that a person can pinpoint with accuracy the identity of the individual or organization behind a cryptocurrency transaction. Nevertheless, this data does help an investigator get closer to that answer. In Bitcoin’s early days, blockchain surveillance was mostly nonexistent, but a few years after the

The New York City mayoral candidate in the lead, Eric Adams, has promised that in one year New York will be “the center of all technology,” including “the center of bitcoins.” He will compete with Miami where Mayor Francis Suarez had a head start turning Miami into a bitcoin hub. Mayoral Candidate Promises to Turn New York City Into the Bitcoin Hub The 2021 New York City mayoral election is underway. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a former police officer, is currently in the lead. He led the first round of voting with 31.7% support. Civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley came second with 22.3%, followed by the city’s former sanitation commissioner, Kathryn Garcia, with 19.5%. Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang came in fourth with 11.7%. During his election night party speech last week, Adams said: I’m going to promise you. In one year, one year, you’re going to see a different city … We’re going to bring businesses here. We’re going to become the center of life science, th

At age 75, the former antivirus tycoon and cryptocurrency advocate, John McAfee, passed away by reported suicide. McAfee was a wild and charismatic man but prior to his death, he was facing tax-related charges and extradition to the United States. For the last few days, the internet has seen myriad theories and assessments of McAfee’s wild rollercoaster of life and death. Jeffrey Epstein Conspiracies and a ‘Dead Man’s Switch’ Theory Follow McAfee’s Death in Spain Three days ago, Bitcoin.com News reported on the death of John McAfee after the Catalan justice department in Spain announced his alleged suicide. Prior to McAfee’s reported death, the Spanish high court ruled in favor of the U.S. government’s attempt to extradite him. Spanish officials told the newspaper, El Pais, that “everything pointed to suicide.” However, when the news went viral on the web, many said they believe McAfee would never take his own life, and speculation about a ‘dead man’s switch’ conspiracy began to

At its core, social media is a web-based communication tool that facilitates constant and instant interaction and sharing of information between people. On one hand, social media enables socialization and promotes togetherness. On the other hand, it can leave your data open to the world and put a person’s privacy and information at risk. If this data could be linked and managed by each individual personally, social media could become a truly decentralized platform that majorly benefits users – rather than third parties. That’s where Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) come in. NFTs are steadily becoming the future of artistic expression and providing real income for users. Creating music and then being able to trade that music and/or be paid royalties when that music is used elsewhere. This development in the digital world completely revolutionizes the world of music production and transforms art/music into revenue for NFT artists. With all this possible through NFTs, Omni sets its objectiv

A New Orleans resident has been charged for selling bitcoin without registering with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). If convicted, the seller may receive a maximum of five years in prison, a maximum $250,000 fine, up to three years of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory special assessment. Bitcoin Seller Faces Jail Time The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday that a New Orleans bitcoin seller named Michael Yusko has been charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. The announcement details that “Under federal law, any business that engages in ‘the acceptance of currency, funds, or other value that substitutes for currency from one person and the transmission of currency, funds, or other value that substitutes for currency to another location or person by any means’ is deemed to be a money transmitting business.” It adds: Such businesses include those that trade fiat currency, such as U.S. dollars, for cryptocurrency, su

British auction house Christie’s will accept bitcoin and ether for a painting worth an estimated $6 million. The digital wallet used to pay for the painting must be held at one of the approved custodians, such as Coinbase, Fidelity, Gemini, or Paxos. Paying for Paintings With Bitcoin at Christie’s Christie’s, one of the largest auction houses in the world, will accept cryptocurrency for a painting by Keith Haring at its “20th/21st century” sale in London next week. Katharine Arnold, co-head of post-war and contemporary art for Christie’s in Europe, told Reuters that the painting “is probably the very first example that we see of an artist celebrating the computer.” She elaborated: “It was 1984 that Apple Macintosh was first launched. So it’s really a piece of history.” Arnold added: So the potential for paying in cryptocurrency for the full hammer price and buyer’s premium was something that felt like this was a perfect marriage. The painting has an estimated value of 3.9 milli

Cryptocurrency companies and exchanges are currently facing significant hurdles when recruiting talent. This is because the crypto space is growing at an alarming rate. Traditional finance companies entering the scene seem to be making the talent squeeze even more dire. There are hundreds of positions available at cryptocurrency-based companies waiting to be filled. The Crypto Talent Squeeze Is Real Cryptocurrency companies are struggling to get adequate talent for thousands of available job openings, and companies are fighting for the attention of potential employees left and right. Binance, one of the biggest exchanges in the world, is not out of this equation. There are more than 300 spots available at the booming exchange, but there are few people to fill them. What’s even worse, exchanges and startups are now fighting with banking institutions entering the space for access to this talent. This makes it even harder for a new company to scoop up qualified new hires. Changpeng Z

The Palestine Monetary Authority is exploring the possibility of issuing its own digital currency. For Palestinians, the minting of a national coin would represent a step, at least a symbolic one, towards achieving monetary independence from the State of Israel. Digital Currency to Help Palestinians Cope With Israeli Restrictions Palestinians are currently conducting two studies on the matter of digital currency. While a decision is yet to be taken, the intention is to eventually employ a digital coin “for payment systems in our country and hopefully with Israel and others to use for actual payments,” Feras Milhem, governor of the Palestine Monetary Authority ( PMA ), told Bloomberg Television. A digital currency issued by the institution that would one day become the central bank of a Palestinian state could potentially provide the Palestinian financial system with a level of monetary independence from Israel. In accordance with the ‘90s accords with the Israeli side, Palestinian

Marvel Entertainment has announced the company is stepping into the realm of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and the popular comic book creator explains that Marvel fans will be able to buy “official Marvel NFT digital collectibles, digital comic books and more.” Marvel to Release NFT Digital Comics and Collectibles via the Veve App The comic book and film giant Marvel Entertainment is getting into NFTs according to a press statement released on Thursday. The announcement notes that Marvel aims to launch digital collectibles, digital comics, and other NFT products. “Since the beginning, collecting has always gone hand in hand with being a Marvel fan,” Dan Buckley the president of Marvel Entertainment said in a statement. “Like us, Veve understands collecting is about the experience just as much as the product, and we look forward to extending that experience for our fans over the years to come,” Buckley added. The comics sta

Over the last seven days, there have been close to 18,000 non-fungible token (NFT) primary sales worth over $12.7 million. This week also saw a great number of non-fungible token (NFT) announcements surrounding big names like DeLorean Motor Company, the renowned NFT artist Beeple, the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia, USA Today and more, as the NFT ecosystem continues to swell. Beeple Launches NFT Platform After making history with his $69 million non-fungible token (NFT) art auctioned at Christie’s, Mike Winkelmann, more commonly known as Beeple, revealed the launch of an NFT platform called we.new . The we.new platform is “a curator and provisioner of iconic moments as non-fungible tokens (NFTs),” according to the announcement. Beeple’s we.new project has partnered with well known companies like Wasserman, Endeavor, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. By working with Endeavor’s IMG, the web portal’s first release celebrates Andy Murray’s historic victory at Wimbledon in