Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Trevor George Smith Jr., professionally as Busta Rhymes asked his 3.8 million followers on Twitter what they think about cryptocurrencies. Rhymes questioned if anyone was into crypto and how people were feeling about digital currencies at the moment. Busta Rhymes Asks If He Should Buy Crypto The American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor, Busta Rhymes, discussed cryptocurrencies on Wednesday afternoon. Rhymes is well known for his music career and also has seen the most nominations for a Grammy Award without winning. On Wednesday, Rhymes addressed his millions of followers on Twitter with a simple question. “Anyone here into crypto? How ya’ll feeling about?” the rapper asked . A great number of people responded to Rhymes and told him how they felt. “Feeling good since 2013,” the Twitter account dubbed “The Crypto Dood” said in response to Rhymes’ tweet. Rhymes didn’t just simply tweet about cryptocurrencies with just a one-liner either, as the rapper can be seen aski...

Free TON, a decentralized international community of developers and enthusiasts, have launched a brand-new contest to rework the Wikipedia Governance model, and there are thousands of dollars worth of rewards on offer. Freecyclopedia Wikipedia currently boasts over twenty-one million individual articles, and while many last minute homework reports may have been saved by the dusty halls of these hallowed community moderated forums, the way in which we verify information is evolving. As a cornerstone of internet information databases, it is vital that the way in which Wikipedia works, stays ahead of the curve. The key to this could come from a system familiar to blockchain governance specialists, Byzantine Fault Tolerance . Since May 2020, the Free TON community have been tinkering with the mechanics of governance models in their ambitious social experiment to decentralize the internet. Now, as they enter their second year of being, the community have launched a wiki-lutionary new ...

France has proposed giving more power to the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and making it responsible for cryptocurrency oversight. French regulators say cryptocurrencies need EU-wide regulation. EU-Wide Crypto Regulation With ESMA as Main Supervisor France proposed Tuesday that the EU governments give the responsibility of regulating cryptocurrencies to the pan-European markets watchdog, the Paris-based European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), instead of national regulators, the Financial Times reported. The French markets regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), has also called for more regulatory power to be granted to the ESMA to regulate the crypto industry more effectively. The AMF said: Granting ESMA the power of direct supervision of public offers of cryptoassets in the EU and of cryptoasset service providers would create obvious economies of scale for all national supervisors and concentrate expertise in an efficient way, ...

Visa is reportedly set to approve Australian crypto startup Cryptospend’s issuance of debit cards for spending bitcoin and several other cryptocurrencies. “We have a lot of demand for the card,” the company claims. Global card giant Visa is expected to announce later this week the approval of the issuance of a physical debit card that will allow Cryptospend app users to spend their cryptocurrencies using existing payment terminals, Cryptospend co-founder and CEO Andrew Grech reportedly said. “It will be the first time cryptocurrencies can be spent using a payments card issued in Australia that runs on the network of one of the international card schemes,” AFR publication reported Wednesday. Launched last October, Cryptospend supports bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, bitcoin cash, and XRP . Grech detailed: We have a lot of demand for the card. If the market is green, someone could say it’s time to spend some of my profits. On the other side of the fence, another person might say it’...

Bank of America’s latest global fund manager survey shows that “long bitcoin” is now the third most crowded trade. The most crowded trade is now “long tech stocks,” followed by “long ESG.” Bank of America’s global fund manager survey for July, published Tuesday, shows that “long bitcoin” has fallen to third place among the most crowded trades. The Global Fund Manager Survey is Bank of America Securities’ monthly report that canvasses the views of approximately 200 institutional, mutual, and hedge fund managers around the world. The most crowded trade is now “long tech stocks,” followed by “long ESG,” and “long bitcoin.” “Long commodities” has fallen to fourth place from being the most crowded trade last month. The surveyed fund managers in July were much less bullish over growth, earnings, and inflation compared to earlier in the year, Bank of America’s survey shows. Overall, 74% of fund managers still expect growth and inflation to be “above trend.” “Long bitcoin” was th...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged a token listing website with unlawfully touting crypto securities. The site did not disclose that it was paid by the token issuers to profile their coin offerings. SEC Charges Website Touting Security Tokens Without Clarifying Which Tokens Are Securities The U.S. SEC announced Wednesday that a token listing website has been “charged with unlawfully touting digital asset securities.” The commission also stated that it has already settled charges against the operator of the website. Coinschedule.com was a popular website that “profiled offerings of digital asset securities,” the SEC described, adding that its operator was a company based in the U.K. called Blotics Ltd. The regulator explained that the website was accessible in the U.S. from 2016 to August 2019, during which time U.S. visitors comprised a significant portion of its web traffic. The website offered details of each initial coin offerings (ICOs) profiled, inc...

During the first week of April, the publicly-listed gaming and internet company The9 Limited revealed its intentions to purchase 2,000 Avalonminers from the manufacturer Canaan. On Monday, The9 announced it has signed a hosting agreement with the Russian-based firm Bitriver as the company will leverage 15 megawatts (MW) of Bitriver’s capacity for two years. The9 Teams Up With the Bitcoin Mining Operation Bitriver The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY) has explained its plans to collaborate with the bitcoin mining company from Moscow, Bitriver. As part of the agreement, both parties can extend the two-year agreement for 15 MW for each additional year thereafter. “At present, the targeted data-center for The9’s mining machines has an initial total power supply capacity of 300 MW, which could be extended up to 500 MW,” the announcement details. The9’s deal with Bitriver follows the company’s acquisition of 2,000 bitcoin mining rigs from Canaan, which gave the company 0.1 exahash per second (EH...

The cryptocurrency community has been discussing the Bitcoinsv network as a mining pool called Taal has well over 51% of the hashrate. Data from the analytical crypto website Coin Dance shows the mining pool Taal commands over 78% of the network’s hashrate during the last 24 hours. On Tuesday, the European cold storage provider, Gravity, says it has suspended bitcoinsv trading “due to several large exchanges disabling BSV deposits [and] withdrawals.” Following Blockchain Reorganization Attack Last Week, Taal Captures Well Over 51% of the Bitcoinsv Network’s Hashrate According to statistics, a mining operation called Taal currently commands well over 51% of the Bitcoinsv ( BSV ) network’s hashrate. On Wednesday, the mining pool Taal captures more than 78% of the BSV hashrate in terms of distribution among five known pools and 13% of unknown hashrate. Data from the web page sv.coin.dance/blocks indicates that during the trailing seven days, Taal commanded 69% of the network’s hashp...

Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc., the mining firm based in Upstate New York, has announced the company has partnered with the Digital Currency Group mining and staking subsidiary Foundry Digital LLC. Furthermore, Greenidge revealed that it has purchased 2,300 Microbt-manufactured Whatsminer M30S mining rigs and also secured financing for 6,000 Bitmain-made Antminer S19 devices. Greenidge Partners With Foundry, 8,300 Bitcoin Miners Transferred in the Deal On Wednesday, Greenidge announced that the company has partnered with the Rochester, New York-headquartered Foundry , a company that provides North American crypto mining businesses with capital and intelligence. Greenidge will be joining the Foundry USA mining pool which currently commands the fifth-largest hashrate worldwide. At the time of writing, Foundry USA commands 10.46% of Bitcoin’s global hashrate or 10.23 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashpower. The bitcoin mining pool Foundry USA is the fifth-largest bitcoin mining...

Anhui has reportedly become China’s latest region planning to end cryptocurrency mining. The province is going to shut down all mining facilities due to power supply shortages, according to local media. Another source revealed that the state-run network operator has issued a closure notice for bitcoin farms across the country. Anhui to Halt Bitcoin Mining Amid Electricity Shortage The Eastern province of Anhui has joined what’s become a long list of Chinese regions where cryptocurrency miners are no longer welcome. According to media reports, provincial authorities want to shut down mining facilities and also prevent new energy intensive projects in order to address the power deficit in the province. According to a local news portal owned by the government-affiliated Hefei Media Group, which was quoted by Reuters and Bloomberg, the plan is to close down all crypto mining farms to deal with a serious supply shortage of electricity over the next three years. The report says data cen...

South Korea is deliberating on four crypto-related bills for the regulation of cryptocurrencies. “We are currently doing groundwork by searching for and analyzing data on 578 coins that have various forms,” the chairman of the country’s top financial regulator reportedly said. South Korea Prepares to Regulate Crypto Industry The South Korean National Assembly’s National Policy Committee is currently deliberating on four cryptocurrency-related bills for the regulation of crypto businesses and protection of investors, Business Korea reported Wednesday. The country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Commission (FSC), is also preparing to regulate the crypto industry. Chairman Eun Sung-soo reportedly said Tuesday: We are currently doing groundwork by searching for and analyzing data on 578 coins that have various forms. The chairman also confirmed that banks providing real-name accounts for cryptocurrency exchanges will not be held fully accountable in the event of m...

In a follow-up to Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s call for cryptocurrency action, a government minister has now announced plans to set up a crypto advisory team. This team, according to the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) minister Faustine Ndugulile, will consist of not more than 10 experts. Advisory Team to Be Set Up in 14 Days In addition, as one media outlet reported on July 9, the Tanzanian ICT Commission has been given 14 days to set up this team. This team is expected to “advise the government on policy, legislation and guidelines to enable the technology to be used effectively.” This announcement by the minister is the latest response by Tanzanian authorities to President Hassan’s call for forward-thinking steps regarding crypto. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Hassan asked the country’s central banks to prepare for cryptocurrencies. Already, the country’s central bank has confirmed it is “working on the directive given.” However, Ndu...

Representatives of law enforcement agencies and academia in Shanghai held a seminar devoted to cryptocurrencies, regulations, and the combating of crypto-related crime. Determining “the legal attributes of virtual currency” was among the main topics at the forum which also focused on matters of financial supervision. Prosecutors and Professors Discuss Crypto Oversight in Shanghai Amid an ongoing crackdown on cryptocurrency mining, trading, and other related activities in China, officials from law enforcement bodies, the judiciary, and academic circles in Shanghai gathered recently to talk about “virtual currency.” The debate focused on issues pertaining to applicable legislation and oversight as well as the challenges of providing a legal definition for cryptocurrencies and the treatment of crimes involving digital assets. Source: Shanghai Prosecutor’s office. The event was organized by various departments of the Shanghai Prosecutor’s Office, the People’s Court, the legal team ...

Save the Children in Rwanda recently became the latest member of the NGO community to endorse cryptocurrencies after it announced the establishment of a partnership agreement with the Cardano Foundation. ADA Donations According to a statement released by parties to the project, this arrangement became possible after Cardano “installed a payment gateway that allows ADA donations to come directly to the project without intermediaries.” Once received, the funds will be “invested in African-based social enterprises with a proven impact on children, families, or youth.” Already, some 22,000 ADA , worth nearly US$30,000, has been donated through the system within hours of its launch, according to the statement. Meanwhile, Maggie Korde, Save the Children’s country director in Rwanda is quoted explaining how cryptos and blockchain technology can help school children from the country. She said: Through Cardano, Save the Children in Rwanda now has a starter pot of the cryptocurrency ADA ...

Cryptocurrency trading volumes decreased significantly in June according to data from Cryptocompare, a price and volume tracking organization. Volumes traded diminished by at least 40% month-on-month, with spot and derivatives trading both suffering due to the mining and trading crackdown in China, amongst other factors. The resulting volatility seems to have made many traders lose interest. Trade Volumes Kept Falling in June Cryptocurrency trading volumes experienced a sharp decline in June, according to data from Cryptocompare. The data collected by the price and volume tracking organization shows that trading, in general, experienced a slump of at least 40%. Spot volumes suffered the most, with users trading 42.7% less compared to volumes in May. In total, $2.7 trillion was traded last month. Derivatives trading also suffered a sharp decline. Trading fell 40.7% month-on-month to $3.2 trillion. Analysts state this decline has to do with one key reason: the mining and cryptocurren...

In 2019, a man with Fabio-like hair entered the cryptocurrency scene with questionable claims when he told a slew of people he helped co-found the creation of Bitcoin. The self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor named Jörg Molt not only offered a “Satoshi School” but allegedly ran a number of scams on the side. The publication Bild reports the 48-year-old man was arrested by Bavarian police at Frankfurt Airport over accusations of fraud. Self-Proclaimed Bitcoin Inventor Jörg Molt Arrested in Frankfurt Jörg Molt once claimed he helped invent Bitcoin and also said he was good pals with ​​Andreas Antonopoulos after a wild appearance at the 2019 WCC Vegas Blockchain Week conference. Molt allegedly went around the conference in Las Vegas claiming to be the co-inventor of Bitcoin. After the story went viral, Antonopoulos discredited his claims and stressed that he didn’t know Molt at all. “Apparently, a German person called ‘Jörg Molt’ has been showing a selfie taken with me and telling peopl...

Four alleged masterminds of the “Oz Project” have been arrested after duping investors across Japan for at least four years. According to investigators, the scheme raked in $55 million from about 20,000 investors, promising 2.5 times returns in four months. Police in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, said Monday that four men have been arrested for defrauding investors in a cryptocurrency investment scheme called the “Oz Project.” The police said the group had amassed at least 6 billion yen (approximately $55 million). According to local media, the number of victims is between 10,000 and 20,000. According to investigators, the four men arrested were Shoji Ishida (59), Yukihiro Yamashita (61), Takuya Hashiyada (46), and Masamichi Toshima (52). Ishida is allegedly the operator of the Oz Project. They allegedly lured investors by promising them that their crypto investments would increase 2.5 times in four months. Investigators suspected that the group began duping people four year...