Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Chainalysis, one of the leading blockchain intelligence companies in the world, has announced it will now cover the Dogecoin network in its reports. The company argues that dogecoin became one of the most known cryptocurrencies in the world after being promoted by Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla during this year. This, consequently, has attracted criminals to the chain, that are now enticed to use it due to its popularity. Chainalysis Announces It Will Cover Dogecoin The blockchain intelligence company Chainalysis announced it will now include dogecoin (DOGE) , the infamous memecoin, in its upcoming reports. Dogecoin has gone from being a joke meme to becoming one of the most popular currencies in the market, moving big volumes after being promoted by Elon Musk , who has brought knowledge of it to the general audience. This has also put dogecoin in the eyes of criminals and regulators, like internet scammers that use the image of Musk and its relationship with dogecoin to steal cryptocur...

PRESS RELEASE. BENQI , an algorithmic liquidity market protocol, and the Avalanche Foundation are collaborating on a joint liquidity mining program to celebrate the launch of the BENQI protocol on the 19th of August and the next phase of growth within Avalanche’s DeFi ecosystem. $3MM of AVAX will be allocated as liquidity incentives for BENQI users, with additional incentive programs coming soon. The AVAX will be offered as rewards to users who are lending and borrowing AVAX, ETH , LINK, wBTC, USDT , and DAI on the protocol with BENQI. AVAX is the native token of Avalanche. It’s a hard-capped, scarce asset that is used to pay for fees, secure the platform through staking, and provide a basic unit of account between the multiple subnets created on Avalanche. BENQI recently closed a $6MM fundraising round backed by the Avalanche Foundation, Mechanism Capital, Dragonfly Capital, Arrington XRP Capital, & the Spartan Group. BENQI and Avalanche Brings High-Performance Borrowing and...

Afek Zard, a resident of Israel, has been sentenced to eight years in prison for embezzling a large sum of cryptocurrency that belonged to a friend of his. The man, who refused to cooperate with the investigation, will have to pay a hefty fine as well. Israeli Resident Sentenced for Cryptocurrency Theft The 27-year-old Zard received the sentence from the Be’er Sheva District Court, Israeli news outlet Ynet reported this week. According to the website, Zard stole 75,000 DASH worth an estimated 22 million Israeli shekels ($6.8 million). The fiat equivalent dates back to the time the theft took place. The coins’ current value is almost twice as high. Zard, who has not returned a single dash to this day, has been convicted of theft in aggravating circumstances and other offenses. The court has also imposed a fine of five million shekels (approx. $1.55 million) and a maximum compensation of 258,000 shekels (almost $80,000). The crypto thief, a resident of Eilat in Southern Israel, t...

A commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has criticized the securities watchdog for focusing on enforcement actions in its oversight of the crypto industry. SEC Commissioner Slams Agency for Focusing on Enforcement Actions in Regulating Crypto Assets SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce criticized her own agency Monday after it announced an enforcement action against cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex . She noted that the SEC’s action against the exchange “doubles down on the Commission’s enforcement-centric approach to crypto.” The securities watchdog alleges that Poloniex operated without being registered and planned internally to be “aggressive” in listing more assets in 2017 despite saying publicly that it would not list securities. The regulator said that in 2018 the exchange let users trade assets it deemed “medium risk” of being classified securities. Peirce, also known as “crypto mom,” argued that the SEC was taking its time in dealing with cryptocur...

Today, we’re excited to announce that Global Money Express Co. Ltd (GME Remittance), one of the largest non-bank remittance service providers in South Korea has joined RippleNet. Through RippleNet, Ripple’s global financial network, GME Remittance has connected to Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand’s largest bank in terms of market capital.  This partnership, established through SBI … Continued The post GME Remittance Joins RippleNet to Accelerate and Scale Payments from South Korea into Thailand appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S5Q528

The U.S. Senate has passed the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill with a crypto reporting requirement provision that has been described as “unworkable.” Senator Ted Cruz warned: “This infrastructure bill has in it a portion that is designed to obliterate crypto. That would be a tragic mistake.” Senate Passes Infrastructure Bill With ‘Unworkable’ Crypto Tax Provision The U.S. Senate voted 69-30 to approve the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill Tuesday without a crypto amendment. Many people have raised concerns about the cryptocurrency provision in the bill. Senator Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania called it “ unworkable .” Two amendments were put forward to rectify the situation. On Monday, the senators who sponsored the two amendments reached an agreement with the Treasury Department and a compromise crypto amendment was born. The Senate voted on the compromise amendment Monday afternoon. However, it required a unanimous consent agreement and Senator Richard Shelby from Ala...

Venmo, a Paypal service, has introduced the “Cash Back to Crypto” feature to allow credit card customers to automatically buy four types of cryptocurrencies with their cash back without incurring transaction fees. Cash Back to Crypto on Venmo Payments giant Paypal announced Tuesday a new feature on its Venmo platform called “Cash Back to Crypto” that enables Venmo credit card customers to “use monthly cash back in their Venmo account to auto-purchase cryptocurrency of choice, with no transaction fees.” The announcement details: Starting today, Cash Back to Crypto will be rolling out to Venmo Credit Cardholders, offering more ways to use cash back and expanding on Venmo’s crypto functionality, which launched earlier this year. Cash Back to Crypto will be available to all eligible Venmo Credit cardholders in the coming weeks, the company noted. Venmo launched crypto trading on its platform in April, allowing over 70 million users access to four types of cryptocurrencies: bitcoin...

PRESS RELEASE. EQIFI, a regulated and licensed decentralized platform for pooled lending, borrowing and investing Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and select fiat currencies, has announced that its native token, EQX, has been enlisted on the Bloomberg Terminal under the EQX ticker symbol. Bloomberg’s influential audience of financial and business decision-makers will now enjoy access to the price data of EQIFI’s fungible ERC-20 EQX token, which bestows numerous benefits and rewards to users on the platform. Jason Blick, Chairman of EQIFI, said: “We are delighted to see institutional investors gain access to EQX data, and thus open up the world of decentralized finance to a wider audience that very few DeFi protocols have access to. Providing exposure to global financial hubs is just the next step in positioning EQIFI to become an industry leader.” EQIFI operates under a community-focused, decentralized standard through its native EQX token, which allows community member...

Bitcoin’s hashrate has been steadily climbing after dropping to 69 exahash per second (EH/s) on June 28, as it reached a high of 117 EH/s on Tuesday morning (EDT). The rise in hashpower will likely lead to the highest difficulty expansion in 89 days as estimates currently show a 7.39% increase is due in two days. Bitcoin Block Rewards Expected to Be More Than 7% Harder to Find in 2 Days In a touch more than two days’ time, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is expected to jump over 7.3% as the crypto asset’s overall hashrate has improved a great deal. Since June 28, Bitcoin’s hashrate has jumped 69.56% and has been rising higher following the lift in market prices. Bitcoin hashrate over a 1-year zoom on August 10, 2021. On July 15, Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a high of 130 EH/s holding just below that zone for the last 25 days, and once in a while, it has tried to surpass the metric. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty makes it more difficult for miners to find blocks and during the last epoch, it ...

On August 10, the decentralized finance (defi) project Poly Network suffered a loss of over $600 million according to various reports. The hack follows a recent Ciphertrace report on how defi-related hacks and fraud in 2021 have already surpassed 2020. The Poly Network hack on Tuesday is well above the entire year’s worth of defi hacks. $600 Million Drained, Poly Network Defi Hack Eclipses 2021’s Defi Hacks This week, the blockchain analysis and intelligence company Ciphertrace published a report that shows $474 million was lost to defi-related hacks and fraud. The findings highlight how defi hacks have hit record highs but the Poly Network hack on Tuesday takes the cake. Around 9:00 a.m. (EDT) the Poly Network’s official Twitter account tweeted about the massive hack. “We are sorry to announce that Poly Network was attacked,” the Twitter account said and explained that the hacker was able to access funds on various chains. Poly Network hacked for over $600 million across Ether...

In the history of every successful startup, there comes a ‘defining’ moment – a moment when the vision of its founders clashes with the impossible and, against all odds, triumphs by becoming a reality. ADAX , a decentralized exchange (DEX) within the Cardano ecosystem, has just experienced that moment. We are thrilled to demonstrate that, as promised, ADAX’s trustless protocol will enable censorship-resistant token swaps within the Cardano ecosystem, make full use of ‘social sentiment’-based trading tools, and ensure ample asset liquidity through unique liquidity pools. For the last three months, our team of seasoned developers and finance professionals have been working tirelessly to hit this milestone. We are now proud to say that we are on the right track. Welcome to the DeFi world powered by frictionless transactions on ADAX.   Platform Key Features Modern UI/UX Our UX team have spent countless hours making sure that ADAX DEX is built according to the industry...

The South African businessman and CEO at Barrick Gold Corporation, Mark Bristow, recently explained in an interview that “no one believes in fiat currencies anymore.” Bristow says the world is currently “battling” on how to “position investments on the back of the unforeseen and unrealized damage of how the pandemic crisis was managed.” Mark Bristow: ‘Everyone’s Desperate to Find Alternatives’ Barrick Gold CEO Mark Bristow joined CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” this week to discuss the global economy, gold’s recent falter , and other types of investments. The Barrick Gold executive discussed the company’s goals and 2021 revenue on Monday as well, and noted that it didn’t expect inflation to hurt gold. While speaking with CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla, Bristow stressed that the gold market was a “long-term business” and further emphasized that “the gold price goes down and it goes up and not necessarily in that order.” Bristow showed a distaste for fiat currencies and how the world’s cen...

Duniapay, a digital banking platform created by three students from Burkina Faso, has added a personal savings feature to its banking application that already provides residents from some 14 West African countries with a flexible digital platform to access financial services. Using a Stablecoin to Save The new feature, which is viewed as another demonstration of the game-changing potential of blockchain technology, comes with an offer of over 8% annual interest on savings. This interest rate offer according to Duniapay surpasses the typical 3.5% interest that is offered by most traditional banks. A statement released by Duniapay reveals that this new feature became possible following the creation of the cxof stablecoin which was “developed by Duniapay on Celo’s decentralized finance ecosystem.” It is this stablecoin — which tracks the region’s CFA franc (XOF) — that enables residents of these countries “to easily save money and to earn interest.” As Radha Mathur of Duniapay explai...

AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc., plans to accept bitcoin by the end of 2021 according to CEO Adam Aron on an earnings call on Monday. Aron said the movie theater chain will start accepting the leading crypto asset once the company has information technology (IT) systems in place. AMC Plans to Accept Bitcoin According to Firm’s CEO On Monday, during an AMC earnings call, the company’s board members and CEO discussed cryptocurrency acceptance. AMC is the largest movie theater chain in the world as the firm operates 7,967 screens in 620 theatres across the U.S. and 2,866 screens in 358 theatres in the EU. Adam Aron said during the conference call that he learned about cryptocurrency when he was on the Centricus Acquisition Corp board. ​​“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” Aron told the earnings call participants. The AMC CEO added: This increased knowledge has given me the conf...

Sukhavati Network is to host its startup sale on Gate.io’s platform as part of the “Startup Project Free Airdrop Program”. The “Startup Project Free Airdrop Programme” was launched by Gate.io to provide users with early access to innovative and advanced projects, where VIP and GT users are entitled to a variety of token airdrop benefits. Additionally, Sukhavati Network will be listed on MEXC’s platform, see below for more regarding both events. Built on a hardware-based Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) and the Substrate framework, Sukhavati Network is a decentralized cloud network service that focuses on storage. With its low-consumption storage verification mechanism EPoSt (Efficient Proof of Spacetime), Sukhavati provides unified data storage, retro and management services for Web 3.0 applications. Gate Startup Sale Details The startup sale will commence on August 10th at 03:00 am (UTC), and last for 24 hours until August 11th at 03:00 am (UTC). To participate in the event, us...

The Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, is now looking to hire someone who understands digital currencies. According to the job posting, the role requires extensive expertise in the field of financial technologies. Mossad Recruiting Expert With Fintech Background Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, Mossad, is seeking an expert with a deep understanding of cryptocurrencies and a fintech background, the online edition of the Israeli national daily Yediot Ahronot, Ynet, reported. The job posting has appeared on the agency’s website. The full title of the vacant position is “A Technological Leader in the Field of Fintech.” It requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge in financial technologies and digital currencies. Responsibilities include “leading, initiating, planning, and accompanying systems development activities.” At least three years of experience in the fintech space is a must for those who apply, according to the Israeli intelligence service. T...

Uganda’s blockchain community welcomes the recent call on authorities to create a cryptocurrency regulatory framework, a board member of the Blockchain Association of Uganda (BAU) has said. The member, Suleiman Murunga, explains that such a framework “will create investor confidence and boost participation by innovators.” Uganda’s FIA Calls for Crypto Framework The remarks by BAU’s Murunga come just a few months after the country’s Financial Intelligence Authority (FIA) told the country’s Ministry of Finance to look into the possibility of regulating cryptocurrency. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, the FIA took the step of calling for regulation of cryptocurrencies after noting that only a few crypto entities had voluntarily registered. The FIA hoped to use the crypto industry’s compliance with the voluntary registration policy to bolster its own ability to “protect users and the larger economy” from the possible misuse of cryptocurrencies. Central Bank Prioritizing Im...

Tether Limited has released an assurance report reviewed by Moore Cayman, an auditor of investment funds and digital assets. The report provides a breakdown of the company’s assets and reserves which Moore Cayman claims are around $62.7 billion as of June 30. Tether Publishes Assurance Report On August 9, 2021, Tether’s chief technology officer tweeted that the company had published the firm’s “latest attestation” and a detailed “breakdown of reserves.” “Guess what? Tether is fully backed,” Tether’s CTO Paolo Ardoino said. “Rating of commercial papers is provided by S&P. Many people surely are already missing our famous pie chart,” he added . Vaneck’s Gabor Gurbacs also tweeted about the report on Monday and said: The latest Tether attestation is now out. Tether is continuing its effort to provide more transparency on the leading $62 billion stablecoin. In the recent attestation, asset breakdown, quality, and maturity/duration metrics are available. Well done. The assur...

In July 2021, the non-governmental organization (NGO) Save the Children in Rwanda announced it partnered with the Cardano Foundation on a project that allows well-wishers to make donations in the form of cryptocurrencies. Save the Children Meets ADA At the time, it was revealed that Save the Children’s acceptance of ADA donations was not the first time the non-governmental organization (NGO) had accepted crypto. In fact, Save the Children says it has been accepting donations in cryptocurrency form since 2013. However, some have questioned the wisdom of accepting donations in a form of currency that they argue is too volatile. On the other hand, others want to know why a charity organization that is over a hundred years old has chosen to work with Cardano. To understand why the NGO has made these choices, Bitcoin.com News reached out via email to Ettore Rossetti, Save the Children’s Senior Advisor, Digital and Marketing Innovation. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Cryptocurrencies are ge...

Refinable, a leading NFT marketplace, today announced the Refinable Gaming Initiative, an industry-specific program aimed at deepening its collaboration with the gaming developer community, supporting NFT communities with a community push to Play-To-Earn (P2E) initiatives within NFT gaming. Refinable’s decision reflects the incredible momentum in its marketplace as it relates to gaming NFTs. The company’s gaming partners – which include Seascape and ChainGuardians among others – have been gaining traction among Refinable marketplace’s users, as it continues to break new ground in blockchain gaming, creating compelling new experiences. Under this gaming initiative, the company has announced a series of service offering enhancements to provide greater flexibility, adaptability and monetary benefits to gamers and developers alike. Such enhancements include: Dedicated gaming marketplace Branded and verified profiles and collections Integration with existing NFT configurations Royal...