Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A young South African electronics engineer has rued his decision to delete a text document containing the keys and password to a crypto wallet that held some 20 bitcoins. According to the engineer, the lost coins had been mined more than ten years ago using a modified personal computer that “boasted an AMD Phenom X3 processor and 512MB RAM.” Low BTC Price and Lack of Exchanges According to a Mybroadband report, the 24-year-old engineer whose pseudonym is Mark Michaels, started mining the cryptocurrency “after reading about the technology on the internet.” At the time, the engineer was only in seventh grade. Although the report quotes Michaels stating he does not recall how long it took him to mine the BTC , it does however note that the value of bitcoin was still far below ($0.08 per BTC ) the one dollar mark at the time. This lowly price as well as the lack of crypto exchanges to sell the BTC eventually caused the then-teenage bitcoin miner to lose interest. The engineer explai...

HUMAN Protocol has launched on the Ethereum Mainnet. To complement this launch – which also involved the listing of HMT (the native token of HUMAN Protocol) on FTX and Gate.io on the 10th of August – the HUMAN Protocol Foundation has now released the HUMAN App : the first opportunity for people to earn HMT directly for completing data-labeling tasks, and the first gateway into the HUMAN experience. HUMAN Protocol provides the end-to-end infrastructure – the tools, plugins, integrations, and APIs – to hire, manage, validate, and compensate individuals at scale. It is designed to support the creation of global job markets in which almost any human or machine can publish a job and any Worker with the requested skill set, knowledge, or background can complete the tasks associated with that job. While in theory the Protocol may support any job, the current majority of HUMAN tasks – produced through hCaptcha – involve the labeling of images. These tasks are now available within the H...

The Shenzhen office of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has reportedly set out to correct the business activities of about a dozen companies allegedly engaged in cryptocurrency transactions. According to Chinese media, the entities have been targeted in a crackdown on crypto trading in the city. People’s Bank of China Cracks Down on Coin Trading in Shenzhen The branch of China’s central bank in Shenzhen is cracking down on illegal cryptocurrency trading, the Chinese business news outlet Cnstock.com revealed Tuesday. As part of the new campaign, the PBOC has “rectified” 11 companies “suspected of carrying out illegal virtual currency activities,” the report detailed. According to the article, the regulator has also identified a local financial website accused of illegally advertising foreign exchange cash deposit transactions. Furthermore, the People’s Bank of China has investigated eight cases involving illicit online foreign exchange operations and cross-border stock trading. ...

Lloyds Banking Group, the British parent company of Lloyds Bank, is currently hiring a “digital currency [and] innovation senior manager,” according to a recent job listing posted to BYP Network. Lloyds is one of the largest financial services firms in the world with close to $500 billion assets under management (AUM). The new digital currency job advertisement highlights the new employee will work with the firm’s mobile banking network with “over 30 million customers.” Lloyds Banking Group Is Hiring a ‘Digital Currency and Innovation Senior Manager’ A job listing published on BYP Network explains that Lloyds Banking Group is in need of a digital currency expert. Lloyds notes that the company’s Payments Liquidity & Settlement team is a newly formed venture unit and the group and “global network of bank relationships” details that they “look towards the future, digital currencies.” The job listing follows the recent surge of Fortune 500 firms that have been looking to hire di...

Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist says she puts faith in the entire U.S. financial system, the banking system, the power of the central bank, and the Federal Reserve more than bitcoin. Charles Schwab’s Strategist Skeptical of Cryptocurrency Charles Schwab Chief Investment Strategist Liz Ann Sonders shared her thoughts on cryptocurrency and the U.S. financial and banking systems on a Yahoo Finance webinar last week. The Wall Street strategist explained that she trusts the U.S. financial system more than she trusts cryptocurrency miners, stating: I still put some faith in the entire U.S. financial system, the banking system, all of its protections, as well as the power of the central bank, the Federal Reserve, to sort of control the fiat currency that is also the global monetary standard and the world’s reserve currency — versus, say, bitcoin miners. Regarding cryptocurrency, she said: “I am an admitted skeptic to some degree. I’m not on either end of the spectrum, mea...

U.S.-based crypto trading platform Bitfront is going to discontinue services in South Korea before stricter rules for the industry are enforced in September, Korean media reported. The exchange, a subsidiary of Japanese tech giant Line, is currently available to Korean traders. Line’s Bitfront Exchange to Discontinue Services for Korean Cryptocurrency Traders With tighter regulations on the horizon, digital asset exchange Bitfront is reportedly joining those platforms that are planning to pull out of South Korea’s cryptocurrency market. The U.S.-registered entity, which was established by the Japanese messaging app company Line, is going to limit its services in the country next month, Korean media revealed. According to Yonhap, the exchange will stop providing Korean-language service in mid-September. “Citing the tougher regulations, Bitfront also said it will discontinue payments with Korean credit cards on Sept. 14,” the news agency detailed in a report on foreign crypto exchan...

The Brazilian Federal Police launched Operation Compliance, a probe against cryptocurrency-related money laundering crimes last week. The probe resulted in the execution of several seizure warrants across the country, involving 150 federal policemen active in five different cities. Operation Compliance came about by way of an investigation that identified cryptocurrency-related money laundering crimes on the internet starting in 2018. Brazilian Police Fight Crypto Money Laundering The Brazilian Federal Police were deployed last week to scrutinize several locations that were allegedly linked to cryptocurrency-related money laundering operations. This following an investigation that started back in 2018. Operation Compliance required the involvement of 150 federal policemen, who carried out 34 search and seizure warrants in several cities of the country, including Goiânia, Campo Grande, São Paulo, Laranjal Paulista, Recife, and Vitória. But the Brazilian police did not only limit th...

On August 17, 24 Hours of Le Mans, the endurance sports car race held annually in Le Mans, France, and the European art collective the Automobilist revealed the launch of the first-ever 24H Le Mans’ non-fungible token (NFT) collection. 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Automobilist to Launch ‘Legends of Le Mans’ NFT collection The sports car race called the 24H of Le Mans is a popular race held every year in France and it’s the world’s oldest endurance car racing event. The first 24H of Le Mans was held in May 1923 and racers leveraged the public roads in the city adjacent to the Sarthe River. On Tuesday, 24H of Le Mans alongside the collective of automotive and motorsport aficionados called the Automobilist, announced the organizations will be dropping the race’s first NFT collection. According to the announcement the collection was crafted by the Automobilist , and the NFTs will be hosted on the blockchain services platform Bitski . The 24H of Le Mans and Automobilist NFTs will showc...

The Chinese multinational technology giant, Alibaba Group, has launched a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. According to regional reports, the Alibaba NFT platform not only provides customers with the ability to purchase and sell NFTs, but the marketplace also allows people to license and sell intellectual property (IP), as it is copyrighted by blockchain technology. Alibaba’s NFT Market Offers Blockchain Copyright Service Alibaba is a large corporation from China that specializes in internet services, technology, and e-commerce solutions. The company, founded in 1999, quickly catapulted to being one of the biggest in the world with $257 billion in assets under its wing. Alibaba has raked in $21.8 billion in revenue so far in 2021 and the company has been involved with cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions for years now. The billion-dollar company has launched its NFT marketplace this week according to a report published on August 17 by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). I...

Two U.S. lawmakers have urged the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to establish a joint working group for the regulation of crypto assets. SEC and CFTC Urged to Collaborate on Crypto Regulation U.S. Representatives Patrick McHenry and Glenn “GT” Thompson sent a letter to SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and acting CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam Monday regarding cryptocurrency. McHenry is the ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee while Thompson is the ranking member of the House Committee on Agriculture. The letter begins by referencing Gensler’s comments to Senator Elizabeth Warren stating that “additional authorities” and “resources” are needed for the oversight of the crypto industry. McHenry previously raised concerns that Gensler wanting jurisdiction over all crypto exchanges, including non-securities ones, is “a blatant power grab that will hurt American innovation.” ...

Fitch Ratings, the American credit agency and member of the ‘Big Three’ credit agencies, has published a paper on El Salvador’s adoption of bitcoin and making the crypto asset legal tender in the country. Fitch believes that after the country enforces the new tender law it will face “volatility risk” alongside “regulatory and operating risks” as well. Fitch Ratings Says El Salvador’s Bitcoin Adoption Invites New Risks In 21 days, El Salvador’s bitcoin tender law will be enforced after the bill to make bitcoin legal tender in the country was approved by the Salvadoran Congress supermajority on June 9. Since then a number of opinions have surfaced about the country’s choice to adopt bitcoin stemming from organizations like Bank of America, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) , members of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), and individuals like European Central Bank (ECB) president, Christine Lagarde . Now one of the Big Three credit rating agencies, Fitch Ratings , has ...

During the last few weeks, a crypto asset called solana has been making its way up the charts and has made it into the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Solana reached an all-time price high on Monday, capturing $74 per unit and an 80% gain over the course of the week. In addition to the fresh price highs, the Solana ecosystem has grown significantly with more than 300 projects leveraging the system. Solana Captures an All-Time Price High The crypto asset solana (SOL) has made it into the top ten cryptocurrencies in terms of market valuation on Monday. The digital currency SOL reached an all-time high (ATH) as well that day, when it jumped above the $74 handle. According to statistics, during the course of the seven trailing days up until Monday, SOL jumped over 80% in a week, 109% over the last two weeks, and 160% in the last month. Against the U.S. dollar, SOL has gained 1,960.5% during the trailing 12-month period. Solana’s official Twitter page has 393.4K fo...

PRESS RELEASE. Lagos – African-founded cryptocurrency exchange , Quidax is integrating with Polygon. Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Quidax’s integration with Polygon is Polygon’s first in Africa and represents a significant milestone as it gains increased developer adoption. As part of the integration, Quidax has listed Polygon’s native token Matic on its exchange. This will allow Quidax customers to trade Matic once it is listed. The listing of Matic on Quidax will also expose the exchange to new customers that want to trade the crypto asset. Beyond listing, Quidax will be bringing Polygon’s architecture to its customers. This will mean that Quidax customers will be able to access projects that are already in Polygon’s ecosystem and benefit from various services including lending, borrowing, staking, gaming, NFTs, and more. According to Buchi Okoro, Co-founder and CEO of Quidax, “the integration co...

As blockchain technology expands its horizons, attention is turning towards Hollywood with the introduction of a brand new decentralized series titled “HODL,” which will feature fan engagement tokens and highlight mining services-for-all. Audience to Gain Exposure to Token Incentives and Mining Art imitates life in one of the latest expressions of the blockchain universe as a tale involving a budding entrepreneur introducing a blockchain project advances towards viewers’ screens. Cudos , a decentralized layer 1 and layer 2 blockchain network, has joined with forthcoming TV series “HODL” and fan engagement protocol Sator to deliver a value-added experience for viewers through the mining platform. Short for Hold On For Dear Life, “ HODL ” will revolve around Aveer, a token project named after a lost friend, chronicling the ensuing comedy and drama. The decentralized TV series is set to air in 2022, drawing on influences from actual crypto life while featuring a lineup of real crypto...

A Ghanaian blockchain and crypto association, Afroblocks, has warned the Bank of Ghana (BOG) to resist the urge to develop a central bank digital currency (CBDC) that is based on the “old traditional siloed financial thinking.” Afroblocks Not Consulted Afroblocks (formerly Blockchain Society Ghana) instead wants the central bank to emulate “financial projects that are borderless and decentralized like modern-day cryptocurrencies.” According to Omar Majdoub, one of the association’s co-founders, doing this will increase the likelihood of the CBDC’s success. These remarks by Afroblocks’ Majdoub follow the BOG’s recent release of a press statement in which it reaffirms the central bank’s desire to be one of the first countries in Africa to launch a CBDC. As reported recently by Bitcoin.com News, the BOG has selected a Germany-based firm as its technology partner for its CBDC project. The firm, Giesecke Devrient, is tasked with the job of providing “the technology and a solution that ...

A Venezuelan individual has reportedly purchased an apartment using cryptocurrency, specifically Tether, in the coastal state of Anzoategui last month. This is one of the first purchases of real estate with crypto that has been recorded in the country, but more properties are listed as accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option in several real estate businesses across Venezuela. Venezuelan Buys Real Estate Property Using Tether An unidentified Venezuelan citizen bought a property with usdt, the stablecoin issued by Tether, last month in Anzoategui, a coastal state of the country. The citizen purchased the property using the stablecoin due to how easy transactions are, according to Carlos Grau, manager of Grau Real Estate, the company that assisted with the sale. Grau told Criptonoticias that the transaction was completed instantly, a big improvement on how these sales are usually handled using traditional finance tools. Grau stated: An operation of this kind takes between ei...

On December 11, 2019, the CEO of Twitter announced the company was funding a project aimed at creating a decentralized social media standard. Jack Dorsey said that the ultimate goal of the project dubbed “Bluesky” is for Twitter to be a client of the standard. A year and eight months later, Bluesky announced that a former software engineer from the Zcash project, Jay Graber, will be leading the Bluesky initiative. Crypto Dev Jay Graber Will Lead the Bluesky Project The Twitter initiative to decentralize social media called Bluesky will be led by someone involved with cryptocurrency development. On August 16, 2021, the former Zcash software developer Jay Graber announced that she will be leading the project going forward. “I’m excited to announce that I’ll be leading Bluesky,” Graber tweeted on Monday. “An initiative started by Twitter to decentralize social media.” The CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey , also welcomed Graber to the project on Monday. “Jay will be leading Bluesky,” Do...

The product comparison website Finder has published a report that polled 42 financial technology (fintech) specialists and found the average forecast from the group indicates they believe the crypto asset litecoin will be worth more than $200 by the end of 2021. The crypto asset launched by Charlie Lee in 2011, has been trading for prices between $175 and $187 over the last three days. Average Prediction Among 42 Fintech Specialists Say Litecoin Will Tap $266 by the End of 2021 In recent times, Bitcoin.com News has reported on forecasts concerning the price of bitcoin ( BTC ), ethereum ( ETH ), and dogecoin (DOGE) via finder.com polls. For instance, Finder’s expert panels suggest DOGE prices will hit $1.21 by 2025 and $3.60 by 2030 . Additionally, another panel report from finder.com shows experts believe ether’s value will reach $4.5K this year and $18K by 2025 . The Finder panel with 42 fintech candidates that discussed litecoin (LTC) shows most panelists agree, LTC is predicted...

A new study shows that ethereum is the most popular cryptocurrency among more than 4,000 adults surveyed in Singapore. The second-most popular crypto is bitcoin, followed by cardano. Singapore-Based Crypto Investors Prefer Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cardano The new 2021 State of Crypto in Singapore, a joint study by Seedly, Gemini, and Coinmarketcap, was published Monday. It contains a survey of 4,348 Singapore-based adults ages 18 to 65 across varying household incomes. The survey was conducted between June 29 and July 9. It included 2,862 respondents who said they were current crypto holders and 1,486 respondents who said they were non-crypto holders. One in five crypto holders surveyed were women. According to the survey results, 78% of respondents who had crypto said they owned ethereum ( ETH ), 69% said bitcoin ( BTC ), 40% said cardano ( ADA ), 31% said binance coin ( BNB ), and 25% said XRP . The report describes: Of the 2,862 crypto holders, 2,236 of them are currently holding ...