Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Leading US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced it will launch operations in Japan yesterday. The exchange will be partnering with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), a banking institution with more than 40 million customers, to make it easy for residents of Japan to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies. Coinbase Launches in Japan Coinbase, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, has launched operations in Japan, offering part of its products and services to Japanese customers. The blog post communicating the news confirms Coinbase will strive to offer an easy-to-use and regulated cryptocurrency product to users in the country. In this sense, Coinbase stated: In line with our global strategy, we will aim to be the easiest to use and most trusted exchange in Japan that’s fully compliant with local regulations. The company will also evolve products via localization to offer its full line of products to the Japanese market, including advanced trading...

PRESS RELEASE. Singapore – Following the much-awaited launch of the world’s first and only insured (POSI) DeFi token on PancakeSwap, iBG users can now expect the roll-out of yield farming, which will give every member of the community more opportunities at maintaining liquidity and scaling their wealth. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) has created a surge of opportunities for investors worldwide. As more and more people turn their attention towards digital assets and the FinTech revolution, iBG Finance is making it easier for the common individual to make the most out of this space with its official launch. DeFi platforms today are now using a method called yield farming to enable their community to scale their investment and transfer their wealth from one liquidity pool to another to enjoy the most attractive interest rates that they otherwise would not be able to attain in traditional financial institutions. As the industry continues to disrupt industries across the board and grow a...

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has made regulatory compliance its top priority. The exchange is on a hiring spree to “significantly” add to its compliance and legal teams. “We are going through a pivot from a technology innovator into a financial services company, so we need to be fully compliant,” said the CEO of Binance. Binance’s Regulatory Compliance Plans Binance is focusing on regulatory compliance as the exchange pivots from a technology startup into a financial services company, CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) explained in an interview with Bloomberg TV Tuesday. Commenting on crypto regulatory efforts in the U.S., he said: “The U.S. is very mature on the crypto regulation part. They are leading now. They have a cryptocurrency exchange listed on Nasdaq which is very positive.” The executive continued: When the new crypto regulations come in, many of them will be somewhat restrictive. That’s kind of expected. But over time, we do think that regulations will adjust with mar...

Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari says crypto is “95% fraud, hype, noise, and confusion.” He added, “I’ve not seen any use case other than funding illicit activities like drugs and prostitution.” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis’ President Says Crypto Is ‘95% Fraud, Hype, Noise and Confusion’ Neel Kashkari, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency Tuesday at the Pacific Northwest Economic Regional Annual Summit in Big Sky, Montana. Responding to a question about cryptocurrency given what Miami is doing with bitcoin and its own recently launched Miami coin, Kashkari said: I was more optimistic about crypto or bitcoin about five or six years ago. So far, what I’ve seen is 99% … Let me be charitable, 95% fraud, hype, noise and confusion. He also does not see any legitimate use case for bitcoin. “I’ve not seen any use case other than funding illicit activities like drugs and prostitution. I have not seen any...

On August 17, the decentralized exchange (dex) aggregator 1inch announced the platform will leverage the Layer 2 solution called optimistic rollups provided by the project Optimism. The collaboration with Optimism aims to “substantially increase transaction speeds and lower gas fees for 1inch users.” 1inch to Use the L2 Solution Optimistic Rollups via Optimism Gateway Ever since the Ethereum network has been dealing with transaction congestion and much higher fees in 2021, innovations revolving around Layer 2 (L2) scaling solutions and sidechains have been pushed to the forefront of conversations. For instance, sidechains like the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon (formally Matic) have been leveraged to stave off expensive ether gas fees. Other concepts include protocols that are not as battle-tested as the leading sidechains, but show the promise of reducing ether fees and network congestion. One specific concept called “ optimistic rollups ” has been a very popular L2 solutio...

President Vladimir Putin has tasked several ministries and the central bank to prepare to verify information provided by government employees about their digital asset holdings. The order comes as part of a new plan to combat corruption which was recently approved by the Russian leader. Authorities to Inspect Crypto Disclosures Filed by Russian Officials as Putin Approves Anti-Corruption Plan Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree approving the country’s National Anti-Corruption Plan 2021-2024. As part of the new strategy, the Russian head of state has instructed the ministries of finance, labor and digital development, along with the central bank, to propose inspections of officials who are obliged to disclose their digital assets and currency. The government departments and the Bank of Russia have until Nov. 15 to submit their proposals, the Russian business news portal RBC reported. The eventual checks must be able to properly establish how accurate and complete ...

PRESS RELEASE. Top6 Derivatives Exchange Bitget has launched a Global Ambassador Program in its latest announcement. Any crypto enthusiasts , professional traders, crypto community leaders and KOLs can apply to become a Global Ambassador of Bitget. Successful applicants can engage in community development of Bitget and share profits from its growth. What is a Global Ambassador? The past year has witnessed an excellent performance of Bitget in market expansion thanks to its efforts in compliance and localization. To better accommodate the rapid development of global markets and serve local users, the platform launches the Global Ambassador Program to attract more powerful partners to join its community. The opportunity is open to crypto lovers, professional traders, social media community leaders and KOLs across the globe. Global Ambassadors, preferably local people, are expected to create local communities on behalf of the platform and introduce its products and services...

Larry Dean Harmon, founder and operator of the bitcoin mixing service Helix has pleaded guilty on Wednesday to money laundering charges. Harmon’s guilty plea follows the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Fincen) fining Harmon $60 million last year. Helix Operator Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering, Conspiracy Charges According to several reports and a court- issued plea , Ohio resident Larry Harmon (38) pled guilty in a D.C. federal court on Wednesday for money laundering and conspiracy charges. Harmon detailed in court that he plans to cooperate with federal authorities after being accused of operating the bitcoin ( BTC ) mixing service called Helix from 2014 to 2017. U.S. prosecutors said that more than $300 million in bitcoin was transferred into Helix and sent out in an anonymous fashion. However, Charles Flood, the defense attorney for Harmon claims that the operator used a “double-blind system” so he was fully unaware of how much BTC was funneled through ...

The war in Afghanistan has been an extremely long conflict since the United States invaded the country in 2001, in order to drive the Taliban from power. After a messy exit, the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan has been compared to mistakes made during the Vietnam War. Now that U.S. forces have left Kabul in great numbers, reports show that the New York branch of the Federal Reserve has confiscated $10 billion worth of the Afghanistan central bank’s assets. Moreover, last week the Biden administration halted dollar shipments that were headed to Afghanistan. America’s ‘Messy’ Afghanistan Exit Transforms Into Financial War The Afghanistan War that the U.S. participated in has been a long-running foreign policy embarrassment for American bureaucrats who backed the invasion. 2021’s “ fall of Kabul ” has been a messy exit and critics of the United State’s military-industrial complex have compared the Afghanistan War to the Vietnam War. Addressing the American public, president Joe Biden ex...

Government watchdog Empower Oversight has requested internal documents from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on cryptocurrency that potentially show conflicts of interest at the commission involving former high-level officials. This affects the commission’s lawsuit against Ripple Labs and its executives. SEC’s Conflicts of Interest Involving Bitcoin, Ether, XRP , Ripple Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (Empower Oversight) announced Wednesday that it has submitted a detailed request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “seeking communications between SEC officials and their current and former employers.” Empower Oversight is “a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization dedicated to enhancing independent oversight of government and corporate wrongdoing,” its website describes. The organization “works to help insiders document and report corruption to the proper authorities while also see...

Major Dutch football club PSV has signed a partnership deal with a crypto exchange and its sponsorship will be paid entirely in bitcoin. “PSV is the first club in the EU to receive the sponsorship amount in crypto,” said the football club. PSV Professional Football Club Will ‘Hodl’ Bitcoin Major Dutch football club PSV, also known as PSV Eindhoven, announced Tuesday that it will hodl bitcoin with the help of crypto exchange Anycoin Direct. The professional sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands, plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. “PSV has signed a unique partnership with Anycoin Direct,” the announcement details, adding: The entire sponsorship amount will be paid in bitcoin. PSV is the first club in the EU to receive the sponsorship amount in crypto. The club worked with crypto technology for the first time earlier this year to sell a non-fungible token (NFT) of its 1988 European Cup 1 final victory against Benfica. Anycoin Direct, a local startup...

PRESS RELEASE. Crown Sterling’s Crown Sovereign token (CSOV), the world’s first quantum-resistant digital asset, will be listed on Bitcoin.com Exchange in late September. This represents a milestone for both parties, one where Crown Sterling’s (CSOV) token will be listed on one of the world’s leading exchanges, while the Bitcoin.com Exchange team will be the first CEX in the space to list the token. CSOV will trade with BTC and USDT pairs. What is Crown Sterling in a nutshell? Crown Sterling is unlike many other software companies in the space, it delivers Quantum-Resistant cryptography, by means of certain secure communications techniques with it’s random number generators (RNGs), alongside its other encryption products. The company has innovated the well-known and scalable Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH) encryption software module by replacing vulnerable prime number private keys with high entropy non-repeating irrational number derived private keys. Its purpose, ultimately...

Employees of Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation may become the first in the country to get their salaries in digital currency. The National Bank of Ukraine is developing an electronic version of the Ukrainian hryvnia and the ministry is considering the option of using the state-issued coin for remuneration. Government Employees to Be Paid With Digital Hryvnia The Digital Ministry is planning to compensate its employees with Ukraine’s central bank digital currency ( CBDC ), once the new hryvnia is ready for testing. In a recent interview with online news portal TSN, Minister Mykhailo Fedorov revealed this is among the department’s first initiatives for the digitalized national fiat, stating: We have it on the table as one of the first pilots, the payment of salaries to employees of the Ministry of Digital Transformation in electronic hryvnia. Fedorov pointed out that “Ukrainians rank first in the world in terms of adaptability to virtual assets.” This openness to techn...

Vienna-based crypto platform Bitpanda has announced the firm has secured $263 million in a Series C funding round. The financing was led by Valar Ventures and Leadblock Partners, Jump Capital, Alan Howard, and Redo Ventures joined the investment round. The latest financing gives Bitpanda an overall valuation of $4.1 billion. Crypto Unicorn Bitpanda Is Now Valued at $4.1 Billion After Capital Raise Digital investment platform Bitpanda revealed on August 17 that the company raised $263 million in a Series C investment round. The Austrian fintech unicorn is now valued at $4.1 billion, which is triple the size of the firm’s previous $1.2 billion private valuation. The company says funds will be used to “strengthen” the team, “double down” on technology, and Bitpanda seeks international expansion as well. Bitpanda notes the Series C was signed this month and will need to be cleared by the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA). The financing follows Bitpanda’s previous Series B inv...

Venezuelan authorities have reconnected affected bitcoin miners to the power grid in Carabobo state, after having been disconnected for undisclosed causes. Sunacrip, the cryptocurrency watchdog in the country, mediated between the regional power utility authorities and the affected miners, and managed to exert pressure to reconnect these miners, who were disconnected last week. Venezuelan Bitcoin Miners Reconnected to Power Grid Venezuelan authorities executed a reconnection operation yesterday for a group of affected bitcoin miners. The miners were reconnected to the national power grid after they were cut off last week without an official explanation. Sunacrip, the national cryptocurrency watchdog, mediated between the affected miners and regional authorities in Carabobo state. This closes the bitcoin miner saga that started last week when all officially registered miners in Carabobo were disconnected by the national power company, Corpoelec. The reconnection occurred after min...

A Kenyan regulator, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA), has cautioned investors and Kenyan citizens against investing with Fxbitinvest, a bitcoin trading company. The warning was issued after the regulator noted Fxbitinvest’s use of exaggerated return-on-investment promises to lure unsuspecting Kenyans. Unrealistic Promises According to a CMA statement issued on August 12, Fxbitinvest is offering prospective investors a return on investment (ROI) of 400% within a space of six hours. In addition, the regulator also identifies the “paybill numbers” that are being used by individuals behind Fxbitinvest to collect funds from Kenyans. The CMA names persons associated with the company either in their capacity as employees or as owners. The identified individuals and their social media handles are Hassan Juma and Godfrey Koome who are both based in Kenya. The third individual, who is supposedly based in North America, has only been identified as an anonymous director. Aggrieved ...

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...