Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The launch of a digital ruble will be among Russia’s key priorities of digitalization this decade, the country’s financial market development strategy has confirmed. The document claims the issuance of a digital national fiat will help the central bank to prevent Russians from using “money surrogates” as officials have previously called cryptocurrencies. Bank of Russia to Issue Digital Ruble by 2030, According to Financial Market Development Plan The Strategy for the Development of the Financial Market of the Russian Federation by 2030 was released this week by the Ministry of Finance. The plan is open for public discussions between Sept. 14 and Oct. 13, 2021, according to a notice published by the State Automated Information System. The strategy defines the launch of a digital version of the Russian ruble as one of the priority tasks in the field of digitalization, as Bits.media crypto news outlet reported. The digital ruble, the authors have pointed out, will become the third f...

As the $ ADA bull market continues to gather steam – with new price records set each month – many within the Cardano community are asking, what’s next? The limitless possibilities within the Cardano ecosystem offer many opportunities for both project creators and their investors. But financial and informational asymmetries have always been a major limiting factor. That’s why KICK.IO , a non-custodial crowdfunding protocol, was created to make sure that this immense potential is utilized to its fullest. The platform will ensure projects have access to the most advanced kickstarting and fundraising capabilities and help both retail and institutional investors to come together and pick the winners of tomorrow. To help the team achieve this goal, they have chosen to hold an IEO on ExMarkets decentralized exchange. Following the overwhelmingly successful recent public sale of ADAX – this choice should not surprise anyone, since ExMarkets is increasingly becoming a household ...

Google is joining forces with the blockchain firm Dapper Labs in order to help bolster Web3 development, blockchain gaming, and non-fungible token (NFT) technology. The blockchain company’s CEO Roham Gharegozlou tweeted about the deal on Tuesday noting that the firm was “amped to welcome Google to the Flow blockchain.” Google to Collaborate With Dapper Labs Various reports indicate that the American multinational technology company that specializes in Internet-related services, Google, has partnered with Dapper Labs. The Google collaboration announcement follows Dapper Labs’ recent partnership with Filecoin . Speaking with Forbes’ contributor Michael del Castillo, Janet Kennedy, the vice president of Google Cloud North America, explained that “it’s really about helping them with rapid and sustainable growth.” Kennedy further elaborated that blockchain tech is continuing to advance. “Blockchain technology is becoming more and more mainstream. So companies like Dapper need scalabl...

Ark Investment Management CEO Cathie Wood expects the price of bitcoin to be more than $500,000 in five years’ time, which is over 10 times what it is today. She also shared her view on cryptocurrency regulation and Coinbase’s trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Predicts $500K Bitcoin Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Investment Management (Ark Invest), discussed bitcoin and crypto regulation in an interview at the SALT conference Monday. Wood is also the firm’s founder and CIO. She was asked what bitcoin will be worth five years from now. Wood replied, “If we are right and companies continue to diversify their cash into something like bitcoin, institutional investors start allocating 5% of their funds into … bitcoin, or other crypto,” then: We believe that the price will be tenfold of where it is today, so instead of $45,000, [it would be] over $500,000. Wood also commented on cryptocurrency regulation. Based on her meeting with s...

Global investment bank Morgan Stanley is establishing a new cryptocurrency research team. “The launch of dedicated crypto research is in recognition of the growing significance of cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in global markets,” the bank said. Morgan Stanley Sets Up New Research Team Morgan Stanley is launching a dedicated cryptocurrency research team, Bloomberg reported Monday, citing the bank’s internal memo to staff it has seen. Led by Sheena Shah, the firm’s lead cryptocurrency analyst, the team will research cryptocurrencies’ impact on both equities and fixed income globally. Shah will be based in London, where she will report to Adam Wood, who leads Morgan Stanley’s fintech and payments research team in Europe. She will also report to James Faucette, who leads the firm’s fintech and payments research team in the U.S. The memo states: The launch of dedicated crypto research is in recognition of the growing significance of cryptocurrencies and other digital ass...

Amid trouble with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), global cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase unveils its plan to raise $1.5 billion by selling bonds. Coinbase Plans to Issue $1.5 Billion in Bonds Coinbase Global Inc. (Nasdaq: COIN) announced Monday “its intention to offer, subject to market conditions and other factors, $1.5 billion aggregate principal amount of its Senior Notes due 2028 and 2031 in a private offering.” The company explained that the notes “will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Coinbase Inc.” and “The interest rate, redemption provisions, and other terms of each series of notes will be determined by negotiations between Coinbase and the initial purchasers.” The announcement details: Coinbase intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include continued investments in product development, as well as potential investments in or acquisitions of other companies, products, or technologies that C...

We’re less than one month away from Apex—the inaugural event that brings together developers to learn, build, share and celebrate all things XRP Ledger. In partnership with the XRP Ledger Foundation, we’re pleased to announce additional speakers who will join Alexis Ohanian, David Schwartz, Wietse Wind and Monica Long at Apex.  Chris Jimison, CTO, Forte  … Continued The post Forte, Coil Join Apex Speaker Lineup appeared first on Ripple. http://dlvr.it/S7ZVS7

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX is thrilled to announce the listing of the iMe token (LIME) under the pair USDT/LIME on Sept. 14 at 1 p.m. UTC. iMe is an innovative, Telegram-based messaging platform with extended functionality and DeFi capabilities. iMe is the only project to introduce DeFi functionality on a messaging platform. iMe has integrated Artificial Intelligence, “Topics,” an alternative to Telegram folders, built-in Google Translations, a functional Cloud with Albums, and many other unique developments on its platform. Similar to the functions offered by Telegram, iMe users can send messages, photos, videos, and any file type (doc, zip, mp3, etc.) while creating groups or channels to broadcast to their audience. Users can record contacts on their phones and find people by their names. A hybrid of email and SMS, iMe can handle personal and business messaging needs with the added support of end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls. LIME, the protocol’s native token, allows ...

Approximately nine days ago, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) across various blockchains was around $176 billion. At that time, bitcoin ($49,937) and ethereum ($3,886) fiat values were much higher. Despite the fact that the crypto economy and these coins have dipped in value, the TVL across defi has continued to rise, climbing more than 5% to $185.32 billion. Defi TVL Across All Chains Rises by More Than 5% Over 9 Days Decentralized finance (defi) has attracted billions of dollars and at the time of writing, the total value locked across a myriad of blockchains is around $185.32 billion. That’s approximately 5.113% higher than the TVL was nine days ago. At the time of writing, the TVL held in defi is $185 billion and more than 5% higher than it was nine days ago. Statistics from the defillama.com dashboard indicate that there’s been a 2.10% rise during the last day and the defi platform Aave has the highest dominance level in terms of TVL (7.40%). In...

According to reports on social media, crypto forums, onchain metrics, and the Solana Status Twitter account indicate that Solana’s blockchain has stalled. Solana mainnet-beta suffered a four-hour downtime and is still down after a technical glitch. Solana’s Network Stalls In recent times, solana (SOL) joined the top ten crypto assets by market valuation and today, SOL’s market cap position is the seventh-largest. At the time of writing, SOL has been exchanging hands for $159 per unit and is down 2.8% during the last week. @phantom I'm locked out of my Solana. It says "unable to connect to Solana" and no help anywhere on your website that makes sense to someone that doesn't know advanced coding. I shouldn't need to reconfigure my computer to access my Solana — MattyG (@Mattygxrp) September 14, 2021 On September 14, the protocol suffered an error and at the time of writing, the chain stopped for a total of four hours so far, as the outage is still ongoin...

The infamous dogecoin was one of the first meme-based digital currencies and it’s safe to say that the coin inspired a myriad of meme-focused or joke tokens meant to be used for fun. However, while dogecoin has had a phenomenal 2021 rising 8,515% in 12 months, during the last month dogecoin prices have stagnated a great deal. At one time, dogecoin held the fourth largest market capitalization but today, the original meme-coin’s overall market valuation has slid to the ninth position. Dogecoin Slips to the Ninth Largest Market Position After Price Highs Subside, 67% Down From ATH At the beginning of the year, many people said that “you can’t keep a good dog down” after dogecoin (DOGE) started its triumphant price surge and continued to rise higher month after month. That’s because dogecoin has been around for years, and for many of those years, DOGE traded for less than a U.S. penny per unit. But thanks to a lot of social media activity, mainstream media headlines, celebrity and bra...

Following the fake news of its partnership with Litecoin, Walmart Inc. says it is looking into how the fraudulent press release was issued. The Litecoin Foundation and Charlie Lee are also investigating the matter. In addition, Globenewswire says it will also work with authorities “to request – and facilitate – a full investigation, including into any criminal activity associated with this matter.” Walmart Responds to Fake News of Its Partnership With Litecoin The retail giant issued a press release in response to the fake news of its partnership with Litecoin Monday. “Walmart was the subject of a fake news release issued on Monday, Sept. 13, that falsely stated Walmart announced a partnership with Litecoin ( LTC ),” the company wrote, adding: Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by Globenewswire, and it is incorrect. Walmart has no relationship with Litecoin. Walmart spokesman Randy Hargrove told CNBC that the retailer has been in touch with the newswire compan...

The central bank of Russia has advised commercial banks on how to identify and block cards and wallet accounts used by shady businesses. Along with illegal forex dealers and financial pyramids, the regulator has also listed crypto exchangers as suspicious entities. New AML Recommendations by Bank of Russia Target Cryptocurrency Exchangers Russia’s central bank has issued a set of criteria that banks can use to identify cards and e-wallets used by companies operating in the shadow economy, Forklog reported. According to the monetary authority, these include not only illegal forex dealers and financial pyramids, but also cryptocurrency exchangers. The bank turns particular attention to transactions between private persons as the regulator claims such entities often use accounts registered under false names to make and receive payments. Russian banks are expected to analyze and identify suspicious transactions as part of their anti-money laundering (AML) efforts and terminate servic...

PRESS RELEASE. Sharjah, September 2021 – The Sharjah Research Technology and Innovation Park (SRTIP) issued its third Distributed Ledger Technologies license (DLT) to ZelaaPayAE . Focusing on numerous areas related to the exchange of value, ZelaaPayAE works strongly to advance tokenisation and through its multiple arms and divisions promotes non-fungible tokens (NFTs), payments infrastructures and various other blockchain applications. The CEO, Mr. Sahil Arora said, “We chose to set up at SRTIP because of their acute understanding of the space we operate in. They understood the requirement for an environment to test, experiment and simulate transactions where we can develop our fintech. The fundamental in the vision of ZelaaPayAE is to push and advance the blockchain space forward as a whole and it boasts an all-star strategically positioned list of partners and players including Tron, DigiByte, Klever Wallet and other stalwarts of the blockchain ecosystem from around the world.” Z...

Americans are still very concerned about inflation as the latest Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) report from August indicates that U.S. consumers expect inflation to be 5.2% a year from now. The SCE response data hasn’t been this high since 2013, and it’s increased since the month prior, when U.S. residents expected 4.9% at the time. Month After Month, Consumer Inflation Expectations Continue to Climb Higher The cost of services and goods in the United States has risen a great deal and Americans have been worried about rising inflation. Citizens have good reason to worry about inflation as the U.S. central bank has fueled an extreme expansion of the monetary supply since February 2020. While there have been many protests in American history after the Fed bailed out the megabanks on more than one occasion, this time the Fed was excused for at least a year. The U.S. central bank of course leveraged the coronavirus outbreak (covid-19) as the main reason quantitative easing tac...

As part of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s digital currency charm offensive, Folashodun Shonubi, the institution’s deputy governor, has claimed that the country’s upcoming central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be a “safer option from privately issued cryptocurrency.” Payment System Stability In addition, the CBN’s digital currency — also known as the e-naira — is expected to complement current areas of payment options. This, according to Shonubi, will ensure “the stability of the payment system in the long run.” Meanwhile, in his other remarks as reported by Nairametrics, Shonubi suggested that the CBDC will carry the same promises and have the same functions as the fiat naira. The deputy governor explained: The central bank digital currency offers all the benefits of cash but in digital form. Every single digital currency is an electronic version of the cash, the legal tender. When you make a cash payment, settlement is done instantly; digital currencies entail the same...

Brevan Howard, a European hedge fund management company, has said it will be expanding its crypto business. BH Digital, which is the hedge fund’s recently created unit, is expected to “manage its cryptocurrency and digital assets.” Growing Interest in Crypto From Hedge Funds In addition to creating BH Digital, Brevan Howard, according to a Reuters report , has also said it will be hiring Colleen Sullivan, the current CEO of the digital arm of trading firm CMT, to lead private and venture investments in crypto. The announcement by Brevan Howard, which is reputed “for its bets on macroeconomic trends,” is the latest piece of evidence that suggests that “major hedge funds [are] moving into the world of crypto trading.” To buttress claims that institutional investors are pivoting to crypto, the same report points to recent moves by other high-profile money managers like Paul Tudor and the Man Group which trades bitcoin futures. In addition, the report also makes reference to an annual...

A new regulatory overhaul could put 40 out of 60 exchanges out of business in South Korea after the firms are expected to fail to meet the conditions that are being proposed by the Financial Services Commission (FSC). This action might also affect holders of locally used “kimchi” coins, that won’t be able to trade them for fiat in other exchanges. This could bring losses of more than $2.6 billion. South Korea Exchange Options to Reduce Drastically A regulatory overhaul might reduce drastically the number of exchanges operation in South Korea. According to FT , it is expected that 40 of the 60 exchanges that operate in the country will be closed due to the inability to comply with the new regulatory framework issued by the Financial Services Commission. This rule, which has a deadline for next September 24, establishes that all exchanges need to register with the institution to operate in the country. However, many of these exchanges have no way of complying with the requisites to...

UwUFUFU.com, a content marketing platform, has successfully raised $1.7 million USD from early investors. Adopting the play-to-earn mechanism in the form of viral quizzes, anyone can create, play, share quizzes and earn NFTs through FUFU’s reward system. NFTs on FUFU function as a collectible and a potential membership to gain access for future events, drops, sales, and more. They also function as “boosts” in drop rate and rarity of items from loot balls, which serve as the delivery mechanism of rewards. This is the backbone of FUFU, which they believe will propel the platform to the forefront of the industry. Through this, they are able to introduce the concept of rewards to active users, generating traffic and revenue. The team is grateful for the support from both the community and early investors. “We’d like to give special thanks to GBV, Faculty Group, and Boxmining for being the first to support our vision at FUFU. The backing of the investors further instilled confidence in o...

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, expects a “trillion dollars” more to flow into bitcoin in the next couple of years. He also sees cryptocurrencies becoming an institutional asset class. “We don’t know when but it is definitely going to come. It’s not going away,” he said. Kevin O’Leary Sees Trillion-Dollar Opportunity in Bitcoin Kevin O’Leary talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in an interview on CNBC’s Capital Connection, published Monday. “I’m bullish on crypto,” O’Leary began, adding that he is also bullish on decentralized finance (defi). Citing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pushing back against Coinbase’s Lend product, he said: “That’s a slowdown in what is really emerging as a very interesting space.” Mr. Wonderful emphasized: We want the regulator to actually make some decisions about crypto, because none of us that are in financial services want to actually be cowboys about this. I don’t want to get involved in crypto if the regul...

DBS Group Holdings, the largest bank in Singapore and Southeast Asia, says its crypto business is “growing very rapidly.” The bank’s digital asset trading platform expects to double the number of members by year-end. Singapore’s DBS Expects Substantial Growth in Crypto Business DBS’s senior executives said in an interview, published by Reuters Monday, that the bank is seeing robust demand from corporate investors, accredited individuals, and investment firms that manage assets of wealthy families. The executives added that the bank expects the number of members trading on its cryptocurrency exchange platform to double by the end of December and grow by 20-30% annually for the next three years. Eng-Kwok Seat Moey, head of capital markets at DBS and chairperson of the exchange, commented: We are growing very rapidly. Investors are gradually exploring cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The bank launched its crypto trading platform, DBS Digital Exchange, in December as a member...

Cardano, the third cryptocurrency ranked by market cap, has successfully applied the “Alonzo” hard fork, adding smart contract capabilities to its functionality. The update, that had been deployed in testnet days ago, finally was incorporated in mainnet yesterday. Cardano is now looking to deploy defi apps, and there are already several parties working on widening the Cardano ecosystem in that regard. Cardano Enters Smart Contracts Arena Cardano, one of the leading cryptocurrency chains by market cap, has successfully applied the “Alonzo” hard fork. With this update, the chain has added support for smart contracts to its blockchain. The update that happened yesterday, after being deployed in testnet , features the inclusion of Plutus, a Solidity-like language that will allow programmers to put scripts on-chain. With this update, Cardano is now a new challenger in a crowded defi ecosystem, that is dominated by other more established chains in the space, like Ethereum and Solana. How...