Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have taken the world by storm in 2021 and three current projects in the NFT universe have seen sales stretch into the billions. Statistics show that the NFT marketplace Opensea, the blockchain NFT game Axie Infinity, and the digital collectible series Cryptopunks have collectively captured over $10 billion in sales. Opensea, Axie Infinity, Cryptopunks Crack $10 Billion in Sales As the end of September approaches, the combined sales of three distinct NFT projects have made more than $10 billion in all-time sales. All three projects are unique as well, as the leader in NFT sales, Opensea, is a marketplace that allows users to purchase and sell a wide variety of NFT collectibles from the Ethereum and Polygon networks. To date, Opensea has seen $6.85 billion in total sales among 452,319 traders, according to dappradar.com ’s NFT market stats. Opensea has seen a monthly increase of around 74.26% as it has captured $3.78 billion in sales over the last 30 d...

Morgan Stanley Investment Management’s Dennis Lynch, says that bitcoin’s resilience is like Kenny from the popular TV series South Park. In almost every episode, Kenny comically died but always came back, just like how bitcoin bounces back every time after a bear market. Bitcoin Is Similar to Kenny in South Park, Says Morgan Stanley’s Executive Morgan Stanley’s Dennis Lynch talked about bitcoin’s resilience at Morningstar’s annual investment conference Thursday. Lynch is head of the Counterpoint Global team at Morgan Stanley Investment Management, the bank’s asset management arm. He joined Morgan Stanley in 1998 and has 27 years of investment experience. The Morgan Stanley Counterpoint Global team “invests primarily in established and emerging companies globally,” the firm’s website describes. Lynch compared the cryptocurrency’s ability to recover and bounce back from bear markets and massive sell-offs to Kenny, a character from the popular TV cartoon series South Park, stating: ...

A recent study conducted by the online invoicing company that works with small businesses Skynova explains that the city of Los Angeles (LA) is the “most crypto-friendly city in the United States.” Skynova surveyed close to 600 small business owners and top-level executives from the U.S. in order to get their perception of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. LA Ranks the Most-Friendly Crypto City in Recent Small Business Owners Study According to a research study which leveraged nearly 600 executives and small business owners, LA ranks #1 when it comes to crypto ATMs, and merchant acceptance. The Skynova study called “Accepting Bitcoin,” that attempts to determine the most bitcoin-friendly cities in America today. “32% of small businesses owners and top-level executives said that their business currently accepts cryptocurrencies,” the Skynova researchers detail. Moreover, bitcoin ( BTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), and ethereum ( ETH ) are “the most commonly accepted cryptocurrencies.” “Los...

PRESS RELEASE. When people talk about technology, the first thoughts are cell phones, applications, or equipment; but you rarely recall Sim Cards. Those small cards people often despise, thinking that they are only chips that you use to call or have data. Contrary to this, Sim Cards store much more information than you imagine, storing in addition to your number, contact information, chats, photos, and even financial data. Bet you didn’t know that. This is why Sim Cards have become one of the favorite targets of cybercriminals because, by squeezing them, they will be able to obtain sensitive information with which they will commit a large number of computer crimes. Faced with this situation, today people have begun to see a new trend in communications that assure privacy, security, and anonymity, it is about Encrypted Sim Cards. What is an Encrypted Sim Card? An Encrypted Sim Card is an ultra-secure chip built with state-of-the-art technology and protocols based on cybersecurity, ...

Six days ago, the securities regulators from New Jersey and Texas cracked down on the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius. Additionally, the Alabama Securities Commission joined in and filed a cease and desist order against Celsius. Now the state of Kentucky is following suit and has filed a cease and desist order against the crypto lending platform. Kentucky Sends Cease and Desist Order to Celsius Four states in the U.S. have an issue with the cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius and the company’s interest-earning accounts. The same issues have affected the crypto lender Blockfi as well, as multiple states sent orders to the company over its interest-bearing accounts. After New Jersey, Texas, and Alabama cracked down on Celsius, Kentucky is now telling the firm it needs to stop “soliciting or selling” its interest-bearing accounts to Kentucky residents. Similar to the rest of the state regulators from securities departments, Kentucky’s regulator believes the Celsius intere...

On September 21, former Bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen published an interesting blog post about “a possible [Bitcoin] future.” The blog post details a theoretical situation for the Bitcoin network in 2061, where most [bitcoin] transactions don’t happen on the [Bitcoin] network. A Theoretical Look at $6 Million Dollars per Bitcoin and the Year 2061 Following Satoshi Nakamoto’s departure from Bitcoin in 2010, for a few years, Gavin Andresen was considered the software’s lead maintainer after Nakamoto left him the keys. In 2011, Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn also claims he received an email from Satoshi which said that the blockchain inventor “moved on to other things” but also added, “It’s in good hands with Gavin and everyone.” However, Andresen is not the lead maintainer anymore, and has not been an active Bitcoin Core developer in years. Censored on Reddit r/bitcoin (I think, but maybe I’m just not looking in the right place) — Gavin Andresen (@gavinandresen) September 22, 20...

Cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea have until midnight on Friday to register with financial authorities in order to continue operating legally. Only 10 digital asset trading platforms have already submitted their documents to the Korean anti-money laundering body. Compliance Deadline for New Korean Crypto Regulations Expires Friday Registering with Korea’s Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) is a key requirement for both local and foreign crypto exchanges providing services to Korean investors under the tougher new regulations coming into force after Sept. 24. A total of 10 out of dozens of coin trading platforms have so far filed applications with FIU, the anti-money laundering division of the Financial Services Commission ( FSC ). The group includes Upbit, Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit, and Flybit, Yonhap reported, quoting the body on Friday. South Korea’s revised Special Funds Act, which introduces the stricter rules, took effect on March 25 and will be enforced now, after a six-...

The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, published a Q&A to its website which said that Chinese citizens participating in virtual currency exchange offshore is “considered illegal financial activity.” The PBOC also reiterated comments it had made in the past stressing that “financial institutions and non-bank payment institutions” cannot process crypto payments. China’s Central Bank Shakes Crypto Markets The cryptocurrency economy shuddered on September 24 after China’s central bank once again said decentralized virtual currencies are not welcome in the country. The PBOC has been saying things like this since 2013 and then four years later, they banned crypto exchanges operating domestically in 2017. In 2021, as the crypto economy reached new heights in value, the Chinese government cracked down on bitcoin miners operating in the country. This caused Bitcoin’s global hashrate to plummet a great deal and many Chinese miners migrated to other regions. Tod...

Blockchain developers can find it very daunting to attract an audience these days, when so many new ventures are hitting the market at an ever increasing pace. This is why Smart Marketing Token stepped up to help projects with promotion, so they can reach all their goals and spread the word about blockchain technology around the globe. SMT Is Building on the Success of Student Coin Smart Marketing Token is a tokenized marketing agency that will be responsible for promoting tokens created on the Student Coin Terminal . SMT will be providing promotional services for ICO, IDO, and IEO. All of the assistance will be billed based on the commission from the generated net profit. All ICOs Launchpads that will be listed on Student Coin Terminal will be promoted by SMT, and the service will cost just 3% of the total net profit raised in funding on STC Ecosystem. If you are not yet familiar with this ecosystem, Student Coin is a platform that allows users to easily design, create, and mana...

Fintech firm Centbee recently announced it has successfully completed the testing of its cross-border remittance application, Minit Money. The testing of the application was carried out within the framework of the South African Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG)’s regulatory sandbox. Using Crypto to Enable Faster and Cheaper Remittances In a statement , the fintech firm claims its Minit Money application has demonstrated an ability to “enable foreigners living in South Africa to send money home across Africa to bank accounts or mobile money wallets at a competitively low cost.” Meanwhile, in his remarks following Centbee’s formal graduation from the regulatory sandbox, the firm’s co-founder, Angus Brown, spoke of “incredible” future growth in the remittance app market. Brown explained: We’re proud to have graduated from the IFWG’s inaugural regulatory sandbox and are aggressively scaling up our winning remittance solution. We expect to see incredible growth in the rem...

The Central Bank of Russia has recently expanded its database of financial market players suspected of illicit activities. Several crypto companies have been added to the list along with entities bearing signs of Ponzi schemes, as well as illegal credit organizations and forex dealers. Central Bank of Russia Blacklists Crypto Platforms As part of its monitoring of the financial sector, the Central of Russia (CBR) regularly identifies illegal financial services providers and warns Russian investors about fraudulent platforms. This week, the regulator added another 105 companies to its growing list of businesses showing “signs of illegal activities in the financial market.” Among the new entries, the monetary authority has blacklisted a number of crypto companies. Most of them have been classified as resembling financial pyramid schemes. Bitflows, Bitkoresh, Bittrex-global, Crypto Invest Club, Idleminer, Miners Capital, and Money Miner fall under this category. Another entity, Bitfo...

According to the findings of one study, nearly 91% of deaths from natural disasters recorded between 1970 and 2019 occurred in developing countries. This study adds that such a high number of deaths is largely due to a lack of early warning systems and disaster management protocols. Using Blockchain to Store Climate Data It has been shown that improvements in technology can help to lower the number of lives lost as a result of flooding or cyclones. Unfortunately for third world countries, their poor access to centralized data which is used to predict weather patterns means the number of lives lost due to natural disasters remains unacceptably high. It is this sad state of affairs that prompted individuals behind the Kanda Weather Ballon project and creators of the Telos protocol to seek an unusual solution to the problem — the use of the blockchain. Already, this project is reportedly empowering African university students to utilize the Telos blockchain to offer a viable solution ...

Nexi, a leading European payments company, is reportedly giving advice to the European Central Bank (ECB) related to the digital euro project. The announcement was made by Nexi’s CEO Paolo Bertoluzzo, who also gave his opinion about the future of central bank digital currencies (CBDC) and cryptocurrencies during the Money 20/20 fintech conference in Amsterdam. Nexi Advising ECB on Digital Euro Issues Nexi, one of the biggest payments companies in Europe, is working in tandem with the European Central Bank toward the creation of a digital euro, according to statements made by Paolo Bertoluzzo, Nexi’s CEO. During an interview at the Money 20/20 conference, Bertoluzzo declared : We are engaging with the European Central Bank and contributing to the design of the future digital euro because we believe that can be a positive force in the evolution of digital payments. Nexi offers payments services for other banks, managing 41.3 million payment cards and 2.7 billion transactions each ...

PRESS RELEASE. AscendEX is eager to announce the listing of the BTC Proxy token (PRXY) under the trading pair USDT/PRXY on Sept. 24 at 1 p.m. UTC. To celebrate the listing, AscendEX and the PRXY team will launch a number of limited-time promotional events, taking place between 1:00 a.m. UTC, on Sept. 24, and 12:00 a.m. UTC, on Oct. 1, 2021, offering users a chance to share pooled rewards up to 60,000 USDT ! BTC Proxy is a multi-institutional protocol for the decentralized tokenization of Bitcoin on ERC20, utilizing a Proxy Protocol called the “Proxy Relay”. The protocol gives Bitcoin holders a decentralized bridge to stake their Bitcoins into custody and transfer that value into an ERC20 token without the need for centralized exchanges and systems that exponentially increase the counterparty risk of theft or loss. Independent of liquidity conditions, BTC Proxy allows for the transfer of value without price slippage, directly affecting prices on exchanges. Improving on the desi...

Following the American rapper Snoop Dogg doxing himself as a crypto whale with millions of dollars worth of non-fungible token (NFT) assets, Snoop has revealed he has partnered with the virtual gaming world Sandbox. According to the announcement, Snoop is recreating his mansion in Sandbox and will be launching his new NFT collection. Virtual ‘Trees’: Snoop Plans to Recreate His Mansion in the Ethereum-Based Metaverse Sandbox The rapper, media personality, actor, songwriter, and businessman Snoop Dogg has announced he has partnered with the non-fungible token (NFT) metaverse project called The Sandbox . Essentially, Sandbox is a gaming ecosystem where people can create, share and monetize NFTs and gaming experiences on Ethereum ( ETH ). On September 22, Bitcoin.com News reported on how Snoop revealed his secret online personality called Cozomo de’ Medici, a character who owns millions of dollars worth of NFTs. Snoop is now taking the NFT game further and the partnership with Sandb...

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has shared the progress of the Fed’s work on a central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital dollar. “We are working proactively to evaluate whether to issue a CBDC and, if so, in what form,” he said, adding that he does not believe the U.S. has fallen behind other countries in this area. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Progress of the US CBDC The U.S. Federal Reserve has not made a decision whether to launch a digital dollar, Fed Chair Jerome Powell revealed on CNBC Wednesday. He was asked for an update of the Fed’s work on central bank digital currency (CBDC). “We think it’s really important that the central bank maintains a stable currency and payments system for the public’s benefit. That’s one of our jobs,” Powell began. “We also live in a time of transformational innovation around digital payments and we need to make sure that the Fed is able to continue to deliver to the public a stable and trustworthy currency and payment system.” H...

Twitter has begun rolling out “Tips,” a feature that allows users t o send bitcoin or cash tips. The rollout begins with iOS users with Android coming soon. The company is also planning support for non-fungible token (NFT) authentication. Twitter Rolls Out ‘Tips’ With Bitcoin Twitter Inc. announced Thursday that it is rolling out the bitcoin tipping feature starting with iOS users. The company tweeted: “Tested the Tips feature, turns out people love money. Rolling out on iOS with Android coming soon.” Twitter described: Tips allows you to send bitcoin or cash tips depending on how you configure your Tips settings and the regional availability of third-party payment providers. Twitter Support tweeted explaining how to use the new tipping feature. “Looking to get a little support with Tips? Tips is now rolling out to everyone (18+) on iOS. Add the Tips icon to your profile from the ‘Edit profile’ button,” the support account wrote. Looking to get a little support with tips? Tip...

Following a number of partnerships this year, FTX Trading Limited announced on Thursday that the company has partnered with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team. According to FTX, the relationship will “span multiple race seasons” and the FTX logo will be “featured prominently” by both cars and drivers. FTX Teams up With Mercedes F1 in Long Term Partnership for Several Race Seasons Well known car brands and world-famous race teams have been entering the blockchain and cryptocurrency space in great numbers this year. Whether it be through advertising crypto platforms or NFTs, popular brands and racing teams want to get in on the blockchain industry. At the end of August, Ferruccio Lamborghini Museum launched NFTs, Porsche jumped into the non-fungible token industry, and Motor Team McLaren stepped into the NFT fray. NASCAR drivers have been sporting crypto advertising and have been asked to be paid in digital currencies as well. On Thursday, FTX revealed it is collaborati...

Polker is proud to announce the upcoming integration of Chainlink Price Feeds . By integrating Chainlink-powered decentralized oracles, the Polker platform will be able to offer an even more decentralized and trusted service to players. The initial Chainlink Price Feed implementation will replace the current price feed API within Polker’s patented Multi Crypto Marketplace protocol. Although migrating the previous API to Chainlink Price Feeds is impressive, Polker has a lot more planned with Chainlink in the future. Polker.Game & Chainlink Polker’s patented Multi Crypto Marketplace solution requires that all cryptocurrency prices are updated correctly in real-time. The protocol currently uses an API that pulls live price data from multiple sources, checks for anomalies, and updates the prices in real-time. Although the system works fine, Polker doesn’t just want things to just ‘work fine’ – we want excellence. For this reason, Polker has been in communication with Chainlink and...