Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard told the press on Tuesday that he thinks the U.S. central bank needs to wind down the buying of $80 billion worth of monthly bond purchases. Bullard says he would support tapering starting as early as November, in order to “react to possible upside risks to inflation next year.” St. Louis Fed President Has Been ‘Advocating Trying to Get Finished With the Taper Process’ On Tuesday, Bitcoin.com News reported on the rising concerns over inflation as the Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) report explained U.S. households believe inflation will be higher a year from now. It’s been more than 20 months since the U.S. central bank started its massive quantitative easing (QE) programs to combat the disastrous economic consequences of government-ordered lockdowns and supply chain shutdowns. *BULLARD: CONCERNED THAT INFLATION RISKS ARE TO THE UPSIDE Oh rly? — zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 4, 2021 The govern...

The owners of a cryptocurrency firm that raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors have pleaded guilty to tax evasion. “These crypto-savvy defendants exploited an emerging technology, lying to their investors, pocketing the proceeds, and concealing the income from the IRS,” said acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham. Crypto Firm’s Founders Face up to 5 Years in Jail The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the owners of a cryptocurrency company have pleaded guilty to tax evasion. Bitqyck founders Bruce Bise and Samuel Mendez were charged with tax evasion in August. Bise pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 and Mendez pleaded guilty Tuesday morning. Citing plea papers, the DOJ detailed: Mr. Bise and Mr. Mendez admitted that Bitqyck raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors. Instead of fulfilling their promises to these investors, the defendants used Bitqyck funds on personal expenses, including casino trips, cars, luxury home furni...

Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe says that a collapse in the cryptocurrency market is certainly “plausible,” stating that regulators worldwide need to pursue crypto rules “as a matter of urgency.” While cryptocurrencies do not currently pose a threat to the country’s financial stability, the deputy governor says there are some “very good reasons” to think that this might not be the case for very much longer. Crypto Collapse Plausible, Crypto Rules Are ‘a Matter of Urgency’ Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe talked about cryptocurrency and its regulation on Wednesday at the SIBOS conference. He emphasized that regulators worldwide need to work quickly and establish rules to regulate cryptocurrencies, given the rapid growth of the industry and how long it takes to put new rules in place. He said: Regulators internationally and in many jurisdictions have begun the work. It needs to be pursued as a matter of urgency. As an example of how long it takes to estab...

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez says that cryptocurrency is a “major priority” for him as he attempts to build his city into the crypto capital of the world. “I want us to differentiate ourselves as a crypto capital of the United States or of the world,” he said. ‘Major Priority’ — Miami Aims to Become Crypto Capital of the World Miami Mayor Francis Suarez talked about bitcoin and cryptocurrency in an interview with Bloomberg, published Tuesday. The mayor has been lobbying lawmakers to allow government employees to be paid in bitcoin in addition to allowing taxes to be paid in the cryptocurrency and for the city to invest a portion of funds in BTC . He was asked how much of a priority crypto initiatives were for him. Mayor Suarez replied: It’s a major priority for me because I want us to differentiate ourselves as a crypto capital of the United States or of the world. “We have actually done three things,” he shared. “One is that we are going to request a proposal in October to allow...

A FINMA-licensed Swiss bank, Seba, has launched a program enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings. In addition, the bank will “provide support for centralized lending and borrowing services, enabling investors to generate yield by lending bitcoin and ethereum directly with Seba Bank.” Seba Earn Lets Clients Generate Rewards From Crypto Investments Seba Bank, a digital asset banking platform licensed by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), announced the launch of Seba Earn Wednesday. The Switzerland-based bank described the new offering as “an institutional-grade solution enabling clients to earn yield on their crypto holdings.” Noting that “The launch of Seba Earn caters to growing demand from institutions to manage a range of digital asset yield use cases from staking to decentralized finance (defi), and centralized lending and borrowing,” the bank elaborated: Seba Earn’s comprehensive staking management platform will enable institutions and ...

PRESS RELEASE. Vulcan Forged has launched a new and revolutionary decentralized exchange for gaming tokens following the success of its gaming metaverse, VulcanVerse. Cardiff, United Kingdom – Blockchain gaming platform, Vulcan Forged , is announcing the launch of the first-ever decentralized exchange (DEX) purpose-built for gaming tokens, VulcanDEX . The DEX will allow users of the gaming platform to trade any gaming token without the need to register. Players will then be able to use their newly acquired tokens in their respective game. Users will also be able to stake gaming tokens to facilitate exchanges in VulcanDEX, with users earning rewards in proportion to their share of specific liquidity pools. The DEX currently has 4 active pools for this purpose, with several more, including $YGG, $SAND $AXS and $VNLA coming soon. Moreover, in-game assets can be farmed in VulcanDEX in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), creating an active economy that involve several popular bloc...

On Wednesday, October 13, 2021, the market capitalization of all the stablecoins in existence is around $134 billion, which is 5.60% of the entire $2.4 trillion crypto economy. While centralized stablecoin projects dominate the pack of dollar-pegged tokens, a great number of decentralized stablecoins have been moving in on these centralized competitors. Algorithmic or defi-styled stablecoin market caps have accrued billions of dollars this past year. While Tether and USD Coin Eclipse the Market, Algorithmic Defi Stablecoins Still Shine Tether ( USDT ) is one of the oldest and the largest stablecoins by market cap today, while the second-largest stablecoin valuation belongs to usd coin (USDC). Data from Coingecko’s stablecoin-by-market-cap metrics indicates that on October 13, there’s $134 billion in stablecoin assets. A great majority of those funds belong to tether and usd coin as USDT has a market cap of around $70.9 billion and USDC commands $33.3 billion. Despite controversial...

After China has reigned for a number of consecutive years as the dominant bitcoin mining epicenter of the world, the United States has “taken the leading position in bitcoin mining,” according to new data from Cambridge University. Data Shows US, Kazakhstan, Russian Federation Rule the Bitcoin Mining Roost In mid-July, researchers from the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) project published new data from the website’s “Bitcoin Mining Map,” which had not been updated since April 2020. In that specific report, CBECI researchers noted that China’s hashrate dominance was much lower than in previous estimates. On October 13, CBECI researchers published updated data on all the countries participating in bitcoin mining and where most of the mining activity is taking place these days. “The latest update to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) has confirmed the impact of the Bitcoin mining crackdown in China,” the report detailed. “[It shows] tha...

During the second week of October, bitcoin market values have maintained prices between $54K to $57K. Meanwhile, myriad alternative crypto assets have not yet seen the gains the leading crypto asset has enjoyed during the last two weeks. For instance, cardano used to be the third-largest crypto market in terms of valuation, but after losing 4.8% cardano has slid down to the fifth position this past week. Cardano Drops from 3rd-Largest Crypto Market Cap to 5th-Largest The digital currency cardano (ADA) has seen some decent gains during the last 12 months as ADA has increased by 1,840.5% year-to-date. Even Kiss frontman Gene Simmons told the world on October 10, why he invested $300K in cardano ( ADA ) and how it’s paid off for him so far. However, during the last month, ADA is down 18% and 4.8% over the last seven days. ADA ’s market cap is not small and just under the stablecoin tether’s ( USDT ) overall valuation as cardano’s market cap is around $68.1 billion on Wednesday. A...

Russia is not going to follow China’s course and does not plan to ban its citizens from purchasing cryptocurrency on foreign exchanges, a high-ranking government official has indicated. Russians will not be able to pay with digital coins in their own country but are free to use crypto wallets beyond its borders. Russians Can Purchase Cryptocurrencies on Foreign Exchanges Unlike the Chinese government, authorities in Moscow do not intend to impose restrictions on the purchase of cryptocurrency on digital asset exchanges based abroad, a statement by Russia’s deputy minister of finance Alexey Moiseev has revealed. Speaking to reporters this week, he noted that settlements in cryptocurrency are prohibited in the country but explained: At the same time, citizens can buy [cryptocurrencies] and use wallets outside the Russian Federation. It will remain so, I think. There are no plans to change anything yet. On Tuesday, during a lecture devoted to the digitalization of financial markets...

Binance , the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency platform, has launched a $1 billion Growth Fund for Binance Smart Chain , to accelerate adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology. In the span of next few months multiple programs will be set-up under its umbrella to empower the growth of cryptocurrencies worldwide. Designed to incubate rising blockchain-crypto projects the fund will also run advanced technological development programs. “BSC’s growth has attracted 100M+ DeFi users with just an initial funding of $100 million.” said Changpeng Zhao (CZ), CEO at Binance. “With the new contribution of $1B, it can disrupt traditional finance and accelerate global mass adoption of digital assets to become the first-ever blockchain ecosystem with one billion users,” he added. The $1 billion fund will be divided into 4 broader categories:- Talent Development – Innovation A total of $100M funds are reserved for Talent Development which includes mentoring ...

Investors defrauded by the Russia-based cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Finiko have sent the crypto pyramid an average exceeding 720,000 rubles, or more than $10,000 at current exchange rates. The assessment comes from a survey of victims conducted by a public non-profit organization. Fifth of Finiko Investors Parted With Over 1 Million Rubles Russia is still trying to grasp the magnitude of its largest financial scam since the notorious MMM pyramid in the 1990s. While the officially registered losses to Finiko have reached 1 billion rubles (close to $14 million), some estimates suggest the total is likely to exceed $4 billion. According to Chainalysis, the Ponzi scheme received over $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin in less than two years. Citizens of Russia, Ukraine and other countries in the former-Soviet space, EU member states, and the U.S. are among the people who sent 800,000 separate deposits to Finiko. Around 3,300 of the victims have been identified so far, but the actual numbe...

Kenya has the fourth-highest interest in cryptocurrency globally, a new research study by Broker Chooser has found. According to the study, only three countries — Ukraine, Russia, and the United States — have had higher searches for cryptocurrency in the last 12 months than Kenya. Crypto Searches in Kenya Highest in Africa According to a Citizen newspaper report , searches for cryptocurrencies originating from Kenya during the twelve-month period topped 99,810. Alternatively, this means there was an equivalent of 18 searches per 10,000 people during this period. The ranking of Kenya as the country with the fourth-highest searches for cryptocurrency globally means there is greater interest per capita in the East African state than in Nigeria and South Africa. Furthermore, the study estimates the number of cryptocurrency owners in Kenya to be approximately 4,580,760. In terms of awareness of crypto, the study found Kenya’s score to be 5.5 out of a possible 10. Despite the surging ...

Consensys, the Ethereum-based software boutique, is aiming to get a valuation that could reach $3 billion dollars in its upcoming funding round. The company would be taking advantage of the bullish climate the industry is experiencing right now to achieve this important milestone. Also, Consensys is flexing its economic muscle by acquiring Treum, developer of Music NFT service EulerBeats. Consensys Aims for Billion+ Valuation in Next Funding Round Consensys, one of the main software providers in the Ethereum ecosystem, is reportedly aiming to achieve a valuation that could reach $3 billion in its upcoming funding round, according to information published by FT. The company, led by Ethereum OG Joseph Lubin, would be aiming to leverage its position in the ecosystem and the brewing bull market to achieve the breakthrough goal. Consensys provides several iconic software offerings in the Ethereum ecosystem, having developed Infura, a service that eases development and deployment of Eth...

PRESS RELEASE. UniLend Finance published their protocol update blog introducing UniLend v2. The Binance Innovation Zone project has earlier this year enabled Lending for every token along with Flash Loans. The team published an initial blog explaining various innovative features in their upcoming version, which will equip UniLend to handle Lending and Borrowing of more than 9000 assets. The protocol went live with the Permissionless listing of any token this august. As a result, it already has more than 25 cryptocurrencies live for Lending and uncollateralised borrowing through Flash Loans. This Major protocol update will equip UniLend to tap into the untapped $1 trillion+ crypto market cap without significant competition. First, let’s take a look at the Key Features of the UniLend V2: Dual Asset Pools – UniLend v2 introduces pools for dual assets similar to the UniSwap liquidity model. Dual asset pools prevent the tokens in a specific pool to be immune to price and liquidity ...

The Bank of Spain, the central bank of the country, criticized the adoption process El Salvador chose when declaring Bitcoin legal tender last month. In a report titled “The role of crypto assets as legal tender: the example of El Salvador,” the bank examines several pain points the country encountered while applying its bitcoin strategy, and raises concerns about how some actions have been taken with little transparency. Bank of Spain Scrutinizes El Salvador’s Bitcoin Bet The Bank of Spain issued a report scrutinizing and reflecting upon the entrance of El Salvador into the Bitcoin world. The report, titled “The role of crypto assets as legal tender: the example of El Salvador,” written by Sergio Gorjón, of the General Directorate of Operations, Markets and Payment Systems, states that as every first-mover, El Salvador committed many mistakes in the implementation of Bitcoin as legal tender. One of the principal worries of the Bank of Spain has to do with the relative lack of tr...

Crypto exchange Binance has launched a $1 billion fund which it calls “the biggest funding program of its kind in the whole cryptocurrency industry.” The company aims for the fund to “push the adoption” of the Binance Smart Chain and “the whole blockchain industry.” Binance Launches ‘the World’s Largest Crypto Accelerator’ Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Tuesday the launch of a $1 billion Binance Smart Chain (BSC) Fund. The announcement states: Binance announces the biggest funding program of its kind in the whole cryptocurrency industry — the $1 billion fund to push the adoption of not only BSC but the whole blockchain industry. The Binance Smart Chain mainnet launched in September last year. At the time, the company announced a $100 million BSC Accelerator Fund to support Dapps building on BSC. It seed-funded over 40 projects with up to $1 million. In addition, over 60 projects have been incubated under the company’s Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program ....

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is launching a peer-to-peer marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Nasdaq-listed company says that “Coinbase NFT” will make “minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.” In addition, Coinbase says, “We’re going to grow the creator community exponentially, a win for artists and for fans.” Coinbase NFT to Help Grow Creator Community ‘Exponentially’ The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced Tuesday that it is launching a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Sanchan Saxena, VP of Products at Coinbase, wrote: Today, we’re announcing Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever. “Just as Coinbase helped millions of people access bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way — we want to do the same for the NFTs,” he added. Coinbase further explained: “All NFTs are on-chain. The initial launch will sup...

Americans are still concerned about dealing with inflation, as the cost of goods and services has continued to rise significantly in a short period of time. The Federal Reserve has published the latest Survey of Consumer Expectations report and U.S. households believe inflation will be up 5.3% one year from now. In addition to the dreary economic outlook, gas prices across the U.S. have skyrocketed up more than $1 from a year ago. New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations Continues to Look Gloomy After 2020’s massive monetary expansion, in order to help the economy combat the coronavirus outbreak and help facilitate the lockdown orders that subsequently followed, inflation has crept into the wallets of every American. Month after month, the Federal Reserve has published the central bank’s Survey of Consumer Expectations (SCE) reports, and every month, inflation expectations jump higher. Once again, the latest Fed SCE report published on Tuesday indicates that Americans are st...

HIVE Blockchain is set to expand its data center campus in New Brunswick, Canada with 40 megawatts capacity. It is the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency miner, listing in Toronto on the Venture Exchange back in 2017 and added to NASDAQ in 2021. It mines both Bitcoin and Ethereum using 100% green energy in facilities across Canada, Sweden, and Iceland. HIVE Blockchain to Expand Data Center in New Brunswick, Canada HIVE Blockchain Technologies (NASDAQ: HIVE, TSX.V: HIVE) will soon begin testing a new high-performance computing cloud hosting operation. At the company’s largest data center campus in New Brunswick, Canada, where it owns the land, the team is currently building expansions from the ground-up (“greenfield expansions”), which will provide it with 40 megawatts of data center capacity. HIVE currently operates 5 data center campuses, where they are mining both Bitcoin and Ethereum. HIVE’s data centers already have access to approximately 50 megawatts of power, placing it a...

On Tuesday, the Atlanta-based cryptocurrency payments company Bitpay announced the Israeli software company Wix has enabled its Software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce product to accept crypto-asset payments. The integration will allow Wix merchants to accept 12 different cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, dogecoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum, litecoin, and stablecoins as well. SaaS Platform Wix Implements Bitpay Infrastructure So Merchants Can Accept Crypto Founded in 2006, by the Israeli software engineers Nadav Abrahami, Avishai Abrahami, and Giora Kaplan, the global SaaS platform Wix provides users with the ability to develop both mobile and HTML5 websites without coding experience. On October 12, Wix announced that it would be implementing Bitpay’s cryptocurrency payment processing infrastructure so users can choose it as an option for the Wix e-commerce platform. Alongside five different stablecoins such as BUSD, DAI, GUSD, USDP, and USDC, Wix Merchant users can also accept bitcoi...

Cleanspark, a Nevada-based energy technology and clean bitcoin mining firm, has announced the purchase of 4,500 Bitmain-brand Antminer S19 bitcoin mining rigs. The company says the mining devices were purchased by leveraging a portion of the company’s bitcoin holdings. Cleanspark Purchases 4,500 ASIC Mining Rigs From Chinese Manufacturer Bitmain The publicly-listed bitcoin mining firm Cleanspark (Nasdaq: CLSK ) announced on Tuesday that the company has purchased 4,500 S19 bitcoin mining rigs from Bitmain. The rigs are expected to start the delivery process by next month and the units were “partially funded through a portion of the company’s BTC holdings.” The company estimates that the machines will increase hashrate by 450 PH/s or 0.45 exahash (EH/s), which is equivalent to Cleanspark’s current capacity. Cleanspark’s acquisition of 4,500 bitcoin miners follows other major purchases of bitcoin mining machines by large-scale operations this year. For instance, at the end of August...

Decentralized finance (defi) has swelled quite a bit this year and on October 5, the total value locked (TVL) in defi protocols crossed the $200 billion mark. Since January 1, the defi TVL across various blockchains has risen almost 855% from $21.4 billion to today’s $204 billion . Total Value Locked in Defi Jumps Over the $200 Billion Handle, Ethereum TVL Commands 69% Dominance The total value locked (TVL) in defi today has jumped nearly ten times higher than the value at the beginning of 2021. On October 5, 2021, the TVL in defi surpassed the $200 billion handle for the first time and the value has remained above $200 billion during the last seven days. Statistics from defillama.com indicate that the defi protocol Curve has the largest dominance with $15.94 billion, up more than 7% over the last week. Curve’s dominance is 7.80% on Tuesday and it interacts with six different crypto networks including Avalanche, Ethereum, and Polygon. Metrics show that Aave, Makerdao, and Wrapped...

Coinzo, one of Turkey’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is terminating its digital asset trading services. The platform said its website will remain online in the next six months to allow users to withdraw their holdings in cryptocurrency and Turkish fiat money. Another of Turkey’s Crypto Exchanges Closes Amid Ankara’s ‘War’ on Cryptocurrency Leading Turkish crypto exchange Coinzo announced on Monday it’s ending trading operations. The platform called on customers to withdraw their assets in Turkish lira and cryptocurrency without providing any particular reason for its decision to exit the market. In a notice published on its website, the company stated: 　We have decided to terminate our digital asset service provider (cryptocurrency platform) service. The exchange emphasized that its website, Coinzo.com, will continue to be accessible for another six months, during which traders will be able to log in to their accounts and withdraw Turkish lira and cryptocurrencies. All f...