Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

PRESS RELEASE. The world’s largest metaverse on blockchain and NFT platform TCG World announces partnership with a stock giant WallStreetBets. Since the start of the year, the WallStreetBets movement has been defying traditional finance with a legion of retail investors using decentralized tradable assets on the blockchain to advance the ethos of financial democracy. Now, the giant online retail investor group that shook the stock markets with the GameStop frenzy is betting big on the metaverse through a partnership with TCG World . What is TCG World? TCG World is the largest open world metaverse on Binance Smart Chain. It follows a play-to-earn approach and has its own story that progresses as a user spends more time in the game. In TCG World users can invest in virtual real estate, hunt for NFT collectibles, earn TCGCoin 2.0, or start their virtual career while exploring the metaverse. TCG World incorporates thousands of different collectible NFTs that can be sold or tr...

Electronic Arts (EA), an important gaming and entertainment-oriented company, has made insightful remarks about the importance of NFTs and the play-to-earn model in its last earnings call. Andrew Wilson, CEO of the company, addressed the subject in response to several questions posed by business analysts. Electronic Arts Open to NFTs and Play-to-Earn Electronic Arts, the company behind gaming sports franchises like FIFA and NBA, has assessed the importance of new technologies like NFTs and the play-to-earn model for the gaming industry. During the company’s latest earnings call, Andrew Wilson, Electronic Arts’ CEO, stated that while the conversation around NFTs and play-to-earn was still very early, these cannot be ignored as an important part of what might be to come in the industry. When asked about the negotiation for the FIFA license, Wilson stated: When we kind of interact with our hundreds of millions of football fans… they want more modalities at play inside the game, whi...

New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams says that he will take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. He has also promised to make NYC the center of crypto. “NYC it’s going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing innovative industries,” he said. Eric Adams’ Bitcoin and Crypto Promises New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams said he wants to turn NYC into a crypto-friendly city and will also take his first three paychecks in bitcoin. Replying to a tweet made by Miami Mayor Francis Saurez that he will take 100% of his next paycheck in bitcoin, Adams wrote: “In New York, we always go big, so I’m going to take my first three paychecks in bitcoin when I become mayor.” He added: “NYC it’s going to be the center of the cryptocurrency industry and other fast-growing innovative industries.” Many people on Twitter see Adams’ statement as very bullish. At the time of writing, his tweet has been liked 14.1K times and retweeted 2,906 times. Many simply tweeted “bullis...

The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase has made shiba inu cryptocurrency available to New York residents, who can now trade, buy, sell and store SHIB on Coinbase. This announcement follows the exchange adding SHIB trading pairs. Coinbase Grows Its Shiba Inu Crypto Offerings Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced Friday that the shiba inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency is now available to residents of the U.S. state of New York. Coinbase tweeted Friday: It’s official, SHIB is now available to trade, buy, sell and store on Coinbase for NY residents. This announcement follows Coinbase adding some SHIB trading pairs. The official Twitter account for Coinbase Pro tweeted Wednesday: SHIB-EUR & SHIB-GBP order books are now in full-trading mode. Limit, market and stop orders are all now available. The price of SHIB soared Friday after dipping the previous day. At the time of writing, SHIB has risen 21% in the past 24 hours and 261% in the past 30 days. Over the past week, the co...

While bitcoin has been consolidating for a few days now, a number of other digital assets have seen solid seven-day gains. The two metaverse tokens sandbox and decentraland have skyrocketed over 170% during the last week. Crypto assets like loopring, crypto.com coin, and arweave have spiked in value more than 66% and up to 169% this week as well. Sandbox, Decentraland, Loopring See Triple-Digit Gains This Week The price of bitcoin (BTC) has consolidated above the $60K zone for a while now and market performance this week has been rather lackluster. While bitcoin (BTC) gained 0.5% during the last seven days, three top-ten cryptos saw double-digit gains this week. The third-largest market in terms of overall valuation is held by binance coin (BNB), which is up 24.1% this past week and swapping for $610 per BNB . Solana (SOL) swapping for $235 per unit is up 20.9% this week. Additionally, polkadot (DOT) has climbed 21.9% and is currently changing hands for $51.29 per unit. While...

CoinMarketCap, the leading authority on real-time cryptocurrency prices and data, has just updated and verified its TON Crystal (TON) listing. Now TON, the native token of the FreeTON blockchain, ranks among the top 5% of cryptocurrencies by market cap. This has been a year of remarkable development for the FreeTON project. The project started when Telegram was forced to halt the plans it had for launching its own TON blockchain network and associated token. Instead of letting the network go to the wayside, a community of people that believed in the value of the technology decided to try and launch it themselves by taking a grassroots approach to funding and a decentralized approach to governance. The result is FreeTON, a network capable of processing millions of transactions per second, with cheap transaction fees, formidable security, a meritocratic token distribution protocol and a decentralized governance structure. Around the original, open-source technology a robust ecosyst...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), America’s domestic intelligence and security service, has published a public service announcement concerning fraudulent schemes associated with cryptocurrency ATMs and QR codes. The FBI’s warning, published on November 4, highlights the presence of “scammers” directing their energy at unknowing victims. US Federal Agency Warns of Increase in Crypto ‘Scammers’ On Thursday, the U.S. government entity the FBI published a public service announcement that explains “criminal actors” are maliciously utilizing cryptocurrency automated teller machines (ATMs) in order to compromise victims’ crypto funds. The FBI’s press release stems from the Internet Crime Complaint Center which has seen an “increase in scammers.” “The FBI warns the public of fraudulent schemes leveraging cryptocurrency ATMs and Quick Response (QR) codes to facilitate payment,” the announcement notes. “The FBI has seen an increase in scammers directing victims to use physical crypt...

As the end of the year approaches, the price of bitcoin has hovered above the $60K region and with 18.8 million bitcoin in circulation, bitcoin’s market valuation is over $1.16 trillion today. Meanwhile, the number of tokenized bitcoins in existence today has swelled significantly during the last three years, climbing to 408,210 bitcoin worth $25 billion today. More Than 400,000 Wrapped, Synthetic, or Tokenized Bitcoins in the Wild Wrapped, synthetic, or tokenized bitcoin has become a growing trend during the last two years and nine months. Bitcoin.com News reported on one of the first projects on January 30, 2019, the day the Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) project first launched. Since then, there have been a whole lot more tokenized bitcoin projects and by July 2019, WBTC in circulation eclipsed the Lightning Network capacity. Now there’s a slew of tokenized bitcoin projects such as BEP2, HBTC, RENBTC, SBTC, PBTC, OBTC, TBTC, Mstablebtc, RBTC, and LBTC. Out of all the aforementioned tok...

Bitcoin futures open interest continues to remain high after the launch of the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) on October 22. While Binance commands $5.81 billion and leads the pack, CME Group holds the second-largest position in terms of bitcoin futures open interest (OI) with $4.1 billion or 16.84% of the aggregate OI. Top Ten Derivatives Platforms Command More Than 97% of Bitcoin Futures Open Interest Bitcoin derivatives have swelled quite a bit in recent times, and following the launch of the Proshares and Valkyrie bitcoin futures ETFs, bitcoin futures have seen significant market action. After Valkyrie’s ETF ( Nasdaq:BTF ) launched, the analytics group Skew tweeted that CME Group’s bitcoin futures OI reached a new all-time high. During the first week of November, bitcoin futures open interest across all the crypto derivatives platforms is $24.32 billion according to coinglass.com statistics. The top ten derivatives platforms offering bitcoin futures command $23.68 b...

For many people the luxury market is out of reach. However, with LuxFi, that is no longer the case. The platform combines blockchain technology, NFTs, and a luxury goods market open to anyone, anywhere. LuxFi will mark a significant shift in the way luxury goods are traded, and how people acquire them. LuxFi is at the center of this transformation in the market. The platform aims to create a transparent, open and data-driven marketplace where users can safely transact with each other. Let’s break down all the components of LuxFi. Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) At the core of LuxFi are non-fungible tokens. An NFT is a type of crypto asset that is meant to reflect uniqueness. They were invented on the Ethereum network with a token design designated ERC-721. The ERC-721 was created first to reflect collectible assets on the Ethereum network. The most famous example is CryptoKitties, which became the most popular DApp on Ethereum in 2017. The ERC-721 token standard quickly migrated to dig...

Authorities in Kazakhstan have introduced restrictions on the amounts of cryptocurrency retail investors can buy on local exchanges. Officials explained the decision citing the need to protect private individuals from exposure to the risks associated with digital financial assets. Investors in Kazakhstan Can Buy up to $1,000 in Crypto a Month Without Declaring Income Kazakhstan has adopted limits for crypto purchases made by retail investors on the exchanges registered at the Astana International Financial Centre ( AIFC ), the local business news portal Capital reported, quoting the Astana Financial Services Authority (AFSA). The publication notes that the respective amendments to the rules governing activities at the financial hub in Nur-Sultan were proposed by AIFC’s Financial Services Regulatory Committee in July and adopted in late October. Commenting on the changes, AFSA emphasized: The limits are introduced to protect the interests of retail investors, since transactions wi...

Sky Mavis, the company behind the development of Axie Infinity, has launched Katana, the first decentralized exchange for Ronin, its custom-made Ethereum sidechain. Katana will feature all of the tokens used in Sky Mavis’ products, including SLP and AXS, the native tokens of the Axie Infinity ecosystem. This new product will allow users to earn rewards for providing liquidity. Axie Infinity’s Katana DEX Launched Sky Mavis, the developer of Axie Infinity , a breakthrough play-to-earn-based blockchain game, has launched Katana, a new decentralized exchange on top of Ronin. Ronin is Sky Mavis’ own tailored Ethereum sidechain, developed to satisfy the needs of users that complained about the high fees they had to pay for transacting on Ethereum’s Layer 1 (L1). With Katana, Sky Mavis makes it easier to manage Axie Infinity and introduces an alternative way of earning yield for users. As with most decentralized exchanges, Katana will feature liquidity pools to serve other users in faci...

PRESS RELEASE. Dubai, UAE, 5th November 2021 — Mintverse , a new and improved NFT service platform, closes their seed round raising $1.5 million from private investors. Led by A&T capital, and other large investment firms including Mirana Ventures, Longling Capital, Genesis Block Ventures, FBG, Fenbushi Capital, Cipholio Ventures, Nebulas, Ceras Ventures, NDG and other individual angel investors, Mintverse aims to be a community-based initiative to provide products and services that explore future use cases of NFTs. It is expected to feature a completely decentralized service platform and incubator for more than just NFT based projects. Mintverse will use the funds raised to further develop the existing platform and release future product offerings to tackle the current problems faced within the industry. Mintverse founder was thrilled by the response from the large list of investors and said, “The support we have gained during this round of fundraising has been astounding and ...

Microsoft has announced the launch of a metaverse-inspired feature for its Teams app called Mesh. Mesh will allow users to introduce personalized avatars in digital worlds, making meetings more immersive. The platform is being announced on the heels of Facebook’s pivot to becoming a metaverse-dedicated company, changing its name to “Meta.” Microsoft Embraces the Metaverse Software behemoth Microsoft has announced it will release a metaverse-inspired solution for its Teams app called Mesh. With Mesh, users in meetings will feel more immersed because the app will introduce avatars — digital representations of the user — for applications like team calls. Furthermore, the avatars will be able to meet and greet each other in an immersive, digital world. This new feature will be available for users with smartphones, laptops, or even holographic devices. According to Jeff Teper, a Microsoft corporate vice president, Mesh is a way to: Signal we’re in the same virtual space, we’re one te...

Warner Bros., the American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate has announced the launch of non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles for the upcoming film “The Matrix Resurrections” after dropping official Space Jam NFT collectibles. The Matrix NFT program will start on November 30 as Warner Bros. plans to drop 100,000 Matrix Resurrections’ NFTs. ‘You Take the Blue Pill…the Story Ends — You Take the Red Pill…You Stay in Wonderland, and I Show You How Deep the Rabbit Hole Goes’ The entertainment giant Warner Bros. is knee-deep in the non-fungible token (NFT) industry these days after launching the official Space Jam NFTs with the Miami-based firm Nifty’s, Inc. The NFTs stemmed from the recently released “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” which starred a cast of famous Looney Tunes characters and the NBA star LeBron James. Warner Bros. has joined a number of big-name entertainment firms like Fox , Lionsgate , Dolphin , and ViacomCBS. The entertainment companies WWE and UFC ...

PRESS RELEASE. 3air is using an ISP platform built on Cardano to provide internet to the most unconnected regions in Africa. November 2nd, 2021, Dubai, UAE – Today, 3air , a blockchain-based startup, announced it will leverage the power of decentralization to provide internet connectivity to consumers in Africa and provide the physical infrastructure to support this through its partnership with K3 Telecom. Only 20% of people on the African continent are active internet users, with less than 1% having access to broadband. Compare this with the 60% of the world population that are active internet users and it quickly becomes evident that African nations have quite a distance to go in order to fully benefit from the world wide web. The lack of internet in this region not only means it has been more difficult to implement successful COVID-19 containment methods, but there is also a social and economic impact including the way citizens interact with their government, with businesses, ...

Paytm, one of India’s largest payments companies, is open to offering bitcoin services if the crypto asset becomes legal in the country, according to its chief financial officer. If bitcoin “was ever to become fully legal in the country, then clearly there could be offerings we could launch,” he said. Paytm Open to Bitcoin Offerings Paytm Chief Financial Officer Madhur Deora has indicated that his company is open to offering bitcoin services if the crypto asset becomes legal in India, local media reported Thursday, citing his recent interview with Bloomberg TV. Deora was quoted as saying: Bitcoin is still in a regulatory grey area if not a regulatory ban in India. At the moment Paytm does not do bitcoin. If it was ever to become fully legal in the country, then clearly there could be offerings we could launch. In August last year, Paytm reportedly froze Paytm Payments Bank’s customer accounts suspected of crypto trading. Paytm is currently India’s second most-valuable interne...

U.S. lawmakers have called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Since the SEC has approved the trading of bitcoin futures ETFs, the lawmakers said it “should no longer have concerns with bitcoin spot ETFs and should show a similar willingness to permit the trading of bitcoin spot ETFs.” Lawmakers Urge SEC to Permit Trading of Bitcoin Spot ETFs U.S. Representatives Tom Emmer and Darren Soto sent a bipartisan letter to the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, Wednesday regarding bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). So far, the SEC has approved two bitcoin futures ETFs but has yet to approve any bitcoin spot ETF. Rep. Emmer said: The SEC’s approach to cryptocurrency regulation has been unacceptable. While the trading of bitcoin futures ETFs is a great step forward for the millions of American investors who have been demanding regulatory clarity, it does not make sense that bitcoin sp...

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a resolution that would position Congress to lead in the area of cryptocurrency by having congressional cafeterias, vending machines, and gift shops accept crypto payments. “Congress is typically slow to adopt new technology,” he said. Senator Pushes for Crypto Adoption in Congress U.S. Senator Ted Cruz has introduced a resolution titled “Adopting Cryptocurrency in Congress as an Exchange of Payment for Transactions Resolution,” also referred to as “ACCEPT Resolution,” in the Senate Monday. The resolution proposes cryptocurrency be accepted at “restaurants, vending machines, and gift shops in the Capitol Complex.” According to the text of the resolution: The Architect of the Capitol, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives shall each … solicit and enter into contracts to provide food service and vending machines in such Capitol Buildings with persons that will accept digital assets as p...

Star Financial Bank (Star Bank) says it has become the first bank in the U.S. state of Indiana to offer bitcoin services to customers. The services will be offered through the New York Digital Investment Group and Alkami platform. Customers will have the ability to buy and sell bitcoin via the Star Mobile Banking App. ‘First Bank in the State of Indiana to Offer Bitcoin Trading Services’ Star Financial Bank (Star Bank) announced Tuesday: Star is excited to offer customers the ability to buy and sell bitcoin via the Star Mobile Banking App. “We’re launching this new offering as a closed beta,” the bank added. Star Bank is an Indiana-based community bank. Its parent company, Star Financial Group, has $2.80 billion in assets with 36 locations in central and northeast Indiana, according to its website. The bitcoin services are provided by the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) via Alkami, a cloud-based digital banking solutions provider for U.S. banks and credit unions. NYD...

Russian institutions have responded to a call from а public movement for joint efforts to identify cryptocurrency transfers related to drug trade. The anti-drug organization, Stopnarkotik, recently asked the interior ministry and the central bank to investigate alleged connections between U.S.-sanctioned crypto exchange Suex and a darknet market operating in the region. Russian Authorities Respond to Stopnarkotik’s Request for Action Against Drug Trade The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD) and Bank of Russia have agreed to cooperate with the All-Russian Public Movement Stopnarkotik on identifying financial flows involving cryptocurrencies obtained as a result of drug sales. The Russian online news portal Lenta.ru reported on the agreement, quoting a letter from a high-ranking MVD official. The letter signed by Major General Andrei Yanishevsky, head of the Drug Control Department at the Interior Ministry, has been issued after a working meeting with re...

At the end of October, the product comparison website finder.com published new survey data about price predictions concerning the leading crypto asset ethereum. On November 1, Finder’s researchers published price predictions for the ethereum competitor solana, as Finder’s panelists predict the digital asset is expected to reach $235 by the year’s end and $1,178 by the end of 2025. Solana Expected to Hit $1,178 by 2025 During the course of 2021, finder.com, an investing companion application and product comparison website, has been covering a number of popular crypto assets to survey what people think about future crypto prices. Finder researchers have covered price forecasts for digital assets like bitcoin ( BTC ), ethereum ( ETH ), and litecoin ( LTC ). On November 1, the company published a survey that polled 50-expert panelists stemming from the fintech and crypto industry about the crypto asset solana (SOL). Solana has seen a significant increase in value and has recently posit...

On April 1, Bitcoin.com News published an in-depth report on the Smart Bitcoin Cash (Smartbch) protocol and its compatibility with Ethereum’s EVM and Web3 API before any Smartbch projects were seen in the wild. Seven months later, Smartbch has matured a great deal and metrics indicate that between three decentralized finance (defi) protocols, there’s roughly $12.8 million total value locked on the Smartbch-based applications. Defillama Tracks Smartbch, $12.8 Million Locked Across 3 Dex Protocols It’s been an active year for decentralized finance (defi) applications as the total value locked (TVL) in defi surpassed $250 billion this week. Meanwhile, the top defi blockchains like Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, Polygon, Avalanche, Terra, and more continue to see TVLs rise. Alongside this, smaller defi networks like Zilliqa, Algorand, and Smartbch have seen TVLs expand as well. The Bitcoin Cash-based Smartbch protocol has expanded a great deal since Bitcoin.com News first rep...