Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Pocketcoin (PKOIN) is a Proof-of-Stake token that is used decentralized advertising, boosting posts and featuring comments on the decentralized crypto social platform Bastyon ․ com. PKOIN also gives users specific privileges while using Bastyon ․ com social platform and is used for node staking. Authors also earn crypto for their content on Bastyon ․ com. And now Pocketcoin is available for purchase on https://buy.pkoin.indacoin.io/ for Visa/Mastercard through a newly announced Indacoin integration. PKOIN is also available on a number of exchanges including DigiFinex and Bitforex, and for purchase for 19 different cryptos at https://pkoin.net/ Recent Growth of Bastyon ․ com and PKOIN Userbase The crypto social network Bastyon has grown exponentially adding over one hundred thirty thousand users over the past three months. Bastyon’s block explorer routinely features hundreds of transactions showing the network is gaining majortraction. Bastyon recently added a video upload function...

The popular American-style pale lager produced by Anheuser-Busch, Budweiser announced on November 29, that the firm planned to issue a series of 1,936 non-fungible token (NFT) collectibles. Following the Bud-themed NFT market launch, the web portal experiences some hiccups. Budweiser Issues NFT Beer Can Collection — NFT Cans Give Access to the ‘Budverse’ At the end of August, the crypto community discussed the popular American beer brand Budweiser purchasing an NFT crafted by Tom Sachs called “ Life of the Party .” Moreover, Budweiser also acquired the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain called “beer.eth” on August 11, 2021. According to Opensea records , Budweiser spent $96,000 or 30 ether at the time of sale in order to acquire the ENS domain. There are 1,936 Budverse Cans because it’s a hat tip to our first Heritage Cans launched in 1936. And now you can own a piece of history and a collectible that gives you access to the future of Budverse. — beer.eth (@budweiserusa) Novemb...

Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has cautioned that Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell could slow down the crypto market in his second term in office. Commenting on his re nomination, Novogratz said Powell could “act more like a central banker than a guy that wants to be reappointed.” How Jerome Powell’s Second Term as Fed Chair Could Impact Crypto Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, talked about the impact the renomination of Jerome Powell as the Federal Reserve chairman for another term could have on the crypto market on CNBC last week. President Joe Biden nominated Powell to serve for a second term as Fed chair last week. Powell has overseen the biggest monetary stimulus in U.S. history to help the economy cope with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent crisis. The “macro story has changed a little bit,” Novogratz explained, adding that Powell getting reappointed could allow him “to act more like a central banker than a guy that wants to be reappoi...

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has announced support for the meme cryptocurrency shiba inu (SHIB). Deposits are now live and SHIB trading is expected to commence on Tuesday. The price of SHIB surged following Kraken’s announcement. SHIB on Kraken: Deposits Now Live, Trading Set to Begin Tomorrow Crypto exchange Kraken announced Monday that shiba inu (SHIB) deposits are live and trading is expected to start Tuesday. The exchange wrote: We’re thrilled to announce that Kraken now supports shiba inu (SHIB). “Funding is live, and we anticipate trading will begin tomorrow, November 30 — at which point Kraken will enable order entry and execution,” the exchange clarified, noting that the futures and margin trading service will not be available at launch. The shiba inu token will be tradeable against USD and EUR on Kraken, the announcement details, adding that there is a trading minimum of 50K SHIB, a price precision of 8 decimal places and a quantity precision of 5 decimal places. Mo...

Microstrategy has purchased 7,002 more bitcoins, growing its cryptocurrency stash to 121,044 coins. CEO Michael Saylor says, “Bitcoin is the only property you can truly own, as well as the first technology capable of granting property rights to everyone on earth.” Microstrategy Now Has 121,044 Bitcoins in Its Treasury The Nasdaq-listed company Microstrategy has purchased 7,002 more bitcoins. CEO Michael Saylor tweeted Monday: Microstrategy has purchased an additional 7,002 bitcoins for ~$414.4 million in cash at an average price of ~$59,187 per bitcoin. As of 11/29/21 we hodl ~121,044 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.57 billion at an average price of ~$29,534 per bitcoin. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin is $57,095.58 based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets . This means Microstrategy’s bitcoins are now worth more than $6.9 billion. Recently, Saylor discussed bitcoin becoming a $100 trillion asset class . He noted that bitcoin is winning against gold, asserting that “digital...

PRESS RELEASE. EverRise , the DeFi project that introduced the concept of buybacks in cryptocurrency, is going live with an upgraded version 2 contract on Monday, November 29th at 11:00 pm UTC. The new RISE token will be available on the Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, and Polygon networks through PancakeSwap, UniSwap, and QuickSwap, respectively, with one supply across the three blockchains and balanced initial liquidity pools. This is the first time a token has launched on three chains at the same time and marks the first time the RISE token will be available on Polygon. The token was previously available on both the Binance Smart Chain and Ethereum. The upgraded contract features several noteworthy innovations and changes. Larry from Certik.io noted in an update to the EverRise community, “The upgraded EverRise contract is a technological tour de force. The Certik team is impressed with the level of innovation and engineering.” The most significant new feature is the introductio...

Google has warned users about the use of its Google Cloud platform by malicious actors to mine cryptocurrencies. In its latest Cloud Threat Intelligence report titled “Threat Horizons,” which provides users with security insights, the company informed that 86% of the compromised instances on Google Cloud platforms were being used to mine cryptocurrencies. Most of the accounts compromised were secured with weak passwords or with no password at all. Google Cloud Used to Mine Cryptocurrencies Software giant Google is alerting users about malicious actors using compromised Google Cloud accounts for mining cryptocurrency. Google Cloud accounts have access to processing power that can be easily redirected to perform malicious tasks. According to the first “Threat Horizons” report , issued by Google to raise awareness about the security weaknesses in its platform, 86% of the compromised accounts are used for this purpose. The report states that cryptocurrency mining in the cloud causes hi...

This month, the price of bitcoin sank below the $60K zone this month after reaching an all-time high (ATH) at $69K per unit. The pseudonymous bitcoin analyst and the creator of the bitcoin price model called stock-to-flow (S2F), Plan B, called the last three months of bitcoin prices correctly but the analyst’s “worst-case scenario” forecast missed the mark in November. Despite the recent bitcoin price drop, Plan B still seems confident bitcoin’s price is “on track towards $100K.” Plan B’s Bitcoin Price Prediction for November Misses the Analyst’s $ 98K Call The infamous pseudonymous bitcoin analyst Plan B is well respected among bitcoiners and has amassed 1.5 million Twitter followers since October 2017. Plan B is the creator of the popular bitcoin price model called stock-to-flow (S2F) , which quantifies the commodity’s (bitcoin) scarcity and then divides it by yearly issuance (the flow). The analyst has done well as far as bitcoin ( BTC ) price predictions are concerned, but thi...

One of the largest cryptocurrency mixing protocols, Tornado.cash, has announced the project will deploy on the L2 (layer 2) Ethereum platform Arbitrum One. The creators of the Ethereum-based mixing application explain that settling on Arbitrum will allow Tornado.cash users to benefit from cheaper transactions. Tornado.cash to Deploy on Arbitrum – ‘Cheaper Transactions Being the Biggest Comparative Advantage’ On November 29, the team behind the ethereum mixing application Tornado.cash revealed the project plans to deploy on the Arbitrum One network. The news follows the project’s recent collaborative efforts that applied network connections to Polygon, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and Xdai. This week, total deposits for Tornado.cash on the Xdai chain crossed $1 million . In terms of ether deposited since the project’s inception, the protocol has taken in 2,222,007 ether, or $4.3 billion. Essentially, Tornado.cash improves ether transfer privacy by breaking onchain links betwee...

The Indian government has answered three sets of questions in parliament regarding bitcoin transactions, the high-profile bitcoin scam in Karnataka, and the legality of cryptocurrency trading and crypto exchanges in India. Meanwhile, the winter session of parliament has begun and a crypto bill is expected to be taken up during this session. Indian Government Answers Questions About Bitcoin Transactions On Monday, the Indian Ministry of Finance answered three sets of questions on bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading in Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. The first set of questions (Starred Question No. 12), titled “Bitcoin Transactions,” ask Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman “whether the government is aware that bitcoin transaction is silently blooming in India in the recent years.” The finance minister replied: The government does not collect data on bitcoin transactions. Finance Minister Sitharaman was further asked “whether the government has any proposal to rec...

PRESS RELEASE. Blockchain protocol Moonlift has unveiled a new name and new product release as part of an extensive rebranding initiative. The blockchain project will be known as MoonLift Capital and launch a decentralized exchange that allows token swaps and liquidity mining features. MoonLift Capital: A cross-chain turnkey incubator and service provider MoonLift is a community-driven project that aims to provide users with passive income using blockchain technology. Its ecosystem includes a decentralized exchange, a staking pool, launchpad and NFT marketplace. The blockchain protocol also provides a one-stop solution for upcoming crypto projects via marketing, fundraising and community-building services. These projects can leverage their existing community base to raise market awareness on their projects. MoonLift Capital is also backed by numerous partners and advisors. One of the biggest names is the DeFi start-up guide LaunchZone . MoonLift Capital will offer new projects t...

The Central Bank of Nigeria has said it wants players in the country’s payment industry to develop and help introduce products based on its central bank digital currency, the e-naira. Central Bank Open to Suggestions In its bid to deepen the adoption of the e-naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has asked payment service providers, financial institutions, and fintech firms to develop and introduce products that are based on its digital currency. According to a report by the Vanguard, this plea was made by Rakiya Mohammed — the CBN’s director of the information technology department — when she addressed financial institutions and fintech companies that attended the central bank’s one-day engagement session. During this meeting, Mohammed is reported to have also reassured participants that the central bank is not competing against financial institutions or other players in the payment system. Instead, Mohammed said the CBN is open to suggestions or ideas that add value to the e...

In a year with rising crypto prices, online chatter devoted to cryptocurrencies has increased significantly. Research carried out on Russian social media has identified the most talked about coins and it’s not just bitcoin on people’s minds. Experts List Most Mentioned Cryptos on Russian Social Media Brand Analytics, a company specializing in media monitoring in the CIS area, has recently published a report ranking the most popular cryptocurrencies, according to the frequency of their appearance in Russian-language conversations on social media. To assess interest in crypto topics, its experts have analyzed over 2.4 billion public messages with more than 46.7 billion words, published in October 2021. Using clustering technology, the researchers discovered over 600 variants of names, including synonyms, referring to cryptocurrencies, mentioned by Russian-speaking users in their posts last month. For example, in addition to the standard “биткоин,” the Cyrillic spelling of bitcoin, ...

Bitcoin mining companies are now increasingly experimenting with immersion cooling, a form of cooling that allows them to get more hashpower out of existing miners. According to industry insiders, this cooling alternative will become mainstream in the future, as leading companies are already taking advantage and retrofitting these cooling devices to existing mining operations. Immersion Cooling Getting Attention From Miners Miners are experimenting with an alternative and lesser employed method for maintaining their equipment, called immersion cooling. This cooling process involves submerging already existing mining machines into tanks with a liquid substance that allows heat to be dissipated faster from the mining rigs. This has advantages over air cooling: diminished maintenance times due to less dirt clogging the machines, and better performance. This process in which miners configure these machines to work over their default specs is known as overclocking, and one of the main c...

While non-fungibe token (NFT) collectibles have been very popular, NFTs have brought a slew of unique debates to the table and one of them has been censorship. The artist behind Stonetoss Comics, a series of political cartoons, has been censored by two very prominent NFT marketplaces — Opensea and Rarible. Stonetoss has told the public on social media that the artist fears these NFT platforms are being used as a “tool for political censorship.” 2 Large NFT Marketplaces Are Accused of Political Censorship Censorship of any kind was loathed in the early days of crypto but these days, acts of censorship have been slipping through the cracks. The very nature of Bitcoin and blockchain technology is touted as “censorship-resistant” tools and non-fungible token (NFT) assets are meant to provide censorship-resistance to things like artwork, online creations, collectibles, virtual items, and more. However, while NFT marketplaces allow users to connect their wallets and buy and sell NFT asse...

About 8.3% of polled South African internet users own NFTs while a further 9.4% said they plan to acquire such tokens in the future, a study has found. Twelfth-Highest NFT Adoption Rate According to the findings of the latest Finder online survey, about 8.3% of the 1,205 South African internet users surveyed own a non-fungible token (NFT). These findings are enough to see South Africa ranked as the country with the 12th highest NFT adoption in the world. In terms of internet users that plan to acquire NFTs in the future, the survey found that 9.4% of polled South Africans are planning to do so. When this is combined with the number of internet users that already own NFTs, South Africa’s NFT adoption could soon rise to 17.8%. This figure is higher than that of Vietnam (17%) which is currently ranked fifth globally. According to the findings, The Philippines (32%) currently has the most NFT owners globally, followed by Thailand with 27%, Malaysia with 24%, and the United Arab Emira...

The governor of the Bank of England, the country’s central bank, has voiced concerns about El Salvador choosing bitcoin as a national currency. Citing a recent warning by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) against bitcoin’s use as legal tender, the governor said: “What would worry me most of all is, do the citizens of El Salvador understand the nature and volatility of the currency they have.” Bank of England’s Governor Is Concerned About Bitcoin Being Legal Tender in El Salvador Bank of England (BOE) Governor Andrew Bailey raised concerns about bitcoin being used as legal tender in El Salvador while speaking at the Cambridge University student union Thursday. Bailey explained: It concerns me that a country would choose it as its national currency … What would worry me most of all is, do the citizens of El Salvador understand the nature and volatility of the currency they have. El Salvador passed a bitcoin law making the cryptocurrency legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar i...

The author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has revealed that he is buying more bitcoin and ether amid rising inflation concerns. “Inflation is a tax on the poor and middle class. Inflation makes the rich richer,” he stressed. Robert Kiyosaki Warns About Inflation, Reveals He’s Buying More Bitcoin and Ether Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, has revealed that he is buying more bitcoin and ether in response to the alarming rise he sees in inflation. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries. Kiyosaki tweeted last week: Dollar Tree becomes $1.25 Tree. Inflation is a tax on the poor and middle class. Inflation makes the rich richer. Get smart. Get richer. I am buying more gold, silver, bitcoin, ethereum, rental real estate, and oi...

Thailand is laying the groundwork to become a “crypto-positive society” with the aim to attract crypto holders and boost its tourism industry. The country hopes to gain back some of the $80 billion in lost tourism revenue due to the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent shutdown. Thailand Plans to Attract Crypto Holders The Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) is working with the country’s regulators to make it easier and more convenient for visitors to spend cryptocurrencies in the country, Bloomberg reported Saturday citing TAT Governor Yuthasak Supasorn. The governor detailed, “There are people who have become wealthy from holding digital currencies and they may want to use the wealth they have accrued,” elaborating: If they can use their currencies here without having to exchange it, or be faced with government taxes, then it would create convenience for them. He explained that the Thai tourism authority is laying the groundwork for the wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies, which...

Boba Network, a recently released L2 layer for Ethereum, has quickly jumped to second place in TVL (total value locked) among all expansion layers. Boba, which is a fork of Optimism, another L2 layer based on rollups, reached more than $1 billion in TVL, surpassing Optimism. This is likely due to the profitable percentages offered by its first decentralized exchange, Oolongswap, which offers yields of over 1,000%. Boba Network L2 Gains Popularity The Boba Network, a recently released L2 layer for Ethereum, has reached second place regarding total value locked (TVL) among L2 solutions, gaining more than 50% in value during the last week. The platform, which is a fork of Optimism, another Optimistic rollup, surpassed its sibling to fall just behind Arbitrum , the leading L2 solution for Ethereum scaling currently. The problems Ethereum is facing regarding scaling have resulted in the rise of this kind of solution, which offers users the possibility of paying less in gas fees but enj...

The second leading crypto asset ethereum has been dealing with high fees since the end of June and today the average ethereum transaction fee is between $5 and $34 per transfer. While there’s been a lot of complaints about ether gas costs this year, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin has recommended an Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP) that aims to decrease transaction costs by five times. Ethereum developer Tim Beiko discussed the idea as well, and talked about possible “challenges” both long and short term. Moving Ether, Transferring an ERC20, and Swapping Tokens on Ethereum Is Costly — Tim Beiko Shares EIP-4488 Insights Following the London upgrade during the first week of August, it was assumed that EIP-1559 would relieve at least some of the pressure. However, the average transaction network fee continued to rise after the London upgrade reaching, $62 per transfer on November 9. Today, ether gas cost is lower as bitinfocharts.com indicates the average ether fee is 0.0083 ETH ...

Cryptocompare, the firm that provides institutional and retail investors with real-time and historical cryptocurrency data, has published the firm’s November 2021 Digital Asset Management Review. The report covers crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs), and recent findings show alternative crypto asset investment products are outperforming Bitcoin ETPs. Ethereum-Based Investment Product Trade Volumes Increase Every month Cryptocompare publishes a research report that covers the cryptocurrency investment product landscape. The investment products are ETPs tethered to today’s top crypto assets globally such as Grayscale’s GBTC and ETHE funds. Cryptocompare’s Digital Asset Management Review November report explains that ETPs tied to ethereum ( ETH ), litecoin ( LTC ), and solana (SOL) saw better returns during a 30-day time frame ending on November 19. “The majority of AUM for trust products continues to reside in Grayscale’s Bitcoin (GBTC – $38.1bn – down 10.1% since October) and Et...

Unexpectedly high demand for Switzerland’s first crypto stamp has created headaches for the national postal service. Swiss Post announced it had to deal with technical issues when numerous orders hit its online shop all at once on the day the innovative offering was made available. Demand for First Crypto Stamp Overwhelms Swiss Post’s Online Store Swiss Post announced the “crypto stamp” initiative in September when it was presented as an attempt to “bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds in philately.” The state-owned company joined forces with blockchain services provider Inacta to produce the stamp, a first of a kind for the Alpine nation. When the crypto stamp was launched on Thursday morning, Nov. 25, demand was so high that it “temporarily led to technical problems on postshop.ch,” the Swiss Post told the AWP news agency. That’s after the postal service had been contacted by many interested in acquiring the stamp in recent weeks, according to a spokesperson quo...