Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

As both fractional and traditional non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seen exponential growth this year, the firm Otis has announced the launch of a marketplace called Otis House. The platform is a new NFT project that turns physical items into NFTs, and the tokens can be traded at any time for the physical items stored in a vault. The platform has launched the auction of six assets that include a vintage Super Mario Bros 3 video game and a rare Bob Ross painting. Otis House Aims to Bridge NFTs and Physical Collectibles While NFTs have been a hot subject in 2021, Bitcoin.com News has reported on a number of interesting projects that use NFT technology in a different way. For instance, Bitcoin.com News spoke with the popular American rapper Ja Rule in September about his startup Flipkick.io , a platform that leverages both physical and digital NFTs from artists, celebrities, and creators who want to monetize their work. Our newsdesk has also discussed fractional NFTs on a few occasion...

On Wednesday, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Rarible announced that the platform now supports the Tezos blockchain network. The move follows Rarible’s integration with the Flow blockchain protocol in mid-November, and the NFT marketplace now supports a total of three blockchain networks. 8th Largest NFT Marketplace Rarible Adds Tezos Support Rarible says it has expanded its multi-chain compatibility as it now supports a total of three blockchains which include Ethereum, Flow, and now the Tezos proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain. The strategic alliance with Tezos allows Rarible to provide users the ability to “mint low fee and energy-efficient NFTs, and support secondary sales of projects live on the Tezos ecosystem,” the company’s announcement explains. Rarible is the eighth largest marketplace in all-time sales, according to dappradar.com statistics , with $260.45 million in sales across 88,258 traders. The NFT marketplace originally started its services leveraging the Eth...

On December 14, Moonray PBC, the developer behind the multiplayer action-role-playing game (RPG) Moonray, announced that the project has raised $3.5 million from strategic investors. Moonray is considered the first metaverse and gaming non-fungible token (NFT) exchange built on the Bitcoin network via Stacks. Moonray PBC Leverages Stacks to Build a Blockchain Game on Bitcoin, Project Raises $3.5 Million From Strategic Investors Play-to-earn (P2E) games, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse have become very popular in recent times. There’s been a massive amount of funding directed at projects developing video games and new ventures being launched by big-name game makers. A report published in mid-November shows that game developers are starting to incorporate blockchain tech into games more frequently. On Tuesday, the startup Moonray PBC announced that the team has raised $3.5 million in a funding round led by Animoca Brands. The funds will be dedicated toward scaling th...

Shopping․io, the very first E-commerce platform that allows users to purchase from major hubs using over 200 cryptocurrencies, is now proud to expand the catalog of products and to launch their very own NFT collection: the Shopverse . On December 3rd, Shopping․io announced their incredibly daring and adventurous journey into the Metaverse with the introduction of their genesis NFT line – Shopverse ! This will also be the first ever NFT to add benefits when you shop at major e-commerce hubs online, such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Home Depot. The NFT will serve as your pass to explore a virtual world behind Shopping․io and will show how a modern shopping mall can be constructed in the mysterious world of the Metaverse. Find adventure, exploration, and a thriving nightlife as Shopping․io walks beside you in one of the biggest events to ever hit the online world of E-commerce. Shopping․io is building an experience unlike any before by allowing NFT holders of their genesis collec...

The Tanzanian central bank governor recently revealed that cryptocurrencies are not outlawed in the country but warned those dabbling in crypto-related investments that they do so at their own risk. Central Bank Open to Ideas The governor of the Bank of Tanzania (BOT), Florens Luoga, recently stated that the central bank has not outlawed cryptocurrencies and that those putting money into crypto-related investments are doing so at their own risk. Also, in his remarks published by The Citizen, Luoga revealed that the BOT — which is now exploring the possibility of issuing a digital currency — is nonetheless open to any ideas on how it can regulate cryptocurrencies. “We can’t outlaw something that we are not yet competent with or regulate a game that we don’t really know how it is played. We have not reached a position where we can costerise [sic] cryptos, but we welcome applications from interested parties. All should feel free to present their ideas for consideration,” Luoga is qu...

Dvision Network is a blockchain-based metaverse, which powers the robust and diversified NFT marketplace within its augmented reality. Dvision is based on three primary platform features, which are known as NFT Market, Meta-Space, and Meta-City. The users can utilize LANDs (Meta-Space) in the metaverse in order to build their preferred content that will be integrated as an essential part of the Meta-City. The user-created content has no limitations and can be presented in the form of gaming, academic, commercial, or even entertainment pieces of in-game content. Dvision has recently conducted one of the largest LAND Sale on BSC, got invested by in Republic Realm, and partnered with Refinable and DeFine for P2P NFT sales on the secondary marketplaces. Boburjon Muydinov is the head of business development at Dvision Network . He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the metaverse: Boburjon has a strong finance and business background, being alumni of top unive...

Bitmex co-founder and cryptocurrency investor Arthur Hayes has addressed the current state of the market with the effect the U.S. Federal Reserve’s upcoming tapering process may have. Hayes also links this with the Evergrande situation in China and advises cryptocurrency newcomers to hold on until new signals emerge next year. Arthur Hayes Analyzes the Current Market Situation Former Bitmex CEO and cryptocurrency investor Arthur Hayes issued his opinion on what cryptocurrency investors should do in the context of the current market. In his latest digest, titled “Circo Loco” (Crazy Circus), Hayes expounds on the current market situation in view of the larger economic framework, taking the Federal Reserve tapering and the recent Evergrande default event into account. To him, the situation in China, combined with the accelerated tapering process that the Federal Reserve is already conducting, will affect cryptocurrency prices in a substantial way. Hayes states: The Fed will contin...

Crypto exchange Binance is winding down its exchange operation in Singapore after the company decided to withdraw its application with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate a digital asset exchange in the country. “Buying and selling of crypto from existing assets of users will be discontinued from 13 January 2022,” said Binance Singapore. Binance Withdraws Application to Operate Crypto Exchange in Singapore Binance announced Monday some changes affecting all users of its Singaporean platform, Binance.sg. Noting that “The decision has not been made lightly,” the exchange detailed: We are writing to you today to inform you that Binance Asia Services Pte Ltd (BAS) intends to withdraw its licensing efforts in Singapore and wind down its digital payment token (‘DPT’) services in Singapore by 13 February 2022. Binance explained that with immediate effect, no new user registrations will be permitted on Binance.sg and existing users will not be able to deposit crypto or ...

The crypto-economy has been sliding in value this week and during the last 24 hours, it has lost 2.5% dropping to $2.3 trillion. The leading crypto asset bitcoin has slid 4.8% during the last seven days and ethereum has dropped 11.7% last week. The downward spiral has cryptocurrency advocates questioning whether or not the bull run is over and if the bear market has begun. Bears Continue to Claw the Crypto Economy Down Following all-time price highs on November 10, the crypto asset economy has shed an enormous amount of value and continues to sink lower every few days. After reaching $69K per unit on November 10, bitcoin (BTC) managed to stay above the $60K zone for six days after, and for just over two weeks, BTC managed to stay above the $50K region. After sliding below $50K on December 4, the same day it hit a low of $43,972 per unit but has managed to jump back above the $47K zone. Still, bitcoin (BTC) is trading for 149% higher than it was on this day last year. However, mo...

PRESS RELEASE. Metaverse Alliance has announced the launch of its online Metaverse Hackathon (Metathon) for all metaverse enthusiasts around the world. In recent months, the metaverse has generated a lot of buzz across the internet, with notable corporations like Facebook and Microsoft all racing to embrace the concept. The Metaverse Alliance team believes that the metaverse will create long-term value in the future and that both real and virtual worlds will exist in parallel with little boundaries. Metathon comes from the portmanteau of metaverse and hackathon. It is seeking to create a viable platform for great and amazing developers who have the imagination and vision of the metaverse. The metathon is for those who believe that many protocols and Web 3 tools are necessary for everyone in terms of metaverse infrastructure. It is also open to artists who understand the future direction of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Details About the Metathon The Metaverse Alliance has cooperated...

Dogecoin got a boost Tuesday morning when Elon Musk announced that Tesla will be accepting dogecoin for some products. Musk has just been named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and said that DOGE is more suitable for transactions than bitcoin. Tesla Will Begin Accepting Dogecoin Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced via Twitter that his electric car company will accept dogecoin (DOGE) for some products. In a tweet Tuesday morning, Musk wrote: “Tesla will make some merch buyable with doge & see how it goes.” The announcement came just one day after Musk was named Time Magazine’s Person of the Year and said that dogecoin is better suited for transactions than bitcoin. The Tesla boss noted that BTC is more suitable as a store of value. The price of dogecoin popped 28.5% from $0.1699 at the time of Musk’s tweet to $0.2183 in just over an hour based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets. Meanwhile, Tesla still has not resumed accepting bitcoin. The electric car company began accepting...

SIDUS HEROES is the first ever WebGL, AAA-level, Play-to-Earn, NFT and MMORPG game built by an experienced tech company with 200+ full-time employees and numerous successful projects under its belt. The game is set in a space metaverse at a time when technological advancements have reached the level of merging with all living beings. All characters belong to one of several blockchain races and embody that chain’s strongest attributes. The game provides users with multiple gaming scenarios: interstellar exploration, battles and settlements, as well as scope for political, social and economic development. Introduction and Details SIDUS HEROES utilizes a gaming graphics engine built on WebGL. The graphics engine enables unmatched HD rendering quality in compatible web browsers. Users don’t need to download any applications onto their PCs or phones, wait for the game to download, install updates or bother about storage. Players can simply enter the game’s URL and the game is restored f...

Vulcan Forged, a gaming and NFT platform, suffered a security breach that allowed attackers to gain control of some cryptocurrency wallets of the service. The hackers got hold of 96 user wallets and managed to steal more than 4.5 million PYR, the native token of the project, among other assets. Vulcan is now dealing with the aftermath and announced it would reimburse all users with funds from their treasury. Vulcan Forged Wallets Hacked, 4.5 Million PYR Stolen Vulcan Forged, a blockchain gaming platform with an NFT market, suffered a security breach on December 13 that allowed attackers to gain access to the private keys of some users. According to early reports, the attackers managed to compromise the keys of 148 wallets, holding 4.5 million PYR, the native token of the project, and other crypto-assets such as ethereum and matic. Later, the platform stated that just 96 wallets were affected. Vulcan also stated that, due to this hack, they were moving to a fully decentralized wal...

On Monday, the blockchain game developer and investor Animoca Brands announced a partnership with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) in order to develop a BAYC play-to-earn game leveraging the collection’s popular NFTs. Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen 23,016 sales to date and has a market valuation of around $2.05 billion. BAYC and Animoca Brands Team up to Launch a Game The Yuga Labs-issued Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Animoca Brands have revealed a joint partnership in order to develop and publish a blockchain game. The game will integrate the collection of BAYC NFTs, which have seen extreme demand in 2021. When the collection of 10,000 BAYCs was first introduced, each BAYC sold for 0.08 ether ( ETH ) per NFT. Single Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto and even millions of dollars in ether at auction. A lot of 101 BAYC NFTs were sold at Sotheby’s “Ape In!” sale, which realized $24.4 million at auction. Metrics from dappradar.com in...

On December 12, crypto advocates celebrated the fact that 90% of the 21 million bitcoins that will ever exist have been mined into circulation. Currently, Bitcoin’s inflation rate per annum is around 1.88%, which is lower than the central banks’ traditional 2% target reference. Furthermore, in 875 days, the network’s inflation rate is expected to drop to 1.1% after 19.98 million bitcoins have been mined. Programmatic Scarcity One benefit people enjoy about the Bitcoin network is that it is mathematical and predictable, in comparison to monetary systems issued by central banks worldwide, which are based on the whims of policymakers and are completely unpredictable. At the time of writing, 18,899,800 BTC has been mined into circulation and that equates to roughly 90% of the 21 million BTC that will ever exist. Digital currency fans acknowledged this milestone on Sunday, December 12, the same day as the 11th anniversary of Satoshi Nakamoto’s official departure . The 90% statistic c...

As of December 12, around 90% of all the bitcoin that will ever exist is in circulation today, and the top five exchanges hold 1.6 million bitcoin. The bitcoin holdings on Coinbase, Binance, Huobi, Kraken, and Okex combined represent 7.96% of the 21 million bitcoin supply cap. The bitcoin held by Coinbase is a whopping 51% of the 1.6 million bitcoin or $41.6 billion using today’s exchange rates. 5 Exchanges Hold 1.6 Million Bitcoin Worth $81 Billion At the time of writing, 90% of the 21 million bitcoin supply cap has been mined into existence. Currently, there is 18,899,800 BTC that has been mined so far and in the near future, 19 million bitcoin will be mined into existence. We also know that a decent fraction of bitcoin has been lost and Satoshi Nakamoto may have mined around 1.1 million BTC before leaving the bitcoin community. A study published by Coin Metrics on November 19, 2019, indicates that the assumed amount of lost coins was around 1.5 million at block height 600,...

Nigerian blockchain and cryptocurrency experts have suggested that many prospective users will only consider adopting the e-naira once the central bank has done enough to make the CBDC (central bank digital currency) an attractive option to use. E-Naira Still Unattractive to Users Some Nigerian experts have expressed doubts about claims by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) that many residents in the country of more than 200 million inhabitants are interested in or switching to the recently launched central bank digital currency (CBDC), the e-naira. The experts argue the e-naira, which was initially only available to Nigerians with bank accounts, lacks features that are found in privately issued cryptocurrencies. In addition, there is not enough information concerning the number of e-nairas in circulation. From the viewpoint of these experts, it is a lack of these attributes that makes widespread adoption of the CBDC an almost impossible goal to achieve. Since launching the e-naira...

OKEx Blockdream Ventures Bets on the WAX Ecosystem with WAXP Token Purchase (Miami, FL) December 13, 2021 一 The Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) announced today that OKEx Blockdream Ventures are placing a bet on the WAX Blockchain Ecosystem, purchasing a significant position in WAXP tokens with the exact token quantity undisclosed. WAX is the most utilized blockchain in the world and the #1 Metaverse Blockchain for Gaming and NFTs, processing 15 million transactions daily including two-thirds of all game related transactions with over 450,000 daily users. The platform is also the #2 Layer-1 blockchain behind only Ethereum in 30 day NFT sales volume. “WAXP has an edge in GameFi, enabling a friendly environment for game developers. They also have high performance and low fees with a huge player base, where native games like Alien Worlds & Farmers World have 350k daily active users. The catalyst is the creative content and virtual items staked by KOLs and loyal audiences in Metave...

The chief of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), one of the big three intelligence agencies in the U.K., has raised concerns regarding China and its digital renminbi. Sir Jeremy Fleming stated that the already existent Chinese CBDC could be used to collect information from users and, hypothetically, to control and filter global transactions. UK Worried About Chinese CBDC Advancements The chief of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), one of the biggest intelligence agencies in the U.K., has warned of possible negative effects on global transactions related to the adoption of the digital renminbi. Sir Jeremy Fleming stated that if the currency extended to other countries, and other players use it like locals, it could have a bad effect on the health of the financial system. Fleming stated: If wrongly implemented, it gives a hostile state the ability to surveil transactions. It gives them the ability . . . to be able to exercise control over what is cond...

Gamesta is the smart contract-based guild enabling investors to connect and empower thousands of underprivileged players throughout the world. Gamesta Guild believes the value of any game is created by the network of players playing it. Each player, regardless of their wealth or means, represents the same value in a digital game, investing their time and contributing to an ever-evolving metaverse. Now, through blockchain technology, game developers can finally reward the loyalty of those players. Spencer Tarring is the founder and CEO of Gamesta . He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the business: Founder of VMG & DopeWarz, Spencer comes with a wealth of experience in both startups & crypto, having exited 5+ businesses in a 20 year career of entrepreneurship. He also is an internationally renowned DJ and runs a successful youtube channel called Crypto Money Life. A regular guest on Bitboys ATB show, he is well connected within the crypto & inf...

While bitcoin prices have consolidated around the $50K zone, the network’s hashrate has reached an all-time high (ATH) on December 8, 2021, tapping 194.95 exahash per second. Bitcoin miners have increased their processing power a great deal despite the fact that mining bitcoin is 8.33% harder to mine since December 11. Bitcoin Hashrate Taps 194 Exahash per Second on December 8, Mining Difficulty Jumps Over 8% Higher 3 Days Later Bitcoin prices reached a few all-time price highs in 2021 breaking records from previous years. Similarly, Bitcoin’s hashrate has also seen record highs on two occasions this year as the SHA256 hash power has climbed exponentially. While BTC prices tapped an ATH of $64K in mid-April on May 9th Bitcoin’s hashrate hit a lifetime high at 191.42 exahash per second (EH/s). BTC prices once again reached another ATH on November 10, jumping to $69K per coin. As bitcoin prices have subsided around ​​26% since then, Bitcoin’s hashrate has skyrocketed to another life...