Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Toward the end of this week, crypto-assets rebounded in value after meandering for two weeks and consolidating. While specific tokens like decentralized finance (defi) coins, metaverse tokens, and smart contract coins improved a great deal, the meme-token economy increased in value as well, as a number of meme coins like dogecoin, shiba inu and dogelon mars have seen significant gains during the last seven days. Meme Coins Climb Higher in Value This Past Week — Shiba Fantom and Luni Lead the Pack 21 days ago on December 5, the meme token economy was down more than 12% and hovering just above the $47 billion region . Today, the market valuation of the meme-based crypto economy is $54.1 billion , up 14.61% since that day. Out of the top ten meme-based crypto assets today, 8 out of 10 of them saw seven-day gains. The largest meme-based crypto-asset dogecoin (DOGE) jumped 9.6% last week while shiba inu (SHIB) spiked 21% during that time frame. Other top ten meme-based assets that saw g

Crypto․com CEO Kris Marszalek has an issue with coinmarketcap.com’s exchange volume rankings, according to a tweet he published on December 25. Marszalek claimed in his tweet that the popular crypto aggregation website “arbitrarily reduced” the exchange’s ranking. Crypto․com CEO Complains About Coinmarketcap․com’s Exchange Rankings A recent tweet stemming from the CEO of Crypto.com’s Kris Marszalek indicates the exchange executive is upset with the web portal coinmarketcap.com. Marszalek claims that Crypto.com’s exchange volumes are being misreported and the trading platform’s ranking was changed to the 14th position on a whim. “Merry Christmas to [the] team [at] Coinmarketcap who a week after my response to their poorly worded tweet arbitrarily reduced our exchange ranking to 14th,” Marszalek tweeted on Christmas day. “We are 2nd/3rd on Coingecko so you guys know where to look for real and market neutral data,” the exchange CEO added. According to statistics on coinmarketcap.com

Investors in Africrypt, the now-defunct South African crypto platform, were recently reimbursed a portion of their invested funds. The payments were made by Pennython Project Management LLC as part of a settlement offer that potentially ends claims against Africrypt’s runaway directors. White Knight Investor Identity Revealed Investors in Africrypt, a collapsed South African cryptocurrency investment platform, recently began receiving payouts from a so-called white knight investor, a report has said. According to an Itweb report , which named Pennython Project Management LLC as the previously unnamed party, Africrypt investors began receiving the payouts after a majority opted to accept the tabled offer. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Pennython Project Management had proposed to pay an equivalent of 65% of each dollar invested. Although some investors were reportedly not happy with the offer, Ruann Kruger, an attorney representing Africrypt provisional liquidators, i

Everybody inside and outside of the metaverse world knows that land ownership is important, and acquiring a plot of land is a very traditional investment. What most people outside of the metaverse world don’t quite understand — or are still not convinced of — is why people want to become landowners in the metaverse, and what such virtual land ownership can actually bring them. What Can a Small Plot of Land Do in the Metaverse? Just to be clear, not all metaverse games have the same popularity level and not all of them are developed with land ready to be sold to investors. The Sandbox is one of the leading metaverse games and the Alpha release gave me a very concrete idea of how metaverse land ownership works. So I’ll take the land ownership in this game as an example. When I checked the land price on OpenSea, ranking price from lowest to highest, I could see that the smallest plot of land in The Sandbox currently costs from $11,000 to $19,000. At the same time, large plots of conne

Tap Send, the creator of a remittances app of the same name, revealed it has raised $65 million in a Series B funding round. The fintech firm plans to use the funds to build a cheaper and faster cross-border money transfer platform. Remittances to Overlooked Countries The fintech startup behind the remittances app, Tap Send, recently said it has raised $65 million in a Series B funding round. According to the startup, the funds raised will be used to bolster remittances to the most overlooked countries in Africa and Asia. As stated in a Techcrunch report , Tap Send’s latest capital raise — which surpassed the Series A total raise of $13.4 million — was led by Spark Capital. Other participants in the round included Unbound, Reid Hoffman, Canaan Partners, Slow Ventures, Breyer Capital, Wamda Capital, Flourish Ventures, and additional unnamed investors. Market Said to Be Crowded In comments following the funding round, Tap Send co-founder and CEO Paul Niehaus explained why his firm

UST, the main stablecoin of the Terra project, is being integrated into Binance and Huobi, two leading exchanges by trading volume, expanding the options that users have to trade the stablecoin. After these announcements, The price of LUNA, the governance asset of the Terra project, broke its previous all-time high, going over $100 for the first time in its history. UST Gets Attention From Huobi and Binance UST, the most used stablecoin from the Terra project, has reached a milestone now that two leading exchanges by volume traded have included it in their platforms. Huobi, an Asian exchange, announced it would include the asset in its Pioneer Zone on December 23, and launched a contest to entice the trade of the new currency, offering 210,000 UST to platform users. Binance also reported the listing of the stablecoin the same day, stating it would be offering three different UST trading pairs: UST/ BTC , UST/BUSD, and UST/ USDT . In contrast, Huobi only confirmed one trading pair

Since November 9, 2021, or 46 days ago, transaction fees on the Ethereum network have been cut by more than half the rate they were on that day. At the time, the average fee to move ethereum was $62.84 per transfer and since then, the fees have dropped 62.85% to $23.34 per transaction. From $62 to $23 per Transaction, Ethereum Fees Have Been Cut by More Than 62% Just over a month ago, it was a lot more expensive to transfer ethereum ( ETH ) onchain, let alone move an ERC20 token, swap tokens, or interact with a smart contract. On December 25, metrics show the average fee spent on the Ethereum network is $22.80 or 0.0056 ether per transaction. The day prior it was $23.34 per transaction, which is 62.85% lower than the fees recorded on November 9. A 62% savings per data transfer cost is considerable and the median ether fee is even cheaper. Statistics from bitinfocharts.com indicate that on November 9, the median ether fee was $34.28 per transaction and today, the fee is 0.0032 ET

While blockchain monitoring has increased a great deal during the last few years, cryptocurrency mixers have seen significant use from those who don’t want their financial transactions tracked. Meanwhile, two mixing applications, Tornado.cash and Cashfusion, have helped crypto owners make their ethereum and bitcoin cash less traceable. The two applications combined recorded more than $8 billion in crypto transactions that have been purposely obfuscated. Over $4.8 Billion in Ethereum Processed via Tornado.cash Digital currency privacy is a big deal to a lot of people. To some people, it’s not and they have no issues transacting on transparent ledgers that are monitored by blockchain surveillance firms. Privacy advocates, on the other hand, use a number of methods like leveraging a VPN, using the Tor browser, and accessing token mixers. As the end of 2021 approaches, the two crypto asset mixing applications Tornado.cash and Cashfusion have processed over $8 billion in digital assets

Since December 8, the stablecoin economy has grown 3.59% in 17 days as numerous stablecoin market valuations have issued more fiat-pegged tokens this month. On Saturday, December 25, the stablecoin economy’s $167 billion market valuation represents 6.68% of the entire $2.49 trillion crypto market economy. Stablecoin Issuance Jumps 3.5% There’s a great number of stablecoins in existence today that are pegged to the value of fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar. The U.S. dollar is the most common stablecoin peg today, but there are others that represent the euro and the Swiss franc. On Saturday, the total value of all the stablecoins in existence is $167 billion, up 3.59% since our newsdesk’s last stablecoin report . The most dominant stablecoin today is tether ( USDT ) with a market valuation of around $77.7 billion spread across various blockchains. Tether’s sizable market capitalization is 46.52% of the entire stablecoin economy today. Usd coin (USDC) is the second largest stablec

According to the Dogecoin Foundation, the organization is working with Vitalik Buterin on constructing proof-of-stake (PoS) capabilities for the Dogecoin network. The “uniquely Doge proposal” is aimed at bolstering a “community staking” version of the protocol. Dogecoin Foundation Discusses the Project’s ‘Trailmap’ On December 23, the Dogecoin Foundation’s official Twitter account tweeted about the digital currency network’s “ Trailmap ,” a set of initiatives that essentially detail the proposed direction of the Dogecoin blockchain and ecosystem. The Dogecoin Foundation says that a traditional crypto “roadmap” is a rigid summary of a cryptocurrency network’s direction and usually it’s “led by a single company or ‘lead.’” The foundation behind the Dogecoin blockchain protocol says Dogecoin has always been “community-driven” with “many individual and organisational contributors.” “Dogecoin is a community-driven, consensus-based open-source project and its direction is formed by the

Tanzanians are embracing cryptocurrencies but more work still has to be undertaken in order to reduce the number of scams in the industry, a blockchain educator has said. In much of the year 2021, blockchain entities and proponents of the technology in Tanzania did much to bring this fintech to ordinary folks in that country. This has been either through roadshows or investment commitments. These efforts have also been bolstered by President Samia Suluhu Hasan’s apparent embrace of the technology. As a result of such efforts, more Tanzanians are becoming acquainted with cryptocurrencies than in the past. On the other hand, increased cryptocurrency trading activities have also forced the Bank of Tanzania to once again warn residents of the risks they face each time they trade. However, as Sandra Chogo — a Tanzania based blockchain educator — suggested to Bitcoin.com News, more work still needs to be done to ensure Tanzanians are aware of the risks involved in crypto trading. She

Marathon, one of the leading bitcoin mining companies in North America announced it has entered a new purchase agreement with Bitmain, a bitcoin mining machine manufacturer. This deal would allow them to acquire an undisclosed number of Antminer S19 XP models, an ASIC capable of delivering 140 TH/s while being more efficient than its previous iterations. Marathon hopes to host 199,000 miners by early 2023. Marathon Keeps Buying Miners Marathon Digital Holdings, one of the largest bitcoin mining companies in the world, announced today it entered a new purchase agreement with Bitmain. The agreement will allow the company to get ahold of a number of mining machines to expand its hashrate capacity next year. The machines purchased are Antminer S19 XPs, one of the newest miners developed by the Chinese manufacturer, able to deliver 140 TH/s of mining power while being more energy-efficient than its predecessors. While the manufacturer did not explain how many miners were ordered in thi

The federal government in Moscow has permitted regions to determine local electricity tariffs for the population, a measure that will affect crypto mining at homes. Subsidized household electricity in Russia is often used to mint digital currencies in basements and garages. Regions in Russia Granted Permission to Increase Costs for Home Mining Russians mining cryptocurrencies at their homes may expect higher electricity bills as a result of a reform allowing regional authorities to limit the electrical energy supplied at preferential rates. The move comes after local utilities requested powers to set thresholds for the amount of subsidized electricity available to the general population while complaining about the spread of crypto mining in residential areas. Private customers will have to pay more for consumption exceeding these thresholds, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported. Most Russian regions are yet to adopt new pricing schemes, with the exception of Crimea where

SWIFT, the Belgian-based cooperative that serves as an intermediary and settlement executor of financial transactions between banks worldwide is planning to experiment with asset tokenization in 2022. In a blog post about the subject, SWIFT notes that it will be working with firms like Clearstream, Northern Trust, and SETL to explore “the feasibility and benefits” of using SWIFT as an interconnector to tokenization platforms. Financial Intermediary SWIFT to Be Used as a Tokenization Interconnector The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication ( SWIFT) , has been studying cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology for quite some time. For instance, SWIFT published a report in September 2020, that noted criminals preferred cash for money laundering in contrast to using crypto for illicit transactions. Over a year later, SWIFT is still focused on this technology and revealed in a blog post published on December 1, that it was participating in an asset tokenization te

The number of recorded non-fungible token (NFT) sales during the last 30 days consisted of roughly 362,374 sales. During the past 30 days, the leading NFT marketplace Opensea processed $2.39 billion, up 22.88% since last month. Decentraland volume jumped 192% since last month reaching more than $28 million in sales. NFT and Metaverse Steam Continues With Big Volume and Expensive Collectibles During the last month of the year, the metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) hype has continued to remain strong. Over the last week, Decentraland and The Sandbox processed a significant amount of sales. Seven-day metrics indicate The Sandbox saw $19.3 million in sales while Decentraland did $6.6 million. 30-day stats show Decentraland’s $28 million in sales pushed it up closed to 200% more than last month. While Opensea sales spiked 22.88% this past month, Solana’s Magic Eden marketplace saw $148.86 million in monthly sales, up 86.9%. Superrare’s $26 million in 30 day sales pushed it up 15%

The Indian government has not introduced the cryptocurrency bill that was listed to be taken up in the winter session of parliament. Former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg says he has no confidence in the ability of the Indian government to figure out crypto. Garg headed the inter-ministerial committee that drafted the original crypto bill that proposes banning cryptocurrencies like bitcoin. India Fails to Introduce Crypto Bill in Parliament Again The Indian government has failed to introduce the cryptocurrency bill that was listed to be taken up in the winter session of Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament. The session ended Thursday. Commenting on the government’s failure to introduce the crypto bill, former Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg told IANS publication Thursday that “he had no confidence in the ability of government to figure out the complexities of this new crypto phenomenon,” the news outlet conveyed. He was further quoted as saying: I expr

‘Tis the season of giving and Bybit , one of the world’s fastest growing cryptocurrency exchange and trading platforms , wants to give back to its users. Users can now celebrate Christmas with Bybit through Jolly Jamboree, where they can win amazing prizes by completing a series of simple tasks. The festive assortment of gifts in Bybit’s sleigh includes Amazon gift cards, an iPhone 13, and the best prize of all — a Tesla Model 3. It’s easy for users to add a little more Christmas sparkle to their holiday haul. From Dec. 22, 2021, 10AM UTC to Jan. 12, 2022, 10AM UTC, all they have to do is to start clearing different tasks to unlock attractive rewards like $100 in USDT while collecting special Christmas reward cards. There are a total of 3 Christmas cards. Once all cards are collected, users will be automatically enrolled into the Jolly Jamboree grand lucky draw for a chance to drive off with a Tesla Model 3. Join the Jolly Jamboree today and start trading to win big! https://ww

A crypto working group has held its first meeting at Russia’s parliament. Its members have been tasked to put forward legislative proposals designed to comprehensively regulate cryptocurrencies and related matters in the Russian Federation. Working Group Gathers at State Duma to Draft Crypto Regulations Lawmakers, government officials, and experts have met at the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia, the State Duma , to discuss and propose new legislation aimed at regulating the circulation of cryptocurrencies in the country, the head of the working group, Alexey Gordeev, announced to the media. Gordeev, who is also deputy speaker of the Duma, remarked that authorities in Moscow are well aware of the existence and the development of the crypto industry in the country. He noted, however, that proper regulations for the sector are yet to be introduced. While cryptocurrencies were partially regulated with the law “On Digital Financial Assets” which went into force in January

Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, a smart contract-enabled cryptocurrency platform, announced yesterday he would fly to space next year to fulfill one of his childhood dreams. The space trip will be done in a Blue Origin spaceship, the company owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, which also made an inaugural flight last July. Sun Also announced he will carry 5 unknown individuals with him. Justin Sun Plans for Space Travel Tron founder Justin Sun announced yesterday he had plans to fly to space next year to fulfill one of his childhood dreams. The trip, that would take the crypto entrepreneur out of the earth’s atmosphere, would be done using Blue Origin’s services, the space company owned by Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon. Sun also revealed that he had been the unnamed winner of an auction to be in the inaugural flight of the company with Bezos. He paid $28 million to be part of the launch. On this, Sun stated: I won the auction 6 months ago but missed the launch. However, thi

The CEO of Microstrategy expects the price of bitcoin to reach $6 million, noting that it is “unstoppable” and will replace gold. The executive personally owns 17,732 bitcoins while his company is hodling 122,478 bitcoins. Microstrategy’s CEO Expects Bitcoin to Hit $6 Million Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor talked about his bitcoin strategy and BTC price prediction in a recent interview with the Information, published this week. Saylor revealed that he personally owns at least 17,732 bitcoins, which is the same amount he disclosed back in October last year. At the current BTC price, his bitcoin stash is worth almost $858 million. The Microstrategy executive never sold any of his bitcoins and does not believe they should ever be sold. Furthermore, the Information reported: Saylor foresees bitcoin hitting $600,000 a coin, and eventually $6 million. Meanwhile, Microstrategy has amassed 122,478 BTC , worth almost $6 billion at the current price. The coins were acquired at an

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in collaboration with Citibank, Sony, and Japanese law enforcement, has taken action to “return more than $154 million in funds that were allegedly stolen from a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.” The U.S. Department of Justice detailed: “As a result of this coordinated effort, investigators obtained the ‘private key’ … needed to access the bitcoin address.” Citibank and Sony Help FBI Seize Bitcoin Worth $180 Million The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this week that the U.S. has “filed a civil forfeiture complaint” to “return more than $154 million in funds that were allegedly stolen from a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation.” The FBI and various Japanese law enforcement agencies investigated the case “with significant assistance from Sony and Citibank,” the announcement details, adding: As a result of this coordinated effort, investigators obtained the ‘private key’ … needed to access the bitcoi

The hashpower behind the Bitcoin network has continued to stay above the 180 exahash per second (EH/s) zone after recently reaching a lifetime high. Five months ago the hashrate tapped a low at 69 EH/s and since then, the hashpower has increased by 163% during the last 178 days, or five months ago. Bitcoin Hashrate Continues to Run Hot at End of Year Following China’s Crackdown on Bitcoin Mining This Past Summer Miners dedicating SHA256 hashpower to the Bitcoin blockchain have been keeping the processing power above 180 EH/s. At the time of writing on December 23, BTC ’s hashrate is hovering just above the 186 EH/s zone. The recent hashrate highs follow BTC ’s lifetime hashrate high tapping 194.95 EH/s on December 8, 2021. Since then, metrics indicate that the hashrate has been hovering below that region and 30-day stats show a few times when the it quickly came close to the December 8 high. BTC ’s hashrate is currently doing a whole lot better than records show on June 28, 2021,

In the absence of regulations, people in Pakistan have invested a serious amount of money in digital assets. New research claims Pakistanis keep some $20 billion in cryptocurrency, allegedly more than what their central bank has in foreign reserves. Government Urged for Regulations as Study Shows Pakistanis Hold $20 Billion in Cryptocurrency The Pakistani nation owns more cryptocurrency than foreign reserves, according to the Pakistan Frontier and other media outlets quoting a new report by the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). The study, produced by the association’s Policy Advisory Board (PAB), has estimated that Pakistanis have held cryptocurrency worth $20 billion in the 2020-21 period. The authors point out that the popularity of digital currencies like bitcoin has rapidly increased in the last couple of years. With a 711% market growth in 12 months, Pakistan climbed to third place in this year’s Global Crypto Adoption Index calculated by block

Ethair Market has listed ETHR token on Uniswap as a result of its first governance vote by the holders. Utilities of the token are directly tied to a user’s interaction with the marketplace. On top of the proprietary token, Ethair Market currently supports fiat and cryptocurrencies such as: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Stellar and USDC, and more . The marketplace is currently in beta, allowing sellers to their items before the full release. Ethair Market operates in the traditional B2C/C2C modes with two types of listings: Market which are new fixed price items, and “Buy Offer Bid” (referred to as BOB on the platform) which includes new and used auction items that customers can buy outright, make an offer on, or bid on like in traditional auctions. Ethair is aggressively marketing through Google, YouTube, Yahoo, and Twitter ads. Running Uber ads in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York with soon to have nationwide major highway billboards. You may check ETHR’s token contract here .