Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

On February 10, the well-known developer of Cydia and iOS Jailbreak, Jay Freeman, otherwise known as Saurik, published a Twitter thread about a bug he found in the Layer-2 (L2) scaling protocol known as Optimism. According to Freeman, the vulnerability, which has been patched, could have allowed an attacker to create an infinite amount of tokens. Cydia Creator ‘Saurik’ Discovers Optimism L2 Vulnerability Jay Freeman is a prominent software developer who is well known for his iOS Jailbreak and Cydia tools. Freeman’s Cydia graphical user interface (GUI) was released in February 2008, and it gives users with jailbroken iPhones the ability to download unauthorized software for the Apple smartphone operating system iOS. Freeman recently published a blog post called “Attacking an Ethereum L2 with Unbridled Optimism,” which explains how he reported a critical security issue to the developers of the L2 scaling solution Optimism. Optimism’s L2 solution allows users to move ethereum for a f...

The governor of Hungary’s central bank has called for a ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining in the European Union. “It is clear-cut that cryptocurrencies could service illegal activities and tend to build up financial pyramids,” he said. Hungarian Central Bank Chief Wants EU-Wide Crypto Trading and Mining Ban The Hungarian National Bank, the central bank of Hungary, published a statement Friday from György Matolcsy, the governor of the central bank, declaring that the “Time has come to ban crypto trading and mining in the EU.” He noted that “China declared all cryptocurrency activities illegal last September” and Russia’s central bank has proposed “a ban on crypto trading and mining.” Commenting on the Russian central bank’s crypto ban proposal, Governor Matolcsy said: I perfectly agree with the proposal and also support the senior EU financial regulator’s point that the EU should ban the mining method used to produce new bitcoin. In January, the vice chairman of the Boar...

Financial services firm Wells Fargo says that cryptocurrencies are viable investments that have entered the “hyper-adoption” phase. “Cryptocurrencies have been following an adoption pattern similar to other new advanced technologies, such as the internet,” the firm’s global investment team detailed. Crypto in Hyper-Adoption Phase, Says Wells Fargo Wells Fargo’s investment institute published a special report titled “Understanding Cryptocurrency” this week. The report attempts to answer whether it is “too early or too late” to invest in cryptocurrencies. The Wells Fargo team explained: We believe that cryptocurrencies are viable investments today, even though they remain in the early stages of their investment evolution. They added: “We recommend professionally managed private placements for now, as the investment landscape is still maturing.” The research team continued: “We see cryptocurrencies in the ‘early, but not too early’ investment stage, which is why we have emphasize...

Netflix has ordered a documentary series about the couple who allegedly laundered billions of dollars from the 2016 Bitfinex hack. Aspiring rapper Heather Morgan and her husband, Ilya “Dutch” Lichtenstein, were arrested in New York this week. The Department of Justice (DOJ) also seized 94,636 bitcoins stolen from the Bitfinex hack. Documentary Series About the Bitfinex Hack and the Couple Involved, Coming Soon to Netflix American subscription streaming service and production company Netflix announced Friday that it “has ordered a documentary series about a married couple’s alleged scheme to launder billions of dollars worth of stolen cryptocurrency in the biggest criminal financial crime case in history.” The company explained that Chris Smith — famed for directing “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and “Tiger King” — is set to direct and executive produce the Bitfinex documentary series. In addition, writer and producer Nick Bilton — famed for “Fake Famous,” “The Inve...

The Argentinian Tax Authority (AFIP) will now be able to confiscate the assets that taxpayers have in digital wallets if they have debts with the organization. The recommendation for attorneys of this institution to include these digital accounts was made last year, but the execution of debt collection was suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic period. However, these procedures started being executed on January 31. Argentinian Tax Authority Eyeing Digital Wallets The AFIP, the Argentinian Tax Authority, has included funds in digital wallets as one of the assets that can be confiscated from taxpayers to settle tax-related debts. This addition was suggested to state attorneys in November, but the confiscation procedures of this kind were suspended until January 31st due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organization has now defined the procedure it needs to follow to confiscate assets in these digital accounts. It adds this to other investment vehicles at its disposal to c...

PRESS RELEASE. Universe Finance has stated that its IDO will begin on the 15th of February and will run till the 18th. Universe Finance wants to provide the finest Uniswap V3 active liquidity management platform on Ethereum and Polygon. What can Universe Finance offer? Security is one of the most problematic things when it comes to the DeFi sector. Several assaults have disabled various protocols and stolen countless funds from so many investors within the past ten years or so. Universe Finance believes that security is key and it has hence strived to become extremely safe by deploying mechanisms that enable it to prevent flash loan assaults, sandwich attacks, price oracle manipulation, attacks on private keys, and also excessive contract authority. Universe Finance utilizes extremely limited parameters as well as a multi-signature scheme in addition to white hat hackers, a real-time risk management system, an audit report and a private vault. To provide an even safer overall e...

A bill has been introduced in Canada to encourage the growth of the crypto sector. “Canada should be attracting billions of dollars in investment in the fast growing crypto asset industry. Today I introduced a bill, the first of its kind in Canada, to make sure this becomes a reality,” said the parliament member who introduced the bill. Bill to Grow Crypto Sector Launched in Canada Canadian parliament member Michelle Rempel Garner introduced “Bill C-249” on Wednesday, which “may be cited as the Encouraging the Growth of the Cryptoasset Sector Act,” according to the text of the bill. Conservative MP Garner tweeted: Canada should be attracting billions of dollars in investment in the fast growing crypto asset industry. Today I introduced a bill, the first of its kind in Canada, to make sure this becomes a reality. The bill requires Canada’s minister of finance “to develop a national framework to encourage the growth of the cryptoasset sector.” In addition, it requires the ministe...

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, says the securities regulator is working with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on crypto regulation. In addition, he said the SEC is “trying to work with various crypto platforms, exchanges, lending platforms” to ensure investor protection. SEC Chair Gary Gensler on Crypto Regulation SEC Chairman Gary Gensler talked about cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Bloomberg this week. “We do have a broad agenda and crypto is part of that agenda,” he began. Commenting specifically on crypto regulation, the SEC boss affirmed that “The agency is really just looking out for investors,” emphasizing that “many of these tokens have the attributes of securities.” He further explained, “They are raising money from the public, and the public is anticipating profits based on the efforts of others.” Gensler described: We brought a number of actions. We’re trying to work with various crypto pl...

Veteran investor and fund manager Bill Miller says he has “a very big position” in bitcoin and expects to see a lot of institutional adoption this year, particularly among endowments and foundations. “Bitcoin is insurance against financial catastrophe,” he opined. Bill Miller Says ‘Bitcoin Is Insurance Against Financial Catastrophe’ Famed value investor Bill Miller talked about bitcoin in an interview with CNBC Wednesday. He is the founder of Miller Value Partners and currently serves as its chairman and chief investment officer. He manages the firm’s Opportunity Equity and Income Strategy funds. Prior to Miller Value Partners, he co-founded Legg Mason Capital Management. Referring to bitcoin, Miller described, “It’s like an insurance policy.” He elaborated: “Insurance policies have no intrinsic value. In fact, you want them to have no intrinsic value. You don’t want to have your house burned down or get in a terrible accident but you pay for insurance every year in case that happe...

Speaking in an interview on Friday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained that the company will accept cryptocurrencies “at some point.” Khosrowshahi noted that there were two downsides to leveraging the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, such as “the exchange mechanism is expensive, [and] it’s not great for the environment.” Uber CEO Says Firm Will Likely Accept Cryptocurrencies at Some Point, Company Converses About the Subject All the Time At some point in time, Uber Technologies, the mobility service provider (ride-share service) will accept cryptocurrencies, according to Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi . The Uber executive said this while speaking with Bloomberg Markets’ show hosts Emily Chang and Guy Johnson on Friday. During the interview , Khosrowshahi said that Uber is discussing cryptocurrency “all the time” and he noted that they have become extremely valuable. “I think right now what we see with bitcoin and some of the other [cryptocurrencies] is that they are quite valuable as...

The American firm that produces Bazooka chewing gum, candy, and collectibles, Topps has announced the company is planning to auction one of the rarest baseball cards on earth in NFT form — Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card. The Topps 1 of 1 “Timeless Collectible” will be issued as a non-fungible token (NFT) and sold on the NFT marketplace Opensea on March 1, 2022. Topps Announces 1952 Mickey Mantle NFT Card Auction via Opensea, Physical Card With a PSA 9 Score Is Worth $5.2 Million Topps has announced the minting of one of the rarest baseball cards in the world as the company has revealed it plans to auction the digital collectible on March 1st through the 4th, next month. According to the Topps website, the firm is auctioning the Topps 1952 Mickey Mantle card which is a highly sought after collectible in the real world. The physical card has an estimated worth of around $5.2 million as the card was purchased for that price by the entrepreneur and actor Rob Gough last year. According...

Reports indicate that the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trade volume, Binance, has announced the crypto company has committed to investing $200 million into the American business magazine Forbes. The digital currency company Binance confirmed the $200 million stake into Forbes on the social media platform Twitter. Binance Pledges $200 Million to Forbes Binance has made a $200 million investment into Forbes, the U.S.-based business magazine and digital publisher owned by the Forbes family and Integrated Whale Media Investments. A report published by CNBC, and shared by Binance on Twitter, explains that the investment “is the first step into a marketplace that has really high potential when it comes to adoption of Web 3.0 based tools” Forbes has plans to go public via a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal with Magnum Opus. “Binance’s strategic investment will be through Binance’s assumption of subscription agreements representing $200 million of commitments...

PRESS RELEASE. For many pet owners, owning a pet is akin to having a child. They consider the pets as family members, and these family members deserve to be entertained and pampered. Global Pets World Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of WisdomCome Group, in collaboration with Ammbr Group, will be launching the world’s first global pets theme park welcoming pets of all descriptions, along with their owners and other pet lovers. The concept is a novel yet classic theme park and membership club concept that leverages Distributed Ledger Technology to scale customer engagement, raise funding, and operate club memberships, rewards, access control and internal club payments. With over 50% of global households owning pets, and the market valued at over US $220 Billion, the Global Pets World will provide a safe, welcoming, and entertaining experience for both pet owners and pets, while offering variety of services to make them enjoy and enhance their lives together, unraveling great oppor...

Global regulators are “going full steam” on cryptocurrency regulation. “The current structure is no longer fit for the purpose with the development of cross-border digital market activities,” said the chairman of France’s markets watchdog AMF. Global Regulators Going Full Steam on Cryptocurrency Regulation Robert Ophèle, chairman of France’s markets watchdog, the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), and a member of the Financial Stability Board (FSB), reportedly discussed global cryptocurrency regulation Wednesday at a virtual conference held by Afore Consulting. The FSB is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. Ophèle is also the second deputy governor of the Bank of France, the French central bank. Ophèle explained that regulators worldwide are following the same “universal basic principle,” adding: I do expect that for some of them, we do have international regulatory convergence … primarily stablecoins and digital a...

A panel of fintech specialists has predicted that the price of ethereum will reach $6,500 by year-end. It will then rise to $10,810 by 2025 before more than doubling to $26,338 by 2030. Fintech Specialists Share Ether Forecasts Price comparison portal Finder updated its price predictions for ether ( ETH ) Tuesday. The company detailed: Ethereum ( ETH ) will jump to US$6,500 by the end of 2022, according to Finder.com’s panel of fintech specialists. In addition, “Ethereum is expected to hit $10,810 by 2025 before more than doubling to $26,338 by 2030, according to the average of the panel’s forecasts.” The company explained that the panel of 33 fintech specialists was surveyed from Jan. 6 to Jan. 17 this year, adding that of the 33 panel members, 26 gave their ETH price predictions. The fintech specialists are more bearish in their ETH price predictions than they were in October last year. At that time, the panel predicted that the price of ether would hit $5,144 per coin a...

Global investment bank JPMorgan has predicted that the long-term price of bitcoin will reach $150K while the fair value of the cryptocurrency sits at $38K. “The biggest challenge for bitcoin going forward is its volatility and the boom and bust cycles that hinder further institutional adoption,” JPMorgan’s analysts explained. JPMorgan’s Bitcoin Price Prediction Global investment bank JPMorgan has revealed its prediction for the long-term price of bitcoin as well as the cryptocurrency’s fair value. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s strategists, led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, wrote in a research note published Tuesday that their long-term theoretical target for bitcoin is $150K, up from $146K predicted last year . At this level, bitcoin’s total market value would be on par with that of all gold held privately for investment purposes, they explained. The analysts clarified that bitcoin’s “fair value” is around $38K, up from $35K estimated last year . They calculated the coin’s fair value...

Ricardo Salinas Pliego, president of the Salinas Group, owner of the Elektra Group stores, hinted at the possibility of the shops selling bitcoin. The executive stated that due to the regulations of the Central Bank of Mexico, his company cannot implement cryptocurrency integration in the Azteca Bank app. However, he did point out that Elektra could sell bitcoin as it is a commercial institution. Ricardo Salinas Criticizes Mexico’s Crypto Regulations Ricardo Salinas Pliego, one of the richest men in Mexico and president of the Salinas Group, mentioned the possibility of selling bitcoin in his popular Elektra Group department stores. The remarks were made in a recent Tiktok video , where Salinas commented about the difficulties of including bitcoin in different services due to the regulations of the Bank Of Mexico. On this, Salinas stated: The issue with the Banco Azteca app is that the regulatory pundits won’t let us, the Bank of Mexico won’t let us, but they’re all of them. The M...

PRESS RELEASE. Zug, Switzerland — Ambrosus Core, the technical foundation of Ambrosus Ecosystem , has announced the launch of a substantial developer funding program — $10 million for developers deploying decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and other decentralized solutions on the Ambrosus blockchain. Ambrosus is a fully operational Layer 1 EVM-compatible blockchain protocol providing scalability, zero-knowledge proof data security, and unique built-in data storage capacity. In order to support network growth and expand its user base, Ambrosus Core is launching a developers funding initiative. DeFi on Ambrosus has recently seen an all-time high in total value locked (TVL) of over 310 million AMB as a result of its newly launched staking platform. As of today, the foundation is accepting applications for its grant program open to new contributors looking to build dApps, NFTs, and DAOs on AMB-NET. Any developer or entrepreneur can now apply for funding to create scalable solut...

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) arrested two individuals that are accused of an “alleged conspiracy to launder” 94,636 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. Interestingly, both of the suspects are known individuals within the tech industry as Ilya Lichtenstein was the co-founder of Mixrank, a Y-Combinator backed startup and Heather Morgan was a writer for Forbes. The Myriad of Mysterious Bitcoin Transfers From the 2016 Bitfinex Hack The U.S. government announced the “largest cryptocurrency seizure to date” after the DOJ seized 94,636 bitcoins that were stolen in the August 2016 Bitfinex hack. On August 2, 2016, a hacker managed to breach Bitfinex and steal 120,000 bitcoin ( BTC ). Bitcoin’s price shuddered 24 hours after the breach losing 22% in USD value during the course of the aftermath. At first, Bitfinex talked about reimbursing customers with a bail-in haircut plan , which means traders would only get a fraction of losses. Two weeks later after the 120,000...

A former Bank of Thailand director has warned about an imminent crypto crash. “A cryptocurrency bubble will emerge at the end of March when liquidity in the financial market drops,” he reportedly predicted. Former Central Bank Director Warns Crypto Market Will Soon Crash Former Bank of Thailand (BOT) Director Anusorn Thammajai reportedly warned that the cryptocurrency market will crash in a couple of months, the Nation reported Sunday. The ex-central bank director cautioned: A cryptocurrency bubble will emerge at the end of March when liquidity in the financial market drops due to moves by central banks to taper quantitative easing and raise interest rates. He noted that the first wave of the crypto bubble has already passed and many cryptocurrencies lost more than 40% in value this year. The former Bank of Thailand director added that while cryptocurrency helps create a financial ecosystem in the digital economy, it also poses risks to financial systems. He further warned inv...

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, has suggested some investment strategies for investors seeking to gain exposure to crypto assets with less risk than investing directly in bitcoin, ether, or other cryptocurrencies. “There are several main ways investors can access this potential while avoiding the high volatility and regulatory risks of holding bitcoin or rival cryptos,” the UBS analysts explained. UBS’ Crypto Investing Advice The UBS Global Wealth Management team published a research note last week on alternative investments to directly holding cryptocurrencies. The bank’s analysts, led by UBS Chief Investment Officer Mark Haefele, explained that “direct exposure to cryptos is highly speculative.” They believe that bitcoin’s recent fall from a record high in November last year “has undermined two of the most common defenses of the asset class.” The UBS report details: “The first is that it provides an effective form of diversification from traditional financial assets, such as eq...

A new report by one of the Big Four accounting firms, KPMG, reveals that investment in the crypto and blockchain space grew 5.5 times the previous year to more than a record $30 billion in 2021. KPMG called 2021 a “Blockbuster year for crypto and blockchain.” ‘Blockbuster Year for Crypto and Blockchain’ KPMG published a report Monday on investments in the cryptocurrency, blockchain, and fintech space. Noting that global fintech reached $210 billion last year, the Big Four accounting firm wrote: “We saw growing deal sizes in a wide variety of fintech subsectors — from crypto and blockchain to wealthtech and cybersecurity.” Describing 2021 as a “Blockbuster year for crypto and blockchain,” KPMG detailed: Investment in the crypto and blockchain space soared in 2021, rising from $5.4 billion in 2020 to over $30 billion. “Globally, there was an incredible increase in the level of recognition for the potential role of crypto and its underlying technologies in modern financial system...

Saudi Arabia’s King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre recently became one of the country’s early adopters of blockchain technology after it implemented a “digital credentialing solution.” Saudi Arabia’s Blockchain Goal The Saudi Arabian medical institution, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, (KFSHRC) recently completed a deployment of blockchain tech when it implemented “a digital credentialing solution” for all patients that use its facilities. The implementation was carried out via the recently launched Blockchain Lab which has already identified several viable use cases for the technology. As a result of the deployment of this solution, the hospital can now publish digital certificates directly on the blockchain where they can be verified by residents. The deployment of this solution, according to a statement released by the hospital, aligns with Saudi Arabia’s goal of building blockchain know-how as well as the adoption of this technology in heal...

On February 8, the subsidiary of Animoca Brands and the decentralized gaming virtual world project, The Sandbox, announced the company has partnered with the French video game company Ubisoft. According to the announcement, Ubisoft will have its own land in the virtual metaverse, and the world will begin by featuring voxelized versions of Rabbids’ characters. The Sandbox Partners With Ubisoft, Multimedia Game Franchise Owner to Bring IP Elements to the Sandbox Gaming Metaverse Ubisoft and the Rabbids are coming to the blockchain-based virtual world The Sandbox, according to an announcement from the company. The gaming giant Ubisoft is well known for its multimedia franchises including Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Tom Clancy’s, Prince of Persia, Rabbids, and Rayman. The Sandbox says the project has “strategically partnered with Ubisoft to introduce Ubisoft game IP elements to The Sandbox gaming metaverse.” To start, Ubisoft is bringing characters from the franchise Rabbids, a spin-o...

PRESS RELEASE. Dvision Network’s second LAND sale has now been successfully conducted on the Polygon Mainnet. As a matter of fact, all 4650 LAND NFTs offered on the primary sale had been sold out at an incredibly fast pace, sealing the successful sold out both on Dvision Marketplace as well as OpenSea . The original first LAND sale had occurred not too long ago, and it was similarly successful, which became the largest LAND NFT Sale to occur on Binance Smart Chain’s history, completing the LAND Sale on Binance NFT, Dvision Marketplace and NFTb in less than 5 minutes. Building upon that success, the second sale saw plenty of action from buyers and investors who were all eager to partake as soon as the sale officially started on January 27th, 2022, at 11:00 AM UTC. It should be noted, that secondary trading on OpenSea is continuously occurring, with the floor price for the most common LAND NFT being traded at x2 from the original price, and the total volume currently exceeding 3...