Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A16z has launched a new fund that seeks to invest $600 million in gaming experiences including Web3 and metaverse. The fund, which seeks to build the future of the gaming industry, aims to back several startups and projects in different areas including gaming studios, the intersection of gaming and consumers, and infrastructure. This move complements the investments that the VC has made in other gaming and metaverse-involved startups. A16z Doubles Down on Gaming Executives at a16z seem to be enticed by the intersection of metaverse, Web3, and gaming happening now in the industry. The company has announced the launch of a $600 million gaming fund called Games Fund One, which seeks to power startups in the industry in three key sectors, including gaming studios, gaming relationships, and infrastructure building. The fund, according to the company, bases its operation on the belief that “games will play a pivotal role in defining how we socialize, play, and work over the next century

Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, has filed five trademark applications for “Meta Pay.” The filings cover a wide range of cryptocurrency services. The company is renaming Facebook Pay to Meta Pay. Trademark Applications for Meta Pay Meta Platforms Inc., formerly Facebook, filed five trademark applications for “Meta Pay” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last week. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben tweeted explaining Wednesday that, in his opinion, Meta’s applications indicate the company is planning to launch a payment platform called Meta Pay for users to exchange regular fiat money for cryptocurrencies. Meta’s head of fintech, Stephane Kasriel, explained last week that the company is “investing more” in its existing payments experiences, noting that it has been in payments since 2009. “Today, people and businesses use our platforms to make payments in 160 countries and 55 currencies,” Kasriel wrote, elaborating: The experience that people see toda

The G7 finance ministers and central bank governors have called for a swift and comprehensive regulation of crypto assets. The G7 decision followed the recent crypto market turmoil, including the collapse of cryptocurrencies LUNA and UST. G7 Countries Calling for Swift, Comprehensive Regulation of Crypto Assets The finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations convened in Bonn and Königswinter, Germany, on May 18–20. Among the topics they discussed was the regulation of crypto assets following the recent market turmoil and the collapse of cryptocurrency terra (LUNA) and algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST). “The G7 supports work by the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to monitor and address financial stability risks arising from all forms of crypto-assets, and welcomes increasing global cooperation to address regulatory issues associated with the use of crypto-assets, including in cross-border payments,” according to the communiqu

The CEO of one of Kenya’s biggest lenders has argued there is a possibility cryptocurrencies will complement mobile money in Africa but first, there is a need to convince regulators of their benefits. African Regulators’ Stance on Crypto Cryptocurrencies can potentially complement mobile money in Africa if regulators on the continent are made to change their perceptions of the digital currencies, the boss of one of Kenya’s biggest lenders has said. According to James Mwangi, CEO of Equity Group Holdings Plc, central banks first need to be convinced of the benefits of cryptocurrencies. In remarks published by Bloomberg, Mwangi noted that most of the continent’s central banks have either banned the use of cryptocurrency like bitcoin or have imposed restrictions on its use. He noted, however, that a few countries have or are exploring ways to embrace cryptocurrencies. According to Mwangi, adopting cryptocurrencies is also one way Africa can get ahead of other continents as far as em

PRESS RELEASE. MetaOasis Wins the Double in Hackathon Competitions Three months ago, MetaOasis won the championship in Metaverse Alliance 2021 Global Metathon. Three months later, MetaOasis got the most votes and beat 112 competitors in the recent Avalanche Asia Hackathon. Therefore, MetaOasis will become the first project that wins the double in international hackathon competitions in the gamefi history. What worth mentioning is that Avalanche Asia Hackathon set up an algorithm mechanism which can prevent repeated voting. That’s to say, all votes were from loyal supporters of the project, which makes the votes be of great value, and it also shows that MetaOasis deserve the championship by having the strength with strong and real user base. Who is the Champion-MetaOasis？ MetaOasis is the next-generation game publishing platform linking Web2 and Web3. Meanwhile, MetaOasis will launch the first self-developed big game, making it the core to gather excellent game around the world

Pakistan can generate tax revenues of at least $90 million each year if authorities impose a 15% tax on cryptocurrency transactions, an executive with a cryptocurrency exchange has said. 15% Crypto Tax An executive with a Pakistani cryptocurrency exchange has said Islamabad can generate at least $90 million in tax revenues if authorities decide to levy a 15% tax on cryptocurrency transactions. The executive, Zeeshan Ahmed, the country general manager at Rain Financial Inc, claimed this would be possible if Pakistan adopts what one report calls “hard and fast regulations.” In comments published by The International News, Ahmed claimed that Pakistan’s neighbor India and the United States are already getting billions of dollars in tax revenues. He said: The US and India are collecting billions of dollars through a 30 percent tax on the profit earned from crypto trading. We can start with a 15 percent tax. Role of Crypto in Pakistan’s Economy Ahmed’s sentiments were echoed by his

Microstrategy’s CEO has predicted that bitcoin is “going to go into the millions” despite the recent cryptocurrency market sell-off. Noting that the cryptocurrency is the future of money, he said: “We are in it for the long term.” Microstrategy Sees Bitcoin as the Future of Money The CEO of the Nasdaq-listed software company Microstrategy, Michael Saylor, shared his bitcoin outlook Thursday in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live. The executive is still bullish on bitcoin despite the recent sell-off. He was asked whether there is a price target at which Microstrategy will start liquidating some of its bitcoins. The company is currently hodling 129,218 BTC . “No,” the CEO replied, emphasizing, “we are in it for the long term.” He elaborated: “Our strategy is to buy bitcoin and hold the bitcoin, so there’s no price target. I expect we’ll be buying bitcoin at the local top forever.” He continued: I expect bitcoin is going to go into the millions. So, we’re very patient. We think i

Official records show Do Kwon dissolved Terraform Labs Korea, closing down its headquarters and sole branch just days before the collapse of terra crypto (LUNA) and stablecoin terrausd (UST). Do Kwon Shut Down Terraform Labs Korea Before UST and LUNA Fallout Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon reportedly closed down his company in Korea days before the collapse of cryptocurrency terra (LUNA) and stablecoin terrausd (UST). According to South Korea’s supreme court registry office, Terraform Labs Korea decided to dissolve its Busan headquarters and Seoul branch at the general shareholders meeting on April 30, Digital Today reported. The company named CEO Kwon Do-hyeong, the full name of Do Kwon, as the liquidator. The publication detailed: On May 4, Terraform Labs Korea’s headquarters was dissolved and on May 6, the Seoul branch was dissolved. On May 9, UST lost its peg to the U.S. dollar and its price kept falling. At the time of writing, it is trading at about $0.08. LUNA also shar

PRESS RELEASE. Binance is a curious company. the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, it also has no official headquarters and operates outside regulatory control. But that may not stop its step. Binance.US raised funding at a $4.5bn valuation this month, providing a new case for Binance enthusiasts. Today, they can share the exciting news that Freedom Protocol has set a new record on IDO volume. Freedom Protocol is a new financial protocol that makes pledging easier and more efficient. It makes the largest amount of IDO with over $4M, and it is another big DeFi project issued on the Binance Smart Chain. Freedom Protocol is wise to raise funds while it can. Revenue depends on trading volumes in its crypto, which are notoriously volatile. It is sensible to put aside capital when it can while building relations with external investors. It is worth mentioning that Freedom Protocol raises $4 from normal users instead of professional agencies. Freedom Protocol fans like to claim th

The president of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo, has declared he will not sign the recently approved cryptocurrency bill passed by the National Assembly of the country in its current form. Cortizo stated that one of his main concerns about the bill is the stance it takes regarding money laundering activities and crypto. Cortizo may approve some parts of the bill while vetoing others. Panama’s President Considers Crypto Bill Veto Laurentino Cortizo, the president of Panama, has announced his opinion regarding the recently approved cryptocurrency bill, and how it might be too lax when it comes to dealing with unlawful activities like money laundering in the sector. While speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Latin America conference in Panama City, Cortizo stated : If I’m going to answer you right now with the information that I have, which is not enough, I will not sign that law. Furthermore, Cortizo explained that he and his government would have to be “very careful” if the

Following several sessions of consolidation, ETH has finally caved in, dropping below the $2,000 floor in the process. As we move towards the end of the week bitcoin also fell for a second consecutive session, with prices falling below $29,000. Bitcoin Bitcoin dropped below the $29,000 level on Thursday, as bears continued to push prices lower this week. As a result of a second consecutive session of selling, BTC /USD fell to an intraday low of $28,708.96 on Thursday. This drop comes after prices were trading at a level of $30,016.18 on Wednesday. However they’ve fallen by over 3% as traders still look to find a stable support point. Despite the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) trading below 30, which is in oversold territory, many do not expect bulls to buy any dips, as some believe we could still be heading to further lows. Looking at the chart, this indicator is currently tracking at 34.94, which is marginally below a ceiling of 35.46. We will likely not see any signifi

Even after introducing fines and criminal liability for cryptocurrency mining, Abkhazia continues to find underground facilities for digital currency extraction. This week, law enforcement officials have confiscated dozens of mining devices from an illegal crypto farm. Abkhazia Shuts Down Crypto Farm, Seizes Mining Hardware Police in Abkhazia have closed down another crypto mining installation in a rural area of the breakaway Georgian republic. The illegal coin minting facility was located in the village of Yashtuha, Sukhumi region, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced . Representatives of the interior ministry, together with officials from the Department for Energy Supervision and other government agencies, raided the cryptocurrency farm on Wednesday, May 16, acting on a tip-off. An administrative protocol has been drawn up against the miner, 29-year-old local resident Khanchalyan Robertovich. He operated 31 mining machines that have been confiscated and transferred to a go

YellowHeart Protocol, an NFT platform poised to disrupt the ticketing and music industries, is set to launch its utility token, HRTS (pronounced “Hearts”), on Bittrex Global’s IEO Platform Starting Block as the platform’s debut project on May 24 at 13:00 UTC. YellowHeart Protocol Is a Significant Milestone in the History of Event Ticketing System The first ever event tickets can be traced back to ancient Rome. Not issued on paper, but on a little piece of clay. People’s passion for public cultural events never stopped since, and it was until the mid-18th century when concert goers in London started to receive pre-paid checks to guarantee their seats. In the late 19th century, paper tickets gradually came to use. In the following two hundred years, more and more ticket designs emerged. In the early 2000’s, tickets moved online. And if you wonder what is the next important milestone in the history of event ticketing system, YellowHeart Protocol is one of the most relevant candidates.

Leading U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase is slowing hiring, citing the current down cycle in the market as a reason to rethink its staffing strategy. The company’s management believes the move will allow the trading platform to match its hiring needs with its business goals. Coinbase to Reassess Headcount Needs, Focus on Integrating Recent Hires Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has announced a change in its staffing plans. After previously aiming to triple its size heading into this year, the company now feels it’s prudent to slow hiring and reassess its personnel needs against its business goals, given the current market conditions. Quoted in a press release on Tuesday, Coinbase President and Chief Operating Officer Emilie Choi explained: To ensure we’re best positioned to succeed during and after the current market downturn, we’re announcing we’re slowing hiring so we can reprioritize our hiring needs against our highest-priority business goals. Choi further elaborated that Coin

Bitcoin Argentina, an NGO dedicated to the promotion and expansion of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in the country, is going to take Bitcoin education to high schools. The project, called “Schools and Bitcoin,” will help educate high school students about the relevance of Bitcoin and the differences between this alternative system of money and the traditional fiat finance structure. Bitcoin Argentina to Educate High School Students Argentina is one of the countries with a high crypto adoption rate in Latam, according to numbers published by Chainalysis. Some citizens of the country have fled to crypto and bitcoin due to inflation and exchange controls depleting buying power. This is why Bitcoin Argentina, an NGO dedicated to the expansion of the Bitcoin ecosystem in the country, has decided to launch an education project that will allow high schoolers to learn about Bitcoin. The project, called “Schools and Bitcoin,” launched in partnership with humanitarian initiative Built with Bit

On Wednesday, the acid jazz-funk band Jamiroquai revealed it has partnered with the blockchain-based virtual world platform The Sandbox in order to “get funky in the metaverse.” According to the announcement, Jamiroquai plans to bring virtual insanity to the band’s virtual land located in The Sandbox metaverse. Acid Jazz-Funk Band Jamiroquai Joins the Sandbox Virtual World Another popular music act is joining the virtual world The Sandbox, as the subsidiary of Animoca Brands announced on Wednesday that Jamiroquai is now a project partner. Jamiroquai is an award-winning band that plays funk, acid jazz, soul, disco, and R&B, and is led by the band’s frontman Jay Kay. Jamiroquai is well known for hit songs like “Virtual Insanity,” and “Canned Heat,” and Virtual Insanity was named MTV’s Video of the Year in 1997. The hit song also earned Jamiroquai a Grammy Award the following year. The Sandbox and Jamiroquai plan to celebrate the partnership on May 18, 2022, with Jamiroquai x Sand

Bank of England’s deputy governor for financial stability, Sir Jon Cunliffe, has warned of hard times ahead for cryptocurrency investors as the Federal Reserve and other central banks tighten monetary policy. Bank of England’s Executive Warns About Crypto Sir Jon Cunliffe, deputy governor for financial stability at the Bank of England (BOE), had a warning for crypto investors at a Wall Street Journal conference Tuesday, Reuters reported. The Bank of England executive cautioned that crypto investors should expect more difficult times ahead. He explained that as the Federal Reserve and central banks around the world tighten financial conditions, investors will be more attracted to safer assets. Replying to a question about whether rising interest rates would ramp up pressure on cryptocurrencies, Cunliffe was quoted as saying: Yes, I think as this process continues, as (quantitative tightening) starts in the U.S. … I think we’ll see a move out of risky assets. Federal Reserve Cha

A panel of specialists at Finder has predicted the death of shiba inu (SHIB) cryptocurrency. The majority believes that the price of the meme crypto will eventually fall to zero. In addition, “Our panel is overwhelmingly out on SHIB, with 73% saying that now is the time to sell.” SHIB’s Price Prediction Leading price comparison portal Finder.com updated its price prediction for the shiba inu cryptocurrency last week. “Finder surveyed a panel of 36 fintech specialists in April for their thoughts on how shiba inu will perform over the next decade,” the company explained. “Things are not looking good for the meme coin shiba inu,” Finder remarked, adding that “It’s a matter of when, not if, we’ll see the death of shiba inu, according to the majority of Finder’s shiba inu price predictions report panel.” The company explained that at the time of the survey, the price of SHIB was $0.00002029, and the panel expected it to drop 7.6% to $0.000018750 by the end of 2022. However, at the tim

Trading platform Robinhood is launching a non-custodial, web3 cryptocurrency wallet. “Customers will be able to hold the keys for their own crypto,” the company said. Robinhood Building Non-Custodial, Web3 Wallet Popular trading platform Robinhood announced Tuesday that it is “building a brand new non-custodial, web3 wallet that will allow customers to have total control of their crypto.” The announcement details: This new, multichain, web3 wallet will launch as a standalone app … Customers will be able to hold the keys for their own crypto. In addition, customers will be able to “trade and swap crypto with no network fees,” “earn yield using their assets,” store non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and connect to NFT marketplaces, Robinhood explained. Vlad Tenev, co-founder and CEO of Robinhood, commented: “At Robinhood, we believe that crypto is more than just an asset class … Our web3 wallet will make it easier for everyone to hold their own keys and experience all the opportunities

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has given his take regarding the future of Bitcoin’s usage. Bankman-Fried stated he doesn’t believe that Bitcoin will work as a payments network, due to its limited capability for scaling to fulfill this task. However, he believes it might become “an asset, a commodity, and a store of value.” Sam Bankman-Fried on Bitcoin as a Payments Network FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has given his opinion about where bitcoin is going and the real value of its structure in the future. In an interview published by the Financial Times, Bankman-Fried criticized the implementation of Bitcoin as a payments network. To him, the Bitcoin blockchain system will never work as a day-to-day payments system for several reasons. A perceived lack of scalability of the Bitcoin blockchain is one of them, and the second reason presented by the executive has to do with the energy and environmental implications of this hypothetical growth compared

Chinese authorities in Rong County recently said they have prosecuted eight individuals accused of being the masterminds behind the Magic Data Chain (MDC) pyramid scheme. The pyramid is thought to have handled transactions with a total value of over $147 million. Virtual Currency Pyramid Scheme Authorities in China’s Rong County, Zigong City, recently prosecuted eight people accused of orchestrating the MDC virtual currency pyramid scheme, a local report has said. According to the report, the prosecution of the case was handled by the Rong County People’s Procuratorate, and was only carried out some ten months after the arrest of MDC’s 12 core members. According to a report from the Sichuan Provincial Public Security Department, the MDC pyramid scheme was initially cracked in May 2021. Subsequent investigations by authorities in Rong County then determined that the scheme had been in existence since July 2019. MDC’s 2 Million Registered Members In the report, authorities said t

PRESS RELEASE. Algoracle has recently announced the close of its seed round for $1.5 million (USD) to help accelerate the development and launch of Algorand’s native decentralized oracle network. Algoracle’s seed round was led by Borderless Capital , with major contributions from the Algorand Foundation , Valhalla Capital , and Big Brain Holdings , and rounded out by strategic investors Xpand Capital , Parea Capital , OrcaDAO , GMI Capital , and EXA Finance . Thanks to the support provided by all of these organizations, the seed round was a resounding success and generated the aforementioned amount of $1.5 million, much to the delight of the community. “We are excited to back Algoracle and their vision of bringing data on-chain in a decentralized fashion. This will help developers to build more powerful and sophisticated applications and smart contracts, enabling innovative and disruptive new use cases on top of the Algorand blockchain” said David Garcia, CEO and Managing

Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk says that the U.S. economy is probably in a recession and it could be “tough going” for 12 to 18 months. He added: “The honest reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion more money than it had.” Elon Musk on U.S. Recession and Inflation Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and Spacex, talked about the U.S. economy on the All-In podcast, published Monday. Commenting on whether the U.S. economy is in a recession, Musk said: We probably are in a recession and that recession will get worse but these things pass and then there will be boom times again … It’ll probably be some tough going for, I don’t know, a year, maybe 12-18 months. He added that 12 to 18 months is roughly the amount of time for a correction to happen. Recession fears have escalated recently as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to help cool down inflation. Musk explained that in his opinion, recessions are not necessarily a bad thing, emphasizing that he’s been t

South Korea’s top financial regulators have launched an emergency investigation into the collapse of cryptocurrency LUNA and stablecoin UST. The authorities have asked domestic cryptocurrency exchanges to provide information relating to transactions and investors of the two coins. South Korea’s Emergency Investigation Into LUNA, UST South Korea has launched an “emergency” investigation of domestic crypto exchange operators following the collapse of the terrausd stablecoin (UST) and terra (LUNA) cryptocurrency, Yonhap News reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources. Last week, UST lost its peg to the U.S. dollar, sending its price and the price of terra (LUNA) into free fall. At the time of writing, UST is trading at less than $0.09 while LUNA is near worthless. South Korean top financial regulators, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) and the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS), have asked local cryptocurrency exchange operators to share information relating to UST and LUNA, sou

Since last week’s Terra implosion and the demise of the blockchain project’s native token LUNA — and the algorithmic stablecoin terrausd (UST) — crypto tokens based on the Cosmos ecosystem have seen significant losses. Two months ago, the top Cosmos ecosystem coins collectively were worth $61.6 billion and since then, the Cosmos economy has lost more than 75% in value, dropping to $15.2 billion. Terra’s Fallout Stirs Cosmos Token Ecosystem The blockchain project Terra is a Cosmos-based network, which leverages the consensus protocol Tendermint, the Cosmos SDK, and the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC). Terra’s network has a native token called LUNA and a suite of algorithmic fiat-pegged tokens such as terrausd (UST). Last week, UST lost its $1 parity and after the de-pegging event, LUNA’s value dropped well below a U.S. penny per unit. Terra’s fallout not only rippled across the crypto economy, but it wreaked significant havoc across the Cosmos ecosystem tokens built wi

This is the May 2022 monthly market insights report by Bitcoin.com Exchange . In this and subsequent reports, expect to find a summary of crypto market performance, a macro recap, market structure analysis, and more. Crypto Market Performance May got off to a rough start as the Federal Reserve confirmed a hawkish bias on the back of lingering inflation. Markets reacted by going risk-off. The collapse of LUNA and UST added fuel to the fire, with the result that crypto markets saw historically large drawdowns. BTC reached a low of $25.4k USD, which is 60% off its all-time high of $65k. ETH saw a comparable drawdown. Other large-cap coins fared even worse, with AVAX and SOL being down over 75% and 80% respectively from their all-time highs. During the first week of the month, gaming (play-to-earn) saw the worst performance across crypto sectors, followed by top assets (large caps) with losses of 9.6%, and Web3, which was down 8.9%.   Macro Recap: Quantitative Tightening (QT)