Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The billionaire founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, Sam Zell, says he is staying away from bitcoin at all costs. He explained that he does not understand the cryptocurrency and believes that a currency without the backing of a government is unlikely to work. Sam Zell Remains Skeptical of Bitcoin While a growing number of billionaires and hedge fund managers are embracing bitcoin, Sam Zell, the founder and chairman of Equity Group Investments, said he is staying away from the cryptocurrency. Zell, whose net worth is estimated to be $5.8 billion, reiterated his anti-bitcoin stance Thursday in an interview with CNBC. Responding to a question about whether bitcoin is more attractive to him now that its price has fallen to the $21K level, he stressed: I’ve basically stayed away from bitcoin at all costs. The billionaire investor explained that the reason he does not invest in BTC is simply because he does not understand it. “I do not understand its security … I don’t...

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says crypto is an asset class that is 100% based on the Greater Fool Theory. The billionaire also mocked Bored Ape NFTs, stating: “Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely.” Bill Gates on Crypto and NFTs Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates talked about cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) at this year’s Techcrunch Sessions: Climate 2022 event Tuesday. Referring to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, Gates sarcastically said: “Obviously, expensive digital images of monkeys are going to improve the world immensely. That’s so incredible.” He clarified, “I’m used to asset classes like a farm where they have output or a company where they make products,” describing crypto as: An asset class that’s 100% based on some sort of Greater Fool Theory that somebody’s going to pay more for it than I do. The Greater Fool Theory suggests that there will always be a greater fool in the market ready to pay a price ba...

The CEO of the Nasdaq-listed software company Microstrategy has debunked the rumor that his company is facing a margin call for a bitcoin-backed loan and will be forced to sell some coins. If the price of the cryptocurrency “falls below $3,562 the company could post some other collateral,” the executive explained. Microstrategy Hasn’t Received a Margin Call Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor debunked the rumor that his company is close to having to liquidate its bitcoin to meet a margin call for a bitcoin-backed loan. The rumor intensified as the price of BTC continued to plummet after the weekend sell-off. However, Saylor tweeted Tuesday: When Microstrategy adopted a bitcoin strategy, it anticipated volatility and structured its balance sheet so that it could continue to hodl through adversity. Microstrategy’s Q1 2022 presentation details that the company took out a three-year term loan of $205 million from Silvergate Bank against 19,466 bitcoins. Saylor revealed in a May 10 ...

PRESS RELEASE. GAIMIN has solved a key issue for gamers – re-usable, purchased in-game assets that are not lost when a game closes or the gamer wants to play a different game. With GAIMIN’s world first NFT xg , a gamer can now securely invest in their gaming experience and retain ownership of a cross-game asset inventory. GAIMIN’s NFTxg delivers true cross-game, cross-device, interoperable utility NFTs to moddable AAA games, enabling a gamer to own and retain full ownership their in-game asset purchases, re-using their NFTs across different games with utility relevant to the specific game in which they are being used. A gamer can now build up an in-game repository through purchase and other acquisition methods and have an immediately available repository for a new game. Martin Speight, CEO of GAIMIN stated, “ I am delighted to announce GAIMIN’s NFT xg , a world first in the development of a interoperable, cross-game, utility NFT. In releasing the NFT xg we have solved the gamer’...

The executive power and the ruling party in South Korea have urged the cryptocurrency industry for what officials describe as voluntary regulatory measures, a Korean media report revealed. The call was issued during a consultative meeting devoted to crypto assets. Government Asks South Korean Crypto Sector for Regulatory Proposals Representatives of the South Korean government and the ruling People Power Party met on Monday to discuss issues related to the crypto space. The consultations were held in the aftermath of last month’s collapse of the terrausd (UST) algorithmic stablecoin and its sister coin terra (LUNA) that affected many South Koreans. Aiming to prevent the negative consequences of such crashes and better protect investors, Korean officials and lawmakers are now considering the adoption of a new law for blockchain-based platforms, Arirang unveiled. They also urge the crypto industry to come up with its own regulations that would include safety mechanisms. The report ...

Confiant, an advertising security agency, has found a cluster of malicious activity involving distributed wallet apps, allowing hackers to steal private seeds and acquire the funds of users via backdoored imposter wallets. The apps are distributed via cloning of legitimate sites, giving the appearance that the user is downloading an original app. Malicious Cluster Targets Web3-Enabled Wallets Like Metamask Hackers are becoming more and more creative when engineering attacks to take advantage of cryptocurrency users. Confiant, a company that is dedicated to examining the quality of ads and the security threats these might pose to internet users, has warned about a new kind of attack affecting users of popular Web3 wallets like Metamask and Coinbase Wallet. The cluster, that was identified as “Seaflower,” was qualified by Confiant as one of the most sophisticated attacks of its kind. The report states that common users cannot detect these apps, as they are virtually identical to th...

Following the rumors and speculation surrounding the crypto lending firm Celsius, a Wall Street Journal report, quoting “people familiar with the matter,” explains that the company is reportedly hiring restructuring lawyers. Basically, hiring restructuring and insolvency attorneys is one of the first stages of fixing a company’s financial hardship by essentially attempting to avoid insolvency. Report Says Celsius Is Looking for Help From Investors or a Well Known Restructuring Law Firm On June 13, 2022, Bitcoin.com News reported on the lending platform Celsius shutting down specific operations such as withdrawals, swaps, and account transfers. Those operations are still not available to Celsius customers, and a recent report published by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explains that Celsius may be seeking help from a restructuring law firm. The report notes that the crypto company may be leveraging the bankruptcy and restructuring law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. Th...

PRESS RELEASE. Gather up your partner, family, and friends to come and be a part of the genesis XOXO NFT collection, known as the “XOXO Love stories”. 101 Exclusive non-perfect couples, that were handpicked by the Devirs, with a one-of-a-kind background love story. Each piece has a special narrative written individually by Maya and Yehuda themselves. All of the 101 NFT holders will receive a physical book with all 101 Love Stories from the collection, signed by Yehuda and Maya according to the purchased NFT’s story number. An extra airdrop of 1 XOXO NFT from the main collection and additional unique perks will be revealed by Maya & Yehuda in a private online meeting soon. The decision to split the main collection into two stages with different types of sale options was a bold one for the highly expected project, one that came after plenty of feedback from both the XOXO community and social media. The Devirs assured their fans that these steps were taken after listening to the...

Bank of Canada’s senior deputy governor says the central bank does not want to wait until crypto “gets a lot larger” before it brings regulatory controls in place. “This is an area that is still small, but it’s growing really rapidly,” the official said. Bank of Canada’s Official Stresses the Importance of Crypto Regulation Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers talked about cryptocurrency regulation in an interview with Reuters Thursday. “This is an area that is still small, but it’s growing really rapidly. And it is largely unregulated,” she explained, adding: We don’t want to wait until it gets a lot larger before we bring regulatory controls in place. The total crypto market capitalization has fallen to below $1 trillion following Monday’s sell-off. According to data from Bitcoin.com Markets , the total market cap of the entire crypto market is approximately $918 billion at the time of writing. According to Canada’s central bank, the share of Canadians who ow...

A new Bank of America survey shows that out of more than 1,000 U.S. adults, 90% plan to buy crypto in the next six months. Moreover, nearly 40% of respondents revealed that they use cryptocurrency as a means of payment. Bank of America’s Crypto Survey Bank of America (BOA) analyst Jason Kupferberg shared his crypto outlook in an interview with CNBC Monday. He was asked about a recent Bank of America survey that showed sustained interest in cryptocurrencies. The analyst explained that the survey was conducted early this month, which was after the collapse of cryptocurrency terra (LUNA) and stablecoin terrausd (UST). He added that over 1,000 U.S. adults participated, noting that the sample size was “pretty significant.” Kupferberg opined: It was interesting to see that 90% of respondents said they do plan to buy some amount of crypto in the next six months. He continued: “That was actually the same percentage who reported having actually bought some crypto over the prior six mon...

The governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, has reiterated his warning about cryptocurrency investing after U.S. crypto lender Celsius abruptly froze withdrawals. He stressed that investors should be prepared to lose all their money, emphasizing that crypto has no intrinsic value. Bank of England’s Governor Warns About Cryptocurrency Following Celsius’ Withdrawal Freeze Bank of England (BOE) Governor Andrew Bailey reiterated his concerns about cryptocurrency investing to the British parliament’s Public Accounts Committee Monday. Responding to a question on how regulators’ duty to protect consumers could clash with the government’s plan to promote financial innovation, he was quoted by Reuters as saying: If you want to invest in these assets, okay, but be prepared to lose all your money. “People may still want to buy them because they have extrinsic value,” he continued, adding that “people value things for personal reasons.” The Bank of England chief cautioned: But t...

In a post-mortem issued shortly after it lifted the freeze on bitcoin withdrawals, Binance has identified the “repairing of several minor hardware failures on wallet consolidation” as the incident that ultimately forced it to pause withdrawals. To fix the problem and to stop this from recurring, Binance said it changed the logic “to only take successful UTXO from consolidation transactions or successful withdrawal transactions.” Minor Hardware Failures Binance has said bitcoin withdrawals on its Bitcoin network have resumed just hours after “a stuck on-chain transaction” forced the exchange to freeze withdrawals for about three hours. According to a Twitter thread in which it seeks to reassure users, the exchange claimed that users’ deposits were unaffected. It added that users had an option to withdraw via other networks during the down period. In its post-mortem of the events that forced the exchange to halt withdrawals, Binance claimed that the “repairing several minor hardwar...

Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of Skybridge Capital, a $3.5 billion asset management firm, has some advice for crypto investors on how to survive a bear market and a crypto bloodbath. Scaramucci on How to Survive Crypto Bear Market Skybridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci shared his bitcoin outlook and advice on how to survive the crypto market sell-off in an interview with CNBC Monday. “We are in a bloodbath,” he said. “This is my eighth bear market. I expect to survive this one as well.” Scaramucci opined: I am encouraged by the fact that bitcoin is above 50% of the overall crypto market cap right now, which is another sign that there is a flight to quality there. “Of course, Celsius is putting pressure on it — the same way that the LUNA terra situation put pressure on it about six weeks ago,” he continued. Crypto lending platform Celsius announced Sunday night that it has frozen withdrawals while cryptocurrency terra (LUNA) and stablecoin terrausd (UST) imploded in ear...

PRESS RELEASE. BOSO TOKYO announce the launch of NFT project “BOSO TOKYO” , an identity defining brand in the Metaverse To commemorate its launch, BOSO TOKYO has launched a giveaway campaign for their NFT. Check out the details here for a chance to win a BOSO TOKYO NFT by completing a few simple tasks. ABOUT BOSO TOKYO BOSO TOKYO is an NFT brand that aims to build avatars that can be used as a common identity in multiple metaverses. As a generative NFT, BOSO TOKYO uses algorithms to create random combinations for each avatar’s body, face, clothing, accessories, and other parts. BOSO TOKYO is an original brand of avatars from Tokyo. Unlike the many Japan inspired anime and video game inspired NFTs on OpenSea, BOSO is aspiring to bring forth a completely original collection. Hidetaka Tenjin , the illustrator of Gundam , Star Wars mecha illustrations,has joined BOSO TOKYO as the main designer and is working on creating the avatars. Afromance , Co-Founder of Burning Japan and f...

On Monday, the cryptocurrency lending company Blockfi announced that “market conditions” have had a “negative impact” on the firm’s business and it will be laying off “roughly 20%” of its staff. The message written by Blockfi co-founders Zac Prince and Flori Marquez follows a slew of well known crypto firms cutting back employees due to the bear market. Blockfi to Lay off ‘Roughly 20%’ of Its Workforce Digital currency values are not that hot these days, and the crypto economy slipped below the $1 trillion region on June 13. The entire crypto economy shed more than 14% in USD value during the past 24 hours. Crypto prices have steadily dropped for weeks on end and Monday’s market rout was quite gruesome. The leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) slid to a low of $22,600 on Monday, and a myriad of other alternative digital assets saw deeper losses. Amid the last few weeks of the crypto economy’s bear market downturn, digital currency companies have been laying off staff . On June 13, B...

The cryptocurrency Winter is (NOT) here to stay. If the media was any indicator of the current state of the cryptocurrency industry, one would think it was time to “pack up” and find a new technology to invest both time and money into. It is true that the cryptocurrency industry is currently experiencing another so called “cryptocurrency winter” and while numerous references may be cited to support that, it is also true that this is not the first nor the worst one. In fact, well supported and funded projects are thriving and now is the perfect time to develop them further. The team behind XTRA.FUND also believes that as well. The platform has been fully functional and live since December 2021, and it is also looking to solve the challenges that not only plagued the cryptocurrency industry since its inception, but will now be an even more predominant topic: making cryptocurrency safe, secure and rewarding at the same time, enough to make it a viable alternative to traditional invest...

Cryptocurrencies are very unstable for them to become a widely used method of payment, the Nigerian and Kenyan central bankers have reportedly said. In addition, the bankers claim that cryptocurrencies also pose a risk to financial stability. Narrowing the Financial Exclusion Gap The Nigerian and Kenyan central bankers have said cryptocurrencies are too volatile to become an acceptable payment method. The bankers also insisted that cryptocurrencies pose a risk to financial stability, a Reuters report has said. As per the report , the bankers namely, Kingsley Obiora, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Kenyan central bank governor Patrick Njoroge, believe that a central bank digital currency has a better chance of narrowing the financial exclusion gap. The central bankers added that only a central bank digital currency (CBDC) can reduce the cost of transacting. In the report, Obiora, who spoke at an International Monetary Fund (IMF) moderated virtual su...

Human rights defenders from 20 countries have insisted that bitcoin “provides financial inclusion and empowerment because it is open and permissionless.” Together with stablecoins, the cryptocurrency offers “unparalleled access to the global economy” for people from countries whose currencies have either collapsed or are cut off from the rest of the world. Bitcoin as a Financial Inclusion and Empowerment Tool About 21 human rights advocates from 20 different countries have sent a letter to the U.S. Congress wherein they defend bitcoin as well as rebut claims recently raised by some 1,500 computer scientists, software engineers, and technologists. According to the human rights defenders, “bitcoin provides financial inclusion and empowerment because it is open and permissionless.” In their open letter to U.S. congressional leaders, the advocates point to how bitcoin and stablecoins have offered an “unparalleled access to the global economy for people in countries like Nigeria, Turke...

Terra’s new LUNA 2.0 token has lost 54% in value in the last two weeks, after reaching $11.33 per unit on May 30. Meanwhile, the whistleblower Fatman has accused Terra’s co-founder Do Kwon of cashing out $2.7 billion a few months before the UST de-pegging incident. Kwon, however, has been keeping tabs on Fatman’s accusations and he claims the allegations are “categorically false.” LUNA 2.0 Token Drops 54% in Value During the Last 2 Weeks The LUNA 2.0 rebirth token has been extremely lackluster in terms of market performance during the past two weeks. However, as Bitcoin.com News reported six days ago, a myriad of decentralized finance (defi) protocols have re-joined the ecosystem. Terra’s 2.0 chain has roughly $1.32 billion locked in the Stader defi application according to defillama.com stats. The Terra Classic chain still has $10.54 million total value locked in defi today as well, with $3.11 million held on Terraswap and $2.47 million locked into Anchor. During the past two...

Renowned billionaire hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller says that in an inflationary bull market, he wants to own bitcoin more than gold “for sure.” However, he explained that in a bear market, he would prefer to have gold. Stanley Druckenmiller on Crypto, Bitcoin, and Blockchain Stan Druckenmiller shared his view on bitcoin and cryptocurrency investing in an interview with the Sohn Conference Foundation, published Saturday. Druckenmiller is chairman and CEO of Duquesne Family Office LLC. He was previously a managing director at Soros Fund Management where he had overall responsibility for funds with a peak asset value of $22 billion. According to Forbes’ list of billionaires, his personal net worth is currently $6.8 billion. “If you believe we are going to have an irresponsible monetary policy and inflation going forward,” he explained, adding that “If it’s in a bull phase, you want to own bitcoin.” In contrast, he noted: “If it’s in a bear phase for other assets, you want ...

Economist and gold bug Peter Schiff has made some dire predictions about cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin and ether. He explained that “The need to sell bitcoin to pay the bills will only get worse as the recession deepens,” adding that bitcoin is poised to crash to $20K while ether will sink to $1K. Peter Schiff Shares Future Outlook for Bitcoin, Ether, Crypto Gold bug Peter Schiff, the chief economist and lead strategist at Euro Pacific Capital and founder of Schiffgold, has made some dire predictions about bitcoin, ether, and the crypto market in general. He tweeted Saturday: Bitcoin looks poised to crash to $20K and ethereum to $1K … Don’t buy this dip. You’ll lose a lot more money. Schiff further explained in several tweets Sunday: “With food and energy prices soaring, many bitcoin Hodlers will be forced to sell to cover the cost. Grocery stores and gas stations don’t accept bitcoin.” The economist noted: “When Bitcoin crashed during Covid no one needed to sell. Consu...

The CEO of Devere Group, a financial advisory and asset management firm, has predicted a bull run and a significant bounce in the price of bitcoin during the fourth quarter of this year. Devere’s CEO Predicts a Bull Run in Q4 for Bitcoin Financial advisory and asset management firm Devere Group has predicted that the price of bitcoin will bounce significantly in the fourth quarter of this year. Nigel Green, Devere’s founder and CEO, said early last week: I believe that we’ll soon see a bull run that will lead to a significant bounce in the fourth quarter of the year for the world’s leading digital currency. The Devere boss explained: “Bitcoin is currently highly correlated to leading global stock markets, such as Wall Street’s S&P500, and I’m confident that the recent market downturn is close to the bottom and a rally is imminent.” The CEO added: Bitcoin will benefit from a stock market rally as investors move back into riskier assets. Green explained that one of the ke...

Huobi, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has announced the creation of a new investment arm to tackle decentralized finance and Web3 projects. Ivy Blocks, as it was named by the exchange, will focus on finding projects in seed stages to aid them via financing and other supporting services with the objective of making a “better, more inclusive” Web3 ecosystem. Huobi Enters the Web3 Investing Scene With Ivy Blocks Web3 has become a thriving nascent industry with lots of crypto exchanges and VC firms joining the trend. Huobi, a top ten cryptocurrency exchange in volume traded, has announced the launch of its own investment arm to tackle these new markets. Ivy Blocks, as the exchange has named it, will have the task of identifying potentially successful Web3 and decentralized finance projects to incubate and nurture. According to a PR statement issued by the company, Ivy Blocks will have a multi-billion dollar war chest to complete its goal, something that makes it “well-placed to ta...