Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

According to reports and a filing that shows its name struck off the U.K. companies’ register list, Blockchain.com is sunsetting its Blockchain.com Asset Management subsidiary. A company spokesperson cited deteriorating “macroeconomic conditions” and the “crypto winter” as some of the reasons for halting the institutional business. The Impact of Crypto Winter on the Cryptocurrency Industry Over the last two days, it appears that the downward pressure from the crypto winter will continue, as the global crypto market capitalization has slid 6.82% over the last day to $931 billion. Additionally, there has been a contagion of failing crypto firms and bankruptcies across the industry, as well as significant layoffs, with no firm seeming to be spared. On Friday, reports detailed that Blockchain.com is halting its London-based subsidiary, Blockchain.com Asset Management (BCAM), and market observers noted that the firm has been struck from the U.K. companies’ register list . A spokesperso...

India’s finance ministry has announced that crypto transactions will be covered under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). Noting that the move “is a positive step in recognizing the sector,” a crypto insider explained that it will strengthen the industry’s efforts to prevent virtual digital assets “from being misused by bad actors.” India Applies PMLA to Crypto Transactions India’s Ministry of Finance published a gazette on Tuesday notifying that certain crypto activities “when carried out for or on behalf of another natural or legal person in the course of business” will be subject to the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). According to the notice, the exchange between virtual digital assets and fiat currencies, the exchange between one or more forms of virtual digital assets, and the transfer of virtual digital assets will be covered under the money laundering law. Moreover, the safekeeping or administration of virtual digital assets and the particip...

Thailand’s government has said companies that issue digital tokens will receive a waiver that exempts them from paying corporate and value-added tax. According to a report, the Thai government anticipates losing just over $1 billion in tax revenue as a result of the waiver. Relaxation of Tax Rules for Investments in Digital Assets Thailand-based companies that issue digital tokens for investments are set to receive a corporate and value-added tax waiver, the Thai government has reportedly said. As a result of the waiver, the Thai government, which is projecting investment token offerings worth $3.71 billion (128 billion baht) over the next two years, said it expects to lose more than $1 billion in tax revenue. According to a government spokesperson, Rachada Dhnadirek, such investment token offerings add to Thai companies’ traditional capital-raising methods such as debentures, hence the cabinet’s decision to waive the taxes. The government’s nod to the tax waiver came just over a ...

The pre-trial stage of the project to introduce a digital Iranian rial has been completed successfully, the country’s central bank announced. The authorities in Tehran plan to expand the use of the state-backed currency and integrate it into Iran’s payment system. Iranian Government Prepares to Trial Its Digital Currency The project to issue a digital version of the Iranian national fiat, also referred to as the “crypto rial,” is entering its trial phase, the head of the payment systems supervision department of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) revealed this week. Quoted by the Monetary and Banking Research Institute (MBRI) of the regulator, Mohammad Reza Mani Yekta said, without elaborating, that the pre-trial stage has ended with certain achievements. He was speaking during a conference devoted to electronic banking and payment systems. On Monday, the first day of the forum, Mani Yekta also noted that more than 90 central banks are working on projects in the field of blockchain. ...

The founders and promoters of multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme Airbit Club have pleaded guilty to various criminal charges. Airbit Club victims were promised “guaranteed daily returns on any membership purchased,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) detailed. Airbit Club’s Operators and Promoters Plead Guilty The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Wednesday that six people behind Airbit Club, a crypto Ponzi scheme that purported to be a cryptocurrency mining and trading company, have pleaded guilty. The six individuals are Airbit Club co-founders (Pablo Renato Rodriguez and Gutemberg Dos Santos), senior promoters (Karina Chairez, Cecilia Millan, and Jackie Aguilar), and an attorney who laundered Airbit Club’s fraud proceeds (Scott Hughes). According to the DOJ: As part of their guilty pleas, the defendants collectively have been ordered to forfeit their fraudulent proceeds of Airbit Club, which include seized or restrained assets consisting of U.S. currenc...

PRESS RELEASE. Plena Smart Wallet, which is one of the first self-custodial wallets to support Account Abstraction is thrilled to unveil its hotly anticipated referral program that offers rewards worth up to $1,000,000 in $Plena tokens. The program aims to incentivize users to invite their friends and family to join the platform while offering them a chance to earn some significant rewards. The rules are fairly simple and straightforward. To participate in the program, users simply need to share their referral link with their friends and family. Once a new user downloads the app and signs up through their referral link & successfully completes 3 Transactions on the Fantom chain , both the referring user and the new user will be earning 50 points each. Existing customers can make as many referrals as they like but they must be a new Plena App customer. This means that the more friends and family members you refer, the higher your chances of winning a significant reward. The ...

Lego, the Danish toy company famous for its colorful plastic bricks, expects to diversify its entertainment offerings portfolio, targeting the metaverse. The company is preparing to present a virtual world in partnership with Epic Games, the gaming engine company, to continue increasing its market share and growth streak by entering new digital markets. Lego to Present Digital World Initiative Lego, the interlocking toy brick company, is preparing to present details of a metaverse initiative built in partnership with Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, according to the Financial Times. The move would clarify the future actions of the company toward establishing a presence in virtual worlds, targeting users in digital markets. The company’s strategy is to continue growing by offering Lego products in such markets, helping users recognize the brand even online. Niels Christiansen, CEO of Lego, talked about the journey the company is taking to reach this new target. Christiansen...

Media mogul Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, has warned that the Federal Reserve is “inflicting unnecessary pain” on the U.S. economy with its interest rate hikes after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said the Fed is prepared to raise interest rates at a faster pace. He also pointed out “the fundamental flaw in central bankers’ and most economists’ approach.” Media Mogul Steve Forbes Warns About Fed Policies Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Media, warned on Thursday that the Federal Reserve is “inflicting unnecessary pain” on the U.S. economy. His warning followed Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s testimony before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. “Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell sent financial markets reeling when he told a Senate hearing Tuesday that our central bank is ready to push up interest rates higher and at a faster pace than previously anticipated,” Forbes began. The media mogul noted that Powell’s reason was that the U.S. economy “has been show...

Bitcoin continued to trade lower on March 9, as prices fell to a fresh multi-week low in today’s session. The decline came as crypto bank Silvergate confirmed that it will be winding down operations. Ethereum also edged lower. Bitcoin Bitcoin ( BTC ) fell for a fourth straight session on Thursday, as markets reacted to news that Silvergate Bank will be liquidating its operations. Following a high of $22,198.90 on Wednesday, BTC /USD slipped to an intraday low of $21,609.99 earlier today. The decline in price pushed bitcoin to its lowest point since February 13, when it traded at a bottom of $21,366. Looking at the chart, this latest sell-off coincided with the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) falling to its lowest point since November 28. As of writing, the index is tracking at 36.86, which is marginally below its support point at 37.00. Despite this, BTC remains above its own floor at $21,600, and should this zone hold steady, there is a chance prices could rebound headin...

According to Hong Kong police, in 2022 there were 2,336 reported crypto scam-related cases in which more than $216.6 million was lost. Although losses relating to crypto scams only constituted just over 10% of the nearly 23,000 reported technology crimes, they still accounted for more than half of the $407.7 million that was lost to online fraudsters. Crypto-Related Scams Constitute Just Over 10% of Reported Technology Crimes Hong Kong residents reportedly incurred cryptocurrency-related scam losses totaling $216.6 million (HK$1.7 billion), just over half of the $407.7 million that was lost to online scammers in 2022, a report has said. The more-than-double increase in crypto scam-related losses followed a 67% jump in the number of victims from 1,397 reported cases in 2021 to 2,336 by the end of last year. However, according to the data reportedly shared by Hong Kong law enforcement, crypto scam-related crimes constituted just over 10% of the nearly 23,000 technology crimes that we...

Internet users in Russia have been targeted in an email campaign advertising the launch of an alleged cryptocurrency issued by the state. Potential victims are encouraged to follow a link to the website of the fraudulent investment scheme, security experts said. Thousands of Investment Offers Entice Russians to Put Money Into Non-Existent Cryptocurrency Fraudsters have been sending emails to Russian residents claiming to be writing on behalf of a regulatory body about the upcoming launch of “the Russian state cryptocurrency,” the Tass news agency reported , quoting Kaspersky Lab. “With such messages, attackers lure users to resources where they risk losing money,” the cybersecurity firm explained. Several thousands of these letters had been sent by the end of February, the anti-virus provider revealed. The fraudulent emails claim that Russia is preparing to introduce a state-issued crypto and encourage recipients to follow a link to the website of the investment program for the co...

According to Fortune Business Insights, the global blockchain retail market size is expected to surge from the $172.2 million recorded in 2021 to over $2 billion by 2028. Both the demand for the product by end-users as well as the growing use of the technology in supply chain management are expected to sustain the market’s projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 42.8%. Inherent Benefits of Blockchain The value of the global blockchain retail market size is expected to grow from the $172.2 million recorded in 2021 to over $2 billion by 2028, a study by the market research firm Fortune Business Insights has found. In a report titled “Blockchain in Retail Market Forecast, 2023-2028,” the research firm also revealed that the CAGR during this period is expected to top 42.8%. According to a part of the research firm’s March 10 press statement highlighting the likely drivers of demand for the technology, Fortune Business Insights analysts argue that the “surging demand for the pr...

The Tokyo bankruptcy court trustee for the defunct Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, Nobuaki Kobayashi, has published a letter stating that creditors have until March 10, 2023 (Japan Time) to register their repayment claims. Kobayashi explains that the team is dealing with “a large number of inquiries” and may not be able to respond to creditors in time if they have questions about the process. Mt Gox Trustee Shares Final Deadline for Creditor Registration The Mt Gox saga appears to be nearing its conclusion as the Shibuya-based bitcoin exchange’s rehabilitation committee and bankruptcy trustee have outlined a repayment process. The exchange, which launched in 2010, suspended operations in February 2014 and filed for bankruptcy after 800,000 bitcoins were stolen. Since then, 200,000 bitcoins have been recovered, and that amount, along with the corresponding bitcoin cash ( BCH ) funds tied to the bitcoins, is being used to repay Mt Gox creditors. In a letter dated March 7, 2023,...

On March 8, Coinbase announced the launch of its Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) product. The WaaS product aims to “bring the next hundred million consumers into Web3 through a seamless wallet-onboarding experience.” The Coinbase WaaS offers wallet infrastructure application programming interfaces (APIs) to companies, enabling them to build their own custom Web3 crypto wallets. Coinbase’s Wallet-as-a-Service Aims to Simplify Onboarding Coinbase Global (Nasdaq: COIN ) has revealed a new addition to its suite of offerings and services: Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS). In a Twitter thread, Coinbase stated that the WaaS “is a scalable and secure set of wallet infrastructure APIs, enabling companies to create and deploy fully customizable onchain wallets.” Additionally, the Coinbase wallet infrastructure provides “multi-party computation (MPC)” cryptography, which removes the need to manage a complicated 24-word recovery phrase. 1/ Today we introduce Wallet as a Service, making it easier for ...

At 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Silvergate Bank announced its intention to wind down the crypto-friendly bank’s operations and voluntarily liquidate the company’s assets. The news follows significant financial troubles the bank faced, and the firm’s stock plummeted in value. Details of Silvergate’s Wind Down and Liquidation Plan Over the last six months, Silvergate Capital Corporation’s (NYSE: SI ) stock dropped 94.82% against the U.S. dollar as the company faced significant financial troubles tied to its exposure to the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX . On Wednesday, March 8, 2023, the company announced it was winding down operations and plans to liquidate the bank. Four days ago, Silvergate discontinued the firm’s Silvergate Exchange Network payment platform. “In light of recent industry and regulatory developments, Silvergate believes that an orderly wind down of bank operations and a voluntary liquidation of the bank is the best path forward,” the company’s press release detailed....

Some retailers in Argentina are already pricing imported items in U.S. dollars, according to reports from local news outlets. The idea behind this would be to keep prices stable and avoid repricing articles each day, a practice that has already been adopted in other Latam countries like Venezuela, which present high levels of inflation. U.S Dollars Now Used to Price Merchandise in Argentina The U.S. dollar is starting to make inroads in Argentina as a unit of account. According to reports from local outlets, some Argentine stores and retailers are pricing their goods in dollars, seeking to avoid constant repricing due to the devaluation of the national fiat currency, the Argentine peso. According to reports from La Nacion, these prices are mostly associated with clothing, including sneakers, and branded t-shirts and caps, that are mostly imported from other countries. However, to purchase these articles, customers can also pay with Argentine pesos, using the informal exchange rate...

PRESS RELEASE. It is incredible to see the utilisation of AI in every industry in some shape or form, but above all else, companies such as ChatGPT or DALL-E that are able to respond to millions of requests within a matter of seconds provide a clear illustration of the amount of processing and power being utilized in the backend. In order to produce accurate results, these large companies will need sufficient processing power to train their AI models for deep learning. So, they will have to rely on HPC data centres. Solidus is building an HPC data centre in Europe and has already raised over $6,000,000 in investment from interested companies and high net-worth individuals. The idea is to reduce computing costs and transform the way computing and technology activities are organised when combined with scalable tools in order to support and nudge developers to deliver and monetize their applications easily, quickly, and securely. In addition, large institutions will also be able to be...

Hexa, a 3D modeling company, has raised $20.5 million in its latest funding round to facilitate the task of bringing products into the metaverse. This new injection will ostensibly allow the company to expand its current workforce involved in engineering and business tasks, to improve the workflow of the company. Hexa Raises $20.5 Million in Series A Funding Round Hexa, a 3D modeling company, has announced the results of its Series A funding round, raising raised $20.5 million. The round, which saw the participation of Point72 Ventures, Samurai Incubate, Sarona Partners, and HTC, will allow the company to extend its current workforce to tend to the growing number of customers seeking its services, which tripled this year. Hexa, which is already working with stores like Macy’s, Logitech, and Unity, the gaming engine, consists in taking real products to metaverse worlds. This modeling process is semi-automatic, using AI algorithms and engineers to transform a catalog of 2D images, l...

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has released a report summarizing the “Project Icebreaker” trial, which explored the potential advantages and difficulties of utilizing a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) in cross-border payments. The experiment was designed to test “the technical feasibility of conducting cross-border – cross-currency transactions between different [distrubuted ledger technology]-based CBDC proof of concepts.” Technical Feasibility of Cross-Border Retail CBDC Payments Reportedly Proven in Project Icebreaker Trial Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have been a key focus for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in recent times. BIS recently published a report asserting that most crypto asset investors lost money over the past seven years. The report highlighted BIS insisting there’s an urgent need for regulating the crypto industry and developing a CBDC. Following the report, BIS general manager Agustin Carstens stated that crypt...

Compass Mining, a bitcoin mining firm, published a blog post stating that Bitmain, the company behind the application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining rig, has made changes to its design. The post advised miners to be aware of the changes as Compass Mining identified “three issues” with two different Antminer S19 series mining devices. Bitcoin Miner Compass Mining Identifies 3 Issues with Antminer S19 Series Compass Mining, a bitcoin mining company, posted a blog post titled “Bitmain Changed Its ASIC Design. Miners Need to Be Ready,” highlighting changes in Bitmain’s ASIC design. Compass believes bitcoin mining facility operators should be aware of the changes, which could cause issues. For example, the firm identified three problems with the Antminer S19, producing 90 terahash per second (TH/s), and the S19 XP, offering 140 TH/s. William Foxley of Compass Mining explains that the new machines lack a peripheral interface controller (PIC) on the ASICs, making it harder to ...

The organization representing Russia’s crypto and blockchain sector has urged Vladimir Putin to spur regulatory efforts. The association fears the Russian Federation may lag behind other nations if it maintains its conservative approach towards new financial technologies. Russian Crypto Businesses Want Putin to Engage With Regulatory Process The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib) has called on President of Russia Vladimir Putin to back the crypto community in shaping the country’s regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and related technologies. In a letter to the Russian head of state, its members warn that the government’s attitude towards digital asset regulation poses “serious risks of the economy lagging behind in the introduction of new financial technologies,” crypto news outlets Bits.media and RBC Crypto reported. The organization insists that the current state policy does not allow Russian companies to take advantage ...

Bitcoin remained in consolidation earlier in Tuesday’s session, as markets prepared for this afternoon’s testimony from Fed Chair Powell. The head of the U.S. Federal Reserve will be speaking in front of the Senate Banking Committee later in the day. Ethereum was also largely unchanged, as it traded close to a support point. Bitcoin Bitcoin ( BTC ) continued to trade sideways on Tuesday, as market uncertainty remained high ahead of Fed Chair Powell’s testimony. Many believe that Powell will give some forward guidance into the Federal Reserve’s current thinking, and how aggressive they may be in their upcoming meeting. BTC /USD fell to a low of $22,356.62 earlier in the day, less than 24 hours after trading at a high of $22,584.29. Looking at the chart, today’s move sees the world’s largest cryptocurrency continue to trade above a floor at $22,300. This coincides with the 14-day relative strength index (RSI) also hovering above its own point of support at 42.00. At the time of w...

PRESS RELEASE. Shellboxes, a leading Web 3 company with top-level blockchain security and consulting services, has announced its commitment to help project owners stay protected amid rising cyberattacks in the industry. The Shellboxes team has raised the alarm over the carefree attitude of most Web 3 project owners who pay little to no attention to the growing risk of cyberattacks. According to a report by Chainalysis, 2022 witnessed the most significant loss of crypto assets to hackers. The report revealed a whopping $3.8 billion was stolen, mainly from DeFi protocols. As the risk of these cyberattacks increases in the Web 3 space, ShellBoxes is advising Web3 project owners to take the security of their platform/project seriously. These owners need to ensure their projects undergo robust and thorough security audits. Some project owners settle for low-tier quality audits with the sole purpose of laundering the business’ brand image instead of the security of the project. ShellBoxe...