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Showing posts from January 1, 2021

MLB Team Washington Nationals Partners With Terra Blockchain Community, Ballpark Plans to Accept UST

On February 9, the American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C., the Washington Nationals, announced the team has partnered with Terra, the open-source blockchain platform and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). The Washington Nationals detail that the team is a “leading innovator” and is “consistently introducing new technologies to enhance the fan experience.” Washington Nationals Ink Long-Term Deal With Terra Major League Baseball (MLB) team the Washington Nationals has partnered with the blockchain platform and DAO Terra, according to an announcement published by the team on Wednesday. The deal with Terra follows a slew of sports-related deals with crypto firms, but the MLB team will be the first to partner with an open-source blockchain project. In addition to the partnership, the algorithmic stablecoin UST that’s issued on the Terra blockchain will be “accepted as a payment method at Nationals Park as early as next season.” “The Nationals continue t...
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9 Trillion vs. 100 Trillion: Billionaire Mike Novogratz Asks Which Cryptocurrency Will Win the Payments Race

On December 31, billionaire investor Mike Novogratz asked his Twitter followers which blockchain coin has the best chance of winning the payments race and offered four choices. Novogratz said there are lots of “contenders” and listed off Facebook’s diem, tether, bitcoin cash, and Circle’s popular stablecoin. This week Mike Novogratz asked his Twitter followers out of diem, bitcoin cash, USDC, and tether ( USDT ), which coin “has best chance of winning payments?” Novogratz said that there were a lot of contenders and asked his followers to give him their thoughts on which coin would dominate. The tweet received a lot of replies and many crypto asset proponents discussed Novogratz’s question and had a number of interesting theories. “Diem has Facebook network effect,” one individual replied . “But will be very watched by regulators. Still should be #1 candidate if FB delivers. USDC should eventually take over tether as it is U.S. based and less shady. Paypal could be a surprise cha...
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‘Noxious Poison’ – Bitcoin’s Market Cap Surpasses Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Valuation

For many years, the business tycoon Warren Buffet has condemned bitcoin as an investment telling people that the crypto asset is nothing but gambling. Two years ago, just before a Berkshire Hathaway 2018 annual shareholder meeting, Buffet said bitcoin is “probably rat poison squared.” Despite the investor’s criticism, the crypto asset’s market capitalization has surpassed Buffet’s multinational conglomerate holding company, Berkshire Hathaway, in net value. Bitcoin has a lot of haters, including people like Jamie Dimon , Peter Schiff , and Nouriel Roubini . In addition to these pundits, the American investor and chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffet, doesn’t like bitcoin either. For many years now, the executive who developed an interest in business and investing in his youth has disliked bitcoin ( BTC ) with a fervent passion. Two years ago, Buffet explained that purchasing the crypto asset is not an investment. “You aren’t investing when you do that,” Buffett stre...
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Bitcoin hits all-time high against gold as haven battle rages

BTC has hit another milestone, this time against gold bullion, the world’s oldest reserve asset. Bitcoin price claimed another all-time high on Friday, this time against gold, offering further confirmation that demand for digital assets is on the rise.  As Bitcoin ( BTC ) zipped past $29,000 on Friday, the digital currency reached a high of 15.40 gold ounces, surpassing the previous peak from December 2017, according to MarketWatch data. Bitcoin priced in gold bullion via MarketWatch According to U.Today, the Bitcoin-gold rate peaked at 15.62 ounces during the early morning. 2020 was a watershed year for Bitcoin as institutional adoption helped catalyze a bull market unlike any we’ve seen thus far in its 11-year history. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, Bitcoin saw a massive increase of around 300% in 2020. Gold also posted impressive gains for the year, though they paled in comparison to Bitcoin’s meteoric rise. The yellow metal’s spot price en...
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US Government Fines Bitgo for Allowing Users to Bypass Sanctions With Cryptocurrency

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control has fined Bitgo for failing to prevent users in sanctioned countries from using its crypto wallet service. The agency says Bitgo processed 183 cryptocurrency transactions that were “apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs.” US Treasury Alleges Bitgo Allows Users to Bypass Sanctions The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced on Wednesday that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has entered into a $98,830 settlement with Bitgo “for 183 apparent violations of multiple sanctions programs.” Bitgo offers cryptocurrency wallet services. According to the announcement: Bitgo failed to prevent persons apparently located in the Crimea region of Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria from using its non-custodial secure digital wallet management service. “Bitgo had reason to know that these users were located in sanctioned jurisdictions based on Internet Protocol (IP) address data associated with devices used to log in to the Bit...
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Price analysis 1/1: BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, DOT, BCH, ADA, BNB, LINK, BSV

Altcoins could also see a strong buying interest and may run up vertically if Bitcoin rallies above $30,000. Bitcoin ( BTC ) rallied from an intraday low at $17,573.29 on Dec. 11 to an intraday high at $29,310.19 on Dec. 31, a 66.78% rally in a short span. This shows strong demand from traders at every higher level. Institutional crypto investment giant Grayscale bought 72,950 Bitcoin in December, which was 159.49% more than the 28,112 Bitcoin mined during that period, according to data from Coin98 Analytics. It is not only the institutional buying, a strong bull run also attracts speculators and momentum traders who try to piggyback on the up-move. This can be seen from the surge in Bitcoin’s transaction volume in December, according to on-chain analytics resource Digital Assets Data. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 However, at some level, buyers will stop chasing prices higher and that could cause the rally to turn down. When it does, the speculato...
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Crypto transactions must be easier. That's it. That's the headline

The gulf between users and those who are designing cryptocurrency service platforms must be bridged before the masses will make the leap. As Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) price continues to climb ever higher , more and more people are beginning to educate themselves on how they can enter the cryptocurrency market. However, the realities of cryptocurrency ownership (long complicated addresses, passphrases and security risks) all remain barriers to adoption for new users. Programmers and technologists generally assume a level of understanding and ability with tech innovations that the average person on the street simply is not equipped with.  A survey carried out by our team saw 75% of respondents say they found cryptocurrency transactions stressful and unnecessarily complicated. A majority (55%) said they had had trouble in the past sending cryptocurrency transactions, 18% had lost funds, and 6% had suffered a man-in-the-middle attack. These complexities have real and damaging consequences ...
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Ode to Satoshi

On today's holiday episode of Markets Daily, we celebrate the new year with a classic song from the early days of bitcoin, written and performed by John Barrett. https://ift.tt/3rMS0EP
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Number of Addresses Holding ETH Reaches a New All-Time High at the End of 2020

A new milestone has been reached in the crypto sphere, as the number of addresses holding Ethereum hit an all-time high of over 51.4 million before the end of a turbulent 2020 year. Number of Addresses Holding ETH Hits a New All-Time High Per figures of data site Glassnode , there are now 51,491,730 addresses holding the aforementioned cryptocurrency, as it keeps climbing in the context of a rally seen in the prices of most cryptos in the last weeks of 2020. The number is significant, considering that there were only 34.7 million addresses with ethereum ( ETH ) at the start of the year, up by 48% as per the current figures. Previous ethereum’s ATH was set at 51,487,512 addresses holding the second biggest crypto by market capitalization. On the last day of the year, as of press time, markets.Bitcoin.com shows that ETH is exchanging hands at $739.63, up 0.63% on the day, with a market cap of $84,363,317,420.4. Also, ethereum’s prices rally over the year can be attributed to the...
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Congresspeople chastise the Treasury for rushing new crypto monitoring proposal

As many in the crypto industry have said, 15 days over the holidays is just not enough time to respond. Nine congresspeople have signed on to a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, telling him to hold his horses.  The Dec. 31 letter  is in response to the Treasury's recent proposal to make registered crypto businesses hold on to more customer information, especially when transacting with self-hosted wallets. The proposal has met with widespread outrage from the crypto community. Among grievances, many cite the fact that Mnuchin is pushing this rule out just weeks before the Biden administration comes into power, and with it his likely replacement, Janet Yellen .  Accompanying new proposals for rules are invitations for public comment. This remains true in this case, but while the usual comment period is 60 days, the Treasury has here asked for just 15. The comment period expires on Jan. 4, which is the point that the signatories to yesterday's letter are fi...
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Alleged 'kingpin' of a 25M rupee Indian crypto scam arrested at Delhi airport

The man is said to have convinced people to invest in a 2017 scheme promising monthly returns of over 20%. A 60 year-old man was arrested at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on Dec. 31, for allegedly heading a 25 million rupee ($340,000) cryptocurrency scam. Umesh Verma, a former jeweller and greeting card maker, was held by the Economic Offences Wing of Delhi police after arriving from Dubai. Police allege that Verma, along with his son Bharat, convinced hundreds to invest in a scheme going by the name of Pluto Exchange, promising monthly returns of 20 to 30%. The scheme issued a ‘cryptocurrency’ called Coin Zarus in exchange for investments. However, shortly after the scheme launched in November 2017, returns dried up and Verma reportedly dropped off the radar, eventually resurfacing in Dubai in 2018. Delhi police filed a case of misappropriation of funds against Verma in September this year, leading to his New Year’s Eve arrest. According to a report by the Hind...
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Crypto adoption in 2021: Top trends and predictions on what may come

The prospects for 2021 look bright as major forces driving adoption in 2020 will remain powerful. Propelled by Bitcoin’s record-breaking rally , the crypto industry is seeing off 2020 with flying colors. Amid all the tumult of this unprecedented moment in history, the digital asset space seems to have proven its resilience, making a solid case for becoming a safe haven in an increasingly uncertain world.  Among other advancements, the outgoing year saw the continued expansion of institutional and mass adoption . So, is this trend expected to continue in 2021, and what factors will shape the dynamics of crypto adoption across various sectors of the industry in the coming year? The influx of institutional money It has become somewhat commonplace to attribute at least a portion of Bitcoin’s ( BTC ) recent momentum to the effects of investment banks and hedge funds moving into the space en masse, yet, this trend doesn’t show any signs of dying down. From the big-picture narrative...
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Bitcoin price faces the last roadblock before $30,000

The price of Bitcoin has achieved another new all-time high but it is struggling to break past $30,000. The price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) has reached a new all-time high above $29,400 across major exchanges on Jan. 1. In other words, BTC is just 2% away from reaching the psychological resistance level at $30,000. Breaking $30,000 could fuel renewed confidence in the market  with the last remaining technical roadblock right below this level.  BTC/USDT 4-hour price chart (Binance). Source: TradingView.com Hence, in the near term, sellers would look to defend the $30,000 resistance level with stacked sell orders. Exchange order books show large sell orders in the $29,800 to $30,000 range. $29,800 is critical for another leg up for Bitcoin Binance order book heatmap. Source Material Indicators Exchange order books on both Binance and Bitfinex show relatively large sell orders from $29,800 to $30,000. This means that sellers would attempt to lead a Bitcoin pullback before it...
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Record-Low Electricity Prices in Sweden Make It ‘a Lucrative Place’ to Mine Bitcoin, Says Report

Bitcoin miners are finding the Nordic lands a profitable opportunity to boost their revenues due to a plunge in electricity prices at the cheapest levels than any other well-known places for crypto mining. Bitcoin Miners Could Find ‘Lucrative’ Opportunities in Norway and Sweden According to a Bloomberg report , the Nordic region, specifically Norway and Sweden, has seen mild weather in the last 20 years, which helped boost production from hydroelectric plants. As the long-lasting weather trend has been alive in the region for several years, it’s helping in some way to leave the area awash in generation capacity, which keeps the prices close to zero “for extended periods,” Bloomberg details, which also adds that average prices saw so far this year “are about a third of those in Germany,” that is considered the biggest power market in Europe. Tor Reier Lilleholt, head of analysis at Norwegian consultant Wattsight AS, told Bloomberg: These prices are some of the lowest you can find...
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Dash announces new update, social payment wallet enters testnet

Dash Core Group has announced the release of new updates for the Dash platform as well as the DashPay smartphone wallet app. Dash has moved development work on the v0.17 of its platform to the testnet phase according to an announcement released on Wednesday. Back in July, Cointelegraph reported that the Dash Core Group was looking to release the platform testnet before the end of the year . As part of the announcement, Dash revealed that the testnet environment being five times larger than Evonet which is almost exclusively owned by the Dash Core Group. According to Dana Alibrandi, the head of product at Dash: “This is the biggest deployment of Dash Platform, and consequently, this release marks the most significant milestone in the realization of Dash’s long term vision for mainstream adoption.” Detailing the protocol upgrades contained in the v0.17 update, Dash revealed that it has patched an infinite credit minting vulnerability. The v0.17 release also includes features to imp...
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FinCEN is now interested in offshore crypto holdings, proposes new regulation

Eleventh hour note announces intention to propose a change in Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts regulations. The United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, issued a brief note on Dec. 31, announcing its intention to propose a change in the Bank Secrecy Act, regarding reporting of foreign financial accounts holding digital currency. Currently, digital assets are not covered by the Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, or FBAR, regulations. However, the notice indicates that FinCEN wishes to amend these regulations. This would require U.S. citizens to report cryptocurrency accounts held with foreign institutions, if they are more than $10,000 in value. There is no indication of when this proposal to amend the regulations may be published, simply that there is an intention to propose it. The note comes just three weeks before an expected change in leadership at the U.S. Treasury Department, as the Trump administration gives way to incoming President Joe Bide...
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Bitcoin supply squeeze heats up as Grayscale buys nearly 3x the BTC mined in December

Grayscale brings its total assets under management above $20 billion in time for the start of 2021 as BTC demand intensifies. Institutional crypto investment giant Grayscale now has $20 billion under its control as its Bitcoin ( BTC ) buys outstrip production by almost three to one. As noted by data analysis resource Coin98 Analytics on Jan. 1, Grayscale bought almost three times more BTC than that which was added to the market in December 2020. It's official: Miners can't produce enough Bitcoin Last month, the company added a total of 72,950 BTC ($2.132 billion) to its assets under management (AUM). During the same period, miners generated just 28,112 BTC ($821.7 million) — 38.5% of Grayscale's buy-in. The figures underscore what many have described as an ongoing liquidity squeeze in Bitcoin, where large buyers suck up any available supply and remove it from circulation, sending it to cold storage for long-term hodling. As Cointelegraph reported , the phenomenon wa...
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NYT Study: Coinbase Underpaid Female and Black Employees at Much Larger Rates Than Those in the Technology Industry

An analysis performed by the New York Times of internal pay data at cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase unveiled disparities in salaries, showing their women and Black employees were underpaid. Coinbase Underpaid Women and Black Employees, Claims NYT Study According to the report , women employees were paid by Coinbase an average of $13,000, or 8%, which is less than men’s employees at comparable job roles within the crypto exchange. The data gathered by the NYT includes pay details of 830 employees at the end of 2018. As per an alleged unfair treatment of Black employees in terms of compensation, the figures showed that 16 salaried workers were paid $11,500, or 7%, less than all other employees in similar jobs, said the New York Times article. The analysis, performed by Alexandra Marr, an economist specialized in statistical analysis for court cases involving pay bias, revealed that the gap between white and Black employees grew to 11%. The NYT claimed they confirmed the accuracy o...
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