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Showing posts from March 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...

MoneyGram faces lawsuit over alleged false statements regarding XRP

Ripple partner MoneyGram alleging the firm issued misleading statements and failed to disclose XRP's status as an unlicensed security. Payments company MoneyGram International has been sued over alleged false statements, made regarding its partnership with Ripple Labs and their XRP cryptocurrency. The class action lawsuit, filed on March 1 in California, was submitted on behalf of investors who purchased securities from MoneyGram between June 17, 2019, and February 22, 2021.  The global investor rights legal practice assert MoneyGram made fraudulent statements regarding its partnership with Ripple Labs and the status of XRP as a security. According to the a  post  announcing a "strategic partnership" between the two companies in June 2019, MoneyGram utilized Ripple's xRapid product, "leveraging XRP in foreign exchange" settlements as part of its cross-border payment process. However, on Dec. 23, 2020, the company clarified it is not dependent on Ripp...

CBOE files to list Van Eck's proposed Bitcoin ETF

CBOE is looking to re-enter the crypto sector, filing to list a Bitcoin ETF proposed by asset manager Van Eck. Globally leading exchange holding company, Chicago Board Options Exchange, or CBOE, has filed to list the Bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposed by asset manager, Van Eck. CBOE filed a Form 19b-4 requesting permission to list the ETF from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Jan. 3. In the form , CBOE emphasizes the benefits an ETF would offer to retail investors over the spot Bitcoin markets, including custody: “Exposure to bitcoin through an ETP also presents certain advantages for retail investors compared to buying spot bitcoin directly. The most notable advantage is the use of the Custodian to custody the Trust's bitcoin assets.” While CBOE did not reveal who its custodian is, the document notes its custodian is “a trust company chartered and regulated by [the New York Department of Financial Services].” Once the SEC has formally acknowledged it is revi...

Coinbase custodies 11% of entire crypto capitalization

The custody service of leading U.S. exchange Coinbase now controls more than 10% of the combined crypto asset market cap. Crypto data aggregator Messari has reported that the quantity of crypto assets stored in custody on U.S. exchange giant Coinbase surged in the last quarter of 2020. Messari Crypto has revealed that as much as 11% of the entire crypto market capitalization was held with Coinbase custody at the end of last year. The Coinbase offers custody services for over 90 crypto assets, roughly half of which are tradable on Coinbase’s exchange. The value of assets custodied with Coinbase spiked to roughly $90 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020 as the combined crypto capitalization more than doubled to tag $780 billion by 2021. Coinbase custodies 11% of all crypto assets https://t.co/THPjyeqIto pic.twitter.com/5YHu6tNjyP — Messari (@MessariCrypto) March 1, 2021 Despite the wide variety of assets supported by Coinbase Custody, Messari found that Bitcoin and Ethereum a...

Leverage traders 'flushed out' by late-February crypto crash: Glassnode

Crypto analytics provider Glassnode argues the late February BTC crash may have been a healthy reset that flushed excessive leverage out of the market. According to on-chain analytics provider, Glassnode, the late-February crypto market correction may have purged excessive leverage from the markets. On March 1, Glassnode published a report analyzing the recent crypto crash — which was only the second significant crypto correction since the markets pushed into new record highs in late 2020. Glassnode noted the crash peaked with a 25% fall from the local top of $58,300 to $43,343. As such, the move was weaker than January’s dip which saw a roughly 30% retracement from $42,000 to less than $30,000. The analytics provider suggested that these pullbacks are positive for the crypto markets overall, attributing the latest correction to liquidated leveraged positions held by risky speculators: “Significant market corrections are positive events in that they flush out speculation, lever...

Musician Grimes’ debut NFT auction generates $5.8M in 20 minutes

Acclaimed musician Grimes has made $5.8 million in 20 minutes after auctioning eight tokenized artworks in her first NFT drop. Candian musician and visual artist, Claire Elise Boucher, or Grimes, has sold a mammoth $5.8 million worth of tokenized art in less than 20 minutes on Nifty Gateway . On Feb. 28, the popular musician launched her debut NFT collection, “ WarNymph ,” in collaboration with her brother, digital artist Mac Boucher. The collection takes elements from mythology and futurism to create the “Oth3rkin universe,” with Grimes’ WarNymph collection comprising a goddess who battles obsoletion and future decay within a fictional realm. The listing on Nifty Gateway states: “WarNymph is the Goddess of Neo-Genesis. She battles the destructive force of obsolete ideas and systemic decay that threatens the future. She embodies the power of perpetual regeneration that manifests in a state of infinite infancy where she sheds her old skin of corruption.” The collection included fo...

DOGE is now supported at 1,800 ATMs in 45 US states

U.S. citizens can now purchase Dogecoin from ATMs in 45 of the country’s 50 states. Famous meme crypto Dogecoin ( DOGE ) can now be accessed through 1,800 ATMs across the United States. Leading Bitcoin ATM provider Coinflip announced the support for Dogecoin on Mar. 1, with the company’s CEO and co-founder, Daniel Polotsky, attributing the move to DOGE’s recent “popularity and recent mass adoption.” On Feb. 4th, the cryptocurrency’s price rose 25% within minutes after Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk posted a rocket going to the moon and adding “Doge” in the comments. Doge — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 4, 2021 Two days later, the world’s second-richest man continued his Doge shill, posting a survey that asked if Dogecoin will be the earth’s future currency — to which 71.3% of the 2.4 million respondents said yes. NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban joined the conversation on Feb. 8, telling Forbes that the attention the meme coin is receiving is “not a bad look” fo...

Bitcoin price hits $50K after bullish outlook from Citigroup and Goldman Sachs

Bullish maneuvers from MicroStrategy, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are just a few of the factors backing Bitcoin's rally back to $50,000. On March 1 cryptocurrency investors woke up to the sight of Bitcoin ( BTC ) rising from it weekend correction to $44,000 as the market found its bullish momentum and altcoins rebounded from their swing lows. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin increased 16.6% from its low of $43,504 on Feb. 28 to the $50,000 level which bulls are attempting to flip back to support. BTC/USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView Earlier in the day, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor  tweet ed that the firm had  purchased another $15 million worth of Bitcoin , bringing its total holdings to 90,859 BTC and further demonstrating that institutional demand for the top cryptocurrency continues to grow as firms buy each dip’ Analysis of key BTC price indicators  also shows that bulls were eager to buy the $43...

Crypto Markets Regain Billions, Bitcoin Price Bounces Back 15%, Analyst Says ‘Resurgent Mood In the Air’

The price of bitcoin and a number of digital assets saw significant gains on Monday, as the entire market capitalization of the crypto economy has gained 2.4% in the last 24 hours. Bitcoin’s value passed the psychological $50k zone after hitting a low of $43,021 the day prior on Sunday. Bitcoin (BTC) touched a high on Monday, March 1, at $50,244 per unit at around 7:26 p.m. (ET). At the time of publication, BTC ’s overall market valuation is around $926 billion and there’s $22.83 billion in global trade volume. The current price is over 15% higher than the low of $43,021 per unit on February 28. Out of all the crypto-assets in existence, BTC ’s market dominance in terms of market valuation against the $1.44 trillion in value is 61.02% today. Bitcoin is still down 8% for the week but is up 44.92% against the U.S. dollar during the last 30 days. The second-largest market capitalization is ethereum (ETH) , which is now trading for $1,583 per coin. ETH has jumped over 9% during ...

Crypto bank opens physical location in India's capital as potential regulatory ban looms

Unicas is planning to open 50 banks in India by the end of the year, but a proposed bill banning crypto could complicate matters. India’s Unicas crypto bank opened its third physical branch last week in New Delhi. Previous locations were launched in Jamnagar and Jaipur. Unicas reportedly allows customers to access fiat and crypto services at the bank and provides digital loans using crypto holdings as collateral. The bank aims to launch 50 branches across the country by the end of the year and 50 more by the end of 2022. Its plans may be stifled, however, due to a crypto bill that is awaiting consideration in India’s parliament. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill is intended to "prohibit all private cryptocurrencies" while also creating a regulatory framework for a digital rupee issued by the Reserve Bank of India. However, the bill also says it will allow for "certain exceptions to promote the underlying technology of cryptocurrency ...

BlockFi clients earn record interest payments in February

Zac Prince, BlockFi’s CEO, said his company paid out 450 in BTC, 5,000 in ETH and 6 million in stablecoins last month. Crypto lending firm BlockFi posted another record-breaking month in February, paying out over $35 million in interest to its clients.  The interest payments were comprised of 450 in Bitcoin ( BTC ), 5,000 in Ethereum ( ETH ) and 6 million in stablecoins, CEO Zac Prince said . Another record breaking month of interest payments for @BlockFi clients in Feb. Over 35M in interest paid including: >450 #btc >5,000 #eth >6M in stablecoins Thank you and let’s keep going! — Zac Prince (@BlockFiZac) March 1, 2021 Clients of BlockFi are able to earn interest on Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins by depositing their cryptocurrencies into an interest-bearing account. The company has grown in popularity as more users look to earn passive income on their digital assets. In addition to savings accounts, BlockFi also provides collateralized crypto loans, whic...

Defi on Bitcoin Cash Gets a Boost- Smart Money Startup General Protocols Raises $3 Million from Investors

On March 1, the startup General Protocols announced the company has raised $3 million in a Series A financing round led by a number of strategic investors. General Protocols is the firm behind the Anyhedge protocol, the first decentralized finance (defi) project built on the Bitcoin Cash network. ‘The Untapped Power Behind the Concept of Programmable Money’ The company General Protocols has revealed on Monday the startup has completed a Series A financing round that was funded by a number of investors. News.Bitcoin.com has reported on General Protocols on a number of occasions, as the startup believes “smart contracts on programmable money are the foundation of a multi-trillion dollar shift toward non-custodial and trustless networks.” At the end of December, General Protocols alongside the Detoken decentralized exchange (dex) launched the Anyhedge protocol into the wild. Being the first public defi protocol built on top of the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network, Detoken and Anyhedge...

Decentralized Storage Market Launches on Crust Network

PRESS RELEASE. Decentralized storage is a crucial infrastructure in the technical field. With the Filecoin mainnet launch in October of 2020, Filecoin and IPFS are now leading the decentralized storage field. One of the star projects of the IPFS/Polkadot ecosystem, Crust Network proposes to implement key concepts of Filecoin based on the Substrate technical framework within the Polkadot ecosystem, and also address several design and technical issues of Filecoin. After several rounds of internal testing, Crust Network has launched its Decentralized Storage Market on Crust Apps and opened storage functions to users for public testing from the end of February. Crust Preview Network, Apps and DSM Based on the Substrate and PolkadotJS stack, Crust is building a decentralized storage network. Crust uses IPFS as the underlying data storage, retrieval and exchange protocol, and includes layered solutions on storage proof, PoS-derived consensus, storage market and storage applications. The...

Tezos gets new oracle through Wolfram Blockchain Labs integration

Wolfram Blockchain has fully integrated Tezos, bringing data to and from the blockchain. Wolfram Blockchain Labs, the cryptocurrency-centric division of the popular computing engine provider Wolfram Alpha, is adding support for Tezos ( XTZ ) on its platform, providing a two-way interface with the Tezos blockchain. Announced on Monday, the integration adds support for Tezos blockchain data within the Wolfram Language, which allows developers to obtain analytical data from the blockchain. The language specializes in advanced statistical queries that analyze smart contract activity, and the integration primarily aims to ease deployment of smart contracts on Tezos. In addition, Wolfram Blockchain has developed an oracle for Tezos that would supply its smart contracts with data available from Wolfram Alpha. The data also includes pricing of assets, one of the primary use cases for oracles today. This would make Wolfram the third oracle provider on the network, following Chainlink and H...

More Bitcoin! Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy just keeps buying BTC

Michael Saylor announced MicroStrategy's acquisition of another $15 million worth of Bitcoin, as MicroStrategy continues to dollar-cost-average into BTC. MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin ( BTC ) buying spree shows no signs of slowing, after CEO Michael Saylor announced the purchase of another 328 BTC on Monday. The acquisition, which was paid for in cash, cost the firm around $15 million, and equated to an average coin price of $45,710 at the time of purchase. The investment takes MicroStrategy’s total Bitcoin holdings to 90,859 coins — a haul worth $4.3 billion based on the current coin price. The firm essentially dollar-cost-averaged into Bitcoin over the course of the past five months, leaving the average price of each of its Bitcoin purchases at $24,063 per coin. Saylor tweeted on March. 1: MicroStrategy has purchased an additional ~328 bitcoins for ~$15.0 million in cash at an average price of ~$45,710 per #bitcoin . As of 3/1/2021, we #hodl ~90,859 bitcoins acquired for ~$2.186...

Tether hit with 500 Bitcoin ransom demand — but says it won't pay

The USDT stablecoin issuer says it received a $23 million ransom demand payable by March. 1. The deadline has since passed, and Tether isn't paying. Hackers have threatened to release sensitive company documents supposedly belonging to USDT stablecoin issuer Tether unless the firm sends a 500 Bitcoin ( BTC ) ransom to a specified address. As revealed by the official Twitter account for Tether on Feb. 28, hackers purportedly threatened to leak documents that would “harm the Bitcoin ecosystem” if their ransom demands are not met. Tether has already stated that it will not pay the ransom, which amounts to a dollar value of $23.8 million at the time of publication. The firm tweeted : “Today we also received a ransom demand for 500 BTC to be sent to bc1qa9f60pved3w3w0p7snpxlnh5t4uj95vxn797a7. The sender said that, unless they receive the BTC by tomorrow, they will leak documents to the public in an effort to “harm the bitcoin ecosystem.” We are not paying.” The firm said the extor...

Central bank digital currency a mixed blessing, says RBI

The Reserve Bank of India has described central bank digital currencies as a mixed bag in its report on currency and finance for 2020–2021. India’s central bank has recognized the potential benefits of central bank digital currencies but not without including a few pitfalls. The Reserve Bank of India offered its assessment of CBDCs as part of its report on currency and finance issued on Feb. 28. As part of the report, the RBI noted that several countries are exploring the creation of their own sovereign national digital currency. According to the central bank’s report, CBDCs can help to promote financial inclusion and transactional transparency. The RBI also stated that national digital currencies could be useful as an instrument of monetary transmission by helping to engineer public consumption towards specific categories of products and services. Detailing the benefits of CBDCs, the RBI also remarked that digital counterparts to sovereign fiat currency could be used by central...

China’s Inner Mongolia to shut down crypto mining farms by April 2021

Inner Mongolia drew the ire of Beijing after failing to meet energy efficiency goals. Authorities of the Chinese autonomous region of Inner Mongolia have proposed to close down all local cryptocurrency mining facilities to reduce energy consumption in the region. The Inner Mongolia National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, released an official proposal to shut down local crypto mining operations in line with its energy-saving rules. Published on Feb. 25, the draft proposal suggests to “comprehensively clean up and shut down virtual currency mining projects” by the end of April 2021. The authority also proposed a strict ban on new cryptocurrency mining projects in the region. The NDRC will collect public feedback on the draft proposal until March 3, 2021. According to a Reuters report , Inner Mongolia was the only one of 30 mainland areas under Beijing’s energy consumption and energy intensity review that failed to meet energy-saving targets in 2019. As part of the new...

Bullish 'Great Reset' for BTC: 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week

A return to $43,000 worries weak hands but works wonders for broader market health, data shows as Bitcoin bounces. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is looking stable at the start of a new week after recovering from a drop to $43,000 — what’s in store? After last week’s 20% drop from all-time highs, opinions are divided over what the future might look like for Bitcoin price action in the short term. Macro factors are encouraging, but naysayers insist that a major crash is still a distinct possibility. Cointelegraph highlights five factors which could be set to influence BTC/USD in the coming days. Fresh stimulus, fresh buy-ins? Macro is looking to deliver a perfect storm for alternative assets, led by the United States. President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus package has passed lawmakers, who gave the green light for yet another unfathomably large money printing exercise to begin. Traditionally a boon for Bitcoin, the huge increases in the dollar supply includes direct payments to eligible A...

Stablecoin Issuer Tether Says It Is a Victim of a 500 BTC Ransom Demand Infoleak Threat

Just days after the conclusion of its long-running feud with the Office of the Attorney General of New York, Tether says it is now a victim of an extortion attempt. According to the stablecoin issuer, the blackmailers are threatening to release documents they claim “will harm the bitcoin ecosystem” if their demand for the payment of 500 bitcoins is not met. Tether Not Paying the Ransom However, in its statement dismissing the threat, Tether says the blackmailers were attempting to extort money using “forged documents.” According to Tether, the documents purport to show an interaction between Tether personnel and representatives of Deltec Bank. Still, in a Twitter thread , Tether says it will not send the 500 BTC which the blackmailers want to be paid by March 1. The stablecoin issuer also says a formal report about the ransom demand has been made to law enforcement. Tether tweeted; We have reported the forged communications and the associated ransom demand to law enforcement. A...

Fantom brushes off network outage with another 50% price surge

With over 3,000% growth since the turn of the year, even a recent network outage couldn't stop Fantom's bullish surge. The decentralized smart contract platform Fantom (FTM) continued its resurgent rally to the tune of 50% on Monday, despite a temporary network outage that saw the blockchain stop producing blocks for seven hours. Fantom emerged among the top 100 in the market cap rankings in January — eventually going on a 5,000% run that peaked in late February. Since then, the coin’s bull run subsided, but its value against the United States dollar still stands 3,434% higher than it did on Jan. 1. But Fantom was subject to a brief blackout on Feb. 25, when block production was halted after two validators slowed down the rate of emissions. Fantom is a Proof-of-Stake  blockchain where 39 validator nodes oversee block creation on behalf of stakers. The two validators in question represented one-third of the FTM staked on the platform. The development team successfully coord...