Bitcoin News 24/7

Posts

Showing posts from March 30, 2021

Adam Back unveils Blockstream’s new Bitcoin mining security token

Blockstream has announced the launch of a new security token backed by the company's mining facilities. Canadian-based Blockchain tech company Blockstream announced the launch of a security token backed by the company's mining production on March 29. It offers an alternative to investing in Bitcoin mining stocks, with the company providing non-US qualified investors exposure to Bitcoin mining through the Blockstream Mining Note security token. BMN represents 2,000 terahash per second of hashrate from Blockstream's mining facilities. The Bitcoin mined for BMN will be held in cold storage for three years, and will be distributed to the final token holders at the end of that time frame. Blockstream plans to begin BMN mining operations by July 9, with the following tranches expected to be released in the third quarter of this year. See https://t.co/W6zlfDQRpq some more details (BMN is available to non-US qualified investors) — Adam Back (@adam3us) March 31, 2021 Th...

Dvision Network Reveals First NFT Character From Limited Edition Series

PRESS RELEASE. Blockchain-based virtual reality platform Dvision Network is finally releasing the first limited-edition NFT item that will be placed for auction on OpenSea Marketplace. Dvision revealed this in a tweet on March 30, 2021. Dvision Boy First Character from Limited Edition Series According to the tweet, the first item to be auctioned is the “Dvision Boy” character. The NFT character is the first in the highly anticipated Limited Edition series and will usher in a new era for the Dvision ecosystem. The auction on OpenSea marketplace will start at 3 PM KST on March 31 and last for a week. NFT lovers and investors will be able to place bids on the NFT item until the deadline elapses. Dvision Boy is the first and primary NFT character that will be used as an avatar inside the Dvision Metaverse. Dvision further revealed that the person who purchases ‘’Dvision Boy” will be entitled to various incentives when the Dvision Metaverse is fully launched later in the year. It s...

One-Tenth of a Bitcoin: Derivatives Giant CME Group to Launch Micro BTC Futures Contract

The American global markets company Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) has announced the launch of a new bitcoin futures product on May 3, 2021, if U.S. regulators approve the product. The new contract is a micro bitcoin futures product that represents 0.1 bitcoin rather than CME’s other contract that equals five bitcoin. The smaller contract aims to make investment in bitcoin futures more accessible “to a broad array of clients.” CME Group to Launch Micro Bitcoin Futures Contract The well known derivatives marketplace CME Group has announced the launch of a new futures product that’s smaller than the contract that represents five bitcoin ( BTC ). The new product, pending regulatory approval, will be a micro-futures contract that offers exposure to 0.1 BTC . Essentially, that’s one-tenth the size of one bitcoin and the company thinks that investors will be interested in the smaller product. Tim McCourt, CME Group Global Head of Equity Index and Alternative Investment Products...

Nifty News: NYT says NFTs in pandemic-fueled bubble, Polkamon eggs produce $1M gas ...

NYT likens the NFT bubble to the plague induced “tulip mania” of the 1600s, Polkamon NFTs generate more than $1 million in gas fees, and a man fails to sell 50% of a house as an NFT Having just flogged an NFT column for half a million dollars, the New York Times is now wondering if perhaps the whole scene is in a bit of a bubble? In a March 30 article, Art’s NFT Question: Next Frontier in Trading, or a New Form of Tulip? author Scott Reyburn questioned the sustainability of the current NFT bubble in prices and drew comparisons with the Dutch “tulip mania” of the 1630s. Tulip mania for anyone who doesn’t hodl flowers, was a bubble in the Netherlands that saw prices for a single tulip bulb rocket up to a high of 6,700 guilders in February 1637 — enough to purchase a house at the time. The NYT suggested that perhaps history was rhyming, given the similarity between the COVID-19 adjacent NFT bubble and the bubonic plague-driven Tulip bubble: “It should also be pointed out that febr...

Nic Carter takes aim at claims Bitcoin is an environmental disaster

Carter argues that mining is concentrated in areas where there is an excess of energy. Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter has produced a well-researched rebuttal to some of the key claims suggesting power-hungry Bitcoin mining is causing an environmental disaster. In an in-depth article called Noahbjectivity on Bitcoin mining penned on March 30, the Castle Island Ventures Partner responds to claims by Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith in a March 24 article titled Bitcoin miners are on a path to self-destruction . The first claim Carter took aim at was that Bitcoin is unique among assets in that a rising price entails a greater energy draw. Carter stated that gold has the exact same trait in that higher prices result in increased mining and energy consumption. Secondly, there was a claim by Smith that Bitcoin mining hogs local power resources depriving regular customers of electricity. However, according to figures produced by Carter, mining is concentrated in areas where there is...

Topps Digital Towers Over NFT Universe With Upcoming Godzilla Collectible Auction

Toho’s classic Godzilla storyline leaves behind the Tokyo and New York skylines as it wades into the decentralized universe with freshly minted collectibles set for auction on the WAX Blockchain. Appeal To Collectors Complements Forthcoming Premiere Of Godzilla vs. Kong From trading cards to collectibles, the name Topps has been synonymous with collecting for over 70 years. Little did they know that their digital transformation that materialized back in 2012 would set the stage for today’s NFT-mania and their embrace of non-fungible tokens. Since disclosing a collaboration with the Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX) in May of 2020, Topps has been at the forefront of digitizing sports and entertainment trading cards, helping faithful collectors buy, sell, and trade unique collectibles through WAX’s blockchain-based platform. The platform claims to have been responsible for handling more than 100 million transfers of digital assets to date. Fast-forward to the present, and Topps is bu...

Michael Jordan, Will Smith join $305M funding round for NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs

Basketball legend Michael Jordan and Hollywood icon Will Smith are among a group of investors in Dapper Lab’s latest funding round. NBA Top Shot maker Dapper Labs has secured about $305 million in new funding round from investors. According to a report by Business Insider on Tuesday, past and present NBA stars like Michael Jordan, Alex Caruso, and Kevin Durant participated in the funding round. Other investors included The Chernin Group and Will Smith’s venture capital outfit Dreamers VC. With this latest funding round, Dapper Labs now reportedly holds a $2.6 billion valuation. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, NBA Top Shot had grossed $230 million in sales as of the end of February. According to a Dapper Labs spokesperson quoted by Business Insider, March trading figures have seen NBA Top Shot's total gross reach $483 million with more than 802,000 users on the platform. Indeed, the NBA Top Shot boom is part of the current interest surrounding non fungible tokens, o...

One BTC will be worth a Lambo by 2022, and a Bugatti by 2023: Kraken CEO

Amid the threat of dollar debasement, Kraken’s Jesse Powell believes Lamborghinis and Bugattis may be a better measure of Bitcoin’s value in the future. Appearing on Bloomberg, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell explained why he believes dollar-based long-term price predictions for Bitcoin are flawed, emphasizing the inflationary nature of fiat currencies. Responding to a question asking Powell for end of year price predictions, Kraken’s CEO said : “I think I said Bitcoin is going to infinity and that’s kind of hard to comprehend because I’m measuring it in terms of dollars.” Offering alternative measures for valuing Bitcoin, Powell speculated the value of Bitcoin may increase from its current 'price' or one BTC per Tesla Model 3 to “one Bitcoin per Lambo” by the end of the year, and to “one Bitcoin per Bugatti” by 2023. Powell added: "To the crypto community, I think those kinds of assets are easier to measure Bitcoin against because you never know where the dollar is going to...

LBRY fires back at SEC over 'aggressive and disastrous' securities complaint

LBRY is in the SEC’s firing line for selling unregistered securities. It claims the case could set a precedent that would affect much of the industry. Blockchain company LBRY, Inc. has hit back at the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying a complaint filed against it threatens much of the crypto industry because it would define most tokens as securities. The SEC has been looking into the blockchain-based publishing platform LBRY, Inc. as part of a three-year investigation that started in May 2018. According to the complaint filed by the SEC, the platform is alleged to have sold unregistered securities across multiple avenues including to institutional investors and platform users between 2016 and 2020. The regulator is seeking a permanent injunction to prevent the company from selling more tokens, disgorgement of all funds received with interest, and to pay an undisclosed amount in civil penalties. LBRY developed a decentralized video sharing platform called Odysee tha...

Canadian Company Mogo Offers Bitcoin Rewards for Clients Engaging in a New Mortgage or Refinancing

On Monday, the publicly-listed Canadian company Mogo announced the firm is extending the bitcoin rewards program applied to the firm’s prepaid Visa card to the operation’s Mogomortgage product. Mogo members leveraging the Mogomortgage platform can earn up to $3,100 in bitcoin if they engage in a new mortgage or refinance an existing real estate loan. Mogo CEO Highlights the Beginning Stages of Consumers Adding Bitcoin to Their Financial Portfolios During the last few years, the Vancouver-based Mogo Inc. , (NASDAQ:MOGO) (TSX:MOGO) has gradually been gravitating toward cryptocurrency solutions. Back in 2018, Mogo revealed a partnership with DMG Blockchain Solutions and planned to launch a bitcoin mining facility in British Columbia. At the end of December 2020, Mogo executive Greg Feller explained that Mogo was joining the trend of firms holding BTC on their balance sheets. Mogo disclosed the company invested 1.5% of Mogo’s total assets into bitcoin at the end of the third quarter...

The blacklist: Marathon only mining ‘fully compliant’ Bitcoin transactions

Marathon plans to divert all hash power to its new, regulatory compliant Bitcoin mining pool from May 1. Major U.S.-based mining firm Marathon Digital Holdings has announced the launch of what it describes as the first North American Bitcoin mining pool that is “fully compliant with U.S. regulations.” According to a March 30 announcement , the pool adheres to U.S. anti-money laundering guidelines and rules set out by the Office of Foreign Asset Control, or OFAC. Marathon will ensure the transactions processed by its pool meet regulatory standards by using technology exclusively licensed by DMG Blockchain allowing transfers to be filtered. The firm will begin diverting 100% of its current hash power to the new pool from May 1. Marathon’s new pool also plans to begin accepting hash power pooled from other U.S.-based miners from June 1. By 2022, Marathon expects to have deployed 103,120 miners to direct 10.37 exahashes per second, or EH/s, to the mining pool — equal to roughly 6.4% of...

Scottish music school accepts cryptocurrency as payment for lessons

An Edinburgh music school will begin to accept tuition payments in the form of cryptocurrency. A Scottish music school will begin accepting cryptocurrency for tuition payments following demand from students, it was announced this week. The Morningside School of Music in Edinburgh said it was responding to suggestions from adult pupils in the school, many of whom now work in the city’s burgeoning fintech sector. Morningside’s director, Linda Boyd, said the school had previously used cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin ( BTC ) to make business purchases and could see the utility in accepting it as a form of payment. She said , “We sometimes use things like Bitcoin to pay for goods for the school, so we know how fast and easy it is and want our music students to be able to do the same.” Boyd said the school’s decision to accept cryptocurrency was an example of a small business following the recent example set by large businesses, adding that it simply represented a viable alternative...

Aurus Brings the DeFi Revolution to Precious Metals

Aurus is embracing the concept of DeFi to disrupt the precious metals industry. The firm has built a truly decentralised platform which allows companies like refineries, distributors and vaults to autonomously tokenise precious metals. The ingenious part of the Aurus system is their revenue-sharing token, AurusDeFi (AWX), which enables holders to earn a share of the platform’s revenues. Aurus to Disrupt the Precious Metals Industry Trading app Robinhood positions itself as democratising finance for all. However, the centralised nature of the platform- where one party holds the ultimate decision-making power, is in direct conflict with this mission. Just ask the Redditors of the WallStreetBets community. As they discovered in January, traders have zero control over how the exchange is managed. If they have a problem, their only recourse is to withdraw their funds and switch to another broker (where they’ll probably face similar issues, for the time being anyway). This incident helps...

More Stimulus Coming? President Biden and Senate Democrats Press for Another $3 Trillion

On the heels of the last stimulus package, U.S. President Joe Biden is creating more legislation that may lead to a massive $3 trillion package dedicated to domestic needs and infrastructure. The recent discussions with Biden and Senate Democrats honed in on the political party’s “Build Back Better” campaign. The recent stimulus talks have a few economists feeling optimistic about the future of the American economy, while Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said: “the next stimulus bill will have to be paid for through higher tax rates.” Biden and Senate Democrats Push for Infrastructure Relief Stimulus Estimated to be Around $3 Trillion The U.S. government doesn’t seem to want to stop creating money, as talks of passing more stimulus legislation have increased almost right after the passing of $1.9 trillion just a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that average Americans are concerned about purchasing power and inflation, central bank members and politicians continue to find ways to ...

Delta Exchange completes $5M token raise following investments from DeFi players

Investors include Aave Ventures, Kyber Network, Sino Global, CoinFund, Spartan and others. Delta Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives platform, has successfully concluded a $5 million private sale of its native DETO token, setting the stage for wider adoption of its retail derivatives marketplace. Some names in DeFi, or decentralized finance, participated in the private sale, including Aave Ventures,and Kyber Network. Sino Global, LuneX Ventures, BR Capital and others also participated in the sale. At the time of writing, the total market capitalization of DeFi projects was $88.2 billion, marking an increase of 12.5% on the day. In addition to the token launch, Delta announced Tuesday that it has activated its liquidity mining and trade farming features, supposedly marking the first offering of liquidity pools on a centralized derivatives platform. The DETO-USDT trading pair will go live immediately after the token launch. DETO is an ERC-20 utility and rewards token that p...

Consensys announces layer-two NFT platform, Palm, to compete with Flow

The Ethereum ecosystem and some outside power players are banding together to give Flow a run for their money With a possible billion-dollar NFT drop and a high-powered, multi-project collaboration in the works, the Ethereum ecosystem may finally be ready to compete with nonfungible token (NFT)-centric blockchain Flow. Ethereum software developers Consensys announced in a press release today Palm, an environmentally-friendly NFT scaling solution. Palm will be a sidechain designed to be “fully connected” to Ethereum, sporting faster settlement times, lower fees, and an especially light carbon footprint — a noted bugaboo for artists as of late . Ethereum’s community — one of the chain's advantages over the faster and more efficient rival NFT chain Flow — is also on full display in the release. Consensys announced a lineup of ecosystem-building partner powerhouses for Palm, such as NFT social media platform Nifty’s and experimental NFT mining project $MEME. Likewise, Palm will c...