roadrunner

U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase will start offering bitcoin-backed cash loans to select customers as early as next month. Investors can borrow up to 30% of the bitcoin they hold on the exchange, or a maximum $20,000, it said. In a blog post on August 13, Coinbase unveiled its new crypto lending business, which places it into competition with the likes of Nexo and Blockfi. The service charges an annualized interest rate of 8% for borrows that are one year or less. Coinbase said interested customers can get cash in their accounts in two to three days with just a few taps. It intends that the lending process becomes as less cumbersome as possible, so application procedures have been shortened and issues like credit check eliminated. Intially, the service will be available only in 17 select U.S. states. These are: Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Nebraska, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The exchange, which boasts more than 35 million users worldwide, is working to obtain licenses to add more cryptocurrencies as well as to expand to the outstanding jurisdictions, it said. “We want to give our customers even more control over their crypto investments while offering secure access to cash at the same time,” Coinbase stated, in the post. “We hear from customers that they need cash for expenses like home renovations or car repairs, but they do not want to prematurely sell their crypto, or take out high-interest loans…” it added. A number of companies seem interested in joining the crypto lending business. Square’s Cash App, a crypto-friendly peer-to-peer payments platform, announced that it is testing a lending product that will give users short-term loans of between $20 and $200. Interest rates will be a flat 5% per month. What do you think about Coinbase’s new bitcoin lending business? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Coinbase to Offer Bitcoin-Based Cash Loans of up to $20,000 Across 17 US States appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Coinmarketcap (CMC) temporarily went offline Thursday, August 13 and normal service only resumed some hours later, but not before inconveniencing a number of regular users. Crypto investors accustomed to CMC’s service scrambled to find reliable alternative sources of fresh market data. During this downtime, crypto traders that are new to markets.Bitcoin.com got a glimpse of what the platform has to offer. Markets.Bitcoin.com matches CMC on most metrics including professional Tradingview charts and Into the Block onchain data. Not only can you keep up to date with the top digital currency market caps, but there’s always a plethora of reliable crypto data available at markets.Bitcoin.com. Why has coinmarketcap been so slow and constantly offline ever since Binance took over? — Andy (@OpTelic) August 13, 2020 Markets.Bitcoin.com beats the competition when it comes to unique user experiences tied to onchain stats, trading and earning, and token analytics from a number of blockchains. For instance, markets.Bitcoin.com provides data and trading opportunities for some 500 of the top listed tokens/coins. Markets.Bitcoin.com offers professional-grade cryptocurrency charts that stem from Tradingview. Also, users can see the price, market cap, 24-hour trade volume, supply data, and daily transactions for a myriad of crypto assets. **Price data in this image may not reflect the price of these assets after the time of publishing. Investors, enthusiasts, and data geeks visiting the markets.Bitcoin.com can seamlessly buy or trade tokens while the swapping of digital assets is also possible with the Bitcoin.com Wallet. Markets.Bitcoin.com provides up-to-date market data in real-time and you don’t need to refresh your screen to see the price changes. **Price data in this image may not reflect the price of these assets after the time of publishing. Therefore, CMC’s downtime only inconvenienced users that solely rely on it for crypto asset price-tracking. Additionally, visitors to markets.Bitcoin.com also get a chance to earn with Cred, a licensed California-based lender that provides partners with turnkey crypto lending and borrowing services. CMC, which is now owned by Binance, only recently added a very different earning feature. Markets.Bitcoin.com offers Into the Block data provided token summaries. **Price data in this image may not reflect the price of these assets after the time of publishing. Still, markets.Bitcoin.com offers crypto investors a more comprehensive service because it is part of a larger group comprising specialized service providers. Cryptocurrency investors visiting markets.bitcoin.com not only get to leverage a noncustodial crypto wallet, trade, or get up to date token data. They also get links to the hottest cryptocurrency news across the globe. Our markets web portal is part of Bitcoin.com, the site that offers everything under the sun when it comes to this innovative and evolving digital currency ecosystem. Alongside up-to-date crypto news, Bitcoin.com also provides a peer-to-peer trading platform, local.Bitcoin.com, a mining pool, and an online gaming casino as well. If you are new to crypto assets like bitcoin cash (BCH) and bitcoin (BTC), our web portal also offers a number of educational resources and anyone can get started by gathering knowledge here. What do you think of markets.Bitcoin.com’s approach? Share your thoughts in the comment section below The post Markets.Bitcoin.Com Holds Fort as Coinmarketcap Temporarily Goes Offline appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Etc Group said Wednesday that its centrally cleared bitcoin exchange-traded product (ETP) has accumulated up to $49 million in assets under management since launch on June 18, 2020. The contract, known as Bitcoin Exchange Traded Crypto (BTCE), tracks the price of BTC and is 100% physically backed by the cryptocurrency. It started trading on Deutsche Börse’s Xetra electronic trading market in June with a total expense ratio of 2% – a measure of the total cost of the fund to the investor. According to Etc Group, a London-based financial services firm, Btce was the most traded non-leveraged asset on Xetra’s exchange-traded notes segment in July, with volumes of more than $67 million. “Btce has been popular with both experienced crypto traders…as well as attracting an entirely new community of investors who value its familiar exchange-traded and centrally cleared characteristics,” said Andre Voinea, a director with Hanetf, in an emailed statement. Hanetf is a European Union-approved private issuer of exchange-traded funds. Btce is distributed and marketed on the company’s platform. Voinea added: The calibre of the Authorized Participants that support liquidity in Btce shows how bitcoin has matured to become a significant and serious institutional asset. By centralizing previously fragmented Bitcoin liquidity on Xetra, we are bringing a time-tested product structure to a new asset class along with the same regulatory protections of buying any other listed security. One Btce is equivalent to 0.001 bitcoin, less fees, Etc Group says, allowing the holder of each unit of the derivative a claim on a specific amount of bitcoin. The asset is redeemable in either BTC or cash. The company states that for every unit of the ETP, “there is bitcoin stored in regulated, institutional-grade safe” – identified as the Bitgo Trust Company. Products such as these are key to introducing retail investors who might be risk-averse to bitcoin. What do you think about the growth of the Etc Group’s exchange-traded product? Let us know in the comments section below. The post ETC Group’s Bitcoin ETP Hits $49 Million Assets Under Management in Two Months appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the first week of July, Bitcoin.com’s Wallet added a number of new features including a portfolio breakdown and honestcoin (USDH) swapping abilities. With the latest update this week, Bitcoin.com Wallet users can now store the SLP-based stablecoin tether (USDT) in their wallets as well. Tether (USDT) is the most popular stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem to-date and Bitcoin.com Wallet users can now store, send, and receive the stablecoin at any time. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on how the firm Tether Limited utilized the Simple Ledger Protocol technology in order to issue over 6 million SLP-based USDT. Today there are 6,001,007 SLP-based tethers in circulation according to statistics provided by Simpleledger.info. So similar to having the ability to hold any SLP token, the Bitcoin.com Wallet now allows users to store, send, and receive SLP-based tether (USDT). It is important to note that tether (USDT) is minted on a number of different blockchains. ETH-based tethers or other types of USDT coins not minted with the Simple Ledger Protocol, will not be compatible with the Bitcoin.com Wallet software. The Bitcoin.com Wallet offers a method for people to obtain the SLP-based tethers by using the in-app swap features. It’s worth noting that the sideshift.ai website is not available in certain countries including the U.S. The Bitcoin.com Wallet allows users to swap coins by leveraging the Sideshift.ai application. The process is intuitive and it only takes a few minutes to swap coins using Bitcoin.com’s client. Users can swap bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin (BTC), honestcoin (USDH), and tether (USDT) using the wallet software. In order to swap bitcoin cash for SLP-based tethers, simply tap the “swap” button on the bottom of the wallet’s home screen and it will direct you to the in-app swapping window. From here you can select which coin you want to trade, and the other day our newsdesk swapped $6 worth of BCH for 6 tethers. The swapping feature shows a live exchange rate for BCH and the price per tether as well. We simply chose BCH and USDT swap and selected the receiving wallet, which displays the wallet’s Simple Ledger Protocol address. The minimum of bitcoin cash (BCH) needed to complete a swap is 0.003934997 BCH. After selecting the amount of tether, simply press “confirm and swap” to initiate the process. The software lets you know that the swap is taking place on the Sideshift application, and the wallet also sends a message to you via the notifications section. Sideshift gives you an invoice number and the notification lets you know the process started. After the funds are confirmed on the BCH blockchain, the tokens are sent to the SLP-token address. From here the USDT tokens will be accounted for in the portfolio balance section under stablecoins, and tallied up with the total value of all the crypto assets held in the wallet. Bitcoin.com has always provided top-notch products and services that give people lots of exposure to the innovative crypto ecosystem. Allowing users to hedge stablecoins and swap BCH or BTC for coins like USDT and USDH with ease, gives users far more control over their investments. What do you think about the ability to swap coins for SLP-based tether (USDT) using the Bitcoin.com Wallet? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin.com Wallet Reveals USDT Support – Users Can Swap and Store SLP-Based Tether appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Crypto Pro app has extended its Apple device support and is now available on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. What is Crypto Pro? Crypto Pro tracks cryptocurrency prices in real-time and displays interactive charts with indicators. Users can also read the latest crypto news, set custom price alerts, and monitor their portfolios with performance statistics. The feature-rich toolkit also includes exchange API connections, cryptocurrency wallet import via public keys, customizable widgets, Siri shortcuts, FaceID & TouchID lock, currency conversion calculator, and more. The app focuses on putting user privacy first. It does not ask nor collect any personal information. All user data is encrypted and stored locally on each device by default with the option to securely sync across devices via iCloud. Integration Benefits The recent launch of the macOS app completes support for the entire Apple ecosystem and positions the app as a multi-platform stop for everything crypto-related. Users can now utilize Crypto Pro’s features on any Apple device they own. Portfolios, price alerts, settings, and exchange connections can be synchronized between devices through iCloud. The app utilizes Apple’s ‘Keychain Services’ framework to locally store API keys, the same technology Apple uses for its secure credential storage. The availability of Crypto Pro on multiple devices enables users to stay on top of the volatile market wherever they are. The Mac app lets users track their portfolios on their desktops while the Apple Watch allows users to glance at prices when they are on the go. About Crypto Pro: Crypto, Inc is a California-based company focused on building an ecosystem that allows users to safely and securely monitor their cryptocurrency investments. Crypto Pro is a cryptocurrency portfolio tracker designed to be an extension to the Apple experience. It focuses on privacy, continuity, and intuitive design. Contact information Email: help@cryptopro.app Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryptoproapp This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Crypto Pro Portfolio Tracker Gets a Major Update appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Yield farmers excited about the recent decentralized finance (defi) project, Yam Finance, got a rude awakening after the token’s value plummeted in value to near zero. Yam Finance developers discovered a major flaw in the rebasing contract and at 4 a.m. ET, cofounder Brock Elmore tweeted that he was sorry he “failed.” On Wednesday, well over $500 million funneled into the defi project Yam Finance. More than $120 million kept funneling in after the developers found a bug in the smart contract. After the bug announcement, the YAM token’s value dropped significantly as the token touched an all-time high of $167.66 per token. At the time of publication, the token is only worth $0.97 per YAM. The token launched on Tuesday and almost immediately massive amounts of crypto got tossed at the yield farming platform. The tokens were supposed to keep value with the USD by using an elastic supply inspired by the Ampleforth defi project. A lot of people complained that the codebase wasn’t audited and that raised flags for certain individuals within the community. The bug that was found was horrible and resulted in extra YAM being minted during rebasing periods. After the project developers realized the codebase was not able to be saved after trying to lock 160,000 YAM, developers figured out the smart contract was bunk. During the early morning hours on Thursday, Yam Finance cofounder Brock Elmore tweeted about the situation. Elmore said: I’m sorry everyone. I’ve failed. Thank you for the insane support today. I’m sick with grief. A number of well known ETH supporters told Elmore that the project was a good attempt. “You gave the community something unique to experiment with – thank you,” Anthony Sassano tweeted. The Yam Finance project is still one of the most trending conversations on social media and crypto-related forums. Crypto entrepreneur Bruce Fenton discussed the defi token situation on Thursday and said: “Your defi tokens are junk.” “They are not a good form of money,” Fenton added. “You have no ownership of an enterprise. No rights to revenue. There is no real revenue. Governance is meaningless without rights. Total crap – often pushed by the same jokers who got rich on ICOs. Few understand this.” However, not everyone agreed with Fenton’s observation in regards to defi tokens. “No ownership of enterprise is how it goes for ANY utility token or ‘currency coin,’” the CEO of Trustswap Jeff Kirdeikis responded to Fenton’s tweet. “You’re gatekeeping what ‘has value’ here by saying only security tokens have value? Common. Owning BTC doesn’t give you ownership in enterprise or revenue either… Many people understand this,” Kirdeikis added. What do you think about the Yam Finance project and the events that unfolded? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments below. The post Defi Implosion: YAM Token Market Cap Plummets to Near Zero Founder After Claims He ‘Failed’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Venezuela’s national tax harmonization agreement has been signed by the council representing 305 municipalities. They have agreed to use the country’s cryptocurrency, the petro, as the unit of account for tax payments. Taxing in Petro The Bolivarian Council of Mayors signed Venezuela’s National Tax Harmonization Agreement on Sunday, placing the cryptocurrency petro as the unit of account for the payment of taxes and fines in 305 municipalities. The country is comprised of 335 municipalities, incorporated into 23 states and the capital district. Calling the agreement “historic,” Vice President Delcy Rodríguez stressed that the prohibition of collecting taxes and duties in foreign currency has been established because the unit of account for this tax is now the petro, local news outlet Ultimas Noticias conveyed. She added that for the first time in Venezuela’s history, a municipal tax harmonization was achieved. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro supports the signing, instructing Rodríguez to ensure that the harmonization of all taxes is maintained to avoid double taxation. Rodríguez explained that to achieve this, a single registry of municipal taxpayers will be created and administered by the Bolivarian Council of Mayors. It will function as a digital tool for the consultation, information exchange, and monitoring of companies with branches in different municipalities to verify declaration made in one mayor’s office but paid in another. In the future, it can also be used to cross-check information with the national tax system, she described. Rodríguez further noted that the tax harmonization agreement also simplifies administrative procedures, such as reducing the reference codes for economic activities, industries, and businesses from 600 to 30. Sharing Rodríguez’s sentiment, Mayor Erika Farias commented: This tax harmonization agreement, which we have reached after a great debate among the 305 Bolivarian mayors, is an unprecedented event in our country. During the signing, Mayor José Alejandro Teran highlighted that using the petro as the unit of account for calculating taxes is not only innovative, but it also helps protect against hyperinflation, which he attributes to U.S. sanctions. What do you think about Venezuela collecting taxes in petro? Let us know in the comments section below. The post 305 Venezuelan Municipalities to Collect Tax in Cryptocurrency Petro appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Bitcoin trading volumes are on the rise on the African continent despite the ongoing concerns about the high network fees. Data shows peer to peer bitcoin trading platforms recorded spiked growth in volumes starting in April. This was the same time as many countries implemented lockdown measures. Anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that Covid-19 related regulations are the reason for the volume growth. This “evidence” is observed in Nigeria, already one of the biggest cryptocurrency markets in the world. Some observers from the country say the struggling economy, as well as the volatile currency, are helping to build new momentum for bitcoin as well as altcoins. To illustrate, they show how the corona virus-induced drop in oil revenues has put increased pressure on local currency. Increased pressure on local currency inevitably leads to capital flight and scarcity of foreign currency. Available data shows that between March and August 2020, the Naira (the Nigerian currency) has depreciated by 33%, from about 360 to 480 units for every US dollar. The ensuing shortages of hard currency has resulted in some banks limiting the amount of US dollars Nigerians can withdraw each month. This scenario, which has played out in many African countries similarly affected by the closure economies, inevitably leads to growing interest in alternatives like cryptocurrencies as Nathaniel Luz, Lead for Dash in Nigeria explains. Luz says the “increased instability of the Naira” as led to “more Nigerians keeping their money in crypto.” The high transactions fees Still, as Luz argues, the high transaction fees associated with a bull market, particularly on the Bitcoin network, are proving to be an unwelcome dynamic. “Bull runs generate lots of excitement and optimism for the crypto space in general, serving as a good advert for newbies to get on board. With every bull run we see increased fees and slow confirmation times for bitcoin transactions due to the mempool being full,” explains Luz. This makes the leading cryptocurrency less appealing as an alternative means of transacting or remitting funds. Echoing Luz sentiments is Chris Maurice, CEO at Yellowcard Financial, the digital currency exchange that helps Nigerians in the Diaspora to send funds home using bitcoin. According to Maurice, his organization is “seeing growth in volumes” although he admits that the “high transaction fees have definitely impacted us on the operational side, however.” To try and mitigate the problem, Maurice shares a strategy his company has adopted to minimize the impact of the high fees. “We move BTC constantly, and at this point, I only move bitcoin at around 2-3 am EST while everyone in the US is asleep and the chain is a little calmer. I’ll send with a ‘reasonable’ fee of $20+ and pray that blocks happen quickly and the coins don’t get caught for 24 hours or more.” Using higher fees help get transactions confirmed faster, yet as one bitcoin trader from Zimbabwe, William Chiu explains, the final transaction cost will be much higher. The final cost renders moot the appeal of bitcoin for remittances adds Chiu: “The challenge we have is that we pay a premium already to get the BTC, then when we need to make a transfer, the fees are high, which further impacts us.” Banks Barred from Cryptocurrency In countries like Zimbabwe, banks are barred from interacting with cryptocurrency exchanges. That leaves traders with the informal crypto markets as the only source for getting bitcoin. For their effort, informal dealers charge a premium on top of the going bitcoin price. The premium ranges between 5% and 10% and this is before adding the network transaction fee to the total cost. “(At the moment) fees of about $8 help to get a transaction approved (confirmed) quickly, or else, people can play the lottery and pay a lower fee and possibly wait 3 days for it to clear,” explains Chiu. This, therefore means the sending party will have to incur a minimum cost of $13 just to send bitcoin worth $100. Such costs make remitting funds via bitcoin less appealing when compared to traditional remitting channels. Newcomers to cryptocurrency Meanwhile, as Grey Jabesi, a founder at Crypto University and Buy Bitcoin Malawi argues, the bull market has had both positive and negative aspects to it. He explains the positive part first: “We are seeing increasing volumes from beginners that are in it for speculation but we also still see a steady growth of those that want cryptocurrency because it works for what they want to do.” Still, Jabesi admits the same bull market is making bitcoin less cost-effective for border remittances, the common use case for cryptocurrencies on the African continent. He ties the growing interest in alternative coins to BTC’s high network fees, as BTC’s fees rose as much as 550% last month. Opportunity for BCH “We are seeing a shift, by those that want to use cryptocurrency for legitimate reasons, from bitcoin to mainly bitcoin cash (BCH). In some cases, we also see interest in XRP.” According to Jabesi, BCH seems to be the preferred alternative because it is “not only cheaper and faster, but also because it is accepted as payment on many online retail market places.” Meanwhile, Maurice who insists that bitcoin remains king despite the high network fees, admits they are also looking to add BCH on the Yellowcard platform. Maurice explains: We get requests pretty often for BCH, and we’re actively working on listing it. BTC is still king, however, especially in Africa. I think even with the high fees right now it would take a large educational push around BCH to get people switching. Dash is also seeing growing interest by users that want faster and cheaper fees. According to the Dash leader in Nigeria, one platform Coinprofile.co has already added Dash to the list of supported coins. It would seem BCH, Dash and XRP are all poised to diminish BTC’s dominance in Africa, but as Maurice suggested, an educational campaign has to accompany any marketing push. Success on this front will help these cheaper and faster alternatives to get more from this growing market. Will the high network fees help the cause of alternatives to BTC? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. The post High Fees Make BTC Less Appealing for Remittances in Africa: ‘Pray Blocks Happen Quickly’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

An Australian hacker who stole 100,000 units of the XRP cryptocurrency has been sentenced to a maximum of two years and three months in jail, local media reported. Kathryn Nguyen hacked the crypto account of a 56-year old man in January 2018. Working with an accomplice, the 25-year-old Sydney woman proceeded to change the two-factor authentication code to her own mobile phone number. According to Information Age, a local publication, this allowed Nguyen to transfer the victim’s XRP holdings – worth around $300,000 at the time – onto a Chinese exchange where she converted the funds to bitcoin (BTC) and later moved the coins into several wallets. Nguyen was eventually arrested sometime in 2018, with the Australian police seizing her computer, mobile phones and money. She was officially charged and pleaded guilty in August 2019. Only $9,000 was recovered by Chinese authorities. At the time of the hack, each XRP token traded for $2.84. Today, the stolen assets are worth just $30,000 following XRP’s crash to $0.30. Nguyen is the first person to be charged and jailed for cryptocurrency theft in Australia, the report said. In passing sentence, Judge Chris Craigie said the crime was “out of character” for Nguyen and that her “moral judgment was distorted” at the time. “A common thread was the offender’s willingness to help others,” Craigie stated. “This takes on a different meaning in her willingly participating and assisting in a criminal enterprise,” he added. Police investigated Nguyen for about a year following a report by the victim that he had been locked out of his account. However, “the reporting rate for cyber-related crimes (in Australia) is very low,” police said. According to Ciphertrace, loss from cryptocurrency theft, hacks, and fraud amounted to more than $1.4 billion between Jan. to May 2020 alone. The crypto intelligence firm expects the number to rise to $4.5 billion by year-end. What do you think about Kathryn Nguyen’s crypto theft and eventually sentencing? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Australian Woman Jailed Two Years for Stealing $300,000 Worth of XRP appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Hackers are stealing bitcoin through the large-scale use of malicious relays on the Tor network according to a newly published research report on the subject. The researcher dubbed “nusenu” said he warned people about the growing problem in December 2019 but instead of improving Tor exit relay activity “things have become even worse,” he stressed. Malicious entities have made visitors of the anonymous communications protocol the Tor network vulnerable to attacks. Tor is a browser and open-source software that directs a person’s web traffic in an obfuscated fashion in order to circumvent traffic analysis and network surveillance. A great number of bitcoiners and cryptocurrency advocates leverage the Tor network to surf the web with anonymity but also to leverage darknet markets and coin mixers. Even Satoshi Nakamoto recommended the use of Tor while sending transactions for added privacy. On February 2, 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto said: You could use Tor if you don’t want anyone to know you’re even using Bitcoin. The research analysis from the investigator “nusenu” says “23% of the Tor network’s exit capacity has been attacking Tor users.” Of course, the hackers are focused on making money and they have utilized bitcoin address rewriting attacks. “What ISPs did the attacker use? Mostly OVH and FranTech Solutions. Graph by nusenu (raw data source: https://metrics.torproject.org/onionoo.html)” Essentially, the person sending the coin will unknowingly send the crypto asset to a different address controlled by the hackers rather than sending it to the intended destination. Nusenu detailed that bitcoin address rewriting attacks have been happening for a long time now but the scale of the operation has swelled. “It appears that they are primarily after cryptocurrency-related websites—namely multiple bitcoin mixer services. They replaced bitcoin addresses in HTTP traffic to redirect transactions to their wallets instead of the user-provided bitcoin address,” the researcher said in the blog post published on August 9. The news has shaken the crypto community, as discussions concerning the subject are littered all over social media and forums. One Redditor attributed the problems to the recent Mozilla layoff as the company let go 250 people. “And Mozilla just laid off their security vulnerability staff. Speculated to impact Tor Browser security into the future,” the Redditor said. Nusenu did discuss the certain layoffs in his blog post that were attributed to the recent Covid-19 outbreak. “After the blog post from December 2019 the Tor Project had some promising plans for 2020 with a dedicated person to drive improvements in this area, but due to the recent COVID19 related layoffs that person got assigned to another area,” nusenu said. “In addition to that, Tor directory authorities apparently are no longer removing relays they used to remove since 2020–06–26.” It’s safe to say that most crypto advocates and bitcoiners understand the risks associated with Tor, as many believe while the network provides privacy it is also a honeypot filled with malicious behavior and law enforcement. It’s also fair to say that bitcoiners will likely play it safer after hearing that close to a quarter of the Tor exit relays may be compromised. What do you think about the recent Tor exit relay revelations and the bitcoin address rewriting attacks? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin Users Leery of Tor: 23% of the Network’s Exit Capacity Compromised appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

A new yield farming project is all the rage this week, as the Yam Finance project saw over $460 million dollars locked into the platform in 17 hours on Tuesday. On social media and crypto-focused forums, people have been very skeptical of the Yam Finance project as the code has not been audited. On Wednesday afternoon Yam Finance developers revealed a bug in the smart contract and after the announcement, the project’s token tumbled in value. At the time of publication, many digital currency advocates are talking about a new decentralized finance (defi) project called Yam Finance. The protocol combines a number of defi applications like an elastic supply inspired by Ampleforth, fair distribution similar to Yearn Finance, and onchain governance that’s comparable to Compound Finance. Yam is an “experimental protocol mashing up some of the most exciting innovations in programmable money and governance,” explains the project’s blog post published on Tuesday. “The future will be entirely controlled by the community of YAM holders. Again, YAM holds zero inherent value; any value which might accrue would be an entirely emergent property of the community that takes control,” explains the Yam team. “This community of YAM holders will determine and update the functionality of the Yam protocol, including oracle usage, rebase functionality, inflation, incentive design, the Yam treasury, and more.” The Yam Finance project TVL at 12:30 p.m. ET or 19 hours after the launch. So far, the Yam Finance project has seen a lot of demand, and swarms of investors have rushed toward the project. In the first six hours the total-value-locked (TVL) into the Yam Finance system was around $170 million. 17 hours later, the analytics website yam.zippo.io had shown Yam Finance had over $460 million TVL. The web portal says the pools “only harvested 106,207 YAM out of the 2,000,000 YAM allocated for Wave 1.” After the project saw all that money flow into it, the project was the talk of the town on crypto Twitter. Bitmex founder Arthur Hayes seemed excited when he tweeted: “I’m a farmer now. Long live the defi bull market.” Other crypto observers have not been impressed by the Yam Finance project, as many skeptics have complained that the codebase was not audited. Yam Finance saw $500 million in total value locked on Wednesday afternoon, but after 2 p.m. the developers found a bug which led to a discrepancy with the YAM supply growth. Following the announcement on Twitter, the price of YAM shuddered in value. One person’s popular tweet said: “For the sake of the industry, I think we should immediately crowdfund an audit on YAM right now.” Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees said the Yam Finance project resembled a “scam.” “Yam looks like a scam… or to be more charitable, fairly transparent pump and dump nonsense,” Voorhees tweeted. “Projects like this are not going to be good for defi… What am I missing? Are the buyers willing participants in a silly game, or are people alleging actual value?” Of course, Voorhees’s opinion wasn’t appreciated by all the Yam Finance fans out there, as one person called his tweet a “bad take” and asked the Shapeshift founder if he tried it. “Bad take? I’m asking to be educated here,” Voorhees responded. “Not gonna try it until I understand it. What are you seeing that I’m not?” However, the individual never responded back and another person decided to answer the Shapeshift founder’s question. “Since no one will actually answer…YFI…YAM…and other YFI forks are essentially automating yield farming which itself is essentially arbitrage of prices and yields based on borrow and lending rates,” Allen Hena said to Voorhees. “These are market inefficiencies that will get flattened out in time. Taking it a step further, this automation will evolve to target other market inefficiencies in the future to return yield to holders of said coins and/or offer governance/voting input on the next steps for each dapp (e.g. YFI vaults, YAM deposits, etc),” Hena added. The YAM Finance project TVL as of 5:30 p.m. ET. Many people thought the amount of funds that were locked into Yam Finance was “mind-boggling” even though it didn’t have an audit. “Some projects have an audit and exit scam. It’s the wild wild west in here,” explained the Chocolate Maker. Another person wrote: “This has been hands down the most bizarre day in all of defi. Yam Finance has gone from $0 to $170M TVL in six hours, fueled by degens who deposited into a protocol with no security audit that was built in just ten days,” the person stressed on Twitter. “Yes I am farming the hell out of it,” he added. Meanwhile, a touch after 2 p.m. ET, the Yam finance Twitter handle announced a bug in the smart contract that affected the rebasing contract. “All funds in the staking contract are safe, as this is an unrelated part of the protocol,” the team tweeted. “User YAM balances are also unaffected.” While this conundrum happened, the token value of YAM plummeted significantly in value and a few crypto supporters taunted the team. Still, according to onchain analytics, the project has a whopping $522 million in TVL at the time of publication. What do you think about the Yam Finance project raising $460 million in 17 hours? Let us know what you think about this story in the comments below. The post Defi Project Yam Finance Sees Over $500M Locked in 24 Hours, Devs Reveal Contract Bug appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The prices of bitcoin and gold have reached a monthly average correlation of 70%, an all-time-high, according to data analytics firm Skew. The previous peak of just under 60% was reached earlier on in the second quarter of 2020. Skew said the rising correlation supports the idea that bitcoin (BTC) is a store of value, particularly at a time of economic turmoil. “Bitcoin/Gold 1 month correlation reaching new all-time highs, giving momentum to the store-of-value narrative for BTC in these ‘money printer go brrr’ times,” the London-based company said, in a tweet. Both bitcoin and gold have risen sharply throughout 2020, driven by relentless fiat money printing by governments and central banks, keen to keep their economies afloat in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. BTC hit a yearly high of $12,000 just as gold soared to a record high of $2,000 per ounce. However, both assets dropped significantly on Tuesday after Russia announced it had approved a vaccine for the deadly coronavirus. Bitcoin fell more than 3.9% to as low as $11,200 while gold tanked 4.7% to $1,932, its biggest one-day crash in seven years – a dual decline which would indicate the correlation. As the markets sank, Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki observed that the decline in prices may be a time for “speculators” to sell and for “investors” to buy hard assets. “Real problem is massive debt and weak economy. Fed must print. I am an investor. Great time to buy more gold, silver and bitcoin,” he told his 1.4 million followers on Twitter. The damage to world economies caused by Covid-19 is prompting governments to dole trillions of dollars in economic stimulus – and, therefore, causing safe haven assets to appreciate in value, as the dominant US dollar declines. The dollar is down around 3% year-to-date. In an earlier report, Bloomberg forecast that bitcoin will mature into a gold-like store of value in 2020. It said with its correlation to gold jumping to all-time highs, BTC is poised to transition from a risk-on speculative asset to the crypto market’s version of the metal. As digital gold, BTC appeals to the cashless internet economy largely on account of its characteristics that include round-the-clock price transparency, and the lack of limits, interruptions or third-party oversight, noted Bloomberg. What do you think about the bitcoin and gold correlation rate reaching a record high? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Bitcoin and Gold Correlation Reaches Record High 70% appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Russia is reportedly developing a system using artificial intelligence to track and analyze transactions involving cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, dash, and monero. The system prototype has already been created and is currently being tested. This news followed the signing of crypto regulation into law by President Vladimir Putin. Russian Crypto Monitoring System The Russian government is planning a new system to track bitcoin transactions, local media RBC reported Monday, citing a letter to Parshin Maxim Viktorovich, Deputy Minister of Russia’s Digital Development, Communications and Mass Media. The letter, which it has seen, describes a plan for the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of the Russian Federation (Rosfinmonitoring) to monitor cryptocurrency transactions. Rosfinmonitoring is tasked with collecting and analyzing financial transactions to combat domestic and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. According to the letter: Rosfinmonitoring plans to develop a system for analyzing cryptocurrency transactions using artificial intelligence (AI). The project, called “Transparent Blockchain,” will “partially remove the anonymity of participants in transactions with cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Omni, Dash, and Monero systems,” the letter reportedly notes. The authorities, the Bank of Russia, and financial organizations will be able to use the system to monitor and analyze the movement of cryptocurrencies, identify service providers, and conduct investigations related to their illegal circulation. The letter also details an “urgent need” for Rosfinmonitoring to monitor crypto transactions to give the government control over the circulation of cryptocurrencies. This is to prevent crypto assets from being used in “illegal schemes,” it adds, giving some examples of “drug trafficking, tax evasion, cybercrimes, contract killings, sale of information from closed databases, [and] financing of extremism.” Furthermore, Nikita Kulikov, member of the State Duma’s expert council and founder of Pravorobotov Autonomous Non-Profit Organization, noted that Rosfinmonitoring plans to create an AI to “monitor the entire internet in search of illegal actions with crypto assets,” such as signs of money laundering and terrorist financing. The prototype of this system has already been created and tested in the field of drug trafficking control, the letter details. It was developed by the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, one of the leading Russian research institutes specializing in physics. The Ministry of Internal Affairs became acquainted with this prototype and got interested in its use, the letter elaborates. So far, the system has been developed without federal funding. However, to take it to the next level and provide it as a governmental service, preliminary data suggests that the project will require 760 million rubles ($10.33 million) from the federal budget: 440 million rubles this year, 230 million rubles next year and 90 million rubles in 2023. A law regulating cryptocurrencies in Russia has recently been signed by Putin. It provides cryptocurrency with a legal framework but prohibits its use for payments. What do you think about Russia developing a crypto monitoring system? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Russia Developing AI System to Monitor Cryptocurrency Transactions — Prototype Now in Use appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

As the world’s leading regulatory compliant digital asset exchange, Coinbase sets one of the most stringent requirements for digital asset listing which includes technical evaluation of projects, legal and risk analysis, market supply and demand analysis, and crypto-economics. Coinbase holds a strong reputation in the digital asset industry, and thus the “Coinbase Standard” is considered as the industry benchmark for other digital asset projects, and the market has even seen the “Coinbase effect”. On July 25 2020, Coinbase quietly launched the pricing chart of a decentralized oracle project, NEST Protocol (NEST), into its portal. Although Coinbase has yet to announce the inclusion of the project in its evaluation list, it represents a keen interest in the DeFi sector, and particularly in the DeFi price oracle projects. NEST Protocol is the rising star in the decentralized price oracle sector Decentralized financial services offered by the current mainstream DeFi platforms such as MakerDAO, Compound, dYdX, etc. rely heavily on the market data provided by the oracle projects. Oracle projects act as reliable information sources to feed these price data to other DeFi Projects, connecting the price data from the centralized world to the DeFi space. As such, the price oracle is an integral part of the decentralized financial services infrastructure. Traditionally, the price oracle collects data from different platforms and feeds these data points to the DeFi space to create data reference points to enable them to function properly. However, many problems currently exist in the DeFi space, for example, blockchain network congestion, malicious attacks, wild market fluctuations, and other factors that may cause the data given by the price oracle to deviate from the true market data. These ultimately cause users to trade on wrong information in the DeFi space and increases such transaction costs. Decentralized finance requires a fast, secure, and reliable price oracle. The birth of the decentralized price oracle is the embodiment of the blockchain industry’s thinking, and the current market projects offering decentralized price oracle services which includes NEST Protocol, Chainlink, Band Protocol, Tellor, Witness, Oraclize, and many others. The innovation of NEST-Price is that every data point has been agreed upon by market validators, in line with the blockchain consensus mechanism. NEST-Price synchronizes the off-chain price in a highly decentralized manner, creating real and valid price data on-chain. This is the unique differentiator between NEST-Price and other price oracles. Compared with other price oracle projects, NEST also has other features and advantages, such as the proposed peer-to-peer quotation matching as well as its unique verifier verification structure, making NEST more resilient to malicious attacks, resulting in a more decentralized network, and it’s on-chain prices closer to the fair market price. All of this has resulted in the NEST Protocol becoming a rising star in the DeFi price oracle sector. HBTC.com selects high-quality projects to list and partnering with NEST to promote the development of DeFi ecosystem During the selection of quality assets, exchanges like HBTC.com and Coinbase adhere to the principle of a rigorous selection of assets from different projects to enable a proper range of digital assets. At the same time, in order to solve existing pain points in the digital asset industry, which currently lacks a market-making management solution, HBTC.com also has launched its own “coin listing crowdsourcing liquidity initiative “, redefining the exchange market making model. HBTC.com, through its coin listing strategy, effectively reduces the problem of low liquidity in the early stages of high-quality projects, ensuring the smoothness of the user experience, and achieves a win-win situation for traders, the community, and the respective trading platform. These initiatives, coupled with reliable user protection and a responsible attitude, have earned a positive reputation among users. Since its inception, the HBTC.com exchange has been committed to the discovery of both quality and promising digital asset projects. At a time when DeFi is growing rapidly, HBTC.com has a unique perspective for the decentralized price oracle sector and has prioritized NEST as a premium partner to debut the project alongside with its global branding upgrade. In addition, HBTC.com has 100% proof of reserves for traders to validate the existence of assets via the Merkle tree, which brings transparency to the extreme. In May 2020, NEST token delivered a 883.29% of return, at its peak, after its global debut on HBTC.com. At present, HBTC Exchange addresses holding NEST token accounts in a total of 141 million, ranked first in the overall network. At the same time, the HBTC Exchange network exclusively releases NEST staking mining and data show that NEST 24-hour turnover has reached $20.4 million. Post-listing of the NEST token, HBTC.com has also listed DeFi projects such as DF, OKS, NEST, SWTH, JST, NVT, and other DeFi projects with market potential; some projects have achieved astonishing performance in the secondary market. HBTC.com’s path to DeFi: developing public chains to prepare for the future ecosystem breakout. In terms of the DeFi product and ecosystem infrastructure, HBTC has deployed HBTC Chain since launched in 2018, an infrastructure designed for decentralized finance and DeFi business with patented Bluehelix decentralized cross-chain clearing and custody technology. The HBTC Chain is the DeFi ecosystem infrastructure that the team has spent a significant amount of effort to build. It is based on decentralization and community consensus and integrates cryptography and blockchain technologies to support decentralized association-based governance capabilities at the technical level. Based on decentralized key management, combining various cryptography tools including ECDSA, commitment, zero-knowledge proof, and multi-party computation, It implements the distributed private key generation and signature for cross-chain assets among all validators. On top of that, this technology can realize light-weight and non-intrusive cross-chain asset custody. On the clearing layer, HBTC Chain employs BHPOS consensus and horizontal sharding mechanisms to achieve high-performing transaction clearing, and implementation of OpenDex protocol to help the development of the DeFi ecosystem. In addition, with the success experience of Bluehelix Cloud SaaS and white label solutions and the HBTC Brokerage system, HBTC’s public chain also innovatively supports CEX+DEX mixed matchmaking model and OpenDex protocol and proposes the three-tier node system which consists of standard node + consensus node + core node. This structure provides HBTC public chain certain advantages in terms of performance and cross-chain transactions. Users can easily establish a DEX with OpenDex protocol at nearly zero cost, and all DEX will share the liquidity and support customized user interface and trading parameters. The trading experience can be completely comparable to centralized spot exchanges. With the launch of its test network, it is now possible to develop various DeFi applications on the HBTC public chain, such as decentralized swap, so that private keys are not controlled by any party; no KYC, which can prevent personal information leakage; and asset security through the setting of invalidation, cancellation of transactions and other functions, cross-chain asset mappings, such as the ability to issue cross-chain cBTC or other chain tokens, fully decentralized asset mapping contracts, and 100% reserves. Conclusion In the past few months, the DeFi market has been extremely active, the price of DeFi tokens has been rising, and a new round of competition with the centralized exchanges has started. HBTC Chain relies on the powerful technology of Bluehelix and HBTC.com, giving all public chains the ability to interconnect, and put into both DeFi and SaaS levels. Undoubtedly, as one of the first exchanges to build the DeFi ecosystem, HBTC is leading the breakout in the current DeFi craze and has now become the first choice of users to engage with quality DeFi projects. Contact Email Address globalbd@hbtc.com Supporting Link http://hbtc.com This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Building the Infrastructure for the Future Decentralized Financial Market, Coinbase Included HBTC.Com Debut DeFi Project – Nest Protocol appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This week cryptocurrency proponents discussed the firm Grayscale Investments, as the firm purchased 9,702 bitcoins (over $110 million) in the past five days. The news follows Grayscale informing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that the Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) grew over $1.6 billion in 2020. Last Friday, Grayscale Investments filed a quarterly report with the SEC detailing that the firm’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has increased significantly in value. The filing notes that the trust increased in value by over $1.1 billion as of June 30, 2020, from over 125,000 BTC to 387,000 BTC. June 30 exchange rates show the company’s assets under management (AUM) were valued at $3.5 billion. “The Trust determined the fair value per Bitcoin to be $9,134.09 and $7,145.00 on June 30, 2020,” explains the SEC filing. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust SEC filing on August 7, 2020. In addition to the recent SEC filing, crypto observers have watched Grayscale obtain a massive amount of bitcoin (BTC) during the last five days. On Reddit, an observer explained that Grayscale purchased 5,973 BTC (over $68 million) a few days ago. After that purchase, the crypto enthusiast noticed the company obtained another 3,729 bitcoins ($42 million) two days after the $68 million purchase. The recent purchases add 9,702 bitcoins ($110 million) to the trust’s stash, which indicates Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust is a whopping 401,385 BTC (AUM) or $4.6 billion using today’s exchange rates. Of course, the discussion on Reddit about Grayscale’s recent purchases spurred a lot of speculation. A number of bitcoiners couldn’t agree on how the crypto assets were actually purchased. “Judging by the lack of impact on the price, I’m going to guess they bought a cash-settled futures contract rather than actual bitcoins,” one Redditor wrote. A few other individuals were in complete disbelief that Grayscale bought that many coins, as it didn’t seem to affect spot market prices. Most people attributed Grayscale’s purchasing to over-the-counter methods. “It’s done OTC, with multiple brokers taking their time to carefully procure the coins needed from multiple markets,” exclaimed one bitcoiner commenting on the subject. The $100 million Grayscale BTC purchase follows the recent announcement from Microstrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR). The $1.33 billion intelligence company Microstrategy revealed it purchased 21,454 (BTC) for it’s “new capital allocation strategy.” What do you think about Grayscale buying 9,702 bitcoins? Let us know in the comments section below. The post $4.6 Billion Under Management: Grayscale Purchased Over $100M Worth of Bitcoins Last Week appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

ChangeNOW is happy to announce the integration with LocalCryptos – the world’s most popular non-custodial peer-to-peer crypto marketplace! From now on, LocalCryptos users can swap cryptocurrencies right inside its built-in non-custodial crypto wallet. To perform the desired trade in a different cryptocurrency, you don’t have to waste your time looking where to swap your crypto anymore. LocalCryptos has a built-in non-custodial web wallet supporting multiple cryptocurrencies. Within this wallet, users will now see a new “Swap” feature. Simply select the pair and set the amount, and your crypto will be sent to ChangeNOW to be converted. The swapped total will land back in your LocalCryptos wallet in the desired crypto. Note that all exchanges are limitless – the minimum amount for swapping is less than the cost of chewing gum ($2, for anyone interested), and for the maximum, the sky’s the limit. Rest assured that your exchange will be performed at the best rate possible – ChangeNOW’s algorithms constantly monitor several largest exchanges on the market for the best deals. ChangeNOW is famous in the crypto space for its blazing exchange speed: most exchanges take less than 5 minutes of your precious time. You don’t have to give us any more info in addition to the sign-up data that you provide to LocalCryptos during the registration – everything’s already set up and ready to go. Don’t worry about any security or privacy breaches: ChangeNOW’s got you covered. LocalCryptos is a platform where you can trade crypto with peers from 100+ countries directly. Say, to buy some Ether, you need to choose a seller who offers rates and payment methods suitable for you, and then make the deal in 4 simple steps. LocalCryptos protects your money in this process – the seller’s funds are locked in the escrow smart contract before you pay. We hope that you will enjoy the new exchange feature integrated into LocalCrypto’s wallet. Partnering with LocalCryptos is a big step for ChangeNOW – here’s to hoping it’s a big opportunity for you. Any feedback is welcome! Try LocalCryptos&ChangeNOW! This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post LocalCryptos Integrates Inbuilt Crypto-To-Crypto Exchanges, Powered by ChangeNOW appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

On August 11, 2020, the Electron Cash developer Jonald Fyookball announced that Cashfusion tiers have been expanded to allow 10x bigger coins to be fused. The announcement got the Bitcoin Cash community excited to “fuse with whales,” as the increase has been upped from 0.82 BCH to 8.2 BCH. Cashfusion is a type of coin mixing service, offering wallet providers and others a way to join coins together for increased privacy. The developer behind the Electron Cash (EC) wallet Jonald Fyookball had an important announcement for the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) community on Tuesday. According to the software engineer, the Cashfusion application’s tiers have been expanded. Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com reported on Cashfusion completing a security audit from the firm Kudelski Security. After the audit, Fyookball revealed the review was finished and said the Cashfusion protocol “passed, mostly with flying colors.” When the audit was complete, Calin Culianu launched the Electron Cash wallet version 4.1.0 with Cashfusion. This week Fyookball explained that the expansion of tiers will allow “10x bigger coins to be fused.” “The previous largest tier was 0.82 BCH,” Fyookball highlighted. “It is now 8.2 BCH. That means individual coins (UTXOs) of size “in the ballpark” of 8.2 (could be 10, 20, or even 30 or more BCH etc) can be used as part of fusions. This basically means larger wallets can start fusioning.” The developer added: This is a fusion server setting so there is no need to download a new wallet version. Soon we will make changes to the client-side to fuzz the fees slightly more for these larger tiers to ensure max privacy. Of course, the BCH community was thrilled with the increase, and a number of supporters said that the EC team did a “great job.” Other BCH fans were excited to start “fusing with whales.” One Reddit user detailed how he fired up his Electron Cash wallet and “[the protocol] immediately made a much larger fusion round.” The user linked his fused transaction in the Reddit post for everyone to see the fuse. Today, according to data analytics, Cashfusion has been used for 10,266 fusions since November 2019. There’s been $44.3 million at today’s exchange rate or 155,814 BCH fused since then as well. Meanwhile, people are still leveraging Cashshuffle as well and there have been 59,895 shuffles since March 2019. 270,582 bitcoin cash (BCH) has been shuffled since then which is equivalent to $77 million USD. People are still shuffling a lot of coins on Cashshuffle Saturdays and now with the Cashfusion tier expansion Cashfusion Fridays will likely see a boost. The last few fused transactions according to data analytics show fusions with upwards of 108, 174, and 202 BCH or well over a half of a million dollars in bitcoin cash. What do you think about Cashfusion’s increased tiers? Let us know what you think in the comments below. The post Fusing With Whales: Cashfusion Privacy Mixing Expands Allowing 10x Bigger Coins appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

ATLANTA, GA – August 10, 2020 – Ternio’s ERC-20 payment token TERN, has been listed by global cryptocurrency exchange, Bibox. This news comes two months after Ternio’s announcement that they would be burning ten percent of the TERN supply, previously hosted on the Stellar Network, and making it available as an ERC-20 asset. Since the Ethereum based coins were first migrated in June, they have been listed on Idex and Uniswap, but the listing of TERN on Bibox marks the first adoption by a major crypto exchange. As of Wednesday, August 12, 2020 users will be able to purchase and trade TERN on Bibox. “Our ultimate goal is to drive adoption of TERN and usage of Ternio products like BlockCard, and adding TERN to exchanges like Bibox goes a long way in promoting the Ternio brand. This is what we envisioned when we made an ERC-20 version of TERN available earlier this year. Bibox will help us improve our company’s visibility and with our products reaching Asia Pacific by the end of the year, the timing couldn’t be better.” -Ian Kane, COO & Founder, TERNIO Ternio’s decision to migrate 100,000,000 TERN to the Ethereum blockchain was based on expanding the asset’s availability. With over 100 million wallets, the Ethereum blockchain is the second largest by market cap and provided the Ternio team with the opportunity to open up to a bigger community. While the Ternio platform was built on the Stellar Network, improving TERN’s ease-of-access continues to be a driving factor for the Ternio team. For users more familiar with the original token, the Stellar and ERC-20 versions of TERN will function interoperably on the Blockcard platform in the future, with the option to choose which version you want to use. TERN was created to be the payment token on all of Ternio’s products, which can be whitelabeled by any company interested in being its own bank and offering products like crypto debit cards and bank accounts. Ternio’s own platform, Blockcard, serves as a use-case for their ever expanding suite of products. Currently users can register for a BlockCard to easily spend the cryptocurrency of their choice and the recent release of Bank Accounts make it easy for users to move and and out of crypto seamlessly. Ternio is continuing to focus on accessibility and opening up to larger markets. The Blockcard platform aims to provide true crypto friendly banking services and has plans to release their crypto debit card and bank accounts in APAC by the end of 2020. ### About BlockCard BlockCard allows people to buy what they want with crypto at over 50 million merchants worldwide. The BlockCard platform is more than just a crypto debit card. It’s an evolving suite of tools that makes it easier, faster, and more convenient for users to purchase cryptocurrency and use it in their daily life. Today, the BlockCard debit card is the most efficient way to make a purchase with crypto or convert crypto to cash at ATMs. Within minutes a user can create a BlockCard account, deposit 12+ cryptocurrencies in 1 transaction, pass KYC, and immediately get a virtual card to use while a physical card is mailed to them. https://getblockcard.com/ About Ternio: Ternio is a global fintech platform built on blockchain. Ternio’s platform connects traditional enterprise, fintech, banking, systems with blockchain infrastructure giving real world utility to digital assets. Our products, like BlockCard, enable instant remittance and the transfer of value on blockchain rails in a compliant and regulated environment. https://ternio.io/ Ternio P​ress and Media Assets Contact: m​arketing@ternio.io This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release. The post Ternio’s ERC-20 TERN Token Listed On Global Crypto Exchange Bibox appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Kazakhstan has proposed legislation that would see a 15% tax imposed on bitcoin mining firms. This is part of efforts to raise money to help with the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Proposed by the country’s Ministry of Economy, the new tax plan requires bitcoin (BTC) miners to first file an application for registration with the authorities, according to a recent report by a local Russian publication. After this, the taxpayer must then indicate the 15% tax on their annual tax calculations. The report notes that “the clause on registration makes the bill unique… the taxpayer working with cryptocurrencies stands apart from the very beginning of filing a tax return.” Funds raised from the draft tax will be channeled toward building the infrastructure that is needed to combat Covid-19 while also giving the economy a boost. The disease has so far killed nearly 1,300 Kazakhs, with more than 100,000 infected, official data shows. Kazakhstan, a former Soviet state in central Asia, accounts for about 8% of the global bitcoin hashrate total, says crypto research company Bitooda. Together with Iran and Russia, the country boasts the world’s third-largest BTC mining industry. Miners are typically drawn to Kazakhstan’s cheap electricity, which averages 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. In June, the Kazakh Minister of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, Askar Zhumagaliyev, revealed that a total of 14 bitcoin mining companies were operating in the country’s north. Over the next three years, the country is targeting up to $738 million of investment from crypto-related activities, particularly mining, he said. According to the Russian publication, the Kazakh government is also planning to introduce legislation to regulate the cryptocurrency industry. The new laws are expected to set new electricity tariffs for the crypto mining sector. What do you think about Kazakhstan’s planned crypto mining tax? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Kazakhstan Proposes 15% Tax on Bitcoin Mining to Help Combat Coronavirus appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

This year due to the coronavirus outbreak the world-famous hackers’ convention Defcon held it’s 28th annual event with virtual presentations in “safe mode.” One of the presentations was from an executive from Pyrofex, Michael Stay, who discussed how he broke into an encrypted file to liberate $300,000 worth of bitcoin for a Russian investor. Defcon 28 “safe mode” presentations got interesting on August 5, when ex-Google employee Mike Stay told a story about how he rescued $300k worth of bitcoin (BTC) from an encrypted zip file. Stay is the CTO of Pyrofex Corp, a blockchain development firm that launched in 2016. During a speech last Wednesday, May told the story of how he was contacted not too long ago, so he could help someone retrieve their crypto assets. “About six months ago, a Russian guy contacted me on Linkedin with an intriguing offer,” May said on Youtube. “He had hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin keys locked in a zip file, and he couldn’t remember the password. Could I break into it for him?” The story Stay told was quite intriguing, as the anonymous Russian investor wanted access to the bitcoins worth roughly $300,000. Stay said the anonymous client found his name when he stumbled upon an old cryptanalysis paper he wrote 20 years ago. The cryptographer also explained that the Russian purchased all the coins in 2016 for around $10k. However, the investor put the bitcoin into an encrypted zip file and after some time passed, he forgot his password. “In that attack, I needed five files to break into a zip archive,” Stay recalled. “This one only had two files in it. Was it possible? How much would it cost? We had to modify my old attack with some new cryptanalytic techniques and rent a GPU farm, but we pulled it off.” According to the cryptographer it cost him around $7k to pull off the attack against the encrypted zip file. Stay said that he also had help from the CEO of Pyrofex Nash Foster who is also an ex-Google employee. Stay detailed that he built his own program to try different password techniques and at first the job was very difficult. The Pyrofex CTO stated that at first the Russian investor was leery of trusting Stay, and he wouldn’t divulge too much information. Stay said the entire process could have taken a very long time and even months to accomplish. However, with the help of Foster, Stay said the operation was executed in days. The story is interesting because there is likely a great number of people who have lost bitcoins via an encrypted file and forgot the password. With digital assets growing more valuable every day, it’s likely that individuals who think they have lost coins, may still attempt to retrieve them with help from an expert. A study from Chainalysis in 2018 suggests that a fifth or 20% of all bitcoins that exist can potentially never be recovered or are considered lost. Coin Metrics published a study in 2019 that said “assumed lost coins” was around 1.5 million BTC. What do you think about Mike Stay’s story about retrieving $300k in bitcoin from an encrypted file? Let us know what you think about this story in the comments below. The post Defcon Speaker Discusses Liberating $300K Worth of Bitcoin From an Encrypted File appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

During the last two years investment vehicles that allow crypto asset holders to gather yields have grown exponentially and anyone can make passive income with a number of avenues. Staking validators, decentralized finance (defi) lending services, and interest rate earning accounts provide digital currency holders with the means to make their money work for them. Crypto Earning and Passive Income Crypto assets are an investment in the future of money, and many people have made millions and even billions by simply trading or holding for very long periods of time. Today there are 5,700 crypto assets in existence, and people can make money off of a great majority of them by leveraging staking validators or wallets, storing digital currencies with custodians that pay interest, and accumulating yields off of certain defi lending applications. The data and analytics web portal stakingrewards.com offers insight into over 666 providers that offer staking and earning services that accrue interest. Staking Validators and Wallets Staking providers are investment platforms that allow users to stake proof-of-stake (PoS) coins and the platform pays all of its users on a weekly or monthly basis. A decent number of staking validators take a fee for processing the PoS payouts. A few wallets also offer PoS staking services too, as users can simply store their coins within the client and gain staking yields. Staking providers include platforms like Mycointainer, Staked, Just Mining, Hashquark, Figment Networks, Everstake, Infstones, and more. Staking yields are variable and depend on the coins staked, but users can take in anywhere between 1-100% in staking yields. Staking services include Hashquark, Staked, Mycointainer, Infstones, Just Mining, Everstake, Figment Networks, Stake Fish, SNZ Pool, Stake Cube, MXC, Hotbit, and Stakin. For instance, Hashquark users can stake coins like dash, cosmos, irisnet, qtum, tezos. As mentioned above each coin has a different earning rate. Cosmos can net people up to 8.09% on the Hashquark platform, while tezos offers up to 5.5%. People interested in staking can also leverage wallets that also stake PoS coins as well. Wallets like Cake Defi, Atomic Wallet, Chainode Tech, Math Wallet, and Gaurda Wallet. Atomic Wallet offers the most supported coins today, as the platform supports assets like tron, cosmos, tezos, neo, vechain, algorand, komodo, and band. Of course, the Band Protocol has been doing well price-wise, and the underlying band asset can yield over 17% today with Atomic Wallet. Staking wallets include Atomic Wallet, Guarda Wallet, Atomex, Math Wallet, Chainode Tech, and Cake Defi. Custodial Interest Bearing Accounts and Decentralized Finance Additionally, digital currency holders can leverage defi platforms and custodial interest-bearing accounts on exchanges in order to obtain passive income as well. Defi applications have been all the rage these days and platforms like Aave, Nuo Network, Compound, Dydx, and more are leveraged daily by crypto investors so they can accrue interest. The Aave platform. For example, Aave allows people to earn 0.02% to 4.92%. Aave supports 15 different digital assets like USDC, ETH, DAI, REP, LINK, TUSD, and others. The defi application Ddex offers 0.10% to 14.45% for assets like bitcoin (BTC), tether (USDT), and DAI. Across the universe of defi platforms, exchanges, and custodial providers, stablecoins are the hottest commodity right now. Stablecoins like DAI, USDT, and USDC offer much higher yields these days because of the demand. Defi apps like Nuo Network, Aave, Bzx, Compound, and Ddex. A number of well known exchanges, earning services, and custodians offer interest-bearing accounts for nearly every digital asset under the sun. People can earn up to 8% p.a. interest by leveraging Crypto.com and the platform claims to offer up to 12% for stablecoins. Crypto.com’s earn program. Blockfi customers can earn 8.6% annually for their crypto holdings for coins like BTC, ETH, LTC, USDC, GUSD, and PAX. There’s no minimum balance required to earn interest using the Blockfi platform the company website notes. Blockfi allows investors to earn interest, borrow, and trade. The popular platform Cred allows people to earn monthly interest and users can also earn daily compound interest as well. Cred users can pledge coins like BCH, ETH, BTC, LINK, USDT, and a myriad of other crypto assets. There’s also a calculator on the Cred website which shows people how much they can earn depending on the program chosen. Cred offers support for a substantial number of coins and users can earn through different programs that offer monthly and daily compounded interest. For example, if a user pledged 50 bitcoin cash (BCH – over $14k) using the six-month program and chose “daily compounding” at 3%, the person could net $218 in daily compounded total interest. People interested in earning yields can visit the web portal stakingrewards.com which offers a calculator as well. Cred has over 60,000 customers throughout 196 countries and over $200 million in crypto assets pledged today. Crypto Earning and the Risks Involved Getting into staking coins, lending, and earning programs can add risk to the investment. Some of the aforementioned platforms above are exchanges and custodial services, so you do risk storing your assets with a third-party provider. Exchanges and custodial solutions can get hacked, lose funds, or go bankrupt. People can store PoS coins on a staking wallet in a noncustodial fashion, but they are still exposed to the crypto market price variances. Defi platforms are not perfect either and a lot of lending concepts could be crushed by a ‘black swan’ event like March 12, 2020. The Maker community, which is the most dominant defi platform as far as total value locked (TVL), suffered on ‘Black Thursday’ as millions of dollars worth of DAI were left under-collateralized. Despite some of the risks involved, the lending interest rates and compounded yields are much larger than today’s traditional banking services. Another great aspect is people are onboarded much faster in the crypto ecosystem than the traditional financial system. Individuals don’t need to go through a bank to access massive wealth, lend funds, or gather significant yields from any of these services. While most people store their crypto coins for long periods of time, many people will find value in putting their crypto to work by earning passive income. What do you think about all the platforms and services that allow people to make passive income just by storing their crypto assets? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. The post Passive Income via Digital Wealth: A Deep Dive Into Crypto Earning, Staking, Interest Bearing Accounts appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Nasdaq-listed company Microstrategy Inc. is bullish on bitcoin, saying that it is a “dependable store of value” that is “superior to cash.” The billion-dollar company has purchased $250 million in bitcoin, adopting the cryptocurrency as its primary treasury reserve. Public Company Now Holds Bitcoin as Cash Reserve Microstrategy Inc. (NASDAQ: MSTR), which describes itself as “the largest independent publicly-traded business intelligence company,” rocked the bitcoin community on Tuesday when it announced the adoption of bitcoin as its primary treasury reserve. The company’s market cap is currently about $1.33 billion. Microstrategy revealed that it has purchased 21,454 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $250 million, inclusive of fees and expenses. “Our investment in bitcoin is part of our new capital allocation strategy, which seeks to maximize long-term value for our shareholders,” CEO Michael J. Saylor said. “This investment reflects our belief that bitcoin, as the world’s most widely-adopted cryptocurrency, is a dependable store of value and an attractive investment asset with more long-term appreciation potential than holding cash,” the CEO acclaimed, adding: Microstrategy has recognized bitcoin as a legitimate investment asset that can be superior to cash and accordingly has made bitcoin the principal holding in its treasury reserve strategy. Saylor detailed that his company spent months determining its capital allocation strategy, considering macro factors such as “the economic and public health crisis precipitated by covid-19, unprecedented government financial stimulus measures including quantitative easing adopted around the world, and global political and economic uncertainty.” The company believes these factors and others “may well have a significant depreciating effect on the long-term real value of fiat currencies and many other conventional asset types.” Microstrategy stock price chart on Nasdaq as of Aug. 11. Source: Nasdaq As the company considered various asset classes, the CEO explained that his company “observed distinctive properties of bitcoin that led it to believe investing in the cryptocurrency would provide not only a reasonable hedge against inflation, but also the prospect of earning a higher return than other investments.” Recently, reports suggest that the Federal Reserve will soon commit to ramping up inflation by keeping interest rates low. Saylor conveyed: We find the global acceptance, brand recognition, ecosystem vitality, network dominance, architectural resilience, technical utility, and community ethos of bitcoin to be persuasive evidence of its superiority as an asset class for those seeking a long-term store of value. The CEO added: “Bitcoin is digital gold – harder, stronger, faster, and smarter than any money that has preceded it. We expect its value to accrete with advances in technology, expanding adoption, and the network effect that has fueled the rise of so many category killers in the modern era.” Mega Bullish News Microstrategy’s bitcoin adoption news is well received by the crypto community, viewing it as a mega bullish trend that eventually every public company will follow. The author of The Bitcoin Standard, Saifedean Ammous, wrote: “So it begins: Microstrategy is the first large corporation to hold bitcoin as a cash reserve asset.” Gabor Gurbacs, Director of Digital Assets Strategy at Vaneck and MVIS, shared the sentiment. He tweeted: “This is a big deal and good to see bitcoin used as intended: hard money/savings instrument.” Many other Twitter users chimed in. One believes that “Eventually every public company will do the same.” Another wrote, “Mass adoption is coming indeed.” A third user commented: This is insanely bullish. What company is next. Do you think other companies will follow Microstrategy? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Billion Dollar Public Company Microstrategy Moves $250 Million Into BTC, Says Bitcoin ‘Superior to Cash’ appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

Peru, India, Indonesia, and Nigeria are among the countries with the biggest increase in crypto wallet creation based on data from Blockchain.com, which has over 52 million wallets created by users worldwide. Nigeria has been the most trending country in recent months, with a 60% increase since April. Trending Countries in Crypto Space Blockchain.com revealed last week the most trending countries based on its web wallet creation. Currently, the total number of unique Blockchain wallets created is more than 52 million. “In July we saw a number of countries increase their fraction of total Blockchain wallet transactions, most notably Peru, India, and Indonesia,” the company described. Other countries that made the top 10 list of increased transactions are Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Japan, the Philippines, Venezuela, Bangladesh, and Bulgaria. “Japan is once again in the top 10, while Hong Kong and Morocco haven’t been as active in the past two months,” the firm continued. The top countries with a decrease in Blockchain wallet creation are South Korea, Denmark, Morocco, Dominican Republic, Hong Kong, Kenya, Moldova, Brazil, Vietnam, and the United Arab Emirates. List of trending countries by Blockchain.com. The firm’s data science team highlighted Nigeria as the most trending country since April, coinciding with Google search data which pointed to Nigeria as the country with the most relative interest in bitcoin. Blockchain.com provides a Bitcoin block explorer service, a cryptocurrency wallet, and an exchange supporting bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and ethereum. The team revealed: Nigeria has been the most trending country in recent months. It has increased by 60% its usage of Blockchain.com web wallet since April 2020. Last month, Nigerian media reported that the Ministry of Justice had tabled before the National Assembly the bills that will provide the legal framework for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, citing the country’s Attorney General, Abubakar Malami. “The expected bills will prepare Nigeria for emerging realities relating to digital cash, bitcoin and e-currency,” Malami was quoted as saying. News.Bitcoin.com recently reported that Nigeria led sub-Saharan Africa in peer-to-peer (P2P) bitcoin trading but the country is still laden with crypto scams. Meanwhile, India ranked second on Blockchain’s list of increased wallet creation but the country still does not have crypto regulation and there are reports of the government considering a ban on cryptocurrencies. Local lawyer Mohammed Danish explained that the “Supreme court judgment has helped big time in increasing the curiosity around crypto.” He added: “Even in legal fraternity I see lot of people taking huge interest. But this curiosity is of course limited to a certain age group.” Policy 4.0 CEO Tanvi Ratna commented on Blockchain’s data: Despite the uncertain regulatory climate, India ranks second in a global survey of rise in crypto usage for July vs June. What do you think about the crypto adoption growth in these countries? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Peru, India, Indonesia, Nigeria Among Countries With Highest Crypto Usage Increase appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

India’s largest mobile commerce platform Paytm has reportedly been freezing the bank accounts of users suspected of crypto trading, even though cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, is legal in India. The country still does not have a legal framework for cryptocurrencies but the government says that a crypto bill is “awaiting approval.” Banks Still Block Accounts Over Crypto Activities Paytm Payments Bank, which describes itself as India’s “largest digital bank with over 58 million account holders,” has reportedly been blocking customers’ accounts suspected of trading cryptocurrencies. Paytm is India’s largest mobile commerce platform with about 450 million registered users. The brand is owned by One97 Communications Ltd., founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma. Local Indian news outlet Coin Crunch reported Monday: Many users are reporting Paytm is freezing bank accounts of Paytm payments bank account holders with suspicion of crypto trading. The publication explained that Paytm offers INR wallet and INR banking services. “So P2P or spot, users can use this bank account to receive money or to send fiat to deposit in exchanges. And those bank accounts are being frozen.” Paytm would not be the only bank to have a problem with cryptocurrency trading. Last month, Axis Bank, India’s third-largest private-sector bank, reportedly called customers asking whether they used the accounts for cryptocurrency trading. The bank also warned that it will block accounts used for this purpose. Some customers said they were also asked to sign a declaration form confirming that they “do no deal in any type of virtual currency transactions” through their accounts at the bank. Before the supreme court quashed the central bank’s circular in March, banks were closing accounts suspected of being used for crypto trading. The circular by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) prohibited banks from providing service to entities dealing in crypto. After the RBI ban was lifted, several banks reportedly still refused to work with crypto businesses, including exchanges, claiming to be waiting for further instructions from the central bank. The RBI has said several times that cryptocurrency is not banned in India. It confirmed in a reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application specifically that there is no ban on crypto exchanges, businesses, or traders in the country. Coin Crunch noted: Crypto trading is not illegal. Banks are not restricted. However banks can act in their own interest, so users are advised to take caution. Adding to the confusion is the draft bill that seeks to ban cryptocurrencies which the Indian government has had since early last year. It was drafted by an inter-ministerial committee (IMC) headed by former Finance and Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, who has since resigned. While no decision has been made regarding how cryptocurrencies are to be treated in India, the Indian crypto industry believes that the government will re-examine the bill given that much has changed since it was submitted. Nonetheless, there have been reports of various ministries discussing a ban on crypto, but several exchange executives have told news.Bitcoin.com that a full ban is unlikely. Replying to an RTI application, the government revealed that the crypto bill is “awaiting approval.” What do you think about Paytm blocking bank accounts? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Paytm Freezes Indian Bank Accounts Suspected of Cryptocurrency Trading: Report appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article

The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to ramp up inflation by keeping interest rates low. As the U.S. dollar falls sharply and gold’s price soars, institutional investors are moving their money into alternative investments, including bitcoin. Fed Policies Drive Demand for Bitcoin The Federal Reserve is completing a year-long policy review and “is expected to make a major commitment to ramping up inflation soon,” CNBC reported last week. Investors have been making heavy bets accordingly as evidenced by record-high gold prices, the falling U.S. dollar, and increased demand for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS). The Fed is expected not to raise interest rates until inflation and unemployment targets are hit. Supporting the Fed’s policies, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Charles L. Evans said he would like to keep rates where they are until inflation gets up around 2.5%, the publication conveyed. However, it could take years for the Fed to hit its targets since inflation is currently closer to 1% and the unemployment rate is higher than it has been since the Great Depression. “We believe that the Fed publicly would welcome inflation in a range of 2% up to 4% as a long-overdue offset to inflation running below 2% for so long in the past,” explained Ed Yardeni, head of Yardeni Research. He calls this approach “wildly bullish” for alternative asset classes. Some institutional investors are shifting their strategies to reflect the new environment. Citing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell saying “we’re not thinking about raising interest rates and we’re not even thinking about thinking about raising interest rates,” the CEO of Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy Inc. (ticker symbol MSTR), Michael Saylor, said during the company’s Q2 2020 earnings call: If you have large dollar values and you’re hoping for any kind of return on them, that’s faded. Gold, silver, and bitcoin are showing strength. “The dollar, the DXY index is weakening. Faith in fiat currency across the market is fading and we’ve seen that in rallies in most asset classes during Q2,” he noted. “Accordingly, it wouldn’t be prudent to continue to hold a large portion of USD as our treasury strategy, and that’s prompted us to rethink this.” Microstrategy CFO Phong Le told investors: We will seek to invest up to another $250 million over the next 12 months in one or more alternative investments or assets which may include stocks, bonds, commodities such as gold, digital assets such as bitcoin, or other asset types. “Publicly traded companies are starting to diversify their cash holdings into bitcoin,” commented Marty Bent, Editor in Chief of Marty’s Bent, a daily newsletter about Bitcoin. “Boardrooms across the country will begin to ask, ‘Should we be diversifying into bitcoin too?’ Hyperbitcoinization can happen faster than you can imagine. Be prepared.” Meanwhile, some experts doubt the effectiveness of the Fed’s policies. Peter Boockvar, chief investment officer at Bleakley Advisory Group, remarked: Just manipulating interest rates doesn’t mean you get to some finger-in-the-air inflation rate that you choose. Regarding the Fed’s plan to crank up inflation amid record-high unemployment while the economic recovery is in jeopardy, he was quoted as saying: “It doesn’t make any economic sense whatsoever. The consumer is very fragile right now. The last thing we should be shooting for is a higher cost of living.” What do you think about investors hedging Fed policies with bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. The post Federal Reserve’s Expected Inflation Ramp-Up Drives Institutional Investors to Hedge With Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin News. View the full article