Crypto News

Elon Musk has been around the headlines lately as he has been tweeting about cryptocurrencies on and off. From the recent tweet of Tesla’s CEO, it has been announced that you can now buy Tesla with Bitcoin. He added that Tesla’s using “internal” and “open-source software” to accept payment and that they “operate bitcoin nodes directly.”

In July 2020, Paypal declared its active development on crypto payment solutions. After a long wait, they have announced that consumers can finally use the cryptocurrency in their Paypal account to pay for goods and services online. The cryptocurrency will be converted to fiat currency before finalizing the transaction so it will not affect anything to the merchants. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin are the supported currencies on Paypal.

The ETH 2.0 Deposit Contract just reached 3.6 Million ETH. A report from Glassnode states that the total ETH value amounts to nearly $6.1 billion. Since the staking contract launched, there was a noticeable growth on the staked ETH rising from 300,000. The ETH 2.0 upgrade will have improvements with a roll-centric roadmap, a simplified merge, and parallelization of phases.

With the growing recognition and acceptance of cryptocurrencies, Visa now allows settling transactions to its network. They had a pilot program with payment and crypto platform Crypto.com. Visa’s steps came from the move of the finance firms including BNY Mellon, BlackRock Inc, and Mastercard Inc which make more use of cryptocurrencies for investment and payment purposes.

The Bank of Thailand cautioned the citizens that the baht-pegged stablecoin,  Thai Baht Digital (THT), has no legal assurances or protection and violates the country’s currency act. This coin was issued by the South Korean firm Terra.  However, the Bank of Thailand is now leveling up as they are now considering the regulation of asset-backed and foreign currency-backed stable coins and algorithmic stablecoins, but not decentralized cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ether.

200 companies were trying to sign up under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) Money Laundering Registration (MLR) regime. However, out of these 200 companies, only four of them have received a decision. CryptoUk Chairman, Ian Taylor, called out the FCA for this delay since it has already been more than eight months without hearing from the regulator.

Morgan Stanley is now allowing its wealthier clients to access Bitcoin. In an internal memo, it is said that they will be launching access to three funds that enable ownership of bitcoin.

The research note of the Bank of America suggests that the BTC price appreciation of 1% just takes a net inflow of $93 million. With Bitcoin’s nearly $1.1 trillion market cap, the research suggests Bitcoin is twice as volatile as gold per-dollar in-flows.

Vitalik Buterin has discussed the envisioned future of the Ethereum network once the second-layer scaling model rolls out.  The layer-two solutions are designed to help scale applications by handling transactions off the main Ethereum chain or layer 1.  Without declaring the exact date, Buterin says that it may take off in the next few months.

Gary Gensler’s nomination as Chairman of the SEC role may affect how Ripple’s lawsuit will play out. Gensler is the former Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman under the Obama administration and is well known for his expertise in the blockchain industry. He promotes digital assets as a “catalyst for change”. The former SEC Commissioner, Paul Atkins, expressed his thoughts that Gensler may withdraw the case

In Elon’s Musk tweet, he mentioned that he would be selling an NFT which is “a song about NFTs”. This particular NFT has a strong electronic music vibe and includes words and phrases as “HODL” and “Vanity Trophy.” The Dogecoin’s Shiba Inu mascot has also been included. It has caught the attention of the would-be investors and attracted a $1.1 Million bid.

The House of Representatives in Georgia state proposed a bill to develop a program focused on financial literacy, recognizing cryptocurrency as a part of the special learning area on the curriculum. Other sectors already recognized crypto and the educational sector was not left behind.

The crypto investors in the UK were happy as the Chancellor decided to freeze the CGT threshold at £12,300 until 2026. Becky O’Connor, the Head of Pensions and Savings at Interactive Investor, expressed her opinion as she believes that the allowance freeze is a wealth tax by another name. Nonetheless, the short-term investors are still glad for this movement.

Ripple’s CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said in a documentary that XRP will keep trading even if Ripple will go away. It has been all over the news when Ripple faced the SEC lawsuit case filed against them. Despite the accusations that XRP is unregistered security, the judge will always have the final say.

Uniswap has surged by nearly 50% this week which made it the eighth-largest crypto asset. On March 5th, it also had a place in crypto’s top 10 as the first DeFi DApp token to hold the distinction. Also, UNI’s surge comes amid increasing speculation that Uniswap’s V3 upgrade will be coming in the way soon.

Kjell Inge Røkkes Aker, the second-richest man in Norway, has established a cryptocurrency company named Seetee. He invested NOK500 million ($60 million) into Bitcoin. The company will step into Bitcoin mining with green energy as energy sources. While it advocates sustainability and lessening the fears of Bitcoin’s energy use, it also aims to HODL its entire BTC holdings.

The money transfer giant, Moneygram, announced that it will not be using XRP for remittance services. Ripple also gave an official statement about this confirming the end of their partnership. Because of the SEC lawsuit against XRP, Moneygram was sued by Rosen Law Firm for allegedly misleading investors over XRP. Though the partnership did not last, it was fruitful for both of them.

As the institutional support for crypto keeps on growing, Square did not miss the opportunity on the temporary Bitcoin dip and has gotten approximately 3,318 Bitcoins when the cryptocurrency’s price was trading around $50,000. Square believes in the potential of Bitcoin as an investment as they have claimed that this is an instrument of economic empowerment.

The crypto prices have been added to the finance.google.com domain. The “Compare Markets” category has the section named “Crypto” that provides key pricing information for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The cryptocurrency market got the mainstream attention and now the institutional investors and corporations have started to jump aboard in the cryptocurrency investment.

Before correcting lower, Cardano’s smashed to its new all-time at $1.48. ADA declined below $1.20 but the price has risen up when it reached to $1.15 level. According to Assetdash data, Cardano has surpassed Tether's dollar-backed stable coin (USDT) and Binance's (BNB) to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value, with a market capitalization of $39,792,277,652 after by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

JP Morgan Chase and Co suggest that investors should allocate 1% of their portfolio in bitcoin as a hedge. One of the most popular topics of discussion in the crypto community is how big should be the percentage that investors should invest in.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit new lifetime highs of more than $51,200 on Feb. 17 as it tackled what trader Peter Brandt confirms is a “parabolic advance.” Tuesday had seen Bitcoin hit $50,000 for the first time ever, that level nonetheless failing to hold for more than a matter of minutes. With its return, the largest cryptocurrency is in a "parabolic advance" — the fourth in its twelve-year history, analysts say.

Financial and investment advisory giant The Motley Fool has announced it will invest $5 million into Bitcoin (BTC) with the expectation that it will rise to $500,000.Announced earlier today via a blog and Twitter post, the firm stated it won’t be “buying overpriced ETFs” but will be “buying Bitcoin directly.” Currently ranked fifth globally in the investing category, according to Similar Web, and with 87 million website visits per month, The Motley Fool outlined three core reasons behind the purchase: Bitcoin is a better store of value than gold, it's an effective hedge against inflation and it has the potential to become a transactional asset.

Ether (ETH) is up 150% in 2021, causing its market capitalization to soar above $200 billion. Most traders are fixated on the unitary price, even though it is entirely arbitrary, therefore missing relevant milestones and comparables.o evidentiate myopia caused by unitary prices, Cardano (ADA) is priced below $1, although its market capitalization is over $26 billion. Therefore, the outstanding number of coins matters just as much. At the other extreme, Cover Protocol (COVER) unitary price is nearly USD 1,600, even though its market capitalization remains sub $100 million.

Daniel Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, has disclosed that Tesla is smiling all the way to the bank after cashing in approximately $1 billion in profits from its Bitcoin (BTC) investment. Earlier this month, the American electric carmaker revealed a purchase of Bitcoin worth $1.5 billion, and this move was propelled by its quest for more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns. Moreover, Tesla stated that it may start accepting payments in BTC in exchange for its products. Ives believes this decision has paid off because the company will continue making more profits from this investment. He noted: “The company is on a trajectory to make more from its Bitcoin investments than profits from selling its EV (electric vehicle) cars in all of 2020.”

The pretrial hearing between Ripple and the Securities and Exchange Commission is set to happen today. The outcome of this case will undoubtedly have huge repercussions for the cryptocurrency industry, and it may pave the way for how other cryptocurrencies are regulated in the United States. Urgently, the SEC is suing Ripple for unlawful sales of XRP, as they deem that the cryptocurrency should be considered a security, therefore placing Ripple Labs and chief executives Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse in violation of securities laws. Former SEC chair says that agency is “dead wrong” Former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission Mary Jo White is one of Ripple’s attorneys. In an interview with Fortune, she expressed her thoughts on the Ripple case. According to White, the Commission has made a mistake in suing Ripple over XRP for unregistered securities. The agency places XRP sales as a violation of securities laws, having pinpointed that XRP should be classified as a security. White said: “There’s no way to Sugar-coat it. They’re dead wrong legally and factually.”

Crypto market capitalization has been gaining momentum amid an ongoing crypto rally this year, breaking the $1 trillion mark in early January. Total crypto market cap previously surpassed the market cap level of Tesla, which amounts to around $815 billion at the time of writing. Soon after crypto markets broke Tesla’s market cap, the company made a massive announcement on Feb. 8, reporting a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin to the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission. Crypto's recent pump now puts the market behind Amazon, Microsoft and Apple in terms of market cap.

The firm believes this may open merchants up to new customers and build loyalty with existing customers who are already migrating to digital assets over traditional fiat options. "We are here to enable customers, merchants and businesses to move digital value — traditional or crypto — however they want. It should be your choice, it’s your money." MasterCard already devoted significant resources into exploring distributed ledger technology, with the company currently holding 89 blockchain patents while a further 285 applications are pending.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has announced the creation of a blind Bitcoin (BTC) development trust worth 500 BTC ($23.7 million), along with rapper Jay-Z, for teams working on the project in India and Africa. Dorsey revealed the creation of the trust on Feb. 12 while sending out a call for three board members to oversee the blind trust initially. Dubbed the ₿Trust, the application form for board members reveals the mission statement, “Make Bitcoin the internet’s currency." The Twitter CEO’s tweet appeared just hours after news broke concerning India’s alleged plans to completely ban the use of cryptocurrencies within its borders. The world’s second-most populated country could soon move to ban all crypto-assets, giving users a 3–6 month grace period to liquidate their holdings, according to an anonymous source who spoke to Bloomberg.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that he would support the top holders of Dogecoin selling a big portion of their DOGE stash to ease out the altcoin’s distribution, as per a tweet this morning. Founded in 2013 as a joke cryptocurrency, Dogecoin’s meme value, the usage of a Shiba Inu dog as a mascot, and a cutesy narrative has pumped its market cap to billions of dollars over the years.