Five industry experts appearing before the United States House Energy and Commerce Oversight Subcommittee had different views on how lawmakers should address the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies. In written testimony released before a Thursday hearing on “Cleaning Up Cryptocurrency: The Energy Impacts of Blockchains,” former Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks argued that the energy…
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Bitcoin (BTC) surged on the Wall Street open on Jan. 20 as news that Russia was planning to “ban” cryptocurrency failed to impact price performance. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC price climbs $2,500 in 24 hours Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD adding $1,500 over several hours on Thursday, continuing…
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A16z, a VC company with investments in Protocol Labs, Polychain Capital and Opensea among others, is now planning to raise $4.5 billion for its latest fund, which is focused solely on cryptocurrencies, according to a report by U.K newspaper Financial Times. Last week, Andreessen Horowitz’ venture capital firm reportedly said it would raise $3.5 billion…
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In a report published on Thursday, The Central Bank of Russia has called for a blanket ban on domestic cryptocurrency trading and mining. The report titled “Cryptocurrencies: trends, risks, measures” compares cryptocurrencies to a Ponzi scheme and calls for a complete ban on their use throughout Russia. The authors claim that cryptocurrencies are highly volatile…
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It’s another shake-up for the finance industry as Montreal-based Bitcoin (BTC) startup Shakepay raised $35 million from investors. The fresh funding from the United States-based venture capital firm QED Investors values the company at $251 million. Founded in 2015, Shakepay allows Canadians to buy and sell BTC and pay their friends. It also supports the…
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Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” claimed that the growing restrictions on crypto advertisement won’t impact the demand. During his interview with CNBC, CZ stressed that physical crypto advertisements and crypto ads, in general, have not had much impact on user growth, and it has only become common over the past few years.…
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Despite a 40% drop in the value of Bitcoin (BTC), MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor has no intention of selling his firm’s $5 billion stash. Even if BTC suffers a lengthy bear market, Saylor told Bloomberg that he is a “Bitcoin bull,” and he does not intend to alter MicroStrategy’s multibillion-dollar BTC acquisition plan. He took a…
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Following a proposal from users to stop accepting crypto donations to Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit confirmed that it would proceed with crypto donations. Contributors banded together to urge the foundation to disable the option to donate in crypto because of environmental concerns. However, while the organization will continuously monitor the conversations around crypto within its communities,…
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BlockFills, a digital asset electronic market making, trading and prime brokerage, has announced the completion of a $37 million Series A funding round. Institutional investors, including Susquehanna Private Equity Investments LLLP, CME Ventures, Simplex Ventures, C6 Ventures, and Nexo Inc., led the round. Since its inception in 2018, the firm has received a total of…
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It’s full steam ahead for El Salvador’s Bitcoinization. The next point on the orange agenda is in providing low-interest loans backed by Bitcoin (BTC) to small and micro-businesses. While the details of the BTC loans are currently not disclosed, Mónica Taher, an advisor for the government of El Salvador, was straight-talking in a Facebook Live…
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