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Guardtime: regulators from various countries have significantly accelerated the development of their own cryptocurrencies According to Guardtime, which works in the blockchain field, central banks from various countries have significantly accelerated the development of their own cryptocurrencies amid the pandemic. Experts believe that in the near future, at least one country will issue its digital currency. According to Luukas Ilves, head of strategy at Guardtime, "competition for the launch of state-owned cryptocurrencies is increasing, and the coronavirus has not only accelerated digitalization, but also changed the use of money by the population." Lockdown has sparked the growth of the online payments market, which is where CBDCs are most applicable. “The development of CBDCs has been accelerated by up to five years. There is also no doubt in our mind that a major central bank will soon launch a digital currency and we expect this to happen within the next three years, ” Guardtime analysts said. The Bogdanov brothers announced that they had participated in the development of the first crypto coin Former Russian-born theoretical physicists and TV presenters Igor and Grigory Bogdanov stated that they were personally acquainted with Satoshi Nakamoto. In addition, they claim to have been involved in the development of the first cryptocurrency. The Bogdanovs noted that they once collaborated with François Mizzi, who created the touchscreen. The scientist Soichiro Shimod worked in his laboratory, who is "related to a mythical character or group of people" associated with Nakamoto. According to the brothers, they often discussed the concept of digital currency with Shimod. The Bogdanovs also noted that in 2008 Nakamoto gave them two "first bitcoins in physical form." “As mathematicians, we were able to take part in the development of the Bitcoin source code, including the forecasting code,” the Bogdanovs said on the air of the French TV show Non-Stop People. Bitcoin may fall to $10,000 Scott Minerd, investment director of Guggenheim Partners, believes that the BTC rate may fall to $ 10.000. He is confident that for now, traders do not need to buy bitcoins. “When we look at the history of crypto and we look at where we are, I mean, I really do believe this is probably a crash, and you know a crash would mean we’d be down 70-80% which, let’s just say that’s between 10 and 15 thousand," Minerd said. At the end of last year, Guggenheim Partners predicted a rise in the price of the first crypto coin to $400,000. And in early 2021, Scott Minerd confirmed the prediction but advised investors to fix some of the profits.

Binance is looking to hire ‘UK Version of Brian Brooks’ Binance is attempting to hire a former regulator or government official in the U.K. in order to lend the brand some compliance clout as global regulatory pressure mounts on the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange operator, according to two people familiar with the plans. Binance is looking to hire “a U.K. version of Brian Brooks,” one of the people told CoinDesk, referring to the well-regarded former head of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) who was brought in to run Binance.US in April of this year. The search for a respected former regulator to represent Binance’s interests in the U.K. follows an announcement last month by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which said that Binance was not allowed to conduct any regulated activities in the country. As a result of the FCA’s action, British bank Barclays said earlier this week it was blocking customers from using its debit and credit cards to make payments to Binance. Bitcoin miner revenue jumps by 50% in 4 days since record difficulty drop Bitcoin miner revenue jumped after the network saw its biggest-ever difficulty drop. According to figures from monitoring resource Blockchain.com, daily revenues have surged by over 50%. Bitcoin mining is currently in a unique state of flux — around half of the hashing power is offline as miners relocate from China, and it remains unknown how quickly they will be able to come back online. At the same time, those miners unaffected by the Chinese rout have seen half their competitors disappear overnight, and profitability has gone up as a result. With data now coming in for the past few weeks, the scale of the changes is plain to see. Daily mining revenue was around $20.7 million on Friday, the day before the difficulty adjustment. A day later, it hit $29.3 million, and by Tuesday this week — $31.9 million.

Messari analysts are confident in the superiority of the USDC in the near future Analysts at Messari concluded that USDC's popularity on ETH has grown much faster this year than Tether's. Experts believe that USDC has every chance of becoming the dominant stablecoin on ETH. The study found that interest in USD Coin increased so much that stablecoin was able to absorb a significant portion of USDT's market share. Messari believes that in the short term, this may contribute to a decrease in the share of Tether among stablecoins on ETH. Messari analyst Ryan Watkins noted that more than 40% of the stablecoins on ETH are in USDC. “Although this percentage is not as high as DAI, USDC leads by a wide margin in dollar terms and has become the preferred stablecoin in DeFi for now,” the analyst concluded. Analyst predicts bitcoin recovery Well-known cryptanalyst Willie Woo said that the market has not yet become "bearish". He believes that in the near future the rate of the main cryptocurrency will recover, as evidenced by the data of the blockchain performance indicators. Woo pointed out that long-term investors are now busy accumulating assets in BTC. They buy off bitcoins against the backdrop of a fall in the rate of a crypto coin. “The ‘Rick Astley’ is the holder that keeps buying and never tends to sell much ... And of course Rick was very active over 2021, and then suddenly all the coins moved away from Rick to the weak hands — the speculative traders that buy and sell. Now we’re seeing that cross back into moving to Rick," Willie Woo said, hinting at the hit of the singer Rick Astley "Never Let You Down".

US Senator approves bitcoin usage Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis said she invested in a major cryptocurrency to secure future retirement. In addition, she encourages to follow her example. According to Lummis, BTC is great for long-term and retirement savings. She noted that she now owns 5 bitcoins, at the same time she purchased the first BTC at a cost of $330. “I worry about having all of our retirement monies denominated in U.S. dollars. So as part of diversification, having a very diverse asset allocation, so you don’t have all your eggs in one basket, I think one of the strongest stores of value for the long run is bitcoin, ”said Lummis. Europe should prioritize digital asset regulation The head of the Central Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau is confident that the EU must make the regulation of digital currencies a priority. Otherwise, it will threaten the financial sovereignty of Europe. François Villeroy de Galhau said the EU "only has one or two years" to create a regulatory framework for the cryptocurrency market. In his opinion, inaction could "undermine our monetary sovereignty" and potentially weaken the euro. “I want to stress the urgency of regulating cryptoassets. We do not have much time left – just one or two years,” Villeroy de Galhau said.

The Fed is concerned about the growing popularity of stablecoins amid the lack of regulation of this market Boston Federal Reserve Bank Governor Eric Rosengren has raised concerns about the risks associated with Tether to the soundness of the financial market. According to the official, USDT has become a "new problem" in the short-term lending markets. “The reason I talked about tether and stable coins is if you look at their portfolio, it basically looks like a portfolio of a prime money market fund but maybe riskier. We actually had a stablecoin that ran into financial difficulties last week. Tether, as you highlighted, has a number of assets that, during the pandemic, the spread got quite wide on those assets,” Eric Rosengren said. He noted that stablecoins are already playing a significant role in the modern economy. However, the absence of a significant degree of regulation of this industry can be dangerous for all players in the financial market. British regulator has decided to complicate the work of Binance The British Financial Conduct Authority issued a warning to top managers at Binance, which states that the crypto exchange is not allowed to conduct regulated activities in the country. Because of this, the local division of the company got in a deplorable situation. The FCA ruling states that Binance cannot carry out any activity requiring licensing without the consent of the regulator. Since the company goes through the registration procedure in the authority, it has no right to provide unregulated services, for example, the ability to conduct transactions in the derivatives market. In addition, the management demanded that the company stop advertising campaigns launched earlier in the country in the coming days. Until June 30, the crypto exchange is obliged to warn its customers about the FCA restrictions on the site. Mexican entrepreneur announces approval of major crypto coin Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego said that the Banco Azteca he created will become the first bank in the country to accept BTC. The entrepreneur wrote about this on Twitter. “Sure, I recommend the use of bitcoin, and me and my bank are working to be the first bank in Mexico to accept bitcoin,” Salinas said. According to the businessman, bitcoin is "an asset that should be part of every investor's portfolio." Salinas noted the value of BTC, "which is traded with huge liquidity on a global level."

Miner spoke about the "solvency" of bitcoin Restrictive measures in relation to the production of the main cryptocurrency should be taken positively, as they confirm the "solvency" of bitcoin. This was stated by the miner Brandon Arvanagi, who previously worked as a security engineer for Gemini. Arvanagi believes that now the authorities of various states are forming a consensus on BTC. And the tightening of the Chinese government's policy on mining and digital currency trading could prove to be a positive factor in the medium to long term. Former security engineer Gemini said that the role of the People’s Republic of China will be transferred to the United States, where the mining of cryptocurrencies is capable of becoming a large industry. He believes that Texas and Florida can offer favorable terms for miners. A similar opinion is shared by the head of Facebook Financial, David Marcus, who, commenting on news from China, said that this is "a great development in the history of bitcoin." ARK Investment Management invested in BTC, after which the crypto coin began to grow ARK Investment Management invested in the first cryptocurrency. This became known on June 22, when the BTC price dropped to $28,800. The investment company has acquired over a million shares of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. We would like to remind the readers that on June 22, the value of the main crypto coin for the first time since January 2021 fell below $30,000. The market capitalization of BTC, according to CoinGecko, fell to $554 billion. However, after the news of the ARK Investment investment, bitcoin rose by more than 11%. Today, June 23, according to Coinmarketcap, the cost of BTC is $34'921. SEC accuses Loci crypto project of fraud The SEC has accused the head of the Loci crypto project, John Wise, of illegally selling digital assets and defrauding investors. According to the regulator, the startup and its top management raised $7.6 million thanks to the illegal sale of LOCICoin tokens. The SEC believes that Wise spent about $38,000 of the investment received for personal needs. “Loci and its CEO misled investors regarding critical aspects of Loci’s business. Investors in digital asset securities are entitled to truthful information and fulsome disclosures so they can make informed investment decisions,” Kristina Littman, Chief of the SEC Enforcement Division’s Cyber Unit, said. As a result, the crypto project destroyed all LOCICoins and will not participate in similar token sales in the future. In addition, the company will have to return $7.6 million to investors.

Goldman Sachs urges not to invest in bitcoin Goldman Sachs analysts believe that investment in digital assets cannot be called “viable”, but cryptocurrencies are suitable for speculation in the market. The investment bank is confident that despite the increasing interest of people in digital currencies, investing in them is still risky. Analysts at Goldman Sachs noted that serious fluctuations in the crypto market scare off potential investors. And the conflicting opinions of industry participants about cryptocurrencies simply confuse many Goldman Sachs clients interested in acquiring such assets. “As Bitcoin soared to new highs over the past year, many wondered if they should invest in it. Now, a team at Goldman Sachs is telling retail investors that the digital currency isn’t worthy of most portfolios — at least not yet, ”the analysts of the investment bank are sure. Beijing residents will be able to exchange cash for digital yuan at more than 3,000 ATMs The Metropolitan Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has added the function of converting the yuan to and from the digital version. This opportunity can now be used in more than 3,000 ATMs. In addition, the Agricultural Bank of China has added a similar option. So far, it is available only on 10 devices located in Beijing. The initiative of the capital branches of banks indicates that the development and testing of the digital yuan is underway. Earlier, several Chinese cities tested the state cryptocurrency, when citizens received digital yuan to make purchases.

Founder of Tudor Investment Corporation is ready to invest in bitcoins The founder of the hedge fund Tudor Investment Corporation Paul Tudor Jones intends to invest part of his capital in bitcoins. The American billionaire said he prefers to invest in "something reliable, consistent, honest and definite," and the first cryptocurrency has these characteristics. “The only thing I know for certain, I want 5% in gold, 5% in bitcoin, 5% in cash, 5% in commodities. At this point in time, I don’t know what I want to do with the other 80% until I see what the Fed is going to do,” Jones said. The Fed will meet this week to discuss forecasts for interest rates and inflation. Depending on the further actions of the regulator, Jones admitted that he could invest more in digital assets. The Netherlands calls for a ban on BTC Pieter Hasekamp, head of the Dutch Bureau of Economic Analysis at the Ministry of Economy and Climate Policy, believes that local authorities are obliged to introduce a complete ban on mining, storing, and trading the main cryptocurrency. He is confident that bitcoin cannot be used as a unit of account, payment instrument, and storage medium. The official believes that the Netherlands is currently lagging behind other states in terms of its policy of containing the growth in popularity of digital currencies. Hasekamp cited China as an example, where they had previously called for tight control over the circulation of cryptocurrency assets in the country. “Dutch regulators have tried to tighten supervision of marketplaces, but without much success. The Central Planning Bureau pointed to the risks of cryptocurrency trading in 2018, but concluded that stricter regulation is not needed yet, ” Hasekamp added.

El Salvador approves BTC as legal means of payment The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved a bill on the legalization of BTC, in which the president of the state proposed to make the crypto coin an official means of payment, on a par with the American dollar. The legislative initiative was supported by 62 out of 84 possible deputies, 17 opposed, one parliamentarian abstained. The draft law will enter into force 90 days after publication in the official government media. If the initiative of the head of the country Nayib Bukele is approved, bitcoin will be the official payment instrument in El Salvador. Information about this appeared in the politician's microblog. Coinseed stops working Cryptocurrency investment app Coinseed is suspended due to a lawsuit from the New York State Attorney's Office. Earlier, the department filed a lawsuit against the crypto project, accusing the platform of fraud and deceiving users for $1 million. The prosecutor's office believes that about 2 years ago, the top management of Coinseed conducted an unregistered ICO. In addition, the platform's management applied hidden fees and attracted investors with implausible promises. Coinseed CEO Delgerdalai Davaasambuu said the service had received no complaints from users. At the same time, the prosecutor's office said that since the filing of the claim, the department received more than 170 complaints about the crypto project. CFTC Commissioner: "DeFi derivatives may be illegal in the US" The Commissioner for the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission believes that some DeFi products may be illegal on US soil. CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkowitz said DeFi markets, such as for futures contracts, may be illegal due to US law. These are the provisions of the American Mercantile Exchange Act. “DeFi markets, platforms, or websites are not registered as DCMs or SEFs. The CEA does not contain any exception from registration for digital currencies, blockchains, or «smart contracts, ”said the CFTC Commissioner.

Coinbase Pro to add DOGE to listing Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase Pro has released a statement on plans to add dogecoin to the listing. Clients of the exchange can already transfer cryptocoins to their accounts. That being said, DOGE should start trading at 09:00 PT tomorrow, June 3. This will happen if the conditions that relate to liquidity are met. Coinbase Pro users will be offered DOGE pairs against the US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, USDT and BTC. Against the backdrop of this news, the Dogecoin rate has increased by 32% over the past 24 hours, according to Coinmarketcap data. The DOGE price is $0.42. Goldman Sachs draws a parallel between BTC and copper Goldman Sachs’s Global Head of Commodities Research Jeff Curry believes that bitcoin does not fit the common concept of digital gold. According to the expert, BTC is more like copper. “Digital currencies are not substitutes for gold. If anything, they would be a substitute for copper, they are pro-risk, risk-on assets. They are substitue for risk on inflation hedges not risk off inflation hedges,” Curry said. The economist believes that bitcoin correlates with the business cycle, as it is linked to its payment system. Curry believes that BTC, like copper, is an effective defense against "good inflation" arising from growing demand. But gold is hedging against the "bad inflation" caused by the increase in supply. Guggenheim Partners creates a fund to invest in the first cryptocurrency Guggenheim Partners, which manages more than $350 billion in assets, is launching an investment fund for Bitcoin transactions. The new structure will focus on maximizing profits "by combining current income and capital gains." The portfolio of the Guggenheim Active Allocation Fund will consist of a large list of securities, which are planned to be diversified through an “alternative investment pool”. “The Fund may seek investment exposure to cryptocurrency (notably, Bitcoin), often referred to as «virtual currency» or «digital currency,» through cash settled derivatives instruments, such as cash settled exchange traded futures, or through investment vehicles that offer exposure to Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies through direct investments or indirect exposure such as derivatives contracts,” the company's prospectus says.

The head of the Japanese regulator speaks out against bitcoin The volatility of the main cryptocurrency is "excessively high". This opinion was voiced by the Governor of the Bank of Japan Haruhiko Kuroda. “Most of the trading in the cryptocurrency industry is speculation on excessive volatility. It is unlikely that Bitcoin can be used as a means of payment, ” Kuroda said. But he treats stablecoins differently. According to the Governor of the Central Bank, if stablecoins meet the standards of regulators and have "sound government practices", then in the future they will turn out to be a convenient payment instrument. Ray Dalio considers the first cryptocurrency to be an alternative currency Ray Dalio, founder of hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, is convinced that a clear distinction needs to be made between “digitized” money and alternative digital currencies. At the same time, he called the main crypto-coin an alternative currency. “Bitcoin is an alternative currency compared to digitalization,” the entrepreneur said. In his opinion, the digital yuan can become a competitor to BTC, but the state digital currency will not be able to conquer the crypto market. At the same time, the digital dollar will be stable and competitive, the businessman believes. In the UK, the bank has banned customers from sending funds to crypto exchanges In the UK, Starling Bank has imposed a temporary ban on its clients from sending funds to crypto trading platforms. The reason is the high risks associated with online financial crime. However, Starling clients still have the ability to withdraw funds from cryptocurrency exchanges to bank accounts without any restrictions. Starling plans to lift the ban after the end of special checks, which will oblige the bank's customers to transfer funds to crypto platforms. Starling's initiative is not yet widespread. For example, the world's largest bank Barclays issued a message stating that it does not plan to impose a ban on customers from making deposits on crypto exchanges.

American GameStop Network to launch an NFT-related project The American network for the sale of game consoles, computer games, and game accessories GameStop will launch an Ethereum platform for NFT tokens. The exact date of the platform launch has not yet been disclosed. “We are building a team. We welcome exceptional engineers (solidity, react, python), designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders,” the company's announcement, which is posted on the site's website, says. Probably, the target audience of the project will be not only players and developers, but also potential NFT collectors. There is also a slogan on the site: “Power to the players. Power to the creators. Power to the collectors." Canadian regulator accuses Poloniex of illegal asset trading The Ontario Securities and Exchange Commission has sued the popular crypto platform Poloniex. OSC believes that the exchange is carrying out illegal trading in stocks and derivatives. In early spring of this year, it became known that companies conducting operations with cryptoassets in Canada are required to register as investment dealers. Until April 19, such companies had to contact the regulator to warn of possible sanctions against them. 70 platforms applied to OSC, some of which were registered outside Canada, but Poloniex was not among them. Now the platform faces a large fine, as well as a ban on trading in securities. Wharton School of Business talks about the possibilities of decentralized finance DeFi has the potential to transform the global financial market. According to experts at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, such assets can be used in insurance, lending, capital management, the development of decentralized exchanges, and the issuance of stablecoins. In addition, the use of DeFi is possible when running "ancillary services" such as wallets and oracles. Decentralized finance can help alleviate market pressures, transaction costs, and asset allocation costs. However, business school experts have also pointed out the disadvantages of DeFi. For example, these are frequent cases of fraud, an uncertain attitude of regulators towards such assets, and immaturity of the technology.

Poll: over 50% of Australians think that Elon Musk is the creator of BTC According to a survey of Finder website users, 56% of Australians believe Elon Musk is the creator of Bitcoin. They had never heard of Satoshi Nakamoto. The study involved over a thousand Australian residents. Many of those surveyed do not know that the Bitcoin supply is limited to 21 million cryptocoins. 44% of respondents are sure that the number of BTC is not limited. In addition, 25% of survey participants said they have already purchased cryptocurrency or intend to do so by the end of the year. However, about 20% of respondents do not know how to do this. German politician advocates restricting bitcoin miners Sven Giegold, a politician from Germany, considers it necessary to pass a law that limits the consumption of electricity by bitcoin miners. The deputy calls for the introduction of appropriate restrictions on the territory of the European Union. “As long as cryptocurrencies were small sandbox games, there was no need for regulation, and it was necessary to give innovative technologies room for development. But if something becomes ecologically damaging on the scale of mining cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, then you have to intervene,'' the politician said. According to Giegold, carbon dioxide emissions from BTC miners are a threat to the German economy. The MEP stressed that the regulation of the cryptocurrency mining industry lags far behind the development of this industry.

Anthony Scaramucci advises investing in bitcoins up to 3% of the investment portfolio SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci believes that the main cryptocurrency is still an asset that should be in an investment portfolio. According to him, it is still difficult to convince many investors to pay attention to BTC. The head of SkyBridge Capital advises investing relatively little money in bitcoin. According to the entrepreneur, BTC is the only crypto-coin that has reached “space speed”. “As an investment adviser and someone who’s been running money for 30-plus years, it’s responsible of me to tell my clients to own 1%, 2% or 3%. I’m not telling them you’ve got to own 100% of your net worth in it - but if we’re right, you don’t want to be missing out on this," Scaramucci said. Losses of traders because of BTC fall reach $2.4 billion As a result of the collapse of the first cryptocurrency coin, traders lost about $2.4 billion. In 24 hours, cryptocurrency exchanges forcibly closed the positions of 304 thousand users, analysts of the bybt service noted. The market collapse was preceded by another post by Elon Musk on Twitter. In it, he criticized the main cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin is actually highly centralized, with supermajority controlled by handful of big mining (aka hashing) companies. A single coal mine in Xinjiang flooded, almost killing miners, and Bitcoin hash rate dropped 35%. Sound “decentralized” to you?” Musk wrote on May 16. However, on May 17, in response to a barrage of criticism, the entrepreneur hastened to "refute the speculation”, saying that "Tesla has not sold a single bitcoin."

Economist: BTC already consumes more electricity than the Netherlands Italian economist Fabio Panetta is confident that mining digital currencies carries risks for ensuring environmental safety. A member of the board of the European Central Bank believes that "colossal electricity consumption" and carbon emissions from the mining of crypto assets can negatively affect socio-economic development. The ECB notes that due to the pandemic, the volume of carbon dioxide emissions has decreased. But experts say this has a temporary effect. Panetta believes that cryptocurrency mining poses a potential threat to international environmental security. “Bitcoin alone is already consuming more electricity than the Netherlands. Controlling and limiting the environmental impact of crypto assets, including through regulation and taxation, should be part of the global discussion,” Panetta said. eBay users will be able to trade NFT The e-commerce platform eBay has released a statement that its users can now buy and sell non-fungible tokens on the site. NFT can be operated by “eBay-compliant sellers”, and anyone can purchase tokens. All transactions will be in US dollars, with many other platforms suggesting using Ethereum. A significant part of the non-fungible tokens presented on the site is created on the basis of WAX. Because of this, sellers offer buyers to create a wallet in this network to receive NFT. "In the coming months, eBay will add new capabilities that bring blockchain-driven collectibles to our platform," said Jordan Sweetnam, senior vice president and manager of North American Marketplace for eBay. Crypto enthusiast announces a possible drop of BTC below $50,000 The main cryptocurrency price may fall below the $50,000 level. This is probably due to the decrease in the number of "whale" addresses to the minimum since this year. This point of view was expressed by Pankaj Balani, the head of the cryptocurrency platform Delta. According to Glassnode, the number of addresses that store at least 1000 bitcoins dropped to 1943. The negative trend has been traced since the first decade of February when a record high of 2237 addresses was recorded. “The data looks bearish, as it shows a clear trend of whales offloading their holdings,” Balani is sure.

After listing, Coinbase turned out to be more expensive than NASDAQ, on which it was listed On April 14, trading in shares of the cryptocurrency platform Coinbase began on the NASDAQ. After the start of trading, the share price rose to $381 at the set reference price of $250, and after a while the securities rose in price to $429. By the end of trading, Coinbase's capitalization reached $86 billion. As of April 15, the share price on the US premarket hovered around $344. On Thursday, at the premarket, the crypto platform's securities rose 11% to $365. At this rate, Coinbase is even more valuable than Nasdaq and the Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, combined. The media compared the placement of the company of Brian Amstrong and Fred Ersam to the "debutante ball" of the crypto business. Ethereum has been hardforked Today, April 15, a hard fork “Berlin” took place on the Ethereum mainnet. Due to this, the algorithm for calculating the amount of commissions for transactions within the network has been changed, and new types of transactions have been introduced. The hard fork took place at block # 12,244,000. Many community members supported the event as it can have a positive impact on the Ethereum price. According to Coinmarketcap, the price of ETH has increased by more than 21% over the past 7 days. On the eve of the hard fork, the price of the crypto coin has renewed its historical maximum and reached $2,441. Bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex users moved to unknown addresses Yesterday, April 14, about 10% of the bitcoins stolen in 2016 from the Bitfinex crypto exchange started moving. About 12,200 BTC were moved to unknown addresses. Their total cost is estimated at about $770 million. “We believe that the BTC transfers started during the trading for Coinbase's direct listing. The media shields allows them to at least get less publicity, considering there are fewer people tracking their movements or reporting it ... everyone's focused on the Coinbase listing,” says research analyst at Trade the Chain Nick Mancini. And Cinneamhain Venture partner Adam Cochran noted that "the bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex are the most tracked and blacklisted ones around the world." “No exchange will process them. They can basically never be cashed out,” the crypto enthusiast is confident.

Elon Musk wants to send Dogecoin into space The head of SpaceX, Elon Musk, wrote on his Twitter page that he intends to send a crypto coin to the moon. After that, the token went up in price by 30%. "SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon," the entrepreneur wrote, without elaborating on the details of his plan. SpaceX's lunar mission is set to take place in 2023. However, users note that Musk's statement may be an April Fool's joke, so you shouldn't take it seriously. As of April 1, according to CoinDesk, the DOGE price is at $0.069. Before Musk's tweet, the coin was worth about $ 0.054. Total crypto market capitalization sets new all-time high above $1.9T Amid another bullish trend on cryptocurrency markets, total crypto market capitalization has broken a new historical record just under $2 trillion. The market cap of all cryptocurrencies surpassed $1.9 trillion on March 31, according to data from major crypto monitoring resources like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. The total market cap reached as high as $1.99 trillion earlier on the day, hitting a new all-time record. In hitting its new historical high, the total crypto market capitalization has overtaken the market cap of oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco, the world’s second most valuable company by market cap after Apple. According to data from TradingView, Saudi Aramco’s market cap amounts to about 7 trillion Saudi riyals, or $1.86 trillion at the time of writing. After surpassing the market cap of Google stock at above $1.4 trillion in February, the total crypto market cap has continued flipping the world’s largest companies including Amazon and Microsoft. At publishing time, Amazon and Microsoft’s respective market capitalizations are $1.5 trillion and $1.7 trillion.

PayPal users will be able to pay with cryptocurrency at 29 million points of sale In the near future, PayPal customers will be able to pay for their purchases at 29 million retail outlets using cryptocurrency. For purchases, one will be able to use BTC, ETH, as well as Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin. At the time of payment, PayPal users will be able to convert crypto coins to fiat. "This is the first time you can seamlessly use cryptocurrencies in the same way as a credit card or a debit card inside your PayPal wallet," said CEO of the company Dan Shulman. PayPal has no plans to charge a transaction fee when placing an order using digital currencies. Only one type of cryptocurrency can be selected for each purchase. Cryptanalyst: Selling BTC now is crazy Well-known crypto enthusiast and analyst Willy Woo believes that now it’s not a good time to sell bitcoins. He is confident that this year will be a year of "insane optimism" for BTC, as the current rally is in its "final explosive phase." “You’d be crazy to sell right now. There’s more buying the dip than ever seen before, a new record for 2021 and we know the person that’s buying the dip is Rick Astley and he’s not going to let us down,” Woo said jokingly. He also stated that the cryptocurrency is currently "at the bottom", so Woo is "building up his long positions." Visa will process payments in USDC stablecoin Visa payment system has launched a pilot program in collaboration with cryptocurrency company Crypto.com. According to the company, the pilot program will allow USD Coin (USDC) to be sent directly to Visa Ethereum addresses. Anchorage digital bank will become Visa's settlement agent when working with USDC. The company has taken the development of this direction seriously. In December last year, Visa already connected its global network to USDC and announced the release of a card with support for payments in stablecoin. In February, the company began testing a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) that will allow traditional bank customers to buy and sell digital assets. “We see increasing demand from consumers across the world to be able to access, hold and use digital currencies and we’re seeing demand from our clients to be able to build products that provide that access for consumers," Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa, said. In the future, Visa plans to process payments in central bank digital currencies (CBDC). Visa CEO Alfred Kelly said earlier this month that the company aims to reach out to stablecoins as well as Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. “We're trying to do two things. One is to enable the purchase of Bitcoin on Visa credentials. And secondly, working with Bitcoin wallets to allow the Bitcoin to be translated into a fiat currency and therefore immediately be able to be used at any of the 70 million places around the world where Visa is accepted, "Kelly said. The new program at Visa is described as a “small step” for the payment platform, but “a giant leap” for the proliferation of digital assets.

ESMA warns of risks associated with BTC The European Securities and Markets Authority believes that cryptocurrencies pose a certain threat. A new report from the agency talks about the risks of losing funds when investing in digital currencies, for example, in BTC. ESMA believes that some crypto assets are "very risky and speculative." And the lack of regulation really deprives investors of any guarantees and security. “Consumers must be alert to the high risks of buying and/or holding these instruments,” the report says. Ray Dalio says that the US may ban cryptocurrency The famous American financier Ray Dalio spoke about the high probability of a ban on bitcoin in the United States. The entrepreneur drew a parallel with the decision of the authorities to confiscate gold from citizens during the Great Depression. “Every country treasures its monopoly on controlling the supply and demand. They [the authorities] don’t want other monies to be operating or competing, because things can get out of control, ”Dalio said. According to the billionaire, the first crypto coin has proven itself excellently since its inception. Bitcoin has quite a few fans, and its blockchain has not been hacked. “It is an alternative, in a sense, store hold of wealth. It’s like digital cash. And those are the pluses,” concluded Dalio. President of Microsoft Corp. spoke out against digital assets IT companies do not need to issue currencies, the authorities should be engaged in this. This point of view is shared by the President of Microsoft Brad Smith. “The money supply almost uniquely needs to be managed by an entity that is responsible to the public and thinks really only about the public interest, and that means governments,” said the top manager of the company. Earlier, Microsoft announced the launch of a decentralized identifier network powered by the BTC blockchain. It was reported that the solution will allow the creation of DIDs and can be used on social networks.

Anthony Scaramucci: bitcoin will repeat Amazon's success Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of the SkyBridge Capital hedge fund, is confident that in the long term, the main cryptocurrency will be able to repeat the success of Amazon. According to the entrepreneur, bitcoin volatility will gradually decrease simultaneously with the massive acceptance of this asset by society. “Amazon now, 20 years later, is trading with more stability. It got a very big pop because of the pandemic, but just take a look at its long-term chart, and I think that will happen to bitcoin,” Scaramucci said. The total number of bitcoins is limited to 21 million coins. According to CoinDesk, about 18.66 million coins have already been mined. At the same time, about 15.5 million are in circulation, since access to wallets from 15% to 20% is considered completely lost according to various expert estimates. Cryptocurrency proponents see this as one of the prerequisites for the price of BTC to rise as demand continues to outstrip supply. Federal Reserve is confident that CBDC will not replace fiat The head of the US Federal Reserve System Jerome Powell expressed the opinion that digital currencies of central banks (CBDC) will not become a substitute for conventional money. CBDCs will coexist with them. According to Powell, not only the government, but also the private sector should be engaged in improving the global payment system. “CBDC needs to coexist with cash and other types of money in a flexible and innovative payment system,” said the Federal Reserve Chair. At the same time, experts from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) conducted their research on the estimated future of global payments and the interaction of different CBDCs. BIS expects countries whose central banks will also start launching their CBDCs to continue to emerge, leading to interoperability issues between different digital currencies. Experts emphasize that CBDC will need to compete with those private stablecoins that already exist. In addition, the researchers announced the possible emergence of a global stablecoin, but whether it will be a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve or another CBDC in BIS is not yet sure. Jack Dorsey sells an NFT tweet for $2.91M Twitter founder Jack Dorsey sold his first tweet in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT) for $ 2.91 million. He promised to convert the proceeds from the sale into bitcoin and donate to charitable foundation GiveDirectly. On March 6, 2021, Dorsey put up a post for sale with the text " just setting up my twttr” " as an NFT. According to the auction data, the lot was bought by the founder of Bridge Oracle, Sina Estavi, but the founder of Tron, Justin Sun, also actively participated in the auction. Jack Dorsey is considered one of the most famous Bitcoin proponents. The cryptocurrency division of the company he founded and manages, Square, has repeatedly invested in bitcoin and financed the developers of the first cryptocurrency. Earlier, the Canadian analytical company NonFungible predicted the growth of the NFT market by several times in 2021.

Messari thinks ETH can get ahead of BTC Ryan Watkins, senior analyst at analyst firm Messari, believes that ETH could displace BTC from the first place in the ranking of cryptoassets in terms of capitalization. This can happen after the transition to the second version of the Ethereum protocol. “The selling point of Bitcoin over Ethereum as a store of value asset boils down its monetary policy being very predictable and the Bitcoin blockchain being very secure. I think that with the shift to Eth2 and to proof-of-stake, [...] Ethereum may actually potentially be more secure than Bitcoin,” said Watkins. The analyst noted that a "massive and diverse" economy is based on the Ethereum blockchain. The actively developing direction of decentralized applications will attract new users faster than BTC, he is sure. Bank of America analyst: buying 1 BTC is "like owning 60 cars" Bitcoin is useless as a store of value or payment instrument. The only reason to become a holder of BTC is its growing price. This is the opinion of analysts at Bank of America, whose report is called "Little Dirty Secrets of Bitcoin." One of the authors of the report, Francisco Blanch, is confident that BTC cannot be a safe-haven asset due to the fact that it is not tied to inflation and has serious volatility. The analyst pointed out that about 95% of bitcoins are held by the owners of 2.4% of wallets, and this may become an obstacle to the global introduction of the crypto coin. “As such, the main portfolio argument for holding Bitcoin is not diversification, stable returns, or inflation protection, but rather sheer price appreciation, a factor that depends on Bitcoin demand outpacing supply,” said Blanch.

NFT searches hit a record high According to The Block Research, the number of searches for non-fungible tokens in the Google search engine has reached an all-time high. According to NFT Non-Fungible data for 2020, the industry has grown by 300% compared to the previous period, and the volume of this market has increased by about $ 250 million. The number of weekly users of NFT platforms also testifies to the growth of attention. Over the past week, it amounted to almost 400,000 people. Not only media and ordinary investors show interest in NFT, but also media personalities. Elon Musk previously announced his readiness to sell his NFT token for 420 million Dogecoin. A well-known financial consultant admitted that he was wrong with his bitcoin strategy Stock market star Dave Portnoy wrote on his Twitter page that he made the mistake of selling his BTC too early. In his words, the investor did not understand the dynamics of the growth and fall of the most popular crypto coin. Earlier, the founder of Barstool Sports acquired BTC for $1 million. However, he quickly became disillusioned with this asset and sold bitcoins at a price below $12,000. “I want to congratulate all my bitcoin people out there. When you're wrong, you're wrong. I fucking paper-handed, sold it. I fucking can't take bitcoin, the ups and downs. I wish I had it. I took all my money and I put it in what I think I know, and what I can control. I don't know bitcoin. I fucked up, ”Portnoy said in his video message to crypto enthusiasts. JPMorgan: retail investors are more interested in bitcoin than institutional ones Analysts at JPMorgan concluded that in the first three months of 2021, retail investment in BTC exceeded that of institutional investors. The latter began to buy less cryptocurrency. Analysts do not exclude that a decrease in the volume of investments from institutions may be one of the reasons that bitcoin could not stay above the $60,000 mark. According to JPMorgan, retail investors bought over 187,000 BTC, while institutional investors bought about 172,684 BTC. According to the Japanese investment company Mizuho Securities, about $40 billion of the $380 billion that American citizens will receive in the form of incentive payments can be invested in bitcoins and stocks.

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OKCoin plans to delist Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV The largest cryptocurrency platform OKCoin has planned to delist Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. According to the CEO of Hong Fang, new users of OKCoin often come to invest in BTC, but by mistake, they buy BCH or BSV. Among other reasons for the failure of bitcoin forks - a controversial figure of the creator of BSV Craig Wright. The entrepreneur has already stated that it was he who created bitcoin. “This is not an easy decision. We had a choice and there is collateral damage, but we had to stand up for the bigger principle we believe in. On the one hand we feel very strongly about protecting the open-source ethos, but on the other, if we do something about it, that would conflict with our principle of being a neutral platform. We wouldn’t have changed that if it weren’t for Craig Wright posting these threats to the open-source dev community. We think these threats are very destructive to development and Bitcoin as a whole, "- Fang said.

Glassnode believes that "miners have reduced bitcoin sales, and investors are taking profits" According to the research company Glassnode, miners have begun to accumulate reserves in bitcoins. Long-term investors, on the other hand, are trying to get rid of their assets in order to lock in profits. The Glassnode report says that in January, miners were actively selling almost all of the mined BTC, however, in February, the volume of sales decreased significantly. This could mean that miners are hoping for an increase in the value of bitcoin. “This suggests that miners have either completed adequate sales to cover costs, or could also mean they see Tesla's vote of confidence as fair reason to keep a strong grip on their treasuries," analysts say. Analysts: 5 services store more than 50% of cryptocurrencies that were obtained illegally Chainalysis experts concluded that 55% of digital currencies that were obtained fraudulently or with the help of ransomware viruses are laundered through just 5 services. These services use about 270 unique deposit addresses. Analysts believe that the largest processors of illegally obtained crypto coins receive about $25 million a year. Serving such illegal transactions may be their main activity. Experts believe that suppressing the illegal activities of such deposit addresses will help shut down most of the infrastructure that now exists for laundering crypto assets.