Author: Caitlin Carey

Caitlin is a crypto evangelist with a deep curiosity and passion for learning and writing about everything to do with cryptocurrency. She has a background as a performing artist and songwriter and is a digital media enthusiast, with a bachelor degree in Multimedia.

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Banking Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Berkshire Hathaway Invests $500 Million into Digital Bank Company

Warren Buffett’s American multinational holding company Berkshire Hathaway (one of the largest publicly held companies in the world) now has a US$500 million stake in Nubank, the world’s largest independent digital ‘Bitcoin-friendly’ bank, based in Brazil.

With 8.5 million customers, Nubank is the biggest online bank outside of Asia and has positioned itself as the most valuable financial institution in Latin America and the world. It was recently recognised as one of the most influential global companies by TIME magazine and one of the most innovative by CNBC. Launching its first product in Mexico just over a year ago, it has already received 1.5 million applications and is one of the largest issuers of new credit cards in that country.

The company is the largest digital bank in the world in terms of customer numbers – it has just reached the 40 million mark and, in the first five months of 2021, has grown at a pace of more than 45,000 new customers per day.

Nubank Blog

The company acquired Easynvest, a digital brokerage firm that offers a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), in 2020 and is seriously challenging the global financial system by expanding its core credit card service to the unbanked to include personal lending and entrepreneurial investment loans.

On June 8, Nubank announced that it plans to use the money raised to fund its international expansion to Mexico and Colombia, launch new products and services, and hire more employees.

Superstar Executive Line-up

Nubank boasts an all-star team of brainiacs, including: Chief People Officer Renee Mauldin (Google, Twitter and Uber); Director of Operations Youssef Lahrech (MIT engineer and former senior vice-president at Capital One); and Product Director Jag Duggal (ex-Google and Facebook).

Although many Brazilians don’t have bank accounts, they do have mobiles and thus can use Nubank’s no-fee credit cards with a smartphone. The future we’ve been talking about is finally here. No wonder the banks and governments are FUDding. They are scared. Very scared – because the world is changing and they are being left in the dust.

Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting 2021 – source

Billionaire investor Charlie Munger‘s fear and negative sentiment towards Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general will soon be a thing of the past. The old-school generation of corporate finance and Wall Street manipulation must die so the new generation of open source money, free from banks and institutional control, can live.

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Blockchain Crypto News DeFi Ethereum NFTs

Solana is Raising Up To $450 Million to Challenge Ethereum

Solana is challenging Ethereum’s lion’s share of the decentralised applications market after rumours emerged it will receive a funding injection of between US$300-450 million.

Solana is making real progress towards positioning itself as the preferred blockchain on which the next generation of dApps are built, powering DeFi, NFTs and gaming. We also saw recently that SOL was listed on Coinbase Pro, which also boosts its tradability.

While Ethereum has struggled to meet the booming demand in the market as increased adoption has resulted in painfully slow transaction wait times and soaring gas prices, the current congestion issues have opened up the space for new contenders.

Solana website

Cheaper, Faster and Highly Scalable

Solana’s open-source proof-of-stake blockchain aims to solve the traffic bottleneck on the Ethereum network. Solana’s advanced scalability offers dApps built on its blockchain lightning-fast performance at significantly cheaper costs to those built on Ethereum. Currently, Solana can handle more than 50,000 transactions per second, while Ethereum averages only 10-15 transactions per second. On its website, Solana boasts a low average fee of only $0.00025 per transaction.

The funding round for Solana was due to close in March but was extended due to strong interest. Solana has not released an official statement but, in a recent interview, executives did not deny it, commenting:

This information wasn’t shared by our team …We won’t be able to assist with any additional commentary around this as it’s not officially being released by Solana.

Solana spokesperson

According to Forbes, if the rumoured sum raised amounts to even $300 million, that would place it in the top six venture capital rounds in crypto and blockchain to date. It will be interesting to see if Solana comes under scrutiny from the SEC, who may deem the SOL tokens as securities and thus subject to regulatory challenges.

Learn more about the Solana project on the Solana Podcast.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Miami Bitcoin Conference Hosts 20K Attendees Plus Billionaires and Celebrities

It’s a Bitcoin party in Miami Florida, baby! This year’s Bitcoin 2021 Conference continues this weekend at the Mana Wynwood Convention Center in Miami. 

General admission tickets went for a lazy US$1,500 and are completely sold out. Those with extra cash could fork out $20,000 for a “whale pass” and get themselves an extra day to mingle among the rich and famous and some geeky crypto nerds. That also entitled attendees to VIP tickets for Floyd Mayweather’s fight against YouTuber Logan Paul on June 6. 

Guests Include Entrepreneurs, Athletes, Actors and Politicians

Among the high-profile guests at the conference are Bitcoin billionaire Brock Pierce, the Winklevoss twins (Cameron and Tyler, themselves worth a cool US$6 billion), MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and skateboard entrepreneur Tony Hawk.

In preparing for the event, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez advocated for the city to pay its workers in Bitcoin.

“The Mayor has certainly said he is bold and supports innovation. Innovators are looking for a combination of quality of life and also feeling supported by the government … Miami caught the wave. They capitalised on the situation and, as a result, the future of Miami is probably forever changed.”

Brock Pierce

Unlike those ducks that fly south just for the winter, it seems venture capital and tech/crypto-loving New Yorkers have migrated to Miami on a more permanent basis, not merely for a summer vacation. Florida in general is proving to be a forward-thinking and welcoming state for cryptocurrency.

Watch The LiveStream Replay

Below is the video replay of Day 1 of the Event. We will update this article with the Day 2 video once it’s available.

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Australia Bitcoin Crime Crypto News

IT Student Busted Buying Meth Parcel Off the Dark Web With Bitcoin

The Dark Web is a place where you can purchase drugs and have them delivered to your parents’ house, because it’s where you still live. And you can use Bitcoin to pay for them … unless, of course, you get caught.

Bag containing crystal meth, similar to that seized by Rockhampton Police

Joshua Ashton appeared in Rockhampton Magistrates Court this week after being charged with possession of methamphetamine. Ashton was alleged to have ordered the drug online in March 2021 and paid for it with A$300 worth of Bitcoin. He pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing a dangerous drug after Australia Post had intercepted a parcel bound for his parents’ address.

Parcel Intercepted After Police Tipoff by Australia Post

Ashton, a first-year IT student at Central Queensland University, claimed to have purchased the drug for his personal use. On March 25, his express post shipment containing 1.5 grams of methamphetamine was seized by police after the Australia Post tipoff.

Magistrate Jason Schubert recorded a conviction and fined Ashton $600, effectively tripling his investment.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Sports

Top 10 Finish For The Bitcoin Car At Indy 500

On Sunday May 30, the world’s first Bitcoin car finished 8th in the 105th annual Indianapolis 500, after leading the race for 32 laps.

The car was entered by Ed Carpenter Racing who forfeited all sponsors for this year’s race (run over 500 miles) in favour of promoting Bitcoin.

Below is a video of the car being prepared for the event.

Bank Sponsored Car Runs Out Of Gas

In a humorous highlight, the Bitcoin car overtook the rival PNC Bank sponsored car when it ran out of fuel.

Bitcoin QR Code Added On The Car

Bitcoin QR Code Shown on The Bitcoin Car

There was a Bitcoin address in QR code added on the car itself, which was the primary address used for donations for the race.

It was Bitcoin Pizza Day last week, baking to support Bitcoin developers; now a car, racing for Bitcoin awareness! Exciting things are happening as Bitcoin keeps on coming; slowly but surely, creeping into our everyday lives, hidden in plain sight for those that are awake enough to see.

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Crypto News Cryptocurrency Tax

US Treasury Declares War Against Crypto Tax Evasion

On May 28, the Biden Administration released the 2022 Budget Proposal, as the US Treasury calls for more detailed crypto reporting requirements to combat tax evasion.

US Treasury Claims Tax Evasion On The Rise

A statement by the US Treasury claimed that tax evasion using crypto assets is a rapidly growing problem. “The global nature of the crypto market offers opportunities for taxpayers to conceal assets and taxable income by using offshore crypto exchanges and wallet providers.”.

This follows related news that Biden is introducing a new tax proposal for businesses in the US to report crypto transactions over US$10k.

Australia Tax Time Approaching

It’s not just the U.S. cracking down, but also in Australia as we see the ATO warning crypto traders that they will have to report their gains. It is expected that over 600,000 aussies have participated in the cryptocurrency market and an estimated half of those will need to submit their tax returns with their crypto profit and loss.

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Binance Crypto News Travel

You Can Now Book Your Hotel On Binance Mobile App

Binance has partnered with Travala to accept hotel bookings paying with crypto using your Binance Mobile App.

Binance is once again positioning itself as a major leader in crypto adoption, entering payment solutions for our everyday lives.

Press play below to see it in action!

Pay for Hotels with Binance Pay

Binance users can now book over 3,000,000 travel products on Travala.com, the first merchant to integrate Binance Pay. Whether you run an e-commerce business or restaurant, you can accept crypto payments with Binance Pay. Binance Pay’s Merchant APIs allow you to process online payments or in-person payments using QR codes, all while offering customers a seamless payment experience. 

From the home screen inside the Binance App, select the ‘More’ button, and you can find ‘Hotels’ in beta. Very exciting to have such a major player as Binance release a feature like this. Crypto is here to stay. Mainstream adoption is coming… it’s already here.

How To Access Hotels on your Phone

See the screenshots below on how to find the Hotels feature on your Biannce Mobile App.

Travala.com is the first company or service to integrate Binance Pay. Users can pay for bookings using Binance pay and get AVA rewards!

What is Binance Pay?

Binance Pay is currently in (beta) and can be accessed by anyone who has a Binance account and completed their identity verification.

Binance Pay currently supports more than thirty cryptocurrencies including: BTC, BNB, BUSD, ETH, ADA, ATOM, BCH, DASH, DOGE, DOT, EOS, ETC, FIL, HBAR, LINK, LTC, MATIC, NEO, PAX, QTUM, TRX, TUSD, UNI, USDC, VET, WRX, XLM, XMR, XRP, XTZ, ZEC, USDT, FRONT, STRAX, ONE, EGLD and SXP.

Binance Pay transactions are usually confirmed instantaneously. However, please note that due to compliance requirements, funds made to your Pay wallet account can only be utilized 24 hours after it has been received.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Best 10 Popular TV Shows Mentioning Bitcoin

Bitcoin has made some unexpected TV appearances over the years, appearing in some of our favourite mainstream shows and sitcoms.

Let’s take a look at our top 10 TV shows featuring Bitcoin.

1. The Big Bang Theory – The Bitcoin Entanglement (2017)

Sheldon and the gang talk about how the price of Bitcoin has increased significantly and suddenly remember they mined a bunch of it back in 2010. Then follows the old story – they realise they lost track of the flash drive and their dreams of being rich disappear, as usual.

2. Silicon Valley (2018) – Gilfoyle Crypto Powerpoint

The show features a PowerPoint presentation by Gilfoyle about cryptocurrencies. Outlining that Bitcoin was the first to crypto, it paved the way for more to come (just as Myspace did for Facebook and Twitter). “Crypto is out there and it’s not going away”. The plot leads to an ICO, thus welcoming PiedPiperCoin into the world of fictional digital assets.

3. The Good Wife – Bitcoin Commercial (2012)

The Good Wife watches an explainer video on the introduction of Bitcoin as digital money. Explained Bitcoin as “You can buy it from currency traders online or you can mine it like gold. One Bitcoin’s worth $3, it used to be $33”.

4. The Simpsons (2013) – Crusty The Clown on Bitcoin

Crusty the Clown breaks it down to Lisa, that he’s broke due to some “bad luck at the ponies” and the worst luck in the Bitcoin market. I wonder what crusty was trading back in 2013.

5. Crypto (2019) – The Movie

Kurt Russell stars in the movie Crypto as a father to AML (anti-money laundering) officer, played by Beau Knapp. Throw in some Russian Mafia and tens of millions in anonymous Bitcoin transactions and you’ve got yourself a blockbuster worth watching.

6. Billions (2018) – Crypto Profits

Axe from the popular show HBO Billions, hides his secret Wall Street trading profits in crypto on a Ledger USB stick. He was “Paid in crypto, of course”.

7. Family Guy (2017) – Bitcoin Mention

After a family prayer to God, asking to help save them from being poor, Peter has a brainwave: “Bitcoin!”.

8. House of Cards (2014) – Bitcoin Mention

The hidden internet – where you can go to find anything and everything including “Bitcoin laundering”.

9. Mr. Robot (2016) – Bitcoin Mention

The Ecorp villians from the Mr Robot series discuss making their own digital currency called Ecoin. They explain: “The problem here is hard cash is fading… rapidly. That’s just the way of the world right now and Bitcoin is spreading and if Bitcoin takes over we are all in a world of hell”.

10. Jeopardy (2013) – Definition of Bitcoin

Question: “A digital currency in which transactions can be performed without the need for a central bank?” Answer: “What is a Bitcoin!“

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFnCkxc8tCo

That’s our round up of the best TV shows mentioning so far!? What’s your favourite? leave a comment in the Twitter thread.

Categories
Crypto News Ethereum Gaming NFTs

GameStop is Building an NFT Platform and $GME Token on Ethereum

GameStop – an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer, has announced that they plan to build an NFT platform on Ethereum and introducing a new token called $GME.

What GameStock’s GME Token Could Potentially Do

GameStock’s NFT platform will use the GME token – built on Ethereum’s ERC721 standard protocol. An animated image on the GameStock webpage states: “Power to the players. Power to the creators. Power to the collectors.“.

The news of the GME token comes as the company moves from being essentially, just a brick-and-mortar store to cryptocurrency, digital collectables and e-commerce.

GameStop is Hiring

On their website they declare “We are building a team!” as they look to develop this new NFT platform and tokenomics.

“We welcome exceptional engineers (solidity, react, python), designers, gamers, marketers, and community leaders. If you want to join our team, send your profile or something you’ve built to: [email protected].”

GameStop Stock Price

It’s not just in crypto that can go bananas. Earlier this year we saw the GameStop stock almost 100x, from $4 a share to $347 on January 27, 2021. After a coordinated pump from Reddit-ers the price fell as quickly as it rose, but is now slowly and steadily climbing upwards.

Robinhood Suspend $GME Trading

Robinhood is in hot water again after suspending the ability for retail investors to trade $GME, while still allowing hedge funds to continue trading; stating that their reasons for doing so was that the price volatility posed a risk for buyers and that they were “protecting customers”. Isn’t the name “Robinhood” supposed to stand for Taking from the rich and giving to the poor? Their actions prove that they were actually protecting the rich from getting poor. Their move to stop people from buying stock, while still allowing sellers to sell; was solely in the best interests of the company’s large investors- who held short positions.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev interview on CNN over GameStop freeze

The SEC has given a statement on the matter, saying the commission will continue working to “protect investors, to maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and to facilitate capital formation.” The matter is under scrutiny from congress, with a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez saying:

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Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis

Bitcoin Has Crashed, But is it Time to Buy?

Over a 50% ShakeOut

Don’t panic. This is normal. Even though it has been hailed as the best performing asset ever, Bitcoin’s infamously known for its wild volatility. As more and more money has poured into the cryptocurrency market and Bitcoin, from new retail investors and also large institutional deep pockets; the volatility is crazier than ever.

Market Correction or Huge Dump?

Call it what you will, there is no denying that there is a mixture of panic and excitement in the air: for those more experienced investors who are not deterred by the sea of red, who have weathered many a Bitcoin storm and have a bag of cash set aside, exactly for these ‘rainy days’, can only smell opportunity.

Is it time to buy?

Was this huge ‘correction’ inevitable? Bitcoin had been experiencing an impressive state of steady growth, however, the usual 20% and 30% dips we are used to seeing, were getting bought up faster than ever before, causing the price to rise too quickly for it to be sustained. Those that are unshaken by this last correction hope that Bitcoin will now continue to the upside, but at a more slow-and-steady healthy pace.

Reasons to stay bullish

There are some key levels of support and resistance around the low $30,000 range that Bitcoin needs to either break or sustain before we can know if this is the start of the bear market or just the bull market being prolonged. If so, we might see a second rally to the upside. Either way, the market will likely be very choppy for the next few weeks or even months.

When in doubt, zoom out

While it now seems extremely unlikely that Bitcoin will hit a target of $300,000 anytime soon, we do have some fundamentally good news still to come later this year. Parachains such as Polkadot and Kusama are coming, we have Ethereum’s EIP 1559 and Smart Contracts being announced for Cardano. If Bitcoin can keep its head up, it might just carry the Bullrun into 2022.

Youtuber Sheldon Evans breaks it down.