Author: RareHippo Staff Writer
As Lebanon’s currency continues to reach new lows against the dollar, and the country’s financial meltdown goes unabated. But now the buzz on the streets is that cryptocurrencies are providing a lifeline for Lebanese trying to survive a paralyzed banking system and tanking economy. The country’s economic crisis, among the world’s worst since the 1850s, according to a June World Bank report, is the result of systemic corruption and decades of mismanagement by a closely-knit ruling elite. For many Lebanese citizens, cryptocurrencies have become the only way to escape the crisis and the clutches of the local banks. Several cryptocurrency…
VCGamers, an Indonesia-based gaming ecommerce platform, has raised US$2.6 million in a seed round led by Beenext and Rans Ventures – a VC fund owned by local influencers Raffi Ahmad and Nagita Slavina, a press statement said on Friday. Google executive Ari Fadyl and Collab Asia vice president Jerry Soer also participated in the round. The investment boosts VCGamers’ valuation to US$20 million, according to a statement. Founded in 2021, VCGamers is a marketplace for in-game currencies, items, and services. Users can also interact with each other on the platform to build esports teams or organize tournaments. The company is…
With a view to empowering knowledge on crypto and blockchain ecosystem, CryptoWire, a global crypto super app which is a special business unit of TickerPlant, Monday announced the launch of India’s first index of Cryptocurrencies – IC15, which is a rule-based broad market index by market capitalisation. The IC15 tracks and measures the performance of the top 15 widely traded liquid cryptocurrencies listed on leading crypto exchanges of the world, the company stated. Over the past years, cryptocurrencies have emerged as an asset class in themselves, gaining wider acceptance and drawing people’s interests. An index that captures over 80 per cent of market movement is, thus,…
On the last day of 2021, Charles Hoskinson- CEO and founder of Cardano & IOHK- appeared in a video on the YouTube channel. Throughout the video, Charles shared his thoughts on the growth of the crypto industry in 2022 and also shared his thoughts on the criticism that Cardano faced in 2021 despite the huge success and systematic progress. Charles said that 2022 may not follow the similar trend of growth as it grabbed in 2021. The full video is below. https://youtu.be/sQIoB5xwsLU
Bitfarms secured a $100 million BTC-backed credit facility with Galaxy Digital LLC, an affiliate of Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd, Bitfarms said in a statement Friday This is a revolving, multi-draw credit facility that automatically renews annually. Bitfarms has made an initial $60 million draw with a six-month term at an interest rate of 10.75% per annum. Anticipated additional draws over the next few months, which would bring the total borrowings to $100 million, are subject to customary TSX Venture Exchange approval and would be expected to bear the same interest rate and to be due on the same date as…
Software intelligence company and bitcoin accumulator MicroStrategy has increased its Bitcoin holdings with a recent acquisition of 1,914 coins, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing Thursday. The purchase was made between December 8 and December 29 for $94.2 million in cash at an average price of $49,229 per Bitcoin. As of December 29, 2021, “we #hodl ~124,391 bitcoins acquired for ~$3.75 billion at an average price of ~$30,159 per bitcoin,” MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor tweeted on Thursday. https://twitter.com/saylor/status/1476539985562152960?s=20 Saylor described his company as the “world’s largest publicly traded corporate owner” of the leading digital asset. He asserted that the…
Hong Kong’s Customs and Excise Department arrested two people suspected of laundering over $384 million, through a cryptocurrency exchange and personal bank accounts, a statement said Wednesday. “Acting upon intelligence, Customs officers targeted a woman and her younger brother who were suspected of using personal bank accounts and a cryptocurrency exchange trading platform in dealing with money from unknown sources and participating in money laundering activities,” the statement said. Customs agents raided a residential premises in Yau Tong, and a 21-year-old man and a 28-year-old woman were arrested for “dealing with property known or reasonably believed to represent proceeds of…
The Central Bank of Russia (CBR) intends to gather data from commercial banks on various money transfers between private persons, including cryptocurrency traders. The regulation is expected to impact online crypto exchangers, whom the authority accuses of operating illegally. The Central Bank of Russia will request more data from financial institutions processing individual transfers as part of its attempts to crack down on some transactions it considers illicit. According to Russian media, the action affects a variety of companies that use accounts established in the names of dummy people, including online bookies and websites that provide crypto trading services. The…
Elon Musk, who is known to impact the price of cryptocurrencies with just his tweets, has clarified that he is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous person or a group of people believed to have invented Bitcoin. While Tesla CEO Elon Musk still remains one of the most significant personalities to support cryptocurrencies, he stressed in a podcast with Lex Fridman that he did not invent Bitcoin while arguing that the identity of the person is not as important as the evolution of ideas that led to the cryptocurrency. Musk even suggested that Nick Szabo is “probably more” responsible for the evolution…
Bitcoin dropped 6.13% to $47,855.17 on Wednesday morning, losing $3,250.19 from its previous close. Bitcoin, the world’s biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, is down 31% from the year’s high of $69,000 on November 10. While the spot trading volume of bitcoin remained mostly unchanged from a day ago, its price turbulence came as the market headed into monthly options expiration. A total of 129,800 option contracts worth more than $6 billion are set to expire on Friday, according to data provided by Skew. These wild price swings usually comes from spot market manipulations by option sellers -mostly institutional traders – to push the…