Crypto

Global payments provider PayPal is in the process of recruiting for several cryptocurrency-related positions at its Ireland offices, further highlighting the company’s ambitions in the rapidly growing digital asset market.  The Dublin-based Irish Independent, one of the country’s most popular news outlets, reported Sunday that PayPal is looking to fill various crypto-focused roles in compliance, anti-money laundering and business development for its Dublin and Dundalk offices. Related: PayPal set to launch crypto trading in the UK and may embrace DeFi PayPal launched a dedicated crypto and blockchain business unit earlier this year to support its foray into cryptocurrencies, which initially began in October 2020 by allowing customers in the United States to buy Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (E...

Bank of America, one of the nation’s largest financial institutions based on total assets, believes El Salvador could have a lot to gain with its latest foray into Bitcoin (BTC). In a report published last week, analysts at the bank said El Salvador’s decision to recognize BTC as legal tender could streamline remittances, promote financial digitization, provide consumers with greater choice and open up the country to American firms and digital currency miners. The bank noted that remittances account for a staggering 24% of El Salvador’s gross domestic product, but a sizable chunk of that goes toward transaction fees. “Using Bitcoin for remittances could potentially reduce transaction costs compared to traditional remittance channels,” the report said, according to an image provided by stat...

Bitcoin (BTC) closed July above $41,000 in a “bullish engulfing” candle that dramatically upends its previous downtrend. In a tweet on Aug. 1, investor and entrepreneur Alistair Milne joined many celebrating a classic return to form for BTC price action. Bitcoin refuses to flip bearish After seeing three straight monthly red candles in a row, BTC/USD held onto late gains to post a monthly close that few had anticipated. Despite the dip to $29,000, bears failed to stay in the driving seat as July drew to a close as resistance levels fell and sentiment improved.  “Bullish engulfing on the monthly chart for Bitcoin,” Milne summarized.  A bullish engulfing pattern is a chart pattern that forms when a small red candle is followed by a large green candle, i.e. J...

There are many things to think about when entering this field: what inspires someone to do so; how blockchain technology, crypto and DeFi match with your overall personal or professional philosophy; and how one can change the life of others through promoting DeFi adoption, breaking the stigma surrounding this industry. Have you ever considered entering the decentralized world of blockchain technology? Is there anything holding you back? In the DeFi industry, the above questions could be very intimidating, but the many women who have cracked into the space are changing the way decentralization is perceived. Getting women involved in an industry that has a preconceived idea of who should be the leaders is difficult, but women every day are breaking the already-established boundaries to perpe...

BlockFi’s eventful 2021 has continued in the second half of the year as state regulators in the United States began to crack down on the company’s crypto interest-bearing accounts. The move likely marks another operational headache for the non-bank lender in a year of substantial fundraises and public listing plans interspaced by controversy and technical blunders. State regulators going after crypto interest-bearing accounts may also stand as a bellwether of possible federal regulations targeted at the cryptocurrency loan market. Indeed, such a scenario might be possible given the current focus on digital currency regulations in America. From curtailing centralized crypto lenders, the focus of attention could move to their decentralized counterparts, especially amid the context of rhetori...

This year has been foundational for the success of projects running on the Ethereum blockchain. Sharing the limelight is Livepeer, an Ethereum-based video streaming network that announced it had raised $20 million in a Series B funding round.  Led by Digital Currency Group, the funding for Livepeer saw participation from large venture capitalists, including Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Northzone, 6th Man Ventures and Animal Ventures. Based on the announcement, Livepeer’s latest funding will be used to build an in-house protocol to experiment with livestream use cases, such as scene classification, object recognition, song-title detection and video fingerprinting. Previously, Northzone led the institutional funding round and raised $8 million for Livepeer. The company cu...

Both small and rich Bitcoin (BTC) traders accumulated the benchmark cryptocurrency en masse during the period when its prices rose from below $30,000 to over $40,000, signaling their confidence in the asset’s long-term bullish setup. The basis of the upside outlook came from Ecoinometrics, a crypto-focused newsletter service. It highlighted in its latest edition a flurry of on-chain data that tracked the flow of Bitcoin into wallets that belonged to the richest crypto traders, known as “whales,” and to entities that held the cryptocurrency in smaller quantities — the so-called “small fish.” “After a couple of weeks of data showing that most address buckets are accumulating coins, Bitcoin is finally bouncing back from the $30k level,” wrote Nick, the author of the Ecoinometrics newslet...

At the same time that China has declared war on cryptocurrencies, giant American banks appear to be embracing crypto — evident the final week of July with the news that crypto firm Lukka will provide State Street Bank’s private fund’s clients with digital and crypto asset fund administration services. This follows forays into the crypto space from the likes of BNY Mellon, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs among traditional bank heavyweights. Is it too early to speak of trend and counter-trend? And if a trade war has broken out between the United States and China, as many believe, why is China turning its back on cryptocurrencies while some of the West’s largest financial institutions, long wary of crypto, appear to see fresh value in blockchain-based digital currencies? “Yes, U.S. bank...

Charity fundraising risks being left behind in the shift to online activity. But taking inspiration from the COVID-19 pandemic trends, and new payment technology, could open doors. Change comes whether you’re ready or not, but being ready means you can seize the opportunity. The past year has accelerated the pace of digital transformation dramatically — sure, personal contact was already moving online, and contactless payments were slowly replacing cash, but the pandemic did not so much push as shove the world faster and farther than anyone expected. This creates specific challenges for the nonprofit sector — and with those, some exciting possibilities. Related: Philanthropy: A missing catalyst of blockchain adoption Bring the message home Charity events and street fundraising — two major ...

Bitcoin (BTC) shot to new highs of $42,400 on July 31 in a surprise attack on range resistance which sellers failed to squash. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitcoin seals 10 green candles in first since 2012 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD gaining for a tenth straight day across exchanges, reaching $42,420 on Bitstamp. A subsequent cooling-off preserved most of the gains, with Bitcoin circling $41,900 at the time of writing, still up over 8% over the past 24 hours. In trading circles, talk focused on a rare performance for the Bitcoin daily chart — ten green candles in a row, after all, last occurred in 2012. Bitcoin has closed 10 straight green daily candles! pic.twitter.com/6FEG4CgqLl — Will Clemente (@WClementeIII) Ju...

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Amazon plans to accept Bitcoin payments this year, claims insider The crypto community was going wild at the beginning of this week after rumors circulated that Amazon was planning to accept Bitcoin payments.  The rumors started after Amazon posted a job opening for a digital currency and blockchain product lead on July 22. Four days later, an anonymous source within Amazon reportedly told London business newspaper City A.M. that the e-commerce giant was planning to start accepting Bitcoin (BTC) payments ...