“According to a draft press release from the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General, the Bureau of Securities is planning to issue a Summary Cease and Desist Order to New Jersey-based multi-billion dollar bitcoin financial services platform BlockFi to stop offering interest-bearing accounts.  If signed, this action could be the first of its kind against crypto lending platforms that have seen rapid growth during the recent crypto bull run. Since its inception in 2017, BlockFi has raised $500 million in private funding and has a valuation of $5 billion. The undated, unpublished draft contends that BlockFi, has been funding and facilitating its cryptocurrency lending and trading operations at least partly through the sale of unregistered securities in alleged violation of relevant securities laws.”

“El Salvador’s declaration of Bitcoin as legal tender could create challenges for both the country and the cryptocurrency, according to a team from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Bitcoin trading volumes commonly exceed $40 billion to $50 billion per day, but most of that is internalized by major exchanges, said a group from JPMorgan including Steve Palacio, Joshua Younger and Veronica Mejia Bustamante, in a report Thursday. A large portion of Bitcoin is locked up in illiquid entities, with more than 90% not changing hands in more than a year — with a “significant and rising fraction held by wallets with light turnover,” they added.”

“Financial institutions of all sizes now can enable consumers to buy, sell and hold bitcoin through their bank accounts via an integration between Fiserv, Inc. (NASDAQ: FISV), a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology solutions, and NYDIG, a leading bitcoin technology and financial services company. This will enable banks and credit unions to meet growing mainstream interest in bitcoin, retain and grow their customer base, and increase non-interest income opportunities. An extension of the Fiserv commitment to open banking technology, the integration with NYDIG will allow consumers to manage bitcoin transactions directly within their financial institution’s online and mobile banking portals, providing users an easy way to buy, sell and hold the popular digital asset through their trusted financial institutions.”

“Bitcoin tumbled almost 10% on Monday as recent volatility in the cryptocurrency market showed no signs of dampening down, with market players citing jitters over China’s expanding crackdown on bitcoin mining in thin liquidity for the losses. Bitcoin fell as low as $32,094 to its lowest in 12 days, dragging smaller coins down. It was last down 8.3%, on course for its biggest daily drop in a month. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency, long plagued by volatility, has lost over 20% in the last six days alone and is down by half from its April peak of almost $65,000. Still, it has still gained over 10% this year.”

“Banks must set aside enough capital to cover losses on any bitcoin holdings in full, global banking regulators proposed on Thursday, in a “conservative” step that could prevent widescale use of the cryptocurrency by major lenders. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, made up of regulators from the world’s leading financial centres, proposed a twin approach to capital requirements for cryptoassets held by banks in its first bespoke rule for the nascent sector. El Salvador has become the world’s first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender even though central banks globally have repeatedly warned that investors in the cryptocurrency must be ready to lose all their money.”

“U.S. authorities have recovered millions of dollars in digital currency paid to the hackers who hit a major East Coast fuel pipeline with a ransomware attack last month , in a law-enforcement operation that officials said demonstrated progress undermining criminals’ ability to disrupt American commerce and critical infrastructure for profit. Investigators seized about 64 bitcoin, valued at roughly $2.3 million, from a virtual wallet—the alleged proceeds from the ransom hack carried out by a suspected Russian-based criminal gang on Colonial Pipeline Co., the Justice Department said. “The extortionists will never see this money,” Stephanie Hinds, acting U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California, where the seizure warrant was obtained, told reporters. “This case demonstrates our resolve to develop methods to prevent evildoers from converting new methods of payment into tools and extortion for undeserved profits.””

“Square CEO Jack Dorsey said Friday the company is looking into building a hardware bitcoin wallet that would give consumers greater control over the cryptocurrency they own… Dorsey is proposing a new way for users to store their bitcoin so that it’s not controlled by Square or any other company. A bitcoin wallet could allow users to store the cryptocurrency in a secure gadget and let them choose to spend it later.”

“Sheetz will soon become the first convenience store retailer to accept payments via bitcoin. The mid-Atlantic convenience chain will begin allowing customers to pay for items inside the store or at the gas pump using digital currencies like bitcoin, ether, litecoin, dogecoin later in summer 2021. Sheetz is enabling digital currency payments via pure-digital payments network Flexa .  Flexa converts a consumer’s cryptocurrency to U.S. dollars in real time for payment to the retailer, enabling an exchange process and use of cryptocurrencies for brick-and-mortar payments.”

““Proof of work is proof of burning,” is fast becoming the dominant view of Bitcoin (BTC) among those who are serious about tackling the climate crisis. The words are from a United Kingdom government representative for this year’s COP26 UN climate talks, cited this week in the Financial Times. The same article indicates that climate campaigning groups — who have, until now, been slow to take a firm line against Proof-of-Work cryptocurrencies — are catching up and becoming more aware of the climate risks involved. Greenpeace, which set up a facility for accepting Bitcoin donations back in 2014 , is now planning to scrap the channel.”

“Cryptocurrency miners, including HashCow and BTC.TOP, have halted all or part of their China operations after Beijing intensified a crackdown on bitcoin mining and trading, hammering digital currencies amid heightened global regulatory scrutiny. A State Council committee led by Vice Premier Liu He announced the crackdown late on Friday as part of efforts to fend off financial risks. It was the first time China’s cabinet has targeted virtual currency mining, a sizable business in the world’s second-biggest economy that some estimates say accounts for as much as 70% of the global crypto supply.”

“MoneyGram International said Wednesday it will allow customers to buy and sell bitcoin (BTC, -10.8%) for cash at 12,000 U.S. retail locations through a partnership with Coinme.  The cash transfer company plans to introduce bitcoin trades in 20,000 stores across 32 states by Q3, Coinme CEO Neil Bergquist told CoinDesk. His crypto firm already facilitates cash-for-bitcoin swaps at around 6,000 supermarket kiosks. MoneyGram and Coinme will take 4% of customers’ transactions plus $2.75 in fees. Walmart-based MoneyGram locations will charge $2 more, he said.”

“Financial technology leader FIS ® (NYSE: FIS) today announced an industry-first solution that enables banks to offer their customers the ability to buy, sell, and hold bitcoin via their bank accounts. Currently, consumers and corporations must establish new accounts, often with unregulated entities, and go outside of their traditional banking relationships to acquire bitcoin. The new solution taps into the advanced functionality of the FIS Digital One™ Mobile solution to allow banks to provide bitcoin services via a seamless, easy-to-use digital experience – enabling them to drive fee income and better attract and retain customers.”

“Bitcoin and other digital currencies plunged on Friday as a proposed capital gains tax hike from U.S. President Joe Biden led to a wave of selling. At around 10 a.m. London time, bitcoin was down over 8% in the last 24 hours at $48,687, according to Coin Metrics data. It’s the first time bitcoin has traded below $50,000 since early March. Ether fell to $2,211, down more than 12%. XRP , the fifth-biggest cryptocurrency, plunged nearly 19%.   This wiped out more than $200 billion of value from the entire cryptocurrency market, according to data from CoinMarketCap.”

“The last few times Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou witnessed such negative price action in Bitcoin, buyers returned in time to prevent deeper slumps. This time, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. strategist is worried. If the largest cryptocurrency isn’t able to break back above $60,000 soon, momentum signals will collapse, strategists led by Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note Tuesday. It’s likely traders including Commodity Trading Advisers (CTAs) and crypto funds were at least partly behind the buildup of long Bitcoin futures in recent weeks, as well as the unwind in past days , they said.”

“Fidelity Investments, Square Inc. and several other financial firms are forming a new trade group that aims to shape the way bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are regulated. The Crypto Council for Innovation will lobby policy makers, take up research projects and serve as the burgeoning industry’s voice in championing the economic benefits of digital currencies and related technologies. Crypto investor Paradigm and Coinbase Global Inc., which operates a cryptocurrency exchange , also signed on as initial members of the group.”

“Cryptocurrencies are banned in Morocco, but peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC, -3.41%) trading platform LocalBitcoins is reporting all-time trading highs this year.  February 2021 was the platform’s “best month ever” in Morocco in terms of trading volumes, according to LocalBitcoins Chief Marketing Officer Jukka Blomberg, who said approximately $900,000 worth of bitcoin was traded on the platform through the month. LocalBitcoins also saw a 30% increase in user registrations between 2019 and 2020, with over 700 new accounts created, Blomberg said.”

“Morgan Stanley is the first big U.S. bank to offer its wealth management clients access to bitcoin funds, CNBC has learned exclusively. The investment bank, a giant in wealth management with $4 trillion in client assets, told its financial advisors Wednesday in an internal memo that the bank is launching access to three funds that enable ownership of bitcoin, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.”

“A number of indicators suggest that Bitcoin ( BTC ) is pushing aside gold as the premier safe-haven asset. This could set the stage for wider mainstream adoption of the digital currency, according to Mike McGlone, a senior commodity strategist at Bloomberg…The chart accompanying the tweet shows Bitcoin’s strong outperformance versus gold since mid-2020, while total known holdings of gold ETFs have declined. In other words, it appears that Bitcoin is gaining traction among institutional investors at the expense of gold. The chart also highlights a sharp decline in Bitcoin’s volatility relative to that of gold.”

“Square bought $170 million worth of Bitcoin, the company revealed in its fiscal fourth quarter financial report on Tuesday. The company said it purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins, expanding on its Oct. 2020 purchase of 4,709. Square said it represents about 5% of the company’s total assets as of the end of 2020.”

“Bitcoin hit yet another record high on Friday, and moved within sight of a market capitalisation of $1 trillion, blithely shrugging off analyst warnings that it is an “economic side show” and a poor hedge against a fall in stock prices. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency jumped 2.6% to an all-time high of $52,932, setting it on course for a weekly jump of over 8%. It has surged around 60% so far this month.”

“Bitcoin topped $50,000 for the first time Tuesday, doubling in value in less than two months. The digital currency traded as high as $50,584.84, up about 5% for the day and more than 74% for the year, according to CoinDesk. The total market value of bitcoin in circulation rose to $940 billion. Bitcoin later receded from its high, recently trading near $48,962. The $50,000 level is an “emotional level for people in the space,” said Brian Melville, head of strategy at trading firm Cumberland. But it is also a simple result of supply and demand, he added.”

“T-Mobile is being sued by a customer as a result of a SIM attack that resulted in over losses of over $450,000 in cryptocurrency. The plaintiff, Calvin Cheng, lost 15 bitcoin after an interaction with Brandon Buchanan, T-mobile customer and co-founder of investment fund Iterative Capital, who had been victim of a SIM-swapping attack.”

“Adyen , the European fintech giant processing payments for the likes of Facebook , Netflix and Uber , isn’t convinced bitcoin can be used as a mainstream form of payment. Pieter van der Does, the firm’s CEO and co-founder, told CNBC that volatility in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies makes them less attractive for making transactions. He added his firm has no interest in adding crypto as a payment method.”

“Bank of New York Mellon Corp. , the nation’s oldest bank, is making the leap into the market for cryptocurrencies. The custody bank said Thursday it will hold, transfer and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its asset-management clients. In time, BNY Mellon will allow those digital assets to pass through the same plumbing used by managers’ other, more traditional holdings—from Treasurys to technology stocks—using a platform that is now in prototype. The bank is already discussing plans with clients to bring their digital currencies into the fold.”