While BTC’s Hashrate Remains High, It’s More Difficult Than Ever Before to Mine Bitcoin

At the end of January 2021, Bitcoin’s network mining difficulty, a measure of how complicated it is to mine a block reward, is higher than it’s ever been during the crypto protocol’s lifetime. Currently, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is a whopping 20.8 trillion but despite the handicap, bitcoin miners have continued to keep the network’s hashrate running hot. Bitcoin Difficulty Touches 20.82 Trillion Bitcoin (BTC) prices have been higher than ever before and despite the temporary dip on January 21 below the $30k handle, the crypto asset has managed to remain…

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Russia Prohibits Government Officials From Owning Crypto, Must Dump Holdings by April

The Russian Ministry of Labor has reportedly banned government officials from owning and using cryptocurrencies. Officials have also been ordered to dispose of any cryptocurrencies they own by April. Russia Prohibits Government Officials From Holding or Using Cryptocurrencies The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of the Russian Federation has issued a letter in which it informed civil servants that they must get rid of any cryptocurrencies they are holding by April 1, Forklog reported Friday. “Officials are obliged to dispose of digital financial assets issued in information systems organized…

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JP Morgan Gives 3 Reasons to Add Bitcoin to Investment Portfolios

JP Morgan has outlined three key reasons why investors should add bitcoin to their investment portfolios. Small allocations to cryptocurrencies would “improve portfolio efficiency due to high returns and moderate correlations,” JPMorgan’s analyst explained. JP Morgan Sees Benefits of Hedging With Bitcoin JPMorgan released a report last week entitled “What cryptocurrencies have and haven’t done for multi-asset portfolios.” Published by the firm’s head of Cross-Asset Strategy division, John Normand, the report explores cryptocurrencies’ use for portfolio diversification. Firstly, the report acknowledges that “Bitcoin has already achieved the fastest-ever price appreciation…

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Interview: Quick Hits On Bitcoin In Asia With Molly Of HashKey Hub

Listen To This Episode: Apple Spotify Google Libsyn On this episode of Bitcoin Magazine’s “Bitcoin In Asia,” Molly joins host John Riggins for a quick-hitting conversation about Bitcoin adoption in Asia to kick off 2021. Molly is head of marketing at HashKey Hub. She was also Bitcoin Magazine’s first employee in Asia and combines that early Bitcoin experience with a lot of success rolling out Bitcoin products in the continent with Hashkey. This is more of a rapidfire episode, including Molly’s perspective on mainstream media coverage of Bitcoin in China,…

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Hut 8 Partners With Foundry Digital To Secure 475 PH/s In Bitcoin Mining Capacity

Hut 8 Mining Corp. has announced a partnership with financial services firm Foundry Digital to secure $11.8 million in financing, which it will put toward 5,400 new MicroBT Whatsminer M30S mining rigs, adding 475 petahashes per second (PH/s) to its mining capacity over the next six months.  The financing is structured as a 12-month term with an annual interest rate of 16.5 percent. In the recently-published announcement, Hut 8 CEO Jaime Leverton acknowledged that securing new mining equipment is a big challenge for everyone in the business right now. “This…

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21 Bitcoin Block Rewards from 2010 Wake Up, $236M Worth of ‘Satoshi Era’ BTC Spent in 10 Months

On Monday, January 25, 2021, at roughly 2 a.m. (EST), the notorious old school miner from 2010 has spent another consecutive 21 decade-old block rewards with 1,050 bitcoin. This is possibly the same mining entity our newsdesk has been tracking for months. The bitcoin from 2010 moved today follows the exact same pattern as all the block reward strings our team has caught waking up during the last ten months. For quite some time now, news.Bitcoin.com has been monitoring so-called ‘sleeping bitcoins’ that are starting to wake up after ten…

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Grayscale Gifts $1 Million To Coin Center, Will Match Up To $1 Million More In February

Today, crypto research and advocacy group Coin Center received a $1 million donation from Grayscale Investments, as well as a commitment to match any donations made in February up to an additional $1 million. This donation is the second of its kind, which was first pioneered by Kraken back in 2018 with a similar donation and matching campaign. “The Coin Center team has been amazed by the outpouring of support that the cryptocurrency community has shown us over the years, and especially the last few months,” reads an announcement on…

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ZelaaPayAE: UAE Will Now Have a Crypto Debit Card

PRESS RELEASE. ZelaaPayAE, with a vision to build and improve the financial structure, introduces a Crypto Debit Card with the ability to be swiped not just in UAE but also globally. Partnering with Baanx, ZelaaPayAE is providing Mastercard enabled Debit Card featuring personalized cards with a low monthly fee and extreme accountability. What makes it stand out is the true ability to support a unique 5 multicurrency BIN which would enable you to spend in 8 currencies (USD, CNY, JPY, GBP, and others) with Mastercard Spot price i.e., Zero Forex…

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DDoS Attackers Return With Massive Extortion Campaigns in the Wake of Bitcoin Prices Surging

Threat actors have been finding opportunities in bitcoin’s bullish trend to increase their extortion campaigns. Hackers are actively threatening companies with DDoS attacks unless they pay for bitcoin ransoms. Bull Run Prices Push Extortionists to Increase Bitcoin Ransom Demands According to an alert issued by security firm Radware, there have been several reports between December 2020 and the first week of January 2021 about DDoS extortionists. The firm claims the campaign is part of a global one that started in August last year. However, in the wake of the crypto…

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Ushering In A Bitcoin Standard: Marathon Buys $150 Million Of Bitcoin

The supply of bitcoin continues to dry up as Marathon Patent Group Inc., one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies based in North America, announced its purchase of 4,812.66 BTC at an aggregate price of $150 million, per a release.  The bitcoin was purchased via New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG), which helped Marathon take advantage of the recent dip in the market. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen NYDIG help companies buy bitcoin, as it facilitated the recent MassMutual purchase of $100 million worth of BTC this past…

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