El Salvador’s government, led by President Nayib Bukele, has moved ahead with plans to issue Bitcoin bonds by preparing 20 bills designed to provide a legal framework for them. Head of the Treasury Alejandra Zelaya told El Salvadoran media El Mundo on Jan. 4 that the bills will cover regulations about issuing securities as cryptocurrency to ensure the viability of the Bitcoin bonds that were proposed in Nov. 2021. He said: "[This is] to provide a legal structure and legal certainty to everyone who buys the Bitcoin bond." However he did not propose a timeframe for the legislation to be …

Cion Digital, a developer for an enterprise SaaS blockchain orchestration platform, announced on Jan 4 that it had closed out its recent seed funding round at $12 million. The round was overseen by Green Visor Capital and 645 Ventures who have since joined Cion Digital’s board of directors. Additionally, Cota Capital, Epic Ventures, Hourglass Capital Partners, BAT Ventures, Greycroft and Ulu Ventures were also participants. Following the raise, the company said that it intends to allocate these funds toward its new resource and development center in Pune, India in an effort to further expand the project’s payment infrastructure. There, the …

Institutional cryptocurrency funds attracted record inflows in 2021, as demand for digital assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) continued to grow during a volatile and often unpredictable bull market. Crypto investment products registered $9.3 billion in inflows during the year, up from $6.8 billion in 2020, according to the latest CoinShares data that was released on Tuesday. Bitcoin funds attracted $6.3 billion worth of capital last year, while Ether products saw inflows totaling nearly $1.4 billion. Multi-asset funds were also popular, attracting $775 million in investor capital. A total of 37 investment products launched in 2021, compared with …

Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s most-valued cryptocurrency, has replaced gold as an inflation hedge for young investors, according to Wharton’s finance professor. Gold’s performance was “disappointing” in 2021, Wharton School’s finance professor Jeremy Siegel said in a CNBC Squawk Box last Friday. On the other hand, BTC has been increasingly emerging as an inflation hedge among younger investors, Siegel argued: “Let’s face the fact, I think Bitcoin as an inflation hedge in the minds of many of the younger investors has replaced gold. Digital coins are the new gold for the millennials. I think that the story of gold is a …

Previously anti-crypto investors are increasingly turning to Bitcoin and its brethren as a hedge against fiat currency inflation concerns. One example is Hungarian-born billionaire Thomas Peterffy who, in a Jan. 1 Bloomberg report, said that it would be prudent to have 2-3% of one’s portfolio in crypto assets just in case fiat “goes to hell”. He is reportedly worth $25 billion. Peterffy’s firm, Interactive Brokers Group Inc., announced that it would be offering crypto trading to its clients in mid-2020 following increased demand for the asset class. The company currently offers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash, but will be …

Shark Tank celebrity Kevin O’Leary, also known as Mr. Wonderful, says he would be ready to increase his crypto allocations up to 20% as soon as there are clearer regulations around stablecoins. O’Leary, a former Bitcoin (BTC) skeptic, is now a vocal advocate of cryptocurrency, which currently makes up over 10% of his investment portfolio. Mr. Wonderful is particularly focused on U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins, which he sees as an effective hedge against rising levels of inflation. By staking stablecoins, he pointed out, he can make up to 6% returns. He explained to Cointelegraph: ”When inflation is 6%, you're buying power …

Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy has added $94 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC) to its holdings after purchasing the crypto asset at an average price of $49,229. According to a Thursday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, MicroStrategy purchased 1,914 BTC between Dec. 9 and Dec. 29 for $94.2 million, making its total holdings 124,391 BTC. With the recent buy, the company’s holdings are valued at roughly $5.9 billion, representing more than $2.1 billion in gains. MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 1,914 bitcoins for ~$94.2 million in cash at an average price of ~$49,229 per #bitcoin. As of 12/29/21 …

Genesis Global Capital has completed one of its first purely NFT-backed loans for $6 million to Meta4 Capital, a Miami-based Web3 focused investment management firm. This loan is notable not just for its amount but for solely using nonfungible tokens (NFTs) as collateral instead of including broader liquid collateral. Meta4 operates as an NFT VC backed by Andreessen Horowitz, specializing in acquiring presumed rare and historically significant NFTs. The proceeds of Genesis’ loan were used to finalize Meta4’s purchase of three NFTs part of Sotheby’s Metaverse “Natively Digital” October NFT auction: the $3.4 million record-setting gold Bored Ape Yacht Club …

As Bitcoin (BTC) was hitting new historical highs above $68,000 this year, global cryptocurrency naysayers were increasingly blasting BTC for its extreme volatility and potential risks. According to Bitcoin Obituaries data by Bitcoin education portal 99Bitcoins, the original cryptocurrency was declared “dead” as many as 45 times in 2021, which is at least three times more than in 2020. Despite the growing number of Bitcoin critics in 2021, the amount of obituaries is still significantly less this year than was recorded in 2017, the year when BTC first reached close to $20,000. That year, Bitcoin “died” 124 times. Incepted in …

Bitcoin (BTC) institutional demand is conspicuously wanting at the end of the year as data flags the "underperformance" of the United States' first Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). As noted by markets commentator Holger Zschaepitz on Dec. 29, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) is now trading at nearly 30% below its launch price. Anticlimax rounds out 2021 for ProShares ETF In a sign of the times regarding Bitcoin sentiment, the hype that accompanied BITO's launch in Q3 has died down considerably. Going from record-breaking volume on its first day to its current state, the ETF has even underperformed the …

Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal believes the recent volatility in the Bitcoin price is due to institutions selling to help shore up their end-of-year profits, The perennial Bitcoin (BTC) bull told Vlad from The Stakeborg Talks in a Dec. 27 interview that he believes the market is currently lopsided due to the effect of institutions. Pal said that they have been selling to lock in their profits. It was a way for institutions to say “I believe in getting paid.” @RaoulGMI answers fast. Not this time. He needed 6 seconds before answering "Why #DAO is so sexy" but the answer …

DeBank, a cryptocurrency wallet focused on decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions, has closed new funding led by major venture capital firm Sequoia China. The firm announced Tuesday on Twitter that it raised $25 million, bringing DeBank’s total valuation to $200 million. Apart from Sequoia China, the funding round featured major crypto investment firms like Dragonfly, Hash Global and Youbi. The raise also included strategic funding from Coinbase Ventures, Crypto.com exchange, stablecoin provider Circle and hardware wallet maker Ledger. DeBank is a cryptocurrency wallet designed to track DeFi data, including decentralized applications or exchanges (DEX) and DeFi interest rates. It also lets …