Advertisements are in abundance everywhere we go — from billboards seen throughout road trips to commercials displayed every fifteen minutes or so during television shows. It’s also the case that most advertisements today display messages from major internet-based brands like Amazon, which was ranked as the largest advertiser in the United States in 2020. Telecommunication providers and payment giants like American Express have also been listed as some of the biggest advertisers in the United States. These companies typically spend billions of dollars per year on marketing messages aimed to inform, persuade and remind consumers about their products and services. …

As rising inflation threatens to eat up further the purchasing power of the global fiat ecosystem, finding the perfect hedge against a falling economy has become the need of the hour — especially for the general public across the world. Joining this discussion online, Tesla CEO Elon Musk asked publicly about the probable inflation rate over the next few years to gauge the notion of global investors. Sharing his thoughts on the matter, American billionaire and MicroStrategy CEO Michael J. Saylor opined that with rising inflation, he expects the capital cash flow will move away from traditional fiat into scarce …

The United States and European Union have announced new actions targeting Russia’s economy and wealthy individuals as a report suggests Vladimir Putin’s allies have attempted to circumvent sanctions using cryptocurrency in foreign countries. In a Friday announcement, the White House said leadership from the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union will take additional actions aimed at economically isolating Russia in response to President Vladmir Putin’s military invasion of Ukraine. The announcement includes banning imports of many Russian goods, banning the export of luxury goods to Russia, and guidance for the U.S. Treasury …

Cointelegraph sat down with Leah Wald, CEO of digital asset investment firm Valkyrie Investments, to learn more about the importance of a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the future of digital assets. For context, Valkyrie Investments was launched in 2021 and is one of the only asset managers to have three Bitcoin-adjacent ETFs trading on the Nasdaq. Valkyrie launched a Bitcoin Strategy ETF in October 2021, which offered indirect exposure to BTC with cash-settled futures contracts following a United States Securities and Exchange (SEC) approval for a similar ETF from ProShares. Valkyrie also has a balance sheet opportunities ETF …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, has disapproved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund applications from the New York Digital Investment Group and fund manager Global X after deferring on a decision several times in the last year. According to two separate Thursday filings, the SEC rejected proposed rule changes from the Cboe BZX Exchange and New York Stock Exchange’s Arca to list and trade shares of the Global X Bitcoin Trust and New York Digital Investment Group’s Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, or ETF, respectively. The SEC said that NYSE Arca and Cboe BZX had not met the burden under …

Amid global businesses boycotting the Russian residents over military conflict in Ukraine, some companies in the cryptocurrency industry stand up for the rights of non-sanctioned Russian citizens. Bitfinex, an affiliate firm of the world’s largest stablecoin provider, Tether (USDT), will not unilaterally freeze the accounts of ordinary Russian customers as part of the global sanctions unless it's forced to do so, a spokesperson for Bitfinex told Cointelegraph on Thursday. The representative emphasized that Bitfinex has taken appropriate action against the accounts of Russian users who have been sanctioned. “As with all our customer accounts, we work to ensure that there …

Christopher Wray, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said that fiat was a more likely avenue for Russia to explore in circumventing sanctions given the United States’ ability to block efforts using crypto. In a Thursday hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, New Mexico Senator Martin Heinrich asked the FBI director if Russia might respond to the economic impact of the United States banning imports of the country’s oil and gas by using reserves of gold, China’s currency, or cryptocurrency. Director Wray said the FBI and its partners had "built up significant expertise" on digital assets, …

Nine Republican senators have backed legislation aimed at directing policy at U.S. government agencies around concerns China’s digital yuan may be used to circumvent sanctions and compromise users' personal information. In a Wednesday announcement, Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, backed by seven other Republican senators, proposed the ‘Say No To the Silk Road Act’ — a bill that would require certain government agencies to report on China’s central bank digital currency, or CBDC. The two senators said they had concerns over digital surveillance and privacy in China’s rolling out its CBDC, both for its citizens and …

Michael Schmid first made contact with Bitcoin (BTC) in 2013; he installed Bitcoin core, mined a few BTC then bought some Bitcoin from MtGox. Schmid told Cointelegraph that shortly after the infamous Mt. Gox hack, in which Schmid lost his Bitcoin, he also “lost interest”. Timewarp to 2020 and Schmid got “very active again,” as concerns about the “endless money printing” troubled him. “With that [money printing] I found that I don't agree at all with Fiat money and believe that Bitcoin should be the global reserve currency and a store of value.” A studious and curious mind, Schmid bored …

Binance is looking to diversify its business interests by acquiring company’s outside the scope of cryptocurrency, according to a report from the Financial Times. “We want to identify and invest in one or two targets in every economic sector and try to bring them into crypto,” said Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, affectionately known to his 5.3 million Twitter followers as ‘CZ’. Already holding the title of the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance is aiming to bring in companies from traditional markets in an attempt to further increase broad-scale crypto adoption and diversify its own bushiness. In the interview Zhao went …

Joe Biden has signed his 82nd executive order since being sworn into office in January 2021, directly addressing a regulatory framework for digital assets in a rare moment for the U.S. President. In a Wednesday announcement, the White House said President Biden's executive order required government agencies to explore the potential rollout of a United States central bank digital currency as well as coordinate and consolidate policy on a national framework for crypto. Many media outlets previously reported the U.S. President had initially planned to sign the executive order in February, an event that was likely postponed following Russia’s military …

The United States Federal Reserve is moving forward with its real-time payment project FedNow Service by starting experimenting with the blockchain infrastructure. On Tuesday, the Fed officially launched the FedNow Service Provider Showcase, aiming to provide financial institutions and users with a range of services to help them implement FedNow Service, which launches in 2023. At launch, the showcase includes more than 70 profiles and service providers that support instant payments, including a New York-based blockchain company, focused on instant payment solutions, blockchain interoperability and central bank digital currencies (CBDC). The platform is known for being involved in Chinese blockchain …