BITCOIN

Bitcoin and ether (ETH, -0.73%) purchases by companies in Scandinavia and Hong Kong are fueling speculation a wave of non-U.S. corporate treasurers might follow MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square into buying cryptocurrencies, according to a new report by the Norwegian analysis firm Arcane Research. Hong Kong-listed Meitu, a maker of photo-retouching software, said it bought 15,000 ETH and 379 BTC (+3.58%) in open-market transactions last week. Arcane figures the company paid an average $47,230, well below the current market level of around $57,000. In addition, on Monday Aker, a Norwegian energy engineering company, added 1,170 BTC to its balance sheet, paying approximately…

The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.4% in February, leaving it up 1.7% over the last 12 months, in line with economists’ expectations, a Labor Department report Wednesday showed. The 12-month rate represents an acceleration from January’s 1.4% clip, a pickup partly driven by higher gasoline prices, which rose 6.9% in February, accounting for over half of the seasonally adjusted increase in the all-items index, according to the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Core CPI, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.1% in February, the report showed. That level was…

The outperformance of ether (ETH) over the past year relative to bitcoin (BTC) appears to have reversed since the Chicago-based commodities exchange CME launched its new ether futures contract in early February, an analysis of chart patterns shows. ETH put in a relative bottom versus BTC around the end of 2019. The near 700% increase in ETH versus BTC’s 500% rise over the past year could reflect investor enthusiasm for decentralized finance (DeFi), which seeks to transform traditional financial products in a decentralized manner and largely sits atop the Ethereum blockchain. ETH has underperformed…

Recently,according to official news,CoinSeaEX digital asset trading platform has obtained the MSB digital asset exchange license issued by the U.S. Treasury agency FinCEN,and the global compliance operation has reached a new level again. According to reports,this is CoinSeaEX in the world obtained the fifth compliance business license. MSB is the abbreviation of the Money Services Business,the U.S. Treasury and Securities Regulatory Commission have clearly stressed that digital money exchanges and their managers,engaged in digital assets related business in the United States,must be registered in the FinCEN MSB license. A licence…

Fei Labs, a project building a more capital-efficient decentralized stablecoin, raised $19 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Framework Ventures, Coinbase Ventures and AngelList founder Naval Ravikant, among others. The raise, disclosed Monday, is another sign competition is heating up among issuers of stablecoins. These cryptocurrencies are designed to hold their value against some mainstream asset, usually (as in Fei’s case) the U.S. dollar. Stablecoins play a linchpin role in the crypto ecosystem, allowing traders to quickly move fiat currency (or the next best thing) between global exchanges to take advantage of…

Bitcoin has erased Sunday’s gains as stock markets struggle to cheer progress on U.S. fiscal stimulus efforts. The cryptocurrency is changing hands just over $50,150 at press time, representing a 1.55% drop on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Prices had jumped from roughly $49,000 to $51,800 on Sunday as the U.S. Senate approved President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. The bill now heads back to the House of Representatives so it can be reconciled with the House-passed version and then sent on to President Biden to sign. Traditional markets had mixed…

Bitcoin developers have been debating the best way to activate the Taproot upgrade for at least a year. Some are hopeful a new proposal called “Speedy Trial” might put an end to the debate, by bringing forth a solution that more developers can get behind. Ideated by Blockstream developer Russell O’Connor and written up on the Bitcoin developer email list by technical Bitcoin writer David Harding, “Speedy Trial,” would take a quicker approach than some of the other proposals in determining if miners are ready for activation of Taproot. All of the largest…

Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $51,800.08 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Climbing 3.48% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $49,390.18-$51.982.31 (CoinDesk 20) BTC trades above its 10-hour and 50-hour averages on the hourly chart, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin trading on TradingViewSource: TradingView Bitcoin’s price in recent weeks has retreated from February’s all-time highs, declining alongside U.S. stocks as investors grew increasingly concerned rising U.S. government bond yields might prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten monetary policy, curtailing the easy-money era that has boosted risky assets from…