“It appears safe to say digital currency is now mainstream”. Even if the “digital gold” is still not the best choice for those who want a worry-free asset, and the debate on Bitcoin’s carbon footprint is still open, altcoins and the blockchain technology have already found solutions to major problems that the traditional economy was not able to address. The Forbes team looks at 5 numbers that describe very well the impact of blockchain and cryptos on the economy and financial system in 2021.

Emily Chang - host of Bloomberg Technology - meets Sam Bankman-Fried: the CEO of FTX, the popular trading platform, talks about what to expect for the crypto market in 2022, with a focus on regulation.

Despite adversities, El Salvador is continuing to improve its Bitcoin program. After the first crypto became legal tender in the country, El Salvador is now thinking about new solutions to reward Bitcoin investors and increase the number of financial instruments based on the cryptocurrency.

FTFT Capital Investments LLC - a subsidiary of the Future Fintech Group Inc. - launches a new crypto markets price aggregator - ftftx.com: the platform will provide real-time data and information, tracking not only major cryptos but also hundreds of altcoins, gathering data from hundreds of crypto exchanges.

After the findings of Steve Moser, Bloomberg asked PayPal to confirm if the company is really working on its own stablecoin. As PC Mag reported, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, PayPal senior vice president, confirmed that the company is evaluating this option.

Digital assets are always more involved in the real estate market: thanks to the fintech Milo people - from the U.S. and non-U.S. based - are now able to use Bitcoin as a collateral for their mortgages, and the number of cryptocurrencies available for mortgages may increase.

“We want to ensure we enable the architects of the future”: smart contracts are becoming a fundamental tool in today’s economy, and they can be used basically for anything. The Cardano Foundation, in partnership with EMURGO, is creating a new ecosystem to facilitate smart contract development.

It’s not the first time Sotheby’s accepts cryptos for an auction, but this time the item is an extremely rare black diamond called “Enigma”. If a crypto bid succeeds, the auction house will use Coinbase to settle the transaction.

On January 25th we witnessed again the “Elon Effect”: after the CEO of Tesla tweeted that he would eat a Happy Meal if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin, the meme coin slightly raised soon after, but that’s not all. McDonald’s, via its official Twitter account, responded that they will accept DOGE if Tesla accepts Grimacecoin. The result? A newly created meme coin inspired by the mascot of McDonald’s jumped 285,000% in less than one day.

The panel discussion moderated by Cointelegraph took place on January 21st: experts think that DeFi will disrupt traditional CeFi systems, but it needs to be more easy-to-use and a little more regulated.

After becoming the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender, El Salvador is now supporting Bitcoin users trying to face the main challenges brought by this revolutionary decision. For this reason, El Salvador is cooperating with AlphaPoint to relaunch the Chivo wallet and improve stability and scalability.

This article considers an interesting point: do you exactly know what fintech-related terms mean? The Financial Brand takes into account 9 popular terms and explain them in more detail: Banking as a Service (BaaS); Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL); cryptocurrency; decentralized finance (DeFi); digital transformation; embedded finance; embedded fintech; financial health and platform banking.

Fidelity, a well known asset management and financial services company, released a report where they explain why Bitcoin should be considered as a unique asset: mainly a “monetary good”, it can’t be improved by other cryptos according to the report.

MoonPay launched new payment gateways. The NFT clients of the company will be able to offer end users the capability to pay with several payment methods for digital art. This means that users won’t need to buy cryptocurrencies first, and the company thinks that this will increase the sale of NFTs.

The decentralized autonomous organization created to support the liberation of Julian Assange (founder of WikiLeaks) has raised over $38 million in a couple of days.

DriveWealth - the startup that helps fintech firms offer stocks - is acquiring a crypto firm - Crypto-Systems. According to the CEO of DriveWealth, Bob Cortright, they want to avoid unsustainable fees and wild spreads, to make crypto markets more "regular".

Warren Buffet, the “Oracle of Omaha”, decreased his exposure in Visa and Mastercard to increase exposure in Nubank, the Brazilian fintech bank appreciated by Bitcoin investors. But Nubank is not the only crypto-friendly company in the portfolio of the popular investor.

Portugal is becoming one of the countries that are introducing more improvements for crypto investors. One of the most interesting aspects is the fiscal system, extremely favourable to crypto holders and investors.

Ripple is cooperating with the think tank DEA (Digital Euro Association) to create CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies). This can be a further step towards regulation and the creation of different stablecoins.

In September 2021 El Salvador became the first country in the world to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender. Even if not everyone agrees with this move, especially for concerns due to crypto volatility, the country is getting more than one benefit: among the advantages, tourism registered an impressive increase if compared to the levels reached before Bitcoin.

The largest crypto exchange, Binance, is donating $10 million to assist Ukranians: the company announced that these funds will be channeled through international organizations and NGOs.

In a recent interview, Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, announced that the company wants to attract more Gen Zers and Millennials, and for this reason eBay seems about to start a new adventure in the upcoming weeks: adding cryptocurrencies as a payment method on the platform.

After the tweets of the Ukrainian government official account, the crypto community replied to their requests donating over $17 million in cryptocurrencies - especially Bitcoin, Ether and USD-pegged stablecoins.

Virginia is one of the most crypto-friendly states in the US, and the last move of the government in this sense is to allow banks to provide crypto custody services to crypto users. But there is one point that may prevent crypto traders and investors from using these services: the bank needs your private keys.

Shamyl Malik, co-founder and CEO of Haruko, says that he wants his company to become the “one-stop-shop for crypto” – especially for institutions. The start-up has just announced a $10 million funding round, after investors showed interest in this initiative.

As also FinTech Weekly reported, Ukraine managed to collect over $60 million in crypto donations. The funds were spent not only in food and fuel, but also in military supplies: suppliers have crypto accounts and accept crypto payments, and the whole operation is facilitated by Kuna, the Ukrainian crypto exchange.

Elon Musk said that he won’t sell his cryptos: the billionaire confirmed he owns Bitcoin, Etherer and Dogecoin. Despite the drop in prices, he said that he won’t sell because of the increasing inflation.

The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) proposes a new tax framework for crypto holders: the organization said that cryptocurrencies put at risk tax transparency, and that the space needs additional safeguards.

Block Earner, an Australian fintech company, allows investors to get fixed yields thanks to decentralized finance (DeFi) products. Jordan Momtazi, co-founder of the company, makes a comparison between their savings accounts and traditional saving accounts – making it clear that Block Earner offers higher returns.

Bitcoinist shares the new survey conducted by OnePoll, which shows that 53% of Americans think that cryptocurrencies are the future of finance. StarkWare, the fintech company that realizes Ethereum-based solutions, published the survey and highlighted the amazing result.

Seven U.S. states – New Jersey, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Washington, Kentucky and Vermont – are checking the “Earn Program” launched by the Canadian fintech company Voyager. This company offers crypto accounts and, according to these states, these instruments may be unregistered securities.

John Glen, the Economic Secretary of the Treasury of the U.K., said that the country is taking all the necessary steps to regulate the crypto space: the government wants to focus on stablecoins to allow the crypto market to flourish in the country – but within regulatory boundaries.

Even if Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency by market capitalization, one of the main concerns around this crypto is energy consumption – BTC is not considered environment-friendly. But Norway, the country that hosts almost 1% of BTC’s hash rate, manages to mine this crypto with renewable energy.

Wei Zhou, former CFO of Binance, bought Coins.ph. The crypto exchange and wallet provider was bought by Gojek, an Indonesian tech company, for $95 million. Now, Zhou wants to steer Coins back to its roots in the crypto space.

The current economic landscape could be soon hit by some shocks that could lead to a widespread adoption of digital currencies – as well as to massive investments in crypto assets: that’s what Bank of America strategists predict, due to the increasing inflation and the slowing economy.

It’s not news that Bitcoin mining – as well as the mining process of other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies – need solutions to become more efficient and enviroment friendly: the MIT Technology Review shows what’s the price paid by communities.

Fabio Panetta, member of the European Central Bank, asked for new regulatory frameworks and taxes for what concerns the crypto space: Panetta compared cryptos to Ponzi schemes and said that they could represent a new bubble.

Also Stripe joins the crypto space: the firm announced that it will give its users the possibility to pay with cryptos. The company focuses on a stablecoin, USDC.

Fidelity exploits fintech opportunities not only thanks to the metaverse, but also by expanding its financial services: Fidelity Investments will allow its users to invest part of their savings in Bitcoin.

Hackers might have found a new way to attack crypto wallets. Andre, an IT professional, published a warning on Reddit after he discovered that the predictive typing of his mobile phone is able to record the whole seed phrase of his crypto wallet.

Benjamin Ensor and Gwera Kiwana are joined by Julia Ménayas (Helios) and Jason Mikula (Fintech Business Weekly) to discuss the latest fintech news – like the jump of Stripe into the crypto space.

The Biden administration is working on a new regulatory framework for cryptos in the US, and as a part of this effort SEC is adding new staff members to fight crypto scams.

Crypto traders may have an advantage thanks to data science. From a large database, data scientists are creating models that help them to make predictions on market developments and price changes.

The prices of real estate in the metaverse are dropping – to about 15% now. But experts say that this is just a deep, and that the metaverse still represents one the main investments of big companies. Is it time to buy?

After El Salvador, the Central African Republic (CAR) is the second country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. In El Salvador, this is causing issues like an increased national debt. In CAR, this decision might lead to more serious problems – especially because it can’t be so inclusive in a country where only 10% people have access to the internet.

The United Kingdom is among the countries that focus on stablecoins to adopt these digital currencies and incorporate them into national economic systems. But after the recent chaos in the crypto space, further regulation is needed according to the country.

Chris Crespo interviews Karina Rothof Brix (Firi) to discuss the risks involved in a wider adoption of crypto assets and what this means for Web 3 and future businesses.

Do Kwon is making headlines after the troubles with Terra Luna, but now the co-founder of the blockchain proposes a new blockchain, Terra, as a fork of Terra Luna. If this proposal is accepted by the community, the new blockchain will go live by the end of May.

Also the United States wants further regulation for stablecoins. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) discusses this topic especially after the shock that hit even stablecoins.

Kristalina Georgieva joins the list of those who call cryptocurrencies a pyramid scheme. The head of the IMF was referring to the collapse of stablecoins during the WEF meeting in Davos.

During the first investor day in 5 years, the executives of Block – the US-based company run by Jack Dorsey – outline the future of the company: not just a payments firm, but a company that has grown and expanded into different industries.

The collapse of Terra affected the whole crypto space: fear prevailed among investors, as well as distrust. Regulators are riding the wave, but in reality some CEXs used risk-management systems to protect their users.

Despite the UK didn’t welcome Binance in 2021, recent announcements regarding stablecoins made it easier for Binance to partner with one of the most influential networks in the UK – the Fintech Founders group.

Noelle Acheson (Genesis) and Emily Chang discuss the troubles faced by Terra and the split of the blockchain. How will this affect the crypto space and new regulations?

The popular investor Tim Draper makes predictions about the future of Bitcoin and the role of women. As more retailers accept Bitcoin, women will play a major role in the future of the crypto project – since they control retail spending.

Crypto traders and investors are aware of the decline that hit the crypto market. Despite the hard market downturn, Jamie Dimon – JP Morgan CEO – says that this is just the beginning – especially for assets like Bitcoin, Ether and Cardano.

Blockdaemon, a blockchain company, and StakeWise, a staking platform, launched a new staking protocol focused on institutional investors – Harbour. Users will be able to stake ETH on the platform and will receive Harbour tokens that can be used on other DeFi platforms to maximize their investments.

Despite the market downturn, people are more interested in cryptocurrencies, a recent survey conducted by Bank of America found: people want to buy, and don’t want to sell.

Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, addressed the issue with Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals on Monday. Some minor hardware problems simply delayed transactions, which were broadcasted to the network after the issues with some nodes were solved.

The crypto market downturn also affects crypto-related companies – and their employees. Crypto.com and BlockFi join the list of those companies that plan to cut hundreds of jobs.

Thousands of traders are getting their positions liquidated. This is the result of the drop in ETH prices, which reach a 14-month low. In just 24 hours, over $521 million worth of open positions were simply liquidated.

HSBC, the popular financial service institution, partners with Oxford to create a FinTech course for employees: the program will be based on the Oxford Fintech Program, and will help employees to better understand the fintech space – including cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

According to CoinShares, the crypto market crash could be explained by looking at the Federal Reserve's rhetoric. The report by the investment company shows that over $100 million worth of cryptos exited the US market during the past week: investors may have closed their positions in anticipation of an aggressive monetary policy designed to combat the impressive levels of inflation.

During these chaotic times for finance and markets, Goldman Sachs launches a new derivative product. Its underlying asset? Ether (ETH).

JPMorgan wants to enter DeFi protocols – but in an institutional way. As Tyrone Lobban, head of Onyx Digital Assets, said during the Consensus 2022 conference, the company is planning to tokenize trillions of dollars to make them available for DeFi pools.

The Shanghai Fengxian Court has invalidated the sale of a car made in May 2019 using digital currencies. The crypto was UNIH (Unihash), labeled a scam after its launch – actually, the token is worthless.

The consequences of the Terra crash are not yet over. The Financial and Securities Crime investigation team issued an order that prohibits people involved in the crypto project from leaving South Korea.

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, shared with crypto investors his thoughts about the current market downturn. As the president wrote on Twitter, people should just “enjoy life” because downturns are absolutely normal, and Bitcoin will rise again.

This TechCrunch podcast episode covers the interview with Bill Gates on how to avoid climate disaster, the pivotal role of crypto assets in today’s economy, Elon Musk’s skills and much more.

Many analysts think that the current crypto market downturn is different from the previous crashes. Why? Because Bitcoin fell, for the first time, below its previous bear cycles.

Binance, the first crypto exchange by trading volume, launches a new platform dedicated to institutional investors. Binance Institutional will also grant privileges to VIP investors with at least 1 million BUSD monthly trading volume.

The fintech firm Tribal, a credit company that focuses on emerging markets, has joined the Blockchain Association, a lobbying group, to contribute to the industry with its expertise.

The API economy is rising, and API solutions seem to be the new frontier in data. Finextra and APImetrics have collaborated to create the first open dashboard that will provide real-world performance of the top 30 open banking brands and 36 crypto exchanges.

The British luxury brand, Graff, has sued its insurance company, The Travelers Companies, for refusing to cover a ransom payment in Bitcoin. Graff was attacked by a Russian hacking group, Conti.

The New Jersey-based Web 3.0 exchange CrossTower is partnering with Ripple to facilitate the exchange of NFTs. The company behind the popular cryptocurrency XRP wants to use the CrossTower marketplace, which allows creators and developers to join an intuitive platform to exchange their tokens.

Ben Goertzel, founder of the SingularityNET Foundation, shares his thoughts about the Metaverse. Despite the digital reality is one of the most discussed topics, Goertzel affirms that many of the projects created so far only involve gaming. We're far from enjoying all the advantages of the Metaverse, but AI can help us.

Mt. Gox's creditors may finally recover their funds. The Japanese Mt. Gox was the largest Bitcoin exchange, but it went offline in 2014 after the largest bitcoin hack in the crypto history. Will this further affect Bitcoin?

Spain is now among the countries that accepted Binance and added the crypto company in their crypto registries. But as the European Union prepares a new regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, France may change its mind.

In this article, we will talk about the two most popular coins to help you decide for yourself which is better: bitcoin or ether.

Analysts expect the blockchain technology market to grow by a staggering ​​62.73% CAGR over the next few years. But how can banks turn blockchain adoption into revenue?