Fintech Simple (a digital native bank) closes its virtual doors in the United States

Fintech Simple (a digital native bank) closes its virtual doors in the United States. This is a firm that had been acquired by BBVA in 2014. This was reported in an article in the Invertia supplement of El Español.

As explained in the publication, the decision is part of a Bitcoin Loophole strategic initiative. „Users don’t have to do anything. Their deposits are guaranteed and will be automatically transferred to a BBVA USA account“, they clarified.

BBVA grants more than 1,000 million euros through AvalBox
In the article they also detailed: „The movement is part of the bank’s exit from the United States. Along these lines, current customers will become customers of BBVA USA once the process of transferring funds and data is completed. And, in turn, they will be integrated into PNC, which took over the Spanish bank’s assets in November for $11.6 billion“.

BBVA sells its US subsidiary to PNC for approximately $11.6 billion
„In general, customers had been waiting for a long time without perceiving any improvement in the product cycles. They initially adopted this application because of the absence of commissions, as well as its simplicity. At the time of purchase the application had over 100,000 customers. It was one of the competitors that planted the so-called neo-banks, where they competed with Nubank, N26, Revolut or Monzo,“ they added.

Yesterday we wrote that bitcoin was worth $25,000, a new record…. that lasted less than a day. Meanwhile, the bitcoin exchange rate has risen to $28,300 (€22,800).

Next stop: moon

Bitcoin went to the moon in a rocket at the end of December. Since December 11, the bitcoin rate has risen by no less than 62%. And since Christmas Day, on a day when everyone is free, the course has been moving parabolically upwards.

The bitcoin price has risen by more than 14% in the last 24 hours alone, and investors are now monitoring the psychological limit of $30,000 per bitcoin for the first time. As a result, the combined value of all bitcoin tokens in circulation has passed half a trillion dollars (500 billion dollars) for the first time.

Mainly consumers

The huge increase in bitcoin prices during Christmas is mainly caused by BitQT consumers because traditional markets are closed,“ says Marc Bernegger, member of the board of Crypto Finance Group.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see a healthy correction when these markets open on Monday. Compared to the huge short-term price gains of bitcoin in the past, there are many more professional investors involved in the market today. This will lead to faster price corrections and a decrease in long-term price volatility‘.

Money printer confirms bitcoin

A growing number of major investors and Wall Street giants have cited bitcoin as a potential inflation hedge this year. They, too, want to protect themselves from a wave of inflation they see on the horizon due to unprecedented government spending in the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.

Last week, British fund manager Ruffer Investment Management pushed bitcoin above the price level of $20,000. This happened after they revealed that the fund had purchased $745 million in bitcoin.

There is no end in sight, the Central Banks keep printing money. This only confirms the bitcoin story even more,“ says Charles Hayter of CryptoCompare. Funds are exposing their portfolios to bitcoin and the herd is just starting to move.

Neue Regierungsvorschriften, die südkoreanischen Krypto-Börsen zwingen, Orderbuch-Sharing mit Übersee-Handelsplattformen zu beenden könnte eine seismische Wirkung auf die Krypto-Spieler in dem Land haben – und das Problem ist angeblich der Hauptgrund, warum Hauptakteur Binance ist es, seine Binance Korea Operationen im nächsten Monat zu schließen und nur vier von 77 Börsen auf Ziel, um strenge neue Richtlinien zu erfüllen.

Per EBN, die problematische Entscheidung, die Cryptonews.com berichtete über Anfang dieser Woche, Binance Korea „beschlossen, zu schließen, aufgrund der Schwierigkeit der Einstellung seiner Auftragsbuch“ Sharing-Politik mit seinen internationalen Plattformen.

Binance gab andere Gründe für die Schließung in seiner eigenen offiziellen Mitteilung Anfang des Monats.

Der Rivale Huobi hat jedoch behauptet, dass seine Börse Huobi Korea die gemeinsame Nutzung von Orderbüchern mit seinen ausländischen Niederlassungen einstellen wird. Digifinex Korea hat angedeutet, dass es bereit ist, dies ebenfalls zu tun.

Unabhängig davon scheint das Ausmaß des Problems größer zu sein, als zunächst angenommen. Wie der Autor des EBN-Berichts anmerkt, haben sich kleine und mittelgroße Börsen auf die gemeinsame Nutzung von Orderbüchern mit ausländischen Partnern verlassen, um über die Runden zu kommen, und viele scheinen ratlos zu sein, wie sie ohne sie vorgehen sollen.

Branchenverbände haben Seoul gebeten, ein wichtiges Krypto-Gesetz zu ändern, das im März 2021 in Kraft tritt und das Orderbuch-Sharing beendet, und einige Börsen hoffen, dass die Gesetzgeber ihre Meinung ändern werden.

Laut Bizwatch haben nur 11 von Südkoreas 77 Kryptobörsen die Akkreditierung für das Informationssicherheitsmanagementsystem (ISMS) erhalten, die sie nach dem neuen Gesetz haben müssen, um nach März (plus einer sechsmonatigen Gnadenfrist) weiterarbeiten zu können.

Und von dieser Zahl nur vier (nämlich Bithumb, Upbit, Korbit und Coinone) haben in Kraft gesetzt Real-Name-Banking-Systeme, so dass es „sehr wahrscheinlich, dass nur diese vier Unternehmen überleben“ über die Frist.

Einige sind jedoch skeptisch, was die Möglichkeit einer Kehrtwende angeht, da die behördliche Korea Financial Intelligence Unit in dem Bericht, der dazu führte, dass die Klausel in das Gesetz aufgenommen wurde, ominös über die mit Geldwäsche verbundenen Risiken schrieb, wenn man Börsen erlaubt, mit „Cross-Transaktionen“ zwischen inländischen und ausländischen Handelsplattformen zu handeln.

Und EBN zitierte einen ungenannten Branchenvertreter mit der Behauptung, dass das Ergebnis der Gesetzgebung wahrscheinlich sein würde, dass südkoreanische Krypto-Investoren ihre Gelder zu Börsen in Übersee bringen.

„Südkoreanische Investoren nutzen inländische Börsen nur der Bequemlichkeit halber. Es gibt keinen Grund für Investoren, inländische Börsen anstelle von Übersee-Börsen zu verwenden, wenn sie High-Volume-Händler sind,“ sagte die Quelle.

Und ein weiterer ungenannter Branchenvertreter wurde mit den Worten zitiert,

„Ich erwarte nicht, dass sich die Einstellung der Regierung zu Krypto schnell ändern wird. Viele Leute, die von den strengen Vorschriften der Regierung müde sind, haben die Branche bereits verlassen.“

Staking on Ethereum requires a certain technical background and especially a minimum of 32 ETH, which represents significant obstacles for the majority of investors. Based on this observation, the French Feel Mining platform offers a staking service on Ethereum 2.0 without any technical constraints and accessible from 1 ETH.

Ethereum 2.0 – A revolution for the world of cryptocurrencies

Much of the cryptocurrency ecosystem relies on a single network, Bitcoin Bank. On its own, Ethereum hosts a massive amount of applications and tokens, which it has struggled to maintain since the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). Ethereum’s current technical capabilities no longer meet its needs, transactions have become very expensive and take a long time to complete.

The developers then worked on a major update, Ethereum 2.0. This new version of the protocol, which is still in development for a few years, has already entered service in a limited version, phase 0. By migrating from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS) , Ethereum 2.0 is already eligible for staking , allowing holders of Ethers to generate passive income .

However, the accessibility of staking on Ethereum 2.0 is less, especially if you do not pass a trusted third party. To be eligible for staking, you must hold at least 32 ETH , or more than € 15,000 at the time of writing these lines. In addition, this investment opportunity requires sufficient technical background to maintain a network node oneself.

These are the barriers that make ETH staking complex and prevent a majority of investors from taking advantage of it. However, there is a solution to go through these financial and technical prerequisites, delegate its Ethers to a trusted third party , here the French platform Feel Mining .

Generate income with ETH staking on Feel Mining

Based on this observation, the Feel Mining platform has therefore set up a new offer dedicated to staking on Ethereum 2.0 , making it as accessible as possible.

Thus, Feel Mining breaks the barrier of the 32 ETH necessary to start staking on Ethereum 2.0. From 1 ETH , you too can generate passive income with your Ethers.

To do this, Feel Mining offers 2 investment options :

If you don’t have ETH: you can buy ETH directly on the platform, either with euros or with cryptocurrencies;

If you already hold ETH: you can deposit them on Feel Mining and start your staking.

Feel Mining Ethereum

In addition to making staking much more accessible from a financial point of view, Feel Mining also takes care of all the technical part . No more need to set up an Ethereum node on your side and maintain it for several years, Feel Mining takes care of all this aspect for you.

As of this writing, the interest rate for staking on Ethereum 2.0 is 12.8% per annum . This fluctuates automatically depending on the number of ETH stakes on the network. The more ETH there is in staking, the more the interest rate will decrease. Variations in this interest rate are therefore frequent, and Feel Mining is not responsible for them.

It is therefore relatively wise to participate in ETH staking now if you are interested in it, or if you already have it, in order to take advantage of a preferential interest rate.

Be aware, however, that ETH staking is special. The minimum duration of staking is planned for at least 2 years . This duration is not fixed and depends only on the progress of the development of Ethereum 2.0. Thus, your ETH stakes will be locked and inaccessible during this transition period.

Regarding the rewards generated by staking, these should be available towards the end of 2021, when phase 1.5 or 2 of Ethereum 2.0 has been deployed.

For its staking service on Ethereum 2.0, Feel Mining charges a 7% fee on the income generated . Note, however, that to reward the first arrivals, Feel Mining offers management fees for the first 3 months for any contract taken out before December 31, 2020 .

Vitalik Buterin answered questions from the community on Reddit. In particular, he gave more information on the transition from Ethereum to Proof-of-Stake.

Ethereum is slowly moving towards Proof-of-Stake

The slow and complicated transition from Ethereum to Proof-of-Stake has long been chronicled. Several times the project got caught up in issues that caused delays. But this does not mean that the developers will choose to come up with the new version of Ethereum in a rush, according to Vitalik Buterin.

The creator of Bitcoin Loophole explains in a Reddit thread that the implementation of sharding is not particularly problematic in terms of temporality, but that it is another story for the transition to Proof-of-Stake. Beyond the technical difficulties and deadlines, Vitalik Buterin explains that fundamental work will have to be done to convince the community :

“The Ethereum community as a whole, including main Eth1 developers, block explorers, exchanges, etc. Must be convinced that the Proof-of-Stake is sufficiently risk-free and that a full transition can now be made. “

No passage to Proof-of-Stake before November 2021

Hence this conclusion from Vitalik Buterin: the transition from Ethereum to Proof-of-Stake will not take place before November 2021, at the earliest:

“I would say that less than a year is not realistic . Even if a full merge implementation magically arrived in February, I would still recommend waiting until around November. [This is] convince people that the Proof-of-Stake is secure, so that they do to the idea that the entire ecosystem to 50 billion will become really depends a nt of Beacon Chain. “

The creator of Ethereum also recalls that investing in Ethereum is a matter of faith, and confidence in the future of the ecosystem:

“If you chose Ethereum today, you should do so not because you believe the current rules (economic or technical) deserve to be protected and stabilized at all costs, but because you believe in the direction that the ecosystem . “

Will Vitalik Buterin manage to gather enough lost sheep in his parish? This is the question that arises when the contract for the staking has been opened. Today 108,704 ETH has been staked out of the 524,888 ETH that needs to be locked in for the mainnet to launch. Ethereum 2.0 phase 0 will be initiated in early December. It remains to be seen whether the community will show sufficient confidence… and patience.

Bitcoin ha ganado mucha atención últimamente después del repunte masivo que lo empujó más allá de la marca de $ 15,000 y sorprendió a muchos. El activo ha sido observado por muchas celebridades internacionales y parece que el famoso rapero Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, conocido popularmente como Logic, es el último en respaldar a Bitcoin Era, y el anuncio se produjo justo después de que Bitcoin hizo un movimiento masivo y fue tendencia en Twitter.

Con un tweet el 7 de noviembre, el rapero y creador de contenido ahora retirado cuyos registros han encabezado las listas en muchas ocasiones señaló que su gerente Chris Zarou lo había convencido de comprar Bitcoin.

Si bien no se han revelado detalles sobre la inversión, Logic mencionó en su tweet que fue „una gran inversión en #bitcoin“

Logic tiene más de 2,3 millones de seguidores en Twitter y la comunidad parecía entusiasmada con la entrada del rapero en el mundo de las criptomonedas. Por otro lado, algunos estaban preocupados por su hora de entrada debido al movimiento de $ 1500 del día anterior y una corrección pronunciada podría cambiar la opinión del rapero.

Sin embargo, esto es bastante improbable porque el gerente de Logic, Zarou, parece ser un defensor de Bitcoin, ya que había twitteado unos días antes que es „irresponsablemente largo“ en Bitcoin.

El término irresponsablemente largo ha sido redactado por el administrador de fondos de cobertura y el toro de Bitcoin Raoul Pal, quien cree que Bitcoin podría alcanzar los $ 1,000,000 en este ciclo de mercado como resultado del interés institucional.

Logic no es el único artista que está apostando por Bitcoin, ya que cuenta con el respaldo del ganador del Grammy y candidato presidencial Kanye West, quien se transmitió en vivo en el popular Joe Rogan Podcast el mes pasado y elogió a Bitcoin.

Mientras tanto, la sensación de YouTube, PewDiePie, mostró tokens no fungibles (NFT) y criptomonedas a sus 107 millones de suscriptores a principios de este mes, mientras promocionaba un juego al estilo Pokémon llamado Wallem, donde también está vendiendo su „máscara PewDiePie“ en el juego como un NFT.

El rally de Bitcoin no está impulsado por inversores minoristas

A pesar de que varias celebridades respaldan las criptomonedas como Bitcoin, los datos de Google Trends revelan que el interés en el término „Bitcoin“ y otras búsquedas relacionadas todavía estaban en mínimos de varios años.

Esto podría ser un indicio de que la recuperación actual está siendo impulsada por actores institucionales como Grayscale y otros administradores de fondos según los números informados por estas instituciones.

La aplicación Cash del proveedor de servicios de pago móvil Square también experimentó un aumento significativo en sus ingresos del tercer trimestre, cortesía de Bitcoin. Según su informe financiero a la Comisión de Bolsa y Valores de EE. UU., Bitcoin se convirtió en la mayor fuente de ingresos para Cash App.