NFT News by Thebittimes.Com

The US House of Representatives passed the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (or FIT21) on Wednesday, in a vote of 279 to 136. Marking an apparent turning point in US political opinion towards crypto, 71 Democrats voted for the bill, despite the White House voicing concerns that it “lacks sufficient protections,” and urging for “further time” for “continued collaboration.” FIT21 passes the Ho US e 279 – 136 Ho US e Democrats voting in favor of this bill: 71. That is a *huge* number of elected Democrats voting "no confidence" in the current SEC, and sending a message to the Biden administration that "anti-crypto" is a losing platform this year. pic.twitter.com/zmlD1VRQfF — Jake Chervinsky (@jchervinsky) May 22, 2024 The bill could still be blocked by the Senate before becoming law, something that some in the crypto Q US yGuF may be banking on. Crypto advocates have long been calling for regulatory clarity in the face of wh...

Christian Langalis, colloquially known as the ‘ Bitcoin Sign Guy,’ has decided to auction off the piece of paper on which he wrote ‘Buy Bitcoin ,’ and held up behind Janet Yellen in 2017 during a Ho US e Financial Services Committee. The former Cato Institute intern, who now works on projects on decentralized personal server platform Urbit, stated, “When Bitcoin ers ask me about the sign, I tell them, ‘you’d have done the same in my seat.’” According to a Bloomberg article, Langalis turned down a private five-BTC offer in the hopes that the auction would fetch a higher price. His gamble seems to have paid off, with the sale amounting to 16 BTC — over a million dollars at the time of sale and 220% more than the private offer. One bidder appeared to briefly misclick a bid, rocketing the price to 100 BTC before they corrected their bid down to 10 BTC. The anonymo US winner of the Bitcoin sign went by the US ername ‘Squirrekkywrath.’ T...

As Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial gets back underway on Thursday, things feel oddly settled on the legal front. The prosecution and its array of insider witnesses have established beyond any reasonable doubt that Bankman-Fried coordinated the frenetic embezzlement and misuse of customer funds. Barring some truly dramatic revelation or supremely canny tactic by a defense that has so far shown no such capacities, Bankman-Fried will likely be found guilty by a jury of his peers within no more than a few weeks. But the very certainty of the legal case invites a much more difficult question: what was Sam Bankman-Fried’s plan? Bankman-Fried spent, invested, gave away, or otherwise disposed of a gargantuan portion of the funds c US tomers had entr US ted him with. While crypto market volatility helped expose that activity, what could have possibly been his goal in flinging assets into the ether with such seeming abandon? What, even in an ideal world, was the FTX endgame? One of the cl...

Crypto company representatives have been calling out U.S. regulators for not being able to provide regulatory clarity for years now. Ripple executive Chris Larsen recently highlighted how San Francisco lost “the blockchain capital of the world” title owing to regulatory crackdowns and the stern policies of the government. In fact, he went on to assert that SEC Chair Gensler ‘likes’ lack of clarity. Now, in a recent post on X [formerly Twitter], Coinbase highlighted how the U.S. was an ‘outlier’ and has not been making any progress on the regulatory front. Contrarily, 83% of the G20 members and top financial hubs have made progress, the post revealed. Specifically pointing towards the countries that are the torchbearers at the moment, Coinbase’s post noted, “ Globally, countries are vying to become crypto hubs. Regulatory clarity has emerged in the EU, UAE, China (HK), Singapore, Australia, and Canada, to name a few. “ T...

Earlier this week saw the White House noting employment as strong data against a recession. Today, that comment takes a bit of a hit, as the U.S. unemployment rate rises to 3.7%. With the Federal Reserve raising interest rates yet another 75bps this week, all eyes are on how the economy will respond. The labor department has just issued a report that shows American employment has taken a small downturn. J US T IN: 🇺🇸 US unemployment rate increases to 3.7%. — Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) November 4, 2022 Interest Rate Consequences Incoming? Reported initially by The Guardian, the department has announced that the unemployment rate has risen to 3.7%. Although this does stand as an increase, it remains close to a 50-year low according to the publication. The FOMC met earlier this week in what resulting in the previously stated interest rate hikes. This was done in an effort to battle inflation, and slow investment, with many predicting a recessiona...