Cryptocurrency This Week: Bitcoin Plunges $2K, SC Rejects Amit Bhardwaj’s Latest Plea And More

In spite of its very limited legal existence in the Indian market, Bitcoin’s acceptability across the world has been gradually on the rise. Recently, in France alone, over 30 retails brands are now reportedly accepting Bitcoin for Payments.

According to reports, Global POS, the firm offering the EasyWallet service, will, through a partnership with payment firm, Easy2Play, enable retailers to accept Bitcoin as a means of payment in France

This is an important symbolic step in the evolution of payment methods in France. However, more than a symbol, what we bring to 25,000 outlets is the ability to enter the world of the 3.0 economy safely. – Stéphane Djiane, CEO, founder-Global POS

Meanwhile, after the US has banned Venezuela’s fiat cryptocurrency Petro, it’s another sanctioned state North Korea which seems to be creating its own cryptocurrency, reported Business Insider. North Korea’s new digital currency will be “more like Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies,” said Alejandro Cao de Benos, a North Korean official.

Venezuela’s central bank is, however, running tests to determine if it could hold cryptocurrencies as reserves. According to a Bloomberg report, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. the Venezuelan state-owned oil and natural gas company, is seeking to send Bitcoin and Ethereum to the central bank and have the monetary authority pay the oil company’s suppliers with the tokens.

Chart of The Week: Bitcoin Plunges To 4-Month Low

The Dark Knight, Bitcoin, on the other end has plunged to its 4-month lowest. After losing $2K price this week, Bitcoin is currently trading at $8.2K

Let’s take a look at leading crypto news of the week!

SC Rejects Amit Bhardwaj’s Application Seeking Lower Deposit

In connection with the massive GainBitcoin scam, the Supreme Court of India (SC), on September 27, rejected the GainBitcoin founder and key accused in the scam Amit Bhardwaj’s application seeking to deposit INR 2 Cr instead of INR 10 Cr as directed on April 3, this year.

The SC, while granting bail, also directed Bhardwaj to co-operate with the ongoing investigation. However, yesterday sourced told Inc42 that the Enforcement Directorate (ED), Mumbai investigative officer and representative submitted in the court that despite having served three summons in the last six months.

Following the intimation, the two-judge bench, comprising of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice V Ramasubramanian, rejected the application seeking to deposit INR 2 Cr. However, the apex court has extended the submission deadline of INR 10 Cr by three months.

Startup Of The Week: SoFi Introduces Crypto Trading

San Francisco-based fintech startup SoFi, known for offering variable and fixed-rate parent, personal, and MBA loans, mortgage refinancing, has now added crypto trading to its SoFi Invest platform.

SoFi Invest claims to be the first platform to offer automated and active investing with stocks, ETFs, and crypto through a single app.

SoFi CEO Anthony Noto said,

“Feedback from our members has made it clear that a significant percentage are not only interested in learning more about cryptocurrencies but are also already buying and selling crypto,”

Funding Of The Week: Skew Raises $2 Mn 

London-based, barely a year-old crypto startup, Skew which offers institutional-grade data analytics to the digital asset space has closed Seed funding worth $2 Mn. Led by First Minute Capital,  other players like Kleiner Perkins, Kima Ventures and Seed Camp also participated in the round.

With the funding, the startup has announced to launch a data analytics platform called skew Analytics dedicated to the fast-growing crypto derivatives markets.

Bitmain To Launch World Digital Mining Map This October

Chinese major Bitmain has announced plans to launch a platform to connect mining hardware owners with mining farm owners via the World Digital Mining Map (WDMM). To remain price-efficient, owners of mining hardware are regularly on the lookout for locations with the right conditions and power resources for cryptocurrency mining. The WDMM will be the first global resource to connect them with mining farms who have the available power resources to host them for a fee, said the company.

Matthew Wang, Director of Mining Farm of Bitmain commented,

“The WDMM will help make cryptocurrency mining more sustainable in the long-run by connecting mining farms and hardware owners in a whole new way. It is part of our commitment to provide miners with on-going support throughout their hardware’s lifetime and to support the sector’s overall growth.”

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