Samsung Invests $2.9 Million Into Crypto Wallet Startup Ledger

Hardware cryptocurrency wallet manufacturer Ledger has secured 2.6 million euro ($2.9 million) from electronics giant Samsung, a company spokesperson told Cointelegraph on April 24. While the Ledger spokesperson confirmed the investment, no further details beyond the initial investment amount were provided. The news follows the appointment of Pascal Gauthier, the firm’s former president, as its new CEO. Former CEO Eric Larchevêque will now serve as Executive Chairman of the Ledger’s Board. He said in a letter that “in this role I will be able to properly focus on strategy and…

BlockFi Lowers Investment Threshold for Earning Bitcoin Interest

Bitcoin prices may be dropping, but one cryptocurrency-based lending startup is looking to expand the appeal of digital assets. BlockFi, which is backed by the Winklevoss Twins’ cryptocurrency conglomeration Gemini, has agreed to lower the BTC investment threshold for participating in its interest generating program. Last month, BlockFi announced the creation of the world’s first interest-bearing accounts for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The New York-based firm will be paying out 6.2% in interest on deposits of Bitcoin and Ethereum, all backed by the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. However, after extensive…

Charlie Lee Rails Against S**t Coins and Scam Coins

By CCN: It’s not easy being Charlie Lee. It’s no secret the Litecoin creator has had to deal with a crypto community that hasn’t gotten over his LTC portfolio sale. But he’s also fending off other blockchain projects, many of which have no place in the ecosystem to begin with. Lee took out his frustrations on Twitter, bemoaning the struggle to keep Litecoin in the limelight. “Watch Litecoin surviving the test of time. It’s not easy fighting off all the s**tcoins and scamcoins to stay in the top 10.” Litecoin…

Bitfury Join Forces with Final Frontier to Launch Bitcoin Mining Fund

Bitfury, one of the leading infrastructure providers for the Bitcoin blockchain, has collaborated with Final Frontier, a Swiss-based artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain investment firm, to launch a regulated Bitcoin mining fund, according to a Reuters report on April 24, 2019. Exposing Institutional Investors to Bitcoin Mining Per sources close to the matter, distributed ledger technology (DLT) unicorn, Bitfury Group has collaboratively launched a Bitcoin mining fund with Final Frontier, in a bid to make it possible for institutional and professional investors to gain access to Bitcoin mining. Developed by…

Ledger Appoints Its President Pascal Gauthier as New CEO

French hardware crypto wallet producer Ledger has named its president, Pascal Gauthier, as the new chief executive officer of the company. The news was announced in a press release published on April 24. Gauthier —  a seed investor and board member —  initially joined Ledger as its president, and will now reportedly be in charge of executing the company’s strategy and delivery of its products. In his letter, Gauthier said that he “will focus all of [his] attention and energy on growing an amazing tech company on both the retail…

Bitcoin Exchange HitBTC Allegedly Bilks Users in High-Stakes Token Swap

By CCN: If you Google the words “HitBTC” and “scam” together you get a lot of interesting results. The notable Bitcoin exchange appears very legitimate when you use it, but – at least in this reporter’s opinion – the anecdotes that come out of this place sometimes border on the disturbing. CCN received a tip from an alleged victim of their latest antics, in which they purportedly managed to bilk the entirety of their userbase out of MaxiMine, an ERC-20 token which has recently pumped by leaps and bounds. Trader:…

TrustToken to Release Four New Stablecoins This Year

TrustToken will release four new stablecoins this year that are pegged to Australian dollars, euros, Canadian dollars, and Hong Kong dollars. The update was announced in a blog post published on April 24. Per the post, TrustToken has expanded into four new digital currencies backed by Australian dollars (TrueAUD), Euros (TrueEUR), Canadian dollars (TrueCAD), and Hong Kong dollars (TrueHKD). TrueAUD can be immediately listed on digital currency exchanges, while TrueCAN and TrueHKD will purportedly be launched in the second quarter of 2019, with TrueEUR in the third. From now on,…

BlockFi Reduces Minimum Bitcoin Deposit Required to Earn Monthly Interest

According to an article by Forbes published April 23, 2019, crypto lending startup BlockFi has slashed its minimum bitcoin deposit required to earn monthly interest from one BTC to 0.5 BTC. The startup has also announced that it will expand its business to India. BlockFi Slashes Required Amount of Bitcoin BlockFi, a cryptocurrency startup backed by Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange has brought down its minimum bitcoin balance required to earn monthly interest after customers’ demand for a lower threshold. Users of BlockFi can now earn interest in bitcoin for as…

Blockchain Browser Brave to Reward Users with BAT Tokens for Watching Ads

Decentralized browser Brave has launched Brave Ads, an option that enables its users to earn rewards for watching advertising. The development was announced on Brave’s website on April 24. The announcement reads that users of Brave — which is an open-source blockchain-powered browser that blocks ads and website trackers — can now receive 70% of the ad revenue share as a reward for their attention in the form of the browser’s native cryptocurrency, basic attention tokens (BAT). Brave Ads purportedly ensures that brands are connecting with people who are interested…

John McAfee Says He Will Reveal Who Satoshi Nakamoto Is

According to a Bloomberg report, notorious crypto enthusiast and antivirus software maker, John McAfee, claims to have spoken with Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Further, he says he will reveal this person’s identity. John McAfee Claims to Know Satoshi Nakamoto When this reveal will be, however, remains unclear, despite McAfee initially telling Bloomberg he would expose Nakamoto “within a week.” McAfee said yesterday that the controversy his announcement would bring could damage his efforts to fight extradition to the US. Saying in a Twitter post: “Releasing the identity of Satoshi at this…