Cryptocurrency

The acquisition, which is expected to close in the first half of 2025, remains subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. The deal is anticipated to be valued at approximately $200 million in cash, with the possibility of customary purchase price adjustments.Founded in 2011, Bitstamp has established a strong presence with offices in Luxembourg, the UK, Slovenia, Singapore, and the US. The exchange boasts over 50 active licenses and registrations worldwide and serves a diverse customer base spanning the EU, UK, US, and Asia. Bitstamp’s robust institutional services, including its white label solution Bitstamp-as-a-service, institutional lending, and staking, are set to enhance Robinhood’s crypto offerings significantly.Johann Kerbrat, General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, emphasized the significance of the acquisition, stating that Bitstamp’s trusted and resilient global exchange complements Robinhood’s commitment to user experience and security across various geographies. JB Graftieaux, CEO of Bitstamp, echoed this sentiment, highlighting the synergies that will result from integrating Bitstamp’s platform and expertise into Robinhood’s ecosystem.The strategic combination will see Bitstamp’s team joining Robinhood, promising continued innovation and knowledge sharing. Both companies have assured their customers that the high standards of service, security, and reliability they have come to expect will remain unchanged throughout the transition.Barclays Capital Inc. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Robinhood for the transaction, while Galaxy Digital Partners LLC advised Bitstamp.This acquisition marks a significant milestone for Robinhood as it seeks to broaden its crypto business and establish a foothold in the institutional cryptocurrency space. The information for this article is based on a press release statement.In other recent news, Robinhood Markets has announced plans to buy back shares worth up to $1 billion over the next two to three years, beginning in the third quarter. This strategic initiative by the firm demonstrates its confidence in its own value. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an analyst firm, has maintained a Market Perform rating on Robinhood, highlighting the potential for a slight boost to earnings per share (EPS) due to the repurchase program.In other developments, Cathie Wood’s ARK ETFs have reported a reduction in their holdings of Robinhood stock, while increasing their stakes in UiPath (NYSE:PATH) Inc and Amgen Inc (NASDAQ:AMGN). The divestment from Robinhood suggests a strategic shift, with ARK showing a growing interest in the biotech and healthcare sectors.As Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) gears up to enhance its cryptocurrency services through the strategic acquisition of Bitstamp Ltd., investors are closely watching the company’s financial performance and market position. According to real-time data from InvestingPro, Robinhood boasts a robust market capitalization of 18.96 billion USD, underlining its significant presence in the trading platform sector.Despite the challenges often associated with high-growth companies, Robinhood has demonstrated impressive revenue growth in the last twelve months as of Q1 2024, with a notable increase of 36.13%. This upward trend is further evidenced by the company’s quarterly revenue growth of 40.14% for Q1 2024, signaling a strong start to the year. Additionally, Robinhood has maintained an impressive gross profit margin of 85.01%, showcasing its ability to efficiently manage its cost of services and maintain profitability.Investors considering Robinhood’s stock are advised to pay attention to the InvestingPro Tips that highlight the company’s expected net income growth this year and the positive revisions by three analysts for the upcoming period. These insights suggest a favorable outlook for Robinhood’s financial performance, which could be further propelled by the synergies expected from the Bitstamp acquisition.For those seeking a deeper analysis of Robinhood and additional insights, InvestingPro offers a comprehensive list of tips, including the company’s trading at a high P/E ratio relative to near-term earnings growth and its price movements’ volatility. With 12 more tips available on InvestingPro, investors can gain a more nuanced understanding of Robinhood’s market dynamics. To access these valuable insights, use the coupon code PRONEWS24 to get an additional 10% off a yearly or biyearly Pro and Pro+ subscription at https://www.investing.com/pro/HOOD.As Robinhood continues to navigate the competitive landscape of financial trading platforms and the evolving world of cryptocurrency, these InvestingPro Insights offer a snapshot of the company’s current financial health and market potential.This article was generated with the support of AI and reviewed by an editor. For more information see our T&C. More

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In an earlier tweet, however, Saylor made a Bitcoin-related prediction about the future of money.His earlier tweet, though, contains a prediction of the future form of money. Saylor tweeted that he expects the future of money to be digital, concluding the tweet with a Bitcoin hashtag.Bitcoin surged above the $71,240 level yesterday and then again recovered it today after a small rebound, as market participants look forward to potential interest rate cuts by the U.S. Federal Reserve as early as November. The Bitcoin price increase from Tuesday to today constituted 3.71%. The decline since then has been almost 0.9%, with Bitcoin changing hands at $70,680.Aside from that, on Tuesday, spot Bitcoin ETFs saw massive inflows as they absorbed a whopping $887 million in BTC. BlackRock’s IBIT scooped up $274 million, while Ark Invest increased its BTC holdings by $139 million. This happened to be the second largest daily inflow since the Bitcoin ETF approval by the SEC in mid-January.This prediction was based on a recent statement that VanEck chief executive Jan van Eck made during his talk with crypto trader and podcaster Scott Melker. Van Eck believes that Bitcoin’s market cap will be worth at least half of gold’s market capitalization.Gold’s market cap currently comprises roughly $15.9 trillion, and Bitcoin’s market cap stands at $1.4 trillion, which is approximately 10x smaller at the moment.This article was originally published on U.Today More

Ambitious 2024 Roadmap Includes 8x Improved Throughput, zkAuth for Web2 ID, Major GrantsMoonbeam Network, a smart contract platform for building cross-chain connected applications, announced the ‘Moonrise’ initiative anchored by a 2024 Product Roadmap that includes the introduction of parallel processing to improve throughput by 8 times, upgrading ecosystem integration, improving the developer and user experience, and more. Moonrise signals the next phase in evolution for Moonbeam and canary network Moonriver, which is incorporating Axelar bridging technology.More than two years since its mainnet launch in January 2022, Moonbeam is well-established as the leading solution for integrating networks such as Polkadot, Ethereum and the broader EVM ecosystems. The 2024 Roadmap demonstrates Moonbeam’s dedication to continually improving its cutting-edge performance and experience for developers and users.The Moonrise initiative is reflected in a comprehensive rebrand of Moonbeam’s look, underscoring how Moonbeam is more than a chain. It’s a hub for developers, Web3 enthusiasts, interoperability supporters and more.“We’re beyond excited to reveal Moonbeam’s new look in conjunction with our ambitious plans for 2024. This year we are implementing improvements, upgrades and announcements to all facets of the Moonbeam and Moonriver networks,” said Aaron Evans, Head of Operations at Moonbeam Foundation. “As our passionate community of supporters knows, Moonbeam is a modern blockchain with features for developers and users that are still just a dream for other networks that remain in testnet phase.”A lynchpin of the 2024 Roadmap is enhancing the core protocol with the introduction of asynchronous backing, a form of parallel processing that will quadruple block space and halve block times to 6 seconds, resulting in an 8x increase in overall throughput for Moonbeam.More improvements include ensuring compatibility and seamless interoperability with Ethereum’s gas-saving Dencun upgrade, substantial upgrades to the UX for Moonbeam Routed Liquidity, and improvements to governance mechanisms.Other highlights include:To check out Moonbeam’s new website and follow the network’s upcoming developments, see: https://moonbeam.network.About Moonbeam NetworkMoonbeam is a smart contract platform for building cross-chain connected applications that can access users, assets, and services on any chain. By uniting functionality from Ethereum, Cosmos, Polkadot and more into a single platform, Moonbeam solves today’s fragmented user experience — unlocking true interoperability and paving the way for the next generation of applications. The Moonbeam platform uses integrated cross-chain messaging to allow developers to create smart contracts that access services across many remote blockchains. This approach, plus Moonbeam’s developer-friendly EVM platform, vast tool support, and modern Substrate architecture, creates the ideal development environment for building connected applications.Social media links: Website | YouTube | GitHub | Telegram | Medium | X | DiscordContactPatrick BrendelSCRIB3patrick@scrib3.coThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

At the moment, Bitcoin is trading at roughly $70,868 – clearly on the rise. A strong bullish trend is evident in the chart, which shows a sequence of higher highs and lows. Moving averages are among the key technical indicators that point to further upward pressure. By breaking through key resistance levels, the price has solidified its position above $70,000. Growing trading volumes, which indicate strong buying interest, are supporting this breakout. A more comprehensive view is offered by the second chart, which displays the price of Bitcoin in relation to global liquidity (M2). With a staggering $94 trillion in global liquidity, the price of Bitcoin closely follows it. In the past, growing Bitcoin prices have frequently coincided with increases in worldwide liquidity. This relationship highlights Bitcoins as a store of value and a hedge against inflation in a time of loose monetary policy. Aggressive monetary policies by central banks in response to economic difficulties are primarily to blame for the spike in global liquidity. Investors are looking to Bitcoin as a hedge against the possible devaluation of fiat currencies as a result of the unprecedented amounts of money being pumped into the global economy. The market’s increased confidence in Bitcoin’s long-term value proposition is reflected in the price of the cryptocurrency, which has reached local highs as a result of this liquidity inflow. Technical analysis indicates that there are multiple bullish indicators on the price chart of Bitcoin. The daily chart’s moving averages confirm the bullish trend further, with the 50-day moving average moving above the 200-day moving average. Further more, with higher volumes on up days compared to down days, the volume trends support the price action.This article was originally published on U.Today More

June 5th, 2024 Singapore- IO.net, a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN), is proud to announce its strategic partnership with Leonardo AI, the creators of an advanced generative AI platform that allows users to create images through text prompts. This partnership’s main purpose is to give Leonardo AI access to IO.net’s powerful GPUs. Under the terms of their agreement, IO.net will provide Leonardo AI with 24xA100s from May 1st to August 31st. Following this initial phase, Leonardo AI will evaluate a longer-term A100 contract with IO.net. Additionally, Leonardo AI has expressed intent to procure 80xL40s from IO.net for annual commitment, pending the finalization of testing. Founder and CEO of IO.net, Ahmad Shadid, expressed his enthusiasm about the partnership, stating, “We are proud to support Leonardo AI with our high-performance A100 and L40S GPUs. This partnership underscores our commitment to powering innovative applications in AI and graphics processing. We look forward to seeing how our technology can help Leonardo AI transform visual asset generation, and we are enthusiastic about the prospect of a long-term collaboration.”IO.net’s decentralized approach to cloud computing offers users enhanced control and flexibility, aligning with Leonardo AI’s commitment to innovation. Unlike traditional hyperscalers or specialized cloud providers that offer overly expensive GPUs or repackaged AWS, IO.net operates on a distributed infrastructure. In turn, it provides services that are permissionless and cost-efficient, reducing users’ cloud AI expenses by up to 90%.Co-founder and CFO of Leonardo.ai, Chris Gillis, stated: “Leonardo.ai serves a global customer base of creatives across the advertising, film, graphic design, gaming and other industries. With over 16 million users, we have found IO.net to be incredibly reliable and cost-effective as we scale our platform to meet global demand. The IO.net team has been exceptional to work with, demonstrating a commitment to speed, excellence, and innovation that aligns perfectly with our vision. Together, we are able to deliver market-leading AI image generation to a global, fast-growing audience.”Leonardo’s enterprise offering allows creative teams to generate visual assets in real time, leverage private cloud storage, and access enterprise APIs to easily build infrastructure on top of Leonardo’s production platform. Since launching in 2022, the company has amassed more than 15 million users worldwide, who have generated over one billion images. Leonardo.ai is currently being used across creative industries such as advertising and marketing, design and architecture, film, fashion, photography, e-commerce, education, and more. Stay tuned in to all things Leonardo.ai by following the platform on social media:Discord | Facebook (NASDAQ:META) | LinkedIn | X | YouTubeTo stay up to date on IO.net announcements and news, follow the platform on social media: Telegram | Discord | X | LinkedInContactDan EdelsteinPR@marketacross.comThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

Bitcoin’s current streak of daily gains is the longest in three months. At the time of writing, BTC was up 3.36% in the last 24 hours to $70,951, just 3.73% shy of its record high of $73,750 set in mid-March.Bitcoin began to rebound after reaching a low of $69,024 on May 31 and has spent the first few days of June in the green. Bitcoin surpassed $71,000 on Tuesday, achieving highs of $71,108, and has since risen to intraday highs of $71,375 in today’s trading session, on course for its fifth straight day of gains.This sustained upward momentum comes as market traders increasingly bet on a Federal Reserve rate reduction as early as November, following indicators of easing U.S. inflation and a cooling job market.Despite recent challenges in sustaining its value above $70,000, Bitcoin has been buoyed by fresh optimism surrounding Bitcoin ETFs, which suddenly saw shockingly high inflows on Tuesday and progress in Washington toward a more defined regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.Expectations of looser financial conditions that tend to benefit speculative assets like cryptocurrencies, alongside these developments, have provided a favorable backdrop for Bitcoin’s ascent past the $71,000 mark.Moreover, a short-term, 30-day correlation between Bitcoin and the Nasdaq 100 Index, which tracks U.S. technology stocks, is at its highest since early 2023. This correlation suggests that further advances in the tech stock index could signal corresponding upward movements for Bitcoin.This article was originally published on U.Today More

Mandala Chain: Real World Utility & Adoption, Starting in IndonesiaMandala Chain, a Polkadot parachain that seamlessly integrates government and enterprise applications with public and retail sectors, has released details on their initial partnerships and use cases. The inaugural use case, IDCHAIN, is in collaboration with the entity overseeing Indonesia’s top-level .id web domain. This initiative aims to introduce over 10 million new wallets, significantly impacting digital identification in Indonesia.IDCHAIN: Pioneering Digital Identity SolutionIDCHAIN, built on top of Mandala Chain, is designed to create secure digital identity infrastructure on the .id domain, allowing users to store identity documents and interact with government and enterprise portals. The implications of this are profound. Indonesia’s second-level domains .go.id (government) and .co.id (business and banking) currently have over 100M active unique users. IDCHAIN turns these second-level domains into web3-enabled portals that prompt users to create their digital ID when interacting. Applications include banking, healthcare, insurance, and academic institutions – revolutionizing multiple economic sectors across SE Asia. IDCHAIN forms a crucial data infrastructure layer for Mandala Chain that will support a host of new use cases. Several pilot projects have already been secured that will leverage the technology stack for other DApps and L2s to launch on Mandala Chain. These include:Banking: Mandala Chain is collaborating with over 90 banks to place data and transactions on-chain, initially adding 40,000 new wallets.Healthcare: Partnering with 20+ hospitals to secure medical data and insurance on-chain, projected to add 900,000 new wallets to start.Gold Tokenization: Working with a major Indonesian gold corp with $500M in gold reserves to explore tokenization options, onboarding approximately 300,000 new users.Infrastructure: MOU signed with the largest Indonesian data infrastructure providers to explore multiple blockchain applications.Product Authenticity: Collaborating with BKRAF to create authentication certificates for artist IP and products, a TAM of over 80 million products.Awakening Southeast Asia’s Sleeping GiantMandala Chain has elected to focus on Indonesia as the initial market for rolling out their initial use cases. With the fourth largest population globally, Indonesia is projected to have the fourth largest GDP by 2040 behind only China, India, and the USA. The potential for growth here is nearly unparalleled.The Indonesian government has prioritized blockchain as a core infrastructure in its Digital Vision 2045 framework. With an average age of under 30 years, Indonesia has a young, tech-savvy population likely to adopt blockchain technology. Mandala Chain is positioned to be at the forefront of this explosion in blockchain adoption.About Mandala ChainMandala Chain secured a Polkadot Parachain in April 2024 with over $1.2M bonded by the public at the time of auction. Testnet will be live in June, and a token generation event is planned for September 2024, strategically timed for when Mandala Chain will be a co-title sponsor at Coinfest, one of SE Asia’s largest Blockchain conferences.ContactCo-FounderMathew PaulMandala Chaininfo@mandalachain.ioThis article was originally published on Chainwire More