Bitcoin (BTC) hit four-day highs of $45,000 on Sept. 24 as the market digested news that Twitter had enabled BTC tipping. Twitter stock surges 3.8% on Bitcoin news Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $45,180 on Bitstamp. The largest cryptocurrency had struggled to overcome resistance at $44,000, but the Twitter announcement provided some much-needed bullish momentum. The social network rolled out the first phase of its Lightning Network tipping feature via payments gateway Strike for iOS users Thursday. Other interfaces would soon follow, Strike confirmed, with other tipping partners in the pipeline and set to be …

Bullish optimism is on the rise across the cryptocurrency market on Sept. 23 as prices continue to recover from this week's volatility which was the result of regulatory pressure on the crypto sector, the Federal Open Market Committee meeting on the Fed's interest rate hikes and monetary policy, along with fears that the Evergrande situation would ripple out to impact global financial markets. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that after trading in a range between $43,000 and $44,300 during the early trading hours on Sept. 23, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) spiked above $44,800 in the early …

One of the reasons behind Bitcoin’s (BTC) volatility, the substantial price oscillations that occur regularly, is the discrepancy of its use cases. Some pundits deem it “digital gold,” a truly scarce and perfect store of value. Others consider Bitcoin a technology project or a type of software with a corresponding network. El Salvador’s adoption as legal tender will likely evidence the means of exchange functionality that the Lightning Network provides. The Layer-two scaling solution allows instant and insanely cheap transfers, although it requires regular on-chain transactions to enter or exit this parallel network. As these narratives about Bitcoin shift over …

Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange Paxful has integrated Lightning Network into its platform, giving its 7 million users access to near-instant Bitcoin (BTC) transfers. The new feature gives users the ability to send and receive BTC from their Paxful Wallet in a matter of seconds and with much lower fees than existing blockchain transactions, the company announced Tuesday. Paxful co-founder and CEO Ray Youssef described Bitcoin as “the best financial option” but acknowledged that scalability issues could be hindering adoption. He said Lightning Network is Bitcoin’s greatest chance of achieving the scalability needed to make microtransactions a reality. Related: Journeys in Blockchain: …

Layer-two scaling protocols for Ethereum have surged in adoption in recent months as gas prices climb again, and the layer-two ecosystem is now processing more daily transactions than the Bitcoin network, according to recent findings. According to CoinMetrics data collated by industry analyst and Week In Ethereum News founder Evan Van Ness, there were more transactions on Ethereum layer twos than on the Bitcoin network on Monday. Layer-two protocols processed around 250,000 transactions for the day, whereas there were around 210,000 on Bitcoin. Fun fact: There are already more daily transactions on Ethereum's layer2 (~250k) than on Bitcoin (~210k yesterday …

Twitter is reportedly laying the groundwork to enable Bitcoin (BTC) tipping for content creators. According to MacRumors, the latest Twitter iOS beta includes lines of code that could see Bitcoin become a part of the “Tip Jar.” Indeed, as previously reported by Cointelegraph, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had previously hinted that Bitcoin tipping was in the works. Twitter introduced Tip Jar back in May as a way for users to reward content creators on the popular social media platform. If the reports of Bitcoin tipping are true, then BTC will be added alongside Cash App, PayPal and Venmo as acceptable …

An integration with payment processor OpenNode will allow content platform Substack to accept Bitcoin (BTC) payments on-chain and use the Lightning Network. In a Monday announcement, OpenNode said it had partnered with Substack “to make it easy for writers and publications to get paid in Bitcoin.” According to OpenNode and Substack, the integration will only be available to “a select group of crypto-focused publications” on the platform. The publishing platform, which allows writers to send their work directly to readers, has more than 500,000 paid subscribers, with the most popular writers reportedly earning more than six figures annually. The select …

The Crazy Horse 3 gentlemen's club has announced it has become the first major entertainment venue in Las Vegas to accept Bitcoin using the Lightning Network. The nightspot will implement the layer two Bitcoin scaling solution enabling punters to make payments in a flash. It has integrated BTC payment processor OpenNode which will initially allow guests to securely purchase VIP bottle packages using BTC through the venue’s website. According to the announcement, the Bitcoin payments rollout includes plans to accept the digital asset for admission, food selections, craft cocktails and the club's signature “dance dollars” which are used for tipping …

The number of reachable Bitcoin network nodes has crossed the 13,000 mark for the first time. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, the previous all-time high was 11,613 achieved back in January. According to data from Bitcoin network statistics dashboard Bitnodes.io, this milestone was reached back on July 5 when the number of reachable nodes clocked in at 13,374. At the time of writing, Bitnodes’ data puts the current network node count at about 12,835, Coin.Dance, another tracking website, also has Bitcoin’s node count at a new all-time high of 12,825. Nodes running the Bitcoin Core software make up 98.77% of …

Bitcoin (BTC) has been ranging from $30,400 to 36,400 for the last 12 days, and it has been difficult to pinpoint the exact reason for investors’ lack of appetite. Some analysts have pointed to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) unlocking in mid-July finally giving institutional investors a chance to offload their funds, but this is not likely to be the main reason. Meanwhile, industry leaders have suggested that the “crypto regulatory crackdown” taking shape in the United States is severely impacting investors’ sentiment, and this view is especially problematic considering China has recently banned all crypto mining activity in the …

A Canadian business has become the world’s first publicly listed company to be entirely focused on the Lightning Network. LQwD FinTech Corp. trades under the symbols TSXV:LQWD, OTCQB: LQWDF. In November 2020, it was announced that Interlapse planned to acquire 100% of the issued and outstanding shares in LQwD, a Bitcoin company that aims to provide enterprise-grade infrastructure, tools and liquidity to support the growth of the Lightning Network ecosystem. The Lightning Network is a layer-two solution that is built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain — delivering scalable, off-chain, instantaneous and cheap payments. According to LQwD, this technology “is …

Bitcoin’s status as legal tender in El Salvador has recently sparked a new round of discussion concerning Bitcoin (BTC) and its role in the world economy. Despite ambiguous reactions from institutions such as JPMorgan Chase and the World Bank, some feel that Bitcoin’s status as a means of payment is now more explicit than ever. Meanwhile, the perception of Bitcoin among retail users is contrasted sharply by institutional uncertainty. A recent study by CryptoRefills, a company that sells vouchers and gift cards in exchange for cryptocurrency, seems to suggest that many users view Bitcoin as a useful way to pay …