Blockchain Bites: MicroStrategy's BTC Buy, Bitmain's Power Struggle, Paxful's Goodbye

MicroStrategy has put even more of its treasury into bitcoin, Paxful is pulling out of Venezuela and the Bitmain power struggle appears to have found a short-term solution.

Bitcoin buyMicroStrategy, a business intelligence company, told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday it “may increase” its BTC holdings beyond the $250 million haul purchased in August.

These blockbuster buys transformed much of MicroStrategy's cash reserves into bitcoin, placing the Nasdaq-traded firm among Wall Street's most notable bitcoin bulls.

On Sept. 11, the board formally recognized bitcoin as MicroStrategy's "Primary treasury reserve asset on an ongoing basis."

Crypto exchange Zaif, now called Fisco, has said hackers transferred 1,451 bitcoin to an address belonging to Binance and used the exchange's minimal know-your-customer and trading procedures to launder the money.

Power struggleHas Bitmain's power struggle come to an end? An updated Chinese business registration record shows co-founder Jihan Wu is once again legal representative and executive director of the bitcoin miner maker giant, replacing rival co-founder Micree Zhan.

Goodbye market"Increasingly strict" regulations are to blame of Paxful's decision to pull out of the Venezeulan crypto market, according to a video tweeted Monday.

Bitcoin smart contractsA new Bitcoin smart contract-enabling protocol developed by the Lightning Network Protocol and Bitcoin Protocol Standards Association is now in beta.

Called RGB, the network could be used to issue tokenize securities and nonfungible tokens, and to offer a more private means of stablecoin issuance and transfer on the most popular blockchain.

One of its architects, Giacomo Zucco, said it could also help outfit Bitcoin with the tokenizing capabilities that have made Ethereum the go-to blockchain for issuing tokenized assets like securities, collectibles, crypto dollars and more.