On Friday, Bitcoin was nearing its peak for the year as crypto investors found optimism in a legal triumph where XRP, a cryptocurrency, was determined to not be a security. A US judge said on Thursday that Ripple Labs Inc did not violate securities laws by selling its XRP token on public exchanges. The case is the cryptocurrency company’s first victory in a lawsuit brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Although the decision was case-specific, it triggered a wave of optimism among crypto-investors that more cryptocurrencies cannot be…

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Despite numerous challenges faced by the digital asset industry, Bitcoin has reached its highest level in a year, driven by renewed enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies. The native digital currency surpassed $31,013, its 2023 peak, to its highest level since June 2022, Bloomberg data shows. The rise has taken Bitcoin as high as $31,410 and up nearly 90% since the start of the year. Other cryptocurrencies followed suit with Ether. It’s a significant development — and a sign of resilience — in a market that many had written off as extinct following…

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International Game Technology Plc, the world’s largest slot machine maker, may be considering offering cryptocurrency as a payout option on casino games like Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune. On Tuesday, the company received a patent for a way to transfer cryptocurrency between a player’s gaming establishment account and an external cryptocurrency account. This means that players can move Bitcoin into their virtual wallets on a slot machine using their phones. IGT was granted this patent to bolster its leading patent portfolio in anticipation of any possible future direction in regulated…

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The wettest weather in at least 20 years has boosted output from hydropower plants, leaving Sweden and Norway with some of the lowest electricity prices in the world. The resulting glut of the most important raw material for making virtual coins coincided with a year in which the price of Bitcoin tripled. Currencies are made in giant computer farms that process complex algorithms in halls as large as airport hangers. This makes electricity one of the main inputs, with operations sometimes consuming as much energy as that used by 70,000…

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