Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

India’s Finance Ministry has highlighted the necessity for “a common approach to regulating the crypto ecosystem” in its flagship Economic Survey this year. “Crypto assets are self-referential instruments and do not strictly pass the test of being a financial asset because it has no intrinsic cashflows attached to them,” the Indian government stated. Finance Ministry’s Economic Survey Includes Crypto This Year Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Economic Survey 2022-23 in Parliament Tuesday. The Economic Survey is an annual flagship document of the Ministry of Finance that outlines the performance of the Indian economy in the previous financial year and presents an economic outlook for the current financial year. Including cryptocurrency for the first time this year, the Economic Survey highlights the “necessity of a common approach to regulating the crypto ecosystem.” The 414-page document explains, “The recent collapse of the crypto exchange FTX and the ens...

Tesla’s latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that the fair market value of the company’s bitcoin holdings was $191 million at the end of 2022. In addition, billionaire Elon Musk’s electric car company recorded $204 million of impairment losses resulting from changes in the prices of bitcoin. Tesla’s Digital Assets and Its Bitcoin’s Fair Value Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla (Nasdaq: TSLA), filed its annual report for the year ended Dec. 31, 2022, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. The filing shows that the fair market value of Tesla’s BTC holdings was $191 million at the end of 2022 while their carrying value was $184 million, as Bitcoin.com News previously reported . “As of December 31, 2022, and 2021, the carrying value of our digital assets held was $184 million and $1.26 billion, which reflects cumulative impairments of $204 million and $101 million, each period, respectively,” the company detailed, e...

Asset management firm Devere Group says that 82% of millionaires surveyed have asked their financial advisors about adding cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, to their portfolios despite the crypto winter. “Wealthy investors understand that digital currencies are the future of money, and they don’t want to be left in the past,” the firm’s chief executive said. Millionaires to Capitalize in Forthcoming Crypto Bull Run, Devere Says Devere Group, a global financial advisory and asset management firm with $12 billion in assets under management (AUM) worldwide, published the results of its crypto survey Monday. Devere found that among its millionaire clients with between $1 million and $5 million of investable assets, 82% have sought advice about investing in cryptocurrencies. Without providing additional details, the asset management firm wrote: Eight out of 10 high net worth (HNW) individuals have asked their financial advisers about including cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, into t...

During the first month of 2023, the top two leading cryptocurrencies, bitcoin and ethereum, experienced double-digit gains against the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, several alternative cryptocurrencies saw even greater increases in value, with metaverse tokens like Decentraland’s MANA and The Sandbox’s SAND rising 92-150% against the greenback. Metaverse Crypto Assets Outshine Bitcoin and Ethereum Metaverse crypto assets have outperformed both bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) , the leading crypto asset and top smart contract token, respectively. In the past month, Decentraland’s MANA token has been the top performer, rising 150% against the U.S. dollar. Over the last two weeks, MANA climbed 7.3%, and in the past seven days, it rose 2.9%. On January 31, 2023, a single MANA was trading for $0.716 to $0.755 per unit. The Sandbox’s SAND metaverse token has increased 92% in the past 30 days and has risen 5% in the last two weeks. However, despite the 30-day increase, seven-day metrics show...

Bitcoin fell below $23,000 on Jan. 31, following a recent move to a five-month high over the weekend. Market volatility has since increased, as traders prepare for a big few days of economic data from the United States. The conference board will release its consumer confidence report later today, with the Federal Reserve holding its policy meeting on Wednesday. Ethereum also moved lower today. Bitcoin Bitcoin ( BTC ) retreated from a recent five-month high on Tuesday, with prices falling below the $23,000 mark in today’s session. BTC /USD fell to a low of $22,657.58 earlier in the day, less than 24 hours after hitting a high at $23,296.53. The move comes as traders appear to have secured gains from recent surges in price, and ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve policy decision. As can be seen from the chart, today’s drop saw BTC move closer to a price floor at $22,500, with the relative strength index (RSI) hitting a floor of its own. Currently, the index is now tracking at 6...

The fate of the Panamanian crypto bill project, which was approved by the Panamanian National Assembly last year, now depends on the decision of the supreme court of the country. The sanction of the project, which was vetoed by President Laurentino Cortizo, is now in the hands of the court after Congress rejected the veto measure. Panamanian Law Still Has Opportunity of Being Approved The Panamanian cryptocurrency bill, which was introduced in 2021 to the National Assembly and passed by the institution last year, has the opportunity of being re-examined and sanctioned even without presidential support. The destiny of the document lies now in the hands of the Supreme Court of Panama, which will have to weigh the arguments in favor and against the sanction of the regulatory framework. President Laurentino Cortizo, who received the document on Jan. 18 to sanction the proposed bill, delivered it to the court instead after issuing heavy objections to its form. The institution, that will...

Ordinals, a new way of using and getting content using Bitcoin, are enabling creators to harness the utility of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) directly from the blockchain, essentially creating native Bitcoin NFTs. This has stirred the pot in some circles, which are now discussing if this is the way in which Bitcoin’s blockchain should be used, and how this new use case will affect bitcoin nodes and fees in the future. Ordinals Enable Bitcoin NFTs Courtesy of Taproot A newfound use case for the Bitcoin chain is now being tested by individuals that have found a way of getting content directly to the blockchain. The project, called Ordinals , and launched just a few days ago, has enabled anyone to create Bitcoin NFTs (called inscriptions) as part of its functionality. This opportunity was inadvertently opened by the Taproot upgrade that the network underwent in November, which extended the length of Bitcoin transactions to almost the whole size of a block. This has been key for what’s c...