Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

  On May 2, 2023, the Biden administration unveiled a blog post outlining the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax, featured in the president’s comprehensive 182-page budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024. The DAME tax targets “making crypto miners pay for the costs they impose on others” regarding the environmental impact of crypto mining activities. Crypto Miners Could Face Gradually Increasing Tax With Biden’s DAME Proposal With the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors expressing alarm over the so-called climate crisis, Biden’s administration argues that crypto asset mining’s energy consumption brings about “negative spillovers on the environment, quality of life, and electricity grids where these firms locate across the country.” To address these environmental costs, the White House believes that the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax will encourage companies to “start taking better account of the harms...

On May 2, 2023, the Biden administration unveiled a blog post outlining the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax, featured in the president’s comprehensive 182-page budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024. The DAME tax targets “making crypto miners pay for the costs they impose on others” regarding the environmental impact of crypto mining activities. Crypto Miners Could Face Gradually Increasing Tax With Biden’s DAME Proposal With the White House’s Council of Economic Advisors expressing alarm over the so-called climate crisis, Biden’s administration argues that crypto asset mining’s energy consumption brings about “negative spillovers on the environment, quality of life, and electricity grids where these firms locate across the country.” To address these environmental costs, the White House believes that the Digital Asset Mining Energy (DAME) tax will encourage companies to “start taking better account of the harms they impose on society.” The DAME tax intends to levy a grad...

Polygon climbed higher in today’s session, as cryptocurrency markets marginally rebounded on Wednesday. The global crypto market cap was up by nearly 1% earlier in the day, as Tuesday’s losses eased. Solana, on the other hand, remained lower, as it fell towards a key price floor. Polygon (MATIC) Polygon (MATIC) edged higher on Wednesday, as the token moved away from a recent point of support. Following a low at $0.954 on Tuesday, MATIC/USD jumped to a peak of $0.9925 earlier in today’s session. As a result of the move, polygon bounced from a recent price floor of $0.950, after recently falling to a multi-week low. Looking at the chart, Wednesday’s surge led to the relative strength index (RSI) colliding with a long-term ceiling of 40.00. At the time of writing, the index is tracking at 39.22, with MATIC at a level of $0.9813. Despite earlier gains easing, there is still optimism that polygon could climb back above $1.00 this week. Solana (SOL) On the other hand, solana (SOL) r...

As of May 3, 2023, the Bitcoin blockchain has witnessed a staggering 3.35 million Ordinal inscriptions, and a new experimental token standard known as “Bitcoin Request for Comment,” or BRC20, has garnered substantial attention in the past week. With 10,487 BRC20 tokens built using Ordinals and a swelling market capitalization exceeding $95 million, this new development has the crypto world buzzing. Ordinals Protocol Witnesses 3 Million Inscriptions While BRC20 Tokens Drive Bitcoin’s Mempool into Overdrive The Bitcoin community is abuzz with conversations surrounding the BRC20 token standard after its introduction by a pseudonymous developer named Domo in March. BRC20 tokens leverage the Ordinals protocol, enabling creators to mint fungible crypto assets onchain with ease. To create a BRC20 coin, individuals need to encode a JSON data object containing critical token information. Like an ERC20 token contract on Ethereum, this data would encompass fundamental ...

The U.S. Federal Reserve, in conjunction with the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), announced on Wednesday that the central bank would raise the federal funds rate by 25 basis points (bps), as was widely expected by the market. This marks the tenth consecutive occasion in which the Fed has raised interest rates since the initial 25bps increase in March 2022. FOMC Announcement Says ‘Additional Policy Firming May Be Appropriate’ At 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time, the central bank raised the benchmark interest rate citing that economic activity expanded “at a modest pace in the first quarter.” The Fed’s announcement noted that unemployment has been low but “inflation remains elevated.” The FOMC announcement further addressed the issues in the U.S. banking industry and the committee emphasized that the “U.S. banking system is sound and resilient.” The Fed’s unbroken chain of rate hikes is a testament to the bank’s unwavering commitment to getting inflation down. The FOMC’s press release n...

Authorities in Iran are taking steps to make crypto payments easier for companies importing goods in the sanctioned country. A dedicated platform has been established to allow local businesses to transfer cryptocurrency for the purpose of cross-border settlements. Iran to Use Cryptocurrencies for Imports, Trade Organization Chief Vows Iranian companies will be able pay for imports with cryptocurrencies, the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) has assured, according to local media. Alireza Peymanpak, head of the government body, said that the Central Bank of Iran ( CBI ) has issued a permission for using cryptos in settlements for imported goods. “The final decision will be taken by the Economy Ministry,” Peymanpak added, quoted by the official Economy and Bank of Iran News Network ( Ibena ) on Sunday. Peymanpak’s statements come several months after he announced that Iran had placed its first official import order in cryptocurrency. In August 2022, the government offici...

Bank of Russia raised its forecast for the profits of Russian banks in 2023, expecting results that may break the 2021 record. This year’s high numbers are coming after 2022 became the worst annual period in seven years for the sanctioned Russian banking sector in terms of financial outcome. Banks in Russian Federation Headed for at Least $23 Billion in Profits in 2023 Data from the first months of 2023 give the Central Bank of Russia ( CBR ) reason to believe that by the end of the year Russian banks can earn 1.9 trillion rubles (almost $24 billion), “or even more, which is comparable to the profit for 2021,” Deputy Governor Olga Polyakova unveiled at a conference held by the National Credit Ratings (NCR) agency. Two years ago, Russian banking institutions made a record-high 2.37 trillion rubles (close to $30 billion at current exchange rates), the business daily Vedomosti noted in a report, quoting the central bank official and the organizers of the forum. When it released its b...