Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The Venezuelan cryptocurrency ecosystem remains on shaky ground four months after the intervention of national crypto watchdog Sunacrip, and the arrest of its head, Joselit Ramirez, due to alleged participation in a $20 billion corruption scandal involving the undeclared sale of crude oil for crypto. There have been no official updates from Sunacrip’s restructuring board, but Bitcoin mining activities are still halted per local sources’ reports. Venezuelan Crypto Ecosystem Still Affected After Sunacrip Intervention The situation of the Venezuelan cryptocurrency ecosystem and the current status of its official cryptocurrency asset, the petro, are yet uncertain after four months of the intervention of Sunacrip, the Venezuelan cryptocurrency watchdog. The restructuring board has made no official statements on the processes it is developing, and it is currently not known if the regulatory institution will even survive. The government of Nicolas Maduro issued an executive order to inter...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says the U.S. dollar’s dominance “won’t last forever.” While recognizing the global de-dollarization trend, he expressed skepticism about the Chinese yuan’s ability to replace the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant currency. Economist Paul Krugman on U.S. Dollar Dominance and Chinese Yuan Nobel laureate Paul Krugman discussed the U.S. dollar’s dominance and the potential for the Chinese yuan to replace the USD in an opinion piece published in The New York Times earlier this month. Krugman won the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel in 2008 for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity. Krugman acknowledged the growing de-dollarization trend worldwide and the potential decline of the U.S. dollar’s role in international trade, as more countries seek to de-dollarize. However, citing a Federal Reserve report that analyzed various indicators of dollar dominance, he stressed that the U.S...

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has stated that the regulator is “disappointed” with the SEC v. Ripple ruling on XRP regarding retail investors. “We are still looking at it and assessing that opinion,” he affirmed. Gensler also reiterated the SEC’s commitment to enforcing regulations on the crypto industry and ensuring compliance among crypto firms. Gensler Says SEC Is ‘Assessing’ the Ripple Ruling on XRP The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, commented on the ruling in the SEC v. Ripple case during his remarks at the National Press Club luncheon Monday. The court ruled last Thursday, as described by Ripple’s chief legal officer, that “ XRP is not a security … sales on exchanges are not securities. Sales by executives are not securities. Other XRP distributions — to developers, to charities, to employees are not securities.” The Ripple legal counsel noted: “The only thing the court found constitutes an inv...

As of July 17, 2023, the decentralized finance (defi) sector has been witnessing a great deal of consolidation with total value locked (TVL) figures standing at $44.19 billion. Throughout most of the year in 2023, except for a brief period of seven days in April, the TVL in defi has consistently remained below the $50 billion range. Value Locked in Defi in 2023 Remains Above $40B but Stagnates Below $50B Throughout the first half of 2023, the decentralized finance (defi) landscape has exhibited a lackluster performance, with the value locked in the sector remaining relatively stagnant. Specifically, on Monday, July 17, 2023, the total value locked (TVL) stands at $44.19 billion, according to defillama.com metrics . Within this sum, Lido Finance commands a significant portion, securing $14.78 billion, which accounts for 33.45% of the aggregate TVL. Following Lido, prominent players in the defi realm include Aave ($5.88B), Makerdao ($5.47B), Uniswap ($3.78B), and Justlend ($3.69B)...

On Monday, the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a product of the G20 organization, unveiled its proposed guidelines for a global regulatory structure overseeing the operations of crypto assets. The international entity emphasizes that nations should confront the risks cryptocurrencies pose to global financial stability. The FSB contends that occurrences within the preceding year have underscored the “structural vulnerabilities of crypto assets and related players.” G20’s Financial Stability Board Provides 9 Crypto Industry-Centric Recommendations for Countries and Standard-Setting Bodies As stated in a newly published report , the G20’s Financial Stability Board (FSB) wants to rein in the crypto industry with tighter regulations and standardized frameworks. The FSB’s strategy for governing crypto asset operations hinges on encouraging collaboration between jurisdictional financial authorities and standard-setting bodies (SSBs). This cooperation aims to guarantee that such activities...

Southern District of New York judge Katherine P. Failla called to attention the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of Coinbase’s Initial Public Offering (IPO), hinting that the agency could have been more thorough. Failla expressed skepticism about the SEC’s posture that approving the Coinbase S-1 form to go public meant “nothing,” stating that the commission could have called out Coinbase’s behavior. SEC v. Coinbase: Judge Failla Was Skeptical Towards Regulator’s Posture on Coinbase IPO Approval Katherine P. Failla, judge for the Southern District of New York, has called attention to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) behavior when approving the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Coinbase to go through back in 2021. Failla hinted that the commission might have done more to signal the problems in the exchange’s business model before greenlighting its listing on Nasdaq. During the pre-motion conference of the case, which took place on July 13, Fa...

PRESS RELEASE. July 17th, 2023, Hong Kong. Startup Open Asset Standards has recently announced QED , the world’s first ZK 2.0 blockchain protocol. Unlike existing zero knowledge blockchain protocols, QED has a novel state model which is horizontally scalable, meaning it is no longer limited by TPS restrictions that have previously prevented adoption of blockchain technologies in Web2 use cases such as social networks, traditional finance, and gaming. Enabled by advances in fast recursive zero knowledge proofs, QED is able to achieve this scale without compromising security or decentralization and proves all transactions end-to-end using proof recursion (verifying a zero knowledge proof in a zero knowledge proof ). This process of decentralized recursive proving culminates in a single block proof which can be verified by an Ethereum smart contract, making the protocol only reliant on the Proof of Math itself, rather than an incentive based consensus system vulnerable to collusion...