Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

A draft law devoted to the digital ruble has been filed with the State Duma, the lower house of Russian parliament. The legislation introduces rules determining how the new form of national fiat will be issued and amends a series of legal acts to facilitate its implementation. Bank of Russia to Be the Sole Operator of the Digital Ruble Platform A group of Russian lawmakers, led by the Chairman of the Financial Market Committee Anatoly Aksakov, have submitted draft legislation on the digital ruble, the central bank digital currency ( CBDC ) minted by Russia’s monetary authority. The document suggests legislative changes meant to create the conditions for its introduction. According to the explanatory notes to the bill, quoted by the crypto page of the Russian business news portal RBC, its main purpose is to develop the necessary payment infrastructure for the digital ruble. This, the sponsors believe, would provide Russian citizens, businesses, and the state with access to fast, con...

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) says one of the priorities for the G20 under India’s presidency is to “develop a framework for global regulation, including the possibility of prohibition, of unbacked crypto assets, stablecoins, and defi.” The Indian central bank warned that “turmoil in crypto assets market” is among “the major risks that can potentially undermine global financial stability.” Indian Central Bank on Crypto Regulation India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), released its Financial Stability Report (FSR) for December on Thursday. The 172-page report includes discussions on crypto assets, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and decentralized finance (defi). “Regulating new technology and business models after they have grown to a systemic level is challenging,” the RBI report states. “To promote responsible innovation and to mitigate financial stability risks in crypto ecosystem, it is vital for policymakers to design an appropriate policy approach.” ...

The famous author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has revealed why he is buying more bitcoin. He warned that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations will “crush” most other cryptocurrencies. Robert Kiyosaki Buys More Bitcoin, Warns About SEC Regulations Crushing Crypto Tokens The author of Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, has revealed the key reason why he is investing in bitcoin. The famous author warned that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will “crush” most other crypto tokens with its regulations. Rich Dad Poor Dad is a 1997 book co-authored by Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It has been on the New York Times Best Seller List for over six years. More than 32 million copies of the book have been sold in over 51 languages across more than 109 countries. Kiyosaki tweeted Friday that he is investing in bitcoin. He explained that he is “very excited” about BTC because the cryptocurrency “is classified as a commodity much li...

Trials of the digital yuan have produced disappointing results, according to a report quoting the former head of research at the Chinese central bank. The new form of national fiat has brought no benefits to the banks and should expand beyond being employed only as a substitute for cash, the banker believes. Common People Used to Cash and Cards, Ex-PBOC Executive Notes Usage of China’s central bank digital currency ( CBDC ) has been “low, highly inactive,” according to Xie Ping, former director-general of research at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC). Ping made this observation at a conference devoted to digital finance. “The cumulative circulation of the digital yuan in the two years of the trial has been only 100 billion yuan” ($14 billion), he detailed, quoted by the financial news outlet Caixin and Reuters. In his view, the application of the digital yuan needed to be widened. “The results are not ideal,” Xie concluded during the forum which was organized by the Tsinghua Unive...

Tokio Marine, the biggest property/casualty insurance group in Japan, is taking its services and operations into the metaverse. The group, which has more than 39,000 employees all over the world, will allow its users to review and purchase insurance products on a metaverse platform, using real employees as clerks in the virtual world. Tokio Marine to Offer Insurance in Metaverse While gaming, social, and tech companies have been the first in embracing the metaverse as a concept, other companies are now also entering available metaverse platforms. Tokio Marine, the biggest property and casualty insurance group in Japan, has announced that it will start offering insurance services in the metaverse. The company will offer insurance and other kinds of policies in the digital world in January, employing real clerks that will be represented as avatars. Interested users will be able to interact with the clerks and inquire about the details of each one of the products offered, as well as s...

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has conducted the first payment transactions on the test network of the digital lira. The monetary authority intends to proceed with more testing in 2023 and plans to invite banks and fintech companies to join the trials. Turkey to Widen Participation in Digital Lira Project, Focus on Studying Economic and Legal Aspects Turkey’s monetary authority has successfully carried out the first payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira Network, according to an announcement on Thursday. The operations were executed as part of studies during the first phase of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) project. The CBRT also said it will continue to perform pilot tests with technology stakeholders in the first quarter of next year, on a limited scale and in a closed-circuit environment. The findings from these tests will be revealed to the public in a comprehensive evaluation report, it promised. Also in 2023, the Turkish central bank i...

BMW, the luxury car manufacturer, has partnered with Coinweb, a decentralized blockchain layer 2-based company, to introduce blockchain-based tools to its operations. The company will develop blockchain-based automation for vehicle financing processes, and also a rewards program for customers of the automotive company adapted to compliance processes in Thailand. BMW to Introduce Blockchain to Its Operations More companies are introducing blockchain processes as part of their operations due to the ostensible reliability of the tech and how it can help save on costs. On Dec. 29, BMW, the German car manufacturer, announced a partnership with Coinweb, a layer 2 (L2) blockchain interoperability protocol, to introduce blockchain-based processes to its operations. This alliance contemplates two different tasks. The first includes the development of a smart contracts platform with the objective of streamlining different processes that need to be completed for the financing of BMW-branded ...

Fidelity Investments, a major financial services firm with $10 trillion in assets under administration, has filed several trademark applications for a wide range of cryptocurrency, non-fungible token (NFT), and metaverse products and services. Fidelity’s Crypto and Metaverse Trademark Applications Fidelity Investments filed three trademark applications with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) last week for a wide range of cryptocurrency, non-fungible token (NFT), and metaverse products and services. Fidelity has $9.6 trillion in assets under administration as of Sept. 30; the financial services firm serves about 40 million individual investors. Mike Kondoudis, a USPTO-licensed trademark attorney, tweeted Monday: Fidelity has plans for the metaverse! The company has filed 3 trademark applications covering NFTs + NFT marketplaces, metaverse investment services, virtual real estate investing, cryptocurrency trading, and more. The financial services giant’s tradem...

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas has revealed that it seized digital assets worth more than $3.5 billion from the collapsed crypto exchange FTX. The regulator explained that the cryptocurrencies were transferred to its wallets “for safekeeping” and “are being held by the Commission on a temporary basis.” Bahamas Regulator Seizes FTX’s Cryptocurrencies The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) said Thursday that it has obtained a court order to transfer the digital assets owned by, or under the custody or control of, FTX Digital Markets Ltd. (FTXDM) to its secure wallets. FTX Digital Markets is the Bahamian subsidiary of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX Trading Ltd., which owned and operated the crypto trading platform FTX.com. The regulator wrote that on Nov. 12: The Commission … took the action of directing the transfer of all digital assets under the custody or control of FTXDM or its principals, valued at more than US$3.5 billion, based on market pricing at the time of tra...

Sudeban, the Venezuelan banking watchdog, is currently working on a mechanism to review crypto-related transactions in real-time to control the influence these have on the stability of the exchange market. Analysts have recently linked the situation in peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto markets to the recent drop in the value of the bolivar. Venezuelan Government to Monitor Crypto Transactions The Venezuelan government is aiming to monitor the the movements of crypto-based P2P exchanges to protect the value of the bolivar. On Dec. 20, the Venezuelan banking watchdog Sudeban explained that it is in the process of designing a system to monitor banking transactions in real-time, with the help of Sunacrip, the national cryptocurrency regulator. While no more details were offered, the organization explained the objective is to “fight the irregular practices that attack our currency and the stability of the exchange market.” This means that the government looks to be examining the link between t...

Digital fiat currencies will spread next year while the U.S. dollar will be losing its status of global reserve currency, according to Russia’s former head of state. In a string of tweets, Dmitry Medvedev gave his two cents on what the future holds for the world, a “humble contribution,” as he put it, to the “wildest predictions” ahead of New Year’s Eve. Medvedev Sees World Bank Crashing, Musk in the White House and Expensive Oil The Bretton Woods monetary system will collapse next year causing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to crash, according to the man who was at the helm of Russia for four years between two of Vladimir Putin’s presidential terms. “Euro and dollar will stop circulating as the global reserve currencies. Digital fiat currencies will be actively used instead” while “all the largest stock markets and financial activity will leave the U.S. and Europe and move to Asia,” Dmitry Medvedev stated on social media. Through a series of posts in a humoro...

During her appearance before Nigerian lawmakers, Aisha Ahmad, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), told lawmakers that out of the nearly $1.8 billion used to manage the local currency, over 90% of this total was reportedly used to fund expenses associated with the production of banknotes. The Growing Cost of Maintaining the Naira According to Aisha Ahmad, the deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), between the years 2017 and 2021, the apex bank spent an equivalent of nearly $1.8 billion, or 800 billion naira, managing the local currency. The production of new banknotes alone accounted for more than 90% of this figure. As per remarks published by the Punch, Ahmad, in her recent appearance before Nigerian lawmakers, also claimed that the cost of maintaining the local currency has been increasing by over $22 million annually. Before Ahmad’s disclosure, Kingsley Moghalu, a former CBN deputy governor, had also told lawmakers that the central bank uses...

Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary’s Twitter account was hacked Thursday and used to promote a bitcoin and ethereum giveaway scam. The scammers claimed that Mr. Wonderful is giving away 5,000 bitcoin and 15,000 ether, and anyone can participate. Kevin O’Leary’s ‘Fake’ Bitcoin and Ether Giveaways The official Twitter account for Shark Tank star Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, started promoting bitcoin and ethereum giveaways Thursday morning. The account tweeted claiming that O’Leary has made a lot of money from crypto over the last few years and he has decided to give away 5,000 bitcoin and 15,000 ether. The tweet also provides a link for anyone to join the cryptocurrency giveaway scam event. The O’Leary Twitter account further claimed that it is not hacked and the giveaways are not a scam. It also falsely claimed that Mr. Wonderful said on CNBC last night that he will away some cryptocurrencies for real. The link provided in the first tweet takes investors to a website claiming to ...

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman says Tesla may have more in common with bitcoin than you think. He explained that Tesla sales have depended in part on the perception that CEO Elon Musk “is a cool guy” while the price of bitcoin is “being sustained by a hard-core group of true believers.” Paul Krugman Compares Tesla to Bitcoin Paul Krugman, who 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, published an opinion piece in the New York Times Tuesday about Tesla, bitcoin, and their huge valuations. He wrote: Tesla and bitcoin may have more in common than you think. The economist explained that mega-corporations like Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have maintained their dominance because these companies “benefit from strong network externalities — loosely speaking, everyone uses their products because everyone else uses their products.” However, “It’s hard to see what...

After climbing to a high of 0.79 ether on Dec. 17, 2022, Donald Trump’s non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have dropped considerably in value over the last 12 days. On Dec. 29, 2022, Trump’s NFT collection has a floor value of 0.15 ether, which is around 81% lower than the floor value highs recorded last week. Trump Digital Collectibles Slide Significantly in Value Since the Launch, After Looking at the Art Trump Was Pleased With His 30-Inch Waistline The 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump, recently released 45,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and during the first day of the sale, each NFT was sold for $99 per unit. Trump’s NFTs started trading on secondary NFT markets on Dec. 15, 2022 and had a floor value of around 0.1 ether or around $125 for the most inexpensive Trump NFTs. Two days later, Bitcoin.com News reported on how Trump’s NFTs skyrocketed in value after being mocked by a large number of left-leaning political commentators. The same day, on Dec. 17, 2022, Trump’s ...

The U.S dollar-Argentine peso exchange rate escalated during December, with the Argentine fiat currency reaching new historic lows as citizens ran to exchange their holiday payments for dollars. The U.S. dollar reached a value of 356 pesos on December 28, losing almost 10% during just one week, and threatening to spur a more significant inflationary jump. Argentine Peso Sinks to Lowest Level in History Argentina, one of the countries in Latam with active exchange control for foreign currencies, is facing difficulties maintaining the value of its fiat currency. The exchange between U.S. dollars and Argentine pesos reached historic levels, with the peso sinking to its lowest level ever on Dec. 28. The dollar reached a price of 356 pesos in its parallel cash denomination, also called “blue,” having closed November with a value of 314 pesos per U.S. dollar. The Argentine peso plummet accelerated last week when it lost more than 10% of its value. Since the start of 2022, the Argentine ...

The Central African Republic’s plan to list the sango coin in the last quarter of 2022 has been put on hold, while the scheduled unlocking of 5% of token holders’ portfolios has similarly been postponed, a statement from the team promoting the token has reportedly said. The decision to delay the listing of the coin was prompted by what the team terms “current market conditions.” Scheduled Token Unlocking Postponed Nearly eight months after becoming the first country in Africa to adopt bitcoin, the Central African Republic (CAR) recently said it will not proceed with the listing of its “Sango” crypto token as planned. In a statement reportedly posted in a sango coin Telegram group, the team promoting the token claimed that “current market conditions” had necessitated this decision. Besides the listing delay, the CAR team said the planned unlocking of up to 5% of sango holders’ portfolios had been postponed as well. According to the token information available on the official Sango ...

A blockchain platform built by Russia’s largest banking institution, Sber, has been used to issue digital assets based on gold. The value of the tokenized precious metal will depend on the prices of physical gold, the bank said, emphasizing that the operation is a first. Russia’s Sber Bank Mints Gold-Backed Coins Sber, Russia’s largest bank, has reported issuing gold-based digital financial assets (DFAs) on its proprietary blockchain. The coins were minted for Solfer, a holding specialized in the processing and trading of metals and making products from precious metals. The Russian law “On Digital Financial Assets,” which entered into force in January, 2021, allows companies to tokenize various assets. Sber Bank is one of three “information system operators” authorized by the Bank of Russia to issue DFAs, alongside Atomyze and Lighthouse . The latter conducted Russia’s first DFA issue in June of this year. The DFA issued for gold represents a monetary claim on the asset, Sber ex...

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken is shutting down services in Japan. The company explained that the current Japanese market conditions and a weak global crypto market do not justify the resources needed to further grow its business in Japan at this time. Kraken Exiting Japan Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken announced Wednesday that it has decided to “cease its operations in Japan and deregister from the Financial Services Agency (JFSA) as of January 31, 2023.” The company explained that the decision to exit the Japanese crypto market is part of its “efforts to prioritize resources and investments” in the areas that align with the company’s strategy and “will best position Kraken for long-term success.” The announcement details: Current market conditions in Japan in combination with a weak crypto market globally mean the resources needed to further grow our business in Japan aren’t justified at this time. “As a result, Kraken will no longer service clients in Japan through Payward A...

Microstrategy is now holding approximately 132,500 bitcoin following its most recent purchases. This year, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has emerged as “the institutional-grade digital asset,” said Microstrategy founder Michael Saylor. Microstrategy Acquires More Bitcoin Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy Inc. announced Wednesday that it has purchased more bitcoin for its corporate treasury. Michael Saylor, the company’s founder and executive chairman, tweeted Wednesday: Microstrategy has increased its bitcoin holdings by ~2,500 BTC . As of 12/27/22 Microstrategy holds ~132,500 bitcoin acquired for ~$4.03 billion at an average price of ~$30,397 per bitcoin. In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Microstrategy clarified that the 2,500 coins were acquired between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24 by its wholly owned subsidiary Macrostrategy. The subsidiary bought approximately 2,395 BTC at an average price of $17,871 per coin between Nov. 1 and Dec. 21. It then so...

After the publicly-listed bitcoin mining firm Argo Blockchain suspended trading on Nasdaq and the London Stock Exchange, the company said it would follow up the next day with an announcement. The following day, on Dec. 28, 2022, Argo detailed it is selling its Helios facility to Galaxy Digital for $65 million, and the financially troubled business plans to refinance asset-backed loans with a new $35 million loan that stems from Galaxy. Galaxy Digital Purchases Texas Data Center From Argo Blockchain, Company Hopes Transactions Will ‘Enable the Company to Continue Operations’ Galaxy Digital is giving Argo Blockchain (Nasdaq: ARBK ) some fresh liquidity, according to a press announcement published by Argo on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2022. Argo detailed that it is selling its Helios facility to Galaxy for $65 million. Galaxy has also agreed to host Argo’s fleet of Bitmain-manufactured S19J Pro bitcoin miners at the Helios facility. The Helios facility is located in Dickens County, Texas and...