Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

The central bank of Georgia intends to publish a document detailing the concept of a national digital currency in the coming months. Other participating parties will use it to finalize their proposals for the pilot which the monetary authority plans to initiate in the first half of the year. Financial Authorities in Georgia Gear Up for Digital Currency Trials The National Bank of Georgia (NBG) is going to release a ‘digital lari’ whitepaper, allowing potential partners to fine-tune their proposals for the test phase of the project. A pilot version of the central bank digital currency ( CBDC ) was initially expected in 2022 but the NBG postponed the trials for this year. “In the first half of 2023, we will publish the document and soon after that, together with the winning partner, we will discuss how long it would take to implement the project,” Deputy Governor Papuna Lezhava explained in an interview with the Rustavi 2 TV channel. Several alternative approaches to testing the di...

Authorities in Germany, Bulgaria, Serbia, and Cyprus have taken down a cryptocurrency scam network in collaboration with Europol. “The suspects used advertisements on social networks to lure victims to websites covertly operated by the criminals, which offered seemingly exceptional investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies,” Europol detailed. Authorities Cracking Down on Cryptocurrency Scams Europol announced Thursday that authorities from Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus, and Germany, in collaboration with Europol and Eurojust, have taken down “call centers selling fake crypto.” The criminal network, operating through call centers, “lured victims into investing large amounts of money into fake cryptocurrency schemes,” Europol explained, elaborating: The suspects used advertisements on social networks to lure victims to websites covertly operated by the criminals, which offered seemingly exceptional investment opportunities in cryptocurrencies. Fifteen people have been arrested in t...

According to statistics, the number of Ethereum network validators on the Beacon chain exceeded 500,000 as of Jan. 12, 2023. The validator milestone comes as Ethereum core developers prepare for the Shanghai hard fork. Five days ago, Ethereum core developers launched a developer network environment called “devnet 2” for the upcoming upgrade. Ethereum Developers Launch ‘Devnet 2’ Testing Network for Upcoming Shanghai Upgrade; Network Exceeds 500,000 Validators On Jan. 11, 2023, Ethereum developers launched a new testing network for the Shanghai upgrade, a hard fork that’s anticipated to happen in March 2023. The developer’s new testing environment is called “devnet 2” as it follows “devnet 1” released in Nov. 2022. The new testnet was discussed briefly during the All Core Devs (ACD) meeting held on Jan. 5, 2023. At that time, Ethereum core developers stressed that the focus remains vigilant on staked withdrawals. It has been 123 days since The Merge , the point in time when the Et...

A professor from Cornell University has warned about the potential effects a collapse of a major stablecoin could have on the U.S. bond market. Eswar Prasad said that if large stablecoins face a collapse, the number of Treasury bonds they would need to sell could disrupt the U.S. Treasuries market, affecting prices. Cornell Profesor Alerts About Stablecoin Collapse Danger Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University, has warned about the potential damage a bank run on a possible collapse of a major stablecoin could bring to the traditional finance system in the U.S. Although the most recent collapse in the crypto economy did not reach legacy finance structures, Prasad believes stablecoins and their operations present risks in this regard. In an interview with CNBC, Prasad argued that stablecoins use U.S. treasuries as a backup to maintain the value of the peg. In the case that one of the big stablecoins in the market faces a collapse or a bank run, these organization...

South Korea’s supreme court has upheld the ruling for Bithumb, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to pay damages to more than a hundred customers who filed a lawsuit claiming they suffered financial losses resulting from the exchange’s service outage. Bithumb Ordered to Pay Customers Over Service Outage The South Korean supreme court has issued a final ruling in a case involving a service outage at Bithumb, the country’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Yonhap reported. The court has ordered Bithumb to pay damages totaling 251.4 million won ($203,120) to 132 investors who filed a lawsuit against the crypto exchange operator following the service outage, officials said Friday. The plaintiffs claimed that they suffered financial losses due to steep price drops in a number of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin cash ( BCH ) and ethereum classic ( ETC ), on Nov. 12, 2017, when the service outage occurred. According to the lawsuit, during the service interruption, the average...

The exchange rate of the Egyptian pound versus the U.S. dollar fell to a new low on Jan. 11 after it tapped 32.14 per greenback. The currency’s latest significant depreciation came just a few months after it adopted a flexible exchange rate regime. According to the International Monetary Fund, the monetary authorities in Egypt have pledged not to intervene in currency markets. Flexible Exchange Rate Regime Just a few months after plunging by more than 15% versus the U.S. dollar, the Egyptian pound tapped a new low of more than 32 units per greenback on Jan. 11. According to a Reuters report, the pound’s latest depreciation has prompted some analysts to question the extent to which the central bank wants the pound to fall. As reported by Bitcoin.com News in October 2022, the pound’s official exchange rate versus the dollar fell from just under 20 units per dollar to 23.09 per dollar after Egyptian monetary authorities agreed to abandon the fixed exchange rate regime. In return, Ca...

India’s central bank has reiterated its stance on banning cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether. The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) likened cryptocurrency trading to gambling. He warned that crypto “will undermine the authority of the RBI and lead to the dollarization of the economy.” RBI’s Governor Wants Crypto Banned The governor of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, emphasized the bank’s stance on crypto at the Business Today Banking and Economy Summit Friday. Das stressed that the central bank’s view is to completely ban cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether, India Today reported, quoting him as saying: “RBI’s position on crypto is very clear — it should be banned.” Emphasizing that cryptocurrencies have no underlying value, the Indian central bank governor described: Some people call cryptocurrency an asset, some call it a financial product, but every asset or financial product needs to have an underlying value. But cryp...

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty printed a record increase on Jan. 15, 2023, rising 10.26% to 37.73 trillion at block height 772,128. The network’s difficulty is now at an all-time high. This means, on average, it takes 37.73 trillion hashes, or attempts, to find a valid bitcoin block reward and add it to the blockchain. 2023’s First Difficulty Increase Outpaces All but One of the Difficulty Increases in 2022 As of 8:15 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023, approximately 286.36 exahash per second (EH/s) of hashrate is dedicated to the Bitcoin ( BTC ) blockchain. The Bitcoin network experienced a difficulty retarget at 4:11 p.m. Eastern time, at block height 772,128 , resulting in an increase of 10.26% . The difficulty was approximately 34.09 trillion last week, and it reached an all-time high (ATH) of 37.73 trillion on Sunday, making it exceptionally difficult to find a BTC block. Prior to the Jan. 15, 2023, difficulty increase, the highest difficulty rating on the Bitcoin block...

The author of “The Price of Tomorrow,” Jeff Booth, has warned about debt deflation, calling it a “great depression on steroids,” if the Federal Reserve continues to hike interest rates. He believes that eventually the Fed “will be forced to pivot.” Jeff Booth Warns About Danger of Continued Fed Rate Hikes The author of “The Price of Tomorrow,” Jeff Booth, shared his thoughts in an Ask-Me-Anything session on Stacker News last week. Among numerous questions asked was whether he believes the recent Federal Reserve interest rate increases will actually cause widespread deflation. Booth replied: If they keep hiking, it will ‘eventually’ turn into debt deflation — or credit wipeout. (ala great depression on steroids). Eventually, they will be forced to pivot. “One important consideration for people is to think in terms of lag effect…ie 18 months from when actions are set in motion,” he continued. “Remember when no inflation, transitory inflation, high inflation,” Booth added, cautioni...

Tascombank, one of the oldest banking institutions in Ukraine, has completed the pilot testing of a digital currency based on the Stellar network. The bank believes that its electronic money platform represents an economically viable implementation of blockchain technology. Tascombank Conducts Tests With New Ukrainian Digital Currency An “electronic hryvnia” has been tested by Ukraine’s Tascombank during the pilot phase of a project to create a currency with the Stellar network. During the trials, the coin was used in settlements between buyers and sellers, the financial institution announced in a report . Operations with the new digital asset were carried out in accordance with the current know-your-customer and anti-money laundering procedures, the bank pointed out in the document, quoted by the crypto news outlet Forklog. Tascombank also emphasized its research demonstrated a number of advantages of employing blockchain, including transparency at all stages of circulation and b...

To avoid becoming victims of an address poisoning attack, Metamask wallet users should ditch the practice of copying and pasting wallet addresses, the crypto wallet app support team has warned. Metamask users should instead “develop a habit of thoroughly checking every single character of an address” before sending a transaction. Scammers Exploiting Users’ Carelessness Metamask crypto wallet users should be wary of a new scammer tactic known as the address poisoning attack, which is dependent on the user’s “carelessness and haste above all else,” the team behind the software cryptocurrency wallet has warned. The Metamask team added that while the attack method may seem harmless, “it can just as easily result in a loss of funds.” A new scam called 'Address Poisoning' is on the rise. Here's how it works: after you send a normal transaction, the scammer sends a $0 token txn, 'poisoning' the txn history. (1/3) — MetaMask Support (@MetaMaskSupport) January 11, 2023...

A survey has indicated that Hungarians would like to learn more about the long-term investment opportunities presented by cryptocurrencies. However, associated risks and insufficient information in their native language are major concerns, according to the polled. Hungarians Want to Know How Crypto Profits Are Taxed and What Rules Apply to Such Investments With increased global interest in cryptocurrencies over the past few years, a new poll has gauged how closely Hungary follows the general trend, local media reported. The results of the survey, conducted by the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance , and market research firm Opinio, were shared with the Hungarian news agency MTI. The research established that a majority of Hungarians think that crypto investments still come with higher-than-average risks. Another issue they see is the lack of sufficient information in the Hungarian language about the digital assets. Those who remain wary of cryptocurrencies also highlight the...

U.S. Congress’ “first ever” subcommittee on digital assets has been created as part of the House Financial Services Committee. “We want to create a regulatory legal framework for digital assets … that makes America a leader from an innovation point of view but also protects consumers and investors,” explained Congressman French Hill, who will lead the digital asset subcommittee. US Lawmakers Form ‘Congress’ First Ever Digital Assets Subcommittee’ The U.S. House Committee on Financial Services has created a subcommittee on “Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion.” Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, commented: I’m proud to announce Congressman French Hill as the chairman of Congress’ first ever Digital Assets Subcommittee and vice chair of the full Committee. The tasks of the new subcommittee include “Providing clear rules of the road among federal regulators for the digital asset ecosystem, developing policies that ...

The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, has warned that most crypto tokens will fail. He has urged investors not to “get caught up in the FOMO, the fear of missing out,” emphasizing that crypto is a highly speculative, non-compliant asset class. Gary Gensler Expects Most Crypto to Fail SEC Chairman Gary Gensler gave some advice on cryptocurrency investing Wednesday during a Twitter spaces discussion hosted by the U.S. Army. Calling crypto a “highly speculative, volatile asset class,” Gensler stressed that most cryptocurrencies “are not complying with securities laws, but they should be.” Noting that crypto is “the Wild West,” he also questioned the use cases of most tokens. The SEC chief warned: Most of these 10,000 or 15,000 tokens will fail. “That’s because venture capital fails, new startups fail, but also because history tells us that there’s not much room for micro currencies, meaning, you know, we have the U.S. dollar and Europe h...

The Ethereum scaling blockchain, Polygon, has revealed plans to initiate a hard fork on Jan. 17, 2023. According to the team, the network upgrade will “reduce the severity of gas spikes” and “address chain reorganizations (reorgs) in an effort to reduce time to finality.” Polygon Team Outlines Network Upgrades to Improve User Experience On Jan. 12, 2023, the Polygon team told the community to “get ready for the hard fork” as developers have plans to upgrade the chain on Jan. 17, 2023. “The proposed hard fork for the Polygon PoS chain will make key upgrades to the network on Jan. 17,” the team tweeted. “This is good news for developers and users and will make for better user experience (UX). You will not need to do anything differently,” the developers insisted. Polygon (MATIC) developers have been discussing the upgrade since Dec. 2022. The V0.3.1 Hard Fork aims to reduce gas spikes and address blockchain reorganizations (reorgs). A reorg is an occurrence in which a new chain’s ...

The Legislative Assembly of El Salvador approved the Digital Assets Issuance Law, a framework that will allow the country to issue crypto-related debt instruments. The approved law, which was passed thanks to the majority that President Nayib Bukele has in Congress, serves as a base for the issuance of the long-expected volcano bonds. El Salvador Passes Digital Bond Law El Salvador has taken another step in the way of integrating blockchain technology with the financial operations of the state. The Legislative Assembly finally passed the Digital Assets Issuance Law, which establishes the rules for the state to open cryptocurrency-related public offers. The law, which was passed with a majority due to the support of Nayib Bukele’s party, has the objective “to establish the legal framework that grants legal certainty to transfer operations to any title of digital assets that are used in the issuance of public offerings carried out in El Salvador.” The document also creates the bitco...

Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has given his opinion about the relevance of Web3, metaverse, and AI (artificial intelligence), a set of technologies in development today. Gates stated that AI was “the big” revolutionary technology that is comparable to what the internet was in the year 2000. Bill Gates Considers AI Tech ‘Revolutionary’ Bill Gates, one of the co-founders of software behemoth Microsoft, has issued his opinion when it comes to the state and relevance of several emergent technologies being developed today. In a recent Reddit AMA, Gates showed a preference for AI (artificial intelligence) over other alternatives such as Web3 and the metaverse, when asked about the relevance of this set of technologies being developed, and the similarities these shared with the internet during its early years. Gates stated : AI is the big one. I don’t think Web3 was that big or that metaverse stuff alone was revolutionary but AI is quite revolutionary. However, Gates state...

More than $17 million in restitution will be distributed among investors in the pyramid scheme Bitconnect under a court order in the United States. The notorious crypto investment scheme defrauded thousands of people around the world. Bitconnect Investors From Dozens of Countries to Be Paid Back Millions of US Dollars A total of over $17 million in restitution will be returned to around 800 victims from more than 40 countries who lost money to Bitconnect, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday, quoting an order issued by a federal district court in San Diego. The large-scale crypto investment scheme defrauded thousands of investors globally. The ruling comes after on Sept. 16, 2021, the top U.S.-based promoter of Bitconnect, 44-year-old Glenn Arcaro, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. He admitted to marketing Bitconnect’s initial coin offering and digital currency exchange as a lucrative investment with the goal to exploit investor interest in crypt...

Ukraine’s national soccer team has secured a sponsorship deal with a player from the industry that wants to engage fans and promote adoption of cryptocurrencies. As part of the agreement, an EU-based coin trading platform will be the team’s crypto partner for the next three years. Whitebit Exchange Aims to Expand Ukraine’s Crypto Community by Engaging Soccer Fans Whitebit, a European cryptocurrency exchange with Ukrainian roots, has agreed to a long-term partnership with the national soccer team of Ukraine. Under the deal, its logo will be featured during the team’s matches, the crypto news outlet Forklog reported, quoting the company. “We are on the same field with football fans, so we are simply delighted, because we have just entered into a partnership with the National Football Team of Ukraine. With this, we will support Ukrainian sports and expand the Ukrainian crypto community,” the trading platform said in a blog post . Whitebit becomes the team’s official crypto partner un...

Samsung’s asset management arm has launched a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF). The new actively managed ETF is listed and traded on the Hong Kong stock exchange. It seeks “to provide economic exposure to the value of bitcoin,” Samsung detailed. Samsung’s Bitcoin Futures ETF Samsung Asset Management (Hong Kong) Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Asset Management, a member of the Samsung Group of companies, launched a bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Friday called “Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF.” The new ETF is a sub-fund of Samsung ETFs Trust III, an umbrella unit trust established under Hong Kong law, the company detailed, adding: The investment objective of the sub-fund is to seek to provide economic exposure to the value of bitcoin by investing predominately in front-month bitcoin futures contracts and/or micro bitcoin futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Samsung explained that the actively managed bitcoin fut...

On Friday, the Web3 wallet firm Metamask, a subsidiary of the Ethereum-centric company Consensys, announced the beta launch of ethereum staking features will be made available via Lido’s or Rocketpool’s liquid staking services. Users who want to stake ethereum and earn staking rewards can select one of the staking providers within the Metamask Web3 wallet’s interface. Consensys-owned Metamask’s Latest Update Allows Users to Stake Ethereum With Lido and Rocketpool The Web3 wallet provider Metamask announced that the company has added ethereum ( ETH ) staking services to the wallet’s set of tools. “We are extremely happy to announce that you can now stake ETH with Lido or Rocketpool through the Portfolio Dapp,” Metamask said on Friday. “Metamask Staking allows you to interact directly with the Lido and Rocketpool protocols — no sketchy third-parties doing your staking for you,” the company added on Twitter. Essentially, the two liquid staking providers, Lido and Rocketpool, issue ...

A Chivo wallet programmer has opened up about the different problems that the flagship cryptocurrency wallet of El Salvador faced during its initial stages. Shaun Overton, who alleges he was hired to help in the handling of the issues, has talked about ID theft, money laundering problems, and the tech issues he observed while working with the Chivo team. Chivo Wallet Problems Deconstructed Shaun Overton, a developer that supposedly was part of the team for Chivo Wallet, has talked about the different problems that the flagship cryptocurrency wallet, created by the government to popularize the use of bitcoin as legal tender in the country, faced during its initial stages. The statements offered by Overton are part of a legal dispute between Accruvia, a software developer, and Athena Bitcoin, the company in charge of developing and operating Chivo Wallet, which was replaced by Alphapoint in February. According to the local news site El Faro, Overton was brought in by Chivo’s team t...

A Belarusian citizen will have to pay a hefty fine for illegally organizing the exchange of cryptocurrencies online. Law enforcement authorities in the country, where certain crypto activities are legal, do not plan to impose other penalties besides the administrative measure. Cryptocurrency Trader Tries to Challenge Fine in Belarusian Court The Supreme Court of the Republic of Belarus has rejected the appeal of a Belarusian against a lower-instance ruling ordering him to pay 2,700,000 Belarusian rubles (around $1 million) to the state for trading digital assets outside the law. The man, identified only by the initial ‘A,’ is accused of using the Telegram messenger to set up an online cryptocurrency exchanger in January 2021. He allegedly made 5,400,000 rubles as income from his illegal activities. According to a post by the Belarusian Ministry of Taxes and Duties, quoted by the crypto news outlet Bits.media, investigators were able to trace his transactions and submit the gather...

The conflict between banks and cryptocurrency exchanges in Chile is still developing, as some banks are reticent to serve this kind of institution. A new report prepared by exchanges reports that most of these banks refuse to include crypto companies as customers for risks that are nevertheless managed in the case of servicing other kinds of customers. Cryptocurrency Exchanges Still Fighting Banks in Chile Cryptocurrency exchanges and other crypto-related companies are still fighting private banks for the right to open and manage bank accounts in Chile. The legal fight, which started back in 2018 when a series of exchanges had their bank accounts closed by several banking institutions, will be defined this year before a national free competition court. Buda.com, a Chilean exchange, prepared a document that concluded that banks are colluding to deny their services to cryptocurrency exchanges for reasons applicable to other businesses, like companies operating with jewelry, watches,...

The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is closing down most of its operations in Japan after announcing another round of job cuts globally. “Despite everything we’ve been through as a company and an industry, I’m still optimistic about our future and the future of crypto,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong insisted. Coinbase Winding Down Majority of Japanese Operations Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is closing the bulk of its operations in Japan, Nana Murugesan, vice president for business development and international, revealed in an interview with Bloomberg Wednesday. He said: We’ve decided to wind down the majority of our operations in Japan, which led to eliminating most of the roles in our Japan entity. Coinbase teamed up with Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. to launch a crypto exchange in Japan in 2021. Murugesan explained that Coinbase is finalizing its discussions with Japan’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA). He noted that a smal...