Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Tehran and Moscow are discussing the possible launch of a stablecoin for international settlements, the Russian press revealed. In order to mint the gold-backed currency, however, authorities would need to first regulate crypto assets, a lawmaker noted. Russian, Iranian Representatives Talk Using Gold-Backed Stablecoin in Foreign Trade Iran’s central bank is considering the possibility of creating, with Russia’s participation, a digital token to facilitate trade in the Persian region, according to a report quoting the head of the crypto industry organization in the Russian Federation. The coin could be accepted as a means of payment in international settlements, the Executive Director of the Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib), Alexander Brazhnikov, told the business daily Vedomosti and detailed: It is assumed that the token will be backed by gold, it would be a stablecoin. Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies, the value of which i...

On Tuesday, global asset manager Hashkey, which focuses on crypto and blockchain investments, announced that it has closed its third fund at $500 million. The company’s “HashKey Fintech Investment III” is dedicated to developing crypto solutions, blockchain technology, and Web3 concepts. Hashkey Capital’s Fund III to Focus on Web3, Emerging Markets and Crypto Solutions Amid the crypto market downturn, global asset manager Hashkey Capital announced the closing of a new fund, “Hashkey Fintech Investment III,” after raising $500 million. According to Hashkey, the fund “received strong support from institutional investors namely sovereign wealth funds, renowned family offices, and corporations.” Hashkey Capital is one of the largest crypto funds in Asia as it manages more than $1 billion in customer assets. “Hashkey Capital weathered at least three cycles in the industry,” Deng Chao, the head of Hashkey Group Singapore and CEO of Hashkey Capital said in a statement on Tuesday. “From ...

Economists at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) have recommended three policies regulators worldwide could adopt in order to deal with the risks posed by cryptocurrencies. “Authorities can now consider a variety of policy approaches and at the same time work to improve the existing monetary system in the public interest,” they advised. BIS Economists Discuss Crypto Policies The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) published a bulletin last week titled “Addressing the risks in crypto: laying out the options.” Authored by BIS economists Matteo Aquilina, Jon Frost, and Andreas Schrimpf, the report discusses the risks associated with cryptocurrencies and the various options available to regulators and central banks for addressing these risks. The authors outlined “three potential lines of action.” The first is to “ban specific crypto activities.” Another option is to “isolate crypto from tradfi [traditional finance] and the real economy.” The third is to “regulate the sec...

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s former head of internet enforcement has warned the crypto industry that a “regulatory onslaught is just beginning.” His warning followed several recent enforcement actions the securities regulator took against major crypto firms. ‘SEC Regulatory Onslaught Is Just Beginning’ Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official John Reed Stark has warned the crypto industry of an escalating “regulatory onslaught.” Stark founded and served as chief of the SEC Office of Internet Enforcement for 11 years. He was also an SEC enforcement attorney for 15 years where he led cyber-related projects, investigations, and enforcement actions. Stark explained in a tweet Thursday that the SEC “hit Blockfi for failing to register its crypto-lending program, stopped Coinbase from launching its crypto-lending program, and Just hit Gemini/Genesis for its Earn crypto-lending grift.” He warned: Buckle up: An SEC regulatory onslaught is just beginning...

PRESS RELEASE. (Victoria, Seychelles, 17 Jan 2023) – Leading crypto derivatives exchange Bitget announces to be the first exchange to launch copy trading in the spot market . As the first exchange for offering copy trading for derivatives in 2020, Bitget has honed its highly liquid, highly innovative flagship product, One-Click Copy Trade, to deliver a similarly intuitive experience for spot traders in 2023. Copy trading provides a good starting point for beginners to shadow their trading portfolio with a more experienced trader and increase their chance of profitability. Also, users are entitled to more transparency and flexibility as the feature discloses detailed information on the traders’ ROI, buy and sell time and price, portfolio, and P&L records, together with personalized Maximum Investment, Stop Loss and Take Profit options. One-Click Copy Trade is Bitget’s flagship product, simplifying trading for beginners by allowing them to copy sophisticated futures trading st...

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has published an article predicting how metaverse tech will evolve and how it will be introduced in different sectors. For the organization, the biggest impact of the implementation of this tech will be observed in industrial environments, where it will contribute to carrying out more tasks and reducing expenses. WEF Believes Metaverse Tech Will Impact Industry First The World Economic Forum (WEF) believes that the metaverse will be first applied in industrial environments, instead of being adopted first by consumers. In an article published on Jan. 13, the organization predicts that the implementation of the metaverse will be done at an industrial level first, helping different companies to complete designing and monitoring tasks in a more efficient way. Two of the metaverse technologies that will become integral for the industry in this new phase are digital twins and extended reality. Implementing digital twins, the digitalization of a group of el...

After months of research, the Tanzanian central bank announced recently that it had chosen a more cautious and risk-based approach towards the adoption of its central bank digital currency (CBDC). During the research phase, the central bank said it paid particular attention “to risks and controls associated with issuance, distribution, counterfeit and usage of currencies.” Finding the Right CBDC Technology The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) announced on Jan. 14 that it had “adopted a phased, cautious and risk-based approach to adoption of CBDC [central bank digital currency].” The bank also said it will continue with its efforts aimed at finding “a suitable and appropriate use and technology for issuance of Tanzanian shillings in digital form.” According to a statement on the bank’s website, the BOT said it chose a more cautious approach after spending months researching and exploring the pros and cons of issuing the digital currency. During this period, the BOT said it found that other c...

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...