Category Archives: Cryptocurrency
Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill | TheHill – The Hill
Sens. Maggie HassanMargaret (Maggie) HassanDemocrats see Harris as major player in midterms Hillicon Valley Presented by Ericsson Instagram 'pausing' kid-targeted plan Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill MORE (D-N.H.) and Joni ErnstJoni Kay ErnstLIVE COVERAGE: Senators press military leaders on Afghanistan Hillicon Valley Presented by Ericsson Instagram 'pausing' kid-targeted plan Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill MORE (R-Iowa) introduced legislation Monday intended to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining overseas.
The bill would require the Treasury Department to compile and submit to Congress a report on how nations are using and mining cryptocurrency, along with how much cryptocurrency has been mined since 2016 within both the U.S. and countries including China.
In addition,Treasury would be required to examine the impact of cryptocurrency mining on supply chains for critical resources such as semiconductors, the global shortage of which has caused major disruptions in production for products including automobiles.
In order to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, our government must get a better handle on the role that cryptocurrency is playing in the global economy and how it is being leveraged by other countries, Hassan said in a statement Monday.
Im glad to partner across the aisle with Senator Ernst to help ensure that the Treasury Department stays on top of the use of cryptocurrency, including how it can impact our supply chains, she added.
Concerns around cryptocurrency regulation have increased on Capitol Hill in recent months, with debate over cryptocurrency-related amendments delaying the Senates $1 trillion infrastructure package in August.
Cryptocurrency markets have also come under scrutiny due to escalating ransomware attacks, with cyber criminals often using these markets to facilitate payments from victims.
Recent ransomware attacks have included those on Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA, with both companies choosing to pay the ransom in bitcoin, though the majority of the funds paid by Colonial were recovered by the Justice Department.
As a result, the federal government has taken action, with the Justice Department issuing its first sanctions against a virtual currency exchange last week due to the cryptocurrency exchange SUEX OTC allegedly facilitating ransomware attack payments.
Chinas central bank went one step further last week when it ruled all cryptocurrency transactions illegal due to security concerns and the use of cryptocurrency exchanges in criminal activities.
Hassan earlier this month sent letters to several federal agencies detailing her concerns around the use of cryptocurrency markets to facilitate criminal acts, including for ransomware attack payments.
The anonymity provided by cryptocurrency has helped facilitate its use by criminals in a myriad of ways, Hassan wrote in the letters. These uses include drug sales over the dark web, payments for ransomware attacks, tax evasion, financing for terrorism and organized crime, money laundering, and more.
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Senators aim to increase oversight of cryptocurrency mining with new bill | TheHill - The Hill
UK driving cryptocurrency adoption in Europe with $170 billion in activity for ’20-’21 – ZDNet
Over the last year, the UK has led the way in cryptocurrency activity among European countries with more than $170 billion in value received, according to a new report from Chainalysis.
Chainalysis found that the Central, Northern and Western regions of Europe (CNWE) have the biggest cryptocurrency economy in the world, receiving over $1 trillion worth of cryptocurrency over the last year.
The region accounted for about 25% of all global activity related to cryptocurrency and was spurred on by the widespread corporate interest in the DeFi market.
CNWE managed to take the top spot in this year's ranking, according to Chainalysis, after coming in second last year behind Eastern Asia.
"An influx of institutional investment, signaled by large transactions, drove most of the growth, though retail activity also increased. Perhaps most interesting is CNWE's unique status as an international hub in the world cryptocurrency economy," Chainalysis researchers explained.
"CNWE is the biggest cryptocurrency trading partner for every other region we study, sending at least 25% of all value received by other regions, including a whopping 34% for North America."
There were massive increases in the number of large institutional-sized transactions starting in July 2020. Chainalysis classifies large institutional-sized transactions as transfers of more than $10 million worth of cryptocurrency.
The value of large institutional-sized transactions grew to $46.3 billion in June 2021 from just $1.4 billion in July 2020.
DeFi platforms have dominated the large institutional-sized transfers over the last 12 months. The majority of the transactions involved Ethereum and wrapped Ethereum, which Chainalysis said is commonly used in DeFi protocols.
"DeFi protocols represent three to four of the top five services in most months, with Uniswap, Instadapp, and dYdX making frequent appearances. Binance and Coinbase, meanwhile, remain the most popular centralized exchanges," Chainalysis found.
A number of institutional investors are also getting involved in cryptocurrency through a process called "staking," where companies lend their cryptocurrency to DeFi protocols so that they have liquidity. The stakers then get interest on the cryptocurrency that is lent out to borrowers.
"As the biggest counterparty to every other region, CNWE is a key source of liquidity to cryptocurrency investors around the world. CNWE's biggest trading partner is North America, followed by Eastern Asia, Central & Southern Asia, and Eastern Europe," Chainalysis found.
"CNWE has high service overlap with more regions than any other, displaying particularly strong relationships with Eastern Europe, North America, and Central & Southern Asia. Services contributing to this dynamic include eToro, Bitstamp, and CryptoKitties. We believe that for some regions like North America, this dynamic reflects a convergence of institutional investors and professional traders on a handful of platforms. On the other hand, for regions like Eastern Europe and Central & Southern Asia, we believe the service overlap in those cases is also driven by remittance payments being sent from CNWE, as this would mirror remittance activity we see in the fiat world."
With almost half of its value sent to DeFi protocols, the UK leads the list of region countries by value received. France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland were the next four countries on the list.
Almost every country has about 25% to 30% of all transaction volume involved in stablecoins, while most countries have somewhere between 8% to 11% invested in altcoins.
Ethereum and wETH are the most popular cryptocurrency in almost every country, according to Chainalysis, accounting for about 40% of the transaction value, followed by Bitcoin at 27% in the UK. Germany sees about 28% of its transaction volume in Bitcoin, while France has just 20%.
"Overall, though, while there are small differences between the individual countries' exact breakdown of activity, one thing is clear: CNWE has become the world's biggest cryptocurrency market, and its growth over the last year was largely driven by institutional investors and other whales moving into DeFi," Chainalysis said.
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UK driving cryptocurrency adoption in Europe with $170 billion in activity for '20-'21 - ZDNet
Cryptocurrency ‘industry has so much potential’ what you need to know about crypto – Express
Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have come a long way since the first creation in 2009, and El Salvadors adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender has been a strange and unexpected move, but does this mark the beginning of the end for traditional currencies? Pavel Matveev, CEO and co-founder of blockchain-based payments platform Wirex, shared in an exclusive interview withExpress.co.ukwhat the future holds for cryptocurrencies and how regulation is changing this form of finance.
Speaking about El Salvadors radical move toward Bitcoin, Mr Matveev said he does not believe this ideal will be taken up by other countries: No, it wont happen any time soon. I dont think other countries are ready to do the same. When you talk about countries and governments' perception of cryptocurrency I think its worth mentioning that a lot of countries are trying to come up with regulatory framework for digital currencies.
He said a year or two ago, in the world of digital crypto "there was no regulation and the trend started in Japan; it was the first country that started to regulate cryptocurrency".
Japan quickly began regulating cryptocurrency as when crypto trading first started, it was known as the country with some of the biggest cryptocurrency hacks.
Introducing the licencing and regulation enables more protection for customers, but it is not the end-all for hacks and scams.
Big scams arent happening that often, but there are a lot of retail investors still being scammed. Mr Matveev commented that people are right to be fearful, but must understand that cryptocurrency security has come a long way.
Theres a lot of scam artists in the market and a lot of people hearing stories of people who have been hacked and lost thousands of pounds, it is quite scary.
Back in the days, news about Bitcoin was about ransom, money laundering, selling drugs and weapons. We still see a lot of negative stories because thats what attracts traffic, but now for sure its more neutral.
He also noted that the UK is quite ahead of some countries in terms of regulation, as the FCA already has registers for permanent and temporary licensed cryptocurrency-related companies.
Mr Matveev added: In the UK, theyve started applying regulation for companies providing cryptocurrency-related services. Regulation is a big topic in the United States at the moment, and you can tell this trend started in developed countries. I think it will continue to all other countries as well.
All cryptocurrency businesses in the UK have to be registered by the FCA. Because its not regulated, if you are scammed the only thing for you to do is go to the police. The best protection from being scammed is to prevent being scammed.
Check the register of cryptocurrency companies on the FCA website, there are permanent and temporary lists but if you work with one of these companies you should be much much safer than companies not on either list.
DONT MISS:
This growing trend of strict regulation does make it safer for customers, but also may have an adverse effect on the market.
My first point is that regulation will make the market safer and expand it to more people. In my view it will help with adoption.
The second point is that in short term it might have a negative effect on the price and volatility and some companies will find it very challenging to comply with the requirements.
You will never know when this negative effect will start or when it will end. Based on price history there is always ups and downs but if you look at the bigger picture it is always going up, so whether you invest now or invest later, long-term the price will go up.
When it comes to crypto-investing, the general outlook is that it is too volatile. However, as Mr Matveev explained, this is only true for the short-term and ultimately depends on what the tokens will be used for.
At the moment there are over 5,000 digital cryptocurrencies, I know it can be quite scary but the thing about cryptocurrencies and why someone may consider using them as an alternative investment is that mid-long term price is going up, Mr Matveev began.
It is usually advised that before investing, one must consider why they are investing in order to find the right investment to match the return they desire.
One further common piece of advice is to thoroughly research all of ones options before putting money in, and with cryptocurrencies this can be overwhelming for first-time investors.
There are a lot of cryptocurrencies and the reality is there is different use cases for different currencies, he said.
A use case is essentially what the token or coin can be used for once bought, Mr Matveev continued: Some like Bitcoin are usually compared to digital gold so theres a stored up value. Some of them can be used in payments as a stable value currency, in the industry its called stable coins.
Cryptocurrency is volatile, this is the perception that people from the general crowd have is that Bitcoin is too volatile. If you look at it short term yes it can be quite volatile but if you look at a bigger time scale digital currencies are going up.
But investors must also not feel pigeon-holed to the well-known coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Everyday there are new cryptocurrencies being added. Sometimes I just look at the list and start getting scared. I think there are too many to be honest. The industry is growing, the market is growing. Its not investment advice but in the current environment after Covid when governments started printing a lot of money, having an alternative investment is a wise choice.
Again, this is not financial advice, he noted.
If you go on a coin analytic website, stick to the top three, top 10, top 20, it will give you an indication of how big or stable a coin is. Have a look at the use case, some will go for higher growth, others will have different perks, Mr Matveev suggested.
A fixed market, like traditional currencies, doesnt have much movement. A lot of people criticise cryptocurrency for being volatile but on the other hand volatility brings interest and returns.
The industry has so much potential, but when people talk about mass-adoption I think its too early still, he concluded.
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Cryptocurrency 'industry has so much potential' what you need to know about crypto - Express
Litecoin price jumped 20 percent after hoax linked the cryptocurrency to Walmart – The Verge
The Litecoin cryptocurrency saw its price spike by as much as 20 percent on Monday after a fake press release claimed Walmart would begin accepting Litecoin as payment.
The press release posted to GlobeNewswire linked to a non-functioning website, and there was no evidence of any Securities and Exchange Commission filing, which would have been expected since Walmart is publicly traded. Walmarts official newsroom never included the release, and the company typically uses Business Wire to distribute releases.
Dave Pleiss, vice president, investor and public relations for GlobeNewswire said in an email to The Verge that this has never happened to the company before.
When GlobeNewswire became aware this morning that a fraudulent user account was used to issue an illegitimate press release we promptly withdrew the press release and issued a Notice to Disregard. Pleiss wrote.
The company has already put into place enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future, Pleiss added, and said GlobeNewswire was working with authorities on a full investigation, including into any criminal activity associated with this matter.
Several news outlets published reports based on the hoax press release, and a short time later Litecoins price jumped, along with those of other cryptocurrencies, before quickly falling back to the previous levels.
Its not yet clear who may have been behind the hoax press release, but a Walmart spokesperson confirmed to CNBC that the news announcement was fake. Walmart didnt reply to a request for comment from The Verge on Monday.
Update: September 13th 4:50PM ET: Adds comment from GlobeNewswire spokesperson.
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Litecoin price jumped 20 percent after hoax linked the cryptocurrency to Walmart - The Verge
Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, faces a potential SEC investigation – Vox.com
Cryptocurrency has an SEC problem and it just got bigger.
The Biden administration is taking a more hands-on approach to the highly volatile, little understood, and barely regulated cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized digital currencies secured by blockchain technology. Bitcoin, ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies have become almost as accessible as government-issued currency in recent years, but the government offers few consumer protections for them.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) led by Gary Gensler, who taught a class on cryptocurrency at MIT is trying to make the case that it can and will regulate whatever cryptocurrency investment schemes it decides fall under its purview. The relative newness and rapid expansion of the cryptocurrency industry have put it in a regulatory gray area. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) classifies crypto as property. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) considers crypto to be a commodity. And the SEC has said that digital assets may be securities, depending on the facts and circumstances. A security is a financial asset that can be traded, like stocks and bonds, and which is governed by several laws designed to prevent fraud and protect investors.
The SEC appears to have decided that an upcoming offering from Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, meets its definition of a security. And its showing that it will step in and regulate it accordingly and, by extension, regulate the rest of the crypto finance industry more assertively.
Cryptocurrency exchanges allow people to buy and sell crypto. Coinbase is one of the biggest in the world and recently went public. It was planning to launch a program called Lend, which would allow investors to let others borrow from them a form of crypto called USDC, a stablecoin whose value is tied to the value of the US dollar (one USDC is always supposed to equal and be traded for the value of one US dollar). In exchange, lenders would receive 4 percent interest on the loan a far higher rate than traditional banks currently offer on their savings accounts. This could have made the Coinbase Lend offering very attractive to consumers who wouldnt have otherwise risked investing in crypto.
Thats where the SEC stepped in, according to Coinbase. The company announced on Wednesday (or late Tuesday, if you count a Twitter thread from CEO Brian Armstrong) that the SEC threatened to sue the company if it launched Lend, but that the agency wouldnt tell Coinbase why it considered Lend to be a security, except that it was doing so through the prism of decades-old Supreme Court cases. These cases, informally known as Howey and Reves, are the prism through which every potential security is considered, including crypto services. Coinbase said it wanted formal guidance from the SEC on how it was using those cases to determine if Lend was a security, but the SEC wouldnt provide it.
The SEC has not officially commented yet, though some people think this tweet qualifies as a response.
The people behind Coinbase might be (or at least claim to be) clueless, but the SEC almost certainly knows what its doing here: asserting its regulatory control over the world of cryptocurrency banking and finance. And its doing so with a pugnaciousness not typical of the agency, according to anonymous former SEC officials who spoke to Bloomberg.
The announcement that the SEC is investigating Coinbases Lend program is consistent with regulators ongoing aggression regarding crypto, George Monaghan, an analyst with market intelligence firm GlobalData, told Recode.
As the New York Times recently explained, cryptocurrency is moving into the banking sector, offering services that are usually reserved for traditional banks, whose services are backed by government-issued currency (the dollar, for example) and have operated under consumer protection laws and regulations that go back decades. For example, some crypto companies now offer interest-bearing crypto accounts, debit cards, and credit cards with cryptocurrency rewards
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has called these shadow banks, noting they arent federally insured and could be more susceptible to hacks and fraud than traditional banks. Shes written to Gensler about her concerns, and, in his August 5 response, the SEC chair agreed that investors using these platforms are not adequately protected. He also said there were certain activities that the SEC can regulate, and that he believed lawmakers should prioritize legislation that addressed crypto trading and lending.
The SEC has previously shown an interest in cracking down on crypto. It launched a crypto regulation initiative in 2018, which became a standalone office within the agency last December. And it recently charged another crypto lending platform, BitConnect, with $2 billion in fraud for operating what the Department of Justice called a textbook Ponzi scheme. Another crypto company, BlockFi, which offers loans and high-interest deposit accounts backed by crypto and a credit card with a crypto rewards program, has been the subject of investigations from several state-level security regulators.
But Coinbase is bigger and more high-profile than those companies. GlobalDatas Monaghan didnt expect the fallout to be significant for Coinbase itself, as the Lend program wasnt yet active. But the SECs interest in Coinbase is a sign to every crypto finance company that there are still rules they have to follow, and they should expect consequences if they dont.
Those rules might be bulked up in the near future as the Biden administration and lawmakers work to address the regulatory gaps cryptocurrency falls into. Bidens proposed 2022 budget included crypto reporting requirements, the IRS is cracking down, and crypto regulations even became a temporary sticking point in the passage of the infrastructure bill. Adding to this or perhaps exacerbating it is concern over how cryptocurrency can be used to facilitate criminal activities; ransomware attacks often demand payment in bitcoin due to the difficulty in tracing those payments.
Crypto regulations are coming. The question now is whether the slow process of creating rules and passing laws will be able to keep up with the rapidly evolving world of cryptocurrency.
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Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the US, faces a potential SEC investigation - Vox.com
Cryptocurrency Prices Today on September 14: Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano plunges over 14% in one week – Moneycontrol.com
September 14, 2021 / 07:51 AM IST
Cryptocurrency prices continue to be in the red on September 14. The global cryptocurrency market cap is $2.06 trillion, a 0.85 percent decrease over the last day, while the total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is $139.62 billion, which makes a 28.7 percent increase.
The volume of all stable coins is now $109.44 billion 78.39 percent of the total crypto market 24-hour volume. Bitcoin's price is currently $45,160.42 and its dominance is currently 41.28 percent, an increase of 0.32 percent over the day.
Walmart Inc said on Monday it was looking into how a fake press statement announcing a partnership with litecoin, which briefly led to near 30% gains in the cryptocurrency, was issued by news release distributor GlobeNewswire.
The fake press release touting the acceptance of litecoin as online payment by the world's largest retailer led to a sudden spike in its prices, but the gains faded quickly after Walmart issued a statement saying the press release was fraudulent.
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Cryptocurrency Prices Today on September 14: Bitcoin, Ether, Cardano plunges over 14% in one week - Moneycontrol.com
No, Walmart is not partnering with Litecoin cryptocurrency – KING5.com
A press release linking the retailer and digital currency together was fake. Both Walmart and Litecoin say they do not have a partnership.
Walmart is the largest retailer in the United States,according to the National Retail Federation. So, an announcement of a partnership with a cryptocurrency would be big news.
On the morning of Sept. 13, apress release was circulated by GlobeNewswire, a service that distributes press releases to media organizations, that said Walmart had teamed up with Litecoin to accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Immediately following the press release, people on social media withhundreds of thousands of followers begansharing the information. News organizations, including Reuters and CNBC, published stories about the partnership announcement.
THE QUESTION
Is Walmart partnering with Litecoin cryptocurrency?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, Walmart is not partnering with Litecoin. The press release linking Walmart and Litecoin was fake.
WHAT WE FOUND
Walmart and Litecoin Foundation both said the press release was fake and that they do not have a partnership.
Walmart had no knowledge of the press release issued by GlobeNewswire, and it is incorrect. Walmart has no relationship with Litecoin,the Walmart statement said.
The Litecoin Foundation has not entered into a partnership with Walmart of any kind,the Litecoin Foundation statement said.
According to its statement, the Litecoin Foundation said a member of its social media team tweeted about the illegitimate partnership on the Litecoin Twitter account. That tweet was then deleted.
GlobeNewswire laterissued a notice to disregard the press release. In an emailed statement to VERIFY, the company said a fraudulent user account issued the fake press release.
This has never happened before and we have already put in place enhanced authentication steps to prevent this isolated incident from occurring in the future, the company told VERIFY.
BothReuters andCNBC updated their stories with corrections after the Walmart-Litecoin partnership had been debunked.
Immediately following the distribution of the fake press release, the price of Litecoin surged.
According to CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency price-tracking website, the price of Litecoin was around $175 Monday morning and skyrocketed to just over $230 following the fake press release. Once the word spread that Litecoin and Walmart were not partnering together, the cryptocurrencys price fell to around $180.
The hoax partnership announcement appeared to be a case of price manipulation or apump and dump where someone fraudulently causes the price of something to go up and cashes out before it goes back down.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission says virtual currencies and digital tokens are largely unregulated and urges consumers to use caution when buying virtual currency.
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No, Walmart is not partnering with Litecoin cryptocurrency - KING5.com
Will PayPals adoption of bitcoin make cryptocurrency more mainstream? – New Scientist News
By Matthew Sparkes
Will the cryptocurrency be more widely used now that PayPal accepts it in the UK?
mundissima / Alamy
PayPal has two decades of experience in online payments and manages 403 million user accounts. So, it caused ripples when it announced on 23 August it would allow UK customers to buy and sell four cryptocurrencies: bitcoin prices rose to a three-month high. But will this and last Octobers roll-out in the US push cryptocurrencies into the mainstream, or is it just another blip in the short but volatile history of decentralised money?
Customers in the US who have bought cryptocurrencies through Paypal log in twice as often as those who havent, says Jose Fernandez da Ponte at PayPal. We expect digital currencies to play an important role in consumer payments over the longer term, he says.
Public interest in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is certainly growing, but only a minority have bought in. AYouGov survey revealed that by August 2019, just 3 per cent of people in the UK owned any cryptocurrencies. By July 2021 that had risen to 8 per cent.
Giving millions of existing PayPal customers the ability to buy at the click of a button has enormous potential for increasing those numbers, but access to the currency isnt the only limiting factor.People need a way to spend it.
A handful of large companies, such as Microsoft, have begun accepting bitcoin as payment, and others such as electric car company Tesla have done so at times too. And while several other retailers, including grocery stores, coffee shops and hardware stores, have systems to accept cryptocurrency in some countries, using only this form of payment day-to-day would be no easy task.
PayPal users in the UK wont be able to use cryptocurrency to buy goods or services they can only buy, hold and sell the currency. But in the US, the company offers the ability to use balances for payments anywhere that accepts PayPal. This effectively allows hundreds of thousands of retailers to accept cryptocurrencies without having to make any changes or accept any risk, and receive US dollars from PayPal as normal.
This is vital, as the risk for businesses is high, says Carol Alexander at the University of Sussex, UK. Cryptocurrencies are dominated by huge speculation and rampant manipulation, she says.
Organised groups are able to cause swings in cryptocurrency values with coordinated buying or selling and, unlike the traditional financial services sector, there is little regulation to stop it. So, if you take bitcoin as payment directly, it may plummet in value before you convert it.
I cant see this as the moment crypto goes mainstream. The widespread market abuse needs addressing first, says Alexander.
Cryptocurrencies are decentralised systems with no official oversight, so regulation is difficult. Registered companies that deal in them are finding themselves under increasing scrutiny. In June, the UKs Financial Conduct Authority ruled that Binance Markets Limited, one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges, had to cease regulated trading in the UK.
There are still hurdles to overcome before cryptocurrency can truly break into the mainstream,including its exorbitantenergy use, volatility and complexity.
But some are still confident that the technology offers enough benefits, such as protection from inflation, a degree of anonymity and low fees for large payments, that widespread adoption is inevitable.
Nigel Green at financial services firm deVere Group is confident that cryptocurrencies will replace traditional money and, although that moment is still some way off, he says PayPals announcement is yet another example that exposes cryptocurrency deniers as being on the wrong side of history.
This is a major step forward towards the mass adoption of digital currencies, he says. More and more payment companies will naturally follow their lead.
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Will PayPals adoption of bitcoin make cryptocurrency more mainstream? - New Scientist News
Nigeria to Launch Its Own Cryptocurrency ‘eNaira’ in Partnership With Bitt – Gadgets 360
Nigeria will work with Bitt as a technical partner in its bid to launch its own cryptocurrency, the "eNaira", the Central Bank said on Monday.
The Central Bank announced plans to launch its own digital currency later this year after Nigeria barred banks and financial institutions from dealing in or facilitating transactions in cryptocurrencies in February.
Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele has said the eNaira would operate as a wallet against which customers can hold existing funds in their bank account. In a statement on Monday, Emefiele said the currency would accelerate financial inclusion and enable cheaper and faster remittance inflows.
Barbados-based Bitt earlier this year led development of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union's "DCash", the first digital cash issued by a currency union central bank.
In related news, the first cryptocurrency ATM opened in Honduras last week as Bitcoin backers sought to spur demand for virtual assets after neighbouring El Salvador became the first country to establish Bitcoin as legal tender. Bitcoin price in India stood at Rs. 36.83 lakhs as of 11am on August 31.
The machine, locally dubbed "la bitcoinera," allows users to acquire Bitcoin and Ethereum using the local lempira currency and was installed in an office tower in the capital of Tegucigalpa by Honduran firm TGU Consulting Group. Ethereum price in India stood at Rs. 2.53 lakhs as of 11am IST on August 31.
Thomson Reuters 2021
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Nigeria to Launch Its Own Cryptocurrency 'eNaira' in Partnership With Bitt - Gadgets 360
Should you invest in cryptocurrency? – Economic Times
Priya, a young engineering graduate, has been watching the craze for cryptocurrency investing boom in India. The popularity and growth of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether, Dogecoin have compelled investors and sceptics to take a second look. Around 15 million Indians are said to have invested in private crypto assets. Young investors like Priya are excited about the prospects of strong returns. She is planning to open a crypto trading account. However, she would like to understand each and every aspect of the crypto market before she starts investing in earnest.
A cryptocurrency (or crypto) is a non-physical, digital and decentralized currency that is issued by private systems and remains out of the purview of the government. It is a peer-to-peer system that can enable anyone anywhere to send and receive payments. Priya will need to store her cryptocurrency in a digital wallet. There were over 4,000 different cryptocurrencies in circulation worldwide, including the market giants Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Dogecoin. Much of the interest in these unregulated currencies is to trade for profit, with investors/speculators at times driving prices skyward.
Cryptocurrencies work using blockchain technology, a decentralized technology spread across many computers that manages and records transactions. Part of the appeal of this technology is its security. Transactions cannot be altered or deleted and are hard for hackers to tamper with. In addition, transactions require a two-factor authentication process. The investor can add more and more digital transactions and the blockchain gets updated automatically.
While crypto trading is the current rage and may even yield potentially high returns, Priya must understand that cryptocurrency is an incredibly speculative and a volatile buy. The market is still in its infancy. Investing in something thats new comes with challenges, so she must be prepared for ups and downs, including some dramatic swings. If her investment portfolio or risk appetite cant handle that, cryptocurrency might not be a wise choice for her.
(Content on this page is courtesy Centre for Investment Education and Learning (CIEL). Contributions by Girija Gadre, Arti Bhargava and Labdhi Mehta.)
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Should you invest in cryptocurrency? - Economic Times