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The Italian Parliament has introduced a 26% capital tax on cryptocurrency gains as part of the 2023 budget law, which was approved on Dec. 29. The document also offers incentives for taxpayers to declare their cryptocurrency holdings, proposing a 3.5% aliquot for undeclared cryptocurrencies held before Dec. 31, 2021, and a 0.5% fine for each additional year. Italian Parliament Passes Capital Gains Tax for Crypto The Italian parliament greenlighted a new tax for cryptocurrency on Dec. 29, as part of its budget law for the year 2023. Senators approved the document presented on Dec. 24, which approved a 26% aliquot for cryptocurrency gains above 2,000 euros (approx. $2,060) during a tax period. The capital gains tax for crypto had been proposed since Dec 1, when the draft for the budget law was presented. The approved document includes a series of incentives for taxpayers to declare their cryptocurrency holdings, proposing an amnesty on gains achieved, paying a “substitute tax” of 3.5%, and adding a 0.5% as a fine for each year. Another incentive included in the budget law will allow taxpayers to cancel their capital gains tax at 14% of the price of cryptocurrency held on Jan. 1, 2023, which would be significantly lower than the price paid when the cryptocurrency was purchased. In the same way, cryptocurrency losses higher than 2000 euros in a tax period will count as tax deductions and will be able to be carried out to the next tax periods. Italy’s New Cryptocurrency Tax Law Leaves Room for Interpretation The law is clear about most of the key circumstances in which cryptocurrencies will be taxed. However, the law mentions that “the exchange between crypto assets having the same characteristics and functions does not constitute a taxable event.” This means that users will have to receive guidance to present their tax statements, as these assets having the same characteristics and functions have not been defined in the body of the law. Italy, which lacks comprehensive cryptocurrency regulation, is following in the footsteps of Portugal. The European country included a similar capital gains tax at a rate of 28% as part of its budget law for 2023, a decision that might put in danger the status of the country as a haven for cryptocurrency companies and holders. This proposal, revealed in October, also contemplates taxes on the free transfer of cryptocurrency and on the commissions charged by cryptocurrency exchanges and other crypto operations for facilitating cryptocurrency transactions. What do you think about the 26% capital gains tax approved by the Italian Parliament for 2023? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

Although they grabbed less media attention than the collapse of centralized organizations, the so-called bridge exploit incidents in 2022 again proved that the decentralized finance (defi) ecosystem still lacks sufficiently secure solutions, Hugo Philion, the co-founder and CEO of Flare, has argued. Philion insists that the lack of such secure solutions has constrained the growth and use of defi products. Lack of Communication Between Chains In written responses sent to Bitcoin.com News, Philion claimed that the large-scale, cross-chain experimentation primarily seen in 2020 and 2021 potentially explains why more than $2 billion has been lost via the so-called bridge exploits of the past 12 months. However, according to the Flare CEO, while it may not be possible to completely eliminate risks for users, bridges could “be made substantially safer.” Besides addressing security-related issues, Philion also offered his thoughts on many other issues that range from the possible use of non-smart contract digital assets in defi and Web3, to insuring digital assets when they are moved across chains. Below are Philion’s responses to the questions sent. Bitcoin.com News (BCN): Can you explain why no one has been able to securely unify the ecosystem yet? Hugo Philion (HP): Blockchains have historically been designed as distributed ledgers processing native transactions, i.e. for bitcoin, the movement of the native asset bitcoin from address A to address B. They haven’t been designed to relay information between themselves, i.e., the Bitcoin chain cannot tell you what happened on the Ethereum chain at block #1083483. This creates a communication problem: how can information about different chains be reliably gathered and validated with decentralization analogues to the chains themselves? Furthermore, how can this be achieved while accounting for the risk of chain rollback? To date, sufficiently secure and decentralized mechanisms to acquire and confirm state between disparate blockchains, apart from rollups, have not been built. A single solution likely does not exist. Instead, potentially multiple, different solutions will suit different use cases. BCN: How does the lack of efficient communication mechanisms between chains affect dapp (decentralized app) developers? HP: Today the biggest use case in the blockchain is decentralized finance (Defi). The lack of adequate cross-chain communication has constrained the size, participation, and efficiency of the Defi market. Not only have existing designs resulted in the loss of billions of dollars of capital, but they are also hard to use, limiting participation to more sophisticated users. As a result, market size, liquidity, and returns have been constrained. Furthermore, use cases leveraging communication that could drive adoption have remained undiscovered. A simple example could be assets purchased or traded on a smart contract chain with direct payment in bitcoin. For blockchain engineers, this could enable a number of protocols that could ultimately revolutionize the digital ticketing market, gaming, or payment gateway technologies, for example. With high-integrity communication between chains, this simple example is just the starting point. BCN: Do cross-chain activities pose systemic risks to the industry? And if so, how? HP: Yes. A case in point is how a cross-chain communication failure can wreak havoc on an entire downstream blockchain ecosystem. We have seen this recently with multiple bridge exploits. Without sufficiently secure and decentralized mechanisms for acquiring and reliably moving data between siloed blockchains, false information can be reported and relied upon to inform the movement of assets. If information is revealed to be incorrect after transactions have been validated and assets have subsequently been reallocated to more established chains, the risk is introduced to the entire system. BCN: What do you think made cross-chain bridges quite notorious in 2022 and are there any innovations that could help restore users’ faith in bridges? Also, can bridging solutions give users a fair degree of protection against the risk of losing their assets? HP: [The years] 2021 and 2022 have witnessed large-scale cross-chain experimentation. As a result, cross-chain bridges received their first real stress tests. Ultimately, many performed abysmally with more than $2 billion of funds exploited in the last 12 months. The general inability to safely move assets across chains has likely hampered development in the space. I believe that by integrating suitably decentralized cross-chain communication akin to the underlying blockchain consensus mechanisms themselves, bridges could be made substantially safer. Furthermore, if assets are insured at the protocol level as they move across chains, additional risk can be mitigated. Protection is thus a two-step process. First, risk must be minimized at the protocol level. Second, where possible, usage should be insured. In any complex financial system, risk will likely never be zero, but users must be protected where possible. BCN: How can the non-smart contract chains be connected with one another and is it possible to upgrade or to make crypto assets like bitcoin compatible with the defi world? HP: Blockchains are siloed public databases that cannot natively read or report external transactions. At Flare, we are working on two general models to upgrade non-smart contract chains: payment triggers and bridging. A payment trigger involves a smart contract function being triggered on one chain by a transaction on another chain. This delivers simple and useful functionality, such as paying for a collectable on a smart-contract platform with bitcoin or any other token. To do this well, a sufficiently decentralized data acquisition protocol requiring a number of participating validators to prove a transaction on a specific chain is required. At this point, data can be queried, acquired and securely reported to another chain. Then, other blockchain events can be triggered. Such a mechanism can be implemented for multiple non-smart contract chains so they can be referenced and connected. In contrast, bridging brings full smart-contract features to a token such as bitcoin. With secure data acquisition and natively-available on-chain decentralized prices, it then becomes possible to create synthetic versions of these assets on a smart-contract chain. Crucially, in Flare’s proposed model, unlike previous synthetic models, the user is only required to provide the underlying token itself, such as bitcoin. This removes the over-collateralization requirements and eliminates the direct market risk from the user, meaning that they do not need to actively manage the position. These 1:1 representations of assets like bitcoin can then be deployed in Defi and other decentralized applications. BCN: So what novel opportunities and use cases do you foresee if non-smart contract assets can be used for defi and Web3 activities? HP: Approximately 70% of the total market capitalization of digital assets is composed of bitcoin, XRP, and dogecoin. Wide-scale usage of non-smart contract assets in Defi would mean greater liquidity for the market and reduced reliance on centralized services for users. For creators, there would be a larger available market and for token holders, decentralized access to this market. Additionally, on-ramping non-smart contract tokens onto a scalable chain also enables an alternative payment rail beyond efforts like Lightning. We also believe that Web3 needs greater scope, utility and consumer appeal through sufficiently decentralized and reliable communication protocols between blockchains and non-blockchain networks. We want to enable tokens like bitcoin to be used with these applications. BCN: In very simple terms, can you explain what native interoperability protocols are all about? HP: Flare has two unique protocols built natively into the network: the State Connector and the Flare Time Series Oracle. They are native because they are built directly into the blockchain using the FLR token to incentivize data provision, and they use the network itself to secure accurate data provision. In simpler terms, for an actual five-year-old, these protocols are Flare’s sensors, allowing it to reliably “see” what is taking place across other blockchains, make a note of it for future reference, and base decisions upon it. This is similar to how our senses allow us to see what’s going on around us and interact with the world. What are your thoughts about this interview? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that 2023 will be a tougher year for most of the world economy because the U.S., EU, and Chinese economies are all slowing down simultaneously. “We expect one-third of the world economy to be in recession … Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people,” said IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva. IMF’s 2023 Economic Predictions International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva shared the IMF’s predictions on the U.S., the EU, China, and the world economy in an interview with CBS, aired Sunday. She detailed: This is what we see in 2023. For most of the world economy, this is going to be a tough year, tougher than the year we leave behind. Why? Because the three big economies, U.S., EU, China, are all slowing down simultaneously. “The U.S. is most resilient. The U.S. may avoid recession. We see the labor market remaining quite strong. This is, however, a mixed blessing because if the labor market is very strong, the Fed may have to keep interest rates tighter for longer to bring inflation down,” the IMF chief continued. “The EU was very severely hit by the war in Ukraine. Half of the European Union will be in recession next year. China is going to slow down this year further,” she added. Moreover, the IMF boss said: Next year will be a tough year for China. And that translates into negative trends globally. “When we look at the emerging markets in developing economies, there, the picture is even direr. Why? Because on top of everything else, they get hit by high interest rates and by the appreciation of the dollar. For those economies that have high level of that, this is a devastation,” she cautioned. Regarding China specifically, Georgieva described: “In the short term, bad news. China has slowed down dramatically in 2022 because of this tight zero Covid policy. For the first time in 40 years, China’s growth in 2022 is likely to be at or below global growth. That has never happened before.” Emphasizing that she hopes the U.S. economy “is not going to slip into recession despite all these risks,” the IMF managing director shared: We expect one third of the world economy to be in recession … Even countries that are not in recession, it would feel like recession for hundreds of millions of people. Georgieva added that “the world has changed dramatically,” noting that “it is a more shock-prone world.” She explained that these shocks include Covid, the Russia-Ukraine war, and the cost of living crisis. “My message [is] don’t think that we are going to go back to pre-Covid predictability. More uncertainty, more overlap of crises wait for us … We have to buckle up and act in that more agile, precautionary manner,” she concluded. What do you think about the predictions by the International Monetary Fund? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Economist Peter Schiff has predicted that the U.S. dollar will have “one of its worst years ever” in 2023, warning that the inflation problem is “about to get much worse.” He also shared his prediction about the worst-performing sectors of the stock market this year. Peter Schiff’s 2023 Economic Predictions Economist and gold bug Peter Schiff shared his 2023 predictions about the U.S. economy, the dollar, and the stock market in a series of tweets Friday. “The U.S. dollar index may have had a strong year, but it ended the year on a six-month low, down 10% from its November high,” he began, elaborating: This weakness will likely continue in 2023, with the dollar having one of its worst years ever. If I’m right the inflation problem is about to get much worse. Schiff also disagreed with Wharton University’s finance professor Jeremy Siegel who shared his economic view on CNBC last week. “Jeremy Siegel is wrong,” Schiff contended. Siegel “thinks falling real estate prices means the inflation threat is over. That’s falling asset prices. Consumer prices will keep rising, including those associated with homeownership like rent, mortgage rates, insurance, taxes, utilities, and maintenance,” Schiff argued. Regarding the stock market, Schiff predicted: The worst-performing sectors of the stock market in 2022 will likely repeat as the worst-performing sectors in 2023. Schiff has repeatedly warned about the U.S. economy and the dollar crashing. In October, he cautioned about the rising national debt that the U.S. cannot repay. “We’re going to default,” he warned. “We have much more debt now than we had in 2008 … so this is going to be a much bigger crisis when the defaults start,” he described. The economist also predicted that the Federal Reserve’s recent actions could lead to market crashes, a massive financial crisis, and a severe recession. What do you think about economist Peter Schiff’s predictions? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Valkyrie Investments, a Tennessee-based asset manager, has announced its intention to become the new sponsor of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The company states that it is “uniquely qualified” for the role and plans to facilitate redemptions at net asset value (NAV) through a Regulation M filing. Valkyrie Offers to Take Over Management of Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) has faced challenges in 2022, with the fund’s discount to net asset value (NAV) reaching record levels. Over the past six months, the spread between the fund’s value and NAV has increased by more than 35% by the end of Sept. 2022. As of Dec. 30, 2022, the discount has further widened to more than 45%. This means that the value of the bitcoin fund is currently lower than current BTC spot prices. Valkyrie wants to remedy the situation by taking over sponsorship and creating another fund. “We understand that Grayscale has played an important role in the development and growth of the bitcoin ecosystem with the launch of GBTC, and we respect the team and the work that they have done,” Valkyrie wrote. “However, in light of recent events involving Grayscale and its family of affiliated companies, it is time for a change. Valkyrie is the best company to manage GBTC to ensure its investors are treated fairly.” The fund manager said Friday it is launching the Valkyrie Opportunistic Fund, a venture that aims to take advantage of GBTC’s discount to net asset value. According to Valkyrie, the team will add to its GBTC holdings, which could eventually show the “true value of the underlying bitcoin for our investors.” At the time of writing, the Bitcoin Trust managed by Grayscale holds approximately 643,572 BTC. Following the announcement, Eric Balchunas, senior exchange-traded fund (ETF) analyst for Bloomberg, shared his opinion about Valkyrie’s intentions. “Valkyrie is launching the Valkyrie Opportunistic Fund in an effort to become the new sponsor of GBTC (which is trading at a 50% discount) and facilitate redemptions at NAV and for a fee of 75bps,” Balchunas tweeted. “Long shot but speaks to growing pressure.” In the announcement, Valkyrie offered three proposals: Facilitate orderly redemptions at net asset value (NAV) for all investors who want it through a timely Regulation M filing. This will ensure that all investors have the option to redeem their shares at a fair price, without any delays or obstacles. Lower the fees to a more equitable level, in line with best industry practices. We propose a fee of 75 basis points, which is significantly lower than the current rate of 200 basis points. Attempt to offer redemptions in both bitcoin and cash for investors. This will give investors greater flexibility and choice when it comes to redeeming their shares. Valkyrie’s offer comes at a time when Grayscale’s parent firm Digital Currency Group (DCG) has been having issues with its subsidiary Genesis Global Capital. In mid-November, Genesis’ lending arm suspended withdrawals and new loan originations on the platform. It is reported that Genesis owes the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini $900 million, and Gemini has formed a committee, with financial advisor Houlihan Lokey, to recover the funds. In addition, Gemini faces a potential class action lawsuit from two investors regarding the company’s Gemini Earn program. Despite the speculation, a DCG shareholder letter from CEO Barry Silbert stated that the company will “continue to be a leading builder of the industry.” At the time of writing, Grayscale or DCG has not responded to Valkyrie’s offer to become the new GBTC sponsor. What do you think about Valkyrie’s offer to sponsor GBTC? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

2022 was a tough year for crypto assets, and as the world welcomes 2023, the macroeconomic backdrop remains uncertain. Macroeconomic events will continue to shape the crypto economy and the economy as a whole. This editorial takes a look at the top three macroeconomic events to keep an eye on in 2023. Examining the Top 3 Macroeconomic Events That Could Shape the Economy and Crypto Market in 2023 The new year has started and the upcoming 12 months sure look gloomy in terms of the global economy. In 2022, assets such as precious metals, stocks, and cryptocurrencies were impacted by macroeconomic events, leading to volatile asset prices. Macroeconomics, is a branch of economics that studies the behavior of an economy as a whole, and it considers any event that significantly impacts the overall economy of a country or region to be a macroeconomic event. The following is a look at three different events that could impact the global economy a great deal and affect the prices of stocks, precious metals, and crypto assets. The Ukraine-Russia War The Ukraine-Russia War is a macroeconomic event that can affect the global economy and the world’s assets in 2023. After Russian president Vladimir Putin delivered his New Year’s Eve address to the nation, people believe the war will continue at his discretion. Rather than his traditional appearance in front of the Kremlin, Putin was flanked by a handful of Russian servicemen and women wearing army fatigues. The speech indicates that Putin will continue the war in Europe, despite the West’s actions to stop Russia by imposing significant financial sanctions on the country. Like 2022, the ongoing war in Europe will affect the world’s assets in 2023, as the warfare and sanctions have caused energy prices to skyrocket and supply chains to break. Covid-19 in China Stocks, crypto assets, and precious metals have been dealing with the macroeconomic effects of Covid-19 for over three years now. According to multiple reports, Covid-19 is allegedly raging in China and the government has stopped releasing Covid case count numbers. Covid in China has worried global investors in 2022 and it has lapsed over into 2023. The reason for such worry would be global trade as the pandemic has caused specific supply chains to come to a grinding halt during the last few years. Covid has affected crypto prices as ‘Black Thursday’ in March 2020 shows that bitcoin (BTC) dropped below the $4K region after the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO) declared Covid-19 was a global pandemic. Central Bank and Fed Rate Hikes After suppressing benchmark bank rates before the Covid-19 pandemic and during 2020’s major stimulus injection, central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve have raised benchmark interest rates a great deal. Whenever the Fed raised the rate, it caused massive fluctuations in precious metal, equity, and crypto markets. Interest rate hikes are macroeconomic events that have managed to shake up the world’s lending rates a great deal. For instance, a 30-year fixed interest rate on a mortgage in the U.S. today is 7.9%. The rate is a lot higher than the 3.815% 30-year fixed interest rate on a mortgage in the U.S. in January 2022. Raising or reducing the federal funds rate is one macroeconomic event that always seems to cause market fluctuations. Macroeconomic events can be positive or negative for a stock, precious metal, or crypto asset if it is expected to have an impact on the security’s underlying foundations. The aforementioned events above may or may not affect global markets and the world’s assets but they could also shake them to the core. 2023 may be no different in that sense as 2022 clearly shows that macroeconomic events like the war in Europe, Covid-19, and central bank rate hikes have moved all of the world’s most popular markets including fiat currencies, commodities, securities, and crypto assets. What do you think about the three macroeconomic events that could shape crypto, stock, and precious metal markets in 2023? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

According to statistics, daily cryptocurrency trade volumes have dropped significantly during Dec. 2022. On Jan. 1, data shows that $22.95 billion was traded in the last 24 hours, compared to double that amount, $54.78 billion, two weeks earlier. On November 8, 2022, 54 days prior, amid the FTX collapse, global cryptocurrency trade volumes were approximately $115.33 billion. Crypto Trade Volumes End 2022 46% Lower Than the Month Prior Cryptocurrency trade volumes worldwide have significantly declined since the beginning of the year. For example, on Jan. 2, 2022, one year ago, the global trade volume for the 24-hour period was approximately $70.48 billion, according to archived coingecko.com statistics. Today’s 24-hour volume worldwide is 67.43% less at $22.95 billion. In addition, 71.63% of all trades on Jan. 1, 2023, were paired with the cryptocurrency economy’s stablecoins. While all the stablecoins today represent $16.44 billion in trade volume, tether (USDT) commands $12.45 billion, which equates to 71.63% of the aggregate on Jan. 1, 2023. Two weeks ago on Dec. 15, the global trade volume was $54.78 billion and a good majority of those trades were in stablecoins as well. Cryptocurrency trade volumes have been declining since Jan. 2022, with monthly spikes in May, Sept., and Nov. 2022. The November spike occurred amid the chaos surrounding FTX’s insolvency, and there were significantly higher daily trade volumes at that time. Data from The Block’s crypto exchange volume (legitimate index) shows that Oct. 2022 had $543.67 billion in volume, while Nov. 2022 saw an increase of approximately 23.79% to $673.01 billion. Now that Dec. 2022 is over, statistics show that Dec. 2022’s total volumes were around $357.48 billion, or 46.88% lower than the previous month. The last time global cryptocurrency trade volumes were this low was two years ago in December 2020. At that time, global crypto trade volumes were 7.27% higher at $385.51 billion. Lower cryptocurrency trade volumes can have both positive and negative implications for investors. On one hand, low trade volume is often seen as a sign of a lack of interest in the crypto market, which could potentially indicate lower values. On the other hand, low trade volume can sometimes be interpreted as a bullish sign for the cryptocurrency economy, as it may suggest limited selling pressure. What do you think about the decline in crypto trade volumes during the last month of 2022? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Robert Kiyosaki says the time to buy gold and silver is now, predicting a stock market crash will send prices of the precious metals higher. In other news, the crypto community has been curious about the former Alameda Research co-CEO Sam Trabucco, and his whereabouts, as the guilty plea of Alameda’s former CEO Caroline Ellison has been unsealed, revealing troubling information about customer funds. Bitcoin.com News further reports that as the United States Fed has turned 109 years old on Dec. 23, the dollar has lost 96% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve was created. Finally, one market strategist expects oil to “crush” other investments in 2023. All this just below, in this latest issue of the Bitcoin.com News Week in Review. Robert Kiyosaki Warns Last Chance to Buy Gold and Silver at Low Prices — Says Stock Market Crash Will Send Them Higher The famous author of the best-selling book Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki, says now may be the last chance to buy gold and silver at low prices. “Inflation moving up. Interest rates moving up. Stock market to crash sending gold and silver higher,” Kiyosaki described. Read More Caroline Ellison’s Testimony Claims FTX Boss SBF Directed Her to Co-Mingle Customer Funds Since 2019 On Dec. 23, 2022, Matthew Russell Lee from the Inner City Press published the recently unsealed guilty plea transcript of Caroline Ellison, Alameda Research’s former CEO. In her statements, Ellison describes that she was the co-CEO and CEO of Alameda, and under those roles, she reported directly to the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). The ex-Alameda CEO’s testimony details that she was fully aware from 2019 to 2022, that Alameda Research had access to a special borrowing facility that allowed the company to maintain an unlimited line of credit with zero collateral. The ‘borrowing facility,’ according to Ellison, was FTX’s customer funds. Read More Crypto Community Asks: Where in the World Is Ex-Alameda CEO Sam Trabucco? Following FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest and the statements from his co-workers Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, the spotlight has turned on the remaining executives who were part of the team’s inner circle. Another person people are curious about these days is Alameda Research’s ex-co-CEO Sam Trabucco. The 30-year-old executive left Alameda in Aug. 2022, but since Ellison detailed misconduct happened in 2019, it’s assumed that Trabucco knows a thing or two about what happened. Read More ‘Oil Prices North of $200’ per Barrel — Investor Expects Oil to ‘Crush’ Every Investment in 2023 Amid the dreary global economy, a number of market strategists and analysts believe oil will be the number one investment in 2023. While a barrel of oil is coasting along at prices between $80.12 and $85 per unit, Goldman Sachs analysts think oil will reach $110 per barrel for Brent oil, and strategists from Morgan Stanley also believe oil will reach $110 a barrel by mid-2023. The founder of Praetorian Capital recently warned a barrel of oil could jump a lot higher next year. Read More As the Fed Turns 109 Years Old, the US Dollar’s Purchasing Power Eroded by More Than 96% Since It Was Created 109 years ago, the U.S. Federal Reserve was created and ever since that day, the purchasing power of the U.S. dollar has dropped a great deal. Since the Fed started, more than 96% of the greenback’s purchasing power has been erased via inflation. Read More What are your thoughts on these stories? What do you think was the most memorable story of 2022? Be sure to let us know in the comment section below. View the full article

Growing electricity consumption in the crypto mining sector may require the construction of new power generation facilities in Siberia, the energy minister of Russia has acknowledged. Demand continues to increase in residential areas as well, after regional authorities abandoned a proposal to introduce higher tariffs for Russians minting digital coins at their homes. Authorities in Russia Think New Energy Infrastructure, Generation Capacities in Crypto Mining Regions Russian Minister of Energy Nikolay Shulginov has recognized the increased demand for electricity from cryptocurrency miners in some parts of Siberia where the industry has been expanding. Additional generating capacities may be necessary to meet their needs, he indicated, quoted by local media and crypto news outlets. Shulginov did not reveal specific plans but made it clear that Russian authorities in these regions are considering the further development of the energy networks used by mining companies and the construction of more power plants. The grids in the Republic of Khakassia and Irkutsk Oblast are currently experiencing the greatest loads, Bits.media reported. “The position of the Ministry of Energy has always been based on the need to create working conditions for mining,” the government official emphasized. He also noted that electricity consumption of the population has risen as well, sometimes causing damage to the distribution networks. “As for industrial mining, it is also growing, mainly in regions where the tariff is low. In these regions, we are seeing significant consumption growth, which we must take into account,” Shulginov commented in an interview with the Russia-24 TV channel and elaborated: Most likely, it won’t go without the construction of generation [capacities] in the southeastern part of the unified energy system of Siberia. Energy-Rich Irkutsk Maintains Low Electricity Rates for Crypto Miners Crypto mining has been expanding in Russia, a country with abundant low-cost energy resources and cool climate, both as a profitable business activity and as an additional source of income for many ordinary Russians minting in basements and garages. According to a study published in October, bitcoin mining revenue in Russia grew 18 times in four years before markets and sanctions hit it this year. At-home mining has been blamed for breakdowns and blackouts in places such as Irkutsk, dubbed the mining capital of Russia, which offers some of the lowest electricity rates in the country. A proposal to introduce differentiated tariffs, increasing energy costs for amateur miners in order to limit consumption, was backed by the energy ministry but eventually rejected by local authorities with the exception of the region of Kemerovo. In early December, Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Snikkars said that the industry may see a two-fold increase in its share of Russia’s total power consumption in 2022. His department and the Bank of Russia supported a bill designed to regulate cryptocurrency mining but lawmakers postponed the adoption of the draft law for 2023. Do you think the Russian government will take steps to ensure energy supplies for cryptocurrency miners? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

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, convenient, and low-cost money transfers. The proposal aims to amend several existing laws such as the law on “On the National Payment System” to which the members of Duma want to add definitions pertaining to the CBDC. The new provisions assign to the Bank of Russia the role of sole operator of the CBDC platform. They also establish the procedures for opening wallets for the digital ruble and accessing its platform. An amendment to the law “On Currency Regulation and Currency Control” secures the status of the digital ruble as a currency of the Russian Federation and defines CBDCs issued by the central banks of other nations as foreign currencies. Changes to the Federal Law “On Personal Data” allow Russia’s central bank to process personal information without obtaining consent and without the need to notify in advance the Russian authority responsible for protecting the rights of subjects of personal data. The Central Bank of Russia presented the concept for its digital currency in October 2020 and finalized its prototype platform in December 2021. The pilot phase was initiated in January of this year. In May, the monetary authority said it plans to start tests with real transactions and customers in April 2023. In June, amid mounting Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s military invasion of Ukraine, the regulator said it’s accelerating the schedule for the project, aiming for full launch in 2024. Over a dozen Russian banks and other financial institutions are currently participating in the trials. Do you think Russia is preparing to launch its digital ruble sooner than initially planned? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

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 Indian central bank continued: In this context, under India’s G20 presidency, one of the priorities is to develop a framework for global regulation, including the possibility of prohibition, of unbacked crypto assets, stablecoins, and defi. The central bank named “turmoil in crypto assets market” one of “the major risks that can potentially undermine global financial stability.” The RBI also said crypto assets are highly volatile, “exhibit high correlations with equities,” and have fallen as inflation rose. The report further notes that the collapse of crypto exchange FTX and subsequent crypto market sell-offs “have highlighted the inherent vulnerabilities in the crypto ecosystem.” It also highlights the terra/luna meltdown in May and the bankruptcy filings of several major crypto firms, including crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) and crypto lender Celsius Network. G20 Members to Discuss Crypto Regulation Ajay Seth, India’s economic affairs secretary, said earlier this month that the G20 members aim to build a policy consensus on crypto assets for better global regulation. Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in October that crypto will be part of India’s agenda during its G20 presidency, adding that she hopes a technology-driven regulation framework for crypto assets will be established. The members of the Group of 20 (G20) are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the U.K., the U.S., and the European Union. The group represents around 85% of the world’s GDP. India’s central bank, however, has repeatedly recommended banning all non-state-issued cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether. Last week, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das warned that cryptocurrencies will cause the next financial crisis if they are not banned. However, India’s finance minister said in July that both banning and regulating crypto can only be effective with significant international collaboration. Do you think the G20 will develop global regulation that benefits the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

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 like gold, silver, and oil.” The Rich Dad Poor Dad author added that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has classified bitcoin as a commodity while most other crypto tokens are securities, cautioning that “SEC regulations will crush most of them.” He ended his tweet by stating that he is buying more bitcoin. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said repeatedly that bitcoin is a commodity while most other crypto tokens are securities. The chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), Rostin Behnam, has also confirmed that bitcoin is a commodity. The securities regulator said in November that its Enforcement Division remains focused on crypto. The SEC has been heavily criticized for taking an enforcement-centric approach to regulating the crypto sector. Gensler said in May following the terra/luna collapse that a lot of crypto tokens will fail. The Rich Dad Poor Dad author has been recommending investors buy gold, silver, and bitcoin for quite some time. Kiyosaki previously said he is a bitcoin investor, not a trader, so he gets excited when BTC hits a new bottom. Earlier this month, he predicted that bitcoin investors will get richer when the Federal Reserve pivots and prints trillions of “fake” dollars. Following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, Kiyosaki said he is still bullish on bitcoin, emphasizing that crypto cannot be blamed for the FTX meltdown. In September, the renowned author urged investors to get into crypto now, before the biggest market crash strikes. Kiyosaki also made other dire predictions, including the U.S. dollar crashing, the Fed destroying the U.S. economy with its rate hikes, hyperinflation, a Greater Depression, and World War III. What do you think about Robert Kiyosaki buying more bitcoin and his warning that SEC regulations will crush most cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

FTX customers in Japan will soon be able to withdraw their funds that are currently frozen due to the bankruptcy process. Two FTX-owned crypto exchanges, FTX Japan and Liquid, are developing a system to allow withdrawals by mid-February. FTX’s Japanese Customers Can Withdraw Funds Soon Two FTX-owned cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan — FTX Japan and Liquid — jointly announced Thursday that their users will be able to withdraw funds by mid-February. The two crypto exchanges announced: For the assets entrusted to us by our customers at FTX Japan and Liquid Japan, we are proceeding with system development so that withdrawals will be possible from the Liquid Japan website. To withdraw funds, FTX Japan’s customers will need to open an account with Liquid and transfer their assets to the Liquid platform. The exchanges plan to allow withdrawals by mid-February, according to the joint announcement. Japanese exchange Liquid was acquired by FTX earlier this year. The deal included Quoine Corp., one of the first crypto exchanges to successfully register in 2017 with Japan’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA). The acquisition followed a major hack where about $90 million worth of cryptocurrencies were stolen from the Liquid platform. FTX then provided Liquid with $120 million of debt financing at that time. FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11. However, FTX Japan said on Dec. 1 that it had confirmed with lawyers for the FTX group that “Japanese customer cash and cryptocurrency should not be part of FTX Japan’s estate given how these assets are held and property interests under Japanese law.” In November, the FSA issued three orders against FTX Japan: a business suspension order, an order to hold assets domestically, and a business improvement order. The orders followed the exchange abruptly halting customer withdrawals. The following day, FTX filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. The exchange and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) have been charged by the U.S. government and regulators with multiple counts of fraud. What do you think about FTX Japan allowing customers to withdraw funds? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

Non-fungible token (NFT) sales over the last seven days are ending the year 13.97% lower than the week prior. During the last week, statistics show that $147,054,554 in NFT sales were recorded across 334,668 NFT buyers. NFT Sales Continue to Slip: 13.97% Decrease in Last Seven Days NFT sales are down this week, 13.97% lower than last week according to cryptoslam.io metrics. 2022 hasn’t been a good year for NFTs as sales and NFT values have slid dramatically over the last 12 months. Out of the $147.05 million in NFT sales this past week, NFTs that derived from Ethereum (ETH) represented $113.86 million of the aggregate sold in seven days. However, ETH-based NFT sales slipped by 20.4% during the past week. Solana NFT sales jumped 91.36% higher this week as the chain saw $23.64 million in seven-day sales. While Solana’s increase was large, Waves-based NFT sales increased by 302.59% but only sold $7,609 worth of NFTs. Theta’s NFT sales jumped by 132.29% over the last week but only sold $358 worth of digital collectibles. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) was this week’s top collection in terms of seven-day sales as it raked in $12.59 million. However, the $12.59 million over 144 sales is 47.05% lower than BAYC’s sales last week. BAYC is followed by Otherdeeds, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Azuki, and Cryptopunks, respectively. Cryptopunks managed to jump 94.71% higher in terms of sales this week compared to last week’s sales. The Solana NFT project Degods, which plans to transition the NFTs to the Ethereum chain, saw sales climb 253.80% higher than Degods’ sales last week. Data shows the most expensive digital collectible sold over the past seven days was Azuki #4,690 which sold three days ago for $216K. Azuki #4,690 was followed by Azuki #2,311, Azuki #9,446, and Bored Ape Yacht Club #193. The top three most expensive floor value prices for NFTs today include BAYC, Cryptopunks, and Mutant Ape Yacht Club. BAYC has a floor value of 69.49 ETH according to nftpricefloor.com, while the Cryptopunks floor value is currently 65.47 ETH. What’s your opinion on the NFT sales this week? Do you predict that 2023 will be a better year for NFTs? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below. View the full article

Bitcoin miners have had a challenging year as the network’s mining difficulty reached an all-time high and the spot market price of bitcoin dropped below the cost of production. Currently, with electricity costs at $0.07 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), only 18 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin mining rigs are able to turn a profit at current prices. Current SHA256 ASIC Models Unprofitable at $0.12 per kWh, Only Two Devices Profitable at $0.10 per kWh On December 31, 2022, statistics show that bitcoin’s hash rate is hovering above the 300 exahash per second (EH/s) range after reaching a low on December 30 at 235 EH/s. Additionally, data from macromicro.me indicates that the current cost of production ($16,577) is nearly equal to bitcoin’s current spot market value ($16,572). Macromicro.me calculates the cost of production by “observing consumption of electricity and daily issuance of bitcoin, as provided by Cambridge University.” The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) shows BTC’s annualized consumption on Dec. 31, 2022, is 84.74 terawatts per hour (TWh). With the current mining difficulty at 35.36 trillion and current BTC prices at $16,572 per unit, a large number of ASIC mining machines are not profitable. For instance, at $0.12 per kWh, none of the current SHA256 ASIC models are profitable with electricity costs at that rate. At $0.10 per kWh, two ASIC devices are profitable and can make $1.14-$2.51 per day in profits. The top two machines that can still profit at $0.10 per kWh include Bitmain’s Antminer S19 XP Hyd. with 255 terahash per second (TH/s) and Bitmain’s Antminer S19 XP with 140 TH/s. 18 ASIC Mining Rigs Profitable at $0.07 per kWh, Alternative Consensus Algorithms See Better Profits At $0.08 per kWh, 13 different ASIC bitcoin mining machines can capture profits between $0.13-$5.08 per day. The machine with the lowest profits at $0.08 per kWh is Bitmain’s Antminer S19j Pro with 100 TH/s. At $0.07 per kWh, another five machines are added to the profitable machine list with a total of 18 ASIC mining rigs in profit. At the $0.07 per kWh value, a bitcoin miner can make between $0.23 per day to $6.35 per day, depending on the machine used. Bitmain’s Antminer S19 XP Hyd. with 255 TH/s and $0.07 per kWh in electrical costs will produce an estimated profit of around $6.35 every 24 hours. While SHA256 bitcoin mining machines are seeing fewer profits than they were six months ago, machines that mine alternative consensus algorithms see better profits. The top three consensus algorithms today, in terms of profit, include Kadena, Eaglesong, Scrypt, and Handshake. What are your thoughts on the difficulties that bitcoin miners faced this year? Do you anticipate that conditions will improve in 2023? Share your perspective in the comments section below. View the full article

According to Mark Moss, the CEO of Market Disruptor, significant regulation is coming to the cryptocurrency industry following the aftermath of FTX’s collapse. He believes that future cryptocurrency bull runs probably won’t happen. However, Moss says that bitcoin will continue to see demand as it is “solving a problem that has plagued humanity from Day One.” Market Disruptor CEO Predicts Regulatory Shift in Wake of FTX Collapse, Sees Most Cryptocurrency Assets Regulated as Securities in Future On Dec. 29, 2022, Mark Moss, the CEO of Market Disruptor, spoke with Michelle Makori, the lead anchor of Kitco News and the company’s editor-in-chief, about the cryptocurrency industry and bitcoin (BTC). Moss believes that the recent FTX collapse has accelerated regulation, and he thinks that most cryptocurrency assets will be regulated as securities in the future. As an example, the recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) charges against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried define FTX’s exchange token, FTT, as an unregulated security. To furnish another specific example, a New Hampshire court also sided with the SEC in the lawsuit against LBRY, and LBRY said the language used to sway the court’s decision “sets an extraordinarily dangerous precedent.” Moss told Makori that deeming most crypto tokens as securities will likely force projects to create full disclosures for investors. “Imagine Ethereum going through full disclosure,” Moss said during the interview. “Who created the token? How many [coins] are controlled by insiders?” The Market Disruptor executive and author of the ​​”The Un-Communist Manifesto” added: What’s the connection between the Ethereum Foundation, Joseph Lubin, and Vitalik Buterin? Who controls the tokens in The Merge lockup?… I can’t imagine they’d want to [go through full disclosure]. Moss said that it’s likely some crypto projects move offshore, but he stressed that he believes the money from U.S. investors won’t follow these projects. “Sure, the SEC clamps down and [cryptocurrencies] goes offshore … to some small jurisdiction,” Moss said to Makori. “But the American venture capital companies can’t skate past U.S. regulations to try to invest in these little obscure markets. So sure, it’ll move to another country… but the money won’t go with it, which drives the entire market cap.” While Moss doesn’t expect another altcoin season or crypto bull run, he does believe the leading crypto asset bitcoin (BTC) will continue to prosper. Moss insists BTC is a “technological revolution that changes the course of humanity and drives financial markets.” Moss further said that he doesn’t want the regulatory hammer to come crashing down, and further insisted that he was just explaining the case as he sees it unfolding. Moss stressed: Now is the time [regulators] are going to be forced to react. The SEC looks horrible … the [SEC’s] number one job is to protect consumers, and they have failed. They should shut down in disgrace and close up shop … Of course that’s not going to happen, but they need to regain confidence somehow, and I believe [the FTX collapse] is going to force [regulators] to act. Moss Forecasts Bitcoin Price to Reach $33K-$38K Next Year, Debate Over Securities Classification in Crypto Industry Looms In 2023, Moss expects BTC to hit $33K per unit and possibly even $38K. “Bitcoin is solving a problem that has plagued humanity from Day One, which is, how do I secure my property so it can’t be manipulated, seized, or stolen?’” Moss remarked. “I can have custody of [Bitcoin] and if I want to send it to you, nobody could stop it, block it, or prevent it.” There’s a lot of debate over whether specific crypto assets should be considered securities, and in the U.S., regulators have not reached a full consensus. For example, SEC chairman Gary Gensler has said that most crypto tokens are securities and he once said the “law is clear on this.” “I believe based on the facts and circumstances, most of these tokens are securities,” Gensler said during an interview. Gensler also once declared that he could confirm that bitcoin (BTC) is a commodity, but it’s the only crypto token he would talk about in that fashion. In May, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman Rostin Behnam said he could surely say bitcoin is a commodity. “Well, I can say for sure bitcoin … is a commodity. Ether as well,” Behnam elaborated during his interview with CNBC. What are your thoughts on Mark Moss’s recent conversation with Michelle Makori about the cryptocurrency industry? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. View the full article

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 University. He emphasized that “what needs to change is the digital yuan acting only as a substitute for cash and only for consumption.” The payment market structure formed by cash, bank cards, and third-party payment platforms are currently satisfying the needs for daily consumption in China. “The common people are used to it, and changing it is difficult,” he remarked. China has been at the forefront of the race to develop CBDCs with efforts to promote the digital yuan through a number of red envelope campaigns, giving away e-CNY to stimulate its use, and by expanding the geographical scope of the pilot project to new cities and regions. Authorities have also been trying to increase the use cases for the digital version of the renminbi, with the latest examples including the introduction of digital yuan payments in the public transportation systems of Ningbo and Guangzhou. In September, the PBOC called for more of these use-case scenarios and urged for deeper integration of its new currency with e-payment providers. According to Xie Ping, digital yuan business had no synergistic effect and no commercial benefits for banks’ business while third-party payment systems such as Alipay offered a range of more attractive functions such as investment, insurance, and consumer lending. That’s why the ex-central bank official believes digital yuan usage can be expanded by allowing individuals to buy financial products with the state-backed coin, for example, and by connecting it to more traditional payment platforms in order to create new opportunities to spend it for consumption. Do you think use of the digital yuan will grow with an increase in the use-cases offered by the Chinese government? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below. View the full article

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 send and complete forms and even conclude contracts in the metaverse, according to reports from Yomiuri Shimbun. The company will host these services on Virtual Akiba World, a metaverse platform that has been built as a digital representation of the famous station and town of Akihabara in Japan. About the reason for the extension of these services to the virtual world, the company stated: By using the metaverse, we will provide a new customer experience that reduces the psychological burden of insurance consultations and enables casual insurance consultations and considerations. Furthermore, the company will allow users to run a course with a flying car in the metaverse to help it determine the style of driving the consumer prefers, as well as to familiarize it with the advantages that insurance could bring to specific drivers. Other Japanese Companies in the Metaverse Asian and Japanese companies have been pioneers in the metaverse field, with several investing in the development of virtual tech directed to target this new field. One of these companies is MUFG, one of the largest banks in the country, which has already announced it will start offering banking services in the metaverse by 2023. In October, NTT Docomo, a leading Japanese telecom carrier, announced the launch of its own metaverse division with an investment of $412 million, having more than 200 employees focusing on these tasks in November. What do you think about Tokio Marine taking its business to the metaverse? Tell us in the comments section below. View the full article

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 approximately $336 million to manage the currency. In addition to incurring high costs associated with managing the naira currency, the CBN has to contend with the increased risk of counterfeiting, the report said. Meanwhile, in her testimony, Ahmad partly blamed the spiraling costs on what she characterized as wholesale hoarding of the naira by the Nigerian public. “An observation supported by statistics shows that cash outside banks consists of over 80 per cent of the currency in circulation; worsening [the] shortage of fit banknotes in circulation. This portends [a] negative public perception of the bank and increases [the] threat to financial system stability,” Ahmad is quoted as saying. To help the central bank overcome some of the challenges identified by Ahmad, the CBN introduced into circulation newly designed naira banknotes on Dec. 15. At the same time, the bank said Nigerian residents in possession of the old banknotes should return these before or by Jan. 1, 2023. CBN Not Targeting Politicians The central bank has also restricted the amount of cash that individuals and corporate organizations can withdraw. However, some Nigerian commentators have accused the CBN of using the so-called naira redesign policy to target politicians. Responding to these allegations, Ahmad reportedly told lawmakers that the bank’s decision to limit cash withdrawals was based on research. “I have to make it very clear that the CBN is an independent institution and our decisions are taken based on research — it is the work of many teams working together across the different directories,” Ahmad reportedly said. Register your email here to get a weekly update on African news sent to your inbox: What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below. View the full article

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 be the official site for O’Leary’s bitcoin and ether giveaway. “Everyone can participate, including those in the United States,” the website details. Two more links are provided: one is to participate in the BTC giveaway while the other is to participate in the ETH giveaway. The fake giveaway posts were removed by Twitter a few hours after they were posted. Crypto Giveaway Scams Widespread on Social Media Cryptocurrency giveaway scams are widespread across various social media platforms, including Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, and Instagram. Scammers often hack the accounts of famous people, politicians, celebrities, and companies and use them to promote their fake giveaways. Elon Musk and his companies Tesla and Spacex are often featured in these scams. In the O’Leary giveaway, the scammer evidently reused the same website they created for fake Tesla and Elon Musk giveaways. Besides comments on O’Leary’s giveaway site thanking Musk for sending them some BTC, both the bitcoin and ether giveaway pages for the Shark Tank star have the Tesla logo on top and were hosted on a website with the name Tesla in the URL. In July 2020, a large number of Twitter accounts were hacked to promote a bitcoin giveaway, including those belonging to Apple, Google, Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Floyd Mayweather, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Kanye West, Mike Bloomberg, Mr. Beast, Uber, and Warren Buffett. More recently, Pakistani politician Imran Khan‘s Instagram account was used to promote a giveaway scam featuring Musk, and the British Army‘s official Youtube and Twitter accounts were compromised in July to promote a bitcoin giveaway. O’Leary was recently slammed by the crypto community for defending former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. He was paid about $15 million to become the crypto exchange’s spokesperson. Following the FTX meltdown, O’Leary said Bankman-Fried is a brilliant crypto trader and he will back him again if he has another venture. What do you think about cryptocurrency giveaway scams? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

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 would give Tesla a long-term lock on the electric vehicle business,” Krugman described. “Where are the powerful network externalities in the electric vehicle business?” he questioned, emphasizing: “Electric vehicle production just doesn’t look like a network externality business.” Krugman continued: It’s hard to explain the huge valuation the market put on Tesla before the [price] drop, or even its current value. The Nobel Prize laureate proceeded to explain “why Tesla was ever worth so much.” He believes that it’s because “investors fell in love with a storyline about a brilliant, cool innovator, despite the absence of a good argument about how this guy, even if he really was who he appeared to be, could found a long-lived money machine.” Krugman added: “Tesla sales have surely depended at least in part on the perception that Musk himself is a cool guy.” Describing a parallel between Tesla and bitcoin, the Nobel Prize-winning economist detailed: Despite years of effort, nobody has yet managed to find any serious use for cryptocurrency other than money laundering. But prices nonetheless soared on the hype, and are still being sustained by a hard-core group of true believers. “Something similar surely happened with Tesla, even though the company does actually make useful things,” Krugman concluded. At the time of writing, Tesla’s stock has fallen 70% year-to-date while bitcoin’s price has dropped 65% during the same time period. Do you agree with Paul Krugman about Tesla and bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below. View the full article

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 NFT floor price jumped to an all-time high of around 0.79 ether or around $940 per unit, according to stats from the leading NFT marketplace Opensea. Since then, however, Trump’s NFT collection has seen its floor price slip all the way down to 0.15 ether ($180), which is 8.54% lower than the floor values recorded 24 hours ago. Metrics indicate that on Dec. 29, 2022, 9% or 3,864 Trump NFTs are listed on Opensea, and in total, there are roughly 15,083 unique Trump NFT card owners. 9,801 of those unique owners hold only one Trump NFT in their wallet while 2,556 own at least two Trump NFTs. 79 owners hold around 45 Trump NFTs, which means they will get an invite to the Trump gala dinner in South Florida, at least according to the terms of service agreement on the collecttrumpcards.com website. Four owners hold 60 NFTs from the Trump collection and seven wallets hold 100 Trump NFTs. There’s also one owner with approximately 1,000 Trump NFTs in their wallet. Trump told the press last week that his NFT collection was not about making money and it was more about the art and a trim waistline. “Well, I knew nothing about [the NFTs] and then a group came, and I loved the art,” Trump told OAN. “You know, it’s sort of comic book art when you think of it, but they showed me the art and I said, gee, I always wanted to have a 30-inch waist.” The former U.S. president added: I heard somebody [once say] it was the investment of the year. I didn’t view it as an investment. I thought they were cute. These visions are very beautiful [and] interesting. Since the Trump digital trading cards entered secondary sales markets, Opensea details that 7,720 ether or $9.2 million in sales volume has been recorded to date. Additionally, onchain tracking data via the Telegram group “Onchain Intrigue” shows the “Trump NFT admin” wallet moved 128 wrapped ether (WETH) worth more than $153K to six different Polygon wallets on Dec. 28, 2022. Trump said that the digital cards were expected to sell out in roughly six months, but the sale proved to be much faster. “Wow, that’s sorta cute,” Trump said of his own NFT collection before the sale. “That might sell, that might sell. They thought it would sell in six months, it sold in six hours,” the former U.S. president added. What do you think about Trump’s ‘sorta cute’ NFT cards and their market performance since the collection of 45,000 NFTs launched? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Today’s top ten crypto assets make up a large portion of the crypto economy’s current $797.95 billion value on Dec. 29, 2022, and many of them are some of the most popular digital currencies today. While coin market capitalization aggregation sites allow patrons to add their favorite coins to a watchlist, between coingecko.com and coinmarketcap.com, bitcoin is the most watched top ten crypto coin in 2022 as it’s on approximately 4,848,865 watchlists today. The Top Ten Crypto Market Cap Coins in Terms of Watchlist Numbers As 2022 comes to an end, crypto market and price aggregation websites like coinmarketcap.com (CMC) and coingecko.com (CG) offer watchlists so visitors can hone in on their favorite coins or maybe the coins held in their portfolio. In basic terms, a watchlist is a specific set of crypto assets that a person selects in order to monitor and it can be viewed without monitoring all the other crypto assets the individual doesn’t care about. In traditional finance, investors have watchlists for stocks and commodities as well so they can keep an eye on an asset’s market value. While looking at the top ten crypto assets on Dec. 29, 2022, each crypto coin has a number of how many users selected a specific coin to add to their watchlist. Between the CG and CMC coin market cap aggregation sites, bitcoin (BTC) is the top coin in terms of watchlists. At the time of writing on CG, bitcoin (BTC) is on 1,192,111 watchlists, and on CMC, bitcoin is on 3,656,754 watchlists, which equates to more than 4.84 million watchlists in total on Dec. 29, 2022. Ethereum is the second runner-up with a total of 4,109,238 watchlists with 1,104,484 stemming from CG, and 3,004,754 from CMC. Below BTC and ETH, watchlist heavyweights include ADA with 2.94 million, BNB with 2.45 million, and XRP with roughly 2.21 million watchlists. ADA, BNB, and XRP are followed by crypto coins like DOGE with 2.14 million, polygon’s (MATIC) 1.84 million, and the stablecoin tether’s (USDT) total of 1.52 million on Dec. 29. While there’s three stablecoins in the top ten coin market caps, the dollar-pegged assets are the least watched bunch out of the top cryptos today. While USDT leads with 1.52 million, BUSD’s watchlist count is much lower with 351,265 watchlists. Just above BUSD is USDC’s watchlist count as it currently commands 358,911 total across CG and CMC. At the time of writing at 2:30 p.m. (ET) on Dec. 29, 2022, the top ten crypto assets represent $676.08 billion or 84.72% of the crypto economy’s current $797.95 billion value. Outside the top ten crypto assets, shiba inu (SHIB) is an outlier with 2,382,306 watchlists but the coin is in the 15th largest market cap position. What do you think about the top ten crypto assets in terms of overall CG and CMC watchlists? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Its been 105 days since Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work (PoW) blockchain to a proof-of-stake (PoS) network and the number of Ethereum validators is set to surpass 500,000 in 2023. According to metrics, Ethereum’s issuance rate of new coins has dropped considerably and only 4,790.45 ether has been minted since The Merge took place on Sept. 15, 2022. Ethereum’s Issuance Rate Is 0.014% per Annum in Contrast to the Simulated PoW Inflation Rate of 3.58% per Year The Ethereum (ETH) network has been operating under its proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus algorithm for more than three months and since then, 4,790.45 ethereum or $5.7 million in value has been added to the supply. Statistics from ultrasound.money show that Ethereum’s current issuance rate of new coins per annum is 0.014%. That’s a whole lot different than what it would be if Ethereum was still a PoW chain, according to ultrasound.money’s simulation metrics. If ETH remained a PoW chain during the last 105 days, then the issuance rating or inflation rate per annum would be 3.58%. That would be approximately 1,247,674.60 ether added to the supply by 10:15 a.m. (ET) on Dec. 29, 2022. Instead of $5.7 million in value added, a PoW ETH chain would have added more than $1.5 billion in value. In addition to the lower issuance rate, Ethereum also has a burn mechanism, and records show roughly 658,000 ether is burned each year. To date, 2,795,773 ether or $8.78 billion in U.S. dollar value has been burned by destroying ETH since the Aug. 5, 2021 London Hard Fork. Data from Dune Analytics indicates the biggest leader in terms of the number of ETH burned is tied to traditional ethereum (ETH) transfers, which account for 247,008 ETH burned since the London Hard Fork. The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea and its users are responsible for burning 229,928.53 ether and the decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap V2 has burned 143,394.07 ether since Aug. 5, 2021. Transferring the stablecoin USDT has equated to 123,014.14 ether burned to date, and Swaprouter 02 accounts for the fifth largest burner with 110,868.70 ether destroyed. Furthermore, the number of validators validating consensus within the Ethereum network is nearing 500,000, according to current beaconcha.in statistics. On Dec. 28, 2022, 492,863 validators were recorded, which is a marked increase from last year’s number of validators 12 months ago, which was roughly 275,054. Data from mevwatch.info also shows that 69% of the blocks mined on the ETH network are enforced with the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance. What do you think about Ethereum’s network issuance rate since it transitioned from proof-of-work (PoW) to proof-of-stake (PoS)? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article

Bitcoin’s hashrate has jumped from the low 170 exahash per second (EH/s) recorded this week, to above the 300 exahash range after a number of bitcoin mining operations from Texas temporarily went offline on Dec. 25, 2022. Furthermore, three-day hashrate distribution statistics recorded on Dec. 29, 2022 indicate that two mining pools command more than 50% of the global hashrate. 2 Mining Entities Currently Produce More Than 50% of the Global Hashrate, Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Expected to Decline Significantly in 5 Days The computational processing power behind the Bitcoin (BTC) network ramped up to the 300 EH/s range on the evening of Dec. 28, 2022. Three days before the rise, BTC’s hashrate slid to a low of 170 EH/s on Dec. 28, 2022, when bitcoin miners from Texas curtailed their hashpower to relieve the grid from any excess load. Most of the SHA256 hashpower returned the same day, as Bitcoin.com News reported on it climbing back to 240 EH/s by 12:00 p.m. (ET). Following Wednesday’s jump above 300 EH/s, statistics on Thursday show the total network hashrate is coasting along at 250.57 EH/s. Moreover, during the past three days, two mining pools have captured more than 50% of the network’s total hashrate. Of course, this has caused criticism toward the network, and accusations of centralization this week. On Dec. 29, the mining pool Foundry USA controls 31.45% of the total hashrate, and Antpool commands 21.87% of the current 250.57 EH/s on Thursday morning (ET). Between both mining pools, Antpool and Foundry command 53.32% of BTC’s total hashrate. F2pool has around 14.25% of the hashrate, and Viabtc has around 9.34% of the total on Dec. 29. Between all three top pools, Foundry, Antpool, and F2pool have around 67.57% of the total, and all four mining pools with Viabtc command around 76.91% of the total hashrate during the past three days. Only 12 known mining pools are dedicating SHA256 hashrate toward the BTC chain, and 5.64 EH/s or 2.46% of the global network is associated with unknown miners. After the Bitcoin network’s mining difficulty retarget on Dec. 19, 2022, at block height 768,096, increased by 3.27%, the network’s difficulty change is expected to see a notable decline on Jan. 3, 2023. Current estimates show that the difficulty reduction could be between 7.39% to 8.1% lower than today’s difficulty metric. Block generation times have been faster than the 10-minute average on a few occasions at 9:33 minutes, but a great majority of recent block intervals have been above the 10-minute average at around 10:54 minutes. At the time of writing, the most profitable SHA256 bitcoin mining machine is the Bitmain Antminer S19 XP Hyd. with 255 terahash per second (TH/s) of hashpower. What do you think about the two bitcoin mining pools with more than 53% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate this week? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below. View the full article