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Paraguay’s Second in Command Posts About a Big Bitcoin Surprise on Twitter

By
Adam Barry
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0

Carlos Antonio Rejala Helman, Paraguay’s Deputy, tweeted how the BTC bill will go live on July 14. His tweet claimed that both the world and the country could expect a huge surprise. In fact, something’ giant.’ Additionally, the tweet also confirmed that Fernando Silva Facetti, a senator in Paraguay, will join Helman when he presents the BTC bill on the appointed date.

Since El Salvador made its announcement at the Miami BTC Conference 2021 about how they’ve decided to make BTC a legal tender, many other countries have followed suit and hinted that they might be doing something similar. Just to name but a few, the other South American nations that immediately followed include the likes of Paraguay and Panama. Over the last 30 days or so, Paraguay has been working round the clock to come with a proper Bitcoin bill.

The impact of El Salvador’s decision

Carlos Helman drew his inspiration from Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s head of state, and he believes that the integration of cryptocurrency will help put the country at the top spot within the global crypto industry. True to the tweet the deputy president made a month ago, he followed up with another post on tweeter just about 21 days later confirming that the Bitcoin proposal he’s pushing for will be legislated in July.

In El Salvador, businesses will now be able to accept both the USD and BTC as legal tender. This is a move heavily criticized by Steve Hanke, a John Hopkins University professor, and Economist. He claims that criminal elements will end up using cryptocurrency to push the USD out of the Latin American country, resulting in an economic crash.

It has now come the time for the bill to meet Congress. If the Bitcoin bill passes, BTC will eventually become a legal tender in the country. This will make Paraguay the second country on planet Earth to recognize BTC as legal tender. Additionally, Mr. Herman has hinted that there may be a lot more news that might come with Bitcoin’s tenderization. The cryptocurrency community is, no doubt, eagerly waiting to both see and hear from the government later this month.

A Lawmaker in Argentina Wants Employs to be Able to Get Their Salaries in Bitcoin

By
Adam Barry
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0

Argentine National Congress lower house member, Jose-Luis Ramon, has proposed legislation that’d allow employees to get the whole or part of their pay in Bitcoins and certain other cryptocurrencies. Ramon said that this proposed bill would apply to those working on an ‘exporter of services’ tag in a tweet sent out on Tuesday. However, it’ll also apply to the people who need their employer for income, of which he further claimed that the employers themselves are the ones responsible of handling all the transaction fees. 

Ramon further stated that the idea is to help strengthen a worker’s autonomy as well as help them retain their remuneration’s purchasing power. The initiative is based on the need to encourage greater governance and autonomy of wages. With the crypto option, exporters won’t have to convert their money into Argentinian pesos. 

The government of Argentina compelled exporters of service to change their income to Argentine pesos from dollars via the 2019 exchange channel. But, this proposed crypto bill would mean that people working overseas won’t necessarily have to convert their pay to Argentine pesos once they get back home. This is a good thing, considering the Argentine peso is hit by around a 50% inflation every year.

In May, Argentina’s inflation was around 3.3%, which then went up to 21.5% for the year. Year-on-year inflations come to around 48.8%. In 18 months, the peso devalued from $0.02 – $0.006. This is one of the reasons why this proposed bill makes so much sense to Ramon.

A platform that allows for the conversion of fiat into cryptocurrency, Bitwage, had a monthly transaction growth of 300%, meaning many Argentines were looking to convert what they had earned into Bitcoin. 

Argentina not alone

Argentina is one of the top crypto exchange regions in Latin America. With that said, they aren’t the first country to come up with such a law. In February this year, Miami also came up with similar legislation allowing providing municipal workers the chance to get a part of their full pay in Bitcoins.

Santander UK is Another Bank That Blocks Binance Payments

By
Adam Barry
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0

The bank used Twitter to notify its clients that it won’t be allowing payments to Binance anymore because of cryptocurrency fraud. According to Santander UK, the company’s top priority is keeping its customers safe, and this is why they’ve decided to block Binance payments following the warning by the FCA to consumers. The company added that it noticed more UK customers were being defrauded in the crypto space.

Banks in the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly hostile toward cryptocurrencies, and Santander UK is the second huge bank to block Binance transfers. BTC PEERS reports that Barclays (NYSE: BCS) recently placed bans on credit and debit card transfers to Binance.

In a warning report they released, the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) stated that Binance Markets Limited isn’t currently allowed to undertake or participate in regulated activities without getting prior FCA because of the FCA requirements consent.

Aside from the United Kingdom, Binance Markets Limited is also battling crackdowns from regulators all across the globe, including the Cayman Islands, Thailand, Japan, and the United States. In addition, China just recently added it to its blacklisting sites list. This means that residents won’t be able to use this exchange service if they don’t have a VPN.

What is Binance?

Binance Markets Limited is a top crypto exchange platform that started in Hong Kong and was founded in 2017. It mainly focuses on altcoin trading. This financial exchange service allows you to trade in over 500 virtual coins and cryptocurrencies in crypto-to-crypto trading. Some of the cryptocurrencies allowed on the platform include Dogecoin (DOGE), Litecoin (LTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), and its very own Binance Coin (BNB).

In 2018, the headquarters were moved to Malta, EU. The company did this due to the strict restrictions and regulations imposed by the Chinese government on cryptocurrency exchange businesses. As a result, this exchange service also has some of the lowest transaction fees out there.

Robinhood’s Crypto Division Fined $10 Million For violating Cybersecurity & AML

By
admin
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0

For allegedly disobeying state rules on anti-money laundering (AML) & cybersecurity, Robinhood’s cryptocurrency arm bags a fine of over $10 million. Last week, the company made the disclosure. In the July 1 filing, the firm stated that it was impeached of disparities in its system.

The Action

In the past, Robinhood has also been fined. In June, the firm was fined a whopping $70 million fine by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Robinhood is not the only firm that is facing scrutiny. Over the past few months, prominent firms have come under the scanner that includes Binance.

The Past

In 2020, according to some reports, accounts of users of Robinhood were compromised. Ensuring that its users do not face any further cyber-attacks, the company has already notified its users that its base is prone to attacks. In addition, the company is launching the Initial Public Offering (IPO) that setbacks have stalled.

Just before the lockdown, Robinhood witnessed an outage when the US stock market raised over $1.1 trillion just. The outage resulted in a fine of $57m fine and a $12.6m reimbursement by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The fine against the investment & trading platform is the largest ever ordered by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and indicates the seriousness & scope of the violations.

The Reply

Jessica Hopper, executive vice president & head of the department of enforcement for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, said that businesses must comply with rules & regulations of the brokerage industry. He also said that rules are crafted to safeguard the integrity of the market and protect the investors.

The Trading

Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the American financial services company Robinhood offers commission-free trades of exchange-traded funds & stocks through a mobile app. The app was launched in March 2015. In 2018, the company entered the cryptocurrency market and announced a waitlist for commission-free trading.

In 6 Months, Visa (NYSE: V) Customers Spend $1billion on Crypto-Related Activities

By
Adam Barry
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0

On Wednesday, Visa Inc (NYSE: V) revealed that in 2021, over $1billion worth of cryptocurrency spending activity was performed by its consumers. With over $1 billion spent on crypto-linked Visa cards in 2021, Visa’s global network is getting recognized by crypto fans. 

Vasant Prabhu, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Visa, said that usage of cards is surging, and it becomes more accessible for people to carry their financial transactions through a visa card. He also said that they join hands with over 50 leading crypto platforms to carry out card services. As a result, the company is aiming to reach 70 million merchants worldwide.

Crypto Clampdowns

Partnership agreements of Visa comply with rules and regulations of various countries. For instance, the recent crypto clampdowns taken by China are also taken under confederation while framing the agreement. Furthermore, in March, Visa announced that it would use cryptocurrencies to settle transactions on its payment network.

Facilitating the Cryptocurrency Community

By leveraging the USDC stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain, Visa will directly Pegg value Ethereum to the US dollar. Thanks to that, Visa will be the first payment network to use a stablecoin as a settlement currency. Furthermore, by empowering stablecoin, Visa also facilitates the cryptocurrency community in accepting traditional financial institutions. In the past, Visa used to only rely on fiat currencies for settlements.

The Fintech Fast Track Program

In its Fintech Fast Track Program, Visa is working with major cryptocurrency-related platforms that include Blockfi, Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ: COIN), CIRCOR International, Inc (NYSE: CIR), & FTX. The Fintech Fast Track Program aims to make cryptocurrency more practical for business & consumer spending. Cuy Sheffield, head of Visa for the cryptocurrency, said that over $1 billion had been spent on crypto-linked Visa cards in 2021.

Although crypto platforms are facing regulatory pressures, they continue to surge their publicity. The platforms are working with leading banks globally, including Standard Chartered, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS), Invesco DB Silver Fund, and many more.  

Strike Offer ‘no fee’ Bitcoin trading, aiming coinbase and square

By
Adam Barry
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0

Strike: Bitcoin & Lightning payments platform announced that they will provide U.S. customers to buy and sell Bitcoin with nearly no trading fees from July 1. 

Jack Mallers’ Announcement

In that announcement, Strike founder and CEO Jack Mallers launched a salvo at the U.S. leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, stating that Strike will set out to be the ‘cheapest and easiest place in the world to acquire BTC.’ 

Moreover, this step puts Strike in competition with Jack Dorsey’s Square and with Paypal, which offers crypto assets within the platform to U.S customers in November 2020. In addition, this announcement stated that the firm launched the ‘Bitcoin Tab’ enabling the way to buy Bitcoin on Strike with ‘no fee.’ 

The Chicago-based payments firm announced that it would charge a maximum ‘execution cost’ of around 0.3% for brokering BTC trades, aiming to reduce that to below 0.1% over the upcoming months as volume grows. 

Also, Robinhood, a popular trading platform, offers commission-free crypto trading in applicable states. Moreover, above 6 million new customers bought crypto on the platform within the first two months of 2021. 

Jack Mallers aimed directly at Coinbase with the move, indicating trading fees as ‘asinine.’ Mallers pointed out that Coinbase made $1.8 billion in revenue at the beginning of 2021, with $771 million in profit, 94% of which coming from fees like 3%. 

Moreover, he was highly interested in the exchange’s free giveaways, which award users $2 worth of altcoins for watching videos. Finally, mailers stated that don’t make mistakes when you buy Bitcoin on Coinbase, and you are supporting shitcoins. 

Also, there was a dig at Paypal, which he said has also recently hiked fees across the board and now charges sellers 3.49% + 0.49 to process crypto transactions. 

Mallers also added that the plan to operate prices in the market as close to nothing as possible will keep Bitcoin’s ethos. 

Strike’s Partnership 

According to the source by Cointelegraph, Strike entered into a partnership with the El Salvador government to help with its Bitcoin adoption. 

Blockware Raised $25 Million To Treble The Hash Rate

By
Adam Barry
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0

Last Thursday, Blockware announced that they raised over $25 million from an oversubscribed fundraise round. And they are planning to use this in the bitcoin mining operations in their Kentucky facility.

New Mining Rigs

This fund will also help them build 8,000 mining rigs in the Paducah campus, where they recently bought 5 acres. Blockware already established the required rigs, even 6000 rigs more than necessary. So they put these in resale for other mining operations to purchase. Their previous round fund helped them buy 14,000 rigs.

A Bigger Goal

Blockware is one of the fast-growing mining companies in the world. They are planning to increase their global hash rate three times bigger in a year. Their current rate is 0.3 exahashes per second which they want to increase to 1 quintillion hashes per second.

As for the hashes, only a 10% hash rate is produced in the US for the whole world. Blockware is targeting that and planning to increase it. If they provide low host rates, it will help Blockware for a better distribution of Bitcoin worldwide. And this will make the hash rate in the USA globally competitive. 

Blockware plans to reach the world level hash capacity excessing to 1 exahash right in the middle of 2022. This huge goal depends on the profit from Bitcoin mining, other mining activities, and Investors’ funding.

Investor’s Stance

To the company’s confidence, investors are ready to invest more than what the company needs. This we can understand from the last two rounds, which were oversubscribed. Investors believe in Blockware’s Operations. 

The company raised $7 million in funds in the previous round, adding on to the $25 million raised in the latter round. As a result, they now have $35 million in hand for the equity placements.

Secret Of Success

Blockware began its operations in Kentucky, and they claim to earn the trust of the local authorities has been their key to success. In addition, Kentucky’s industry energy rates are low, which is favorable for an industry with bottom lines. 

Last week after Beijing’s mining operations cracked down, Crypto and Bitcoin miners fled from China. Now Crypto Head of a Blockchain research firm calls the United States the most Crypto-friendly country globally. 

AAVE and its place as the dominant DeFi protocol

By
Adam Barry
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0

AAVE is the dominant DeFi lending protocol with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $17 billion in tokens. 

After the 2020 summer of DeFi, the Total Value Locked of DeFi projects boosted from a mere $1 billion to $88 billion. The present value is $54 billion, with the additional problem of protocols challenging market dominant.

AAVE was the dominant non-custodial liquidity procedure with a lending significance locked of $10 billion. In addition, AAVE was on the point of improving its market-leading through dual-chain integrations.

The development of DeFi into their plot has resulted in centralized institutions allowing access for tokens having members interact with their networks. Thus, AAVE’s significance as the dominant open-source lending strategy appropriates itself to the main market. 

Moreover, a recent Twitter survey by Revolut featured 61.6% of the responders who speculated AAVE would be accessible in apps trading platforms. Also, Blockchain, digital wallet, and trading outlet included AAVE in their firm, enabling users to benefit from 8%API interest on their amount deposits. 

Besides, SwissSygnum Bank delivers institutional-grade investors primary admission to decentralized applications. AAVE, Uniswap,  1inch are among the tokens operating under the DeFi. Moreover, Stani Kulechov, AAVE’s CEO, noted that institutional allegiance changes bring it easier for consumers to onboard the digital property ecosystem. 

AAVE redirects from their native Ethereum platform by combining with Polygon to make DeFi more easily accessible to users by decreasing transaction costs. AAVE’s Marc Zeller stated that $20-$30 fees for deposits are not okay for regular consumers. Besides, layer two fees, which amount to $5, are unsustainable. 

The DeFi summer of 2020 was both beneficial and problematic for AAVE and other DeFi platforms. Combining with Polygon made DeFi interactions more cost-efficient, as it aided in developing the ecosystem’s value. 

Moreover, RabbitHole acquired a $50,000 grant from the AAVE DAO to stimulate users to make deposits on the Polygon network. Additionally, the incentive offers participants rewards valuing $40,000, and an NFT has the scope of developing ecosystem adoption. As argued by Mark Cuban, DeFi aims to increase profitability for both developers as well as users.

US State Department Impulses El Salvador to be ‘responsible’ about Bitcoin Adoption

By
Adam Barry
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0

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele aims to introduce legislation that will make it the world’s first sovereign nation to adopt bitcoin as legal. 

Moreover, Bukele stated that the country combines with digital wallet company, Strike, to build modern financial infrastructure using bitcoin technology. 

In a video broadcast to Bitcoin 2021, Miami’s multi-day conference is billed as the biggest bitcoin event in history.

Victoria Nuland, the US Department of State’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, said El Salvador should make certain Bitcoin is well regulated under its new legal framework. 

On Wednesday, meeting with President Nayib Bukele, Nuland stated the United States took a hard look at Bitcoin following the ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline and suggested El Salvador take the same approach. The US passed a law in June making Bitcoin legal, which will affect September 7. 

Moreover, Nuland said that he suggested that whatever Salvador chooses to do regarding Bitcoin, he suggested that it is well regulated and transparent. It is well responsible and protects you against malign actors. Nuland’s conference with the President and Minister of Foreign Affairs was organized as a portion of a meeting with El Salvador, Paraguay, and Panama to discuss migration, regional goals, and democracy at the end of June. 

But it seems crypto may have been part of the intended schedule. U.S administrators, along with the President, made civil statements conveying ransomware assaults on significant infrastructure after the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack affected gas hoarding and deficits in specific areas of the US. 

The conversation on Bitcoin between El Salvador officials and the US, as the International Monetary Fund, speaks with legislators in the Central American country about a loan to benefit the local economy. 

The US State Department supports the financial agreement. However, the IMF has conveyed interest in the country’s adaptation of Bitcoin, saying the move puts forward a number of macroeconomic, legal, and financial issues that require very careful analysis. 

Crypto Exchanges Facing Issues With Banks In India

By
Adam Barry
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0

CryptoCurrency came into existence in 2010 in India. Exchanges were usually sideways until demonetization twisted the coin. Then, many users started to invest. Crypto Exchanges in India follow strict regulations. Yet, they cannot easily exchange with banking services as there is only limited access. As a result, banks are hesitating to have a partnership with a cryptocurrency exchange.

NPCI Decision

NPCI (National Payment Corporation Of India) left the decision to individual banks whether to accept crypto transactions or not. However, recently another news popped up saying the state officers are not going to ban Bitcoin; instead, they are planning to classify it as another asset class.

Despite these positive outcomes for cryptocurrency, finance institutions are reluctant to work with these trading platforms. Crypto Exchange is facing a hard time in opening accounts with these people. It seems the institution took the word of the Reserve Bank quite seriously. The RBI asked them to stay away from the crypto exchange. This proves the institutions’ fear; they are hesitating it might end up endangering them.

Commercial Banks Stand 

Nation Apex banks announced their stand in the cryptocurrency issue. RBI clearly stated there will not be any actions on banks joining hands with cryptos. Still, it did no good to the relationship between banks and crypto. This hesitating nature of banks led the crypto exchanges to find any other alternative payment givers. This move is considered to be a finger-cross moment for crypto offering platforms.

An Alternative Solution?

More than 15 million people invest in Cryptos; these types of providers cannot exchange with all of them. For example, an Airplay based in Mumbai giving out exchanges for WazirX and Coinswitch. The providers will soon run out of payments and will be insufficient.

To be on the safer side, sites like WazirX restrict the exchanges on certain days, leaving access only to the distributed exchanges. However, other cryptocurrency platforms are looking over to banks for a positive reply hoping for manual settlements. 

Final Words

However, all being said, waiting for manual settlements or moving to alternative payment options has its danger. Because these confusions will lead the person who is willing to invest in crypto to fraudsters, says investors.

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