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South Korean Crypto Exchange, Upbit Forays Into Thai Market As Country’s Top Exchange remains Suspended

By
Adam Barry
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0

Cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has entered the Thailand Market, even as the country’s leading exchange, Bitkub remains suspended by regulators.

Upbit enters the Thai market through a JV

The South Korean-based exchange is foraying into the Thai market through a joint venture announced on January 20, 2021, with a group of billionaires. The exchange enters the market following the suspension of the leading Thai crypto exchange, Bitkub’s suspension on Monday. Bitkub had reported around 97% market share before its suspension.

CP Group heir and Fortune Chatchaval Jiaravanon magazine owner owns Upbit Thailand together with other high profile billionaires Preecha Praipattaraku and Somphote Ahuna. CP Group is a large conglomerate in the country and controls most of the country’s food supply. He has operations in other sectors from COVID-19 vaccines to telecommunications to government infrastructure projects and now crypto.

Upbit Thailand’s board member, Praipattaraku said that the company had applied for a cryptocurrency exchange to the Thai SEC several months ago. He said that it was just a coincidence that they are receiving the license from the SEC following Bitkub’s suspension.

 It is important to note that since the closure of BX Thailand in 2019, BitKub has been the top exchange in the country. On Monday, regulators ordered the exchange to suspend its services and address issues concerning several outages in recent times when experiencing high demand.

Upbit looking to leverage opportunities in Thailand

South Korean-headquartered Upbit also has operations in Indonesia and Singapore. They will back the Thai branch with local money and so far the exchange has attracted the interest of a group of capitalists according to Satang exchange executive Poramin Insom.

Insom said that investors in the crypto market don’t have loyalty to a single market. They often open accounts with every market and earn profits from arbitrage between markets. He said that they are not aria of competition in the Thai market such as other foreign players like Coinbase and Binance that are yet to enter the Thai market.

Over the week smaller exchanges such as Kulap and Zibmex experienced an influx of crypto enthusiasts.

Brazil’s Top Bitcoin Exchange, Mercado Bitpocin Raises $38 Million To Scale Operations In Latin America

By
Adam Barry
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0

Brazil’s leading Bitcoin exchange, Mercado Bitcoin is expanding across Latin America and plans to enter the Chilean, Argentinian, and Mexican markets. The exchange’s CEO Reinaldo Rabelo said that they will expand into these markets first because of the regulatory culture in those countries that is similar to that of Brazil.

Mercado Bitcoin raises $38 million for expansion in Latin America

The announcement comes after the exchange announced that it had raised almost $38 million through an investment round. Private equity firm GP Investimentos and startup VC Parallax Ventures led the funding round with proceeds expected to help the exchange in scaling across Latin America. The exchange will also invest some of the proceeds in its Bitrust accredited custodian offering for big institutional investors as well as its digital wallet, Meubank.

In the past two years, the exchange has almost doubled its users to almost 2.2 million accounts. Last year the exchange reported $1.2 billion in crypto transactions on the platform and since the beginning of this year, trading volume has been exceptional and they are targeting 3 million user accounts by year-end and grow their team from 200 to 300 this year.

Therefore, the expansion across Latin America will help the company hit this milestone. For instance, Mexico is the fourth largest country in terms of peer-to-peer (P2P) BTC trading volume while Chile and Argentina rank fifth and seventh respectively. Notably, the strong P2P trade volume is an indication that there is strong unmet demand from local traders by centralized exchanges.

Mercado Bitcoin wants to be among the top five exchanges globally

After the consolidation of its ecosystem, Mercado Bitcoin will be part of the leading global exchanges, Rabelo said that they plan to develop a cryptocurrency ecosystem in Brazil and also create a developed market like that of the US. He explained that to achieve this they have to push to among the top five leading digital exchanges globally. Rabelo said that the long-term aim of the exchange is creating new infrastructure for the financial market based on crypto assets, smart contracts, and blockchain.

Global Chips Shortage Impacting Bitcoin Mining In China As Rig Prices Soar

By
Adam Barry
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0

The current global chip shortage is suppressing the production of Bitcoin mining machines in China. This has a result sent computer equipment prices soaring as the cryptocurrency surge drives demand.

Bitcoin miners consolidating the market to benefit from current high prices

Unfortunately, the scramble has priced out smaller bitcoin miners and accelerated consolidation in the industry which could benefit deep-pocketed miners outside China. Bitcoin users and traders watch BTC mining closely because the amount of BTC mines and distributed into the market impacts supply and BTC price. At the end of last week, BTC was trading at 32% from the record highs it reached two weeks ago but it is still 700% up from March 2020, lows of $3,850.

Alex Ao, Innosilicon’s VP said that there is a shortage of chips to support mining rigs production. It is important to note that BTC miners use powerful and specifically designed computer equipment or rigs in the verification of BTC transactions in a process that creates newly minted bitcoins. Ao said that Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co which are the top mining rigs chip producers are prioritizing supplies to other sectors such as consumer electronics where chip demand seems to be more stable.

The chip shortage globally has affected production in various sectors including laptops, mobile phones, and automobiles. It is important to note that the profitability of mining depends on BTC’s price, rig efficiency, the computing power required to mine BTC, and the cost of electricity for powering the rig.

Demand for rigs surging

Crypto asset manager and Miner GMR Co-founder Gordon Chen said that there is a surge in demand for rigs due to the soaring BTC prices. He explained that just like when gold prices increase there is a need for more shovels and that is the case with BTC.

Babel Finance, Financial services managing director, Lei Tong said that major BTC miners are currently looking for rigs and are ready to pay high prices even for second-hand machines. Most importantly purchase volumes have been high from North America this suppressing supply in China.

VanEck Files For Cryptocurrency ETF Tracking Performance Of Cryptocurrency Companies

By
Adam Barry
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0

American investment management firm, VanEck is planning to launch a digital assets-related exchange-traded fund (ETF) to the performance of leading crypto firms.

VanEck files for new Digital Assets ETF with the SEC

The company filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on January 21, 2021, its new ETF, Digital Assets ETF. The ETF will hold equity in companies generating revenue from crypto services. It will track the performance and price of the Global Digital Assets Equity Index operated by its MV Index Solutions Subsidiary. Documents indicate that the new Digital Assets ETF will invest around 80% of its total assets in securities comprising the Fund’s benchmark index. It is important to note that the index tracks the performance of the digital assets segment.

The investment firms indicated that digital assets firms refer to companies operating digital asset exchanges, mining operations, payment gateways, equipment, software, and tech to the digital assets sector. To be eligible for consideration in the index, a firm has to generate around 50% of its revenue through digital assets projects or projects with the potential of generating such revenues. VanEck added that firms that generate less than 50% of their revenues from the global digital assets industry including online money transfer and semiconductor firms will be part of the Index to get a minimum component number. The ETF targets retail investors instead of targeting a small number of accredited investors.

VanEck had tried to launch a digital asset ETF before

This is not the first time the ETF provider and asset manager has launched an ETF. In December last year, VanEck filed with the SEC for a bitcoin ETF in the US. This came after the company had launched a BTC exchange-traded note called “VanEck Vector Bitcoin ETN” on Deutsche Boerse Xetra after several failed tries. The latest filing follows the two earlier actions.

Notably, VanEck currently faces a lawsuit from former partner and blockchain firm, SolidX regarding the BTC ETF for purported plagiarism. SolidX accuses VanEck of a contract breach after it cut its relationship with the company and allegedly leveraged its tech.

Bit Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BTBT) Faces A Lawsuit For Misleading The Investors By Exaggerating Its Bitcoin Mining Operations

By
Adam Barry
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0

Investors sued Bit Digital Inc (NASDAQ:BTBT) for allegedly exaggerating its Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations in China.

Anthony Pauwels files a lawsuit

Plaintiff Anthony Pauwels filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the NASDAQ traded company – Bit Digital in the Southern District of New York court. According to the lawsuit, the company made false claims and misled the investors about its Bitcoin mining operations and caused a significant financial loss to them.

Wrong claims of bitcoin mining

According to an investigative report revealed by J Capital Research, Bit Digital provided wrong information about its Bitcoin mining operations. On its website, the company claims to have more than 40,000 mining rigs in operation. It projected 2,253 petahashes/second hash rate to mine more than 1,500 Bitcoin since the beginning of last year.

J Capital’s investigative report says no one in Chinese provinces knows about the bitcoin mining operations of Bit Digital. After revealing its investigative report, the stock price of Bit Digital declined by almost 25%. In early January 2021, it reached a peak of $29.27. The stock now trades at $16 (down 44%). 

Responds to the J Capital Report

Bit Digital responded to the investigative report of J Capital and said it submitted all the required documentation to the SEC. The company said it is always committed to issuing an update to regulators and its investors with exact details.

According to the information of the lawsuit, Erke Huang, CFO, and Min Hu, CEO of Bit Digital dictate the contents in all the documents of the business.

Pauwels compensation for the court expenses, fees, damages, and amount for the 1,000 units he purchased at $21.81/unit on December 20, 2020. He also sought an inquiry by the jury to ascertain the facts. However, no legal response is received from the management of Bit Digital into the allegations raised in the investigative report.

Bitcoin declines to $31,534

Bitcoin retreated from its high by 10% to reach $31,534 on January 21, 2021, after touching a record high of $42,000 on January 8, 2021. It is on the backdrop of traders’ fear that the US may tighten regulations on Bitcoin.

Joe Biden’s pick to lead the US Treasury, Janet Yellen on Tuesday said during a senate hearing that cryptocurrencies may be used for illegal activities. Janet said already several people used cryptocurrencies for illicit financing. It is time to devise ways to regulate the use of cryptocurrencies and prevent money laundering through this channel.

Bitcoin scaled new highs since October 2020 after PayPal, the US-based online payments company, allowed its clients to use this cryptocurrency. For the first time, Bitcoin reached a high of $30,000 on January 2, 2021, and quickly scaled to new highs because many investors considered optimism about its inflation hedging qualities.

Coinbase Partnering With CoinTracker To Help Users File Tax Reports On Crypto Earnings

By
Adam Barry
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0

Coinbase has partnered with CoinTracker, a portfolio tracking, and tax calculating platform, to make the process of declaring their crypto taxes. US citizens have just three months to declare their crypto losses and gains to the IRS. 

Coinbase partners with CoinTracker 

CoinTracker will now be available to Coinbase customers to prepare their tax returns for crypto trades. Equally following the integration, Coinbase Ventures has also invested in CoinTracker. CoinTraker is a committed platform that is leading the way in the cryptocurrency tax compliance sector, which wants to build on its over 125,000 users.

This year, the IRS will ask US citizens about crypto transactions on the first page of Form 1040. As a result, users and tax professionals may need the help of cryptocurrency tax software in calculating loss/gain from the crypto transaction. Thanks to this partnership, Coinbase customers will now use CoinTracker when calculating their losses/gains. The process is simple and CoinTracker will calculate and fill out some forms such as Schedule D and Form 8949 declaring capital losses, gains, as well as assets on income returns. Most importantly individual accountants can use it or as a software program for filing tax such as TurboTax. 

CoinTracker integrated to Coinbase tax page 

Chandan Lodha, the co-founder of CoinTracker indicated that the partnership will permit “one-click integration” from the taxes page on Coinbase. Therefore this will allow users to easily calculate cryptocurrency losses and gains on the platform. 

In November, IRS indicated that it will take a strong position against Coinbase users failing to file tax reports on crypto. Although some users believe it is hard for the government to track crypto transactions, profits, and sales, omitting/lying about such information is taken as tax fraud in the US and could lead to fines, audit, or incarceration. Coinbase announced last month that it will be issuing 1099-MISC forms as part of the obligation for users to declare crypto income. This will help the exchange to provide information to the IRS for users that received over $600 in payments last year. 

China Accelerates Development Of Its Digital Yuan With More Tests Expected This Year

By
Adam Barry
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0

Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has not slowed down on its efforts to become the first country to issue a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Its CBDC has gained momentum with pilots already underway. 

Piloting digital Yuan in Shenzhen

China is breaking ground in the Shenzhen region with its CBDC after residents received around $31 million worth of digital Yuan through a lottery. The over 100,000 Shenzhen residents can now convert digital Yuan into cash at ATMs on a pilot basis.

On the other hand, the Postal Savings Bank of China has created physical wallet cards where residents can store their digital Yuan. This will be useful for the elderly who don’t prefer using the electronic currency. Also, the government seems keen to cover all eventualities and recently it enlisted the services of Alipay in the development of digital Yuan systems in Shanghai. 

China has accelerated the pace of development of its digital Yuan over the past year. Queensland University of Technology’s business, technology, and strategy professor Kevin Desouza said that the acceleration of the development means China wants to maintain a competitive edge in the digital economy. Considering the nature of Chinese markets and governance, the determination to have a “first mover” advantage in the development of CBDC, it is likely that the country will triple down the effort going forward. 

China bringing CBDC closer to reality 

Cornell University’s economics professor and senior fellow at Brookings Institution, Esward Prasad said that the country has made considerate steps in creating and refining the conceptual frameworks and design for the digital Yuan. Eswar said that China is bringing the change to digital versions of central bank money closer to reality. 

The digital Yuan will be an M0 currency once it launches and will circulate just like banknotes and coins. The People’s Bank of China conducted pilots in four regions of Suzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, and Xiong’an, including the Winter Olympics area in 2020. More tests will follow this year in Hainan, Shanghai, Dalian, Xi’an, Changsha, and Qingdao. Most importantly the digital Yuan will not require an internet connection. 

Ripple Partners With Bangladesh and Malaysia Money Remittance Companies to Facilitate wallet-to-wallet Transfers

By
Adam Barry
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0

Ripple has signed a partnership deal with Malaysian money remittance company, Mobile Money and Bangladesh’s biggest mobile financial services company, bKash to facilitate cross border transactions. According to an announcement the payment services will leverage RippleNet to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions between the countries. 

RipleNet to facilitate wallet-to-wallet transfers 

A press release indicated that Mobile Money will leverage RippleNet in connecting to bKash to serve over 45 million users. Most importantly, this partnership will create a corridor between Bangladesh and Malaysia to allow efficient wallet-to-wallet transfers. Mobile Money and bKash will get full access to all RippleNet features and local banking partner Mutual Trust Bank (MTB) will provide remittance settlement under the confines of Bangladesh Bank.

bKash CEO, Kamal Quadir indicated that the partnership will contribute to the national economy by facilitating inward foreign transfers through legal channels. Kamal added that the company is constantly innovating to offer customers simple solutions. He said that bKash is delighted to work with Ripple in partnership with Mutual trust Bank of Bangladesh to offer fast, cost-effective, reliable, and transparent remittance experiences to over 10 million non-resident Bangladesh citizens across the globe. 

bKash has over 45 million users 

Despite Mobile Money representing only a small fraction of mobile payments in Malaysia, bKash boasts an active user base of around 45 million. Currently, the company accounts for most of the country’s remittance flows, which is the third-largest in South Asia. In 2020, remittances in Bangladesh reached $18.2 billion, which is an all-time high. Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Mutual Bank’s CEO said that most of the remittances come from the Middle East, Malaysia, and the US. 

Lee Eng Sia, the founder of Mobile Money said that the current pandemic has created the need for strong remittance solutions. This motivated the need for the company to collaborate with Ripple to offer digital solutions to Bangladeshis. 

Interestingly the companies don’t seem to be bothered with the legal troubles Ripple is facing in the US. The SEC is suing the blockchain company for violation of federal securities by issuing XRP tokens to retail customers. 

Cardano Co-founder, Charles Hoskinson Expects DeFi Adoption To Take Off In Africa In Three Years

By
Adam Barry
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0

Cardano co-founder Charles Hoskinson has predicted that a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) revolution in the developing world could take place in the next three years adding 100 million users to the sector.

Hoskinson expects DeFi users to grow due to adoption in Africa 

Hoskinson indicated that over the next three years, DeFi projects will see an influx of users who will conduct peer-to-peer loans, peer-to-peer payments, and peer-to-peer insurance. As a result, Cardano is planning to take the lead in the space through partnerships in Africa. He said that people in developing countries are more interested in DeFi projects, unlike New York people. Hoskinson said, that there is a lack of a substantial customer base in the West for DeFi products due to the cumbersome regulatory environment. 

Interestingly in developing countries, there is a more flexible regulatory framework permitting cryptocurrency innovation. He added that in the countries there is no JPMorgan Chase or a controlling and dominating legacy financial system. Hoskinson said that DeFi will help in creating liquidity in these countries which will enable residents to accumulate and protect wealth. The Cardano co-founder said that they created it for these kinds of scenarios. 

Africa holds the potential of growing DeFi

Africa is the second most populated continent in the world, and Hoskinson thinks that it holds the future for DeFi development. The optimism in Africa is based on the fact that physical capital, human capital, and economics seem to be on the right trajectory. As a result, Africa could be a promising economic environment in the next decade. 

Besides Hoskinson, several other individuals believe that decentralized finance adoption will take off in Africa. In the past, there have also been assertions that the Africa Continent will be the place where cryptocurrency adoption takes off. This will equally have a ripple effect on the growth of DeFi protocols as well.

Unbanked users are likely to benefit most from DeFi development, according to Patrick Rawson. Hoskinson holds that there are successful relationships to build partnerships to grow the DeFi sector.

Maps.Me Raises $50 Million To Embed Decentralized Finance Protocols On Its Platform

By
Adam Barry
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0

Offline travel and mapping application Maps.Me which boasts over 140 million users globally has raised $50 million to integrate decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols onto its platform. The app wants to bring DeFi to the mainstream app and integrate a token economy with its travel services.

New Maps.Me 2.0 to support several features

Sam Bankman-Fried of Alameda Research led the Maps.me 2.0 funding round, which featured cryptocurrency venture heavyweights Genesis Capital and CMS Holdings. According to a press release from the company, Maps.Me 2.0 will be an app supporting a range of features that include mapping services, hotel bookings, and travel guides. Equally, it will come with a multi-currency wallet that offers 8% in annual yields and also allow transfer without any hidden yields with the option of cashback on transactions.

Maps.Me 2.0 co-founder Alex Grebnev said that users can now “generate yield on savings through secure direct lending to borrowers. Grebeneve also added that they are planning to include about to trade a variety of assets not limited by transaction size or geographical boundary. According to the company, the new app will help tackle the issue of high foreign exchange fees and commissions that the third party booking agents charges while at the same time broadening access to finance.

Maps.Me bringing DeFi mainstream

Maps.Me will be the first “mainstream app” embracing DeFi for its 140 million users after almost eight years since its launch. Last year it had around 60 million active users. Bankman-Fried said that embedding and democratization of access to yield-earning finance to users through the Maps.Me app shows promise of propelling DeFi for mainstream adoption and deliver the ground-breaking tech to the masses.

According to the company release, the company is planning to break down financial silos set through net worth and nationality by embedding DeFi. Grebeneve said that the industry is looking for a catalyst that will boost the mainstream adoption of DeFi protocols. He added that they are delighted to make it possible by leveraging the active user base of Maps.Me to bootstrap the retail community to a new innovative DeFi platform.

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