The blockchain-based data platform – Chainalysis – estimated that the total cryptocurrency value laundered in 2021 was $8.6 billion – 30% more than 2020. According to the company, though, such an increase is somewhat expected given the considerable growth of the asset class in the past year.
Crypto Money-Laundering Is on The Rise
In its most recent report, Chainalysis informed that cybercriminals dealing with cryptocurrencies share one common goal: move their “ill-gotten funds to a service where they can be kept safe from the authorities and eventually converted to cash.”
In line with the industry’s rapid expansion in 2021, illegal operations involving bitcoin and the altcoins have also surged, the company noted. While in 2020, bad actors laundered $6.6 billion worth of digital assets, the number increased to $8.6 billion in 2021.
Money-laundering chart, Source: Chainalysis
Nearly 17% of the $8.6 billion were transferred to Decentralized Finance applications, up from 2% in 2020. The report added that mining pools, high-risk exchanges, and mixers also saw significant growth in value received from illegal addresses.
Chainalysis explained that these numbers account only for funds derived from “cryptocurrency-native crime,” including darknet market sales or ransomware attacks.
ADVERTISEMENT
“It’s more difficult to measure how much fiat currency derived from off-line crime – traditional drug trafficking, for example – is converted into cryptocurrency to be laundered. However, we know anecdotally this is happening,” the company concluded.
Crypto-Based Crimes in 2021
Theft and scams remained the main type of cryptocurrency crimes in the past year. Wallets associated with theft sent nearly half of their stolen funds to DeFi applications – more than $750 million worth of digital assets in total.
This might be related to the fact that more cryptocurrencies were stolen from such protocols than any other type of platforms last year. On the other hand, scammers send most of their funds to addresses at centralized exchanges.
The Darknet market, terrorism financing, and ransomware were among the other leading forms of crimes in 2021. Similar to scammers, criminals operating in those sectors sent the majority of their funds to wallets at centralized trading venues.
It is worth noting that due to regulations like the Travel Rule, digital asset businesses in many nations had to conduct additional compliance checks and reporting to transactions exceeding $1,000 in value. Unsurprisingly, illegal addresses send a disproportionate number of transfers to exchanges just under that $1K threshold.
SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)
Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter POTATO50 code to get 25% off trading fees.
Bitcoin introduces the world to the Cantillon effect 2.0, often known as the Nakamoto effect. Those who live closer to the truth can receive value creation benefits in a Bitcoin world, rather than being rewarded for privilege, status or geography.
The issue of why we need Bitcoin (BTC) is a prevalent one these days, but most people’s responses leave them shaking their heads and declaring it to be either a Ponzi scheme or money for criminals. This conclusion falls short of describing how Bitcoin has the potential to address the systemic inequity and corruption that plague our present monetary system.
Miners contributing to the Bitcoin network’s security are rewarded with new Bitcoin and fees based on how much protection they give, referred to as the Nakamoto effect. In contrast, the Cantillon effect, a long-forgotten classical theory on how the distribution of money impacts individual wealth, is one of the injustices in our current society.
Our modern monetary system, which is built on the generation of money primarily through bank-issued debt with interest, transfers wealth from the middle to the top, resulting in an unstable monetary system and a society in which the “future doesn’t matter.”
Between 1970 and 2010, the International Monetary Fund reported 425 systemic banking, monetary and debt crises, an average of 10 each year. Monopolistic state money is a fragile and unequal system, while countries with many currencies have historically experienced greater stability and equality.
The answer to many of these problems regarding state control of money can be found in cryptocurrencies, a new sort of non-state money. After the Great Financial Crisis of 2007–08, the first and most significant of these, Bitcoin, emerged, with the system going online in January 2009.
This article explains the Nakamoto and Cantillon effects, and whether Bitcoin is the antidote to the Cantillon effect.
Please read our guide: Who is Satoshi Nakamoto: The creator of Bitcoin, to understand more about the founder of the world’s first decentralized cryptocurrency.
Coming every Saturday,Hodler’s Digestwill help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link.
Top Stories This Week
Analysts say Bitcoin’s bounce at $36K means ‘it’s time to start thinking about a bottom’
Bitcoin had a turbulent week, its price dropping as low as $33,300 and surging as high as $38,000 before retracting back to the $36,000 region at the time of writing.
Many analysts have attributed the uninspiring performance of BTC, along with other assets such as stocks, to macro factors such as expectations that the United States Federal Reserve will embark on several interest rate hikes throughout 2022 to tame inflation.
While many people claim the Fed’s actions will put an end to the current bull market, other forward-looking individuals such as Bollinger Bands creator John Bollinger have questioned whether the market bottom is in and if it’s time to accumulate and hodl again.
“It’s time to start thinking about a bottom in cryptos,” Bollinger tweeted. “However, the ability to get outside the lower Bollinger Band repeatedly strongly suggests a retest of some sort will be needed. My plan is wait for a bottom and a bounce, then look for a retest as an entry.”
NFL star’s massive tax bill highlights problems with BTC salaries
Speaking of Bitcoin woes, someone who may be feeling the sting of the current state of the market is NFL star Odell “OBJ” Beckham Jr.
On Nov. 12 last year, OBJ signed a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Rams worth $750,000. A few weeks later, he announced a partnership with Cash App to receive 100% of that yearly salary in BTC.
At the time, Bitcoin was breaking new all-time highs around $69,044 but has since plummeted around 46% to $36,000. Sports business analyst and senior executive producer for The Action Network Darren Rovell said that OBJ’s salary is now worth significantly less than it was when he signed the deal. However, he appears to have used some fuzzy math in coming up with his numbers given that NFL salaries are paid weekly, not upfront.
Fading power? Weak DOGE spike after Elon Musk makes McDonald’s offer
On Tuesday, erratic billionaire, Tesla CEO and space tycoon Elon Musk offered to eat a Happy Meal from McDonald’s live on TV if the global fast-food giant started accepting Dogecoin as an official payment method.
The founder of Tesla, who allegedly obtained that title via intense litigation against the firm’s actual founders many moons ago, has often sent shock waves across crypto markets with a single tweet. However, it appears his influence may finally be waning.
On this occasion, DOGE only spiked a mere 7% to roughly $0.145 after his tweet and has since dropped back to $0.138 at the time of writing. Around 10 hours after his tweet, McDonald’s responded by stating, “Only if Tesla accepts Grimacecoin,” making reference to a fake coin depicting Grimace, a fuzzy purple McDonaldland mascot introduced in the 1970s.
Eth2 is no more after Ethereum Foundation ditches name in rebrand
The Ethereum Foundation revealed that it had removed all references to “Eth1” and “Eth2” this week in favor of calling the original blockchain the “execution layer” and the upgraded proof-of-stake (PoS) chain the “consensus layer.”
Individual features of the network such as the Beacon Chain, “the merge,” and shard chains are now also referred to as “upgrades.”
The foundation cited several reasons for its decision to upgrade its terminology, arguing that the previous terms provided a “broken mental model for new users” and that the rebrand helps with scam prevention, inclusivity and staking clarity. Under the new terminology, the combination of the execution layer (Eth1) and the consensus layer (Eth2) will be labeled as “Ethereum” moving forward.
“One major problem with the Eth2 branding is that it creates a broken mental model for new users of Ethereum. They intuitively think that Eth1 comes first and Eth2 comes after. Or that Eth1 ceases to exist once Eth2 exists,” the foundation wrote, adding that “neither of these is true. By removing Eth2 terminology, we save all future users from navigating this confusing mental model.”
YouTube head of gaming Ryan Wyatt to resign and join Polygon Studios as CEO
YouTube’s head of gaming Ryan Wyatt announced on Tuesday that he will be leaving the firm in February to pursue his passion for blockchain and Web3 development.
Wyatt has lined up a role as CEO of Polygon Studios, the gaming and NFT arm of the layer-2 Ethereum scaling network. Polygon reportedly has plans to support its subsidiary studio with $100 million worth of funding towards Web3 and NFT gaming projects.
“I will be focusing on growing the developer ecosystem through investment, marketing and developer support and bridging the gap between Web 2.0 and 3.0,” Wyatt said. “I’ll be leading the Polygon Studios organization across gaming, entertainment, fashion, news, sports and more.”
Winners and Losers
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at$36,580, Ether (ETH) is at$2,394andXRPis at$0.59. The total market cap is at$1.65trillion,accordingto CoinMarketCap.
The top two altcoin gainers of the week are Son of Babydoge(SOB)at 385383025% and PsyOptions(PSY)at 1632684%.
The top three altcoin losers of the week areMercenary(MGOLD)at -100%, Ruyi(RYB)at -99.99% and MYTEAMFINANCE(MYF)at -99.97%.
For more info on crypto prices, make sure to readCointelegraph’s market analysis.
Most Memorable Quotations
“Overall, the Fed is comfortable with equity and risk markets selling off as it tightens financial conditions and so could reduce inflation. Bond yields have risen after the meetings, equity and crypto markets have given back gains. The Fed continues to add downside risks to risky markets.”
Bilal Hafeez, CEO and head of research at Macro Hive
“Facebook seems to be the antithesis of what actual consumers want their digital futures to look like. […] Mark [Zuckerberg] and his team are not the best custodians of our digital futures.”
Michael Auerbach, founder of Subversive Capital
“We need simplicity of usage. We need easy programmability. We need composability that is natural to the applications. I don’t see the current Ethereum evolutions targeting any of those goals.”
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near Protocol
“Of course, we also have certain competitive advantages here, especially in the so-called mining. I mean the surplus of electricity and the well-trained personnel available in the country.”
Vladimir Putin, President of Russia
“We’re not necessarily out there looking for celebrities, but when they make a blatant or open comment that says ‘Hey, IRS, you should probably come look at me,’ that’s what we do.”
Ryan Korner, IRS criminal investigation agent
“El Salvador just bought 410Bitcoin for only 15 million dollars. Some guys are selling really cheap.”
Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador
“I will eat a Happy Meal on TV if McDonald’s accepts Dogecoin.”
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla
“When it comes to custody, customers want to wake up in the morning knowing their assets are still there. Security in the digital asset space has evolved over the last few years to provide better control and better transparency — that’s why most of us are using multi-party computation today,”
Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks
Prediction of the Week
ETH to hit $20-trillion market cap by 2030: Ark Invest
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest bullishly predicted that Ether could reach a total market cap of around $20 trillion within the next 10 years, suggesting an average ETH price of between $170,000 and $180,000.
The optimistic prediction came via Ark’s “Big Ideas 2022” report, with the firm highlighting the Ethereum network’s rapid rate of adoption and growth in utility and efficiency over the past couple of years as key indicators for future price targets.
According to Ark, smart contracts and decentralized applications on Ethereum are “usurping traditional financial functions at the margin.” The report highlighted that banking and lending, exchanges, brokerages, asset management, insurance and derivatives can all be found on Ethereum-based smart contracts.
FUD of the Week
Qubit Finance suffers $80 million loss following hack
It was reported on Friday that Binance Smart Chain-based protocol Qubit Finance was hacked, resulting in an estimated loss of more than $80 million worth of digital assets.
The addresses linked to the assault stole 206,809 Binance Coin tokens from Qubit’s QBridge protocol. According to blockchain analysis firm PeckShield, the protocol was hacked to create “a huge amount of xETH collateral” that was subsequently used to drain the entire quantity of BNB stored on QBridge.
The Qubit team released a statement notifying clients that they are still monitoring the hacker and their impacted assets. The post explained that the team has contacted the attacker to offer the maximum reward as determined by their bounty program. There may be some hope in getting a large portion of the funds back, as supposed white hats lately have been returning the funds in exchange for decently sized bounties.
Indonesian regulator takes cue from Islamic NGOs, bars crypto sales for institutions
Indonesia’s financial watchdog Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OJK) has come out with an anti-crypto stance, warning local financial institutions on Tuesday against offering or facilitating any crypto asset sales.
OKJ’s official Instagram account posted the warning, sounding the alarm over the usual negative crypto tropes such as the growing number of Ponzi schemes and market volatility-related risks.
The post also quoted the chairman Wimboh Santoso, who stated that financial institutions are strictly prohibited from offering crypto sale services in any form.
“OJK has strictly prohibited financial service institutions from using, marketing, and/or facilitating crypto asset trading,” he wrote in an official Instagram post.
More evidence game devs hate NFTs and crypto
Data from the latest edition of the annual “State Of The Game Industry 2022” by the Game Developers Conference revealed that most game developers and studios have no interest in developing or working with NFTs or crypto payments.
The survey polled 2,700 game devs, and 72% of respondents indicated that their studio is “not interested” in integrating crypto as a payment tool, while 70% stated that they had no interest in NFTs. Furthermore, a mere 1% outlined that they were already working with NFT tech or crypto.
There were also 14 comments posted from respondents in the survey regarding NFTs and crypto, with only one input holding positive views. Regarding NFTs, one developer in particular wrote:
“How this hasn’t been identified as a pyramid scheme is beyond me.”
Best Cointelegraph Features
Here’s how to keep your crypto safe
The first step in compounding gains with crypto investments is to be super diligent and to avoid losing your vigilance.
Bitcoin ‘Doji’ points to bullish reversal scenario as BTC holds $36K support
BTC is down more than 50% from its $69,000 all-time high and traders seem to have no clue about the cryptocurrency’s next move.
Blockchain-enabled digital fashion creates new business models for brands
A “digital-first” model is disrupting the fashion sector, as blockchain technology shows advanced capabilities in Web3 e-commerce and sustainability.
DeFi markets have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions the past 24 hours.
getty
Over the past 48 hours, DeFi and Crypto Twitter have been on a wild ride. The rollercoaster initiated when CoinDesk reported that one of the co-founders of popular Avalanche-based automated money market (AMM) Wonderland, pseudonymous “Sifu” was revealed to be Michael Patryn.
DeFi sleuth, zachxbt, discovered 0xSifu was Michael Patryn.
Furthermore, popular co-founder, Daniele Sestagalli, knew who “Sifu” truly was and chose to give him a “second” chance, despite Patryn’s checkered past.
Co-founder of Wonderland and contributor to Abracadabra admits knowing of former life of fraudster.
Since the revelation, affiliated project Abracadabra (SPELL) has experienced harsh losses. Abracadabra’s stable coin, MIM, has experienced significant selling pressure, leading to its peg breaking.
MORE FOR YOU
MIM has floated below $1 for the past few days but is recovering.
Several theories have emerged as to why MIM is dumping, including large institutions like Alameda Research liquidating MIM. But, what appears to be driving the situation is the interconnectedness of Abracadabra’s DegenBox and Anchor Protocol. The President of Jump Crypto, Kanav Kariya, posted his thoughts on Twitter regarding the situation.
Interconnectedness of MIM and UST is likely driving demand down for the former and up for the … [+]latter.
Both stable coins, MIM and UST, have stabilized back near their pegs, which lends some credence to Kanav’s argument. Furthermore, the stable coin market cap is still $177 billion according to Coingecko; only slightly slower compared to the previous 7-day period.
DeFi has shown numerous times, reflexive feedback loops powered by hype inevitably reverse. But, the genuine demand that remains, e.g. strong market cap for stable coins, typically makes the system more robust in the longer term.
In particular, DeFi’s free market mechanics and self-policing nature by the community, allow for the continued removal of bad actors and increased anti-fragility of the ecosystem.
In DeFi, Schumpeter’s creative destruction applies to both innovation and lessons learned. I fore-one am excited to see these lessons put into action to forge a better DeFi.
DeFi markets have experienced a rollercoaster of emotions the past 24 hours.
getty
Over the past 48 hours, DeFi and Crypto Twitter have been on a wild ride. The rollercoaster initiated when CoinDesk reported that one of the co-founders of popular Avalanche-based automated money market (AMM) Wonderland, pseudonymous “Sifu” was revealed to be Michael Patryn.
DeFi sleuth, zachxbt, discovered 0xSifu was Michael Patryn.
Furthermore, popular co-founder, Daniele Sestagalli, knew who “Sifu” truly was and chose to give him a “second” chance, despite Patryn’s checkered past.
Co-founder of Wonderland and contributor to Abracadabra admits knowing of former life of fraudster.
Since the revelation, affiliated project Abracadabra (SPELL) has experienced harsh losses. Abracadabra’s stable coin, MIM, has experienced significant selling pressure, leading to its peg breaking.
MORE FOR YOU
MIM has floated below $1 for the past few days but is recovering.
Several theories have emerged as to why MIM is dumping, including large institutions like Alameda Research liquidating MIM. But, what appears to be driving the situation is the interconnectedness of Abracadabra’s DegenBox and Anchor Protocol. The President of Jump Crypto, Kanav Kariya, posted his thoughts on Twitter regarding the situation.
Interconnectedness of MIM and UST is likely driving demand down for the former and up for the … [+]latter.
Both stable coins, MIM and UST, have stabilized back near their pegs, which lends some credence to Kanav’s argument. Furthermore, the stable coin market cap is still $177 billion according to Coingecko; only slightly slower compared to the previous 7-day period.
DeFi has shown numerous times, reflexive feedback loops powered by hype inevitably reverse. But, the genuine demand that remains, e.g. strong market cap for stable coins, typically makes the system more robust in the longer term.
In particular, DeFi’s free market mechanics and self-policing nature by the community, allow for the continued removal of bad actors and increased anti-fragility of the ecosystem.
In DeFi, Schumpeter’s creative destruction applies to both innovation and lessons learned. I fore-one am excited to see these lessons put into action to forge a better DeFi.
A Republican state senator wants to make Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender in Arizona.
Arizona Sixth Legislative District Representative Wendy Rogers has introduced a flurry of crypto-related bills in the past few weeks, including one that would add BTC to the state’s list of things defined as legal tender.
Rogers also introduced a bill that would allow the state government, as well as the governments of any county, city, town and school district in Arizona, to pay employees in virtual currency if they request it.
A third Rogers bill would ban any governmental body in the state from prohibiting people from using mutually agreed on mediums of exchange, including digital currencies. A fourth would ban cities and towns from imposing taxes or fees on “the use of blockchain technology by any person or entity.” A fifth would exempt virtual currency from property taxes.
Rogers’ district encompasses parts of Coconino, Yavapai, Navajo and Gila counties in central and Northern Arizona.
In September of last year, El Salvador became the world’s first nation to recognize Bitcoin as an official currency.
Check Price Action
Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get crypto email alerts delivered directly to your inbox
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram
Surf The Daily Hodl Mix
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.
Featured Image: Shutterstock/Philipp Tur/Sensvector
An anonymous UK resident reportedly parted with nearly $200,000 of his savings after a woman he messaged in a dating app conned him. The man admitted he felt so desperate after the scam that he considered taking his life.
‘In The Blink of an Eye, Everything Was Gone’
According to a recent coverage by BBC, the British citizen, called Tom (which is not his real name), was struggling with a break-up in 2020 and joined a dating application to look for companionship. Shortly after, a woman who introduced herself as Jia from Hong Kong approached him, and the duo started messaging.
Tom revealed that he and his online date were discussing their mutual future. Jia also portrayed herself as a successful cryptocurrency investor with “inside knowledge” and lured the man into dreaming of building a wealthy lifestyle with her.
“Issues were flagging up to me, but everything she was doing to build up trust with me was enough to keep me there,” the man admitted.
At one point, the woman asked Tom if he knew anything about bitcoin. The latter said he had invested in it a few years back. Then, Jia directed Tom to an online trading platform and instructed him to download the application on his mobile phone.
Once again, the British felt suspicious but at the same time lucky as he seemed to have met someone with “insider information” who could possibly make him rich. The woman encouraged Tom to keep making investments on the dubious app, telling him he would miss out on profits if he were not quick enough. The man ended up investing around $200,000 when he found out that his balance “had been cleared.”
ADVERTISEMENT
“In the blink of an eye, everything was gone. I was sick to my stomach,” he confessed.
He asked Jia to explain the missing funds, but the woman refused to help, saying she had to fly to Australia and spend time with her sick aunt. At that point, Tom realized he had become a victim of a cryptocurrency scam. Feeling devastated, he searched for help and admitted that if it was not for his mother, he might have taken his life:
“I recognized I needed help straight away and went straight round to see my mum. If I didn’t have that support, I wouldn’t be here. I was going to do something that wouldn’t leave me here anymore.”
The Australian Nurse Who Lost Her Life Savings
Tom is not the first individual to have his funds drained via a fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme.
Last year, CryptoPotato reported that the Australian citizen Rhonda, who was just months away from retirement, became a victim of a similar scam. She was approached by a person claiming to be a local celebrity who asked her to start investing in bitcoin in a dubious application.
In the next several months, Rhonda made several investments which totaled all her lifestyle savings. Unfortunately, upon checking her account at one point, she noticed that all the funds had gone missing.
The local authorities tried to help her, but the operation failed. Despite realizing that her retirement plans were gone, Rhonda stayed positive and said she would continue working as a nurse.
SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)
Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).
PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter POTATO50 code to get 25% off trading fees.
This week in coins. Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt.
Crypto markets finally look to be on the path to recovery after abrutal startto the new year.
Bitcoin is up 8.7% over the past seven days to $37,677 at the time of writing, according to CoinMarketCap. The No. 2 cryptocurrency Ethereum is up 8% in that time, to $2,573.
Over the preceding week, both market leaders hadcrashed to their lowest pricessince summer 2021. Bitcoin bottomed out at$33,707while Ethereum fell as low as $2,172 on the same day. Both started a recoverythe next day.
Several other top cryptocurrencies are doing particularly well: Avalanche (AVAX), the Ethereum challenger, is up 22% in the past week to nearly $72, while Dogecoin (DOGE) and Polygon (MATIC) are each up 11% in that time.
Solana (SOL) had a dramatic week: a cursory glance would only show Solana up 1.4% over the last seven days, but on Monday,Solana had lost about 16%of its value in 24 hours, and was down 42% in seven days, after high network congestion led to a “partial outage” last weekend. Now it’s on the path to recovery.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko acknowledged that the network was having “growing pains” after many users complained across social media. Yakovenko maintained that in spite of the severe disruptions, the network remained live, although it was only clearing about 800 transactions a second (TPS), or about a quarter of it’s typical average workload of 3,000 TPS.
This week’s biggest loser in the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap was Terra’s LUNA, which is down 17% to $51. Considering LUNA’s price fall comes off the back ofmonths of uninhibited growth, and considering also that it’s 2.5% higher than it was 24 hours ago, LUNA’s correction doesn’t look like cause for concern.
News of the week
On Monday, Bank of Americareleased a reportconcluding that central bank digital currencies are the “inevitable evolution of today’s electronic currencies” and that a digital dollar could help maintain the American dollar as the world’s reserve currency. The report guesstimates that a U.S. CBDC will be issued “between 2025 and 2030.”
Monday’s other big news was that Ethereum 2.0is no longer coming.
Before anyone spits out their coffee: No, none of the promised features of ETH 2 are cancelled. The network will still migrate to a cleaner, greener, proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and phase out mining, but the Ethereum Foundation is rebranding the shift.Where “2.0” gave the impression that Ethereum was receiving a ground-up overhaul, the reality is that most of ETH 1, or the “execution layer,” will be kept as is, while the new ETH 2 features will be incorporated atop it as a “consensus layer.”
On Tuesday, Russia’s finance ministry reacted to calls from the Russian central bank last weekto ban crypto entirely. The director of the ministry’s financial policy department, Ivan Chebeskov, said it would “be necessary to allow these technologies to develop” and called forregulation, not prohibition.
The following day, Russia’s President Putin told government members over a video call that, in spite of the central bank’s hardline attitude, Russia has certain “competitive advantages” when it comes to crypto mining, including an abundance of electricity and technologically proficient personnel.
Across the border in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh governmentcut off electricityto crypto mining operations in the country between January 24 and 31.
Since China began its concerted crackdown on crypto mining operations, many miners had fled over the border into Kazakhstan, which quickly became the second biggest source of Bitcoin mining in the world. The current power outages don’t appear to have impactedBitcoin’s hashrate.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that El Salvadorshould stop using Bitcoinas legal tender, which the Central American country has been doing since September. The IMF thinks Bitcoin is a problem for El Salvador: the economy is shrinking while public debt is mounting, and using something as volatile as Bitcoin “entails large risks” that could halt the country’s recovery. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele shrugged.
And on Thursday, the United States Securities and Exchange Commissionrejected Fidelity’s applicationfor a Bitcoin ETF. Fidelity stewards over $4 trillion worth of assets; the Boston-based company launched a successful ETF product over the border in Canada last December, so it’s got a lot of clout, but crypto still has a long way to go before it charms U.S. regulators.
At the end of the week, Bitcoin (
Here’s how to keep your crypto safe
