Russia will build a crypto exchange

The process of establishing a national cryptocurrency exchange is now being worked on by legislators in Russia, who are actively writing amendments.

It has been alleged that both the Russian Ministry of Finance and the Russian Central Bank are helping this initiative in some capacity. When it comes to the government’s approach to the oversight of cryptocurrencies inside the nation, these two organizations have a long history of being at odds with one another.

The lower house of the Russian parliament is known as the Duma. On November 23, local media reported that members of the Duma had been participating in conversations with industry players proposing revisions to the country’s current cryptocurrency law titled “On digital financial assets.”

The amendments, which would set up a legislative foundation for a national exchange, would first be brought to the attention of the central bank in the country.

Anatoly Aksakov, the chairman of the Duma’s Committee on Financial Markets, made a recommendation in June that a national cryptocurrency exchange in Russia may be created as part of the Moscow Exchange. Aksakov’s comments were made in reference to the Moscow Exchange.

In September, the Moscow Exchange developed a bill on behalf of the central bank to enable trading in digital financial assets. This law is intended to facilitate trading in digital financial assets. The purpose of this measure is to make it possible to trade in digital financial assets.

A measure to legalize the mining of cryptocurrencies as well as the sale of cryptocurrencies that have been mined was presented to the Duma at the beginning of this month. The law also legalizes the selling of cryptocurrencies that have been mined.

However, local miners would still be allowed to utilize platforms located in other countries, despite the fact that the law would create a Russian platform for the sale of cryptocurrencies and set up a Russian platform for selling cryptocurrencies.

In the second scenario, the transactions in question would not be subject to the currency controls and rules that are in place in Russia; however, they would still be required to be reported to the Russian tax service. This would be the case even though they would not be subject to the currency controls and rules.

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OKX publishes proof-of-reserves website with self-audit instructions

OKX, a cryptocurrency exchange, has launched a proof-of-reserves website that enables customers to audit its reserves to ensure that company is solvent. This comes at a time when cryptocurrency exchanges are under increased scrutiny after the demise of FTX. OKX introduced the new website through Twitter and its blog.

When completing an audit of the exchange’s reserves, users have two unique options to select from on the proof-of-reserves page.

The first allows customers to see a simplified version of the exchange’s current reserves and liabilities for its main three cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether.

The user has the option of logging in and obtaining a summary of their balances at the exchange.

Because some clients may not accept the information offered by the firm’s web app, the business has also made two help file papers accessible that outline how to audit the reserves using the console on a PC.”

One of the articles contained instructions for querying the OKX app’s application programming interface (API) to get a Merkle tree of client balances and comparing the findings to balances that are publicly available on the blockchain.

The second participant described how people might get a Merkle leaf that corresponds to their own balances and validate that this leaf is a part of the overarching tree.

According to the news release, Lennix Lai, director of financial markets at OKX, feels that this proof-of-reserves website would assist to provide more transparency to the cryptocurrency exchange market: “Thanks to our newly implemented proof of reserves page and self-audit tool, users can now verify that their assets are adequately backed.

The cryptocurrency exchange FTX had an unanticipated lack of liquidity between November 7 and 11, resulting in the failure of the company that ran it.

In response to this episode, multiple executives from major cryptocurrency exchanges have said that proof-of-reserves pages must be established in order to provide transparency and guarantee that an event like this does not occur again.

OKX has previously said that it would provide documentation of reserves “asap.”

Both KuCoin and Binance have said that they intend to publish proof of reserves over the next several weeks.

Even before the announcement of FTX, a number of other cryptocurrency exchanges, including Gate.io, Bitmex, and Kraken, have provided proof-of-reserves websites.

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After a $60M short assault, Aave recommends governance reforms.

On November 23, one day after Mango Markets’ exploiter Avraham Eisenberg tried to exploit the decentralized finance protocol AAVE through a series of clever short sells, project contributors put up a variety of ideas to cope with the consequences of the incident. These ideas included a variety of different ways to deal with the aftermath of the incident. These suggestions included a wide range of potential approaches to addressing the fallout from the occurrence in question.

According to the protocol engineer Llama and the financial modeling platform Gauntlet, both of whom are deployed on Aave, Llama reported that the user had been liquidated, albeit at the expense of $1.6 million in bad debt, most likely as a result of slippage. In other words, the user was liquidated at the expense of the platform. To put it another way, the user was kicked from the platform at the cost of the service. Avenue is the street that is home to both of these places.

Moving ahead, Llama’s proposition requires that the unpaid debt be settled using money from the bankruptcy fund of the Gauntlet and the Ave Treasury.

Another suggestion that was made by Gauntlet calls for the temporary freeze of a list of token markets on Aave v2, which would include the Curve DAO Token. This particular token would be included in this list. This is the second recommendation that has been offered.

The day prior, Eisenberg made an effort to provoke a liquidity crisis on Aave by shorting a big amount of CRV, which did not have a liquid market on the platform. This action was done in an attempt to profit from the situation. The very high slippage that took place (which went up to 90%), caused the smart contracts to be forced to buy back the holdings at a loss.

In spite of this, the transaction was unsuccessful due to the fact that Eisenberg was liquidated with a far less amount of slippage than was anticipated.

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Bitfinex, Ava Labs raise $10M for DeFi technology amid market turmoil

As the ongoing bear market in cryptocurrencies continues, investors continue to find attractive projects to invest in, demonstrating that this market is, in reality, a builders’ market. Despite the present market conditions, investors continue to find promising projects to invest in.

In order to develop its ground-breaking protocol, the ecosystem known as Onomy, which is driven by the Cosmos blockchain, has recently successfully crowdfunded millions of dollars from various investors.

The purpose of the project is to integrate decentralized finance (DeFi) with blockchain technology in order to bring the foreign exchange market onto the distributed ledger.

According to the people who initiated the project, the most recent investment round was a success, and it was able to successfully raise $10 million from significant players in the industry. Some of these significant players include Bitfinex, Ava Labs, the Maker Foundation, and CMS Holdings, amongst others.

According to Lalo Bazzi, one of the co-founders of Onomy, the primary goal of constructing a decentralized autonomous organization with a public infrastructure should be to support the “core tenant of crypto,” which is self-custody, without sacrificing the user experience. This can be accomplished without compromising the security of the network.

Both decentralized financial institutions (DFIs) and self-custody have emerged as prominent topics of conversation among the cryptocurrency community as a direct result of the FTX liquidity-bankruptcy episode.

Despite the fact that another difficult year is anticipated according to estimates made for the industry’s not too distant future, the sector will continue to draw the attention of investors.

The results of a survey that was conducted between September 21 and October 27 of this year and was sponsored by Coinbase indicate that institutional investors are still interested in the industry.

It was discovered that 62% of the institutional investors who were questioned and who had cryptocurrency holdings increased such holdings over the course of the preceding year.

On November 9, just a few days after the FTX event came to light, Cathie Wood of ARK Investment raised the company’s existing shares in Coinbase by an additional $12.1 million. This was done by ARK Investment.

In addition, financial institutions continue to show interest in the sector, as evidenced by JP Morgan’s use of DeFi for international transactions and BNY Mellon’s creation of its very own Digital Asset Custody Platform, both of which are examples of how JP Morgan and BNY Mellon are participating in the industry.

Despite this, there is a body of evidence that projects the blockchain industry will continue to confront adverse settings, which have the potential to endure into the next year. These environments include:

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Bank of Japan will test digital yen with three megabanks

Even though Japan is undecided if it would develop a central bank digital currency, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is continuing to test out a digital version of the yen. This is the case despite the fact that the BoJ is testing out a digital version of the yen (CBDC).

Nikkei, a Japanese news agency, reported on November 23 that the Japanese central bank has begun working with three megabanks and regional banks to conduct a trial CBDC issuance. Nikkei’s report was based on information obtained from the Nikkei news agency. The Nikkei news agency was the source for the aforementioned information.

As part of the pilot program, the digital yen, which will eventually take the place of the paper yen as Japan’s national digital currency starting in the spring of 2023, will be tested. This will be the first time the digital yen will be used.

The Bank of Japan, together with other major private banks and other institutions, will work together as part of the experiment to identify and address any problems that may crop up with the method by which customers deposit and withdraw money from their bank accounts.

According to the story, the pilot will test how Japan’s future CBDC performs when it is not connected to the internet, with a special focus on payments that do not need the internet.

The Bank of Japan’s central bank plans to continue with its CBDC experiment for around two years, and it will make a decision by 2026 on whether or not to develop a digital currency. This information comes from the article.

The declaration comes at a time when an increasing number of countries all over the world are launching research and development activities on CBDC, with countries like China acting as models for the rest of the world to follow in their footsteps.

Despite the fact that the vast majority of governments throughout the world have been working tirelessly to implement a CBDC, some nations, such as Denmark, have made the decision to withdraw from the competition.

As the key reasons for discontinuing their CBDC or CBDC-related efforts, the central banks cited a number of issues as the primary reasons for their decision, including the likelihood of obstacles for the private sector, unknown value and benefits, and other problems.

To this day, there has not been a single central bank that has completely ruled out the possibility of the launch of a CBDC.

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El Salvador Bukele’s administration proposed ‘Bitcoin bonds’

The idea for El Salvador’s ambitious “Bitcoin bonds” campaign, which was conceived at a period of falling prices in the cryptocurrency market, has already moved forward a significant amount toward actualization.

A legislation that underlines the government’s intention to create one billion dollars and spend it on the establishment of a “Bitcoin city.” was suggested by the Minister of the Economy, Maria Luisa Hayem Brevé.

It was on November 17 that a measure pertaining to digital securities comprising 33 pages was presented to the El Salvador House of Representatives with the request that they draft a legal framework that would make it possible for the country to use digital assets in its public offerings.

Volcano bonds, sometimes known as Bitcoin bonds, were first introduced by the financial system by the government of Nayib Bukele, who served as president from 2021 to 2022.

The initial version of the proposal called for the sale of bonds with a total face value of close to one billion dollars, with the proceeds from the sale going toward the development of a “Bitcoin City” at the base of the Colchagua volcano. This version of the proposal was scrapped after it was determined that the sale of the bonds would not be profitable.

It is believed that the hydrothermal energy generated by the volcano will make the city an excellent site for a cryptocurrency mining factory, and that this will happen since the city will be situated in close proximity to the volcano.

Bitcoin would get a direct investment equal to fifty percent of the entire amount produced if this proposal were to pass.

The undertaking has been continually hampered by postponements throughout the course of the preceding year and a half. After initially being scheduled to start at the beginning of March, the launching phase of the project was first postponed until September, and then it was delayed once again for “security reasons.”

The possibility that the proposal will be approved by the legislature before the winter holidays has been raised by a few different sources.

When Bitcoin was finally recognized as a form of legal cash on September 7, 2021, El Salvador was given more than 2,301 BTC as their reward. This sum is about comparable to $103.9 million dollars.

During the period of time when the stock market was thriving, the gains from the investment were even utilized to contribute toward the building of healthcare facilities and educational institutions.

Despite this, 77.1% of people living in El Salvador are of the opinion that the government should stop “spending public money on Bitcoin.” especially considering the continued decline of the country’s economy.

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New York AG wants retirement fund crypto ban

The upheaval that surrounded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) confirmed the conviction of authorities that there is a need for stronger regulation throughout the whole cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Letitia James, the New York Attorney General (NYAG), proposed banning investments in cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum in defined contribution plans and individual retirement accounts in order to safeguard investors from experiencing a similar kind of loss (IRAs).

James wrote a letter to the members of Congress in the United States, requesting that legislation be enacted that would prohibit United States citizens from using funds from their individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) and 457 plans) to purchase cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

On the other hand, results of a study conducted in October 2022 indicated that almost half of investors headquartered in the United States want crypto to be included in their 401(k) retirement plans.

Further, James argued that the Retirement Savings Modernization Act and the Financial Freedom Act of 2022, both of which would legalize financial transactions involving digital assets, should be shot down. The Retirement Savings Modernization Act is a recent proposal, and the Financial Freedom Act of 2022 is set to take effect in 2022.

James scribbled down four key reasons supporting her request to remove digital assets from IRAs and defined contribution plans when she was outlining SBF’s role in conducting a Ponzi Scheme and misappropriating the monies of its members. These reasons will be detailed further below.

The New York Attorney General stressed, above all else, how vital it is to guard funds for retirement throughout the course of a lifetime.

Second, she brought attention to the historical responsibility that Congress has to safeguard the retirement savings of American people.

As her final justification for banning cryptocurrency investments, James cited storylines such as the prevalence of scams and the absence of adequate safeguards.

The custodial and value issues rounded out the list of things that caused anxiety, along with the volatility.

The New York Attorney General’s office, on the other hand, explained that there is a separation between blockchain technology and digital assets.

She is of the opinion that retirement funds ought to be able to be used for the acquisition of equity in publicly listed blockchain-based companies by citizens of the United States.

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New York Governor Cuomo signs PoW mining ban

On November 22nd, the proof-of-work (PoW) mining moratorium was signed into law by New York Governor Kathy Hochul, making New York the first state in the United States to prohibit any proof-of-work crypto mining activities for a period of two years.

The PoW mining ban will not only prevent the establishment of new mining operations, but it will also prevent the renewal of permits for existing mining companies that are already inside the state.

Any new PoW mining enterprise that wanted to be started in the state had to employ entirely renewable energy sources in order to do so.

In April of this year, the measure concerning PoW mining was first passed with the approval of the state assembly, and then it was passed with the approval of the state senate in June.

As a result of pressure from lobbyists and in order for the state to reach its objectives for carbon emissions, Governor Huchkul was ultimately persuaded to sign the measure into law.

PoW mining is the method that the majority of miners for Bitcoin and a few other cryptocurrencies utilize to reach consensus.

When it comes to verifying the legitimacy of a transaction on a blockchain, this approach is regarded as among the most secure and decentralized there is.

Despite this, the technique has been tainted by disputes on the huge amount of energy that it requires.

The United States of America is now in first place on the list of shares of bitcoin mining hash rate by nation. The United States contributes 37.8% of the total hash rate that is generated by the bitcoin network. The prohibition on mining PoW for the next two years might prove to be expensive and perhaps set off a domino effect that would lead other governments to adopt a similar strategy.

The proof-of-work (PoW) mining FUD is not new and has been debunked numerous times; however, there has been a significant lobbying effort over the past year, particularly from the proponents of proof-of-stake (PoS) mining. 

On the other hand, legislators have conveniently ignored study findings suggesting a large portion of the energy used for bitcoin mining originates from renewable sources.

In the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation that was being considered in Europe, cryptocurrency authorities have advocated a ban on PoW mining.

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