Top Stories This WeekCoinbase calls Pepe a hate symbol, prompting calls to boycott the exchange

An email sent out to Coinbase customers describing the Pepe the Frog meme as a hate symbol co-opted by alt-right groups has drawn significant ire from the PEPE memecoin community this week. Two hours after the email was sent, the hashtag #deletecoinbase hit the trending sidebar on Twitter, with over 14,000 comments calling on users to boycott the exchange. Paul Grewal, the Coinbases chief legal officer, took to Twitter to respond to the outrage and apologized: We screwed up and we are sorry.

United States Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill restricting the use of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in the state. The new law prohibits the use of a United States federal CBDC as money within Floridas Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). It also bans the use of CBDCs issued by foreign governments and calls on other states to use their commercial codes to institute similar prohibitions. DeSantis said he was spurred into action by White House studies of the new financial technology. The law takes effect on July 1.

Milady (LADYS), the self-organized memecoin based on the anime avatar NFT collection of the same name, surged by over 5,250% on May 11 after Elon Musk tweeted a meme using the imagery of a Milady NFT. The tweet also boosted the collections average sale price. LADYS is a meme coin without any intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap, said the token developers. The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.

Bitcoin Ordinals continue to inspire debate among the Bitcoin community. Soon after their introduction in January 2023, opponents of the technology began to raise concerns about its perceived flaws, citing slow speeds and rising transaction costs. Meanwhile, its supporters claim that the ordinals provide more opportunity, improve decentralization and ensure freedom of expression. The technology enables adding text, images and code on a satoshi the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

Crypto exchange Kraken has provided a novel method for flagging malicious wallets building a fake crypto environment to scam bait bad actors. Kraken created the custom environment for popular streamer Kitboga to frustrate a scammer posing as U.S. President Joe Biden. The punchline comes when Kitboga, who portrays an elderly person with a $450,000 balance in Bitcoin, infuriates the scammer after incorrectly typing his wallet address before sending over all of the funds.

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) is at $26,707, Ether (ETH) at $1,803 and XRP at $0.43. The total market cap is at $1.12 trillion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Among the biggest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers of the week are Kava (KAVA) at 15.28%, Bitcoin SV (BSV) at 5.19% and PAX Gold (PAXG) at 0.20%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week are Pepe (PEPE) at -54.43%, PancakeSwap (CAKE) at -27.15% and WOO Network (WOO) -24.48%.

For more info on crypto prices, make sure to read Cointelegraphs market analysis.

A blanket pause on AIs training, together with existing trends that seem to be de-prioritizing investment in industry AI ethics efforts, will only lead to additional harm and setbacks.

Christina Montgomery, chief privacy and trust officer at IBM

The tokenization of real-world assets may offer an unprecedented opportunity to create new market infrastructure and drive efficiency in the trading of products across the globe.

Cathy Clay, executive vice president, global digital and data solutions at Cboe Global Markets

The metaverse is dead! Lets organize an online wake so that we 600,000,000 monthly active users in Fortnite, Minecraft, Roblox, PUBG Mobile, Sandbox, and VRChat can mourn its passing together in real-time 3D.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games

We screwed up and we are sorry [about comments regarding Pepe the Frog].

Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase

People are actually adopting [crypto] inside of their portfolios. Whether youre talking about the retail side, high net worth or institutional investors, everyones looking at their portfolios and trying to get that type of exposure.

Neil Tan, chair of the FinTech Association of Hong Kong

The key lessons learned from the Terra LUNA crash include proper diligence. Doing due diligence on each project would save potential investors future heartache.

Obinna Uche Uzoije, Twitter analyst

Bitcoin neared two-month lows on May 12 amid fears that a head-and-shoulders pattern would put bears ahead.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD reaching $26,100 on Bitstamp its lowest since March 17. Despite encouraging macroeconomic conditions for risk assets, Bitcoin failed to capitalize on the potential for gains as bid liquidity headed lower.

This head-and-shoulders pattern would create a negative precedent if confirmed. We simply cannot let the #Bitcoin head and shoulders crowd win, said pseudonymous financial commentator Tedtalksmacro, before adding that if Bitcoin climbs back above $27k things could get very interesting.

Bad actors have taken notice of the hype surrounding the Pepe memecoin, resulting in scam attempts that now plague the crypto community. According to blockchain security firm PeckShield, at least 10 memecoin scams have been created over the past few days. The firm reported scam tokens that recently had their liquidity removed, rug-pulling investors. Fake Pepe claim sites are also starting to become increasingly common on Twitter.

A sudden rise in Bitcoin transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions sparked concern on Crypto Twitter over the week about a potential denial-of-service attack on the network. Bitcoin average transaction fees were at $19.20 on May 8, according to BitInfoCharts, while the backlog of transactions stood at 459,341 on the same day. The increased demand on the network has even caused total fees per block to temporarily exceed the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC. Bitcoin analysts and commentators have rushed to allay community fears.

NFT protocol ParaSpace published several alleged irregularities tying its CEO Yubo Ruan to mismanagement of funds equaling 2,909 Ether. The funds had previously been stolen during a hack, but were later recovered thanks to white hats. Ruan, however, returned only a portion of the funds to the protocol treasury. ParaSpace employees have now taken full control of the protocol and are calling on Ruan to step down. The CEO denied any wrongdoing.

Treatment centers are seeing an uptick in clients struggling with cryptocurrency addiction. Although the symptoms are not difficult to spot, some crypto traders may not even be aware of whats troubling them.

The Silk Road hacker lived the high life for a decade with his stolen billions but was caught due to a transfer of pocket change.

Will Clemente III ditched school to become a crypto analyst and says Bitcoin has a strong chance of hitting six figures toward the end of 2024.

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Cointelegraph Magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.

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Coinbase screws up, Florida bans CBDCs, and Ordinals face ... - Cointelegraph

A sudden spike in Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees and unconfirmed transactions sparked concern on Crypto Twitter over the weekend of a potential Denial of Service (DoS) attack on the network.

Some Bitcoin analysts and commentators have been quick to allay these fears from their respective followers.

Bitcoin average transaction fees are currently $19.20, or 0.00068 BTC, according to BitInfoCharts. Meanwhile,according to Mempool Space, the backlog of transactions at time of writing stood at 459,341.

The increased demand on the network has even caused total fees per block to temporarily exceed the block subsidy reward of 6.25 BTC on May 7.

The proof-of-work mining process has a set block subsidy of 6.25 BTC, which halves every four years. However, in the rare instance that block space demand surges, this figure can be exceeded, causing higher transaction fees.

Industry analysts reported that it is the first time this has happened since 2017. Fees of 6.76 BTC were recorded for one block and block 788695 generated fees of 6.7 BTC.

The Mempool Spaceexplorer shows that activity has since cooled down a little and fees have fallen back below the block reward again. The next block is expected to be processed generating 4.51 BTC in fees.

The surge in activity and block space demand has been attributed to the rise in Ordinals inscriptions. According to analytics provider Glassnode, a total of 75% of Bitcoin on-chain transactions used Taproot on May 7, resulting in a record high.

Some on Crypto Twitter, however, speculated that the recent congestion has resulted from a DoS (denial of service) attack on the Bitcoin network.

Related: Binance closes BTC withdrawals amid congestion on the Bitcoin network

Bitcoin analysts quickly pointed out that it was due to demand rather than a premeditated attack. 0xfoobar told his 130,000 followers:

On May 8, the worlds largest crypto exchange, Binance, suspended Bitcoin transactions again, citing the large volume of pending transactions. It is the second timethat Binance has suspended BTC transactions in the past 12 hours.

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Bitcoin is not under attack: BTC maxis allay fears of a DoS offensive - Cointelegraph

Proof-of-Work (PoW) is a consensus algorithm used by many blockchains to verify the validity of transactions made on the network, which are grouped into blocks and then recorded on the public ledger in a way that can be accessed by anyone. Some of the most popular blockchains using PoW are Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Monero.

In todays article, we will explain how the consensus algorithm works and analyse its strengths and weaknesses.

First theorised by Hal Finney in 2004 as Reusable-Proof-of-Work (RPOW), a precursor to the model later presented by Satoshi Nakamoto in his famous whitepaper, the PoW is a consensus algorithm that aims to ensure the proper functioning of a decentralised network of anonymous participants without them having to trust each other.

Since blockchains by design do not have a centralised authority (such as a bank) to act as an intermediary between network participants, this task falls to the consensus algorithm, which has the important task of ensuring that each actor is incentivised economically to perform the action that most benefits the network itself.

In fact, miners are incentivised to correctly validate transactions and ensure the security of the network through block rewards, i.e. the issuance of new cryptocurrencies that are rewarded to miners after they have done their job correctly.

Let us now look at the specific case of Bitcoin to understand how the PoW ensures the security of the worlds most famous blockchain.

When transactions are executed on the bitcoin blockchain, they are grouped together before being verified and waiting to be placed in a block.

Each block contains information about the date, wallet addresses and transaction amount, which are recorded in the block header, a hexadecimal (i.e. base 16) number generated by the blockchains hash function. Each block that makes up the blockchain also contains the hash of the previous block, so it is impossible to change a single block without necessarily changing all the previous ones as well, making the operation incredibly complex and expensive.

Before a new block can be added, its hash has to be verified by miners by solving a complex cryptographic puzzle that requires a lot of computing power.

As mining is a competitive process, miners compete with each other to be the first to solve the puzzle, validate the block and receive the reward, which consists of $BTC from block rewards and transaction fees.

In order to increase their competitiveness and chances of receiving rewards, miners form mining pools and share their computing power and rewards. Due to the extremely competitive nature of mining today, it is currently almost impossible to receive rewards without being part of a mining pool.

Over time, there has been no shortage of criticism of PoW and mining, focusing mainly on two key issues: environmental impact and centralisation.

In terms of environmental impact, the criticism is based on the high energy consumption associated with a high-intensity activity such as mining.

While it is undeniable that cryptocurrency mining consumes a lot of energy, several initiatives have emerged in recent years that aim to use renewable and/or green energy for mining, thus significantly reducing the emissions of the networks.

In terms of centralisation, critics argue that there is currently an imbalance in the composition of miners pools, with the largest pools controlling a large proportion of the networks hash rate.

As the graph shows, the top four mining pools controlled approximately 77.2% of the networks hash rate over the last 24 hours.

Despite the fact that the adoption of Proof-of-Stake (the other dominant consensus algorithm in the crypto landscape) has grown significantly in recent years, especially after the Ethereum Merge, which sanctioned the transition of the network from PoW to PoS, Proof-of-Work is still used by many large cap protocols because of the high level of security it guarantees.

Is PoW in danger of being completely replaced by PoS in the next few years, or will it remain one of the consensus algorithms most widely used by blockchains to guarantee their security?

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Proof-of-Work: Bitcoin consensus algorithm - The Cryptonomist

Bitcoin has climbed steadily in March and is on pace to post its third positive month in a row , but its narrative has been on a wild ride over the past few weeks. The cryptocurrency has spent much of the past two years trading in lockstep with equities, but that trend has been coming apart since the beginning of 2023. The break became more noticeable in March, as investors rediscovered bitcoin's appeal as alternative banking system as the regional banking crisis unfolded. Bitcoin's correlation with the S & P 500 is now at its lowest since September 2021, after reaching its highest ever in 2022 , according to Coin Metrics. Meanwhile, bitcoin's correlation with gold, a traditionally "risk-off" asset, has risen. "Investors are beginning to view bitcoin as a hedge against the ongoing banking crisis and as a hard asset in this period of high inflation," said Sam Callahan, analyst at bitcoin services provider Swan Bitcoin. "Bitcoin's value proposition is fundamentally different in that it's driven by its network effect and its scarcity rather than, say, earnings growth with equities. This break in correlation is perhaps a sign more investors are waking up to this fact." Bitcoin became more of an institutional asset at the start of 2021 as big investors, short term traders and macro funds jumped into the market. Government stimulus, Fed monetary policy tightening and other economic concerns that drive the sentiment of these types of investors have also driven bitcoin prices up and down since then. The longer-term thesis never fully disappeared, however. "These correlation data show that, at least recently, bitcoin has indeed performed more like a safe-haven asset than a risk asset," Alex Thorn, head of firmwide research at Galaxy Digital, said in a recent note. "Given the nature of the current crisis in which the fractional reserve banking system's core limitations are tested bitcoin's fundamental characteristics genuinely distinguish it and, when custody or self-custody is done correctly, can offer a safe port in a storm." On top of that, bitcoin's price has remained sensitive to inflation and Federal Reserve rate hikes. This is despite bigger-than-usual knee-jerk reactions to regulatory crackdowns on the biggest crypto exchanges. The Securities and Exchange Commission took enforcement actions against Kraken and Coinbase , and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced a lawsuit against Binance . That could change, however, if the Fed's inflation-fighting rate hike campaign comes to an end, said Marc Arjoon, crypto research analyst at CoinShares. "As the Fed comes closer to the end of its hiking regime, the large macro factors affecting the variousasset classes bonds, stock, real estate and crypto will start to wane," he said. Traders are now expecting the Fed to hold its benchmark interest rate at current levels, with some forecasting lower rates as early as July, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool . Those cuts could total as much as a full percentage point by the end of the year, it shows. "As equities face risks of earnings and GDP recession, bitcoin won't have the same headwinds," Arjoon added. "This and the evident cracks in the financial system are why we've seen a divergence in returns over the last three months. If and when the Fed eventually pivots whether it comes later this year or next, this will be a boost for crypto more so as it would lead to a less risk-off environment."

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Bitcoin's correlation with stocks is at its lowest since 2021 as investors grapple with the cryptocurrency's narrative shift - CNBC

Investors have cheered a jump in cryptocurrency prices this year, but the rally is spurring more transactions and may be luring more crypto miners into the frayjust as signs point to the environmental impact of Bitcoin surging to a record high.

Bitcoin miners stand at the heart of a process called proof of work, which keeps the cryptocurrency network running. These miners use computersoften warehouses of themto solve complex puzzles in a process that facilitates securing the network and processing transactions; the incentive for doing so is payment in Bitcoin.

This process requires vast amounts of energy, and how difficult these puzzles are, which affects how much energy must be used, is largely determined by how many miners are participating in the process.

With Bitcoin prices up some 70% so far this yearas digital assets have benefited from a broad boost in risk sentiment among investorscrypto mining is quickly becoming a more attractive business after a brutal 2022.

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Skyrocketing energy prices, increasing competition, and months of low Bitcoin pricesthe largest digital asset tumbled by two-thirds in 2022wreaked havoc on miners and put intense pressure on their balance sheets. Shares plunged in publicly listed miners such as Riot Platforms (ticker: RIOT), Marathon Digital (MARA), Argo Blockchain (ARB.U.K.), and Core Scientific (CORZQ). Argo warned that it might have to file for bankruptcy; Core Scientific ended up doing so.

Despite the fact that Bitcoin has bounced back in 2023 and is on a bullish streak, the picture for miners hasnt fully improved.

Miners arent out of the woods just yet. Inflated power costs will remain a stubborn thorn in the industrys side, and could quickly worsen if governments succeed in saddling miners with an added energy tax, analysts at crypto-intelligence firm Coin Metrics wrote in a Tuesday note.

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With each 1-cent uptick in energy pricesper kilowatt-hourit makes the business case worse, adding an extra 78 cents in power costs per day for the most popular rig for mining firms, the Antminer S19, according to Coin Metrics.

Even with the latest rally in Bitcoin price, daily revenue for the S19 has barely cracked $7, making every penny count. Without a sustained uptrend, mining margins may soon revisit the cold depths of winter 2022, when the average S19 briefly operated at a loss of more than $1.22 per day, the analysts said.

The regulatory picture also looms large amid increasing U.S. scrutiny on crypto companies in recent months. While much of the crackdown has been driven by financial regulators, with enforcement actions from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Securities and Exchange Commission, miners arent in the clear.

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As Bitcoin consumes more electricitywith the Cambridge index trending firmly upwardbenefits to the climate from policies like those promoting electric vehicles look increasingly for naught. That could spur political action.

The Biden White House has in the past mooted a ban on digital asset mining, and more recently the Treasury Department released a budget framework on March 9 that included a 30% tax on electricity used by crypto miners.

With most miners already squeezed by razor-thin margins, a 30% increase to their primary operating expense would be a devastating blow to facilities in the U.S., said the analysts at Coin Metrics. The enactment of this tax would have an immediate chilling effect on any additional investment into mining operations within U.S. borders.

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com

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Bitcoin Eats More Energy Than Ever. Rising Crypto Prices Arent All Good. - Barron's

Bitcoin is up 50% so far in 2023, beating major commodities and stock indexes. Industry insiders said the bank collapses have sent investors looking for alternatives to the traditional banking system and there is also anticipation of a slowdown in interest rate rises, which is helping bitcoin.

Filip Radwanski | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Bitcoin climbed sharply Wednesday as investors shrugged off initial fears surrounding U.S. regulators' crackdowns on industry giants and became willing to take some risk.

The world's largest cryptocurrency rose 3.9% to $28,399.63, according to Coin Metrics. Bitcoin has retaken the $28,000 level after dipping below it on Monday following news that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission FTC's lawsuit against Binance. Earlier in the day it rose as high as $28,637.25.

Ether, the second-biggest digital coin, rose 1.7% to $1,808.29.

Bitcoin has been steadily rising this year after a brutal 2022 that saw collapses of major crypto exchanges and a sharp slump in prices. Investors have taken some comfort from the thought of a reversal in the U.S. Federal Reserve's interest rate hiking moves, which put pressure on risk assets like stocks.

The reason for the jump Wednesday was not immediately clear. However, it comes amid a broad rise in U.S. stocks. Bitcoin has been known to follow movements in equity markets, with investors treating it like more of a traditional risk asset.

U.S. regulators have sharpened their crackdown on crypto firms of late, with the CFTC suing Binance and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao for allegedly breaking trading rules by courting clients in the U.S. without authorization.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has also threatened to take legal action against Coinbase for alleged violations of securities rules.

"Broadly we are looking quite bullish here with Bitcoin reclaiming $28K and looking to target $30K next," Vijay Ayyar, head of international at crypto exchange Luno, told CNBC via email Wednesday.

"In general, when price action starts to absorb negative news this quickly, it indicates that the market is bullish and trending upward. The CFTC case against Binance, while quite important, doesn't seem to have affected the market that much."

Bitcoin had earlier gotten a boost from woes in the global banking system. Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse was recently rescued by its peer UBS in a government-backed, cut-price deal.

U.S. tech-focused lender Silicon Valley Bank and crypto-oriented banks Silvergate and Signature have also failed.

The Federal Reserve has sought to cushion the blow of the banking crisis with a lending program known as the Bank Term Funding Program, or BTFP, which aims to help banks meet their obligations to depositors.

Proponents of bitcoin say it can serve as a store of value in times of economic distress and a form of money people can access without the need for a bank account.

However, it is incredibly volatile and has been known to swing up or down 10% in a matter of hours.

"The market seems to be placing greater importance on macroeconomic factors and that the Fed has already begun a form of QE, now known as BTFP, but also that the interest rate pivot might happen sooner than later," Ayyar told CNBC.

"Against the bank failure backdrop over the past month or so and bitcoin's rise, this provides the perfect context for bitcoin to continue remaining bullish and move higher."

WATCH: Crypto enthusiasts want to remake the internet with Web3. Heres what that means

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Bitcoin climbs above $28,000 as investors shrug off regulatory crackdowns - CNBC

Bitcoin is on track for its third consecutive month of positive gains as investors continue to see it as a hedge against the recent bank failures.

Whats more interesting is that its no longer trading in lockstep with the S&P 500. In fact, data from Coin Metrics suggests the correlation between Bitcoin and equities is now the weakest since September 2021.

That makes sense, of course, considering its valuation is not coupled with earnings growth as in the case of equities. According to Alex Thorn of Galaxy Digital:

The correlation data shows that, at least recently, Bitcoin has indeed performed more like a safe-haven asset than a risk asset.

Bitcoin is currently up about 70% for the year.

On the flip side, the banking crisis has helped Bitcoin reestablished the correlation it once shared with gold. That also signals its now regaining the status as a risk-off asset. Thorn added:

Given the nature of current crisis in which fractional reserve banking systems core limitations are tested Bitcoins fundamental characteristics genuinely distinguish and offer a safe port in a storm.

Remember that the worlds largest cryptocurrency had a difficult 2022 partly because of the aggressive rate hikes. Now that were near the end of that cycle, though, its likely that Bitcoin will have a clearer path ahead for upside.

Last week, Fed Chair Powell signalled only one more rate hikes this year.

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Is Bitcoin regaining its status as a safe-haven asset? - CoinJournal

BitcoinBTC, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have rocketed higher in the first three months of 2023with some predicting the huge price rally could just be getting started.

Subscribe now to Forbes' CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor and successfully navigate the bitcoin and crypto market roller-coaster

The bitcoin price, following a brutal 2022 crash, has added around 70% since early January as traders increasingly bet the Federal Reserve is close to declaring victory in its war on inflation or risk triggering hyperinflation.

Now, analysts at the world's largest asset manager BlackRockBLK have warned the market is wrong to bet the Fed is about to flip dovish, predicting higher interest rates are here to stay.

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"We think the Fed could only deliver the rate cuts priced in by markets if a more serious credit crunch took hold and caused an even deeper recession than we expect, the BlackRock strategists wrote in a note seen by Bloomberg.

The banking crisis that engulfed Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and Silvergate before spreading to Europe is thought to have been partly caused by the Fed's rapid series of interest rate hikes, adding to expectations the Fed would be forced to lower rates in coming months. However, the banks have stabilized this week, fueling hope the problems are contained.

"That damage is now front and centercentral banks are finally forced to confront it," BlackRock analysts wrote. "We think this means they are set to enter the new phase of curbing inflation that weve been flagging. We see major central banks moving away from a whatever it takes approach, stopping their hikes and entering a more nuanced phase thats less about a relentless fight against inflation but still one where they cant cut rates."

The bitcoin, ethereum and wider crypto price boom so far this year has been powered by "continued confidence in an imminent Federal Reserve rate cut," Alex Kuptsikevich, FxPro senior market analyst, wrote in a note.

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Earlier this month, Fed chair Jerome Powell told Congress there is still a "long way to go" in reducing inflation that spiked to a 40-year high in 2022. Spending, hiring and consumer confidence have all held up better than some expected them to despite the Fed's hawkish stance.

"With consumer resilience again shining through, there are growing expectations that the Federal Reserve may hike interest rates again at the next meeting, but its still believed to be close to the summit of peak rates, particularly as banking lending is expected to tighten, causing a drag on the economy," Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at broker Hargreaves Lansdown, wrote in an emailed note.

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. As the founding editor of Verdict.co.uk I reported on how technology is changing business, political trends, and the latest culture and lifestyle. I have covered the rise of bitcoin and cryptocurrency since 2012 and have charted its emergence as a niche technology into the greatest threat to the established financial system the world has ever seen and the most important new technology since the internet itself. I have worked and written for CityAM, the Financial Times, and the New Statesman, amongst others. Follow me on Twitter @billybambrough or email me on billyATbillybambrough.com.Disclosure: I occasionally hold some small amount of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

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Crypto Price Alert: BlackRock Issues Stark Fed Warning After Huge Bitcoin And Ethereum Boom - Forbes

Bitcoin (BTC) rewards app Fold and Visa (V) have expanded their ongoing partnership. The U.S. payments giant will now serve as the exclusive network partner for Fold's prepaid debit and credit products in North America, Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean, Fold said Thursday.

The bitcoin-friendly shopping app Fold first partnered with Visa in 2020 to issue a debit card offering bitcoin (BTC) rewards instead of traditional reward points, similar to the reward levels you'd expect from a credit card. Fold had followed several other companies, including Coinbase (COIN), that offered Visa cards that offer bitcoin rewards.

Users have been rewarded over $30 million in bitcoin since the debit card launch but the expanded collaboration comes at a time when the "demand for bitcoin onramps outside the U.S is growing," said Will Reeves, CEO of Fold. Under the new arrangement, Fold and Visa will enter new regions. Plans include empowering existing local financial service companies to launch their own bitcoin rewards through the Fold infrastructure.

Despite the crypto banking crisis and the collapse of entities like the FTX exchange, Visa recently said it remains committed to investing in the crypto sector, after a report claimed otherwise. "We believe that digital currencies will play a role in the future of financial services and money movement," Cuy Sheffield, head of crypto at Visa.

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Visa and Bitcoin Rewards App Fold Expand Partnership to New Regions - CoinDesk

The signal goes on, and he shows up. Thats the way its been. Thats the way it will be.Whenever Gotham faces an existential threat, the Bat-Signal lights up the night sky. In the DC Comics universe, Batman always shows up to save the day when hes called upon.

Bitcoiners in Germany employed a similar tactic this week, emblazoning the preeminent cryptocurrencys logo with a message to study Bitcoin on the side of the European Central Bank building in Frankfurt.The images were shared widely across social media, with notable Bitcoin (BTC) proponents and various company profiles lauding the display.

A dose of the proverbial Orange Pill is particularly pertinent, given that the global banking sector has been under the spotlight after thecollapse of major institutions, such as Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank in the United States.

Meanwhile, European parliamentarians adopted a new draft bill focused on Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), which sets out potential new rules enforcing Know Your Customer requirements for traditional financial and crypto-related services.

In addition, parliamentarians seek to restrict cash and cryptocurrency payments for goods and services where customers cannot be identified. As per the draft legislation, the rules limit cash payments to up to 7,000 euros for cryptocurrency transactions or 1,000 euros if the users identity is unknown.

Related: Silicon Valley Banks downfall has many causes, but crypto isnt one

These proposed new rules are separate from the European Parliaments impending Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) bill, which is set to come into effect in 2024, a proposed set of rules and guidelines aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency market in Europe.

Liam Murphy, managing director of EMEA at Wachsman, tells Cointelegraph that the AML-CFT bill adopted on March 28 is focused on approving stricter rules to close gaps in combating money laundering, terrorist financing and the evasion of sanctions in the European Union.

Murphy added that he was also looking for more clarity on whether cryptocurrency transaction limits only apply to commercial transactions and not to transfers between private individuals.

Given that Wachsman serves a number of cryptocurrency service providers as a communications firm, Murphy noted industry participants are becoming more cognizant that the sector could use regulation to meet its full potential.

Erwin Voloder, senior policy fellow at the European Blockchain Association, also spoke to Cointelegraph about the European Parliaments draft bills implications for cryptocurrency payments.

He highlighted that greater clarity over AML/CTF provisions is welcome but contended that a double standard is constantly applied to crypto payments.

Voloder said that MEPs had previously back-peddled on the need to go through a CASP for the KYC process under Article 59a due to being unnecessarily onerous, according to industry feedback:

What also remains difficult to gauge is how cryptocurrency services like decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and even decentralized autonomous organizations will be governed by potential new laws.

Voloder used an example considering that a DeFi platform may have an interface that is client-facing, but the actual economic activity takes place within the smart contract, which is abstracted and independent from the interface layer.

This suggests that there is a strategy forming at the margins of the industry that could bring liability and default reporting obligations to the DeFi space, including nonfungible tokens.

The AML-focused legislation brings crypto under its purview to tighten up commercial transactions across Europe. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency space is shining a broad spotlight on the recent failings of the traditional banking sector. What remains to be answered is which industry needs more oversight at this moment in time.

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From Bat-Signal to Bitcoin: Projecting Orange Pill on banks as EU drives crypto regulation - Cointelegraph

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill earlier this month that seeks to bolster the federal governments powers in fighting perceived foreign technology threats. And some in the digital assets industry are warning it could possibly spell disaster for crypto.

The bill entitled the RESTRICT Actwhich stands for Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technologyhas garnered the support of 21 lawmakers whove co-sponsored the bill as well as the White House, which has urged Congress to act quickly to send it to the presidents desk.

In the name of protecting Americas national security, the bill calls on the Secretary of Commerce to identify, deter, disrupt, prevent, prohibit, and mitigate transactions involving information and communications technology products in which any foreign adversary has any interest by establishing new procedures.

Its introduction preceded a congressional hearing on Tik-Tok last week, where officials grilled the social media applications CEO with questions about the firms ties to China.

But the bills language is so broad that it could be used to prevent Americans from conducting cryptocurrency transactions or engaging with networks like Bitcoin entirely, according to a blog post from the cryptocurrency advocacy group Coin Center.

Although the primary targets of this legislation are companies like Tik-Tok, the language of the bill could potentially be used to block or disrupt cryptocurrency transactions and, in extreme cases, block Americans access to open source tools or protocols like Bitcoin, it states.

The advocacy groups primary issue with the RESTRICT Act is that it would create a regime within the Secretary of Commerce that would effectively run parallel to the U.S. Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), Coin Centers Director of Research Peter Van Valkenburgh told Decrypt.

In that sense, Van Valkenburgh said the regime would be redundant and create two different parts of the executive branch [that] can independently and without a lot of procedural checks ban technologies.

Another problem with the bill, according to Coin Center, is the potential scope of the word interest, which could be exploited in order to ban Americans from using entire classes of technologies if interpreted broadly, the advocacy group warned in its blog.

As an example, Coin Center referenced the blacklisting of the Ethereum coin-mixing tool Tornado Cash last summer by the OFAC, which Coin Center is currently challenging in court.

Under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the OFAC is granted the power to prevent Americans from transacting with sanctioned foreign persons.

And though its used to maintain privacy between people conducting Ethereum transactions, Tornado Cash was sanctioned by the OFAC as a whole for its alleged use by North Korean state-sponsored hacking groups to launder stolen funds.

Coin Center stated it would not object to the RESTRICT Act if it was used narrowly to prevent Bitcoin transactions with a specific recipient but cautioned against an interpretation that could argue the entire class of all Bitcoin transactions, for example, is a class of transactions in which U.S. foreign adversaries have an interest.

The advocacy group also raised concerns about the ability of Americans to challenge abuses of power based on the bills language and the potential for it to infringe on free speech compared to IEEPA.

It's going to be harder to challenge the designations made by the Secretary of Commerce under the RESTRICT Act if it was to pass into law because of the limitations on people's ability to bring challenges, Van Valkenburgh said.

The bills language is expansive in terms of the technology it would apply to, including mobile networks, cloud-based or distributed computing and data storage, payment applications, and e-commerce technology, such as online marketplaces or internet-enabled payment technology.

It's one thing to say that the national security complex should be able to ban specific examples of technology when they are directly owned and controlled by a foreign adversary, Van Valkenburgh said. But it's another thing to say that you can just identify a whole class of technologies, irrespective of their foreign ownership, and then claim that some foreign adversary has an interest in them.

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Coin Center Says RESTRICT Act Could Be Used to Ban Bitcoin - Decrypt

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to dominate conversations in the financial world, having capitalized on the crisis in the United States banking system to reach a new multi-month high. The recent performance has prompted industry experts to offer projections on Bitcoins potential price action in the coming days.

One such projection was made by venture capitalist and former CTO at crypto exchange Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan, in a tweet on March 18.

Balaji believes that Bitcoin will reach $1 million within 90 days due to the U.S. economy entering a phase of hyperinflation while warning that the world is likely to witness massive changes catalyzed by the devaluation of the dollar.

However, analyzing the viability of Balajis prediction, Matthew Kratter, founder of the Trader University YouTube channel, termed the forecast as over the top but directionally correct, as shared by MicroStrategy chair Michael Saylor in a tweet on March 24.

According to Kratter, while he views Balajis forecast as a marketing ploy, the probability of Bitcoin hitting $1 million in three months is 1-2%, but the asset has the potential to reach such price levels in the long term.

I think he is right about Bitcoin going to a million dollars. Ive talked about Bitcoin going to $5 million or $10 million per coin, just probably not in the next 90 days. I think this is a bit of a marketing ploy. If Bitcoin were to move to $1 million per coin in the next 90 days, I think that would be a terrible thing. It would actually be a sign that something major is broken, he said.

Kratter suggested Bitcoin at $1 million remains in play, noting that the asset is increasingly becoming attractive as a safe haven due to its lack of counterparty and debasement risks, which are prevalent in other assets. He noted that all other assets, including cryptocurrency, technology stocks, bank stocks, stock indices, and gold, are rapidly losing value when measured against Bitcoin.

What were seeing is everything is crashing against Bitcoin this is another way of saying that people are fleeing into Bitcoin. <> The entire financial system is unraveling, and savings and capital are being moved into Bitcoin. <> Its actually beginning to look like the Bitcoin network cant be stopped even during the financial crisis, Kratter added.

Furthermore, the author pointed out that gold, another safe-haven asset, is losing market share to Bitcoin and is depreciating relative to the maiden crypto. In his view, gold has failed to provide the security that investors are seeking during this crisis.

Interestingly, Kratter believes that Balajis forecast may be an attempt to bolster his personal reputation by aligning himself with Bitcoins coming success. Nevertheless, Kratter acknowledges that the current financial crisis and the Federal Reserves turning the money printers back on make Bitcoin an attractive option for investors.

While Kratter acknowledges that Bitcoin has limitations, such as its limited use as a form of payment and concerns about the security of exchanges and wallets, he predicts that the asset is likely to trade at $100,000 in the next three months and potentially hit $1 million by the end of the current decade.

After weeks of rallying, Bitcoin is facing resistance at $30,000. By press time, BTC was trading at $27,628 with daily losses of almost 2%.

The current Bitcoin price follows an inflow of capital that elevated the assets market cap to hit $531.717 billion. In this line, Bitcoin is on the verge of reentering the top ten category of assets by market cap globally.

Disclaimer:The content on this site should not be considered investment advice. Investing is speculative. When investing, your capital is at risk.

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Can Bitcoin reach $1 million in 90 days? Expert analyzes Balaji's ... - Finbold - Finance in Bold

Bitcoin rose above $29,000 on Thursday, as price moved to its strongest point since last June. The surge came despite some consolidation in cryptocurrency markets, ahead of the upcoming U.S. GDP report. Ethereum was also higher, as it continued to trade above $1,800.

Bitcoin (BTC) moved to its highest point in nine months, despite cryptocurrencies mostly consolidating ahead of the upcoming U.S. GDP report.

Following a low of $28,155.83 on Wednesday, BTC/USD raced to an intraday peak of $29,159.90 earlier in the session.

As a result of this surge in price, bitcoin climbed above the $29,000 level for the first time since June 10.

Looking at the chart, the move came as BTC briefly broke out of a resistance at $28,500, with the relative strength index (RSI) moving past a similar threshold.

As of writing, the index is tracking at the 65.27 level, which is marginally above its ceiling at 65.00.

Overall, BTC bulls have moved to secure some of their earlier gains, with the price now trading at $28,582.20.

Ethereum (ETH) continued to trade above $1,800 on Thursday, however sentiment shifted after it failed to sustain a breakout at a key point.

ETH/USD rose to a high of $1,827.28 on Thursday, which comes less than 24 hours after the price was at a low of $1,776.64.

Although marginally moving above its aforementioned ceiling at $1,825, ethereum bulls were unable to maintain upward momentum.

As of writing, ETH is trading at $1,800.78, which coincides with the RSI hovering around its recent resistance level at 58.00.

The index is currently tracking at 58.25, with a move below the 58.00 level almost certainly to trigger further declines.

Momentum also appears to be slowing, with the 10-day (red) moving average nearing a downward crossover.

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Could we see ethereum rally before the end of the week? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Eliman was previously a director of a London-based brokerage, whilst also an online trading educator. Currently, he commentates on various asset classes, including Crypto, Stocks and FX, whilst also a startup founder.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin, Ethereum Technical Analysis: BTC Rises to $29000 for First ... - Bitcoin News

With the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies, it is no surprise that celebrities and athletes are taking an interest, including the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) two-division champion Conor McGregor who has partnered with various crypto businesses, leading many to wonder how much Bitcoin (BTC) he held.

Indeed, after becoming the poster boy for Dapper Labs blockchain collectibles through CryptoKitties developers partnership with UFC in early 2021, the featherweight and lightweight double-champion has entered into various partnerships and endorsement deals that have to do with the crypto market.

In September 2022, McGregor was featured in an advertisement for the trading platform XTB which facilitates the exchange of digital assets, commodities, stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and more, as the global fintech company announced his two-year gig as its brand ambassador.

More recently, in the fallout of the FTX collapse, it came to the publics attention that the Switzerland-based centralized crypto exchange Tiger.Trade (TT), endorsed by McGregor, had connections to Sam Bankman-Frieds platform, which has claimed that TT was only a partner through integration and it held no responsibility for its partners.

Having said that, despite the Irish MMA stars various exposures to digital assets and rumors of crypto investments, it is currently unknown how much Bitcoin he has, if any.

Meanwhile, McGregor is not the only UFC fighter, let alone the only famous individual endorsing crypto, as the former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou gave serious thought to accepting 50% of his fight purse in Bitcoin, as Finbold reported in January 2022, and his decision was in the cryptos favor.

At the same time, American socialite Kim Kardashian came into the limelight after being charged, along with former boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., and former basketball player Paul Pierce, by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the social media promotion of a controversial digital asset offered by EthereumMax (EMAX).

It should also be noted that Crypto.com became the first-ever crypto exchange platform to establish a long-term partnership with UFC as its global Official Fight Kit Partner and UFCs first-ever Official Cryptocurrency Platform Partner as part of a 10-year deal worth $175 million signed in July 2021.

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Crypto and the Notorious: Is Conor McGregor invested in Bitcoin? - Finbold - Finance in Bold

ACCRA, Ghana Block CEO Jack Dorsey and his top brass descended on Accra for the inaugural Africa Bitcoin Conference in December to talk about one of the most potentially disruptive and transformative alternatives to the continent's existing financial system: bitcoin.

Since its inception in 2008, this unfamiliar form of money has alternatively been disdained as an absurdly complex toy for libertarian techies, a legalized form of gambling, a speculative bet to get rich quick, and a vehicle for criminals and fraudsters to obscure the origins of their ill-begotten gains.

But this parallel financial system can also serve a tangible social good, offering an onramp to the financial system for people who would otherwise be left out. In countries where the vast majority of the population is unbanked, national currencies are no longer a safe store of value, remittances comprise a hefty portion of GDP, and international sanctions complicate connections to the global economy, a virtual currency that doesn't require an intermediary to approve transactions can be a vital lifeline for survival.

As cryptocurrency continues to rise in prominence and becomes a growing flashpoint for regulators, Dorsey and his deputies are providing an essential counternarrative: Bitcoin brings financial power to people who would otherwise have none.

"It doesn't matter to me if the price goes down or up, because I can still use bitcoin as a vehicle to move money around the world instantaneously," said Mike Brock, the CEO of TBD at Block, a unit which focuses on cryptocurrency and decentralized finance.

"I can exchange dollars for bitcoin and then bitcoin for Brazilian rial. There is a market for bitcoin in every corner of the world today," continued Brock.

Moving money in Africa is an expensive and complicated process.

Commercial bank branch access is limited, especially for people living in remote and rural areas. Digital banking options are also limited. Tack on rampant hyperinflation, widespread government corruption, and capital controls trapping domestic cash in banks, and money can stop making sense altogether.

"If someone wants to move money to the country next door, normally, you'd have to fill up a suitcase full of cash and move it over the border," explains Ray Youssef, CEO of Paxful.

Part of the problem stems from the continent's quasi-colonial payment framework, in which roughly 80% of cross-border payments originating from African banks are processed offshore, mostly in the U.S. or Europe. That translates to higher costs and processing times that are sometimes measured in weeks.

Then there's mobile money, which has been around since the early 2000s. Think of it like an electronic wallet tied to a phone number that does not require a smartphone or data to operate. Users can pay bills and shop with their phone through SMS texting, instead of having to rely on traditional banking options.

Africa's mobile money transactions rose 39% to more than $700 billion in 2021, according to data from the GSM Association, a non-profit representing mobile network operators worldwide. World Bank data shows that account ownership at a financial institution or via a mobile money service provider has more than doubled in the last decade, rising to 55% of adults in Sub-Saharan Africa.

An employee uses a Nokia 1200 mobile phone inside an M-Pesa store in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, April 14, 2013.

Trevor Snap | Bloomberg | Getty Images

But even as adoption proliferates, mobile money users don't get the perks of legacy banking, including earning interest on banked savings and building up a credit score based on a history of spending. Interoperability on the continent also remains a major issue with this alternative way of banking.

"The entire banking system in Africa is completely and utterly broken, even amongst the mobile money providers, the telcos," said Youssef from Paxful, a peer-to-peer crypto marketplace where users can directly buy and sell tokens with one another.

"Two thousand payment networks and only 2% of them talk to each other. That number continues to grow. It's not getting better, it's actually getting worse," continued Youssef.

Companies like Western Union and MoneyGram offer an expansive physical network of storefronts around the world designed to move money for those who are unbanked. That cash network was extraordinarily difficult and expensive to build, which is why there aren't a lot of direct competitors. It is also why those cash transfers often incur substantial fees.

Bitcoin could eliminate all these intermediaries, allowing citizens to send digital payments directly to one another, without relying on credit and without incurring multiple settlement fees along the way.

"We're going to move to a model where we can make payments without IOUs, or credit, or promises, or fiat," said Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer for the Human Rights Foundation, an organization that works with activists from authoritarian regimes around the world. "It's literally like sending a piece of gold or a $20 bill instantly somewhere else."

"If you can get access to the internet, you can settle bitcoin payments," said Brock. "And the government can't do anything about it."

Dorsey points to the example of what happened in Nigeria during the protests against the brutality of the country's Special Anti-Robbery Squad a movement referred to as #EndSARS.

"The Nigerian government went to various bank corps to stop protesters from receiving money which bitcoin made up for," Dorsey said in Accra. "So our whole reason for being as a company is solving the same problem that bitcoin will ultimately solve for everyone in the world."

Moving money on the bitcoin blockchain at its base layer has its own challenges. At times of peak demand, fees will often spike higher, and if a user is unwilling to pay a premium for the transaction, they may have to wait for more blocks of transactions to get confirmed before their transfer goes through.

Bitcoin's Lightning Network helps alleviate both of those problems by slashing the cost of transactions to virtually zero and enabling nearly instantaneous cash payments around the planet making bitcoin a more effective payment rail. This so-called "layer two" technology is built on top of bitcoin's main chain, in part because bitcoiners are conservative about introducing changes to the base layer, for fear of opening it up to hacks or other mischief.

Yellow Card Africa's largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange run by CEO Chris Maurice is also looking to embed this layer two technology into the platform, in order to drive down the price of transactions to virtually zero. Currently, the exchange doesn't charge a commission for transactions, but network fees can be pretty steep when a lot of trades are happening at once.

"It'll have a pretty big impact to our customers, because a lot of them are very price sensitive," says Justin Poiroux, the co-founder and CTO of Yellow Card.

Yellow Card's plan is still in its infancy, but Poiroux tells CNBC that he thinks the Lightning Network could ultimately provide a lot of value for its retail customers.

Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah and Cash App's crypto product lead, Miles Suter, at the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Accra, Ghana.

Bernard Parah

Because Lightning offers a universal monetary language, money can travel around the world between any Lightning-enabled bitcoin wallet. Someone who uses a platform like Block's Cash App a regulated, American financial product with 51 million monthly transacting users which integrated with the Lightning Network in Feb. 2022 can pay any Lightning invoice in the world instantly.

"It's a new way of doing business. It's a different paradigm entirely," said Gladstein.

The crypto product lead at Cash App, Miles Suter, believes that a big part of bitcoin's utility is how it gets around broken and convoluted payment systems that don't talk to each other.

"At Cash App in particular, we've always been really interested in taking bitcoin beyond just being seen an investment and bringing day-to-day utility to it," Suter told CNBC on the sidelines of the Africa Bitcoin Conference.

"In many ways, the people on the African continent are already doing that with the tools they have," continued Suter.

Bernard Parah is a 30-year-old entrepreneur living in Jos, Nigeria, about a five hour drive from the capital city of Abuja. He's the CEO of Bitnob, an app that lets users across Africa buy, save, and invest in bitcoin. Bitnob is SMS-based and piggybacks on the mobile money system, making it easier for people to send money directly into bank accounts and mobile money wallets in African countries.

Parah recently teamed up with Strike, a Lightning Network payments platform, to launch a feature called "Send Globally" that allows Americans to transfer money to people living in Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya.

It uses local fiat cash on either side of the transaction, but bitcoin is used under the hood as the pipeline to jump money over the border. The end user never touches the cryptocurrency themselves.

"We're able to settle into bank accounts or mobile money accounts, without the recipients having to interact with bitcoin themselves," Parah tells CNBC.

"Over time, we've seen that there are still people who really don't understand how to use bitcoin; who don't care about bitcoin. What they do care about is their problems getting solved," continued Parah.

Bitnob CEO Bernard Parah and Strike CEO Jack Mallers announcing the launch of 'Send Globally' on stage at the Africa Bitcoin Conference in Accra, Ghana.

Bernard Parah

It feels like a wire transfer or a Venmo payment, according to Strike CEO Jack Mallers.

"It's instant. There's no debt. There's no credit. There's no delays," explains Mallers.

The model works because Parah and Mallers are willing to take on the liability associated with the transfer by holding cash in escrow on either end of the exchange.

Once the money is received in Nigeria, Bitnob which is a regulated entity with connections to the local banks will take that bitcoin and turn it into their local currency.

"It's just two regulated entities communicating over the language of bitcoin and cutting out excess fees," said Suter. "I think that's revolutionary."

Mallers says that they offer more competitive foreign exchange rates by using bitcoin as a price-setting intermediary, a sort of new world reserve currency.

"The rate that we got was actually 60% better than the traditional forex market rate," said Mallers. "The way to actually think about how we're achieving forex if we clear through bitcoin is, 'I have dollars. How many bitcoin can I get for my dollars? And then how many naira can I get for my bitcoin?'" said Mallers.

"It's acting as the most liquid, accessible, global instrument for us to clear and settle value amongst each other," he said.

The arrangement also offers a few big ancillary benefits, including interoperability with payment apps around the world that have tens of millions of users.

Block's Suter explained that Cash App could theoretically interoperate with Bitnob.

"We're only live in the U.S. right now, but that doesn't mean we can't speak to Bitnob in Nigeria and transfer value instantly and for free across these borders," Suter said of Cash App.

South African developer Kgothatso Ngako built a custodial lightning wallet called Machankura.

Kgothatso Ngako

South African developer Kgothatso Ngako, who goes by KG, has integrated the Lightning Network into the GSM network, combining the best of a few worlds, in a larger effort to meet customers where they are.

"My focus is giving people without an internet connection the ability to send or receive bitcoin," Ngako said.

KG calls his custodial Lightning wallet "Machankura" South African slang for money. Whereas most Lightning transactions today require a smartphone and data, Ngako's service integrates lightning via Unstructured Supplementary Service Data, or USSD, which is the protocol that mobile money runs on. (It is similar to HTTP, or HyperText Transport Protocol, the protocol on which the web was built.)

Ngako tells CNBC that he currently has around 3,000 users spread across eight countries, with a concentration in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, and Nigeria. In his home market of South Africa, there are strict rules around currency exchange, which make his product even more appealing to some users looking to move their money abroad.

"The South African Reserve Bank regulates the cross-border flow of capital including the exchange of currency to and from South Africa. You need some form of approval to convert ZAR into foreign currency," said Ernest Marais, partner at Johannesburg law firm, Tabacks.

KG's Machankura is compatible with any Lightning wallet on the planet. In practice, this means that someone with the Cash App in San Francisco, for example, could instantly send bitcoin via Lightning to the phone number of someone with a data-less, basic phone living in a remote part of Uganda.

Ngako's project does face some risks, including regulatory blowback.

Marais tells CNBC that because the South African Reserve Bank cannot regulate the cross-border flow of cryptocurrency, it is considered to be illegal and a criminal offense though crypto regulation largely remains nebulous across most of the continent.

"All African central banks, except for Central African Republic, have made notices stating that they don't issue bitcoin and hence they don't regulate it," counters Ngako, adding that a bitcoin transaction cannot be considered a cross-border exchange as bitcoin transactions aren't regulated within the central bank's institution.

But the rules are confusing for everyone involved.

"The actual location of crypto assets is an anomaly. At what point does it leave the country?" continued Marais.

Ultimately, Ngako believes that once Machankura begins to scale, it will be a major driver of bitcoin adoption across the continent. To that end, Ngako is raising money and building a common refrain among the entrepreneurs on the ground in Accra.

As Dorsey said in Africa, "More and more mass adoption will, in my belief, take away all the oxygen" from governments attempting to control behavior through financial oppression.

"So what do we do? We build, we build, we build, we build, we build, they can't stop us. And that's what's important."

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Bitcoin is poised to blow up Africa's $86 billion banking system - CNBC

Arman Shirinyan

Massive volume of orders liquidated from market after Bitcoin made new high

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Bitcoin recently experienced a significant spike in liquidations, reaching approximately $130 million following a price surge above $29,000.

Liquidations on the cryptocurrency market occur when traders' positions are closed, usually as a result of margin calls or stop-loss orders being triggered. A high volume of liquidations might lead to increased volatility, as large numbers of positions are closed and assets are sold off. This can create a domino effect, causing further liquidations and exacerbating price movements.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $28,613, having gained around 7% in value over the last 48 hours. Despite this increase, the digital asset has not yet reached its local high of $29,346 reached back on March 24. The market is closely monitoring Bitcoin's price performance, as breaking through the local high could potentially signal a more extended bullish run.

Interestingly, funding rates on centralized exchanges remain relatively low. This suggests that the current rally may not be fueled by leverage, which could be both a positive and negative factor for Bitcoin's price movement.

On the one hand, a rally that is not driven by leveraged positions can be considered more stable, as it reduces the risk of a cascade of liquidations due to margin calls. In this scenario, the market may be able to sustain its growth without facing a sharp downturn caused by leveraged traders being forced to close their positions.

On the other hand, low funding rates might also imply that there is a lack of confidence among traders, with many choosing not to leverage their positions in anticipation of a potential price reversal. This could hinder Bitcoin's ability to maintain its upward momentum, as traders remain cautious and unwilling to take on additional risk.

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$130 Million Worth of Bitcoin Shorts Liquidated as BTC Spikes Above $29,000 - U.Today

XRP dominates the market share in trade volume across South Koreas four largest exchanges.

XRP trade volume across the top South Korean crypto exchanges has recently seen a massive surge. The asset currently dominates the market share in Koreas four largest exchanges, comfortably overtaking Bitcoin (BTC). This development underscores renewed demand for the XRP, as South Korean traders look to leverage its latest rally.

Data from price-tracking resource CoinMarketCap indicates that XRP has overtaken BTC in trade volume dominance on UpBit, Bithumb, Coinone, and Korbit, all among South Koreas top five cryptocurrency exchanges.

XRP is witnessing a 24-hour trade volume of $569.2 million on UpBit, Koreas largest exchange. This volume represents 17.03% of UpBits trade volume in the past 24 hours. In contrast, Bitcoin sees a 24-hour volume of $188.6 million, accounting for 5.64% of total trade volume.

Moreover, XRPs trade volume on Bithumb currently stands at $137.9 million at the time of writing, representing 34.05% of the exchanges total trade volume. On the other hand, Bitcoins trade volume amounts to $71.1 million, representing 17.57% market share. Bithumb is South Koreas second-largest exchange.

Coinone, the third largest exchange in Korea, is also seeing a dominance of XRP in its trade volume, as the asset boasts a volume of $35.9 million, accounting for 42.08% of its volume in the past 24 hours. XRPs trade volume on Coinone is more than double of Bitcoins volume, which stands at $16.4 million.

XRPs dominance also spilled into Korbit, Koreas fifth-largest exchange. The asset currently commands 38.02% of Korbits total 24-hour trade volume. The assets volume stands at $2.8 million. BTC follows closely behind in market share, with 36.99%. All volumes are taken from trades against the Korean won (KRW).

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Despite a 1.71% decline in the past 24 hours, XRPs rally endures, as the asset has maintained a 22.34% gain in the past week. This positions XRP as the highest gainer among the top 100 assets by market cap.

The asset reclaimed the much-coveted $0.55 zone yesterday for the first time in ten months. It towered over the territory, reaching a high of $0.579 before facing a roadblock. XRP is trading for $0.5412, with a new goal to reclaim the $0.60 price level.

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XRP Overtakes Bitcoin in Volume on Top 4 Korean Exchanges - The Crypto Basic

On-chain data shows the Bitcoin MVRV ratio is approaching a retest of the 1.5 level, breaking above which may be bullish for the assets price.

As explained by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, the 1.5 level of the metric has held significant importance in the past. The MVRV ratio is an indicator that measures the ratio between the market cap of Bitcoin and its realized cap.

The realized cap here refers to a capitalization model for BTC that assumes that each coin in the circulating supply has its real value the same as the price at which it was last moved or transferred on the blockchain.

Since the MVRV ratio compares the market cap (that is, the normal price of BTC) with this fair-value model, the ratios value can provide hints about whether BTC is currently aptly valued or not.

When the value of the indicator is higher than one, it means the assets market cap is greater than its realized cap right now. Such a trend can imply the cryptocurrency may be overvalued currently.

On the other hand, the metric having values below this threshold suggest the fair value of BTC is above its current price, and hence, the coin may be undervalued at the moment.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin MVRV ratio over the last few years:

As you can see in the above graph, the quant has highlighted the relevant portions of the trend for the Bitcoin MVRV ratio. The region below 1, as mentioned earlier, is the undervalued zone where bottoms have historically formed for the coin. Cyclical tops, however, havent generally formed in the zone above 1, but rather at much higher values like 3 or more.

Following the COVID crash back in 2020, the MVRV bounced out of the underpriced region and showed some constant upwards momentum, until it reached higher than 3.75, and the top of the bull run in the first half of 2021 was formed.

After that, in the May-July 2021 mini-bear period, the indicator took a plunge and hit a value of around 1.5. The level, however, provided support to the metric and helped it make a sharp recovery, which ultimately culminated in the November 2021 Bitcoin all-time high price.

When the transition towards the bear market started to take place, the MVRV ratio plummeted to the 1.5 level again, but the line once again helped the indicator hold on.

This time, however, after sideways movement around the level, the indicator eventually plunged below it as the market crash due to the LUNA collapse occurred.

The decline also continued later with the Three Arrows Capital (3AC) collapse, and the metric found itself inside the undervalued region again. The ratio spent a while in this zone until the latest rally came and finally pulled it out of there. This escape above the region may suggest that at least the worst of the bear market may be over for now.

With the sharp rise in BTC recently, the MVRV ratio has also naturally continued to go up and is now approaching the 1.5 level which it had multiple encounters within the last few years.

Its possible that the coin could find resistance here and be rejected back downwards. The quant believes, however, that if a breach does happen here, then Bitcoin might be able to sustain its bullish momentum.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading around $28,600, up 4% in the last week.

Featured image from Dmitry Demidko on Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, CryptoQuant.com

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Bitcoin MVRV Ratio Approaches 1.5 Level, Will Break Happen? - NewsBTC

Texas-based Bitcoin mining companies may soon be without the financial incentives that have let the industry gain a strong competitive advantage in the Lone Star State.

Introduced earlier this month, Senate Bill 1751 seeks to protect the states electric grid during peak loads, with one proposed measure being the utility-scale.

A key provision of the bill is that it would restrict Bitcoin mining companies from participating in a state-run demand response program. This program rewards miners for giving power back to the grid when demand threatens to overwhelm the system unless the anticipated demand for electricity is less than 10 percent of the total load required by all loads in the program, the bill reads.

The bill would also bar "virtual currency mining from tax abatements given that the large scale of growth in virtual currency mining is already projected to occur in the state, said the bills sponsor Senator Lois Kolkhorst during Tuesday's testimony, adding that theres no need to subsidize that growth.

The Texas senator insisted that the bill is not a punitive one, but rather rightsizes for the industry that doesnt need that kind of assistance.

Sharing portions of his speech made during the same testimony with Decrypt, U.S. Blockchain Corp.'s chief commercial officer Matt Prusak said that his firm understands "that the goal of SB1751 is to ensure the responsible growth of the bitcoin mining industry in Texas. While we share this goal, we believe that the current proposal may have unintended consequences that could negatively impact both the mining sector and the broader energy market."

Riot Blockchain, one of the largest Texas-based Bitcoin mining companies that recently rebranded to Riot Platforms, has been a large beneficiary of the current incentives in Texas. Last Summer, it earned as much as $9.5 million in power credits after suspending operations during the heatwave.

Riots Rockdale Bitcoin mining facility, which is believed to be one of the largest in North America, has a total power capacity of 750 MW. The firm has also kicked off development for a large-scale 1 gigawatt (GW) development to expand its Bitcoin mining and hosting capabilities in Navarro County, with the initial 400 MW of capacity expected to begin in July 2023.

According to a recent Reuters report citing the Texas Blockchain Council president Lee Bratcher, Texas-based Bitcoin miners currently consume about 2,100 megawatts of the state's power supplies, up 75% over the last year.

Moreover, the latest power usage metric was almost triple that of the prior year, said Bratcher.

Data by ERCOT also shows that the Texas Bitcoin mining industrys power demand accounts for nearly 3.7% of the states lowest forecast peak load this year.

Those opposing the bill and taking part in the testimony included the Texas Blockchain Council president Lee Bratcher and the organizations director of Business Development Kristine Cranley, as well as Riots VP Pierre Rochard.

Bitcoin mining is uniquely capable of addressing the needs of the grid, unlike any other industry, because it is able to shut off in an instant and then come back relatively quickly, said Cranley.

Lee Bratcher stressed that the Bitcoin mining industry in Texas directly employs about 2,000 people across the state and another 20,000 people for indirect jobs, while also working closely with the ERCOT to ensure that miners are interconnecting responsibly.

Pierre Rochard also addressed the matter of cutting tax abatements for the industry, noting that these abatements have created hundreds of rural jobs.

U.S. Bitcoin Corp.'s Prusak told Decrypt that his firm "is committed to responsible growth and cooperation with regulators to ensure a sustainable future for both the bitcoin mining industry and Texas' energy infrastructure."

According to Rochard, Riot is currently the number one employer and the number one taxpayer in Rockdale.

Decrypt has reached out for comments to Riot Platforms and the Texas Blockchain Council and will update the article should we hear back.

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New Texas Senate Bill Seeks to Slash Bitcoin Mining Incentives - Decrypt

ZUG, Switzerland, March 30, 2023:Bitcoin Association for BSV is pleased to announce thatBitcoin SV (BSV) tokenis now available to trade onTransak, a leading global digital currency platform. The listing of BSV on Transak will provide users with easy access to the digital assets, enabling them to buy, store and sell BSV on a platform known for its convenience, security, and reliability in several major regions worldwide.

Transak is a U.K.-based developer integration service for web3 apps to support fiat-to-crypto deposits and withdrawals. It streamlines buying and selling digital assets, allowing mainstream users and businesses to access blockchain tokens. With its focus on providing a seamless user experience, Transak is available across 160 cryptocurrencies on 75+ blockchains via cards, bank transfers and other payment methods in 150 countries.

BSVs listing on Transak comes when more businesses and individuals embrace digital currencies for payment and investment. The new listing is a clear indication of BSVs continued growth. Designed to be more scalable and efficient, BSV is known for its fast-processing times and low transaction fees, making it an attractive option for businesses and individuals looking for a reliable and affordable payment system. BSV is well-positioned to become a leading player in the digital currency space.

Shawn Ryan, Director of Corporate Relationships Exchanges, Wallets, for the Bitcoin Association for BSV,said, We are thrilled to partner with Transak and to see BSV listed on their platform. This new listing provides more opportunities for BSV users to access and transact with digital currencies easily. We believe this will strengthen BSVs position in the digital currency market and reinforce our commitment to providing our users with a reliable and efficient payment system.

About Bitcoin Association for BSV

Bitcoin Association is a non-profit association (Verein) in Switzerland and the global industry organisation which advances Bitcoin SV (BSV). It brings together enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others in the Bitcoin SV ecosystem. The Association supports Bitcoin SV as the original Bitcoin, with a stable protocol and massive scaling roadmap to becoming the worlds new money and global blockchain for enterprise. The organisation seeks to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while encouraging digital currency and blockchain innovation.

Lightning Sharks, on behalf of Bitcoin Association for BSV

Haris Khan, [emailprotected]. +44 (0) 7503 581 563

New to Bitcoin? Check out CoinGeeksBitcoin for Beginnerssection, the ultimate resource guide to learn more about Bitcoinas originally envisioned by Satoshi Nakamotoand blockchain.

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Bitcoin SV is now listed on Transak.com - CoinGeek