Crypto Scoop: Bitcoin Flashes Green Before Dipping Below $19,000 Temporarily
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October, 21 2022
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Crypto whales amass BTC and ETH holdings as more countries seek crypto initiatives.
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While the crypto market rallies to recovery, more countries seek crypto initiatives. In this edition of the crypto scoop, we review:
- Bitcoin’s addition to the Guinness Book of World Records
- Crypto Whales Amass Bitcoin and Ethereum Holding
- Macau’s proposal to adopt a digital currency as a legal tender
- South Africa recognises Cryptocurrencies as financial product
Bitcoin Added to The Guinness Book Of World Records
Guinness Book of World Records (GWR) listed bitcoin as the first decentralised cryptocurrency in this year's annual records. This isn't the first time Bitcoin has received accolades. In 2016 bitcoin was added to the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary, and in 2018 the Scrabble lexicon.
GWR notes, "The Bitcoin network [solves] the double spend problem with a "trustless" mechanism that does not require any third party (e.g., banks) to verify transactions; and it achieves that with validators (i.e., miners, in PoW.) Miners are computers dedicated to the network to validate all transactions and prohibit bad actors."
Bitcoin's price climbed over $19,500 on Monday, October 17 but soon slipped below $19,000. The price dip was only temporary, and bitcoin is again trading above $19,000 while ETH trades at $1,200.
Crypto Whale (Source: iStock)
Crypto Whales Amass BTC and ETH Holdings
While the bearish conditions continue, it has become more expensive and difficult to mine bitcoin, with mining difficulty surging to 35.6 trillion. Last week, BTC went through a difficulty adjustment that delayed a block from being confirmed for about 85 minutes delaying over 13,000 transactions.
However, Tadge Dryja, the founder of the Lightning Network, reassured the bitcoin community, noting that an 85-minute interval between blocks can be expected to happen once every 34 days, not considering difficulty changes.
Despite the current market conditions, Ethereum whales have accumulated their ETH holdings. Since the merge, Ethereum whales have added $4.55 billion worth of ETH, according to the crypto-analytic platform, Santiment.
CryptoQuant's CEO, Ki Young Ju, also revealed, "Since Bitcoin price hit the $20k level, Binance spot trading volume dominance skyrocketed, and it's now 84%. This suggests that the accumulation phase is underway by BTC investors. Ki Young Ju, however, added that he wasn't certain whether the whales were institutions using brokers or just "crypto OGs."
Macau's proposal to adopt a digital currency as a legal tender
The city of Macau, a Chinese special administrative territory with a robust casino industry, is exploring granting legal tender status to digital currencies. The proposal did not identify any specific digital currency. The bill, titled "Legal regime for the creation and issuance of currency," also proposes to penalise refusal to accept legal tender as an administrative offence, with fines ranging from 1,000 MOP (US$123).
Madeira, an island nation, also seeks to emulate El Salvador's Bitcoin success. An advisory board was created and charged with examining a campaign for bitcoin acceptance and potential.
South Africa recognises cryptocurrency as a financial product
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA), South Africa's financial regulator, has recognised crypto assets as a "financial product" subject to the same regulatory monitoring as corporate shares, debt, and other money-making instruments.
Crypto assets are defined by the FSCA as a "digital representation of value that a central bank does not issue but can be traded, transferred, and stored for payment, investment, and other use cases." Crypto asset service providers must comply with a series of legal regulations to operate legally in the country and acquire a license.
France will also reassess its crypto tax regulations next year as it strives to become the world's leading blockchain hub. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire explained, "We want to make the European Union the world's leading economic zone for structuring and organising the crypto market. We want to use the year 2023 to deepen our reflection with stakeholders to identify if new adaptations to tax legislation are necessary."
Mastercard's Initiative To Enable Banks Offer Crypto Trading
Mastercard is working to help banks offer crypto trading. Master card asserts that Crypto is on the Cusp of going Mainstream, and this is an initiative to facilitate easier access. The Crypto Source initiative assists financial institutions in offering their customers crypto trading and related services.
Mastercard collaborated with Paxos Trust Company to enable Crypto Source to allow financial institutions to deliver secure crypto trading capabilities and services to their consumers by partnering with regulated and licenced crypto custody providers."
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