Crypto

Despite Russia adopting its first cryptocurrency law in January 2021, the country’s cryptocurrency market is still largely unregulated and is associated with a lot of uncertainty, according to a local industry advocate. Yury Pripachkin, head of the Russian Association of Cryptoindustry and Blockchain (RACIB), argued that the existing Russian crypto regulations are nothing more than “half-measures” that have nothing to do with systematic solutions. In an interview with local news agency RBC, Pripachkin referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin issuing multiple consecutive mandates to adopt crypto regulation over the past four years. The executive highlighted that the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies surged from around $200 billion in 2017 to the current $2.7 trillion, but ...

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistleblower, revealed that her refuge in Puerto Rico is currently being supported by an auspiciously timed cryptocurrency investment. Haugen worked as a Facebook product manager before accusing the company of spreading controversial and insensitive misinformation. She allegedly possesses numerous confidential research documents, which, according to her, shows that “Facebook prioritizes profit over the well-being of children and all users.” Previously, Facebook has been accused of influencing the 2016 United States presidential election with the help of Russian agencies. In a follow-up interview with The New York Times, Haugen was asked about her financial situation: “For the foreseeable future, I’m fine, because I did buy crypto at t...

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is set to officially introduce the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the eNaira. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has published a document in which it reaffirmed its intention to introduce the eNaira after previously attempting but failing to do so on Oct. 1. According to the design paper for the eNaira, the CBN now considers itself prepared to implement Nigeria’s CBDC.  The CBN is working on a global cryptocurrency that will be used as a means of payment and a store of value in addition to replacing cash. The CBN, in its own statement, downplayed the risks of missing a deadline. Rather, the bank emphasized the value of getting things right the first time and how doing so contributes to long-term success for digital currencies. The CB...

Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has been declining against its top crypto rival, Bitcoin (BTC), since Sept. 3. Ether dropped in value against Bitcoin by almost 25% after topping out in September at 0.07955 BTC. As the top altcoin declined, it left behind a trail of lower highs and lower lows, thus forming an ascending channel. Later, ETH/BTC broke the channel to the upside on Saturday, raising anticipations about a strong extended recovery trend. But a selloff on Sunday and the ongoing session had traders test the channel’s resistance trendline as support. ETH price charts suggest bullish divergence The sentiment raised Ether’s possibility to reenter the falling range as shown in the chart below. ETH/BTC daily price chart featuring bullish divergence. Source: TradingView At the same ...

Bitcoin (BTC) has a long history of forming local tops when events that are anticipated by the market occur. The recent Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) launch on Oct. 19 was no different and led to a 53% monthly rally to an all-time high at $67,000. Now that the price has briefly fallen below $60,000, investors are attempting to understand if the 10% correction was a healthy short-term profit taking or the end of the bull run. To determine this, traders need to analyze BTC’s previous price activity to evaluate the possible similarities. Bitcoin price in USD. Source: TradingView The chart above depicts the day of a New York Times headline announcing that “Bitcoin gets cautious nod from China’s central bank” in November 2013. At the time, Yi Gang, the deputy govern...

New York-based decentralized prediction market Polymarket has come under investigations from the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). According to an Oct. 23 report from Bloomberg citing anonymous sources, the CFTC is investigating whether Polymarket is allowing its customers to trade binary options and swaps that should be registered with the financial regulator. The CFTC is yet to confirm whether it is investigating Polymarket. A spokesperson for the platform stated: “Polymarket is firmly committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations and to providing information to regulators that will assist them with any inquiry.” The report claims that the company has engaged the former director of the CFTC’s enforcement division and current partner at legal firm Su...

Shiba Inu (SHIB), the recently surging Dogecoin-inspired ERC-20, suffered a 20% retracement in two hours as Tesla founder and hypothetical Doge CEO Elon Musk announced to Twitter that he doesn’t hold any Shiba Inu tokens. The retracement came after SHIB surged past its previous all-time high to tag a local top of $0.000044 on Oct. 24 following a more than 500% rally since the start of October. Amid the token’s bullish price action, Twitter user “ShibaInuHodler” asked Musk how much Shib he was holding, to which Musk responded: “None.” Hey @elonmusk How Much $Shib You Are Holding!! — Shiba Inu (@ShibaInuHodler) October 24, 2021 While SHIB sellers had already stepped in to take profits at the token’s local all-time high, SHIB would quickly lose a further 10% to trade for $0.000035 withi...

Nonfungible token (NFT) investors have poured $7 million into a dutch auction that sold 50 tokens conferring ownership over digital artworks that will not be minted until December. Tyler Hobbs, the artist behind the popular NFT series Fidenza, will launch 100 one-a-kind digital artworks in his latest collection Incomplete Control at the New York City-based Bright Moments gallery from Dec. 9 to Dec. 13. On Oct. 22, Hobbs’ fans contributed 1,800 ETH (worth more than $7 million) in exchange for 50 of 100 “Golden Tokens” that grant its holder ownership rights to one of the artworks slated to be minted during the event. Each of the tokens features a number between one and 50 that corresponds to a specific artwork from the collection. The Golden Tokens were sold via a dutch auction hosted by Mir...

In a calendar year, the total crypto market capitalization more than quadrupled from $361 billion to more than $1 trillion in January — reaching an all-time high of around $2.6 trillion in May. Just weeks later, more than $800 million was wiped off of the total crypto market cap, representing a decrease of over 33%. Volatility of this magnitude in the crypto markets is nothing new, especially for those battle-tested by market cycles of years past. However, research indicates that the global number of blockchain wallet users increased by more than 25 million since March 2020, meaning this is just the first roller coaster ride for 25 million new entrants. For newcomers, volatility can be downright terrifying — but it doesn’t have to be. With well-researched positions and a long-term outlook,...

In her monthly Expert Take column, Selva Ozelli, an international tax attorney and CPA, covers the intersection between emerging technologies and sustainability, and provides the latest developments around taxes, AML/CFT regulations and legal issues affecting crypto and blockchain. Lately, news headlines are focused on regulators’ concerns over the lack of investor protections in the cryptocurrency market, which has ballooned to more than $2 trillion, and the possible risks to financial stability. National security agencies across the administration of United States President Joe Biden are grappling with high-profile cases of cryptocurrencies playing a role in ransomware attacks, intellectual property espionage, sanctions violations, bribery of government officials and tax evasion.  A...