Amid the United States regulators increasingly scrutinizing stablecoins, the community continues to pitch new ideas of stablecoins independent from the U.S. dollar. Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange, has proposed creating a new stablecoin with a value pegged to the sum of $1 worth of Bitcoin (BTC) and one inverse perpetual…
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The ongoing cryptocurrency winter and massive collapses in the industry do not mean that digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) are doomed to fail, according to a major European asset manager. Despite BTC failing to protect investors against rising inflation in 2021 and 2022, Bitcoin’s limited supply may still attract more attention if inflation remains above…
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As Russia continues to delay adopting cryptocurrency regulations, local advocates have appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to change the government’s approach to regulating the market. The Russian Association of Crypto Industry and Blockchain (RACIB) — a major group of crypto and blockchain enthusiasts in Russia — issued an open letter to Putin on March 6,…
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The government of Thailand is moving to benefit from the digital asset industry growth by allowing tax-free issuance of digital tokens for investment. Thailand’s cabinet has agreed to waive corporate income tax and value-added tax (VAT) for companies that issue investment tokens, Reuters reported. Announcing the news on March 7, deputy government spokesman Rachada Dhnadirek…
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Some countries around the world suffered bigger financial losses to cryptocurrency scams despite a massive bear market in 2022. Losses from crypto scams in Hong Kong amounted to 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($216.6 million) last year, surging 106% from a year before, according to the local police. The number of crypto-related scams reported in…
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Publicly-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Argo Blockchain has increased its daily BTC production despite a significant spike in network difficulty. During February, Argo mined 162 Bitcoin or BTC equivalents, translating to 5.7 BTC per day, which the firm announced in an operational update on March 7. Argo’s daily Bitcoin production rate in February surged 7%…
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Babel Finance, one of many cryptocurrency lending firms shaken by the bear market of 2022, is exploring new restructuring opportunities involving minting a new token. Babel co-founder Yang Zhou is planning to build a new decentralized finance (DeFi) project in order to generate revenue to repay debts owed to creditors, Bloomberg reported on March 5.…
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Iran is moving forward with its central bank digital currency (CBDC) plans, completing preliminary research for the launch of a potential digital rial. The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) has successfully completed a pre-pilot phase in the development of Iran’s CBDC, according to an official statement by CBI’s research arm, the Monetary and Banking Research…
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The global payments industry is bullish on the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain to enable faster and cheaper transactions, according to a new survey co-hosted by Ripple. Blockchain-based digital payment network Ripple and the Faster Payments Council (FPC) payment organization on March 2 issued a report devoted to the opportunities of crypto-enabled payments. Titled “Transforming…
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Xapo Bank, an international private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, integrates the Lightning Network to improve its Bitcoin (BTC) capabilities. On March 2, Xapo officially announced a partnership with the Lightning Network infrastructure platform Lightspark, which allowed the firm to implement Lightning on its platform. The integration enables faster and cheaper transactions on Xapo, reducing blockchain confirmation…
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