The Swiss city of Lugano is enhancing the local adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) by enabling citizens and companies to pay for municipal services and taxes with cryptocurrency. The city of Lugano officially announced on Dec. 5 that the local administration now accepts cryptocurrency payments for taxes and all other community fees. Starting immediately, Lugano will…
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A bill defining crypto assets as securities and imposing capital gains tax on them has made it through a Kenyan parliamentary committee. It will be introduced to the lower chamber of parliament next. According to the Kenyan newspaper Business Daily on Dec. 4, the Capital Markets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, has been approved by the National…
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The Singaporean government released its updated national strategy for artificial intelligence (AI) 2.0 on Dec. 4, in which it outlined how it plans to embrace innovation and tackle the challenges coupled with the technology. Singapore structured its AI strategy into three distinct systems, consisting of ten “enablers,” which drive those systems and then 15 action…
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Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a mass profit-taking event which rivals its $69,000 all-time highs, new analysis reveals. In a post on Dec. 5, James Van Straten, research and data analyst at crypto insights firm CryptoSlate, flagged billions of dollars heading to exchanges. Bitcoin speculators sell as if all-time highs are back BTC price gains have…
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Taiwan’s principal financial regulator, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC), is considering allowing crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the country, but only after analyzing the product’s development in other markets worldwide. At the moment, the FSC considers itself to be “in the exploratory phase.” According to a Dec. 5 report in the Taiwanese newspaper, the Commercial…
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Cryptocurrency mining firm Phoenix Group has debuted trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), becoming one of the Middle East’s first publicly listed industry firms. The Phoenix Group stock (PHX) opened at 2.25 dirhams (AED) — or $0.6 — on Dec. 5, according to data from the ADX exchange. The PHX stock has soared…
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The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, received $100,000 seed funding from an unknown investor for its spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) in October 2023, as per its latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing, The SEC filing revealed that the investor agreed to purchase $100,000 in shares on October 27, 2023, in exchange for 4,000…
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Smart contract development firm Thirdweb reported a security vulnerability that potentially “impacts a variety of smart contracts across the Web3 ecosystem.” On Dec. 4, Thirdweb reported a vulnerability in a commonly used open-source library that could impact specific pre-built smart contracts, including some of its own. However, Thirdweb’s investigations concluded that the smart contract vulnerability has…
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Hashdex, one of the 13 asset managers vying for spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund, expects to see the first spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States land by the second quarter of 2024, followed by a spot Ether (ETH) ETF. “The exact timing of a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. remains unclear, but in…
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Crypto-friendly trading platform Robinhood has reported a 75% month-on-month increase in digital asset trading volume in November. In an 8-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Dec. 4, Robinhood noted that “November Crypto Notional Trading Volumes were roughly 75% above October 2023 levels.” The activity however equity trading volumes and options contracts traded…
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