Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

Global Crypto Regulator Likely to Emerge in 2023

Security commissions all over the world are likely to launch a joint crypto regulatory body within 2023, according to Ashley Alder, CEO of the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and chairman of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).　　Alder concretized his statement by saying that the digital assets boom is one of the main agendas alongside climate change and the pandemic that authorities cannot overlook.　　The statement was made during the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, which has taken place over the last couple of days.　　The chairman of IOSCO, in his speech, addressed the “wall of worry about this (crypto) in the conversations at an institutional level,” citing cybersecurity, operational sustainability and poor transparency as the main risks and topics that regulators keep lagging behind on.　　In Alders opinion, the three Cs—Climate, COVID and Crypto—are all very important matters and should be regarded as equally risky subjects.　　The solution, in Alders opinion, is somewhere in the area of creating a global joint regulator. The one regulator that could best align crypto rules all across the globe, something similar to the already established climate finance group, G20.　　Regulation is tightening　　In recent years, crypto has managed to avoid excessive regulatory pressure. Please download WikiBit

2022-05-13Deep Dive

Crypto Regulatory Framework Coming Next Year in South Korea: Report

The new government of South Korea will reportedly finalize the regulatory framework on the local digital asset ecosystem next year and enforce it in 2024. The legislation will aim to incorporate cryptocurrencies like bitcoin into the countrys institutional system.　　In addition, the authorities have greenlighted the Bank of Koreas efforts to launch a CBDC in 2023.　　South Korea Embracing Crypto　　Just two months after Yoon Seok-youl secured a victory in South Koreas presidential elections, his administration touched upon the cryptocurrency industry. According to a local coverage, the authorities will enact the Digital Assets Basic Act in 2023, meaning that crypto will be entirely supervised in the country.　　The initiative should include bitcoin and the altcoins into the nations institutional system and grant domestic investors enhanced protection when dealing with the asset class.　　The legislation will be based on international standards as the Korean officials vowed to partner with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), the Financial Stability Board (FSB), as well as American and European watchdogs before officially introducing it.　　The bill will also support Korean monetary organizations willing to provide cryptocurrency services. Currently, locals can open crypto accounts through the countrys leading authorized bourses – Upbit, Gopax, Bithumb, and Korbit.　　“We will strengthen the link between

2022-05-13Deep Dive

Germany outlines favorable tax guidelines, gains on BTC and ETH sold after a year tax-free

The Federal Ministry of Finance (BaFin) published a 24-page document on Tuesday outlining clear income tax rules for cryptocurrency and virtual assets. Tax practitioners, businesses and individual taxpayers now have clear direction on the tax requirements for acquiring, trading and selling cryptocurrencies.　　The key takeaway is that individuals who sell BTC or ETH more than 12 months after acquisition will not be liable for taxes on the sale if they realize a profit. Parliamentary State Secretary Katja Hessel also addressed questions around the long-term staking of cryptocurrencies:　　“For private individuals, the sale of purchased Bitcoin and Ether is tax-free after one year. The deadline is not extended to ten years if, for example, Bitcoin was previously used for lending or the taxpayer provided ETH as a stake for someone else to create their block.”　　Germany called upon companies, institutions and individuals in mid-2021 to give input into tax considerations around the use of cryptocurrencies as well as staking and lending protocols. A major focal point was a specific clause in the Germany Income Tax Act. Section 23 rules that the windfall of any asset that is sold after a year since its acquisition is tax-free.　　Many questioned whether lending or staking virtual assets would

2022-05-13Deep Dive

Veteran Trader Peter Brandt Predicts Local Bottom for Bitcoin

In a recent tweet, veteran trader predicted that the $27,000 could end up being a local bottom for Bitcoin, the worlds largest cryptocurrency. 　　According to the prominent chartist, a huge spike in volume indicates that traders are capitulating.　　The largest cryptocurrency collapsed below the $27,000 level on Thursday, reaching an intraday low of $26,970 on the Bitstamp exchange.　　Brandt has opined that the Terra disaster has now spilled over into “trustworthy” Bitcoin. Terras LUNA, which used to be one of the biggest cryptocurrencies with a market cap of over $40 billion, collapsed to virtually zero within one day, sending shockwaves across the cryptocurrency market.　　The flagship cryptocurrency is now down 40.6% since the start of the year.　　It has now dropped 60% since hitting its all-time high of $69,044 last November, which is in line with previous bear market cycles. As reported by U.Today, SkyBridge founder Anthony Scaramucci recently predicted that the Bitcoin price could drop all the way to $18,000.　　Bitcoin has collapsed in lockstep with technology-related stocks. The Nasdaq 100 index is down 26.67%, which marks its worst year in history so far.　　The Federal Reserve, whose accommodative monetary policy fueled the most recent bull market, has now made a complete U-turn with aggressive

2022-05-13Deep Dive

The central African Republic adopts Bitcoin as Legal Tender

By: Damian Okonkwo　　The march towards cryptocurrency global adoption and legalization has been launched in Africa recently with the latest adoption of Bitcoin as a legal tender by the Central African Republic. This has made the country the second in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender after El-Salvador became the first to do so last year.　　The decision to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender in the Central Africa Republic was made after its lawmakers in the parliament voted unanimously to adopt a bill legalizing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the national assembly.　　Following this decision, the president of the Central African Republic revealed that Bitcoin will henceforth be considered a legal tender alongside the countrys fiat currency known as the Central African CFA franc.　　While El-Salvador became the first to legalize Bitcoin, The Central African Republic has today gone down in history as the second country in the world as well as the first African country to legalize Bitcoin as a legal tender.　　According to the president of the country - Faustin-Archange Touadéra, “This move puts the Central African Republic on the map of the most courageous and visionary countries in the world,”　　Further, Obed Namsio, the chief of staff to the

2022-05-12Deep Dive

The cryptocurrency market is experiencing an unprecedented crash

The cryptocurrency market has crashed this week, with Bitcoin hovering between $US28,000 and $US30,000 in the last two days—less than half the value of the all-time peak it hit in November—and Ethereum just over $US2,000, which is likewise less than half the value of its November peak. A significant portion of the blame is being assigned to a cryptocurrency called TerraUSD.　　TerraUSD is one of the largest of what are called stablecoins, meaning that its supposed to retain a value close to that of a fiat currency—in this case, the US dollar. Cryptocurrency investors see stablecoins as a kind of checkpoint in the crypto game, “safe” places to store their investments when theyre not buying into more volatile currencies. And yet, this week TerraUSDs value fell to 30 cents at its lowest, and right now is still just over 80 cents. As FastCompany pointed out, TerraUSD “typically fluctuates by just thousandths of a percent.”　　Unlike some other stablecoins, TerraUSD is pegged to a cryptocurrency rather than directly to the fiat currency its supposed to maintain parity with. In the case of TerraUSD, its pegged to Luna, which is built on the same blockchain. Reserves of TerraUSD and Luna are algorithmically created and

2022-05-12Deep Dive

Shiba Inu gives update on new developments, including the SHI stablecoin

A blog post from Shiba Inu gives an update on ecosystem developments per ‘Riyoshi’s Vision.‘ Riyoshi is the project’s anonymous founder who claims to hold 0 $SHIB tokens, as doing so would affect his judgment and decision-making.　　“Dont worry, the great Shiba will reward me in other ways i guess.”　　Riyoshi‘s Vision was first set out in a Medium article posted in May 2021, approximately five months before $SHIB hit its all-time high of $0.00008870. The document sets forth plans to build a ’decentralized and perpetual community based on personal responsibility.　　Achieving this would require the rollout of four specific features/protocols, ShibaSwap, Shibarium, the SHI stablecoin, and the Shibarium Financial Ecosystem.Shiba Inu lead dev gives tentative rollout date　　Shiba Inu‘s Lead Developer, Shytoshi Kusama, said all four components of Riyoshi’s Vision — that are in development — are close to completion. However, Kusama did not give any firm dates, only saying that one or more will be coming out around August to September.　　“I refuse to give any hard dates at this time, but I expect to see one or multiple of these technologies before the end of summer or very early fall.”　　Giving further details on individual components, Kusama pointed out that the ShibaSwap dex

2022-05-12Deep Dive

US Losing Lead in Web3 Development to Russia and India

The United States is losing overall market share in terms of Web3 developers, according to data from crypto venture capital firm Electric Capital.　　Since 2017, the absolute number of Web3 developers increased 200% in the U.S., while during that same period this figure increased 300% for the rest of the world, according to Electric Capitals 2021 Developer Report.　　Using open-source data, analysts estimated that there were nearly 18,500 Web3 developers as of Dec 2021, up 75% from roughly 10,500 in Jan that year.　　As the report drew exclusively from open sources, it acknowledged that it likely undercounted the total number.　　Report methodology　　The report used two methods to infer the location of developers, code submission timestamps during U.S. working hours, defined as 9 am EST to 10 pm EST, and social profiles linked with developer profiles on platforms like GitHub.　　A plot of the historical share of code submissions that occurred during U.S. working hours showed that the U.S. share declined from 65% in 2012 to 55% in 2022 YTD.　　For reference, the report noted that the historical U.S. market share in well-established open-source projects using the same time zone methodology remained relatively consistent over this same period.　　Methodology limitations　　However, the report also acknowledged that this method likely

2022-05-12Deep Dive

Coinbase's Services Halted by Indian Central Bank

According to a recent Bloomberg article, Indias central bank pressured one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchange platforms in the world and halted the process of purchasing crypto assets via the countrys online retail payment system.　　According to the CEO of the company, Brian Armstrong, in a few days after the launch, the company had to disable UPI (Universal Payments Interface) after being informally pressured by the Reserve Bank of India.　　The UPI is a system developed in India for bridging fiat and digital assets. The development of it was backed by the central bank of the country as it utilizes real-time transfers between bank accounts. Bloomberg also added that the RBA made no comment on this matter. Please download WikiBit for more blockchain news.　　Back in April, the U.S.-based crypto company expanded their operations in India by implementing a state-backed payment interface. With the central bank-backed system, users could pay in rupees and purchase cryptocurrency legally. The system acted as a bridge between digital assets and fiat.　　According to UPI representatives, they are not aware of any cryptocurrency exchanges using their network for payments. On their side, Coinbase added that they are not leaving the Indian market and are hoping to go live once

2022-05-12Deep Dive

Bitcoin Is Being Pummeled – Will Tesla And MicroStrategy Sell Their BTC?

The Bitcoin market has been extremely volatile and leaning towards dips that left many traders and investors on panic mode.　　Companies like Tesla and MicroStrategy are experiencing the same dilemma with their Bitcoins suffering tragic lows.　　 MicroStrategy And Tesla Holding Over 177K BTC　　MicroStrategy and Tesla combined has over 177K Bitcoins or 129,218 and 48,000 BTCs; respectively.　　BTC is on a plunge since the beginning of 2021. It has made a major dip of 27% in the past three months. In fact, Bitcoins price went as low as $30,000.　　The downward trend in this price action has become an enormous pain point for traders and major BTC holders.　　On the flipside, the 24-hour trading volume soared by 84% or as much as $83.3 billion. To sum it all, that is around a $12-billion loss from the BTC holding of other giant institutions.　　Major Crypto Hodlers　　MicroStrategy holds around 0.61% of the total BTC supply. Its current BTC entry value is at $3.9 billion and the recent value is at $4.11 billion.　　Meanwhile, Tesla owns as much as 0.229% of the BTC supply with a Bitcoin entry value amounting to $1.5 billion. Its recent value is currently at $1.52 billion as of this writing.　　As seen above, the ratio between

2022-05-12Deep Dive

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