WATCHDOG TO INVESTIGATE EL SALVADOR’S BITCOIN DEALINGS

El Salvador’s Court of Accounts has said it will investigate the nation’s handling of bitcoin purchases and crypto ATMs after receiving a complaint from a regional human rights and transparency organization called Cristosal.

The Court of Account is a Constitutionally-mandated body that is in charge of the technical and legal control of the country’s Public Treasury.

KOREAN FINANCE MINISTER TO FIGHT POSTPONEMENT OF CRYPTO TAX

South Korea’s minister of finance Hong Nam-Ki has vowed to fight legislation from the ruling Party that seeks to postpone plans to tax cryptocurrency assets.

Nam-Ki insisted the tax code will go into effect as planned on January 1st, 2022.

The Democratic Party intends to delay the tax until 2013.

MARK CUBAN SAYS CRYPTO REGULATION ‘NOT A BAD THING’

Investor Mark Cuban said on Thursday that regulating the crypto space isn’t necessarily a negative idea.

“Personally, I think regulation built around existing fraud laws is not a bad thing,” Cuban said on Thursday.

“It will require Proof of Authorship and identity, but it won’t hurt innovation, nor slow anything down.”

Regulation could “open the door for more people to confidently use ‘crypto,’ the billionaire added.

EXPERTS URGE CAUTION AFTER ‘GOLDEN CROSS’ IN BITCOIN CHARTS

A golden cross that appeared on Bitcoin charts earlier this week has many excited, as the signal means the crossing of the 50-day moving average over the 200-day moving average.

But analysts are warning bitcoin holders that while the signal means their assets have been in a sustained uptrend, this says nothing about what will happen in the future, and the trend could change.

BILLIONAIRE STEVEN COHEN NOW A FAN OF CRYPTO

Fund manager and New York Mets owner Steven Cohen has come out in support of crypto after previously dismissing it.

“Once I decided there were opportunities, and I thought this could be a space like the internet — it could be incredibly transformational – I wasn’t going to miss this,” he said at a Generating Alpha Markets in Baseball discussion covered by CryptoPotato.

HUNGARY UNVEILS STATUE OF BITCOIN CREATOR

Hungary has become the first nation to celebrate Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto with a statue.

The bronze statue was revealed on Wednesday in the nation’s capital of Budapest

The goal of the statue is to honor Satoshi Nakamoto, the founders believe that his work is truly something to be remembered,” said a press release cited by Nasqad.

SOUTH KOREAN LAWMAKERS LOOK TO DELAY CRYPTO TAXATION

Noh Woong-rae of South Korea’s ruling part has proposed a “Partial Amendment to the Income Tax Act” that hopes to delay the nation’s taxation of crypto until 2023.

This proposal is in contradiction to the plans of Deputy Prime Minister and main finance minister Hong Nam-ki to start taxing crypto profits in 2022, as reported by CoinDesk.

EL SALVADOR INSTALLS BITCOIN ATMS ACROSS US

You can now find El Salvador’s Chivo bitcoin ATMs in several cities across the US.

The Central American nation has said the move is an attempt to make it easier for people to send money to family and friends in El Salvador, as reported by Markets Insider.

President Nayib Bukele said they have set up 50 commission-free Chivo ATMs in 10 cities in the US, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

COINBASE APPLIES TO TRADE IN CRYPTOCURRENCY DERIVATIVES

Coinbase Global Inc. has filed an application with the National Futures Association to register as a futures commission merchant.

This would add crypto futures and options to the company’s product portfolio.

This filing serves as evidence of how Bitcoin derivatives have become a huge market.

Coinbase joins other companies like Binance and OKEx that already trade in crypto.

SHIBA INU IS SECOND-LARGEST ‘MEME’ COIN

DogeCoin rival Shiba Inu has risen in value this week as DogeCoin has gone down.

Shiba Inu is currently swapping for $0.00000824 per unit, and it has 657,335 holders as well as 3,540,457 lifetime SHIB transfers, according to Bitcoin.com.

It has a a$3.6billion market capitalization, but Dogecoin is still the largest meme coin.

EL SALVADOR’S BITCOIN ADOPTION HAS ‘IMMEDIATE NEGATIVE IMPLICATIONS’

Credit rating agency S&P Global has said El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency has risks that out-weight its potential benefits.

This decision could deter the Central American nation from participating in support programs from the International Monetary Fund support program.

It could also increase financial vulnerabilities and harm banks by generating currency mismatches when they look to loan money, according to a Reuters report.

SOCIAL NETWORK ‘MINDS’ PUTS 25% OF BALANCE SHEET IN CRYPTO

Minds, a social network focused on crypto that lets its users use digital coins for transactions has converted 25 percent of its balance sheet into cryptocurrencies.

That’s about $2.5million – a quarter of the $10 million Series B funding the company raised in June, as reported by Fortune.

The startup joins other companies like Tesla and Square, which have also put some of its money into crypto.

DOGECOIN FANS ANGRY AMC WON’T ACCEPT IT AS PAYMENT

After AMC CEO Adam Aron announced the movie theater franchise will accept bitcoin as payment, but not Dogecoin, he was inundated with messages from DogeCoin fans.

AMC WILL ACCEPT ETHEREUM AND LITECOIN BY END OF YEAR

Movie theater chain AMC announced on Thursday it will start accepting Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for online ticket sales and concession payments by the end of the year.

Along with Bitcoin, they will also accept Ethereum, Litecoin, and BitcoinCash, according to CEO Adam Aron.

However, other popular cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin will not be accepted as payment at the chain.

EL SALVADOR’S BONDS TUMBLE AS INVESTOR ANALYZE BITCOIN USE

EL Salvador’s bonds tumbled as investors eye the nation’s Bitcoin use and whether it will get a $1billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The Central American nation’s government’s bonds spreads to comparable U.S. Treasuries hit a record high on Thursday, as investors are also concerned the nation’s Bitcoin use will produce negative credit implications, as reported by Reuters.

DALIO: GOVERNMENTS WILL KILL BITCOIN IF IT’S TOO SUCCESSFUL

The world’s largest hedge fund manager Ray Dalio has said regulators will kill bitcoin if it becomes too successful.

“If it’s successful, governments don’t want to have it. At the end of the day if it is really successful, they will kill it and they have ways of killing it,” Dalio told CNBC.

“That does not mean it does not have value. Of course, it does not have intrinsic value,” he added.

SALVADORIANS SMASH BITCOIN ATM IN PROTEST

Thousands of Salvadorians went out to protest the presidency of Nayib Bukele on Wednesday, and many took issue with the government’s rollout of Bitcoin as a national currency.

Protestors wore “NO To Bitcoin” shirts and signs with the bitcoin logo crossed out.

While most were protesting peacefully, a group of anti-Bukele protestors smashed and torched at least one bitcoin ATM.

ALTERNATIVE CRYPTOCURRENCIES OVERSHADOW BITCOIN

Less known cryptocurrencies such as Avalanche’s AVAX token are attracting investors, as Bitcoin dipped below $48,000 on Thursday.

The AVAX token, for example, was up about 20% over the past 24 hours.

“BTC dominance could easily pick up again, but certainly DeFi could continue – we see it on the front line in terms of client interest,” head of research at crypto trading platform BeQuant told CoinDesk.

WHAT HAS MONEY EXPERT MARTIN LEWIS SAID ABOUT CRYPTOCURRENCY?

Money expert Martin Lewis believes that when it comes to cryptocurrency, “if you can’t afford to lose the money you put in, do not invest in it”.

“It’s a gamble like all forms of stocks and shares, like all forms of investment, and putting money in gold,” he said.

“That’s your choice, but if you do it the right way, the investment should work for you – that doesn’t mean you won’t lose money though.”

EL SALVADOR USES ALGORAND

Algorand will be used by the government of El Salvador to develop blockchain infrastructure including Chivo, the nation’s bitcoin wallet according to Forbes.

The country hit headlines as the first in the world to make bitcoin legal tender.

Algorand has also come into the mainstream, signing a deal to sponsor the Drone Racing League, CNBC reports.

Hedge fund SkyBridge Capital run by Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House Director of Communications sacked by Donald Trump, recently said it will use Algorand to get institutions to use blockchain.

HOW HAS ELON MUSK INFLUENCED CRYPTOCURRENCY, PART 2

Posting to his personal Twitter account, Musk wrote at the time: “We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel.”

Bitcoin then started plummeting within minutes.

Other cryptocurrencies quickly followed, with several of the mainstream coins seeing a huge drop in value that day.

HOW HAS ELON MUSK INFLUENCED CRYPTOCURRENCY?

The first signs of trouble for the crypto market came in May, when Elon Musk released a statement saying Tesla would no longer accept Bitcoin for purchasing vehicles.

The Tesla founder has previously caused currencies to spike in value by mentioning them on Twitter or in press statements.

HOW ARE GOVERNMENTS CRACKING DOWN ON CRYPTO-MINING, CONTINUED

Authorities in China’s southwest province of Sichuan ordered crypto-mining projects to close earlier this summer.

It followed on from Beijing declared war on Bitcoin mining and trading as part of a series of measures to control financial risks.

HOW ARE GOVERNMENTS CRACKING DOWN ON CRYPTO-MINING?

Many crypto-mining regions in China are radically reducing operations.

Miners create new cryptocurrencies using a complex computer code in a complex process, which is highly energy-intensive and requires a lot of computer power.

ETHEREUM CO-FOUNDER NAMED A TIME MAGAZINE INFLUENTIAL PERSON

Vitalik Buterin was named one of Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2021.

He is one of the co-founders of Ethereum.