Reported First Real Estate Purchase Made With Bitcoin in Chile

February 25, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Report: Indonesia leads global surge in interest in crypto

October 18, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

Indonesia saw a massive 1,772% increase in the number of people engaging with articles about crypto, a new survey claims.

Amid the ongoing growth in cryptocurrency adoption worldwide, countries like Indonesia and Chile have seen a significant influx of public interest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), according to new data.

According to an Oct. 15 report by Australian blockchain education startup Coinformant, Indonesia has been leading the world in crypto interest dynamics in 2021.

*The fastest growing crypto hotspots. Source: Coinformant*

In Coinformant’s report, Indonesia achieved the highest crypto interest score of 5.73 out of 10, beating other counties in a combination of four factors like the number of Google searches, the amount of published crypto articles, engagement level increase and crypto ownership. Chile ranked second with a score of 5.26, with Argentina following with a score of 4.79.

Citing data from engagement platform BuzzSumo, Coinformant calculated that Indonesia has seen a massive 1,772% increase in the number of people engaging with articles about cryptocurrency year-over-year (YOY). The number of published crypto articles in Indonesia surged 133%, while Finland saw the largest such increase of 725%.

Indonesia also was the second-highest-ranking country in terms of increase in crypto-related Google searches over the past 12 months, surging over 572%. Chile reportedly outstripped Indonesia in this metric with 707% more Google searches YOY.

Citing data from Chainalysis’ crypto ownership data, Coinformant’s methodology also includes information on global crypto ownership. The report notes that Ukraine held the highest proportion of crypto, with more than 12% of the population owning cryptocurrencies.

Despite Indonesia winning the race in terms of overall crypto interest surge, the United States has been consistently the largest country in terms of crypto engagement and other factors, a spokesperson for Coinformant noted. “This report is about countries with the highest increase of these measures this year and it's worth noting when looking purely at volume, the USA consistently comes number one,” the representative said.

Despite putting a blanket ban on crypto payments back in 2017, Indonesian authorities have been kept cryptocurrency trading legal. In August, Pintu, a major Indonesian cryptocurrency wallet and trading platform, raised $35 million from some of the biggest investors in the crypto and blockchain industry.

Chilean Peso stablecoin goes live on Stellar Network

August 12, 2021 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

Chilean Peso-pegged stablecoin CLPX launched on Stellar this week, and is hoping to gain traction in the remittance and copper markets.

A new stablecoin pegged to the value of the Chilean Peso is now live on the open-source Stellar payments network — but is yet to prove popular with users.

Chile-based firm CLPX Inc launched what it describes as the first-ever Chilean Peso pegged stablecoin dubbed the “CLPX” token.

According to the public ledger on Stellar Expert, since the launch on Monday the stablecoin has seen limited volume of just $12,689 from a total of 12,902 trades.

CLPX was designed to provide a cheaper alternative to traditional Peso-based remittances, with the firm utilizing the Stellar Network as it incurs “substantially” lower fees than wire transfers or remittance services.

“The new CLPX token is set to streamline remittances and make it easy for investors worldwide to use the copper-linked Chilean peso as a hedge,” an announcement read.

CLPX also has an eye on offering international exposure to Chile's booming copper market, which has been a critical driver of economic recovery amid the global pandemic. The Latin American nation is the current world’s leading copper producer by a long distance, with China being the main buyer of Chile’s red metals.

While the project has talked up its strong ambitions, it is unclear how well the stage is set for it to perform. Apart from the low volume, CLPX Inc is owned by a relatively unknown firm named “KB Trading” which has no listed partnerships on its website.

While there has been a growing trend in Latin American and Spanish-speaking countries working towards crypto adoption following El Salvador’s Bitcoin law, the regulatory landscape has been fairly quiet concerning Chile.

In late May, Chile’s National Electricity Coordinator (CEN) announced the Renova initiative which will use blockchain tech to track and record the renewable energy usage behind the nation’s copper production.

The Central Bank of Chile has been researching the topic of blockchain and CBDC’s since 2018 as part of its “Strategic Plan for 2018 to 2022.”

In 2019 Mario Marcel, the Governor of the Central Bank of Chile published a research report which stated that the central bank was looking at a Chilean CBDC for wholesale adoption and cross-border payments, but also noted concerns over infrastructure costs, cybersecurity and anonymity at the time.

Chile