Fire Brigades Association becomes first Kenyan labor union to hold BTC

December 11, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

The union’s adoption was facilitated by a “get off zero” donation and partnership with Proof of Workforce.

The Kenya National Fire Brigades Association (KENFIBA) has purportedly become the first labor union in the country to adopt a Bitcoin (BTC) reserve.

Funded through a “get off zero” donation facilitated by Proof of Workforce, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping unions and workers adopt Bitcoin, the announcement took place at the Africa Bitcoin Conference on Dec. 11.

According to a social media post from Proof of Workforce, the cryptocurrency fund will serve to help expand Kenya’s firefighting efforts. The nonprofit also said that KENFIBA may not just be the first union in Kenya to adopt Bitcoin, it may very well be the first of its kind on the entire continent.

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Czech gov’t moves to exempt crypto held for 3+ years from being taxed

December 7, 2024 Coin Telegraph

bitcoin regulation

The prime minister said Czech residents would not have to report crypto transactions under $4,200 per year or pay taxes for selling digital assets held for more than three years.

Petr Fiala, prime minister of the Czech Republic, has reported that the country is moving to pass legislation allowing residents to bypass taxes on selling their crypto after holding it for more than three years.

In a Dec. 6 X post, Fiala said the measure, backed by Chamber of Deputies member Jiří Havránek, would “guarantee that if you hold cryptocurrencies for more than three years,” any sale would be exempt from capital gains tax. In addition, taxpayers would not be required to report transactions valued at less than 100,000 koruna — roughly $4,200 at the time of publication — per year.

“This means that, for example, buying coffee with Bitcoin [...] will no longer be a tax transaction,” said Fiala.

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FDIC asked banks to ‘pause’ crypto activities — Court docs

December 6, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Banks

Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal claimed the letters provided evidence that an alleged US government attempt to debank firms “wasn’t just some crypto conspiracy theory.”

Court documents filed in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) showed the US regulatory body asked certain financial institutions to pause crypto banking activities.

In a Dec. 6 filing in the US District Court for the District of Columbia, the court released “pause letters” sent by FDIC officials to the boards of directors for different US banks, whose names were redacted.

According to the letters sent in 2022, the FDIC requested the institutions “pause all crypto asset-related activity” in response to the uncertain regulations around digital assets.

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Bitcoin dominance hints at ‘altseason,’ analysts eye XRP price rally into 2025

November 30, 2024 Coin Telegraph

altcoin season

Analysts are expecting Ether and altcoins like XRP to stage a significant rally leading into Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, which also marks the last day of SEC Chair Gensler.

Bitcoin dominance has printed a significant signal for altcoin investors, that could see smaller cryptocurrencies rally during December and attract more investments ahead of Jan. 20.

Bitcoin (BTC) dominance, which measures the ratio of Bitcoin to the total value of the crypto market, has fallen to 56.1%, below its two-year support line, signaling that the market is “officially in altseason,” wrote popular analyst Mikybull Crypto, in a Nov. 30 X post.

In crypto slang, altseason, short for altcoin season, refers to the collective rally of cryptocurrencies besides BTC, which tend to benefit from Bitcoin’s declining dominance.

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Potential SEC chair pledges crypto-forward approach after Gensler resignation

November 22, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Donald Trump has not yet named his pick for SEC chair to send to the Senate, but Commissioner Mark Uyeda offered a preview of the regulator’s approach to crypto in 2025.

Mark Uyeda, a Republican commissioner at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, has suggested that he would prioritize regulatory clarity for cryptocurrencies if picked and confirmed as the next head of the agency.

Speaking to Fox Business on Nov. 22, Uyeda echoed many of President-elect Donald Trump’s talking points on digital assets, saying that the SEC under Chair Gary Gensler had waged a “war on crypto.” Gensler announced on Nov. 21 that he intended to step down as SEC chair on Jan. 20 — the same day as Trump’s scheduled inauguration.

“First off, from a regulatory perspective, we can provide the appropriate clarity,” said Uyeda. “Some crypto is not even a security at all, but we need to make clear whether you fall within SEC jurisdiction or not.”

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Hashing It Out: How Web3 makes shopping better with crypto cash-back

November 21, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

The latest episode of the Hashing It Out podcast explores how crypto cash-back rewards are driving Web3 adoption by bridging traditional commerce and blockchain technology.

In the latest episode of Hashing It Out, host Elisha Owusu Akyaw discusses the intersection of Web3 and traditional commerce with Blake Capozza, co-founder of Moso, a platform enabling users to earn cryptocurrency as cash-back when shopping online.

The conversation sheds light on how innovations like crypto rewards influence adoption and shape the broader Web3 landscape.

One of the episode’s focal points is how platforms like Moso navigate two distinct user groups: crypto-savvy individuals seeking diverse earning opportunities and traditional consumers enticed by higher cash-back rates. Capozza outlines how Mosso attracts both demographics by offering familiar shopping experiences while integrating cryptocurrency incentives.

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Arbitrage trading in crypto, explained

November 21, 2024 Coin Telegraph

arbitrage trading

Discover the basics of crypto arbitrage — take advantage of price discrepancies between exchanges to generate profit.

Crypto arbitrage trading is a strategy that capitalizes on price discrepancies for the same cryptocurrency across different exchanges.

Crypto arbitrage trading is buying crypto on an exchange for a specific price and selling it on another exchange for a higher price. This price discrepancy, also known as the spread, is what can lead to profit. It could be a viable alternative to traditional crypto trading in most cases, assuming you can grasp the basics.

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SEC chair doubles down on crypto stance under threat of Trump ousting

November 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Gary Gensler did not say he would leave the SEC before Donald Trump took office but pointed to the commission’s record on crypto enforcement and approving ETFs.

United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, potentially only weeks away from being removed by President-elect Donald Trump, has reiterated his position on crypto policy and enforcement.

In prepared remarks for a Nov. 14 speech at the Practicing Law Institute’s 56th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, Gensler said his focus for digital assets while leading the commission was having parties “register and give proper disclosure to the public” for roughly 10,000 tokens considered securities.

He also pointed to the SEC’s record of approving spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds and BTC futures investment vehicles under his watch but suggested that some crypto firms had not followed “common-sense rules of the road.”

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PEPE rallies 78% to new all-time highs as memecoin market cap tops $116B

November 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

PEPE rallies 78% to new all-time highs as memecoin market cap tops 6B

Altcoin Watch

PEPE hits new highs following several major exchange listings.

Pepe (PEPE), the largest Ethereum-based memecoin by market capitalization, is on track to continue the recovery it began on Nov. 5. PEPE has climbed approximately 230% from its Nov. 5 low of around $0.0000078, bringing its price up to an all-time high of $0.00002597 on Nov. 14.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows PEPE trading at $0.00002093, up 15% over the 24 hours and 104% over the last seven days.

PEPE/USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

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Italy scales back plans to hike crypto tax rate: Report

November 13, 2024 Coin Telegraph

Capital Gains

A Bloomberg report suggested Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni could accept a proposal for a 28% tax hike on crypto rather than a 42% one.

The Italian government reportedly plans to raise the country’s capital gains tax on cryptocurrencies to 28% instead of 42%.

According to a Nov. 12 Bloomberg report citing people with knowledge of the matter, Italy’s government under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni plans to accept a proposed 28% tax hike on crypto — an increase of only 2% rather than the 26% initially reported. Giancarlo Giorgetti, the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance, defended the proposed tax hike as recently as Oct. 31.

It was unclear what may have led the Italian government to scale back their plans to tax crypto. The price of many cryptocurrencies has surged following a United States election in which many lawmakers who claimed to favor digital asset policies won their respective races.

Cryptocurrencies