Bitfinex donates 36 BTC to Salvadoran businesses to support economic development

July 14, 2022 Coin Telegraph

bitfinex

El Salvador officially made Bitcoin legal tender in September 2021; since then, the Latin American country has placed BTC near the center of its economic growth strategy.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has donated 36 Bitcoin (BTC) and $600,000 worth of Tether (USDT) to small businesses in El Salvador as part of a broader pledge to support economic development in neighborhoods that have struggled with gang-related violence.

The funds are being distributed in the socially-deprived communities of Ilopango, Soyapango and Apopa, where gang violence and extortion of small business owners is most common, Bitfinex announced Thursday. The donations, which will be funded through recipients’ Bitcoin wallets, including the state-sponsored Chivo wallet, will support environmentally-friendly business initiatives that employ local workers.

In addition to funding the donations, Bitfinex’s parent company, iFinex Inc., is working with El Salvador’s government to create a new regulatory framework for digital assets and securities, the company said.

Since making Bitcoin legal tender in June 2021, El Salvador has increased its treasury reserves of the digital asset through several dip-buying purchases. The Salvadoran government now holds 2,301 BTC on its books worth a cumulative $46 million.

El Salvador just bought the dip!

500 coins at an average USD price of ~$30,744 #Bitcoin
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) May 9, 2022

While it appears that Salvadoran businesses have been slow to adopt Bitcoin, the state-sponsored Chivo wallet appears to be growing in popularity for its role in facilitating remittances. Salvadorans living abroad sent $52 million in remittances through the first five months of 2022, according to the El Salvador Central Reserve Bank.

Among its many BTC initiatives, El Salvador is planning a so-called Volcano Bond offering worth $1 billion. The Bitcoin-backed bond will be tokenized by Bitfinex and Blockstream, with proceeds going towards the development of Bitcoin City. As Cointelegraph reported, the timeline for the bond issuance is unclear.

Reserve Rights (RSR) builds momentum ahead of its long-awaited mainnet launch

June 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Altcoin Watch

Steady growth in its active users, the stability of the RSV stablecoin and investors’ anticipation over the upcoming mainnet launch could boost RSR price in the short-term.

Bitcoin was created to give the average person a peer-to-peer economic system and a store of wealth asset that could provide financial autonomy and access to banking, especially for people living in places where financial services are sparse or non-existent.

In the last five years, there have been a number of blockchain projects that aim to mirror Bitcoin's original mission and the growing popularity of stablecoins further highlights the need for alternative financial models. One project that is beginning to see a bit of momentum is Reserve Rights (RSR), a dual-token stablecoin platform comprised of the asset-backed Reserve Stablecoin (RSV) and the RSR token which helps to keep the price of RSV stable through a system of arbitrage opportunities.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that while the price of RSR has been beaten down along with the wider market over the past few months, the token has recently seen an uptick in trading volume which suggests a possible revival could be underway.

*RSR/USDT 1-day chart. Source: TradingView*

Three reasons for the increase in demand for the RSR token include the upcoming launch of the Reserve Rights mainnet, anticipation for token staking and the ability of RSV to maintain its peg during the recent market-wide volatility.

RSR mainnet launch

The biggest upcoming development for Reserve Rights that has its community excited is its August launch its mainnet.

Following the launch of Reserve Rights on the Ethereum (ETH) mainnet, the full capabilities of the protocol will be enabled including the ability for anyone to create stablecoins backed by baskets of ERC-20 tokens.

Along with being fully collateralized, stablecoins on the protocol (RTokens )can be insured as a way to help protect against collateral devaluation. RTokens are also able to generate revenue for their holders, which is the incentive for RSR holders to stake their RSR on a specific RToken.

Revenue for token holders comes from transaction fees, revenue shares with collateral token issuers and the yields from lending collateral tokens on-chain.

RSR staking

RSR's mainnet launch will also activate token staking. For most staking protocols that exist today, the main function is to lock tokens in a smart contract which prevents a holder from selling, but it doesn’t really have any additional function for the ecosystem.

Once the full Reserve Protocol has launched on Ethereum mainnet, Reserve Rights (RSR) holders will be able to stake their tokens, thereby insuring & governing the network ⚖️

Let us take you through all the details of RSR staking in our latest article https://t.co/hS8rojPo3z
— Reserve (@reserveprotocol) May 2, 2022

Staking on the Reserve Protocol, in contrast, has a practical use for the protocol because pledging RSR tokens to a specific RToken helps to insure that token against collateral defaults. This means that should any of the collateral tokens default, staked RSR can be seized in order for the RToken to maintain its peg.

In exchange for taking this risk, RToken revenue is shared with RSR stakers in order to guarantee sufficient insurance. The yield offered by each RToken will depend on a variety of factors, including the market cap of the RToken, the revenue the token makes, the percentage of the revenue that is shared with RSR stakers and the total amount of RSR staked.

A growing community and successful stablecoin

A third factor bringing a boost to RSR is the continued growth of its community and the ability for its RSV stabelcoin to maintain its peg amid the recent market volatility.

During the height of the volatility in May when TerraUSD Classic (USTC) was collapsing, the lowest price RSV hit was $0.9923. That means that RSV held up better than a majority of stablecoins in the market.

Along with RSV maintaining its peg, the Reserve Rights community also recently surpassed 600,000 users on the Reserve app, which now provides access to more than 18,000 merchants across Latin America who accept RSV and process a monthly volume in excess of $100 million.

The team behind the protocol is also currently working on adding support for users in Mexico, which has the potential to initiate the onboarding of a new cohort of RSV users.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Top 30 Panama Bank is ‘Bitcoin friendly,’ welcomes crypto services

May 31, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Banks

Panamanian bank Towerbank opens its doors to Bitcoin and crypto customers in a series of tweets and memes.

Panama’s path to crypto adoption is stepping up a gear. Towerbank, a Panamanian financial institution with over 200 employees and 40 years of banking experience, has declared itself Bitcoin (BTC) friendly, paving the way for crypto accounts.

In a series of tweets and leaks from a blockchain meetup in Panama’s capital, Panama City, the bank is opening the floodgates to the crypto community. During the blockchain meetup hosted by the Chamber of Digital Commerce and Blockchain of Panama on Thursday, representatives from Towerbank invited crypto enthusiasts to open accounts at the bank.

Reportedly, Gabriel Campa, vice president of product for Towerbank, shared that crypto customers would not suffer “setbacks” that, ordinarily, Panamanian citizens would be subject to when executing crypto activities at the bank.

Cristobal Pereira, executive director of the Latam Blockchain Summit and an attendee of the meetup with Towerbank and Campa, shared, “Towerbank is crypto-friendly.” In a tweet, he stated that crypto enthusiasts can “come to open accounts and deposit withdrawals from exchanges without fear.”

Acá en Panamá en #meetup con @Towerbank y anuncian que son #crypto friendly, y pueden venir a abrir cuentas y depositar retiros desde exchanges sin miedo… primer banco en Latam que públicamente anuncia esto! Digno de compartir! pic.twitter.com/mVEKFfI8Uf
— Cristobal Pereira (@cristpereirag) May 26, 2022

On Saturday, Towerbank’s official Twitter account shared: “hello, crypto community!” to confirm rumors that the Top 30 Panamanian bank had taken a shine to crypto enthusiasts in Latin America. The tweet has since been pinned to the profile.

¡Hola comunidad #Crypto !
— Towerbank (@Towerbank) May 28, 2022

Reportedly, crypto-related transactions are limited to up to $5,000 per month and the bank is not offering direct crypto to crypto services. To date, the move is a gesture to the crypto community that digital assets under a certain amount can be used at the bank without obstacles.

Towerbank has since retweeted tweets suggesting that customers will be able to link their crypto accounts, such as Binance, directly to their Towerbank bank accounts, but no official statement has been made.

A groundswell of pro-crypto sentiment has stirred in Panama, but the president announced in May that a crypto bill won’t land any time soon. For some commentators, the bank’s pro-crypto move is not only a means to undermine the poor reputation that crypto endures but also to diversify its customer base, expanding to the money-oriented crypto community.

Finally, the bank drove home its Bitcoiner credentials when the Twitter account retweeted a meme created by Bitcoiner Aldo Antinori. In the tweet, Towerbank’s flagship construction, located in Panama City’s financial district, wears Bitcoin-appropriate laser eyes.

¡Buenísimo Aldo! Te quedó a otro nivel https://t.co/U0waaZtOd4
— Towerbank (@Towerbank) May 27, 2022

Cointelegraph has reached out to Towerbank for comment and will update the article as soon as possible.

Argentines turn to Bitcoin amid inflation worries: Report

May 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Argentina

In response to surging inflation, Argentina has become an increasingly crypto-friendly country in terms of adoption.

Since 2016, Argentina has been engaged in a war against inflation. Caused by multiple factors, like a lack of trust in the central bank or government overspending, the depreciation of the Argentinean peso has negatively impacted citizens' purchasing power.

This has brought 37.3% of the population under the poverty line, and many others have had their savings vanish into thin air. Against this backdrop, many Argentines have turned to Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto as a way to hedge against 60% inflation, despite the market being in the red for several months and the central bank forbidding financial institutions from operating with digital assets.

In an Americas Market Intelligence report cited by Reuters, it was found that “crypto penetration” in Argentina had reached 12%, double that of Peru, Mexico and other countries in the region.

*Argentines appear to be adopting crypto at a faster pace due to inflation. Chart created via Canva.*

In addition to Bitcoin, Argentines have been turning to stablecoins increasingly as a means of storing value in the United States dollar, especially as their country imposes strict capital controls on foreign exchange services.

When the creator of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, visited Argentina in December, he stated that cryptocurrency adoption in the country was on the rise and that stablecoin adoption was also growing significantly. He cautioned that this could change if the U.S. dollar began exhibiting serious problems.

On a broader scale, Argentina appears to be taking a cautious approach to digital asset regulation. In a 2021 Youtube interview, Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said, “There’s a huge discussion about cryptocurrencies, it’s a global debate and I must confess it’s a matter of caution.”

On a brighter note, he also stated that “crypto has an advantage” because “it helps contain inflation” and that, “in a sense, it’s a steady asset.”

Paraguay paves the way for crypto regulation despite internal opposition

May 30, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

A new bill for crypto regulation has been approved by Paraguayan Congress despite the central bank and budget commission’s rejection of the project.

Paraguay is viewed by many as a potential hot spot for cryptocurrency adoption due to low electricity costs and relatively soft taxation. The government has recognized this opportunity by pushing forward new legislation around digital assets.

On May 25, a bill that regulates cryptocurrency trading, mining and custody was approved by the Paraguayan Congress in a vote of 40 to 12. The bill must now be ratified by the Senate to finally reach President Mario Abdo Benítez.

Aprueban con modificaciones proyecto que regula la industria y comercialización de criptoactivoshttps://t.co/Z8kVoqVWWz @sebagar8 @DipNacBuzarquis @CelsoKennedy @tadeorojasm @bachinunez_nuez @luchozacariasAP @carlitosrejala pic.twitter.com/AlQ0Dh914S
— Cámara de Diputados (@DiputadosPy) May 25, 2022

If ratified, the bill would apply to any individual or organization in Paraguay involved in the mining, commercialization, trading, transfer, production, custody or administration of cryptocurrencies and related functions. The legislation proposes financial and legal guarantees to businesses and individuals, while also imposing restrictions on the matters of electricity spending and taxation.

For example, a translation of article 11 of the bill states: “Crypto mining is recognized as an industrial and innovative activity. This activity will be a beneficiary of all mechanisms and incentives foreseen in the national legislation ”

Regulations didn’t come without resistance, though; both the Paraguayan Central Bank and budget commission have expressed their disapproval of digital currencies, calling the movement a “high-risk project with no benefit for the state.” This statement was also accompanied by the usual suspicion that cryptocurrencies aid criminal enterprise and substantially increase electricity costs.

Paraguay is one of several Latin American countries actively exploring the regulation of digital assets. El Salvador began the trend of legalization in June 2021 by recognizing Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. Other countries with ongoing crypto regulation discussions include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Panama.

Huobi Global Acquires Latin American Crypto Exchange Bitex

May 26, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Panama’s president says he won’t sign crypto bill into law ’at this moment’

May 20, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

“If the law has clauses related to money laundering activities — Anti-Money Laundering activities — that’s very important for us," said Panama President Laurentino Cortizo.

Laurentino Cortizo, the president of Panama, has said he won’t sign off on a crypto bill recently approved by the country’s National Assembly without additional Anti-Money Laundering rules.

Speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Latin America conference on Wednesday, Cortizo said the bill recently passed by Panama’s legislature must go through legal checks before reaching his desk, but added he needed more information before potentially signing it into law. Describing the legislation as an “innovative law” and a “good law,” the president said he approved of certain aspects of the bill but hinted at possible illicit uses of cryptocurrencies that needed to be addressed.

“I will not sign that law at this moment,” said Cortizo. “If the law has clauses related to money laundering activities — Anti-Money Laundering activities — that’s very important for us.”

*Panama President Laurentino Cortizo speaking at the Bloomberg New Economy Gateway Latin America conference on Wednesday*

Panama’s “Crypto Law” passed in the National Assembly following the third debate on April 28. According to the legislative body, the bill was aimed at regulating “the trading and use of crypto assets, the issuance of digital value, the tokenization of precious metals and other assets, payment systems and other provisions.”

In contrast to El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, which required local businesses to accept Bitcoin, the Panama Crypto Law, if passed, would likely give residents and businesses the option of using and accepting cryptocurrency. According to an early draft of the bill, many businesses would not need a special license to accept crypto.

Pro-crypto lawmaker Gabriel Silva has suggested passage of the Crypto Law would help foster financial inclusion in Panama and create additional opportunities for employment. However, economist Ernesto Bazán has called for President Cortizo to veto the bill, claiming the lack of clear regulations in the country was unlikely to inspire trust in cryptocurrencies, risking the financial stability of banks and the local economy.

“It is essential to have competent professionals, supervisory capacity and sufficiency, even more so in such a novel and specialized subject,” said Bazán. “Weak regulation would open a window of opportunity for greater fraud, cyberattacks and criminal activities that would imply a loss of confidence in the country and its International Banking Center [...] We await the veto of the law and that a comprehensive analysis of the risks that this regulation implies be carried out. For the good of the country.”

Silva helped introduce the Panama Crypto Law to the National Assembly in September 2021, on the same day El Salvador officially began recognizing Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. The bill moved out of the Economic Affairs Committee on April 21 before being approved by the National Assembly on April 28 and is currently awaiting approval or veto from President Cortizo.

Latin America’s largest digital bank will allocate 1% to BTC, offer crypto investment services

May 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Brazil

In addition to buying Bitcoin, Nubank will offer BTC and ETH investment services to its more than 50 million customers.

Nubank, the largest digital bank in Brazil and Latin America, announced that it has partnered with Paxos to allow the bank's customers to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies directly through Nubank.

Along with the launch of the new cryptocurrency transaction services, Nubank announced it will allocate roughly 1% of its net assets to Bitcoin (BTC) through the cashier of Nu Holdings, a company that controls the Nubank Group.

“This move reinforces the company’s conviction in Bitcoin’s current and future potential in disrupting financial services in the region,” Nubank said, as translated by Cointelegraph.

According to a statement from Nubank sent to Cointelegraph, the purchase of Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) can be made from $ 0.20 (or 1 BRL) and will be made available in May. The crypto investment service will be fully implemented by the end of June.

"There is no doubt that cryptocurrencies are a growing trend in Latin America,” explained Nubank founder and CEO David Velez. “We have been following the market closely and we believe that there is transformational potential in the region.”

Nubank also informed that the integration with cryptocurrencies aims to expand and improve access to this growing market, eliminating complexity and friction for customers to buy, hold and sell digital currencies through the app without the need to open new accounts or transfer cash.

The company confirmed plans to expand beyond just BTC and ETH offerings in the future but didn’t elaborate on which assets will be included.

Through a set of APIs, Paxos will enable Nubank to offer crypto-enabled services to customers, as Mercado Livre and PayPal also do in partnership with Paxos.

Nubank is said to have more than 50 million customers in Brazil alone. According to Paxos, its partnership with the digital bank represents an important strategic move as Latin America continues to grow into a crypto hub.

Brazil firmly bets on digital money!

The country is the latest to announce CBDC adoption. The sovereign national digital currency will be based on the national fiat and would have a fixed supply quite similar to Bitcoin. pic.twitter.com/nWu0RAfJyB
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 13, 2022

Nubank and Bitcoin

Although this is the first time that Nubank offer customers the ability to purchase BTC and ETH outright, the bank is not new to digital assets. Through Nulinvest, a platform that Nubank acquired in 2020 when it was called Easynvest, the bank already allows customers to purchase investment funds with exposure to the digital asset market.

With the acquisition, Nubank also started to offer QBTC11, an exchange-traded fund that's 100% allocated to Bitcoin, managed by QR Asset Management and belonging to the QR Capital group.

Meanwhile, a securities filing earlier this year revealed that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway had purchased $1 billion in Nubank shares in the fourth quarter of 2021. The move is said to have given the Oracle of Omaha indirect exposure to the digital asset market.

Indonesia and Brazil are leading the world in terms of the share of cryptocurrency investors among the general population, according to a new report by Gemini. https://t.co/eBympWuxt4
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 4, 2022

Nubank isn’t the only local financial institution looking to offer crypto investment services. Another Brazilian bank that will also offer Bitcoin investment services to its customers is BTG Practual. The bank’s president, Roberto Sallouti, recently announced that the bank will launch its own crypto exchange in roughly two months.

"We will have our cryptocurrency trading platform in up to two months [..] BTG's proposal is to have a complete investment platform for our clients," he revealed.

Chainlink set to power Latin American real estate platform

May 5, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Chainlink

Chainlink is set to automate rental payments to property owners of a Latin American real estate platform, adding a new blockchain use-case for the sector.

The tokenization of global property markets has been an ambitious goal of the blockchain space and decentralized finance (DeFi) could offer a novel solution for the sector to pick up pace.

Decentralized oracle network Chainlink (LINK) is set to power a tokenized real estate platform serving the Latin American property market. LaProp will allow investors to buy tokenized shares in various real-world properties, which will yield a percentage of income from rental payments.

LaProp will look to leverage Chainlink Keepers’ node operators' track record in securing billions of dollars invested in DeFi markets. The decentralized automation service carries out tasks for smart contracts on the BNB Chain and, in this instance, will automate secure rental payouts to token holders.

The platform intends to give retail investors the ability to gain exposure to real estate, which would otherwise be inaccessible due to a large amount of capital historically required to enter property markets.

Chainlink’s ability to handle smart contract functions will see rental paid by tenants automatically distributed to multiple token holders of the given property. Payment terms and schedules can also be edited per property.

The idea of tokenizing real estate ownership is not novel but the promise of a tried-and-tested service to manage rental payments and property ownership has the potential to attract renewed investor interest.

Dreams of blockchain-powered real-estate ownership were looking shaky almost a year ago, as a handful of tokenized real estate projects that laid the groundwork for this realization hit turbulence. This led to industry experts casting aspersions on the future integration of the sectors.

While other industries have seen blockchain-powered platforms and services flourish, the tokenized real estate market is yet to boom, with just a handful of operating platforms that allow users to acquire ownership of the property through tokenized shares.

The closest solution to LaProp’s Chainlink-powered platform is Web3 business solution Lofty AI. As Cointelegraph previously explored, Lofty AI gives users the ability to invest in listed properties and gain shared ownership. This provides access to governance decisions and a share of rental income — much like LaProp intends to provide.

‘Proptech’ firm Propy grabbed headlines early in 2022 as its own token saw significant gains. The firm facilitated the first sale of a property nonfungible token (NFT) in the United States for 210 Ether (ETH), powering the first-ever property NFT auction. It saw TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington’s apartment in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv sold.

Other projects have focused on helping prospective property investors gain access to finance through their cryptocurrency holdings. In January 2022, fintech startup Milo launched a service that gives users access to 30-year mortgages by leveraging Bitcoin as collateral against the loan.

Law Decoded: The difference between New York City and New York State, April 25-May 2

May 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Ban

New York State moratorium on PoW mining reinvigorates the conversation around crypto industry's sustainability.

Last week, New York dominated crypto media headlines in very different ways. In New York State, the local Assembly voted in favor of the bill that would ban for two years any new mining operations that rely on proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanisms and use fossil fuel-generated energy.

A temporary moratorium, which could be extended after the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation provides its assessments of the industry’s carbon footprint, marks the first major legislative attack on PoW mining on environmental grounds in the United States. The push mobilized the community — after digital asset advocacy groups rang the alarm on Twitter. Then, proponents of the ban had to endure three hours of a heated debate to narrowly pass the draft. There’s hope for an even tighter fight in the NY State Senate.

Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Eric Adams set an example of supporting innovation as he hit out at his state’s BitLicense regime during an interview at the Crypto and Digital Assets Summit in London. As a recently elected politician who's claimed to take his three paychecks in Bitcoin (BTC), Adams called the license — the only one at the state level — a “high barrier” and urged legislators if not to think outside the box, then to at least not destroy the box itself.

Another instance of a reasonable approach to regulation was exemplified by New York State Senator Kevin Thomas, who has introduced a bill to define, penalize and criminalize fraud specifically targeting developers and projects that intend to dupe crypto investors. The amendment would impose rug pull charges on developers that sell “more than 10% of such tokens within five years from the date of last sale of such tokens.”

A discussion that is here to stay

While some consider New York State’s legislature to be “dominated by radical and fringe elements” who are “ignorant to a new and innovative sector of finance and technology,” the proposed PoW moratorium bill might in fact represent a first notable instance of legislative action with regard to crypto mining’s sustainability. The clash over how power-hungry various consensus mechanisms are and whether it is renewable or fossil fuel-generated energy that powers mining operations has been building up for some time on federal and international levels. These battles will definitely intensify in the months and years to come. At the end of the day, it’s not all bad. Some experts consider Albany legislators' efforts to be a “prudent action” in terms of pushing the miners toward the green shift, even if it could have a cooling effect on their operations at first.

Regulation fest in Latin America

As a major South American jurisdiction, Brazil passed its first bill governing cryptocurrencies in a Senate plenary session. According to the draft, which is still yet to gain approval from the Chamber of Deputies, the executive branch will draft rules for crypto assets and either create a new regulator or crown the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Central Bank of Brazil as a principal regulator for the industry. Panama is already a step ahead, with its own crypto law passing the third and final round of consideration. Now, it is the president’s turn to greenlight the bill. The initiative’s main advocate, congressman Gabriel Silva, believes that the law will “help Panama become a hub of innovation and technology in Latin America.” Meanwhile, Cuba is expected to begin to issue virtual asset service provider licenses starting May 16.

CFTC gains momentum

The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission, one of the main power centers in the crowded U.S. crypto regulation scheme, seems to have gotten some extra points in the race. A bipartisan group of lawmakers re-introduced the Digital Commodity Exchange Act, which would bring cryptocurrency developers, dealers, exchanges and stablecoin providers under the purview of the CFTC. Granted, the mandate would extend only to cryptocurrencies deemed to be commodities, while the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would still hold power over the digital asset securities offerings. Well-received by the crypto community, the bill should make it through the first hearing by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee first.

Latin America