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Norway supports MiCA, considers CBDC for financial stability

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Bitcoin falls under $60K as investors’ global economic slowdown concerns rise

August 14, 2024 Coin Telegraph

<div>Bitcoin falls under K as investors' global economic slowdown concerns rise</div>

advisors

Fear of a global economic recession continues to drive investors away from risk-on assets like Bitcoin.

Bitcoin (BTC) price experienced a 5% gain between Aug. 13 and Aug. 14, reaching $61,791, before quickly reversing the entire move, falling to $58,914 in under two hours. This abrupt downturn occurred after the United States reported an inflation figure that slightly undercut analysts' expectations. The initial price surge was driven by significant announcements concerning spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and MicroStrategy (MSTR) holdings, but macroeconomic conditions ultimately proved decisive on Aug. 14.

Goldman Sachs, a leading global financial institution, disclosed new spot Bitcoin ETF holdings totaling $418 million in its 13-F filing, reflecting positions as of June 30. The allocation spanned multiple providers, including BlackRock, Fidelity, Invesco, and Grayscale. While it remains unclear whether these investments were made by external fund managers or Goldman’s internal asset management team, this marks a significant milestone, as the firm oversees $2.81 trillion in assets under management.

Not all asset managers have embraced such investments. According to CNBC, JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo continue to restrict their financial advisors from recommending spot Bitcoin ETFs. Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley, one of the world’s largest wealth management firms, only approved the distribution and sale of spot Bitcoin ETFs through its 15,000 financial advisors as recently as Aug. 7. Consequently, Goldman’s allocation could potentially set a precedent that encourages its competitors to follow suit.

Bitpanda crypto exchange gets license in Norway amid European expansion bid

October 19, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitpanda

Bitpanda already holds a license in Austria, Germany, France, Czechia and Sweden.

One of the largest European crypto exchanges, Vienna-based Bitpanda has become one of the first foreign entities to receive a virtual assert service provider license in Norway. The announcement came on the company’s official X (former Twitter) account on Oct. 19.

Bitpanda holds a license in a number of European jurisdictions, such as Austria, Germany, France, Czechia and Sweden. According to the deputy CEO of Bitpanda, Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, the registration marks another step in the company’s expansion in Europe:

“It is obvious that we in Europe need an investment platform that we can trust. At Bitpanda, we have set out to be that platform. Over the last 12 months, we have been the only European provider to receive licenses in Germany, Sweden and Norway. We now have more than 4 million users and enable Europe’s leading financial institutions and neobanks to offer digital assets.”

In May 2023, Norway, which remains outside the European Union, signaled that it could go its own way on crypto asset regulation. In its annual report, the central bank of the country stated that the upcoming pan-EU Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation “may not be adequate to all crypto regulatory needs.”

Meanwhile, some major crypto exchanges continue to struggle with European regulators. In September, New York-headquartered Gemini decided to quit the Netherlands, citing the inability to meet regulators’ requirements. The problems don’t end within the European Union’s jurisdiction. The United Kingdom’s financial markets regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, recently added 143 new entities to the warning list of non-registered asset providers.

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Renewable energy Bitcoin mining company powers up in Sweden

August 21, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin mining

Bitcoin mining lands another green energy data center as global powerhouse GDA sets up shop in Sweden.

Sweden has welcomed a hydro-powered Bitcoin (BTC) mining data center.

Genesis Digital Assets Limited (GDA), a mining and data center company with over 400 MW of power generation worldwide has made a opened a new data center in Sweden, driven by the country's burgeoning renewable energy surplus.

The new operation is located in the far North of Sweden, where hydroelectric power dominates the grid. Abdumalik Mirakhmedov, executive president and fouder of GDA, told Cointelegraph that the new data center is located near the Porjus Hydroelectric Power Station:

“Given the proximity to the hydroelectric power station, we expect all of our electricity consumption to be powered by renewable energy.”

The total capacity of the data center is approximately 8 MW and is expected to result in a hash rate of approximately 155 PH/s (peta hashes per second). GDA explained to Cointelegraph that there are 1,900 Bitcoin mining machines deployed in the Porjus data center.

As reported by Jaran Mellerud, a Business Developer at Luxor Mining, and a frequent Cointelegraph contributor, Sweden produces almost all of its electricity from nuclear and hydropower, particularly the north.

Mellerud, who hails from nearby Norway, explains that renewable energy is also abundant:

“Sweden is an electricity powerhouse, generating the fifth-most electricity per capita globally in 2021.

GDA’s strategic expansion is part of a broader trend in the Northern European Bitcoin mining landscape. Christian Anders, the founder of BT.CX, a Swedish Bitcoin exchange dating back to January 2012, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin mining is not very common due to high energy prices.

However, the Nordics are a class apart, Anders told Cointelegraph:

“Sweden, Finland, and Norway have a surplus of energy and negative energy prices from time to time, and primarily renewable energy in the form of hydropower in a remote location which is hard to distribute.”

Untapped, stranded, and renewable energy are popular ingredients for Bitcoin mining as they tend to be the cheapest. Mirakhmedov explained, “Sweden also has abundant clean energy sources, which is an important factor we consider in our operations.”

Porjus is in the far north of Sweden where renewable energy is abundant.

Moreover, while sentiment among some Scandinavians is negative towards Bitcoin, Anders told Cointelegraph that energy companies are coming around to Bitcoin mining's utility: “The CEO of the largest energy producer in Sweden, Vattenfall, is pro-bitcoin mining, and its use case for grid balancing.” Stabilizing electricity grids with Bitcoin miners is also growing in the United States.

Tim Carra, the head of Nordic at GDA, expounded the point in correspondence with Cointelegraph:

“With abundant energy sources, a pro-innovation environment, and a strong educational system that results in a great culture of innovation, we believe that Sweden is one of the best countries in the world where to mine bitcoin and expect to further invest in this beautiful region moving forward.”

GDA concentrates the majority of its power generation in Texas: one facility consumes 300 MW of electricity. The new Swedish operations complement a new GDA facility in South Carolina and demonstrate that there are still some attractive and untapped potential mining destinations around the world. Anders chimes in:

“There is also a market opportunity in Spain/Portugal which gets cheap energy from Africa and its domestic solar production where prices also are very cheap from time to time. BT.CX is working with renewable bitcoin miners to offer a way to offset your bitcoin holdings.”

As Anders alludes to, the generation of new Bitcoins consumes considerable amounts of electricity. The European Central Bank reports that Bitcoin mining has a significant carbon footprint.

Stats from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. Global energy consumtion is estimated at 25,000 terawatt-hours according to the IEA.

However, portrayed as an energy-guzzling and carbon-intensive industry, Bitcoin mining consumes just 149.95 Terawatt hours of electricity per year, or less than 0.7% of global energy, according to the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance.

Meanwhile, renewable energy including hydro continues to dominate the global bitcoin mining energy mix. Neighboring Norway, for example, contributes roughly 1% of the Bitcoin hash rate and is 100% renewable, while the new GDA installation in Sweden is another green energy Bitcoin miner.

Ultimately, Anders concludes, “It's super cool that more miners are coming to the Nordic European countries to help us with this mission.”

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Honk if you love Bitcoin! Lightning takes the wheel of a European rally car adventure

June 23, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bitcoin Community

With a comically loud horn, a candy machine and a jukebox filled with Mozart, metal and more, it's the "Bitcoin Ambassadors" rally car adventure.

A Bitcoin-mobile (BTC) piloted by the “Bitcoin Ambassadors” team is competing in the 8,000-kilometer Baltic Sea Circle Rally race, orange-pilling competitors and campsites along the way.

*The car is adorned and sponsored by Bitcoin companies. Source: Cercatrova*

Two Bitcoin advocates, Cercatrova, the democratically elected president of German-speaking Bitcoin community Einundzwanzig, and his copilot Daktari, set off on the orange-pilling adventure this week, attempting to pass through 9 Northern European countries in their Bitcoin-branded car.

Speaking to Cointelegraph from somewhere above the Arctic Circle, Cercatrova explained:

“The whole rally is a charity rally; there are 150 teams or cars. It starts in Hamburg and goes up to Denmark, Sweden, Norway and around the Baltic Sea – it’s around 8,000 kilometres, 16 days and we’re the only Bitcoin team here–none of the other teams are cryptocurrency teams.”

The goal is to “Bring Bitcoin to the people,” while also raise money for two sources, a Panamanian coffee farmer and an El Salvadoran peer2peer ride-sharing app developed on Lightning. Naturally, they’ve been “orange pilling” or introducing people to Bitcoin along the journey.

Christian, founder of Seedor, a metal Bitcoin backup based in Germany who’s avidly following their journey told Cointelegraph that while in Norway “They orange pilled the campground." The duo showed the campground owner how to pay in Bitcoin:

Orange pilling the campground owner in Norway

If you take your time, listen and explain to people, they will understand we could pay our place here in #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/OReIxQKHuA
— cercatrova⚡️ (@cercatrova_21) June 21, 2023

Cercatrova told Cointelegraph that so far they have discussed Bitcoin with at least 30 people as part of the rally in amongst chance conversations with interested observers. Plus, passersby and overtakers can scan the QR code on the side of the car to receive free Satoshis, or small amounts of Bitcoin, to get started on their Bitcoin journey.

“So when somebody sees us and asks about Bitcoin, “how does it work?” We can actually take the people to our car and say, okay, just install a wallet and it's done in about 30 seconds. And they’re amazed: ‘I didn't have to fill out anything, didn't have to take a passport or whatever.' It just works,"

The car is also equipped with a candy machine that accepts Bitcoin, so noobies can spend their brand new Sats on candy, “just to see how it works,” Cercatrova explained.

*The team's location, northern Norway. Source: superlative-adventure.com*

For the Bitcoin enthusiasts following at home, the car is Lightning-ready. A remote-play jukebox and a Lightning-switch horn can be operated from all around the world. Fans and supporters worldwide are sending their song requests to the car’s Lightning-ready Telegram group, paying less than a dollar for the courtesy.

Choose which song we will listen at the #BalticSeaCircle Rally and honk our horn over Lightning All sats will go to the https://t.co/vB9oXhpbrh project (from @FPupusas), 2 indios in panama, who make coffee for sats and to the creater of the jukebox ☕️ pic.twitter.com/x6IsuhPZZA
— cercatrova⚡️ (@cercatrova_21) June 20, 2023

Lightning enthusiasts can also set off the car’s horn from thousands of miles away. The process uses a Lightning switch which turns on when it has received enough sats. Cercatrova explains:

“So on my Twitter feed is also the QR code, where you can scan the lightning invoice. And when you pay that, it's about 3000 Sats to honk it once. And then our car honks!”

The honk is comically loud and playful, while the lightning jukebox playlist has featured metal to Mozart and German folk tunes to crypto classics such as Pump it Up. Cercatrova explained that the musical variation is a great source of fun and motivation:

“One time there is death metal and the other side it's Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and it's really crazy.”

To date, the Bitcoin Ambassadors rally team has raised approximately 4 million Satoshis or $1,200 for charity, although Cercatrova added "the next days and the willingness to send more Sats," could drive the number higher. The drivers are about halfway through the journey, expecting to finish by the end of June.

As vital research for this article, Reporter Joe Hall not only set off the horn during the phone interview but he also queued up a famous song by Rick Astley.

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CBDCs could provide smooth cross-border payments, says Bank of Israel official

March 15, 2023 Coin Telegraph

CBDC

Yoav Soffer, the advisor to the deputy governor and CBDC project manager, spoke at Tel Aviv FinTech Week, explaining how a recent CBDC experiment proved efficient in cross-border transactions.

At Tel Aviv FinTech Week 2023, Yoav Soffer, the advisor to the deputy governor at the Bank of Israel, touched on the topic of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as an efficient cross-border payment option.

The talk comes after the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) concluded its research on international retail and remittance payments via CBDCs between the central banks of Israel, Norway and Sweden. The BIS project is called “Project Icebreaker.”

Soffer, who is also the project manager for the CBDC program for the Central Bank of Israel, said that while domestic payments in Israel have become “very easy, convenient and cheap,” the same is not true for payments outside of the country.

“Cross-border payments are often perceived to face challenges of high costs, low speed, limited access and insufficient transparency according to the financial stability board.”

Soffer touched on the result of an example transaction that took less than two minutes. Moreover, he stressed that this model would significantly reduce the costs of sending funds internationally and is “much more competitive in terms of the foreign exchange transaction."

*Yoav Soffer speaking at Tel Aviv FinTech Week 2023. Source: Cointelegraph*

He continued to say that the technological requirements for countries to join the model are very limited and once a prototype is built, onboarding should essentially be a domino effect.

“Once you build it for three countries, you could build it for 180 countries. Therefore, it's also very scalable.”

However, he did say that in employing such a program, ways to provide liquidity for CBDC providers would need to be considered, as well as the integration of policies. Soffer said privacy is another major consideration that the BIS team was aware of during the project.

Despite over a hundred countries looking into the possibilities of CBDCs, the sentiment around these centralized digital currencies is mixed. They have useful capabilities, such as efficient cross-border transactions, though some say they could threaten consumers’ future.

Former CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo recently stressed that CBDCs should protect privacy and not be a surveillance tool as many fear. A congressman in the United States, Tom Emmer, also commented that they could be ‘easily weaponized’ to spy on U.S. citizens.

BIS Releases Report On ‘Project Icebreaker’ — Develops Cross-Border Retail CBDC Payment Model

March 8, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Norwegian Authorities Seize Crypto Worth $6M From Axie Infinity Heist With FBI’s Help

February 18, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Norway

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