Among the highlights of this week are the talks that were part of the “Bitcoin for corporations” event, organized by MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. It was aimed at guiding companies in the incorporation of bitcoin into their business models as a reserve asset, and was carried out via the Internet on February 3 and 4.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, this week experienced a significant recovery and again broke the barrier of $ 40,000 on Saturday, February 6 . On average the cryptocurrency gained 15.7% of its value in these seven days. At the time of writing this article, BTC is trading at USD 39,133, as reflected in the market price of Latin America and Spain, according to the CriptoNoticias price calculator.
With CriptoNoticias, Those interested can keep up to date on the changes in the market prices of bitcoin and ether in relation to their local currency. To do this, they can visit the BTC and ETH Prices section, which has a calculator to make conversions quickly and easily to their national currency.
These are the most outstanding news:
- Within the framework of the “Bitcoin for corporations” event, organized by the company MicroStrategy, the CEO of the company, Michael Saylor, interviewed Ross Stevens, CEO of investment firm Stoneridge and CEO of financial group NYDIG. He presented him as one of his mentors in the strategy for the acquisition of bitcoin (BTC) as a reserve asset in organizations. Stevens referred to Bitcoin as “an open source monetary system,” and spoke of the culmination of a first chapter in the development of BTC, with huge advantages over gold as a reserve asset. In another of the lectures, Saylor revealed three keys to a Bitcoin-based corporate strategy. He called for more companies to follow in MicroStrategy’s footsteps and enter the ecosystem of the most popular cryptocurrency on the market. Another MicroStrategy executives said that “it is still early to invest in bitcoin.”
- The State Tax Administration Agency of Spain presented on February 1 the guidelines to minimize tax evasion, a plan that includes actions to prevent people from avoiding paying taxes for holding cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC). The agency published the general guidelines in the Annual Tax and Customs Control Plan. It will apply three types of actions to counter potential fraud with cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, in the Province of Córdoba, in Argentina, there is a debate regarding the modification of the Tax Code to include in Gross Revenues “the provision of services of any nature, directly or indirectly linked to operations related to digital currencies.” The new tribute has received strong criticism since the regulations leave doubts and gray areas. They fear that the regulation will create a split and a parallel market will emerge with a kind of “bitcoin blue.”
- On February 2, the price of Ether (ETH), the cryptocurrency of Ethereum, reached a new all-time high, exceeding $ 1,500. On the same date, also the hash rate (or hashrate ) reached values that have never been observed before. The processing power of the network reached 330 Thash / s . The previous high of 268 Thash / s had occurred in August 2018. Additionally, two new tokens related to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) were launched this week on the Ethereum network. It is about pDOGE and renDOGE, which also pave the way to interact with decentralized finance platforms or DeFi.
- In Colombia, the Financial Superintendency authorized nine alliances between local banks and bitcoin exchanges to participate in the first tests of the sandbox regulatory. The pilot plan to evaluate cryptocurrency transactions will begin in March and could be extended until 2022. The regulatory body reported that, once the application and selection phase is completed, the structuring phase will begin in which exchanges and banks will carry out operations with crypto assets. On the other hand, a study carried out by the German bank Deutsche Bank revealed that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have increased as a payment method , largely driven by the coronavirus pandemic. The study predicts that the use of cash will decline within four to five years. The consultation was made to 3,700 people in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
- Despite the institutional support and growing adoption that bitcoin has received in the last year, Central banks of Spain and South Africa have issued statements in which they insist on alerting their citizens about the risks of investing in cryptocurrency . The Bank of Spain warned Spaniards that bitcoin and the rest of cryptocurrencies “do not have the backing of a central bank or other public authorities, although they are presented as an alternative to money.” Meanwhile, the South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority published a document stating that they have received a large number of complaints from South African investors who “have lost their savings by making investments related to cryptocurrencies.” Meanwhile, the government of India is evaluating how to regulate cryptocurrency, and in Nigeria, the ban on bitcoin causes discontent among the population.
- Yearn Finance, a project for decentralized finance (DeFi), this week recorded losses in the order of 11 million dollars, after being attacked on February 4. The hacker used a pattern of transactions from different platforms to exploit a vulnerability and steal the funds. For a researcher at The Block, the attacker made a personal “profit” of $ 2.8 million in crypto assets including: 513,000 DAI, 1.7 million USDT and 506,000 3CRV.
If you want to know the meaning of several words of the crypto world terminology, you can consult them in the extensive CryptoNews Glossary.
DAICO (DAO + ICO): is a financing mechanism with crypto assets proposed by Vitalik Buterin that mixes the methodology of an ICO with the functionalities of a DAO. That way, the funds are locked into a smart contract with specific time goals and project contributors can vote for management or ultimately reimbursement of those funds.
Cryptotutorial of the week:
All gambling involves taking risks, as it is generally part of an initial investment that can be recovered or lost. But what happens if we take risks out of the equation and add a platform that works on the Ethereum network? We get PoolTogether, a novel mechanism for making collective bets. PoolTogether is defined as a “no loss lottery”, where you can win either dai (DAI) or USD Coin (USDC) without the risk of losing your investment. You can manage cryptocurrencies directly from your Ethereum wallets such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Coinbase Wallet, among others. In this tutorial we will show you how it works.