The accumulation trend has been steady by a considerable margin, but it is necessary to continue monitoring the activity for any changes.

Most market participants could be accumulators and long-term holders, as coins go from highly liquid exchange balances into their wallets.

The price of Bitcoin attempted to break above USD 44,000 early this week. However, it could not sustain momentum for long and is currently trading at USD 42,130. According to Coindesk, the recent activity done by the Bitcoin whales indicates that the value of Bitcoin has hovered between USD 40,783 and USD 43,040.

Bitcoin whales maintain trends that everyone should know, especially when it comes to accumulation. Nobody knows what they may do next with their tokens in a scenario where the cryptocurrency intends to regain momentum. A recent analysis shows how those holders accumulate the cryptocurrency, helping to make accurate predictions about what they will do with it.

The Bitcoin Whales Have Been Recently Accumulating Considerable

In the last hours, the whales have mobilized around 7,581 BTC through six different operations. The predominant trend is accumulation since 6,881 BTC went from cryptocurrency exchanges to unknown wallets through five transactions. The volume mobilized by those holders is equivalent to 90.77% of the daily total.

The introduction of liquidity into the market through a transfer of 700 BTC transferred has been the second most marked trend so far. The latter volume equates to 9.23% of the total.

Finally, there have been no operations between exchanges or between unknown wallets. The accumulation trend in the last hours has been steady by a considerable margin. However, it is necessary to continue monitoring the activity of Bitcoin whales for any changes in those trends.

What Has Been the Performance of Bitcoin in the Last Week

Last week, the BTC market experienced volatile price action to the downside, opening at USD 47,328 and going down to a low of USD 39,876. Continued pressure on the industry from regulators, challenging conditions in Chinese debt markets, and another ban on Bitcoin in China accompanied the sell-off in equity markets.

According to a recent report by Glassnode, there is a very high probability that most market participants are accumulators and long-term holders. That is because coins migrate from highly liquid exchange balances into the wallets of some investors. Whale Alert reports contribute to corroborating the latter in the last hours.

The same report revealed that holders will very likely re-spend those coins in response to market volatility. However, those assets might become increasingly thin and inactive and more likely to remain in cold storage over time.

How the Activity of the Whales Affect the Prices of Bitcoin

The effect of the whales on the prices of Bitcoin has become increasingly apparent this year. According to Chainalysis, they started to buy significant amounts of BTC in June. Those investors had over USD 50 million in their wallets.

Philip Gradwell said that prices go up for at least twenty-eight days when Bitcoin whales start buying. After that, the value of the cryptocurrency starts to drop as they must make a profit when sales begin. Of course, only the cleverest investors profit from those moves in such cycles.

By Alexander Salazar

SEBA Bank AG, a Swiss cryptocurrency-focused bank, received the first authorization to be an institutional custodian of cryptocurrency investments.

Swiss regulators have approved the country’s first digital currency fund that, in an unprecedented way, will be guarded by a local bank focused on cryptocurrencies.

In a statement that took effect on Wednesday, the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA) announced the approval of the Crypto Market Index Fund, which is called the first crypto fund under Swiss law. The agency highlighted this in the statement.

The First Cryptocurrency Fund in Switzerland

The fund is issued by Zurich-based Swiss asset manager Crypto Finance and managed by The Investment Management firm PvB Pernet von Ballmoos AG. It is held in custody by the banking entity SEBA Bank AG.

As such, the new investment vehicle will track the performance of the ‘Crypto Market Index 10’, a product managed by SIX Swiss Exchange, Switzerland’s leading stock exchange.

SIX Swiss Exchange describes on its website that the goal of this index is to measure the performance of the largest and most liquid crypto assets and tokens and bring an invertible benchmark for that asset class.

The regulator highlighted that the fund could only invest in cryptocurrencies with a sufficiently large trading volume. On the other hand, the regulator pointed out that investments must take effect through established platforms based in a member country of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and finally adjust to the corresponding regulations against money laundering.

The authority also discovered that the fund counts on a restriction for qualified investors interested in digital assets. According to a statement from Crypto Finance, the fund invests in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, and Ripple.

Swiss Bank Received first Crypto Custodian License

Along with the approval of the first cryptocurrency fund, FINMA also granted a license to a local bank for the first time to act as a custodian of digital currencies.

SEBA Bank AG, a fully regulated banking institution based in Switzerland, announced today that it received a CISA license from regulators to facilitate an institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody service. According to the announcement, the license enables the bank to provide one of the world’s first institutional-grade custody solutions for investing in digital assets.

This license enables SEBA Bank to offer Swiss-domiciled funds a safe and progressive investment capability within the rapidly evolving crypto and digital assets space.

According to the information, it is the first license granted by FINMA to a bank focused on digital currencies. Founded in 2018, SEBA Bank rose to fame by becoming one of the top financial institutions to venture into cryptocurrencies. The bank, which received a banking license in 2019, supports five cryptocurrencies, being Bitcoin and Ethereum are among the first currencies with such a supportive stance.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The measure will take effect from 2022 and does not exempt from complying with the payment of other taxes. This measure benefits those who charge in Bitcoin but not those who trade P2P and DEX.

Starting next year, professionals who export services from Argentina will not have to pay the 5% withholding fee for the entry of foreign currency into the country.

This new measure protects experts from the so-called knowledge economy. This group of experts includes software developers, audiovisual producers, providers of electronics and communications services.

The foreign exchange market is a complex issue, both for the Government and the Argentine citizens. Now, the Central Bank decided to stop charging a tax that could favor the cryptocurrency sector.

Through this new resolution, confirmed by the state news agency Télam, the Argentine government intends to encourage employment in the sector and favor the entry of foreign currency into the country.

The counterpart might be the eradication of the withholdings decreed by former President Mauricio Macri in 2018. This eradication would lead to a loss of income for the State in tax matters.

In exchange, the government would have more dollars under its power since all foreign currency that enters the country must get converted into Argentine pesos.

This New Legislation Affects Bitcoin Users

The portal of the Federal Administration of Public Revenues of Argentina highlighted said this type of economy would encircle expertise in areas such as technology, information, communication, and science.

Many experts in the cryptocurrency sector would get included, such as programmers or software developers, content creators, communicators, translators, and even hardware manufacturers.

All these professionals who enter dollars into the country through a bank would receive good news: They will stop paying that 5% from 2022.

Even those who charge in cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin ( BTC) or similar currencies, must invoice in pesos and enter the money into the country as pesos.

Also, this situation does not directly affect most users of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. These transactions, however, take effect between two users in the local currency and on a decentralized network.

The Exchange Rate, an Obstacle to Exporting services Nowadays

As Zocaro explains, the main problem for Argentine exporters is the obligation to change currencies automatically when they enter the country. As the specialized sites reflect, the official exchange rate( The ones the banks pay) is far from the market value, called the blue dollar.

The official dollar is trading at ARS 98, while the blue is trading at ARS 183. The difference between the two is ARS 91, that is, almost double.

This type of exchange, the blue one, is the one that many people use to receive dollars for savings since the exchange rate sets a purchase limit of USD 200 for each person through banks and financial entities recognized by the BCRA.

This elimination of withholdings does not imply that exports must stop being in a declaration or the corresponding taxes must get paid in these cases. These tax obligations include payment for billing services, in addition to income tax and personal property tax.

By: Jenson Nuñez

In 2019, Virgil Griffith talked about Ethereum in North Korea. The Ethereum developer received an indictment in the US for conspiracy.

Virgil Griffith, a developer for the Ethereum network, apprehended by US authorities in 2019, pleaded guilty to charges related to conspiracy to help North Korea evade financial penalties on September 27, 2021.

Griffith traveled to North Korea in 2019, where he offered talks to citizens of that country about cryptocurrencies, at a conference organized by the local government.

Upon Griffith’s return from North Korea in November 2019, he got captured at the Los Angeles airport and released the following month.

But on July 21, 2021, Griffith got arrested again for violating the rules of his parole, which prohibited him from accessing his accounts on the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

This morning, after hearings that have been active since 2020, and after delays and difficulties due to the COVID-19 crisis, Griffith pleaded guilty to having the intentions to help North Korea evade the financial sanctions imposed by the US against that country.

Pleading Guilty to the Charges

The hearing happened in the Southern District Court of New York City. According to the InnerCityPress, which is covering the whole event in said court, Griffith went back to prison after pleading guilty to the charges in an unexpected move.

The documents where Virgil Griffith pleaded not guilty got issued yesterday, September 26. But today, the decision changed untimely for reasons not fully clarified to the date.

Griffith would have set an agreement with the judges to face a sentence that could surpass 5 and 6 years, although the maximum could be 20 years. The case reached a closure, in the opinion of the judges.

Griffith’s lawyers will now have access to two individual accounts of the Coinbase exchange, from where they will be able to charge for the services offered to their client.

Also, on September 22, a defense motion was denied to summon Tju Liang Chua, a Singaporean lawyer who is the General Counsel of the Ethereum Foundation (Ethereum Foundation). The judge also denied that this lawyer testified on video.

Journalist Ethan Lou, who traveled to North Korea with Griffith, claimed that the court’s impediment to Griffith from having Tju Lian Chua’s testimony may have influenced the defendant’s decision to plead guilty.

The Virgil Griffith Case

The Southern District Court of New York, the local court of law, managed a statement detailing Griffith’s guilty plea and the entire context of the case.

Griffith knew that North Korea could use these services to evade and avoid US penalties, and finance its nuclear energy program and other illicit activities,” the statement read.

Authorities claim that Griffith and his co-conspirators instructed attendees on cryptocurrencies as a tool to evade sanctions through laundered money, answering specific questions from individuals Griffith knew from the North Korean government.

Griffith intended to exchange cryptocurrencies between North and South Korea easier, knowing that he was infringing.

The court explained that the International Drug Trafficking and Terrorism Unit of its office led on the case. The FBI and its Counterintelligence Division, among other police entities, took part in the investigative work.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The executive said that individual and corporate investors continue to put money into Bitcoin and Ether. He believes that many Chinese still trade as they use VPNs, but barriers by the state are increasingly difficult to break.

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz recently made some predictions about the crypto market. In addition, he spoke about the repression against cryptocurrencies in China and the evolution of the Bitcoin market.

He explained the three reasons why the cryptocurrency market is on the decline. First, China has an anti-cryptocurrency and anti-market freedom stance. Second, the US Federal Reserve (FED) has injected money into the economy to face the pandemic. Third, Bitcoin and Ether have had a high level of resistance. Novogratz said that he believes that the first two cryptocurrencies on the market will become stronger.

Novogratz Bets that the Bitcoin Market is Evolving Positively

Novogratz, who is a billionaire, believes that the Bitcoin market is evolving positively. He told CNBC that resistance at USD 40,000 for Bitcoin and USD 2,800 for Ether favors the growth of interest from investors. In addition, he said that the market would strengthen positively over time as long as the price remains.

The executive added that individual and corporate investors have not stopped putting money in Bitcoin and Ether. He stated that significant amounts of capital are entering the market privately and publicly. For that reason, he expressed that he was not nervous about the current price resistance.

Currently, the price of Bitcoin stands at around USD 41,123 while the value of Ether is around USD 2,794, according to CoinGecko.

There Are Chinese Regulatory Policies Against Cryptocurrencies

Novogratz also expressed his opinion about the influence of  China on the prices of cryptocurrencies, particularly Bitcoin and Ether. Consequently, he explained that Bitcoin was much more important five months ago before the ban on cryptocurrencies by the Asian country. The latter forced many miners to migrate to other countries within and outside of Asia.

He noted that China was never a great source of innovation in the cryptocurrency sector but the marketplace sector. He believes that the Chinese are still trading a lot as they use VPNs, but it is increasingly difficult to break through state barriers. The executive also expressed his support for the use and mining of cryptocurrencies worldwide.

China recently stated that all transactions with cryptocurrencies are illegal activities. Regulatory institutions in the Asian country joined forces to block the use of those assets in the territory. That announcement hurt the price of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies on the market.

Through an official statement, the People’s Bank of China said that those transactions affect and alter the economic and financial order of the country. That is the first time that the central bank and financial regulators of the currency market have banned and challenged digital currencies.

While all of the above is happening, the People’s Bank of China is developing its digital currency, the digital yuan. Unlike decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether, a CBDC will allow China to control all the transactions of citizens.

By Alexander Salazar