The “sand dollar” of the Bahamas (sand dollar) completed its testing phase and enters now at the beginning of an economic connection between the Islands of the archipelago through a digital payment system for its inhabitants. According to the plan of the Central Bank of the Bahamas, the national digital dollar could be ready in October.

Chaozhen Chen, Deputy Director of the bank of eSolutions, told Bloomberg that “many residents of the most remote islands do not have access to digital payments infrastructure or banking infrastructure,” an obstacle to the development of an economy that depends on tourism. If the plan were implemented, the digital currency would have an impact on more than 400,000 inhabitants.

At the moment, the Bahamian monetary authority only has a balance of 48,000 sand dollars, which is 1: 1 equivalent to the Bahamian dollar. Chen assured that the digital currency will only be minted as demand increases and paper money is withdrawn from the system, as the main intention is to prevent its issuance from affecting the monetary policy of the country.

According to this definition, the digital currency of the Bahamas is only one way to represent fiat money issued by the monetary authority of the State.

The system proposed by the Central Bank will allow executing cash payments through smartphones or even without Internet connections. This is one of the main benefits of the Bahamian sand dollar, according to Keith Davies, CEO of Kanoo, an island payment service provider.

According to Davies, the transfer with the sand dollar “is final and irrevocable because it is fiat currency,” he told: “It is the essence of a settlement system.” And as the Central Bank of the Bahamas suggests, this solution should not be confused with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum”.

The coexistence of the sand dollar and cryptocurrencies in the Bahamas

The race to get a national digital currency in the Bahamas began in 2018, but only until the end of 2019 the model tested in the Exuma and Abaco islands became noticeable, as we reported from CryptoNews.

This model had the advantage of connecting families and small entrepreneurs with the national payment system, but it possessed some other obstacles beyond the money administered by the State; exchange limits (up to USD 500) and the requirement of personal requirements or credit history to increase the limits.

Given the state of global economies, hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, alternatives to facilitate payments in areas where there is no adequate infrastructure could be of help. In countries that depend on tourism (60% of the BIP of the Bahamas), one of the economic sectors most affected during 2020, it may become vital as the means to reactivate international travel are available.

However, there is a whole set of new alternatives in the Bahamas when it comes to payments. Inhabitants of the islands that make up the archipelago have the option of making or receiving payments through P2P platforms such as LocalBitcoins, Paxful, Bitrefill, or Coinbase. These options bring fewer frictions about international transactions, exchanges surpassing its limits, or excessive requirements coming from the banks.

Besides, the inhabitants of the island have at least 3 Bitcoin ATMs. According to Coin ATM Radar, this amount is pretty useful for those who already own cryptocurrencies and need an extra exchange for local currency.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has expressed in writing her disagreement with the measures of the settlement between the SEC and Unikrn, which, in her view, involve the cessation of operations of Unikrn with the UKG token.

Through a settlement agreement between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and online gambling startup Unikrn, this company will have to pay a fine of USD 6.1 million and set the deactivation of its Unikoingold (UKG) token. Unikrn is now facing the accusation of conducting an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017, all of this without the current consent from the SEC.

On Tuesday, September 15, the SEC published a press release on its website announcing the decision “Unregistered ICO Issuer agrees to deactivate token and pay distribution fine to injured investors.”

The SEC notes in the statement that Unikrn was accused of carrying out, between July and October 2017, an unregistered ICO with the Unikoin token offering, with which it raised USD 31 million. “The order found that Unikrn offered and sold UKG as investment contracts, which constitute securities, but did not record such an offer, nor did it qualify for an exception.”

The SEC also notes that the agreement with Unikrn allows “the return of all Unikrn assets to injured investors and includes measures to prevent future sales”, the deactivation of the tokens is one of the features.

Regulators demand regulatory decisions

Unikrn was accused of executing an ICO without registration from regulatory bodies. Source: Unikrn / FacebookA document with the position of Hester Peirce, a member of the commission, was also published on the SEC website on Tuesday, who has already shown favorable positions towards cryptocurrencies.

Peirce believes that, while many of the compliance actions that the SEC has taken in the past include allegations of fraud, Unikrn was only accused of carrying out an ICO without the corresponding registration with the regulators.

On the one hand, the Commissioner admits that violations of the proper registration of securities operations are serious and believe that there must be sanctions against it. On the other hand, the proportions of these sanctions are serious, exaggerated, and enormous.

Peirce highlights that in addition to the deactivation of the UKG token, which affects its current operation, the amount of the fine represents the complete assets of the company. “In other words, the Commission is effectively forcing the company to cease operations, for an alleged offer of supposed securities,” says Peirce.

Then, Peirce calls for a regulatory provision that combines the SEC’s interest in protecting investors with the willingness of developers to experiment. According to Peirce, such a provision could include three years for a company like Unikrn to develop and optimize its platform, under the supervision of the SEC.

The qualification of a token as security is key to applying existing legislation to token issuing companies. Peirce emphasizes in the document that he did not agree with his colleagues in qualifying UKG as security.

Both the position of the SEC is reflected, which has reiterated that bitcoin is not a security, as the position of Hester Peirce on the rating of tokens. The commissioner has stated that “not all cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are securities.” Peirce argued that this is still a topic of discussion, as some of the crypto assets function like securities, others as currencies, and some as “other things”, so that the picture becomes varied and diffuse.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

New perpetual XRP contracts are paired with the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). Binance Futures launched XRP perpetual contracts paired against Tether (USDT) in January 2020.

Binance Futures, a cryptocurrency futures and derivatives platform of exchange Binance, is supporting the XRP (Ripple) and Ethereum Classic (ETC) perpetual contract exchange system.

As part of the celebration of its first anniversary, Binance Futures recently launched the two new Binance products, under the name XRPUSD for XRP, and ETCUSD for Ethereum Classic.

Perpetual contracts went into circulation in the market, paired against the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). This circulation means that users must pay or receive the margin, profit, and loss in USDC, while XRP and ETC serve as collateral.

In this way, the platform’s users have at their disposal a new mechanism to open operations, in long or short positions, based on a leverage of up to 75 times, as the company stated.

Binance acknowledges that leveraged transactions are very risky, so it warns users about the potential for making both profits and losses that are significant. “Bear in mind that, in the event of an extreme price movement, there is the possibility of liquidation of the entire margin balance in your futures wallet,” he says.

Futures Contracts on Binance

Perpetual contracts are a modality of futures contracts based on crypto assets. They show slight differences in their trading mechanism concerning future since there is no specific expiration or settlement date. In this particular case, the customer is the one who decides when to leave.

About the offer of XRP derivatives, its introduction occurred on the Binance Futures platform in January of this year. This fact made the exchange the first to add a perpetual contract for this cryptocurrency, but it happened in front of the stablecoin Tether (USDT). A few weeks later, it implemented a similar product for Ethereum Classic.

In May 2020, it added option contracts for XRP and Ethereum (ETH), thus providing traders with the right to buy or sell the assets at a certain price for a specific period.

Since the beginning of the year, the platform has been offering perpetual futures contracts paired with USDT, as well as leveraged tokens. In the last year, in addition to quarterly futures contracts, it has been offering a service called Binance Options. This allows reaching short-term exchange agreements, which settles the American way.

In recent days, the company started incorporating more tools for traders, thus allowing them to customize the margin or predetermine particular addresses to hold. In April, it introduced the trading of options. In late August, it launched a new product that allows betting on the rise or fall of the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem.

In a recent report, CryptoCompare stated that Binance was one of the leading exchanges in terms of monthly derivatives volumes last August. According to the ranking of the study, it was the third-largest, after OKEx and Huobi.

By Alexander Salazar

Ripple accuses YouTube of “willful blindness” for ignoring warnings about malicious ads seeking to steal cryptocurrency from users. The legal battle that Ripple started in April is still ongoing.

Ripple rejected YouTube’s claims that it knew nothing about scams claiming to “give away” XRP, Ripple accused the platform of “willful blindness” because of all the advice ignored.

The company behind the XRP token, Ripple, took immediate actions against YouTube in April, accusing the platform of being responsible for the multiple videos that used its logo and the image of CEO Brad Garlinghouse to generate a chain of promotions with scams that ask victims to send XRP to be eligible to receive a larger amount that does not arrive.

YouTube filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in July. They are claiming there was not any engagement related to scams and, as an online platform, they cannot be accused of being part of a scam network mainly because they cannot be held responsible for third-parties contents.

In response to YouTube’s motion, filed Tuesday, Ripple challenged this lawsuit. The blockchain payments firm argued that the 350 withdrawal notices it sent to YouTube mean that it knew all about the scams, but chose not to act, or only did so weeks or months later.

YouTube is accused of “willful blindness,” and Ripple alleges that it ignored explicit warnings about scams occurring on its platform. In the worst case, multiple scams were uploaded to YouTube every day, some receiving tens of thousands of views in a matter of hours.

Ripple claims that users were defrauded with millions of XRP, worth hundreds of thousands of US dollars, and the company suffered serious reputational damage as a result of YouTube’s inaction.

The filing also alleges that YouTube profited from the ad revenue from the scam videos and “materially contributed” to the situation by giving a verified “brand” to one of the distribution channels. Ripple is not the only company accusing YouTube of not doing enough to stop such scams.

YouTube faces various legal disputes

Apple founder Steve Wozniak, along with 18 other plaintiffs, is also claiming punitive damages from the platform for Bitcoin scam videos that used his image.

About this subject, the cryptocurrency community has been very critical of the video platform due to the double standards that have existed in the policy of crypto-related ads. On the one hand, there are a considerable number of companies and people willing to take legal measures, and on the other, there is YouTube’s platform that does not move to stop fraudulent ads but has banned real ads or programs about bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in other occasions.

In June this year, the Bitcoin.com channel, run and founded by Roger Ver, was temporarily banned for a “violation of the terms of service”. The channel was reactivated again shortly after, but the fact was enough to upset crypto enthusiasts who are aware of the irregularities in YouTube’s crypto ad policy.

Bitcoin.com has not been the only one, Ivan On Tech’s channel has also suffered from YouTube politics to the point where all of the content creator’s videos were taken down without any proper explanation.

By: Jenson Nuñez.

The Argentine Central Bank’s new measures led the peso to lose its value. Those who had invested their money in Bitcoin made a “profit” of 15% in one day.

The new measures that the Argentine Central Bank (BCRA) implemented restrict the purchase and use of foreign currencies. After the announcement, the US dollar traded at up to ARS 145 in the informal market, around 10.7% more than in previous days.

The price of Bitcoin also increased, going from ARS 1,343,000 to ARS 1,549,000 in just two days. In this case, the increase was 15%.

Among its measures, the BCRA decided to take payments in foreign currencies on account of the monthly quota of USD 200 that Argentines can buy.

Apart from that, each time that users purchase US dollars, they will have to pay an additional 35% (as well as 30% of the “solidarity tax” already in force) for the payment of taxes on income and personal property.

According to the BCRA, these measures aim to discourage consumption abroad, purchase of foreign currencies for savings purposes, and exchange operations with bonds (known as the dollar stock market).

Bitcoin as a Store of Value

In countries whose fiat currencies are suffering a rapid devaluation, Bitcoin presents itself as an effective solution to safeguard value. Its predefined issuance of 21 million, its unmovable monetary policy, and its consequent disinflationary trend in the long term make it an ideal instrument for this function.

The advantages of Bitcoin are even above those of the US dollar, which Argentines and other Latin Americans traditionally use to preserve their savings. The US dollar is not exempt from devaluation, having lost more than 90% of its value since 1913.

The current monetary policies of the US government lead many to predict that the purchasing power of the US dollar, which typically falls by around 2% every year, will decline further.

Argentines consider that Bitcoin has the advantage that there are no legal limitations to buy it. People can buy cryptocurrencies with both the local fiat currency and foreign fiat currencies. For that reason, several exchanges advertise their services as a way to “skip restrictions” and be able to dollarize without suffering from state restrictions.

Some Argentine exchanges recently removed the BTC/USD pair from their platforms. However, this is not a consequence of any legal provision but commercial decisions.

Many Do Not Seem To See that Bitcoin Is a Good Store of Value

The information that Google provides indicates that there has recently been a considerable increase in searches for the term “dollar” in Argentina. However, searches for “Bitcoin” in the country have remained low and constant.

A few days ago, the president of NGO Bitcoin Argentina had said that Bitcoin is not the first thing that people normally think of when seeking a safe haven.

In this regard, he gave this example: “If I told someone that an alternative to investing their Argentine pesos is Bitcoin, they would say to me ‘How nice! But I want you to give me US dollars.’” As Andragnes himself stated, “Bitcoin is very efficient, but it requires people to believe in it.”

By Willmen Blanco

The Colombian government will call on the local financial system to carry out tests of transactions with cryptocurrencies. This was announced by the presidential economic adviser Víctor Muñoz, on the morning of this Wednesday, September 16.

Through Twitter, Muñoz explained that the Financial Superintendency of Colombia (Superfinanciera) will make the call “for the financial system to test cash in and cash-out transactions with crypto assets.”

This will occur as part of the regulatory sandbox for the financial technology (FinTech) sector, said a government spokesperson. The sandbox decree was approved last Monday by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit, after having been submitted for comments.

The tests to be convened by the Superfinancial will allow us to have “evidence for an intelligent regulatory framework, based on experience, data, and knowledge”, in the opinion of the former minister for Innovation and Digital Transformation in the South American country.

The scope of the call or any tentative date for testing cryptocurrency transactions is unknown. The decree does not even mention cryptocurrencies, so it does not shed any further light on what will happen to this industry.

In February of this year, there were some issues related to the decree for the creation of the regulatory sandbox pending comments. At that time, the lack of cryptocurrencies, or even companies in the area, such as exchanges, unleashed doubts in the cryptocurrency environment in Colombia.

Representatives of various exchanges were reluctant about the sandbox and its potential impact on the activity of cryptocurrency companies. In general, for various actors in the ecosystem, crypto-assets were in a gray area in Colombian territory.

Expectations and doubts towards the regulatory sandbox in Colombia

Among the ecosystem personalities who expressed their doubts in February was Arley Lozano, alias Vakano. The CEO of Panda Exchange commented to this medium on that occasion that Colombia had been presenting itself as a country at the forefront of technology, but there were many obstacles for the sector.

Now, Lozano himself responded to Muñoz’s post wishing that the call of improvements in the conditions of cryptocurrency companies in the country must be fulfilled. Lozano explained: “Hopefully because at the rate we are going. It’s easier to be a bandit here than to work with cryptocurrencies in Colombia.”

About this, Mauricio Tovar, co-director of InTIColombia Research Group, welcomed the announcement, the Colombian Fintech company association also expressed itself optimistically. “The time has come to use this beneficial tool for the Fintech ecosystem, and we started with crypto assets,” the organization wrote on its Twitter.

On the other hand, the director of the NGO Fundación Bitcoin Colombia, Carlos Mesa, showed a little more skeptical view, saying: “We hope the call will be very soon and that it welcomes the companies already established”.

The ecosystem is waiting on the implications of the sandbox, and the Colombian government has flirted in several ways with the development of blockchains, even publishing a guide on the use of blockchains for the public sector and offering financial investment for companies in this industry and other tech entrepreneurship.

By: Jenson Nuñez.