European Union Officials Talk about Banning Bitcoin Trading

Alexander Salazar
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European Union Officials Talk about Banning Bitcoin Trading

The regulator proposed to assess the feasibility of banning PoW in favor of PoS and other environmentally friendly consensus mechanisms. The Swedish and German authorities are concerned about the energy usage related to cryptocurrency mining as it allegedly harms the environment.

Many believe Bitcoin (BTC) is the money of the future and the basis of the economy, as no government controls it. Since a decentralized network runs the crypto asset on thousands of devices worldwide, anyone can use it. However, regulators from different countries have attempted to ban the activities related to the pioneering cryptocurrency.

European Union (EU) officials have talked about the possibility of banning Bitcoin trading and Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining. They consider it is necessary to curb the use of energy by the network.

According to digital rights organization Netzpolitik, climate change due to cryptocurrencies is causing concern among officials in Berlin and Brussels. That has led the European Commission and the German government to consider banning Bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency trading.

The officials seem indifferent to the many people that turn to Bitcoin as a lifeline. For example, Ukrainian citizens use cryptocurrencies to escape from the terrible effects of the war with Russia.

EU Officials Seek to Ban Using the Pioneering Cryptocurrency

Netzpolitik reported that the regulator argued that they are responsible for complying with the Paris Agreement. The official document states that people should use renewable energy mainly for essential services. They also proposed to assess how feasible it is to ban PoW in favor of PoS and other environmentally friendly consensus mechanisms.

The EU meeting with the financial supervisor and the environmental agency of Sweden evidenced the growth of Bitcoin mining in the country. One of the speakers asked whether the authorities could push Bitcoin to transition to the PoS validation mechanism.

He highlighted that Bitcoin could change into a consensus mechanism that consumes less energy, just like Ethereum did. In addition, he commented that they needed to protect sustainable cryptocurrencies instead of focusing on the Bitcoin community.

Curiously, nobody knows who said those words since the European Commission deleted the names of the speakers.

Another anonymous speaker asked whether the European Union should ban Bitcoin trading based on the PoW algorithm of the cryptocurrency.

The official wanted to know how the demise of Bitcoin would affect consumers. He pointed out that BTC participants are aware of the risk/volatility of the currency/investment.

They also questioned other cryptocurrencies like Solana (SOL), indicating that Bitcoin offers the same. However, they did not mention that the Solana Foundation controls SOL, while Bitcoin is a more decentralized crypto asset.

Swedish Officials and the EU Still Discuss the PoW Consensus

Another document suggests that the discussions about the PoW consensus between Swedish officials and the European Union continue. Members of the German ministry of the environment joined that meeting to express their points of view.

The Swedish and German authorities are worried about the energy usage related to cryptocurrency mining. That is because the challenges of climate transition raise many concerns in that regard.

To conclude, Bitcoin is likely to remain a controversial topic in European politics. While some think it could complement fiat money, others believe it is necessary to control or ban it.

By Alexander Salazar

Serena Williams Describes Her Journey through the World of Crypto Assets

Alexander Salazar
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Serena Williams Describes Her Journey through the World of Crypto Assets

Serena Williams supports crypto assets and the community embracing blockchain technology and likes to make investments in that field. She said that more users are entering the digital world as it offers opportunities for everyone.

Professional athlete Serena Williams recently talked about the support she gives to crypto projects. She spoke with Hong Fang, the CEO of OKCoin, with whom she shared some remarks.

Williams expressed her view on the progress in the digital asset industry and how she has traveled that path.

Entrepreneurship in the Crypto Asset Industry

Showing her support for blockchain technology, Serena Williams talked about how she handles the world of crypto assets and relates to the industry. She has been optimistic about that sector and the current uses of its advances.

Williams made it clear that she likes to make investments in that field, seeking to get good results from the developments.

The sportswoman emphasized the current scope of crypto assets at the time that she has traveled the path of blockchain technology.

She said that she has always loved entrepreneurship, investing, and technology.

Serena Williams also highlighted that the effort of each individual is essential in generating successful returns on investments. She said that without neglecting the continuous practice and the learning derived from trial and error. She stated that the cornerstone to consider in the ecosystem is education.

Concerning the world of crypto assets, she pointed out that it is not easy as it requires a lot of practice, effort, and time.

Hong Fang added that it is necessary to focus to succeed and be competitive, as everyone should evolve for themselves.

Participation in the World of Crypto Assets and NFTs

Serena Williams showed enthusiasm about supporting digital art and blockchain technology in general. She pointed out that more users are entering the digital world, as it has opportunities for everyone.

The athlete said that the attractiveness of systems based on virtual environments led her to enter the crypto world. She highlighted that she has digital art holdings among her investments. She noted that she must like what she buys when investing or acquiring NFTs.

Williams added that many people are in the world without having a concrete view but said that this is the future. She reiterated that she sees many advantages in crypto assets and is confident of the potential in the industry.

Everyone Can Benefit from the Crypto Asset Sector

Regarding the current acceptance of the crypto sector, Serena Williams said that people could take advantage of the benefits of the ecosystem. She said that amid her attempts to evolve during her journey through blockchain technology.

She described two advantages of the digital world: the constancy in developing new initiatives and a community facing new challenges.

Williams noted that the results are better when people like and enjoy what they do. She sees an outlook full of new opportunities, referring to the creation of a market that is expanding.

By Alexander Salazar

Technological Innovation Allows Bitcoin Miners to Resist Legal Regulations

Alexander Salazar
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Technological Innovation Allows Bitcoin Miners to Resist Legal Regulations

Profits from Bitcoin mining have increased by around 150% over the last two years. Technological innovation has contributed to centralizing the activity and helping miners resist legal regulations.

The Bitcoin mining activity is still struggling amid legal regulations, energy restrictions, and local circumstances. However, it is betting on the introduction of technological and business innovation.

For example, hash rate or processing power has become a commodity or exchangeable asset that miners can transfer and locate geographically.

According to that thesis, people can buy Bitcoin (BTC) with electricity by providing miners with a fixed energy supply.

In the last few years, Bitcoin miners have profited as the increasing scarcity of that cryptocurrency has allowed its appreciation. Even though they earn fewer coins than before, their value tends to increase over time. The gains from mining BTC are currently around 150% higher than two years ago.

However, the growth of Bitcoin mining is evident in both commercial success and technological innovation. New and more efficient mining equipment, with a power of 100 terahashes per second (TH/s), has emerged in the market.

Technological advances will allow mining to become decentralized as more actors can participate in the confirmation of transactions on the Bitcoin network. That will be possible through a new mining protocol and more advanced microprocessors.

Mining Bitcoin from home will be increasingly common if users follow these tips. Experts recommend having an adequate electric system consisting of a circuit of 20 amps and around 240 watts. They also advise remembering that it is necessary to exchange some bitcoins for fiat money to pay operational costs.

However, that does not exclude big players like Blockstream and Tesla, who will mine Bitcoin aided with solar power.

The Regulatory Landscape Is Uncertain in Mexico and Venezuela

There is great enthusiasm about Bitcoin mining among businesspeople from Mexico like Ricardo Salinas and Venezuelan Ricardo Carmona. They recently said that the activity might be more profitable for large investors than smaller ones.

Electricity consumption rates and the inequality in the access to energy sources might have something to do with that. Given that reality, the specialists also warned that it is necessary to establish a clear regulatory framework.

Some Bitcoin miners from Venezuela are waging a legal battle against the National Cryptocurrency Superintendence (Sunacrip). They argue that there is discrimination regarding the seizure of some mining equipment.

Theo Toukoumidis is the founder of DoctorMiner, a company providing services to Bitcoin miners in Venezuela. The executive pointed out that the country has much potential for developing that field. However, he believes there must be more regulatory clarity, communication between regulators and the private sector, and the need to convey confidence worldwide.

Kazakhstan is cornering Bitcoin miners from the electricity consumption and finance perspectives. The Asian country, which welcomed Bitcoin miners fleeing China in 2021, is currently considering charging miners more taxes as the price rises.

Bitcoin is trading at around USD 39,904 and has accumulated a 6.1% loss in the last 24 hours. Its trading volume is above USD 39.46 billion, and its market capitalization is approximately USD 758.94 billion.

By Alexander Salazar

Will STEPN Reach New Highs? GMT Price will Form a “Bull Flag”

Audy Castañeda
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Will STEPN Reach New Highs? GMT Price will Form a “Bull Flag”

GMT is booming despite warnings that its 38,000% price hike since inception could end up being an ‘absolute joke’.

STEPN (GMT) has risen strongly against the US Dollar this week, and it looks set to form a classic bullish technical pattern called a “bull flag”.

GMT price is up 30% so far this week, including a strong rally to set an all-time high near $3.85, followed by a relatively modest correction to almost $3. Notably, the correction phase occurred within a descending parallel channel, which increases the chances that the price will end up breaking to the upside.

That is precisely because traditional analysts consider strong rallies, followed by range-bound price corrections, to be bullish continuation setups. In addition, the one that GMT has been painting – a bullish flag, as mentioned above – could lead to a bull run in the coming weeks.

GMT Aims Higher

As a rule, traders make a bull flag target by measuring the height of the previous uptrend and projecting it from the breakout point. Applying the classic setup on the GMT chart, we see that it is now targeting a rally above $5, roughly 65% ​​above the current price.

The success rate for bull flags to hit their bullish targets is around 64%, according to Thomas Bulkowski, a veteran investor and analyst.

However, the risk of a drop to $2 is high if GMT price breaks below the lower trend line of the bull flag, the last support line, which coincides with the 50-4H exponential moving average (50-4H EMA; the red wave) at $2.91.

Is STEPN’s 38,000% profit an “absolute joke”?

The GMT token has risen nearly 38,000% in less than two months, amid hype over STEPN’s “move-to-earn” economic model, which rewards users of its app with a native currency, called Green Satoshi Token (GST), for the mere fact of moving.

STEPN generates revenue (earned $26.81 million in Q1 2022) through the sale of its so-called “NFT Sneaker”, a unique digital image whose ownership allows players to earn GST in the first place. The game uses revenue first to buy and then burn GMT, thus creating upward pressure on its prices if the demand for the token increases.

Independent market analyst Wangarian believes the hype around STEPN resembles what Axie Infinity (AXS), a game-to-win metaverse, witnessed in May 2021. The AXS/USD pair soared from around $2.50 to about USD 178 between May and November last year.

On Twitter, Wangarian posted that, “Tell me how $APE + $GMT ripping in a sideways market doesn’t look similar to $AXS back in May 2021”.

Independent market analyst Michaël van de Poppe, however, fears that GMT’s market capitalization, which stands at around $1.9bn – with a fully diluted valuation of around $18bn is an “absolute joke”. However, he adds on a Twitter post that this fact “tells a lot: – The potential of the markets is insane and we’re still early; – Marketing is doing its thing in #crypto all over again; and – Valuations can still become ridiculous.”

Nevertheless, “GMT valuations can still be ridiculous,” he adds, due to STEPN’s marketing tactics.

By Audy Castaneda

FATF Supports its Controls for Greater Regulation of Bitcoin in the World

Jenson Nunez
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FATF Supports its Controls for Greater Regulation of Bitcoin in the World

The FATF expressed that 52% of countries have proper regulations on digital assets. European Union desires to follow the FATF regulations, including the travel policy.

The new report presented by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) got called State of the effectiveness and compliance with the FATF standards. It warns that many nations still do not follow the standards applied to the FATF, the entity to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT).

According to the document, only 9% of member nations are applying adequate policies and regulatory archetypes for virtual asset service providers such as bitcoin (BTC) and digital assets, in general, to reduce the risks of crimes through them.

In this sense, the group confirmed that it would be more strict with member nations of the organization, such as the United States of America, the European Union (EU), and China, through more evaluations regarding the risks of illegal financial operations.

Laws with a Low Rate of Effectiveness

The new report also highlighted that 52% of the studied nations have appropriate policies and regulatory archetypes. Many countries still face crucial challenges in taking effective procedures commensurate with the risks they have to face.

The report also points out that at least 97% of the 120 nations under study have moderate effectiveness rates in fighting against money laundering and terrorism in the private sector.

The FATF updated its guide in October of last year to regulate service providers with bitcoin and other digital assets worldwide. The regulations suggest requesting reports of monetary transactions, including a rule that requires the maintenance of records linked to those operations.

Additionally, the guidance recommends that operators allow transactions only to and from addresses deemed acceptable, focusing on the risk-based approach.

The EU Bets to Comply with the FATF with New Regulations

Recently, the European Parliament debated a proposal that will make it mandatory to identify all operations with bitcoin and other digital assets in the eurozone, something that the FATF suggests in its guide.

The goal in Europe is for transactions to be completely identifiable, granting and verifying all user data.

They also intend to apply the so-called “travel rule” to virtual asset service providers. This policy needs exchange, support, or development network based on bitcoin and other digital assets to share information among themselves about users who carry out operations surpassing USD 1,000. One of these must share the user’s previously collected and verified data with another when it happens.

Lawmakers believe it is too easy to use digital assets as a vehicle to avoid regulations, but cybercriminals prefer fiat to launder funds.

By: Jenson Nuñez

President of the Fed Reveals that they Consider another Increase of half a Percentage Point on Interest Rates

Jenson Nunez
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President of the Fed Reveals that they Consider another Increase of half a Percentage Point on Interest Rates

According to Powell, the Fed has this consideration on the table. It intends to debate it during the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee next May.

The US Federal Reserve (FED) president, Jerome Powell, highlighted that the agency would be considering raising interest rates even more. He states that the possibility of increasing them again by 0 is on the table with five percentage points or 50 basis points.

Interest Rates Could Increase

This information got revealed by Powell during a presentation before the International Monetary Fund (IMF), where he confirmed that the new increase in interest rates is a procedure that will get discussed at the next meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee ( FOMC), which will happen in May.

Let’s consider that this measure is part of the Fed’s intentions to stop the increasing inflation in the US economy, which stands at 8.5% and has become the highest in the last 40 years.

Keep in mind that interest rates remained close to zero until last March when the first such increase of about 25 basis points (0.25 percentage points) since the pandemic started.

The Goal is to Minimize inflation.

Considered by some representatives an aggressive move and by others essential, the Fed’s procedures and plans aimed at addressing the increasing inflation rate felt by the local economy in the price of certain essential goods, items, and services.

Powell highlighted that this and other measures are crucial to restoring price stability. However, the director of the FED is not sure if this 8.5% is the highest inflationary peak for now, but he suggested not to count on it but to wait and see the effect that this and other procedures can have.

Markets crumble down

Although the markets were already crumbling down on April 21, Powell’s revelation does not seem to have positively affected reversing the said trend.

Figures from the NASDAQ, Dow Jones, and S&P500 are declining positions between 1% and 2%. The crypto market also seems to be following the downward trend, with items such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a good part of the most significant digital assets, with falls registered at 4% in the last hours.

 Powell’s Stance on the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict

Jerome Powell said Russia’s conflict in Ukraine could highlight the need for market regulation. He expressed that punished entities or individuals can use this asset to circumvent economic blockades.

The CoinDesk news outlet picked up an article where it quotes the words of the president of the FED:

The president said the Russian invasion generated the need for congressional action on digital finance, including digital assets. This thriving industry has many parts, and there is no regulatory framework that covers this field.

By: Jenson Nuñez

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