There are two Bitcoin ATMs at the airport, and a business accepts the cryptocurrency as a payment method. Migrants can pay the tax to enter El Salvador with the crypto asset, but few of them have done it.

While waiting at the airport, several migrants perceived the plans of Nayib Bukele to attract foreigners with Bitcoin were paying off. The idea of going to the first country to adopt the cryptocurrency as legal tender attracted around 10% of travelers.

After landing, everyone could see at the airport a blue Chivo ATM between two traditional ATMs. A poster above that device explained to curious travelers what to do with it, stating that using Bitcoin was easy and optional.

A few steps from immigration, a second lone Chivo ATM was leaning against a column. It required those who wanted to make a transaction to confirm their identity with a phone number. Of course, those who had just landed did not have that service yet, so they could not advance beyond the first instructions.

The only business at the airport that displayed a sign saying We accept Bitcoin was a pizza restaurant. They seemed to be following the same government logic of using the pioneering cryptocurrency to attract foreigners. However, the girl who served at the counter confessed that not many customers had yet responded to that strategy.

The Review of Identity Documents during the Migration Process

Those who traveled to El Salvador had to make three lines to go through immigration. The first was to pay an entry tax of USD 12, with the option to use Bitcoin. The same as with the pizza restaurant, only a few people did. Due to the potentially vulnerable public WiFi at the airport, many of them did not want to risk exposing their PIN to access their wallets.

Some might come to believe that travelers would have free entry into the country after paying the tax. However, the immigration line was the second, where the official carefully and suspiciously checked the passports.

She recorded the data on the computer, took pictures of them, and shared them in a WhatsApp group. In addition, she made a phone call and then left her booth with the documents of some travelers with dual nationality. She then showed them to other officials as if they were strange objects never seen before.

After verifying that the entry of these travelers to the country would not represent risks, she sealed their passports and welcomed them. In some cases, the review of some people’s documents took up to six hours, while it went smoothly with others.

In the last file, they checked the stamp on the passports and the luggage of the migrants at customs. At the exit, a picture of President Nayib Bukele and the first lady welcomed travelers to the country.

The relevance of Bitcoin in the world economy is becoming more evident with each passing day. That led the Bukele government to decide to adopt it as legal tender. After the entry into force of the Bitcoin Law, the cryptocurrency has not yet shown its full potential.

By Alexander Salazar

The price of Bitcoin has increased slightly without bullish determination but has remained above USD 63,710. Although Taproot did not inject optimism into the market of the pioneering cryptocurrency, the dominant bullish force could surprise the community.

The Taproot update of the Bitcoin network is now online after almost three years of waiting. However, the price of the crypto asset has not reacted optimistically to this momentous news.

BTC is trading at around USD 64,000 and has accumulated a 1.7% loss in the last 24 hours. Its trading volume is above USD 32 billion, and its market capitalization is about USD 1.2 trillion, according to CoinGecko.

Taproot Seeks to Correct the Current Structure of Bitcoin

Throughout its history, the fundamental structure of Bitcoin has undergone several stages of slight changes for the better. On this occasion, the cryptocurrency is undergoing an update process to optimize the BTC scripting language and signatures.

That update came a long way before its launch since its developers proposed it in 2018. Its goal is to enable more private, efficient, and cheap transactions, besides creating a flexible framework for developing smart contracts.

That process, called Taproot, will bring corrections to the structure of Bitcoin, including the scalability factor. The soft fork will have to face the problem of complex transactions, which are very easy to track, and the limitation of scalability in the small blocks.

The Bitcoin network update occurred on November 14^th when F2pool mined block 709,632.

The Price of Bitcoin After the Activation of Taproot

The daily chart indicates that the price of Bitcoin has risen slightly but has not shown bullish determination yet. However, it has remained above relevant support, close to USD 63,710. Before that, it made a pullback with much less force than the previous bullish momentum.

As the short-term trend has remained bullish, new momentum will probably start from the current price point.

The price of Bitcoin must break through the support at USD 63,710 before thinking that the bears will drag it lower. Until that happens, buyers will continue to control the market.

The Forecast of the Price of Bitcoin for the Coming Week

The weekly candlestick chart reveals that the price of Bitcoin has been somewhat dormant. The Taproot update failed to inject optimism into the market of the pioneering cryptocurrency. However, the dominant bullish force could surprise the community in the next few hours.

The value of Bitcoin is still trying to escape into uncharted terrain, so the volatility to the upside could increase rapidly. Despite that, new all-time highs are still likely to occur in the coming week.

Before thinking of a broader correction, the price must first lose its support at USD 60,200. Even if that happened, buyers might not let the decline remain too long.

The first cryptocurrency on the market plays an increasingly relevant role in the world’s economic system. For that reason, the community patiently waited for an update enabling more effective transactions and improved security.

Even though the price of Bitcoin did not rise much after the activation of Taproot, it will continue growing. It is just a matter of a few days or weeks before it hits a new all-time high.

By Alexander Salazar

Commissioner hopes for the sandbox for financial products with blockchains to end this year. According to McGuinness, Cryptocurrencies will allow a massive wave of investments to European companies, McGuinness said.

The growth of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC) and their adoption in the world encourages countries to create new regulations to integrate them into their economy without escaping the control of the State.

According to this scenario, the European Union (EU) commissioner for financial services, Mairead McGuinness, called on European countries to accelerate regulations based on the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) proposal.

MiCA is an initiative that arrived in 2020 to regulate the crypto-assets market and aims to establish a regulatory framework to create a safe environment that benefits consumers and investors in that industry.

For the official, the regulations must get defined before the end of the year. In his view, the authorities must establish solid rules as soon as possible, said McGuinness at the fourth European Central Bank Forum on banking supervision, on 10 November.

Likewise, he considers that cryptocurrencies are evolving in a fast way. It would allow companies to enter that market and attract investors.

Another aspect touched by McGuinness in the activity is that the financial services commission intends to end the regulatory sandbox for products that use blockchains as a tool. A sandbox or sandbox is a closed test environment designed for safe experimentation.

MiCA still Generates a Wave of Doubts

Although the authorities firmly agree with the MiCA proposal, the member of the European Parliament, Eva Maydell, is not so sure about it. Maydell highlighted, during an activity, that defining a regulation for cryptocurrencies will take longer than they have thought, although she clarified that she is not against the crypto assets industry.

The reservations and rejective stance that some European officials have regarding bitcoin and the rest of the cryptocurrencies came to the public eye in a series of reports that took place early this year.

 The European Commission and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) classified bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as risky assets, as can be seen in the documents.

Although bitcoin is not yet complying with regulations in Europe, some measures connect to the network, and the other ones respond directly to The State.

One of those EU member countries that have made progress in the regulatory aspect is Spain, according to an analysis by the audit services firm KPMG. Most cryptocurrencies are not complying with regulations imposed by the EU, which prevents consumers of crypto assets from receiving an endorsement or guarantee that regulated financial services do.

It is important to remember that, in 2020, the European Commission presented a proposal regarding the regulation of the crypto-asset market, known as MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) to create a safe environment that benefits consumers and investors.

By: Jenson Nuñez

Under the nickname ‘Papasweeds’, artist Pavel Skazkin sells designs on NFT that portray his experience within the Russian prison system.

The increasing trend and speculation around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) may offer new ways to support worthy causes. This week, a slightly more dramatic story took place. An inmate in Russia told CoinDesk how he is leveraging the digital art craze to support his family and fellow inmates from prison.

Pavel Skazkin, a 31-year-old Russian inmate, is now creating surreal digital art to sell in NFT format. He got inspired by life in prison, and he also takes advantage of his artistic creation to make catharsis of his own experience within the Russian prison system.

The father of three children, Skazkin, is allocating a percentage of the sales to support his family and another amount to help other inmates in situations similar to his own. In a phone interview, Skazkin told CoinDesk that he has pledged to donate a third of the proceeds from his NFT sales to Russia Behind Bars, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping inmates and their families.

“Hall of Shame” is the title of the NFT work. The digital piece is a hand-drawn illustration that portrays Skazkin’s sentencing experience before the Russian court, as detailed by himself on the Foundation platform. At the time of publishing, the work got priced at 0.99 ETH, about USD 4,700.

The Story of Papasweeds

The inmate sells his works on the NFT market under the nickname Papasweeds, consisting of a play on words that collects his criminal charges and personal history.

According to Skazkin himself, a Russian court sentenced him to six years in prison for the crime of drug trafficking after being captured by local authorities carrying a package of marijuana and ecstasy. The prosecutor had initially asked for a 10-year sentence.

At that time, the 27-year-old Russian citizen got transferred to a prison near Bryansk, which is a place that prohibits communications and electronic devices. That prison is also well-known for being one of the cruelest correctional facilities in Russia, where cases of torture of its prisoners have been registered, according to local media.

Doing Catharsis through NFT

Fortunately, three years after serving half his sentence in that correctional facility, Skazkin managed to win a lighter sentence even without having a lawyer defending him.

Following the court’s verdict, the Russian got transferred to a less strict prison where he could work in a nearby city and use Internet-connected devices. He then finally managed to enter the world of NFTs.

Due to his experience with the dark web environment, Skazkin was already familiar with the concept of cryptocurrencies when he arrived in jail. He had bought his first bitcoins in 2017; However, the notion of NFTs was new, and there was little to zero news about the crypto space in print newspapers and on television when he was in the previous prison.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The supply on centralized exchanges has continued to fall, so the market seems to be in the money accumulation phase. Juthica Chou recently explained that investors use Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The level of Bitcoin reserves on cryptocurrency exchanges has dropped, showing investors are not ready to sell. In other words, the supply on those platforms allows measuring the sentiment of investors in the market.

Since August, investor sentiment has been bullish on the future of Bitcoin. For that reason, they do not want to overlook their holdings in the pioneering cryptocurrency market.

The last week has been extremely strong for Bitcoin as it has consolidated between USD 59,743 and USD 64,242. In that way, the crypto asset has kept almost all of the profits it generated in October.

The Bitcoin Reserves that Cryptocurrency Exchanges Own

A report from Glassnode indicates that the supply on centralized exchanges has continued to decline in the fourth quarter. That document shows that daily withdrawals on those platforms have reached around 5,000 BTC.

In other words, it seems that the market is in the money accumulation phase. Investors are buying as much Bitcoin as they can and consolidating their holdings until better prices come.

Those investing in BTC are postponing the sale of their assets until there are better conditions in the market. That behavior is contrary to all previous trends in bearish markets.

Market analysts expect that situation to continue at least until December of this year. They predict that the price of the crypto asset could hit an all-time high of USD 100,000.

Investors Use Bitcoin as a Hedge against Inflation

Juthica Chou, Head of OTC Options Trading and Bank Kraken, recently spoke about the uses of Bitcoin by investors. She explained that the pioneering cryptocurrency represents a hedge against inflation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The executive warned that people need to understand that the cryptocurrency market has inherent volatility. Furthermore, she stressed that investors should consider their level of risk tolerance before including Bitcoin in their portfolio.

Analyst Vildana Hajric stated that analysts had anticipated Bitcoin’s outstanding performance in recent days, Bloomberg reported. She noted that some investors believe that a recovery from the pandemic would lead to higher inflation levels. For that reason, they are hoarding the crypto asset as a hedge against the hard times to come.

For his part, Kapil Rathi, CEO of CrossTower, said that institutions have started increasing allocations to Bitcoin. He said that this may have happened due to the impending launch of the ProShares exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Throughout its history, Bitcoin has shown that it is capable of recovering from the worst crises. In addition, a growing number of investors believe that it is necessary to be attentive to the changes that this asset can bring. Several analysts have speculated that its price could reach USD 100,000, but it is just a matter of time before that happens.

By Alexander Salazar