Negative Evaluation of Bitcoin (BTC) in El Salvador One Year Later

The former president of the Central Bank, Carlos Acevedo, affirms that the costs of adopting cryptocurrency have been greater than the benefits.

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Nayib Bukele to Discuss Bitcoin with Bankers from 44 Countries in Monday Meeting

Late night on Sunday, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele revealed his plans to meet bankers from 44 countries first thing in the morning.

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Tourism in El Salvador witnesses 30% hike following Bitcoin law

El Salvador’s acceptance of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender in September 2021 has resulted in a significant increase in the country’s GDP as well as tourist growth. The tourist business in El Salvador has grown by more than 30% since the enactment of the Bitcoin law in September 2021, according to Salvadoran Tourism Minister Morena […]

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New bill aims to 'mitigate risks' to US from El Salvador's Bitcoin Law

Three U.S. Senators proposed a bill which would commission a lengthy report detailing the inner workings of El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law and a subsequent action plan to mitigate risk.

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Why “Bitcoin Creator” Craig Wright Came Out Ahead Despite Having To Pay $100 Million

On Monday, it was determined by a Miami court that Craig Wright, the alleged creation of Bitcoin, would pay $100 million in damages to David Kleiman, Wright’s partner. The case had dragged on for about a year and finally came to an end with this judgment. This time, Wright did not appeal the judgment as the computer scientist believed it to be fair. Furthermore, Wright said that the judgment on the part of the court solidifies his claim to be the original Bitcoin creator, which is something the computer scientist has claimed for a long time. Wright was ordered to pay the $100 million to the heirs of David Kleiman who claimed the late computer scientist’s estate was entitled to half of the 1.1 million BTC mined by Satoshi Nakamoto. Related Reading | Despite Red Bitcoin, On-Chain Signals Flip Green How Wright May Have Come Out Ahead One important tidbit, in this case, is that Wright may actually be Satoshi Nakamoto as he claims. If this is true, then the computer scientist is in possession of the 1.1 million BTC that was mined by the creator wallet after the Bitcoin blockchain was launched. The bitcoins contained in this wallet are worth an estimated $70 billion, of which Kleiman’s heirs claimed to be entitled to half of this. With $70 billion in tow, the $100 million ordered by the courts to be paid to Kleiman’s estate is only a drop in the ocean for Craig Wright. So, in total, the entrepreneur would have come out ahead having to only pay a tiny fraction of what Kleiman would have had if his share of the BTC had been awarded to him. Wright would get to keep $70 billion all to himself. BTC slumps to $48K | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com Kleiman who passed away in 2013 at the age of 46 was said to be close friends with Craig Wright, with whom he allegedly created Bitcoin. The Kleiman family also credits the intellectual property behind the bitcoin blockchain technology to the late computer scientist. “Bitcoin Creator” Happy With Jury Verdict For years, Craig Wright has been involved in lawsuits regarding his status as the creator of Bitcoin. Wright has claimed countless times that he created the digital asset but no one in the space has taken the computer scientist seriously and has been referred to as an impostor. However, the alleged Bitcoin creator claims that the jury verdict finally acknowledges him as the creator of the asset. Related Reading | Goldman Sachs CEO Sidesteps Bitcoin Inquiries, Says Blockchain Is More Important In a statement made after the trial, Wright explained that the jury has found out that he indeed created bitcoin and as such would not be appealing the judgment. He also expressed relief at the verdict, saying, “I have never been so relieved in my life.” Although Wright continues to hold up his claim that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, he denies the claims that he and Kleiman launched the cryptocurrency together. He said the claims being made by Ira Kleiman on behalf of Dave Kleiman’s estate were false, adding that there is no paper trail that shows evidence of a partnership between them. One thing Wright refused to admit is where the about 1.1 BTC in dispute are. The computer scientist has been careful not to mention anything regarding the bitcoin stash. Whether Wright has or ever had the bitcoins in his possession remains a mystery. Featured image from CryptoPotato, chart from TradingView.com

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IMF Warns El Salvador Against Using Bitcoin As Legal Tender

The International Monetary Fund unsurprisingly thinks that El Salvador’s bold financial strategy to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender is a poor decision. Covered: IMF Doesn’t Like Bitcoin In El Salvador Other Bitcoin Efforts In The Country #Bitcoin >> IMF & World Bank pic.twitter.com/yHkCVqlv7Y — ???? Deep?lueCrypto ???? (@DeepBlueCrypto) November 23, 2021 Bitcoin is unironically rallying […]

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El Salvador removes BTC price feed from Chivo app to crack down on arbitrage scalpers

Users of the Salvadoran government’s Chivo wallet will not be able to see frozen price quotes until the feature has been removed to deter arbitrage scalpers.

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El Salvador says merchants must process BTC transactions — or they may face action

A Salvadoran government official has said that while businesses must accept BTC transactions, they can choose whether to receive BTC or USD upon settling transactions.

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Is BitGo Behind El Salvador’s Chivo Wallet? This Old School Mag Thinks So

Where did BitGo come from? In all of this time covering El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law, the name wasn’t in the picture. Now, all of a sudden, Forbes claims that BitGo’s technology is behind the controversial Chivo wallet. How and when did this happen? Or, more importantly, is this real news or a paid piece to take advantage of the “historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.”  Related Reading | NewsBTC Crypto Trading Course. For FREE.99 Not to be conspiratorial, but Forbes’ tone in this whole piece has a press-release-feel to it. “For months, El Salvador has kept many of Chivo’s details under wraps with the nation’s 40-year-old president, Nayib Bukele, teasing the wallet’s launch on Twitter just last week. However, Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo to provide Chivo’s wallet infrastructure and security platform, making the Palo Alto, Calif-based startup the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment for cryptocurrency adoption.” What’s all this about “cryptocurrency unicorn BitGo” and “the nation’s exclusive hot-wallet provider in a historic moment”? Is this the appropriate vocabulary for a legacy media publication like this one? The most worrying sentence, however, is “Forbes has learned El Salvador appears to have tapped…” They’re not committing to anything here. It “appears” this way, but nothing is certain. BTC price chart for 09/07/2021 on Bitstamp | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com What Does BitGo Say About The Announcement? Not El Salvador’s government, nor Strike commented on the Forbes piece. They did get a quote from Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, who said: “Digital assets look so different from what we’ve seen with other types of money, and so people wonder about how [they] fit in, but this is an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador” says BitGo CEO Mike Belshe, speaking from his home in Silicon Valley on Saturday. “The ability to send money in a hurry on a Saturday night, when banks are closed, across the planet and at almost no fees, it’s hard to put into words how empowering that is, and what we’ll see in El Salvador is, people will start figuring it out.”  Did Belshe confirm the news? Is BitGo behind the Chivo App? He talks about “an opportunity to build financial freedom for the people of El Salvador.” So yeah, assuming Belshe was talking about this specific rumor, he seems to confirm the news. Indirectly. In a non-comital way. To make things worse, the article ends presenting BitGo as their own marketing material would: “Founded in 2013, BitGo has grown into one of the biggest cryptocurrency wallet companies in the world, raising more than $70 million in funding from investors including…” Let’s Remember, What Did Strike Say About The Subject? Strike’s Jack Mallers has met with the Bukeles, announced El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption, and the company has an office at Bitcoin Beach. Everyone was assuming that the technology behind the Chivo wallet was going to be Strike’s. However, if we go back to the interview in which Mallers told the whole story, our sister site Bitcoinist quotes him saying: “There’s no commercial agreement between Strike and the government of El Salvador. “In fact, I advised and gave my opinion of the opposite. The economies of scale and network effects associated with open networks are so powerful. Just by plugging in to them you’re going to get the freemarket competition that every country would die for.” Related Reading | Tomorrow, The Community Will Buy $30 In BTC To Support El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law Did President Bukele take his advice and went with another company? Can we trust Forbes even if it sounds like a copy-and-pasted press release? Is BitGo’s technology behind the Chivo Wallet? We will know for sure very soon. Featured Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay - Charts by TradingView

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Bitfinex Securities Starts Operations In El Salvador – Here Are The Details

Over the last few years, El Salvador has been making considerable efforts to become Latin America’s crypto hub. Today, two and a half years after adopting Bitcoin as a legal currency in the country, Bitfinex Securities announced the launch of Bitfinex Securities El Salvador S.A., the first platform to offer tokenized securities. Related Reading: Bitcoin Long Positions Surge On Bitfinex: Whales Add 4,230 BTC, Signaling Potential Price Reversal Launching The First Licensed Digital Asset Platform In El Salvador On January 31, 2024, Bitfinex Securities officially became the first registered and licensed digital assets service provider to launch in El Salvador, and it’s now accepting customer applications.  Last year, El Salvador approved the Digital Asset Securities Law, allowing Bitfinex Securities to apply for and receive approval for the first digital assets license under this regulatory framework. This new law, as Juan Carlos Reyes, President of the National Commission of Digital Assets (NCDA), explained: (…) carved out digital assets regulation from the traditional financial regulator and created the national commission of digital assets, that oversees the supervision and regulation of the ecosystem. Additionally, the NCDA Chair recalled the positive experience with the firm and praised it for its ‘regulatory high standards’ and ‘world-class’ knowledge of compliance. In the announcement, Bitfinex Securities highlighted the “substantial leap for financial innovation in Latin America” that the development of the tokenized securities industry in El Salvador suggests. The firm also announced it has established a pipeline of potential issuances that it expects to come to the market throughout the year. Bitcoin ETF Approval Provides An Optimistic Outlook “We are delighted to be able to announce the launch of Bitfinex Securities in El Salvador,” said Paolo Ardoino, Chief Technology Officer of Bitfinex Securities. He expressed his excitement to take part in the “forefront of this financial revolution,” stating: This is not only an important market for Bitfinex given its adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender and the fostering of a Bitcoin-based economy, but it also gives El Salvador the opportunity to attract global investment flows, as issuers put out competitively priced securities offerings. The launch of the Bitfinex Securities El Salvador platform follows the approval of the spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on January 10. The successful launch of Bitcoin-based ETFs in the US makes the firm expect a significant demand for exposure to other regulated digital asset services. Jesse Knutson, Bitfinex Securities Head of Operation, highlighted in his statement the progress that El Salvador has made since 2021: Following up on El Salvador’s groundbreaking policy work and legislative frameworks over the past two and a half years, the official launch of Bitfinex Securities El Salvador is another important step in the evolution of capital markets and an important global proof of concept. Knutson also expressed optimism over the “recent surge of institutional investor interest in Bitcoin-focused financial products.” Related Reading: Bitcoin ETFs Experience Day 12 Reversal, GBTC Selling Slows, Fidelity And Blackrock Garner $400 Million Bitcoin is trading at $43,343.6 in the hourly chart. Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com Featured image from www.slon.pics on Freepik, Chart from Tradingview.com

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From landfill to lawsuit: James Howells quest to reclaim lost Bitcoin

James Howells has expressed his frustration with Newport City Council for refusing to allow him to retrieve a Bitcoin hard drive from a local landfill, pushing him to take legal action.

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British man sues council for $647M over lost Bitcoin in landfill

James Howells continues his legal battle for 495 million British pounds ($647 million) in damages after Newport City Council blocked his landfill excavation request.

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