Income Tax Applies to Crypto Trading in Bosnia, Tax Administration Says

Individuals are expected to pay income tax on gains from cryptocurrency trading, the tax authority of Bosnia has determined. In the absence of dedicated regulations, the federal government in Sarajevo has set up a working group to assess various risks associated with digital assets.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

🇧🇷 Banco do Brasil Bank Now Supports Crypto Tax Payments

In a recent announcement, Banco do Brasil, the oldest Bank in South America has just allowed taxpayers with cryptocurrencies held in Bitfy to pay taxes with these assets. Bitfy is a startup specializing in blockchain solutions and has invested in BB’s Enterprise Venture Capital Program – CVC.

This initiative puts Banco do Brasil at the forefront of modern and efficient solutions while democratizing access to new financial technologies and providing convenience for customers as it expands the options for receiving taxes from the public sector. It works the same way when a customer pays for a ticket with a barcode. All he has to do is select the cryptocurrency on which he wants to pay taxes, capture a barcode or enter a sequence of numbers. All tribute information will appear to be validated before payment confirmation.


https://t.me/bitcoin_day

​​Crypto community expresses Christmas market sentiments: ‘No Santa rally’.

A community member pointed out that the lack of movements may be because of the controversies surrounding centralized exchanges.

Traders looking forward to a rally during Christmas were disappointed as the markets turned out to be steady as many celebrated the holidays. Crypto community members expressed their disappointment by sharing memes, with some even employing their creativity through poetry.

On Dec. 23, Data tracker Coinstats shared an image showing positive market movements and floating the idea of a potential “Santa Claus rally.”

However, with Bitcoin’s volatility index hitting record lows on Dec. 25, any thoughts of having a merry BTC rally on Christmas were put to a stop. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro showed that the top crypto hovered around $16,800 on holiday.

A community member pointed out that the lack of a rally this Christmas may be because of the controversies that surrounded centralized exchanges like FTX and Binance this year. Adding creativity to the mix, analytics tool CMM shared poetry inspired by the FTX collapse involving the firm’s former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried.

Meanwhile, another community member hinted the lack of Christmas gifts may be because Santa was affected by the crypto dips as well. On the other hand, some Twitter users expressed frustration by sharing memes.

One shared a photo of a cat doing a thumbs-up while thanking Santa for the “Christmas pump” that didn’t happen. Another shared a photo of a psychologist supposedly treating a crypto trader for believing in a Santa rally.

While the crypto markets were at a standstill, bad actors within the space continued their work. In a recent exploit, around $8 million in assets were compromised because hackers hijacked an APK of the BitKeep wallet. The team urged its community members to transfer their funds to wallets downloaded from official sources like the Apple App Store or Google Play.

Apart from this, another exploit was conducted by hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The attackers allegedly launched a wide phishing campaign that targeted nonfungible token (NFT) users. The hackers launched around 500 phishing domains to lure their victims and steal their NFTs.

​​Hal Finney’s wife resumes activity on Bitcoin pioneer’s Twitter account to avoid potential purge.

Under Elon Musk’s leadership, Twitter suspended a number of accounts including those controlled by high-profile journalists and social networking platform Mastodon.

Fran Finney, the wife of computer scientist Hal Finney — the recipient of the first transaction on the Bitcoin blockchain from Satoshi Nakamoto — reactivated her late husband’s Twitter account amid concerns Twitter CEO Elon Musk might purge the content from the social media platform due to inactivity.

Many Crypto Twitter users reported on Dec. 16 that Finney’s account registered activity for the first time in more than 12 years. Some speculated that a hacker might have taken control of the Bitcoin pioneer’s account and its more than 71,000 followers, but Fran quickly stepped in to dispel rumors.

“I am tweeting for Hal to avoid his account being purged by Elon,” said Fran.

It’s unclear whether Fran Finney’s intervention may save the crypto pioneer’s social media presence. Amid Musk’s $44-billion purchase of Twitter which was completed in October, he claimed he backed free speech as “the bedrock of a functioning democracy.”

However, under Musk’s leadership, the social media platform on Dec. 15 purged a number of accounts controlled by high-profile journalists at institutions including CNN, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. Accounts tracking the movements of Musk’s private flights as well as promoting social networking platform Mastodon — which has attracted many Twitter users following the billionaire’s takeover — were also suspended. The Twitter CEO claimed the former “doxxed my exact location in real-time.”

Musk had a net worth of more than $300 billion in October 2021 before the acquisition of Twitter, and around the same time, the price of Tesla stock reached an all-time high of $407.36 in November 2021. In roughly a year, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showed that the Tesla CEO had dropped to the second richest person on the planet, with a reported net worth of $169 billion at the time of publication.

As CEO, Musk oversaw a number of controversial decisions at Twitter that had many in the business world questioning his acumen.

📣 Crypto Payments Firm Wirex and Visa Expand Partnership to 40 Countries

Cryptocurrency payments app Wirex has signed a long-term global partnership with Visa (V) to expand its footprint in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and the U.K., according to an announcement on Monday. The announcement builds on the two companies' existing relationship of a crypto-linked visa debit card in the U.S.

With this expansion the London-based Wirex, which has over 5 million customers, will now be able to directly issue crypto-enabled debit and prepaid cards to over 40 countries. While its largest customer-base is in the U.K., Wirex had previously withdrawn the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) temporary registration regime ahead of a deadline to obtain full registration which meant it would serve U.K-based customers via a subsidiary licensed in Croatia. Visa wants to bring more payment options to consumers by connecting digital currencies.


https://t.me/bitcoin_day

NFT Marketplace Blur Launches Native Token, BLUR Price Drops 85% in a Matter of Hours

The Blur non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace launched its native token this week, and users who were awarded token allotments received “care packages.” Blur tokens began trading at noon on Feb. 14, reaching a high of $5.02 per token. However, the coin has since dropped more than 85% against the U.S. dollar.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

📊 Crypto Markets Steal The Spotlight Ahead Of US Inflation Data

The SEC dragged down cryptocurrency markets last week, and now the New York Department of Financial Services has ordered Paxos to stop producing BUSD. The January inflation rate in the United States is up next. Prices are estimated to have risen 0.4% month on month in January.

According to Youwei Yang, chief economist at Bit Mining, the statistics will be regarded as favorable overall if the yearly rate is around 6% or lower, which might counter some of the regulatory-related selling. The New York Department of Financial Services ordered Paxos to halt creating the BUSD stablecoin, sending crypto prices lower. Bitcoin dropped in value as a result of the news. and all eyes will be on the publication for any signs of acceleration that could prompt the Federal Reserve to take new action.



https://t.me/bitcoin_day

⚡️ Vitalik Buterin Advises Focusing on The Tech to Avoid Crypto Weariness

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has spoken out about the state of the crypto industry and how to avoid growing tired of it. On Dec. 4, Vitalik Buterin responded to a question from a popular community member who said they had grown tired of the scammers and fraudsters in crypto after nine years.

Crypto is used primarily as a vehicle for speculation at the moment, and that is where fraudsters thrive. The FTX meltdown was caused by a bank run catalyzed by major overleveraging and lending.Zk-SNARK is an acronym that stands for “Zero-Knowledge Succinct Non-Interactive Argument of Knowledge.” It is a cryptographic proof that allows one party to prove it possesses certain information without revealing what the information is.


https://t.me/bitcoin_day

Bitcoin Ordinal Inscriptions Surge Past 100,000 Mark, Spurring Development of Supporting Infrastructure

According to the latest statistics, more than 100,000 ordinal inscriptions have been added to the Bitcoin blockchain since the start of the trend. Amid the growing popularity, people have launched supporting marketplaces and tools that allow individuals to inscribe without a full node. Additionally, a decentralized Ordinal exchange is reportedly in the works.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

​​South Korea to examine crypto staking services following the Kraken case.

No details on the timeline and methods of the examination were provided, but reportedly it would be conducted moderately as no wrongdoings have been registered in the country.

As reported by a local publication on Feb. 15, Korean financial authorities are looking into the staking services market. However, as the unnamed official specified to the journalists:

The fears of the crypto community about the possible repercussions of the recent court deal between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Kraken are starting to materialize. Following their American counterparts, South Korean regulators intend to examine the crypto-staking operators in the country.

“The position is that there is nothing to be a problem because nothing has been done.”

No details on the timeline and methods of the examination were provided, but it could affect some legislative decisions. In contrast to more common operations with digital assets, crypto staking isn’t defined by Korean regulation at the moment.

The global discussion on crypto staking kicked off with a Feb. 9 settlement between the SEC and Kraken crypto exchange. Kraken agreed to pay a $30 million fine and halt its staking program. The move was widely criticized by the American crypto community and even the SEC’s acting commissioner.

In his analysis for Cointelegraph, J.W. Verret, an associate professor at the George Mason Law School, warned about the SEC’s intention to use its Kraken playbook against staking protocols in general:

“It’s becoming clear from a pattern across financial regulators and the White House that the subtext in the administration’s policy toward crypto is that it should be choked off.”

In February, South Korea’s Financial Services Commission established guidance that specifies which types of digital assets will be considered and regulated as securities in the country. The law considers securities as financial investments where investors are not required to make additional payments after their original investment.

​​Bitcoin’s Difficulty Slides 7.32%, Reduction Marks the Largest Drop in 2022

On Dec. 5, 2022, at block height 766,080, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty adjustment dropped 7.32% lower, making it the largest difficulty reduction in 2022. The current difficulty is approximately 34.24 trillion and it will remain at this point for the next two weeks or 2,016 blocks.

Bitcoin’s difficulty retarget has dropped, which makes it a bit easier for bitcoin miners to find a block than it was during the two weeks prior. The difficulty change occurred around 8:50:29 p.m. (ET), at block height 766,080 and it was the largest reduction this year. The difficulty reduction was larger than the prior record that was recorded at block height 745,920. At that time on July 21, 2022, the network’s difficulty dropped by 5.01% and the difficulty was around 27.69 trillion.

Prior to the 7.32% reduction down to 34.24 trillion, the network’s difficulty rating was at a lifetime high of 36.95 trillion. Satoshi created the difficulty retarget to change periodically or every 2,016 blocks so the average time to mine a block remains constant at around 10 minutes. Statistics show prior to block height 766,080, the average block time was around 10:48 minutes, which meant a notable difficulty reduction was predicted to happen prior to the change.

At the time of writing, at 9:00 p.m. (ET), the total hashrate associated with the Bitcoin network is around 271.33 exahash per second (EH/s). Foundry USA is the top bitcoin mining pool at the time of writing with 25.48% of the network or 64.47 EH/s. Foundry discovered 107 blocks out of 420 discovered in the last three days. Foundry is followed by the mining pools Antpool, F2pool, Binance Pool, and Viabtc respectively.

Uzbekistan Allows Foreign Firms to Deposit Funds From Crypto Trading, Restricts Other Operations


The Central Bank of Uzbekistan has permitted foreign-based businesses to open domestic bank accounts and deposit funds received from cryptocurrency trading. These companies will also be able to transfer the money abroad, but operations in the country will be restricted.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

​FTX Bankruptcy Judge Denies US Trustee’s Request for Independent Examiner

The judge presiding over the FTX bankruptcy case has denied the U.S. Trustee’s request to appoint an independent examiner for the ongoing proceedings. The decision comes after judge John Dorsey postponed the ruling last week, citing concerns that the examiner could cost creditors tens of millions of dollars.

In the latest filing in the FTX bankruptcy case docket, judge John Dorsey has denied the appointment of an independent examiner. Dorsey stated that the current team, led by FTX CEO John J. Ray III, is “highly qualified” to handle the bankruptcy proceedings independently. The decision overrides the U.S. Trustee’s request to hire an independent examiner, which was said to be mandated by Congress.

The judge presiding over the FTX bankruptcy case stressed, however, that he had “no doubt that appointing an examiner would not be in the best interest of the creditors.” According to estimates, current management claimed that expenses for an independent examiner could reach between $90 million and $100 million. “Every dollar spent on administrative expenses in these cases is $1 less for the creditors,” Dorsey stated during the hearing, agreeing that an examiner could be very costly.

Since Dec. 1, 2022, an attorney for the U.S. Trustee, an arm of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has been attempting to appoint an examiner to the FTX case in the Delaware bankruptcy court. During the case, a representative for the Trustee argued that the appointment of an independent examiner was mandated by Congress and no longer within Dorsey’s authority.

The Trustee’s argument was supported by a letter from four bipartisan U.S. senators insisting that an independent examiner be appointed. However, the decision by the Delaware bankruptcy judge emphasizes that his court’s authority has overruled the government’s request.

🇬🇧 Next UK financial regulator calls for tougher crypto rules: FT

Ashley Alder, the UK’s next Financial Conduct Authority chair, had harsh words for crypto platforms as he addressed members of parliament, the Financial Times first reported. at scale, according to the newspaper.

The criticism from Alder comes as anti-money laundering tests held by the FCA ruled out 85% of firms that applied, according to FCA chief executive Nikhil Rath, who spoke earlier this year at a banking summit. Expected UK Treasury regulations are set to introduce consumer protections, impose limitations on foreign sellers, restrict product advertising and offer provisions when companies fail.


https://t.me/bitcoin_day

Moody's Says Forex Shortages May Force Nigerian Central Bank to Delay Repaying Local Banks

The persistent scarcity of foreign exchange may force the Nigerian central bank to delay repaying the $10.4 billion owed to local banks, analysts at Moody’s Investors Service have concluded. The central bank’s failure to pay its debts on time will likely force the affected financial institutions to similarly delay paying back their own forex-denominated debts.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

​Crypto Experts are Stocking Up on This New Altcoin With Less Than 24 Hours Before Its Presale Ends – Here’s Why.

With only hours remaining in the presale, the sustainable cryptocurrency IMPT has raised over $18.6 million, with $1 million per day coming in in the final days as crypto experts and influencers spread the project's virtues online.

IMPT io will connect shoppers globally with environmental projects supported by numerous retail brands. Each time a user makes a purchase through IMPT, money is donated towards climate change solutions and shoppers gain rewards.

Crypto Experts Weigh in on Top Sustainable Crypto Presale
'CryptoHeroesLIVE', one of Germany's top crypto analysts, reviewed IMPT as a high-potential project yesterday when the presale had brought in $17.1 million. Then India's top cryptocurrency influencer 'Wise Advice' posted a video later in the day when the presale had raised $17.3 million.

Then, CryptoNews analyst Jacob Bury posted an IMPT update today when IMPT was close to raising $18 million dollars.

"I'm very, very bullish on everything in the ecosystem," Bury said in the video update. "Tokenomically it's amazing, the white paper looks great, the VCM (voluntary carbon market) is expected to grow massively by 2030, and of course, investing in the IMPT token means you're really aligning your investment decision with your moral framework. It's really good to know you're participating in something that is helping save the planet."

On Friday, the IMPT team delivered a keynote speech at the World Blockchain Summit in Thailand. That presentation may have caught the attention of crypto whales as new token presales that feature a fully doxxed and professional team often perform well not only during an IEO but also in the long term.

On Saturday night, as news of IMPT continued to spread internationally, investors poured an additional million dollars into the presale.

IMPT will list on exchanges at $0.0253 USD, 10% higher than the final presale price. IMPT token holders will be able to trade their tokens on LBank and Changelly soon after the end of the presale, with more listings currently being finalized.

​​Line shuts down crypto exchange to focus on blockchain and LN token.

The Japanese messaging giant will still continue to support its Line blockchain ecosystem and the Link token despite the ongoing industry challenges.

The Japanese messaging giant Line has decided to shut down its cryptocurrency exchange business amid the ongoing crypto winter.

Line-owned crypto exchange Bitfront officially announced on Nov. 27 a plan to completely close down the platform by March 2023.

According to the statement, the closure was driven by the continued cryptocurrency bear market and other issues in the crypto industry.

Despite the exchange’s closure, Line will still continue to run its other blockchain ventures, including the Line blockchain ecosystem and Link (LN) token, the announcement notes, stating:

“Despite our efforts to overcome the challenges in this rapidly-evolving industry, we have regretfully determined that we need to shut down Bitfront in order to continue growing the Line blockchain ecosystem and Link token economy.”

Bitfront also emphasized that the decision to close the exchange was made for the “best interest” of the Line ecosystem and is unrelated to the ongoing industry scandal involving the FTX exchange.

According to the announcement, Bitfront will take a gradual approach to suspend its services, stopping signups and credit card payments on Nov. 28. The platform then plans to suspend additional deposits and interest payments of LN interest products and proceed with the related LN withdrawals by mid-December.

By the end of December, Bitfront aims to stop all cryptocurrency and fiat deposits alongside trading suspension and cancellation of open orders. Total suspension of withdrawals is scheduled for March 31, 2023, while customers would still be able to claim their assets in different jurisdictions of the United States.

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Line launched its proprietary crypto exchange in 2018 as a Singapore-based business. Originally known as BitBox, the company was rebranded to Bitfront and moved to the United States in February 2020. The exchange has been downscaling some of its operations in recent years, suspending services in South Korea in August 2021.

NFT Sales Surge Over 43% in Past Week, Topping $397 Million

Sales of non-fungible token (NFT) assets over the last seven days rose 43.97% compared to the previous week, according to statistics recorded on Feb. 18, 2023. The volume of NFT sales reached $397.86 million this week, with 345,716 NFT buyers and roughly 1.62 million transactions.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

🇸🇻 El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Rocks again in Bitcoin World

El Salvador president Nayib Bukele again in news surrounding Bitcoin. The recent industry events like FTX crash and TerraUSD collapse in 2022, shook the faith of the citizens on crypto-king. But the leader’s vision remains unwavered. Bitcoin is going to change the world,” other nations join the array of accepting Bitcoin as legal tender.

Nayib Bukele, El Salvador president who has been running the office for the last four years, went against the International Monetary Fund, while adopting Bitcoin as legal tender in 2021, according to Bloomberg recent report. After a few days of Sam Bankman-Fried led crypto exchange FTX collapsed in 2022, the president announced to buy one Bitcoin (BTC) daily. Crypto mogul and founder of the biggest blockchain DAO ecosystem Tron, Justin Sun soon also declared the same. They implemented Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA).

https://t.me/bitcoin_day

📉 Bitcoin (BTC) Miners Sell Most in 5 Years

The bear market has been going on for a year now. Who still has the strength to sell their BTC after 365 days of suffering and pain in the crypto market? The answer is simple: Bitcoin miners. Rising global electricity prices and the falling price of BTC have made cryptocurrency mining increasingly unprofitable.

In today’s analysis, BeInCrypto looks at the indicators of Bitcoin Production Cost and Bitcoin Miner Sell Pressure (BMSP). In addition, we compare them with the recent breakout on the chart of BTC inflows to exchanges and with the Bitcoin network hashrate. Then, increased sales by miners signal a major overvaluation of the cryptocurrency market and usually occur during and at the end of a long-term bull market.


https://t.me/bitcoin_day

FTX Warns Community of Phony 'Debt Tokens' and Scams Claiming to Be Affiliated With the Bankrupt Exchange

On Friday, debtors who control the official FTX Twitter account warned the community to “be on alert for scams from entities claiming to be affiliated with FTX.” They also noted that neither FTX debtors nor any entity related to the company has issued any IOU crypto assets or “debt tokens.” The alert comes as a token called “FUD (FTX User’s Debt)” has been circulating on the Tron blockchain and is listed on Huobi.

Source

https://t.me/bitcoin_day