At the moment, there seems to be a general assumption that when the U.S. dollar value increases against other global major currencies, as measured by the DXY index, the impact on Bitcoin (BTC) is negative. For the past few weeks, analysts and influencers have been issuing alerts about this inverse correlation, which held true until March 2021. So I guess we're not all obsessed with $DXY anymore? Because it's looking super bullish & had provided an almost perfect inverse correlation for over a year. Either way we're about to find out if $BTC has matured to the point of being …

Our Man in Shanghai has refused to let recent regulations slow down the news coming from China. Enterprise blockchain, central bank digital currencies and start up projects continue to make a positive impact in a region hoping to grow economic value through technology. Death march for El Salvador The debate around El Salvador continued this week as media and officials tried to digest the adoption of Bitcoin as a national currency. JPMorgan stated that there was little economic benefit, and John Hopkins University professor Steve Hanke warned that the move could “completely collapse the economy” of the small nation. The …

In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph during Bitcoin 2021 in Miami, Greenspan criticized a segment of Bitcoin (BTC) maximalists for being “small-minded and insecure,” pointing out that they don't have control over the main cryptocurrency. “They cannot stop any kind of innovation from happening. So let them yap, it doesn't bother me,” said Mati Greenspan, founder and CEO of Quantum Economics, about Bitcoin maximalists. Greenspan‘s statements came a few days after a number of Bitcoin hardliners attacked him on Twitter for calling the Bitcoin conference in Miami “a crypto conference.” Greenspan’s inclusive view on crypto is also reflected in his …

The World Bank has refused El Salvador’s request for help on the country’s transition to adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. It cited issues with Bitcoin’s environmental impact and transparency as reasons why it will not support El Salvador’s move to adopt Bitcoin as an officially accepted currency. “While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support, given the environmental and transparency shortcomings,” a World Bank spokesperson said. The World Bank did note, however, that it can help El Salvador in other ways, including “currency transparency and regulatory processes.” Earlier …

Environmental concerns regarding the energy-intensive, proof-of-work (PoW) mechanism that Bitcoin (BTC) uses to produce new coins and verify transactions have been front and center lately. Debates regarding Bitcoin’s energy use particularly surged following a tweet sent out by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in May saying that his company would no longer accept Bitcoin payments due to the network’s “increasingly rapid use of fossil fuels.” Since then, a number of ways Bitcoin mining companies could go green have been discussed, many of which include using 100% renewable energy sources. For example, El Salvador president Nayib Bukele recently disclosed plans for a …

Steve Hanke, a professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University, has warned that El Salvador’s recent adoption of Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender has the potential to “completely collapse the economy.” Steve Hanke served as a senior economist under President Ronald Reagan’s administration from 1981 to 1982. Hanke has previously described BTC as a speculative asset “with a fundamental value of zero,” and in April, the 78-year-old tweeted, “Cryptocurrencies are the future of money. Bitcoin is not.” Speaking with streaming financial news provider Kitco News on Tuesday, the university professor noted that BTC hodlers from regions such as Russia …

Maxine Waters, who represents California's 43rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives, said she had organized a group of Democratic lawmakers for a deep dive on cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies. In a Tuesday virtual hearing of the House's Task Force on Financial Technology, Waters said “cryptocurrencies and other digital assets” were an important issue for the House Financial Services Committee, for which she is the chairwoman. The California congressmember added: "As cryptocurrencies grow exponentially, I've organized a working group of Democratic members to engage with regulators and experts to do a deep dive on this …

All eyes are on Bitcoin (BTC), with the largest cryptocurrency shooting up past $40,000 on Monday. Unsurprisingly, the price increase happened shortly after Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted that the electric-car company would potentially accept BTC payments once more miners confirm green energy initiatives. Yet, while Musk’s tweet may have driven the price of Bitcoin up, some industry experts believe that Bitcoin is not a cryptocurrency that should be leveraged. For example, during an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph at Bitcoin 2021 in Miami, Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Avanti Financial, said that unlike other cryptocurrencies, solvency matters more than …

New rules announced by South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, or FSC, are expected to affect around 60 unauthorized cryptocurrency exchanges in the country, and a new policy for banks will require that they classify any crypto exchange clients as “high risk.” According to the Korea Times, the new guidelines were announced on Sunday and are intended to ensure that crypto exchanges strengthen their monitoring of transactions and uphold strong user ID requirements. Until now, only the four largest exchanges in South Korea have set up real-name accounts that have been cleared by banks. The FSC is justifying its measures by …

South Africa’s financial regulators are laying the groundwork for the “phased and structured” regulation of cryptocurrencies. The move presents a reversal of the largely hands-off approach taken for the past seven years and has been driven by increasingly high levels of retail interest in crypto in the country. In a position paper published on Friday, the country’s Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group, or IFWG, under the aegis of the Crypto Assets Regulatory Working Group, laid out a roadmap for introducing a regulatory framework that will center on crypto asset service providers. South Africa’s initial national policy toward crypto has until now …

The United States’ largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, is setting up an office in New York. The Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange has subleased 30,000 square feet from Steven Cohen’s investment firm Point72 at Related Companies’ 55 Hudson Yards in New York, the New York Post reported on Sunday. A spokesperson for Coinbase confirmed the company's plans to establish an office in New York, stating, "We will be opening a second office in NYC to support flexible work schedules as we are a remote-first company." Citing sources from a real estate firm, the New York Post notes that Coinbase’s upcoming New York office …

While decentralized finance has stolen the show with big-number headlines over the past year — the closely-watched Total Value Locked (TVL) figure notably growing nearly 800%, rising from $20 billion at the start of 2021 to $157 billion at May peaks — centralized crypto financial services have likewise enjoyed explosive growth. According to Kalin Metodiev, CFA and co-founder at Nexo, the crypto savings account company has grown fourfold to $15 billion in AUM, expanded to 1.7 million clients, and has new features like asset swap functionality built into the platform coming down the pipe. Nexo and Cointelegraph only crossed paths …