Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) Governor Feras Milhem has revealed that the proto-central bank — which does not issue a domestic currency and operates under highly restrictive political and economic conditions — is exploring the idea of issuing a Palestinian digital currency. Raja Khalidi, director of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, told Bloomberg that “the macroeconomic conditions don’t exist to allow a Palestinian currency — digital or otherwise — to exist as a means of exchange.” Khalidi argued, however, that the PMA’s issuance of some form of digital currency may “send a political signal to show apparent appearance of monetary …

Bitcoin (BTC) price received a boost as news that lawmakers in Paraguay plan to present a bill to make BTC legal tender spread across Twitter. Shortly after the unconfirmed news surfaced on Twitter, Bitcoin price rallied to $35,289 before slightly pulling back below the key short-term resistance level. Congratulations Paraguay • a bill has been submitted to make #BITCOIN legal tender • reading likely to occur on July 14th • they wish to be a crypto hub • promotion of green energy mining • some interest from Argentina & Brazil now too — djThistle (@DJThistle01) June 24, 2021 While the …

Within the same month, talk of the United States' budding capital of crypto has seemingly shifted its center from Miami to New York City. June opened with feverish excitement about the largest Bitcoin (BTC) event in history being hosted in Miami, and the city's mayor, Francis Suarez, has taken a series of steps to strengthen his bid to make Miami the top spot for crypto not just nationally but globally. Yet with U.S. pundits now focused on New York City's mayoral race, the current frontrunner for the Democratic nominee, Eric Adams, has — at least momentarily — stolen the limelight …

Hong Kong cyber-activists are not giving up on the freedom of speech and are backing up articles from the pro-democracy tabloid newspaper Apple Daily using blockchain technology. Following a national security probe, Apple Daily printed its last edition on Thursday. But Hong Kong activists took it from there and uploaded the publication’s articles on a distributed network, Reuters reported. Ho, a 21-year-old anonymous activist working in tech, started uploading Apple Daily articles on decentralized file storage platform ARWeave this week. Backed by investors like Andreessen Horowitz, the platform deploys a blockchain-like structure called blockweave to enable the permanent storage of …

As FTX and Alameda Research increasingly enter the public eye, one side effect is that the decabillionaire is himself a growing public figure. Especially after a significant donation to Joe Biden’s campaign for the US presidency, some observers hoped that SBF would come to serve as a kind of professional lobbyist on behalf of the crypto ecosystem. While he says he’s open to discussing his views, he’s not trying to work the edges or sell anyone a used car: So I'm super happy to serve as a resource for anyone in government or else who wants and I think happy …

The United States’ National Republican Congressional Committee — the body responsible for coordinating Republican electoral efforts — is introducing donations in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). The NRCC announced Wednesday on Twitter that the committee will begin accepting crypto donations for election campaigns, sending its fundraising efforts “to the moon.” https://t.co/aIisNV5BiD pic.twitter.com/F9ktKFfHAq — NRCC (@NRCC) June 17, 2021 According to a Wednesday report by Axios news agency, the NRCC will process crypto donations using major payment platform BitPay, through which donations will be immediately converted to U.S. dollars. The cash conversion means that the NRCC will be able to accept individual …

Blockchain’s potential to sustain a distributed, tamper-proof infrastructure for collective digital memory has taken on an unexpected political salience for citizens in Hong Kong. Soon after Hong Kong’s public broadcaster Radio Television Hong Kong, or RTHK, revealed its intent to erase any archived content older than one year, residents hurried to save a trove of past news footage that had until now been freely available to the public. The reason for their haste was the recognition that RTHK’s archive contains critical coverage of the recent years of anti-authoritarian struggles and protests that were initially sparked by the introduction of the …

A Republican lawmaker from Ohio is preparing legislation that would reportedly be aimed at preventing U.S. citizens from evading taxes on their crypto earnings. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box today, Senator Rob Portman said he hoped to introduce a bill with bipartisan support after the next congressional recess which would address the problem of many crypto users in the U.S. not paying taxes. The senator said lawmakers “don’t have the final bill yet” and were “still pulling in information” on the subject. However, he claimed both Republicans and Democrats were interested in pursuing closing the tax gap with …

Brian Brooks has defended the fintech banking charter introduced while he served as the acting comptroller of the currency after Congressional Democrats took aim at the license on Thursday. Brian appeared as a witness before the House Financial Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions at an April 15 hearing titled, “Banking Innovation or Regulatory Evasion? Exploring Trends in Financial Institution Charters.” The fintech charter was introduced by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC, and overseen by Brooks in 2020, allowing financial technology firms including cryptocurrency companies to offer lending and payment products without …

A German national who reportedly sees his Bitcoin profits as “undeserved wealth” has donated more than $1 million to the country’s green political party. According to Hamburg-based news outlet Die Zeit, Moritz Schmidt, a software developer from the northeastern town of Greifswald, has sent 1 million euro — roughly $1.2 million — to Germany’s green party, known as The Greens or Alliance 90. A party spokesperson said Schmidt had made significant gains during the Bitcoin (BTC) bull run but wanted to contribute to causes related to environmental and climate protection rather than hodling his crypto. “The donor has made it …

The crypto exchange, whose CEO has previously dissuaded employees from expressing political views, started its initial public offering off with a message referencing U.S. President Joe Biden’s stimulus package. According to Coinbase, the crypto exchange had mining pool F2Pool embed the title of a New York Times article in the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain at 2:05 PM UTC today. The message in block 679,187 refers to the U.S. Congress passing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 on March 10 — a bill which set aside $1.9 trillion for measures aimed at curbing the economic impact of the pandemic. In posting …

Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader in the United States House of Representatives, hinted that both the current secretary of the treasury and the chair of the Federal Reserve may need to reevaluate their positions on crypto. Speaking on CNBC's Squawk Box this morning, host Joe Kernen asked the Republican lawmaker whether either Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen or Fed Chair Jerome Powell had a “good understand of digital currencies or Bitcoin.” In regards to Bitcoin (BTC), McCarthy claimed that both the officials had “tried to ignore it to make it go away,” while urging those in government to see the potential …