Author: Linda Mckinney

Jack Dorsey led a $6-million funding round for Azteco. The company provides bitcoin vouchers ( BTC). This shows the Twitter cofounder and Block CEO’s commitment to driving advances in the cryptocurrency world.

Azteco was founded in 2014. It claims to have discovered a disparity of access to financial services in the world, with more than 2 billion smartphone users not having regular access.

Azteco claims to have devised an effective solution for this problem by leveraging the potential of Bitcoin as a secure and cost-effective alternative. The company claims that its technology allows the unbanked to store value, conduct transactions, and access credit, without the need for a traditional banking account.

Azteco refers to its vendor sites by the term ‘ATMs without ATMs’.

The company claims that buying bitcoin is as simple as purchasing mobile credits. How it works is that you can either use a credit or cash card to visit an Azteco store. You can purchase an Azteco coupon at the outlet. Then, you can redeem your voucher on their website.

You must enter the Bitcoin address to which you wish the bitcoins to be sent during the redemption process. Azteco will take care of everything else, including ensuring that your bitcoins are delivered to the specified addresses.

Azteco expanded quickly after launching as a small test site in Shoreditch East London. Azteco vouchers are available in 195 countries.

Azteco has stated that in 2019 it will not be requiring Know Your Customer checks. This simplifies the process for those users who are looking to enter the digital currency world. Blockworks has contacted the firm to find out if this is still the case.

Dorsey stated that a deep admiration of their mission was what drove his contribution to Azteco.

The unbanked populace is enormous. We have the resources and technology to close this gap but no one has yet taken the next important step.’ Dorsey stated in a Statement on 18 May.

Azteco provides so much more than access to a safe financial system. It is building an eco-system of financial self determination that is secure and supported locally. He said ‘I am honored to be able to support them.

Paul Ferguson, co-founder of Azteco, said that the funding will act as a catalyst to the company’s efforts in market activation and refinement. Azteco will be able to reach out and engage consumers more effectively, with a focus on Latin America, Europe and the Middle East, and increase their impact within the industry.

The round also included investors such as ALeka Capital, Ride Wave Ventures and Hivemind Ventures.

Dorsey continues to make waves within the crypto industry, despite his well-known involvement. Block, his payments company, made headlines recently by embarking upon a mission to transform the bitcoin mining landscape.

Block’s goal is to disrupt the current status quo of cryptocurrency mining by developing its own specialized hardware.

Mastercard announced in January its partnership with Polygon, to support emerging artists through the Mastercard Artist accelerator program. The company announced NFTs which provide access to this program during the NFT.NYC Conference. The company announced that music and Web3 lovers can redeem Mastercard Music Pass by the end of this month.

Mastercard didn’t reveal the names of the musicians participating in the program because they hadn’t been selected yet. The artists selected are R&B singer Young Athena and Venezuelan vocalist Manu Manzu. They also include Nigerian artist LeriQ as well as pop sensation Emily Vu and West Indian hip hop/pop-soul musician Cocoa Sarai. Mastercard says that the artists selected will be guided by five experts, and have access to a Warpsound AI-powered music studio.

Mastercard announced that artists could [start creating content, receive mentorship and learn how to use blockchain technology to monetize and build fan communities within Web3′. The Mastercard Music Pass is redeemable until the end this month. The company is offering its second NFT since June 2022, when it collaborated with Nifty Gateway Candy Digital The Sandbox, Immutable X Spring, Mintable, Candy Digital .

Raja Rajamannar is the chief marketing and communication officer and president of Mastercard. He stated that Mastercard aims to help people understand blockchain technology and digital assets while also showing how Mastercard can support this ecosystem. Mastercard’s executive said, ‘We believe Web3 can connect people and create communities around shared interests.’

Bitcoin’s difficulty has reached an all-time high at 43.55 trillion. The network’s hashrate is still above the 300 exahash/s range at 319.86 EH/s. The U.S. dollar has seen Bitcoin rise 26.2% in the past two weeks. This has helped bitcoin miners greatly. BTC is now higher than the cost it takes to mine it.

Two consecutive difficulty rises were experienced by bitcoin miners in the last month. The first was a jump of 9.5% on February 24, 2023 and the second a rise of 1.16% on March 10, 2019. Block interval times, which are the time between each block is mined, have not increased in bitcoin miners. Block times currently range between nine and 28 seconds, and nine and 31 seconds.

The estimated difficulty change for Friday March 24th is between 2.51% to 5.7%, which is higher than the current 43.55 Trillion. The difficulty could rise to 50 trillion hashes if miners continue or accelerate their pace. The target range is currently between 44.64 trillion to 49.25 trillion, according to current estimates.

Mining distribution statistics reveal that Foundry USA is the current top bitcoin mining pool with 97.22 EH/s, or 30.31% global hashrate. Antpool follows Foundry with 61.03EH/s and F2pool 46.13EH/s. According to three-day metrics, 84.52% of global hashrate was held by the top five bitcoin mining pool, which includes Antpool, F2pool and Binance Pool.

Charlie Munger doesn’t seem to be a big fan of cryptocurrency.

‘Sometimes it’s cryptocrappo, and other times it’s, well, cryptoshit,” the billionaire investor stated during Daily Journal’s annual meeting, which was broadcast live by CNBC.

Munger, 99 is Warren Buffett’s business partner. He also serves as vice-chairman for Berkshire Hathaway. They transformed Berkshire into one the most valuable corporations in the world by purchasing businesses like Geico and Candies and large stakes in Coca-Cola and American Express.

Munger is a Daily Journal director and manages the newspaper’s investment portfolio. Munger dismissed any possibility of being wrong about bitcoin, ether and dogecoin.

He said, “I believe the people who oppose my position is stupid,”

Munger, who lists Costco and Tesla-rival BYD as his most proud investments, didn’t hesitate to invest in crypto.

He said, “It’s not even slightly dumb, it’s hugely stupid,” It’s useless, it’s not good, it’s insane, it will do no harm, and it is antisocial to permit it.

“It’s just unimaginable, it’s an absolutely horrible, and I’m ashamed for my country that so many people believe this type of crap and that it can exist,’ he said. It is completely, absolutely, insane gambling with huge house odds for those on the other side.

Munger recommended that crypto and people who promote it be avoided. Munger also emphasized the crucial role fiat currencies played in modern human civilization’s development. He mocked the idea of replacing national currencies with crypto and said it was futile.

Munger decried the cryptocurrency market as unregulated and predatory earlier in the month. He previously compared crypto with ‘HT0_ rat poison and a HT1_ venereal illness and an HT2_ open sewer . He also said that he would not want anyone who is involved in it to marry into his family.

Bitcoin’s price climbed $18,000 to a new one month high on Thursday morning. After attorneys for the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX declared they had recovered $5 billion worth of liquid assets, this price surge was inevitable. The crypto markets rose Thursday morning after the failure of the crypto exchange.

Bitcoin rose by more than 4.5% overnight, reaching $18,335 on Thursday morning. After the 8:30 a.m. announcement, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency dropped to $18,000. ET CPI data showed that inflation has slowed in line to Wall Street estimates.

Bitcoin Price Rises, FTX Assets Are Recovered

FTX attorneys who were overseeing bankruptcy proceedings said they had recovered $5B in cash, digital, and other assets during a Wednesday court hearing. These assets could be used to repay the 9 million creditors of the crypto exchange. Although the total amount owed to creditors remains unknown, initial bankruptcy filings indicated that it was between $1 billion and $10 Billion.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, detailed his account on Thursday in a Substack post. “I didn’t steal funds and I certainly did not stash billions of dollars away,” he said. He wrote that ‘nearly all my assets were and are utilizable for backingstop FTX customers.’

Bankman-Fried claimed that FTX US, an American exchange, had $352 million in cash, above the customer balances, when he resigned. SBF claims that FTX US remains solvent and has always been solvent. “Even now, I believe that FTX International would have a real chance of customers being made substantially whole if it were to restart.”

Bankman-Fried believes that Alameda borrowed $8 Billion in 2021 from FTX, with $7 billion of liquidity. However, it failed to adequately hedge its exposure when larger crashes hit the market. He still believes Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao was responsible for Alameda’s ‘extreme, quick, and targeted crash’ that left the company insolvent. This then spread to FTX. SBF did not address lavish spending by executives and lack of oversight.

SBF has never been a friend of Attorney John Ray III, who is acting as FTX CEO and overseeing the bankruptcy. Ray had previously criticized FTX operations by saying that he has never seen such a complete failure in corporate controls at any level of an organisation, from the absence of financial statements to a total failure of any internal controls and governance whatsoever. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty last week to the slew of criminal charges.

Chart of Bitcoin Prices

Since Dec. 14, it’s been the first time BTC has surpassed $18,000. Bitcoin hasn’t been able maintain this level since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November.

According to CoinTelegraph data, approximately 13% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply has returned profit with Bitcoin’s price at $18,200.

Action on Cryptocurrency Prices

The majority of cryptocurrency prices rose on Thursday, as Bitcoin price recovered. Ethereum surged 5% to briefly surpass $1,400 – the highest level since the FTX meltdown. Binance’s BNB token surpassed $285 for its first time since mid December. Dogecoin, a popular alt-coin, rose 3.5% to temporarily reach 8 cents.

In his remarks before Friday’s Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) meeting, Gary Gensler, Chairman of the SEC, spoke about crypto regulation. Gensler said:

The securities laws are not incompatible with crypto markets. Investors are exposed to risks due to this volatile and speculative market.

He stressed that it was important to bring crypto securities tokens issuers and intermediaries into compliance.

The SEC chief stated that although the risks from crypto markets do not seem to have spread to traditional financial sectors, it is important to remain vigilant in order to protect against them.

Gensler and SEC were criticized for failing to prevent the collapse of crypto-exchange FTX. This is despite the fact that SEC staff had many meetings with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried (SBF). After he was detained in the Bahamas, the securities watchdog charged bankman-Fried with fraud and his crypto exchange. U.S. U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer has asked Gensler for testimony before Congress regarding the cost of his regulatory failures in crypto.

Financial Stability Oversight Council’s Crypto Regulatory Recommendations

Friday’s 2022 annual report was also approved unanimously by the Financial Stability Oversight Council. Gensler stated that he supports the FSOC report and its recommendations in his remarks. According to the U.S. Treasury Department announcement, the report:

The Council stresses the importance of agencies continuing enforcement of existing rules and regulations that apply to the crypto-asset environment.

The Treasury noted that the Council had identified regulatory gaps in crypto activities. It recommended that legislation be enacted to give federal financial regulators rulemaking authority over the spot market crypto-assets not classified as securities. The Treasury also noted that it was necessary to address regulatory arbitrage. Crypto-asset entities provide services similar to traditional financial institutions, but without a comprehensive or consistent regulatory framework.

Two U.S. senators including Elizabeth Warren (D.MA) introduced a bipartisan bill to regulate cryptocurrency last week. According to crypto advocates, their bill, called the “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act”, is ‘the most direct assault on the personal freedoms and privacy of cryptocurrency developers and users we’ve ever seen’.

The long-awaited El Salvador bitcoin conference, which was the highlight of El Salvador’s 2021 world premiere when the country adopted cryptocurrency as legal currency, has now lost its shine amid the deep rout in digital currency.

At the ‘Adopting Bitcoin Summit in El Salvador’, which started Tuesday and ended Thursday in San Salvador’s capital, it was evident that there were no big names in the bitcoin industry and that there were empty seats.

Juan Fonseca (41), a Guatemalan traveler to the conference, stated that low prices and problems elsewhere  create an uneasy environment.

Bitcoin fell like other cryptocurrency over the past year due to U.S. Federal Reserve interest rates hikes and high inflation, which prompted investors abandoning riskier assets.

Bitcoin, the most well-known and largest cryptocurrency in the world, has fallen further after the dramatic collapse crypto exchange FTX. It is now trading at $16,600 from a record high of almost $69,000 in November 2013.

Many people see today’s problems only as a temporary blip.

The chief technology officer of the crypto exchange, Bitfinex, said that Bitfinex would redouble efforts to create a free, unstoppable and resilient bitcoin and technology infrastructure in El Salvador.

Bitfinex’s parent company, Ifinex, has agreed to work with El Salvador’s government in order to establish a regulatory framework for securities and digital assets.

“El Salvador will be the financial and technology center of Central America,” Ardoino said. After meeting with Nayib Buukele, President of El Salvador, Ardoino said that the noise will not distract the builders.

Bukele, who advocated for the legalization of cryptocurrency alongside the U.S. dollars, stated on Twitter Wednesday night that ‘We are purchasing one Bitcoin every single day starting tomorrow.

According to private estimates, his government has so far acquired 2,381 bitcoins worth approximately $107 million.

PTI reported that Nirmala Sitharaman, Indian Finance Minister, shared her government’s plan for crypto regulation on Saturday, before she returned to India to attend the annual meetings, IMF and World Bank.

A group of Indian journalists was informed by the finance minister that India will include crypto in its G20 presidency. She noted that different organizations have been conducting their own research about cryptocurrency.

We would like to collect all of this information and do some research, then bring it to the G20 for members to discuss and hopefully come up with a framework or SOP so that countries around the world can have a technology-driven regulatory system.

Sitharaman stated that ‘but implicit in this is the fact that we don’t want to disrupt the technology.’ “We want technology to survive, and be able to provide benefits for fintech and other industries.”

The Finance Minister referred to the Enforcement Directorate, which detects money laundering activities involving crypto assets in India and crypto trading platforms.

Sitharaman concluded that this concern was acknowledged by many members of the G20, who said yes money trail, yes cash laundering, yes drug abuse, and so forth.

We all agree that regulation is necessary. All countries must adhere to it. It is not possible for any one country to handle it all. We will have something on that.

The G20 is an intergovernmental forum that brings together the major developed and emerging economies of the world. The G20 members are Argentina, Brazil, China, France and Germany. The G20 presidency will be held by India for one year, from December 1st to November 30th 2023.

After having sat on a draft cryptocurrency bill for many years, the Indian government is working to finalize its position on cryptocurrency legality by the first quarter next year to become Financial Action Task Force compliant. The finance minister called on the IMF last month to play a leadership role in cryptocurrency regulation. The IMF stated that it is open to working with India in crypto regulation.

India is yet to create a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency. However, it already taxes crypto income at 30% and imposes a 1% tax at source (TDS), on crypto transactions. The Ministry of Finance is also reportedly looking at how the goods-and-services tax (GST), could be applied for crypto.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), however, continues to have ” serious concerns” about cryptocurrency. The central bank has repeatedly recommended a complete ban on all non-government-issued cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ether. The finance minister stated in July that any legislation for regulation or banning could only be effective after significant international collaboration to evaluate the risks and benefits, and evolve common taxonomy.

As global markets retreat from risky assets, Bitcoin prices fell to an overnight low of $33 million. This was ahead of a week of central bank rate decisions and a move higher for U.S. dollars.

The Federal Reserve is expected to increase its key Fed Funds Rate by 75 base points on Wednesday. This marks its third significant hike in succession. Policymakers at the Bank of England and Swiss National Bank are expected to either continue with increases or echo the hawkish rhetoric. As markets become more risk-averse, crypto gains outpace those of fiat currencies.

There have been reports that FTX is under increased scrutiny. The Financial Times in London reported that the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom has warned the crypto exchange operator against providing services without authorization.

The FCA stated in a statement that almost all individuals and firms offering or promoting financial products or services in the UK must be registered or authorised by them. “This company is not authorized by us and is targeting UK citizens.

Bitcoin prices dropped 5.2% on the session to $18,407.20 per coin, an increase that brings its year-to date decline to just 61.4%.

Both prices fell 3.3% to $1,2910.18 per month after last week’s’merge’ of two blockchains which underpin the second-largest global digital token.

In early Monday trading, the U.S. dollar index rose 0.25% to 110.095, a close match of its recent 20 year high. This was against six global peer currencies. The greenback’s year-to date gain is around 14.7%.

Pre-market trading saw Coinbase Global (( COIN) share prices fall 5.66% to $69.81 each, while Robinhood Markets HOO ($10.19 each) shares fell 0.6% to $10.19.

When China clamped down on the cryptocurrency mining industry in May 2021, Russia was a popular destination because of its low-cost electricity and favorable climate. However, bitcoin mining and other Russian industries have been affected by sanctions that were imposed in response to Moscow’s attack on Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury Department targeted Bitriver, a Switzerland-based mining data-center operator with a significant presence in Russia this spring. In order to avoid Western sanctions, the U.S.-based company Compass Mining attempted to liquidate $30M worth of mining hardware in Siberia.

Russia’s invasion in Ukraine has created uncertainty about the future prospects for the mining industry in the energy-rich area, while the cryptocurrency market’s downturn has made digital currencies less profitable, according to a representative from SBI, Japan’s largest online broker. Hideyuki Katsuchi, the chief financial officer of the company, revealed that it plans to sell its equipment in order to withdraw from Russia.

SBI was one of the first Japanese financial institutions to enter the digital asset market. However, this year’s negative developments led to a loss of 9.7 Billion yen ($72 Million) in pretaxes from its crypto business. The group also recorded a net loss of 2.4 Billion yen (over $15.8 M), which is the first time in a decade.

Katsuchi stated that the Japanese brokerage had suspended mining operations in Siberia after the conflict in Ukraine. However, it has yet to decide when it will withdraw from Siberia. According to the executive, although there is no other cryptocurrency business in Russia, this financial company intends to operate its Moscow-based commercial bank unit, SBI Bank. This follows a July U.S. diplomats asking Tokyo’s authorities to press Japanese crypto miners and exchanges to end ties with Russia.

The International Monetary Fund ( IMF), warned that crypto mining could offer Russia and other sanctioned countries, such as Iran, a way out of the economic and financial restrictions imposed on the United States and its allies. These countries have the ability to use their energy resources for mining and can generate revenue from the extraction and payment of cryptocurrencies.

A recent study shows that electricity consumption in Russia’s crypto-mining sector has increased almost 20 percent in the five years since 2017. Siberia’s Irkutsk has some of the best electricity rates in the country. It is also close to the capital Moscow, where miners can benefit from well-developed infrastructure and energy.