Author: Bloomberg
Thailand is targeting newly-minted crypto millionaires to breathe life into its pandemic-battered tourism industry. The Tourism Authority of Thailand is working with the nation’s regulators and a local cryptocurrency exchange to pave the way for the acceptance of digital tokens for travel, according to its Governor Yuthasak Supasorn. That may help the tourism-reliant nation to recoup some of the $80 billion in lost revenue through the pandemic, he said. “There are people who have become wealthy from holding digital currencies and they may want to use the wealth they have accrued,” Yuthasak said in an interview on Thursday. “If they can use…
The endless competition among Bitcoin miners to assemble the fastest computers has led to a surprising new tactic: installing computers inside tanks of liquid coolant. The immersed equipment runs faster without overheating. In a business where every nanosecond of advantage counts, every major miner is piloting the technology right now, according to Nishant Sharma, founder of mining consultant BlocksBridge. “It looks like a fish tank with machines inside it,” Sharma said in an interview Tuesday. “Sooner or later, all big miners will be doing large-scale immersion mining.” The trend illustrates the lengths crypto-mining companies will go to gain advantage over…
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said the Central American country had taken advantage the 7.7% decline in Bitcoin on Friday to purchase 100 more of the coins. “El Salvador just bought the dip,” Bukele wrote on Twitter, almost a week after he announced the nation’s plan to sell $1 billion in tokenized 10-year dollar-denominated bonds. El Salvador previously bought a total of 1,100 Bitcoin as of Oct. 27. The country made the cryptocurrency legal tender alongside the dollar from Sept. 7. Dollar bonds from El Salvador are among the worst-performing in emerging markets so far this month, lagging only defaulted Lebanese debt, according to…
The world’s largest cryptocurrency had its worst day in more than two months, slumping almost 8% to about $54,350 as of Friday afternoon amid a rout in world stock markets on the emergence of a potentially dangerous coronavirus variant. The drop undercut the argument of Bitcoin proponents who see potential in the token as a hedge against turmoil in more traditional risk markets despite its own history of big swings and speculative frenzy. “I never bought into Bitcoin as a haven,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. “You learn what’s a safe haven when markets turn sour,…
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which recently topped a $25 billion valuation, purchased an ad in the annual U.S. football championship — the crown jewel of sorts in the company’s push to corner the sports sponsorship arena. The NBA’s Miami Heat play in FTX Arena, while FTX is the official crypto exchange of Major League Baseball. The motivation behind the purchase is the scale of the audience that the Super Bowl reaches, said FTX chief executive officer Sam Bankman-Fried. While the exchange has staked out space in sports broadly, football is the focus, he said. Tom Brady, who Bankman-Fried refers to as “the greatest quarterback of…
Tanzania plans to introduce its own digital money, following similar decisions in several emerging markets including Nigeria, which was the first to make the move in Africa. Amid the fear of missing out, or FOMO, more governments have allowed the introduction of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, as national currency — unlike their crypto counterparts, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are not tied to fiat currency. “To ensure that our country is not left behind the adoption of central bank digital currencies, the Bank of Tanzania has already begun preparations to have its own CBDC,” central bank Governor…
A patch of virtual real estate in the online world Decentraland sold for a record $2.4 million worth of cryptocurrency, the buyer crypto investor Tokens.com and Decentraland said on Tuesday. Decentraland is an online environment – also called a “metaverse” – where users can buy land, visit buildings, walk around and meet people as avatars. Such environments have grown in popularity this year, as the pandemic caused people to spend more time online. Interest surged last month when Facebook changed its name to Meta to reflect its focus on developing virtual reality products for the metaverse. Decentraland is a specific type of metaverse…
Bitcoin tumbled over 9% on Friday, dragging smaller tokens down, after the discovery of a new, potentially vaccine-resistant coronavirus variant saw investors dump riskier assets for the perceived safety of bonds, the yen and the dollar. Bitcoin, the largest digital currency, fell as much as 9.2% to $53,551, its lowest since Oct. 10. The second largest cryptocurrency ether fell over 13% to its lowest in a month as investors ditched cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin, whose 13-year life has been peppered by bouts of extreme volatility, was on track for its biggest one-day drop since Sept. 20. It has slumped by more than…
China is considering setting up a digital asset exchange in Beijing as officials push to promote usage of the digital yuan and crack down on cryptocurrencies. Beijing will explore the possibility of establishing a bourse for digital assets trading, as part of broader efforts to boost financial services in the capital, according to guidelines issued by the State Council. The cabinet called for faster trials of the digital yuan and urged big banks to set up e-CNY operation firms. The statement provided no further details on the planned digital asset exchange. China has been in process of creating a virtual version of…
Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said El Salvador’s decision to adopt Bitcoin as its currency was concerning because consumers probably will be caught out by its volatility. “It concerns me that a country would choose it as its national currency,” Bailey said in response to a question at an appearance at the Cambridge University student union on Thursday. “What would worry me most of all is, do the citizens of El Salvador understand the nature and volatility of the currency they have.” He added that the International Monetary Fund, which monitors risks to global financial markets, is not happy with El Salvador.…