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Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) is proposing that the House narrow a financial crimes provision he drafted in Democrats’ China competitiveness bill, after cryptocurrency advocates warned the proposal threatened the industry and its users. The section at issue would expand the Treasury Department’s authority to monitor and freeze accounts at financial institutions — a policy intended to address the use of digital assets in ransomware attacks, money laundering and other illegal activity. It would give Treasury more latitude to identify any “transmittals of funds” as money laundering concerns. Crypto supporters warned the proposal would have given Treasury unchecked power to ban transactions and…

Linus Torvalds has done several amazing things. He’s the creator of both the Linux operating system and Git, the most popular distributed version control system. But he’s not Bitcoin’s inventor. One of the great tech mysteries is “Who really is Bitcoin’s inventor, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto?” Recently, some people thought Linus Torvalds, the developer behind both the world’s most popular operating system, Linux, and its most popular development tool, the Git distributed version control (DVC) system, had also claimed he was the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, inventor: The perplexing Satoshi Nakamoto. This story got its start in the cryptocurrency news site, BeInCrypto. There a…

Research by app analytics and marketing platform App Radar has found 2021 was a red-letter year for cryptocurrency app downloads, with 82.9m made on Google Play alone.   This was up massively from 2020, where crypto apps were only downloaded 13.5m times. The most downloaded apps globally were Binance at 35.7m, Crypto.com at 19.7m, Coinbase with 16.1m, Blockchain with 3.3m and Voyager at 1.8m. The App Radar insights team analysed the 2020 and 2021 Google Play store performance of 12 of the leading apps for storing and trading cryptocurrencies. Of the 12 apps analysed, all of them together have almost 120m…

In late September 2021, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) banned all cryptocurrency transactions. The PBOC cited the role of cryptocurrencies in facilitating financial crime as well as posing a growing risk to China’s financial system owing to their highly speculative nature. However, one other possible reason behind the cryptocurrency ban is an attempt to combat capital flight from China. According to the Chainalysis Blockchain data platform, more than $50 billion worth of cryptocurrency left East Asian accounts to areas outside the region between 2019 and 2020. As China has an outsized presence in East Asian cryptocurrency exchanges, Chainalysis staff believe…

Ethereum is the most well-known altcoin, and it’s much more than just another cryptocurrency for many investors and enthusiasts alike. And experts say it could grow in value by as much as 400% in 2022. Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), has grown immensely in value since its creation. Launched in 2015 by computer programmer Vitalik Buterin, Ether has increased in price from $0.311 at its 2015 launch to around $4,800 at its highest late last year — with plenty of volatility along the way. While Ether has recently dropped back down to as low as $2,200, that still represents a lifetime return on investment…

The Asia-based medical services company Zuellig Pharma has developed a blockchain platform to improve its vaccine tracking service and prevent accidents that could compromise the public’s health. eZTracker, Zuellig Pharma’s management system, guarantees the authenticity of vaccines, preventing the smuggling of medical products and the misappropriation of vaccines and supplies during their official distribution. How eZTracker Can Prevent Vaccine Frauds Zuellig Pharma’s eZTracker software guarantees transparency across the entire supply chain by recording the movements of each package from manufacture to delivery and administration. Because it uses blockchain technology, the information is auditable in real-time, offers instant results, and does not…

This has been a terrible year so far for bitcoin, down almost 45% from its peak in November 2021. Ethereum is down 50%, having broken new all-time highs in November. This has prompted discussion as to whether we are in a bear market, or a normal market pullback. Ryan Allis, managing partner at HeartRithm and publisher of Coinstack, argues that far from being in the midst of a bear market, we may be in a bitcoin supercycle. Bitcoin typically declines in the third year after every halving event, which occurs every four years. This is when the rate of bitcoin…

For investors looking to make sense of the recent bloodbath in equities and crypto, a good person to turn to is Duncan MacInnes. MacInnes is an investment director at 28-year-old British investment house Ruffer, which has $32 billion in assets under management. It’s a firm known for its ability to secure absolute returns and navigate major market drawdowns for clients. It’s achieved 9% average returns annually after fees since inception and made money in the last three major financial crises, returning 23% during the Global Financial Crisis as shares crashed 30%, according to ThisIsMoney.co.uk. Ruffer most recently hit the headlines, with the help of MacInnes, for taking a…

The governor of the Central Bank of Kenya Dr Patrick Njoroge said on Thursday that the bank’s position on the unrestricted use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in Kenya remains unchanged. The latest comments by the governor is a reiteration of the regulator’s long-held stance against the use of cryptocurrencies in Kenya. “Our position has not changed on any of those products that are out there.” Dr Patrick Njoroge told reporters after the monetary policy announcement where the monetary policy committee retained the base lending rate at seven per cent for a record 12th time. The Central Bank of Kenya has…

An illegal crypto farm was operating in Santiponce, a town in the province of Seville, Spain. Authorities seized 21 Bitcoin ASIC miners and $50,000 worth of mining equipment. Bitcoin mining is completely legal in Spain, if run according to the law. Police in Santiponce was investigating illegal Marijuana farms. Police had a suspicion that there is an illegal Marijuana farm operating in an undisclosed location. Police raided the farm and instead of Marijuana plants they discovered graphic card manufactured by EVGA, RTX 30 series mining crypto. Further investigation brings to light that this crypto mining farm was stealing electricity. Making…