Bitcoin’s [BTC] 43% hike in January surely brought rays of hope to investors dampened by 2022’s market display. In fact, it was one of the best first month performances of the coin in about ten years. However, on-chain data revealed that enthusiasts looking to accumulate more of the king coin might not find it challenging to pick out a guaranteed buying opportunity in February.
According to Bitcoin mining data tracking website MiningPoolStats, Bitcoin’s hash rate hit a nsecond (300 EH/s).ew record high earlier this week. According to the website, the network reached the milestone of computing three hundred quintillion (300,000,000,000,000,000,000) hashes per (300 EH/s). Bitcoin’s hash rate is viewed as a proxy of the processing power allocated to securing the Bitcoin network by its army of miners. A rising hash rate is viewed as a sign of network adoption, as well as that the network is growing more secure.
Legislators in New York introduced a bill in the local senate on Jan. 26 that could allow state agencies to recognize cryptocurrency as a legal payment. If the bill in question — New York Assembly Bill 2532 — enters law, it will allow cryptocurrencies to be accepted as payment in certain circumstances.
This week, CoinDesk got WazirX’s proof as the disagreement was privately coming to a head.In the early hours of Jan. 26 – the day of a national holiday in India – Binance sent WazirX a letter requiring the Indian exchange to meet two demands by the end of this month, or risk Binance terminating its service agreement with WazirX by Feb. 3. First, Binance told WazirX to publish a pre-written “clarificatory statement” retracting WazirX co-founder Nischal Shetty’s previous statements that Binance owned WazirX. It also required WazirX to erase all mentions of Binance in its terms of service. On Friday, Zanmai, WazirX’s official name, responded to Binance’s demands in a letter obtained by CoinDesk. It fought back, claiming that the demand letter was “unethical” and attempted to use “media pressure and threats to force Zanmai into issuing false and misleading statements as ‘clarifications.’”
Despite the recent negative crypto and macroeconomic newsflow, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization broke above $1 trillion on Jan. 21. An encouraging sign is that derivatives metrics are not showing increased demand from bearish traders at the moment.
The news was announced on Jan. 13 by Associate Professor Korok Ray of Mays Business School at Texas A&M, who will be teaching the “Bitcoin Protocol” course to students in the College of Engineering and Mays Business School when the Spring Semester starts on Jan. 17.
Japanese tax body has signaled an intention to tax non-fungible token sales and the profits earned by crypto and blockchain gamers.In an FAQ-type document released by the National Tax Agency (NTA), the body explained “guidelines” for tax officers dealing with NFT-related “cases” where taxes such as consumption tax (Japan’s equivalent of VAT) should be applied.
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is exiting Japan due to market conditions. The move comes days after the company announced its third round of layoffs in less than a year amid the ongoing bear market. The exchange detailed that fiat deposit functionality will be removed on January 20th and customers will have until February 16th to withdraw all their fiat and crypto holdings.
Russia’s central bank is reportedly set to begin developing a cross-border settlement system using a central bank digital currency (CBDC) amid ongoing sanctions in response to its invasion of Ukraine. The plans to move forward with Russia’s digital ruble are expected to come in the first quarter of 2023 and will see Russia’s central bank study two possible cross-border settlement models, according to a Jan. 9 report by local media outlet Kommersant.
Federal prosecutors have reportedly issued subpoenas to several U.S. hedge funds that have dealt with the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance Global Inc., as part of a years-long probe into possible money-laundering rules violations, the Washington Post reported.