Russian firms are using crypto despite regulation limit, Official admits

According to a government official, businesses operating under sanctions imposed on Russia due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine have begun using cryptocurrency even though new rules governing this form of payment aren’t anticipated to take effect until at least 2023.

Ivan Chebeskov, director of the Ministry of Finance’s Financial Policy Department, recognized the tendency in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia. He also mentioned that these cross-border settlements are yet only done on a small basis.

According to Vladimir Gamza, head of industrial, financial, and investment policy at the Council of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation, Russian enterprises are increasingly adopting digital payment instruments, including cryptocurrencies.

Gamza also informed the newspaper that payments made in dollars, euros, and other fiat currencies had reduced significantly as a result of the financial constraints. Russian banks were disconnected from SWIFT, the international payment messaging system, as part of the actions taken in reaction to Russia’s invasion.

The Executive went on to explain that payments for imports of components for the manufacturing industry and settlements with what he called “unfriendly countries” now predominantly include digital currency. This is especially true for payments for Russian exports.

The import of consumer items can also be paid for using cryptocurrencies. According to Vladimir Gamza, the volume of cross-border cryptocurrency transactions might potentially expand several-fold in the face of penalties.

Portugal to impose tax on crypto gains

Portugal has been one of Europe’s most cryptocurrency-friendly nations in recent years. A crucial factor in this development has been the government’s decision not to tax earnings from cryptocurrency trading unless they are related to legitimate commercial activities. Numerous crypto fans were drawn to it. However, if the parliament approves the government’s proposed budget for 2023, that will likely change soon.

According to Bloomberg, who cited the draft, it has a clause allowing authorities to impose a 28% tax on gains on cryptocurrency assets that have been held for less than a year. Similar plans were rejected by Portuguese legislators earlier this year. According to the most recent proposal, the exemption should only apply to digital assets stored for more than a year.

According to the paper delivered to the legislature on Monday, income from cryptocurrency mining activities and coin issues would be subject to taxation. A 10% tax on cryptocurrency transfers that are made for free, as well as a 4% tax on broker charges for cryptocurrency transactions, are also planned.

The executive branch in Lisbon claims that the new tax regulations are consistent with laws already passed in other EU member states. As an illustration, it cites Germany, the economic engine of the Union, where cryptocurrency investors are exempt from tax responsibilities if they retain the digital assets for more than a year.

Lisbon’s action coincides with organizations in Brussels attempting to draft the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation, a complete regulation package that should be adopted throughout the EU. Last week, lawmakers of the European Parliament called on all of its members to implement standardized crypto tax laws.

Google Cloud collaborates with Coinbase to accept crypto payment

Tuesday saw the announcement of “a new, long-term strategic collaboration to better support the burgeoning Web3 ecosystem and its creators,” according to Google Cloud, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc.

In accordance with the contract, Coinbase will utilize Google Cloud to develop its sophisticated exchange, expand data services, and process blockchain data at scale. To extend the reach of its cryptocurrency services around the globe, the exchange will also use Google’s fiber-optic network.

In order to give Coinbase clients machine learning-driven crypto insights, Coinbase will also construct its global data platform on the Google Cloud infrastructure and use the internet giant’s data and analytics tools.

Coinbase Cloud Nodes will also support Google’s Bigquery crypto public datasets across the most popular blockchains, making them available to Web3 developers.

“We are thrilled Google Cloud has picked Coinbase to help deliver Web3 to a new group of customers and give powerful solutions to developers,” said Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase. Coinbase has invested more than ten years in developing market-leading solutions on top of blockchain technology, with more than 100 million verified users and 14,500 institutional clients.

Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, stated: “This cooperation with Coinbase lets developers go one step closer to that goal. We aim to make working in Web3 quicker and easier.”

Coinbase granted in-principle approval to operate in Singapore

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has granted the Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase “In-Principle Approval (IPA)” as a major payments institution license holder. The announcement’s specifics are:

We will be able to offer regulated digital payment token products and services on the island state thanks to this license.

Coinbase emphasized that “today’s announcement underscores our commitment to Singapore as a regional center.” Singapore acts as the center of Coinbase’s institutional APAC business. This in-principle clearance from MAS is a crucial milestone as we prepare to provide our whole line of products for the retail, institutional, and ecosystem markets. We are delighted to continue investing in and developing the crypto economy in Singapore, which serves as our global talent center and plays a crucial regulatory and commercial role in APAC and beyond.

Coinbase said that it had been subtly expanding its footprint in Singapore for some time. In the previous three years, Coinbase Ventures has invested in over 15 Web3 firms with headquarters in Singapore, which the company designated as an innovation center last year.

Finder’s panelists think ETH will fall to $963 this year

The product and pricing comparison website Finder.com released a new prediction study on October 11, 2022, which analyzes the second-most popular cryptocurrency, ethereum (ETH). According to Finder’s most recent ether prediction poll, the price of ether might bottom out at around $675 per token before the end of the year, according to Bitcoin.com News. 55 fintech and cryptocurrency specialists participating in Finder’s study gave a different forecast for ether’s future worth.

For instance, 46% of respondents to the most recent study think that Ethereum (ETH) is cheap but that its price would go as low as $963 this year. The panelists predict that ether will conclude 2022 at $1,377 per unit once the $963 low is reached. Ethereum is now properly priced, according to 31% of the experts polled, while 23% of the Finder panelists believe it is overvalued. The experts on the panel predicted that ETH will reach $5,154 per ether by 2025 and $11,727 per unit by 2030.

Joseph Raczynski, a technologist and futurist with Thomson Reuters believes that by the end of 2022, ETH will reach $1,700.

Although it might be argued that Ethereum is now more valuable and secure, its value has decreased. Raczynski noted in Finder’s most recent ether prediction research that the story is also far superior in the environmental effect, decreasing power use by nearly 99%.

Yves Longchamp, the head of research at SEBA Bank, is one of the 31% of panelists who think the price of ether is reasonable. Longchamp said that “the Ethereum ecosystem is undergoing a series of enhancements.” “All are meant to help the Ethereum network become more cost-effective, scalable, and transaction-speedy. When The Merge is finished, Ethereum will be configured as a global settlement layer suitable for creating potent decentralized apps.

New rule oblige Crypto miners in Kazakhstan to exchange money in the country

On first reading, the Mazhilis passed a draft bill intended to provide a legal framework for creating and exchanging digital assets in Kazakhstan. The law and other supporting papers were recently produced and submitted to the lower house of parliament at the request of Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the nation’s president.

The legislation’s principal objective is to establish regulations for the operation of a new class of financial organization for Kazakhstan: authorized cryptocurrency exchanges. Starting in 2024, the government intends to compel cryptocurrency miners to convert up to 75% of their earnings on these trading platforms to maintain them.

The government also wants exchanges to pay fees and mining pools to pay taxes on their earnings. The bill’s proponents plan to tax cryptocurrency firms corporately as well. The only taxes that mining operations are now required to pay are on the power they use, based on the quantity and cost of the energy used to create a digital currency.

Uniswap Completes $165M Capital Raise

The developer of the decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap protocol, Uniswap Labs, recently announced that a Series B fundraising round had brought in $165 million. With involvement from the company’s seasoned investors including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Paradigm, SV Angel, and Variant, Polychain Capital led the investment round.

In a recent blog post, the creator and founder of Uniswap Labs, Hayden Adams, stated that the additional cash would support the company’s expansion goals. Uniswap Labs intends to introduce non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and expand into mobile in addition to “providing the powerful simplicity and security,” according to the blog post.

Additionally, Adams emphasizes in the blog post how Uniswap’s distinctive strategy makes it effective at what it does.

He stated:

“Beyond what any one firm can do on its own, a far larger ecosystem continues to flourish and prosper while Uniswap Labs concentrates on its products. For instance, the governance community has decided to establish the Uniswap Foundation, which would support the Protocol’s decentralized growth and provide grants totaling at least $60 million to community projects over the next years.”

DBS Strategist believes BTC is unique regardless of price

In a recent media briefing, DBS investment strategist Daryl Ho discussed bitcoin, according to Finews Asia on Friday. He elaborated, saying: “If we just look at it strictly from a pricing perspective, you will notice a lot of volatility and it doesn’t really tell you anything about what benefits it truly delivers.”

“Regardless of price fluctuations, I still believe that bitcoin is special.”

Ho continued by pointing out that the usefulness of bitcoin, which enables decentralized value transfers without the requirement for a central counterparty to clear the deal, rather than its price is what makes it unique, according to the website.

Ho explained that most ways to exchange assets need a central clearing house to authenticate the transaction and that bitcoin offers a chance that fiat money does not. The expert emphasized, “Because fiat monetary systems are still under the control of central banks,” adding that bitcoin’s 13-year track record adds to investor trust in the cryptocurrency.

Since exchanges occasionally experienced outages, if you had been holding onto certain rationed assets at the beginning of February, you might not have been able to liquidate them as you pleased.

BTC’s Blockchain Size nears 500GB

The Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain is drawing near to the 500 gigabytes, or about half a terabyte, of space needed to keep the complete history of the distributed ledger on a drive on October 15, 2022. The BTC blockchain currently occupies more than 432,000 megabytes (MB) or 432 gigabytes (GB) of storage space.

The blockchain was less than a kilobyte in size, or around 285 bytes, when Satoshi Nakamoto established the network on January 3, 2009, over 14 years ago. The distributed ledger for Bitcoin didn’t cross 1 MB until February 16, 2009, and by February 13, 2012, the blockchain had grown to almost 1,000,000 kB or 1 GB.

The BTC chain is currently 432 GB, or around 432,176,009 kB, in size. The blockchain network must be stored by miners and complete nodes, which implies they require more than 432 GB of storage to run the whole chain.

According to current data, there are 14,299 accessible full nodes, meaning thousands of nodes are hosting a complete copy of the blockchain network. Light clients are wallets that use the simplified payment verification (SPV) protocol but do not maintain a complete node.

BTC difficulty reaches another ATH

The network’s processing power has remained intense as another all-time high record (ATH) was set on October 11 despite the difficulty increase and the fall in bitcoin’s (BTC) U.S. dollar value to $18,183 on October 13.

Even with High Difficulty and Low BTC Price, Bitcoin’s Hashrate is Still Growing.

On that day, Bitcoin’s hashrate increased by 1.23% to 325.11 EH/s at block height 758,138, surpassing the previous record of 757,214 set on October 5 for the hashrate ATH. Coinwarz.com data show that at the time of writing, BTC’s total hashrate is barely over the 289 EH/s range.

Block times are significantly shorter than the ten-minute average due to the up-tempo hashrate. According to data, the average time taken to generate a BTC block at this moment is 8.22 minutes. If this rapid block creation time persists, a noticeable difficulty increase is on the horizon.