Coinbase, a major U.S.-based crypto exchange, has found that Texas voters are interested in the crypto subject and presidential candidates’ postures on the issue. 21% of all Texan adults (4.7 million people) own crypto, with 74% of these owners likely to support candidates who recognize the significance of the national crypto industry. Coinbase Reveals Texas […]
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Economist Peter Schiff Slams Fed Chair Over Economic Concerns — Claims Powell Overlooks ‘Far More Relevant’ Factors
Economist Peter Schiff has slammed Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell over several key issues concerning the U.S. economy, the banking system, and the U.S. dollar. “Powell is a coward. He is not doing his job,” Schiff claimed, highlighting multiple factors affecting the economy that the Fed chairman overlooked in his statements before Congress this week.
Peter Schiff Disagrees With Fed Chair Powell on Several Key Issues
Economist and gold bug Peter Schiff has criticized multiple statements made by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell during his appearances before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday and the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. Powell appeared before Congress this week to present the Federal Reserve’s semiannual Monetary Policy Report.
Schiff expressed his disagreement with Powell’s remarks through a series of tweets over the past couple of days. In one tweet, he wrote:
Powell acknowledged that the Fed’s growing balance sheet is a concern, but failed to address the primary challenge that the balance sheet will never stop growing because every time an economic or financial problem arises, the Fed quickly expands the balance sheet to new highs.
Furthermore, the gold bug stressed in a follow-up tweet: “Powell is wrong to claim that the economy is being driven by a strong labor market. A weak economy and falling real wages are driving more workers to seek second and third jobs, and inflation causes retirees to return to the labor force to keep up with a rising cost of living.”
Schiff detailed in another tweet that the Federal Reserve chairman “claims the common factor that explains why so many countries are now experiencing high inflation is the global pandemic.” However, he pointed out:
What he overlooks are the far more relevant common factors of artificially low interest rates, quantitative easing, and government deficit spending.
The economist added that the Fed chair stated that the Federal Reserve’s “massive losses on its bond portfolio don’t count, as they’re just paper losses.” Schiff exclaimed: “That’s BS. Plus, the Fed pays more on deposits than it earns on Treasuries. Those losses are real. The bills are sent to the U.S. government and become obligations of taxpayers.”
Commenting on Powell reiterating his assurance to lawmakers during his Senate hearing that the U.S. banking system is sound and resilient, Schiff stressed: “The truth is that thanks to Fed monetary policy and Federal government interference, subsidies, and regulation, the U.S. banking system is insolvent and would have collapsed without government backstops.” Schiff similarly warned earlier this month that the Fed is destroying the banking system.
The gold bug also commented on U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s statements regarding the banking system. He said that while the senator from Massachusetts “is correct that our banking system is broken, she is wrong about who broke it.” The economist explained: “The problem is not too little government regulation, but too much. What we need is to get the government and the Fed out of the U.S. banking system, to allow free market forces back in.”
Schiff further stated: “Powell is wrong to claim that increased government spending stimulates the economy. It doesn’t stimulate the economy, it actually stifles the economy. What it stimulates is spending and inflation. But the Fed Chairman doesn’t really understand economics. He’s a Keynesian.” He opined:
Former Fed Chair Paul Volcker repeatedly advised Congress to cut spending or raise taxes, sharply criticized Federal deficit spending that he warned would stifle economic growth, lead to higher long-term interest rates and inflation. Powell is a coward. He is not doing his job.
Another area in which Schiff disagreed with Powell concerns the U.S. dollar. The Fed chairman told lawmakers that he believes the USD’s status as the global reserve currency is a consequence of America’s economic dominance. Schiff argued: “Powell is wrong. The dollar’s reserve currency status was originally a consequence of America’s economic dominance, but it has since become the main prop upon which that economic dominance now rests. Once the dollar’s reserve status is lost, U.S. economic dominance will topple.”
Do you agree with economist Peter Schiff? Let us know in the comments section below.
Russian Companies ‘Actively’ Using Crypto, Russia to Adopt 4 Relevant Laws, Official Says
Russian lawmakers intend to soon approve four bills designed to regulate various aspects of cryptocurrencies, a high-ranking member of the Russian parliament announced. Meanwhile, Russian companies are already using digital assets in cross-border settlements, the official noted.
Russian Legislature to Vote on Crypto Laws by End of July
The State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, plans to adopt four crypto-related laws during its spring session which ends on July 30, according to Anatoly Aksakov, chairman of the parliamentary Financial Market Committee.
The bills are tailored to regulate cryptocurrency mining, cross-border crypto payments, taxation of digital assets, and liability for their illegal use, the lawmaker detailed, quoted by the Interfax news agency. He emphasized that the draft laws are well thought through.
Aksakov remarked that large Russian companies are already actively using cryptocurrency in foreign trade settlements, but they want to see legislation outlining the legal framework for such transactions. Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, he stated:
Now we have come to the point where four bills are in the stage of practical adoption … It is quite possible that we will adopt all the laws in the spring session.
Anatoly Aksakov also said that the authorities want to take into account the opinions of market participants regarding tax rules. “Most likely, the norms applicable to DFAs will be taken into account as much as possible here, since this is a similar instrument,” he elaborated.
The law “On Digital Financial Assets” (DFAs), which went into force in January 2021, covers only some crypto-related activities, in particular those that involve digital assets with an issuing entity, like tokenized traditional assets or utility tokens, for example.
At the same time, transactions with decentralized cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are yet to be comprehensively regulated in Russia. Pressed by Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian authorities have stepped up their efforts in this direction.
Do you think Russia will regulate crypto transactions by the end of July? Tell us in the comments section below.
Blockchain to Become More Relevant in Payments This Year, Sberbank Exec Says
Blockchain technology can help solve current issues with settlements, according to the deputy chief executive of Sberbank. Russia’s largest bank is working with other financial institutions to develop blockchain-based payment applications, the banker revealed.
Sberbank Sees Solution to Russia’s Troubles With Settlements in Blockchain
With major Russian banks disconnected from the main global interbank payment system, SWIFT, due to Moscow’s war on Ukraine, blockchain will help to solve the problem with payments, Sberbank’s First Deputy CEO Alexander Vedyakhin is convinced.
“It is blockchain technology that will make it possible to solve this issue because this is a distributed ledger, there is no one point of decision making, no center, no knife switch that can be shut off,” Vedyakhin explained, quoted by the Interfax news agency.
“Everyone has everything recorded, there are special protocols that make it possible to do this confidentially,” the executive added during a meeting of the Budget and Financial Markets Committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russian parliament.
Majority state-owned Sberbank, which is Russia’s largest bank by assets, is currently conducting research on the applications of blockchain technology together with other banking institutions and the Central Bank of Russia. Vedyakhin, who believes that blockchain will become even more relevant in 2023, emphasized:
The next generation payment systems are blockchain.
Issues With Speed and Privacy Overcome in Latest Protocols, Vedyakhin Says
The banker also noted that the crypto-related technology has developed over the past few years and highlighted some of the outstanding issues that had to be resolved. These include the capacity of blockchain platforms and the confidentiality of transactions.
“The first was speed. What we were seeing before did not allow us to process a large number of transactions. Now we believe this problem has been generally solved. The second was confidentiality… If we have a transaction, and another 10 million people see it, you are unlikely to want to make it. Now this problem has also been solved in the new protocols,” Alexander Vedyakhin elaborated.
A number of Russian banks, including Sberbank, were targeted with sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the EU after the invasion of Ukraine in late February, 2022. The financial restrictions severely limited Russia’s access to the global financial system.
Last June, the CEO of Sberbank Herman Gref said that the bank has started working on establishing an international settlements system, alternative to SWIFT, planning to complete it within a year. Russia’s manufacturing and technology conglomerate Rostec announced a blockchain-based platform with the similar purpose the same month. Legalizing crypto payments for cross-border settlements has been considered as an option, too.
Do you think Russia will try to employ blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.
Dogecoin Unseated From No. 10 Spot In Rankings – Can DOGE Stay Relevant?
Dogecoin (DOGE) has been recently pushed aside by Polkadot (DOT) from the top cryptocurrencies list as it is now the 11th biggest crypto in terms of market cap. DOGE’s market value is currently at .28 billion after it sadly had to let go of its position which is now held by Polkadot with a market value of .62 billion.
According to CoinMarketCap, the DOGE price is 1.09% down or at 0.06899 as of this writing.
DOGE price remained the same despite the positive sentiment in the crypto space spiked by the support of Elon Musk, among other things. Michi Lumin, Developer of Dogecoin, has recently announced the release of a C library of DOGE building blocks coined as Libdogecoin. This library allows Dogecoin to integrate into different platforms.
Elon Musk Says DOGE Has Real Value
In one of his appearances on the podcast “Full Send”, Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, once again pressed on with his unrelenting support for DOGE. “I’m mainly supporting Doge, frankly,” Musk said.
Musk reiterated that Dogecoin isn’t just a dog meme coin; it is not a joke because it has real utility value. He also said that in comparison to Bitcoin, DOGE has a much bigger transaction volume. Since early August, the price of DOGE hasn’t moved significantly because it’s been hindered by .075. The crypto market seems to be in a coma as it is being bombed by a lot of macroeconomic problems.
But, as other meme projects have no utility value and the token prices are mostly impacted by social media or a popularity vote from influencers and other celebrities, investors aren’t so sure if they should invest long-term in these dog meme coins.
Dogecoin Lags Behind
DOGE is lagging behind in terms of growth. At the beginning of July, the DOGE price is at .066. SHIB grew by 17% but DOGE price only registered a growth of 1.4%. DOGE token market cap only increased a bit from .77 billion to just .06 billion.
On July 31, DOGE had 73,800 active addresses that grew by as much as 13% or around 105,000 addresses at one point on July 28. DOGE was able to close July with a plunge in transaction volume by 96% or 1.53 DOGE.
The social dominance of DOGE increased by 8.49% after the price racked up to .75. DOGE price plunged by 61% as social dominance nosedived by 3.3%. DOGE’s social volume further declined by as much as 63%. Developmental transactions within the Dogecoin network grew by 80% despite the lack of ecosystem updates.
DOGE total market cap at .24 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Featured image from Zipmex, chart from TradingView.com
NewsBTC
Why Bitcoin Dominance Is No Longer Relevant To Crypto
Bitcoin dominance is a metric weighing the top cryptocurrency’s market share against the rest of the crypto space, including Ethereum, Polkadot, Cardano, and other altcoins. For years, analysts used it as a tool to predict divergences between altcoins and Bitcoin.
However, recently, the metric has lost just about all meaning, and could explain why it has done nothing but trend sideways for weeks now on end. Here’s why BTC dominance is no longer a relevant measure in crypto.
Why Bitcoin Remains The Most Dominant Cryptocurrency Today
Years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto designed the first system of peer-to-peer digital cash and the cryptocurrency industry was born. The advent of Bitcoin, also brought with it a revolutionary distributed ledger technology called blockchain.
Bitcoin the asset, secured by cryptography and a consensus mechanism, cannot be duplicated, but the technology it was built on has been adapted in many unique ways since. Ethereum, for example, ties smart contracts to transactions so that decentralized applications can run on the blockchain.
Related Reading | Prepare For Liftoff: Bitcoin Loses Bear Market Trendline Against Altcoins
Thousands of altcoins have since been created that compete for market share with Bitcoin. As the first ever cryptocurrency, BTC enjoyed first-mover advantage and all that comes along with it, including brand recognition, trust, familiarity, and being further along in adoption.
When altcoins gained dominance over Bitcoin in late 2017 and early 2018, the metric became particularly useful for technical analysis and predicting the normally unpredictable relationship between BTC and altcoins.
BTC dominance has been stuck around 60% for weeks on end | Source: CRYPTOCAP-BTC.D on TradingView.com
BTC Dominance: No Longer A Reliable Metric To Measure Crypto
Because altcoins trade against USD and BTC primarily, they don’t always follow the same trends and patterns that Bitcoin does. Analysts had once utilized BTC dominance effectively, but its usefulness has begun to fade. Why? Because digital assets are transcending the definition of what an altcoin is, and BTC dominance cannot keep up with innovation in the market as a metric itself.
What that means is, there’s a sea of coins on decentralized exchanges, an explosion of NFTs, and several other blockchain-based assets that aren’t included in the popular metric.
Related Reading | Why March Is The Bloodiest Month In Bitcoin History
The best example of dominance losing its importance, is due to the fact that altcoins have been performing so well, beating Bitcoin in ROI across most of the asset class, yet the metric remains firm at around 60% where it has now spent several weeks consolidating.
An explosive move could result due to such lengthy consolidation, however, what could instead be happening is the measure losing any remaining usefulness as a tool to gauge crypto market trends.
Featured image from Deposit Photos, Charts from TradingView.com
Terrorists Turn Away From Crypto, Criminal Money Argument No Longer Relevant
Foreign terrorist groups such as Isis and al-Qaeda have failed at repeatedly trying to raise money to fund their criminal operations using crypto, according to a testimony made today at a House Financial Services Committee hearing.
Crypto Is Terrible For Terrorists, Cold Hard Cash is King
While speaking in front of Congress today at a House Financial Services Committee hearing, director of analysis for the Foundation For Defense of Democracies Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance Yaya Fanusie explained that foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) failed after repeatedly trying to fund their deadly criminal operations via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The expert on illicit financial transactions pointed out an example of a failed 2016 online campaign that saw only two total contributions being made to the Iraq-based Mujahideen Shura Council (MSC). The two transactions only amounted to roughly 0.
Fanusie further elaborated that “cold hard cash is still king” for terrorists, due to how easy it is to hide money and keep funding anonymous. Money laundering is a key concern around cryptocurrencies, especially privacy coins that can keep senders and receivers entirely anonymous. However, terrorists also need to spend raised funds on various goods and supplies, often conducting transactions in desolate locations with “unreliable technology infrastructure,” according to Fanusie. In such instances, the advanced technology powering cryptocurrencies becomes a hindrance for terrorists.
Congress was cautioned by Fanusie that crypto-based fundraising campaigns could eventually become a successful means of funding their operations, suggesting that all U.S. government agencies that focus their investigations on terrorist funding should better understand the ins and outs of cryptocurrency transactions for greater analysis.
“By preparing now for terrorists’ increasing usage of cryptocurrencies, the U.S. can limit the ability to turn digital currency markets into a sanctuary for illicit finance,” Fanusie told Congress.
Fanusie also warned Congress of the potential risks involving money laundering in relation to the aforementioned privacy coins, such as Monero, Zcash, or Dash, that allow both transacting parties to remain anonymous. He explained that although larger exchanges like Coinbase or Gemini have strict anti-money laundering policies, other exchanges are far more lax and could pose a substantial risk.
Terrorists Prefer Cash Over Crypto, Rogue Nations to the Contrary
While terrorist organizations struggle to raise funds via crypto, the rogue nations that often harbor such organizations are embracing the new technology.
Iran, among one of the nation’s former U.S. President George W. Bush famously dubbed the “Axis of Evil” has been considering launching its own national cryptocurrency backed by its fiat currency, for the sake of circumventing US-led sections against the country. Another “Axis of Evil” nation, North Korea, has also been said to earn an estimated to 0 million by mining and selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero, according to former NSA cybersecurity official Priscilla Moriuchi.
The post Terrorists Turn Away From Crypto, Criminal Money Argument No Longer Relevant appeared first on NewsBTC.
US Treasury Releases Fintech Report, Discusses Issues Relevant to Cryptocurrency
The U.S. Treasury Department released its highly anticipated report that examines the current monetary system, discusses cryptocurrency, and proposes sweeping changes that would cut regulatory inefficiency and incubate new technologies.
The report, which is titled “A Financial System That Creates Economic Opportunities: Nonbank Financials, Fintech, and Innovation” was drafted under Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and addressed to President Donald Trump. The report does not directly provide any recommendations or conclusions on cryptocurrencies, but the technologies are mentioned.
Cryptocurrency-Related Issues
The report covers a broad range of issues, many of which are highly relevant to the cryptocurrency industry. The Treasury Department acknowledges the escalation of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies, noting the rapidly progressing nature of the economy.
In a section titled “Digitization of Finance and the Economy,” they note that parallel to the rise of mobile and digital banking, complimenting technologies like cryptocurrencies and distributed ledger technologies are “poised to impact innovations in financial services.” They elaborate on this, saying:
“Technology developments that are poised to impact innovation in financial services include advances in cryptography and distributed ledger technologies, giving rise to blockchain-based networks.”
The Treasury also notes that blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are being examined by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, which was founded after the 2008 financial crises with the goal of guiding federal regulators on important issues.
Importantly, the Treasury makes it clear that the government wants to support new innovations, and to develop regulations that incubate growth within emerging industries, saying:
“Support of innovation is critical across the regulatory system — both at the federal and state levels…Treasury supports encouraging the launch of new business models … to pursue innovative technologies to lower costs, improve customer outcomes, and improve access to credit and other services.”
A do no harm approach by the government is critical for cryptocurrencies and will ultimately lead to greater success and adoption. The report acknowledges that current regulatory frameworks may be outdated and updates to it are necessary in order to allow solutions that offer benefits to consumers, saying:
“The financial regulatory framework is not always optimally suited to address new business models and products that continue to evolve in financial services … Financial regulation should be modernized to more appropriately address the evolving characteristics of financial services of today and in the future.”
Regulatory Efficiency
The U.S. Treasury discusses technologies that could streamline payment systems, and importantly mentions the development of regulatory sandboxes that allow for innovation in order for the U.S. to stay competitive with places like the U.K., Singapore, and Hong Kong.
The sandbox method, which entails the government keeping a watchful eye on emerging industries, but not harming them with regulation, is popular in many countries, and most people see it as the best way to regulate the cryptocurrency industry.
Arizona has been on the forefront of cryptocurrency adoption and was the first state in the United States to offer a sandbox environment for fintech companies, which will allow companies to test their products and services for up to two years with as many as 10,000 customers before needing to apply for licensing.
This allows cryptocurrency and blockchain companies to actively develop and test products without working around regulatory requirements.
The report recommends creating a sandbox regulatory environment in the U.S., stating:
“Internationally, many countries have established ‘innovation facilitators’ and various regulatory ‘sandboxes’ — testing grounds for innovation…While replicating this approach in the United States is complicated by the fragmentation of our financial regulatory system, Treasury is committed to working with federal and state financial regulators to establish a unified solution that accomplishes these objectives — in essence, a regulatory sandbox.”
The Treasury report concludes that the United States must “stay abreast of developments in technology and to properly tailor regulations in a manner that does not constrain innovation.” And that U.S. regulators “must be more agile than in the past in order to fulfill their statutory responsibilities without creating unnecessary barriers to innovation.”
Featured image by Shutterstock.
The post US Treasury Releases Fintech Report, Discusses Issues Relevant to Cryptocurrency appeared first on NewsBTC.
Blockchain Can Help UK ‘Stay Relevant’ After Brexit, Says EU Lawmaker
British MEP Kay Swinburne has called on the U.K. to implement and champion blockchain technology as the country moves to leave the EU.
CoinDesk