Bitcoin remittances to El Salvador jumped more than fourfold in May from the previous year, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Last week, El Salvador passed a bill making bitcoin legal tender in the country alongside the U.S. dollar. The monthly bitcoin transfers of under $1,000 to El Salvador totaled $1.7 million in…
Subcontractors and Builders Located in China’s Xiong’an New Area Are Being Paid in Digital Yuan
Xiong’an New Area, a state-level new area in Hebei, China, is seeing the use of onchain digital yuan payments, according to a circular issued by the Xiong’an government. The announcement details that Xiong’an subcontractors and builders are being paid using the central bank digital currency (CBDC) via the People’s Bank of China and the new…
Crypto Cyberthreats Spike This Year With Russia Hit the Hardest, Report Reveals
Cyberthreats related to cryptocurrencies have increased with rising demand for the digital assets, a study has concluded. Russia, Thailand and Peru are the most affected countries by malicious attacks designed to exploit the heightened interest in decentralized money, the authors point out. Booming Crypto Markets Bring Out Cybercriminals Despite the ongoing Covid pandemic still leading…
After Central Bank Devalues Naira by 5% Finance Minister Attributes Drop to ‘Market Forces’
Nigerian Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed has denied widespread reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had sanctioned the devaluation of the local currency sometime in May 2021. Instead, she attributes the naira’s fall to the “volatility in the oil price.” Ahmed’s remarks come just a few weeks after the official naira exchange rate dropped…
Elon Musk’s ‘50% Clean Energy’ Bitcoin Mining Goal Will Be Complicated To Verify
On Sunday, Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk tweeted that when there’s “confirmation of reasonable (~50%) clean energy usage by miners with positive future trend, Tesla will resume allowing Bitcoin transactions.” However, there’s a big problem with this goal, as nobody knows exactly how to measure 50% clean energy usage let alone precisely where miners are geographically…
G7 Leaders Ask Russia to Urgently Identify Those Who Abuse Cryptocurrency in Ransomware Attacks
The G7 leaders have called on Russia to urgently “identify, disrupt, and hold to account” ransomware hackers and those abusing cryptocurrency to launder ransoms. “We reiterate our interest in stable and predictable relations with Russia, and will continue to engage where there are areas of mutual interest,” the G7 leaders said. G7 Nations Ask Russia…