BITCOIN

The Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has cracked down on an underground bank that used crypto to offer illegal exchange services. The operation, which had over 1,000 bank accounts and a presence in 17 provinces, moved over 15.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion) to purchase crypto on exchanges overseas and provide yuan exchanging services. Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange Discovers Ring Using Crypto to Circumvent Exchange Controls The Chinese government has cracked down on an underground bank that used crypto to provide yuan exchange services to Chinese nationals. According to a post published in Wechat by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), the Qingdao police managed to identify more than 1,000 accounts belonging to a Chinese national identified as Jin, that served as funneling accounts for the exchange business of 15.8 billion yuan ($2.2 billion). The exchange business had a presence in 17 provinces of the country, with more than

U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer has highlighted various crypto bills that passed out of the House Committee on Financial Services this year. Among them is his appropriations amendment barring the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) “from using taxpayer dollars on its abusive crypto enforcement tirade until Congress passes legislation giving the SEC jurisdiction over this industry.” Crypto Bills Greenlighted by House Financial Services Committee in 2023 U.S. Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) summarized the House Financial Services Committee’s achievements in 2023 on social media platform X last week. He emphasized that the committee “has moved more legislation in 2023 to boost our capital markets, welcome innovation, and hold unchecked regulators accountable than in previous years.” The lawmaker proceeded to highlight various bills related to crypto legislation that were greenlighted by the committee during the year. “In July, we passed the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act out o

Venture capitalist Tim Draper has doubled down on his $250,000 bitcoin price forecast. “I would say that my number $250,000 will probably come pretty soon,” he emphasized, predicting that if the price of bitcoin hits $250,000, “it’ll go way past it.” Tim Draper’s $250K Bitcoin Prediction Venture capitalist Tim Draper shared his bitcoin price prediction for 2024 in an interview with Coin Bureau last week. He explained that when the price of BTC was $4,000, he predicted that it would climb to $250,000 in four years. “When I predicted that, what I didn’t expect was how fearful and just old thinking the U.S. would be. I think with a receptive U.S., we would be having conversations like the ones I have with the people from El Salvador,” he shared. El Salvador was the first country to adopt BTC as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar. Emphasizing that he still believes BTC will reach $250K in the near future, he opined: “I think all that is is a delay. I would call it the fear del

The Japanese government has approved a tax reform that removes some crypto taxes for corporations and conglomerates. The reform, discussed since early December, removes the unrealized gains taxes on crypto holdings for companies, paving the way for them to hold crypto assets more consistently. Japanese Government Approves Tax Reform to Eliminate Unrealized Gains Tax The Japanese cabinet convened to approve the FY2018 tax reform, which includes a series of modifications to rules affecting companies in the cryptocurrency area. The reform included a change that removed the “unrealized gains” crypto tax that mandated companies to pay tribute based on the price change of crypto assets each fiscal year. A change that eliminated this tax for companies’ self-issued cryptocurrencies had already been approved earlier this year, but with this modification, crypto companies can now hold crypto issued by third parties without paying the unrealized gains taxes. However, cryptocurrency sales and

Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: El Salvador passes a Bitcoin donation citizenship law, Argentina will allow the settlement of crypto-denominated contracts, and President Milei moves to deregulate Argentina. El Salvador Passes Bitcoin Citizenship Law The government of El Salvador has passed a law that allows foreign investors to become Salvadoran citizens. The project, approved with Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party majority in the Congress, offers foreigners the possibility of sidestepping the ordinary requirements to receive Salvadoran citizenship by making Bitcoin donations to social and economic programs in the country, without mentioning a determined number. Before, the only way of becoming a Salvadoran citizen involved having five years of residence for immigrants from a non-Spanish-speaking country. On December 8, the country announced a program called “Adopting El Salvador,” wh