BitDigest May 21 · Issue #907

This summer, the Federal Reserve plans to release a discussion paper that will explore the implications of a central bank digital currency focusing on the possibility of a US issued digital dollar.

The Department of Justice released a set of tax measures to support the President’s American Families Plan that intends to “to foster a tax system where Americans pay the taxes they owe.” Under this new agenda, crypto asset exchanges and custodians or “businesses that receive crypto-assets with a fair market value of more than $10,000” will need to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service.

Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau plans to propose that all digital currency exchanges be licensed by the city’s markets regulator and only ‘professional investors’ be allowed to trade crypto on these platforms.

The Bank of Canada is continuing to monitor digital currency markets warning that “price volatility stemming from speculative demand remains an important obstacle to the wide acceptance of cryptoassets as a means of payment.”

Together with Argentina’s securities regulator, the Banco Central de la Republica Argentina issued a warning to investors that digital currencies “can cause significant financial losses for its holders, including the possibility of losing the totality of the resources invested” and a reminder that digital currencies are not considered legal tender. 🅱️Bloomberg, which reported this news added “the irony isn’t lost given the country’s troubled economic history of currency devaluations, hyperinflation and wiping out citizen savings.”

Australian Financial Services Minister Jane Hume issued a warning to investors that the government has “no issue with consumers investing in cryptocurrencies” but that they “are volatile and high risk assets and investors must be aware of these risks.”

Bitcoin wallet and exchange Bitonic issued a statement explaining that Central Bank of the Netherlands has changed its position and will no longer require digital currency exchanges to verify the self-ownership of wallets by withdrawing customers on the platform.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a warning in response to a flurry of messages that have purportedly been sent by the agency explaining that it is not holding crypto funds for the benefit of any entity or individuals and any claims as such are purely fraudulent in nature.

📈BIT Mining Limited (NYSE: BTCM), formerly a Chinese mobile gaming company known as 500.com, announced plans to invest $25 million into a 52 MW crypto mining data center in Texas.

The University of Pennsylvania announced the receipt of an $5 million gift in bitcoin, but unlike most institutions which liquidate the digital currency upon receipt, the school announced plans to hold the donation in bitcoin “until needed to support the budget.” 🅱️It appears that the donation included a hedge to include ‘downside’ protection.

In a response to ARK Invest’s release of its ‘open-source Solar+Battery+Bitcoin mining Model’ Elon Musk acknowledged that solar and battery systems could be scaled to gain a greater share of grid energy but added the caveat that the recent scaling of bitcoin energy could not have been achieved “so fast with renewables.” Musk also tweeted a call for the top 10 hashing orgs to provide an audit of their renewable energy usage. Earlier in the day Musk tweeted “How much is that Doge in the window?”

📈Coindesk is reporting that Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) is in talks to acquire crypto asset manager New York-based Osprey Funds issuers of a bitcoin and polkadot trust.

Kraken is adding support for decentralized exchanges Bancor (BNT), SushiSwap (SUSHI), and web 3.0 infrastructure platform Ankr (ANKR).

Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein said that “crypto has come from nowhere to be a force in the market…[becoming] a gold substitute” and acknowledged that he has personally invested in the picks and shovels of the ecosystem because “it is here to stay…[and] not going away.”