33 central banks and 12 financial authorities to meet Nayib Bukele to discuss BTC

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, tweeted that he would be meeting with 33 central banks and 12 financial authorities today Monday to discuss the Bitcoin rollout among other things.

According to the Twitter thread that followed the tweet about the meeting to “discuss financial inclusion, digital economy, banking the unbanked, the #Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in our country,” some of the banks expected to meet Bukele include the bank of Rwanda, Sacco Societies Regulatory Authority (SASRA) Kenya, Central Bank of Egypt, Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Maldives Monetary Authority among others.

The central banks and regulatory authorities mentioned by Bukele are primarily from developing countries, especially from Africa. 

At the time, it is clear are explicitly meeting to discuss Bitcoin or if there are other issues to be discussed.

Bukele’s tweet didn’t however capture the world by surprise since about five days after the tweet from the president, someone under the Twitter account going by the name “Bitcoin Beach” had said that several countries are flying to El Salvador.

El Salvador and Bitcoin

El Salvador is the first country to make Bitcoin a legal tender and it recently took advantage of the falling BTC price and bought 500 bitcoins.

Besides making BTC a legal tender in the country, El Salvador has accumulated more than 2,000 bitcoins worth over $60 million at the current Bitcoin price. 

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Luna Foundation Guard confirms it sold 80,081 bitcoins to try prevent the UST crash

Luna Foundation Guard, an organization that supports the Terra ecosystem, has confirmed through an announcement that they sold 80,081 bitcoin and other holding tokens to prevent the crash on May 8 and May 10.

The Luna Foundation Guard (LFG) had over 80K BTC and other cryptocurrencies before the de-pegging of the UST.

The organization sold Bitcoins for about 3 billion UST which currently wort nothing because Terra blockchain has been suspended.

Luna stated via Twitter:

“Beginning on May 8, when the price of UST began to drop substantially below one dollar, the Foundation began converting this reserve to UST. The Foundation did so by directly executing on-chain swaps and transferring BTC to a counterparty to enable them to enter trades with the Foundation in large size & on short notice. Directly sold 26,281,671 USDT & 23,555,590 USDC for an aggregate 50,200,071 UST· Transferred 52,189 BTC to trade with a counterparty, net of an excess of 5,313 BTC that they have returned, for an aggregate 1,515,689,462 UST. On May 10, when UST had fallen to $0.75… Sold 33,206 BTC for an aggregate 1,164,018,521 UST.”

However, Luna collapsed the day after as there were no other mechanisms or assets to stabilize the stablecoin UST.

On May 7, LFG held 80,394 Bitcoin, but when the price of $UST started to drop they started the conversion of the Bitcoin reserve to $UST. At the time of writing the reserve has been left with only 313 BTC.

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Binance to help Terra rebuild but expects more transparency, CEO ‘CZ’ says

Binance CEO Changpeng  ‘CZ’ Zhao says the leading cryptocurrency is ready to support Terraform Labs and its community’s rise from the ‘ashes’. However, he expects the team behind the LUNA and UST tokens to offer more transparency and accountability.

LUNA and UST’s collapse this past week caused ripples and attracted a lot of attention from around the crypto community and elsewhere. Among these reactions have been “falsehoods circulating in crypto twitter,” regarding what happened.

Regarding Binance’s support for Terra, Zhao explained that his viewpoint is that “minting, forking, don’t create value.” According to him, mechanisms that allow for buying back,or burning work. However, this requires funds that Do Kwon and his Terraform Labs team may not have access to.

Binance will therefore work towards helping the team. But more needs to be done.

In this regard, I would like to see more transparency from them. Much more! Including specific on-chain transactions (txids) of all the funds. Relying on 3rd party analysis is not sufficient or accurate. This is the first thing that should have happened,” he said.

Projects can and will fail, but…

Zhao acknowledges that failures can and will happen. Nonetheless, when such setbacks occur, it needs the team behind the project to be more transparent, act with speed and communicate. Owning up when failures happen is also vital, the Binance chief added in a Twitter thread on Sunday.

Zhao said Binance supported Terra’s first fundraising but not the second one. The leading exchange did not also acquire any TerraUSD.

I am just hoping that the project teams can rise from the ashes and rebuild in a proper and sensible way. Regardless of my personal views, or the solution chosen in the end, we will always be here to support the community in any way we can

Terra collapsed dramatically last week, with de-pegging of UST from the dollar sending both the stablecoin and LUNA to zero.  Binance halted and then resumed spot trading for LUNA and UST.

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Despite the Terra debacle, the UK to recognise stablecoins as legal tender

We only seek to legalize fully backed stablecoins says the Treasury   

As the crypto world gears up to deal with the consequences of the death spiral suffered by the Terra ecosystem last week, the United Kingdom’s Department of Treasury announced that its plans to regulate stablecoins as a legal tender continue to stay in place.

The announcement has reinstated Her Majesty’s Treasury’s commitment to supporting innovation in the country.

The department has confirmed that the legalisation of stablecoins as a payment mechanism was part of the financial legislation section of the Queen’s speech.  Prince Charles explained that the nation was undertaking various legislations across the board to improve living standards and promote growth.

The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill will play an important role in achieving these goals as they strengthen the power of law enforcement officers to tackle illicit finance and reduce economic crime, which will facilitate business growth, the Prince of Wales said.

While the UK’s Economic and Finance Ministry department confirmed last month that its constitution would be amended to make way for the use of stablecoins, scepticism regarding the future of such legislation grew as the markets crashed last week following the downfall of LUNA and UST due to the crash witnessed by Terra, one of the most popular stablecoins.     

The Treasury’s Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, hinted that the events of last week did not impact the country’s plans, adding that the government will take all steps to ensure the UK financial services industry is always at the forefront of technology and innovation.

A Treasury spokesperson further pointed out that the UK will not legalize payments via “algorithmic stablecoins” like Terra but instead supports 1:1 fully-backed stable coins like USDT or USDC:

“The Government has been clear that certain stablecoins are not suitable for payment purposes as they share characteristics with unbacked crypto assets.

 We will continue to monitor the wider crypto asset market and stand ready to take further regulatory action if required.”

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Bitcoin is still struggling to break past the $30k resistance

The cryptocurrency market has struggled over the weekend as the bearish sentiment continues.

The cryptocurrency market has lost less than 1% of its total value over the past 24 hours. The total crypto market now stands above $1.2 trillion after losing nearly $300 billion the previous week.

Bitcoin remains the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap and has been struggling in recent months. At press time, Bitcoin is trading at $29,683, down by 11% over the last seven days.

The leading cryptocurrency has been struggling to regain its value above $30k since dropping below this crucial threshold for the first time this year a few days ago. The Terra crisis has affected the broader cryptocurrency market, and numerous cryptocurrencies are yet to embark on solid recoveries.

If the bearish sentiment continues, Bitcoin could continue to struggle below the $30k psychological level over the coming days.

Key levels to watch

The BTC/USD 4-hour chart is currently bearish as Bitcoin has underperformed in recent days. The technical indicators show that the bearish sentiment could grow thicker in the coming hours.

The MACD line has been below the neutral zone since the 5th of May. The MACD reading currently stands at -75, indicating a bearish trend for Bitcoin. 

The 14-day relative strength index of 49 shows that Bitcoin could drop into the oversold region if the recent market momentum is maintained.

Bitcoin could drop below the first major support level at $28,447 before the end of the day. However, the leading cryptocurrency should maintain its value above the $27,500 support level in the short term.

If the bulls regain control of the market, BTC could rally past the first major resistance level at $31,352 over the coming hours or days. Unless there is an extended bullish performance, the second major resistance level at $35,152 should cap further upward movement over the next few days.

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