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Copy of Coinpayments Digest 05/2021 I S S U E 6 / 2 0 2 1 W E E K 0 1 / 0 2 - 0 8 / 0 2 CoinPayments Digest weekly review of the most notable news and events in the cryptocurrency, payments & fintech industries IN THIS ISSUE Bitfinex Claims It’s Repaid a $750 Million Loan From Tether Ether price breakout to $1,750, sees Ethereum network fees hit all-time high Bitcoin hits $43K all-time high as Tesla invests $1.5 billion in BTC Binance Quietly Launches Its Bitcoin (BTC) jumped by almost $3,000 in minutes on Feb. 8 as Crypto-based PayPal Rival reported emerged that Tesla had bought $1.5 billion worth of BTC. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as a sudden spike to over $41,000 appeared as news of Tesla's plans trickled in.A filing with United States regulator the Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) shows that the company Nigeria Crypto Ban Will plans to buy $1.5 worth of Bitcoin."In January 2021, we updated our Drive Users to P2P investment policy to provide us with more flexibility to further Exchanges, Say Experts diversify and maximize returns on our cash that is not required to maintain adequate operating liquidity. As part of the policy, which was duly approved by the Audit Committee of our Board of Directors, we may invest a portion of such cash in certain alternative reserve assets including digital assets, gold bullion, gold exchange- Miami mayor aiming for traded funds and other assets as specified in the future," it states. 'the most progressive "Thereafter, we invested an aggregate $1.50 billion in bitcoin under this policy and may acquire and hold digital assets from time to time crypto laws' or long-term. Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt." The move follows encouraging signs Bitcoin hits $43K all-time from CEO Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who last week openly high as Tesla invests $1.5 stated that he was a "supporter" of Bitcoin. Since then, however, billion in BTC signals have been mixed, after Musk removed Bitcoin from his Twitter biography but continued tweeting and promoting Dogecoin (DOGE). Bitfinex Claims It’s Repaid a $750 Million Loan From Tether Bitfinex, the fifth-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, has reportedly repaid the remainder of a $750 million loan balance with stablecoin issuer Tether. The exchange told The Block today that it paid $550 million to Tether in January, after having paid back $100 million in each of the previous two years. Bitfinex, which shares key leadership with Tether, took out the line of credit in 2018 after alleging that its payments processor, Crypto Capital, stole $850 million. The New York Attorney General’s (NYAG) office has been probing the loan since 2018 on suspicion that Bitfinex was essentially lending itself money to cover up that loss. Crypto Capital itself stands accused of money laundering. As Bitfinex general counsel Stuart Hoegner told The Block, the exchange had a "short-term need for cash, and Tether was prepared to lend on commercially reasonable terms. "The New York Attorney General’s argument is that using Tether reserves in this way would constitute fraud. Early in the investigation, Tether conceded in March 2019 that it wasn’t totally backed by real US dollars, but also by “cash equivalents” and sometimes “other assets and receivables.” The loan repayment doesn’t mean Tether and Bitfinex’s legal troubles are over. Willamette University College of Law professor Rohan Grey, who also serves as Vice Chair of the Digital Currency Global Initiative, riffed on the old crypto adage of “don’t trust, verify,” telling Decrypt there was no reason to trust that Bitfinex had repaid the loan given its previous dodginess about whether Tethers were fully backed by US dollars. Ether price breakout to $1,750, sees Ethereum network fees hit all-time high ETH has been building on recent all-time highs this week, climbing ever closer to $2,000. After hitting $1,756.51 on Friday, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency took a little bit of a tumble, falling back to $1,630 at the time of posting. The record high came off the back of intense trading interest in DeFi coins, many of which use the Ethereum network as their basis. Anticipation has also been building over the launch of Ether futures from CME Group. There’s just one problem: Gas fees are rising. At one point this week, transaction costs surged so high that some exchanges were forced to halt withdrawals altogether. Amid fears this could affect the smooth running of DeFi protocols, Blockstream developer Grubles warned: “This is a legit crisis. Going to have to stock up on popcorn to see how Ethereum digs its way out of this.” According to data from YCharts, the average ETH fee was $23.27 on Feb. 4, the latest date for which statistics were available.While Bitcoin (BTC) meanwhile simmered below $40,000, macro conditions appeared apt to fuel fresh upside for BTC/USD. As the S&P 500 hit its own all-time highs on Friday, so the U.S. dollar currency index drop, a phenomenon which traditionally implies that Bitcoin will benefit. Binance Quietly Launches Its Crypto- based PayPal Rival Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, isn't content to just have people buy Bitcoin and other coins. It wants to kickstart demand by having people use crypto.The global exchange announced early today at its virtual event, Binance Blockchain Week, that last Friday it had sneakily launched a beta version of Binance Pay, its answer to PayPal. "Binance Pay is a contactless, borderless and secure cryptocurrency payment technology designed by Binance," reads an explainer on its website. "Binance Pay (beta) allows you to pay and get paid in crypto from your friends and family worldwide."Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao told the virtual Binance Blockchain Week audience, "We think that payments is one of the most obvious use cases for crypto."But it's encountered some challenges, he shared. The biggest difficulty is for merchants to have systems in place to accept currencies that the overwhelming majority of customers don't use. It's just easier to accept cash and credit because people use them regularly. Binance's system allows users to pay in crypto, while the merchant receives fiat-backed stablecoins that can be converted into fiat. (At this point, the product only supports one type of fiat: the euro.) Said CZ, "This way their business doesn't have to fluctuate with crypto."The exchange is billing Binance Pay as "a basket of products," which will include the previously unveiled Binance Card—a debit card that converts users' crypto to fiat whenever they make a purchase. Nigeria Crypto Ban Will Drive Users to P2P Exchanges, Say Experts Nigeria’s central bank yesterday told all banks to immediately cancel their services for customers who buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. The bank provided no explanation in its letter apart from the “risk associated with crypto currency transactions.” The bank said that it will enforce prohibitions of crypto trading with immediate effect. Nigeria’s growing body of crypto traders must now grapple with the uncertainty caused by the enforcement. A big deal, considering that Nigeria has the second largest Bitcoin trading volume in the world. And Nigeria tops Africa in trading volumes on peer-to- peer crypto exchanges Paxful and LocalBitcoins; Arcane Research found that in the second quarter of last year, Nigeria’s P2P Bitcoin trading weekly volumes doubled from $8 million to $16 million. Adedayo Thomas, executive director of Nigeria’s libertarian think tank African Liberty, told Decrypt that the government considers crypto an unnecessary hassle.The pandemic, he said, has caused trouble for financial institutions—cryptocurrencies might put too much pressure on an already-overburdened economy. Crypto companies operating in the region must now scramble in the direction of compliance. Binance Nigeria, the regional arm of the crypto exchange giant, has already suspended deposits. Miami mayor aiming for 'the most progressive crypto laws' Francis Suarez, who has served as the mayor of Miami since 2017, wants to make the city the most attractive in the United States for those in the crypto and blockchain industry.In an interview with Forbes published Sunday, Suarez said lawmakers in Miami were looking into the policies of crypto- friendly areas like Wyoming and New York in an effort to promote regulatory incentives for crypto and blockchain in Florida.“[Miami is] making sure that we have the most progressive crypto laws,” said Suarez. “We want to make sure that we believe that if all things are equal, we win. So, we just want to equalize the playing field. We want to make sure that nobody has an advantage over us based on laws that are easily changeable.”Mayor Suarez did not describe the race to be the regulatory winner as a fight between lawmakers in other jurisdictions. Rather, he gave Wyoming “kudos for being smart” in attracting crypto firms, but added that “every city in America and in the world should be trying to grow its technology ecosystem.” The mayor has already made several bullish statements on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in recent weeks, including having Miami consider letting city employees to get paid in BTC rather than U.S. dollars. He also proposed allowing Miami residents to pay for local fees and taxes using crypto as well as investing some of the city’s treasury into Bitcoin, a task he called “the hardest” of the three ideas.
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