Yesterday I reported that Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said that officials from financial authorities from 44 emerging market countries are meeting in El Salvador to discuss financial inclusion, the digital economy, banking the unbanked, the Bitcoin rollout and its benefits in El Salvador. It turns out (H/T JP Koning) that it is a routine meeting of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion Digital Financial Services Working and SME Finance Working Groups. [Read more]
Bitcoin Mining Appears to Have Survived Ban in China
China is once again contributing a significant chunk of the world’s bitcoin mining operations despite the ban last year, according to the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, which maps global mining activity based on the geolocational data reported by partnering pools. Following the crackdown on bitcoin mining in the country last year, China’s share was reduced to 0% in July and August. However, the latest data show that the figure was up to 22.29% in September and fluctuated around 20% in October-January. It would appear that many miners have figured out ways to continue operations and evade detection! [Read more]
Stablecoin supplies and cash reserves in question amid crypto exodus
Cryptocurrency investors and traders have been cashing out of the stablecoin Tether (USDT) in the wake of the TerraUSD (UST) debacle. There has also been a flight to large centralized US-domiciled stablecoins like Binance USD (BUSD) and USD Coin (USDC), with monthly attestations and 100% treasury bill backing, and a flight away from Tether (USDT) with less-frequent attestations and riskier backing, and DAI and other decentralized stablecoins. [Read more]
Upcoming events I’m affiliated with:
Satoshi Capital Advisors is hosting a virtual workshop on wholesale CBDC, stablecoins and digital capital markets on May 24 (starting at 08:00 EST). [Register here with the passcode: CBDC]
The CBDC Think Tank is hosting a CBDC Papers Lecture Series on June 17 and 24 starting at 7am EST and running for 4 hours each day. [View list of papers and register here]