Bitcoin Lures Wall Street, US STABLE Act, Saudi CDBC: Editor's Pick

After a busy week for crypto with Bitcoin very much in focus, let's take a look at the news stories that dominated the worlds of forex, fintech and crypto, in the best of the week segment.

Wall Street’s Leading Investment Firm Enters Bitcoin

As Finance Magnates reported this week, New York-based leading asset management and advisory firm, Guggenheim Partners is becoming the latest institution to enter bitcoin as the fund seeks a 10% investment exposure in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Guggenheim filed with the SEC on Friday and asked for indirect investment in Bitcoin through a 10% exposure of the company’s Macro Opportunities Fund in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The exposure through its macro fund in BTC means approximately $500 million of new investment in Bitcoin.

Read more on the Guggenheim Partners Bitcoin filing here.

US Congresswoman Introduces the STABLE Act to Ban Illegal Stablecoins

Michigan Democrat Rashida Tlaib, along with Congressmen Jesus García and Stephen Lynch introduced a new bill this week to protect consumers from risks associated with the growing cryptocurrency market in the US. The new bill seeks to make stablecoins illegal without approvals from relevant government bodies.

Dubbed ‘Stablecoin Tethering and Bank Licensing Enforcement’ (STABLE) Act, the new bill requires the potential issuer of a stablecoin to gain approvals from the FED, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and relevant banking bodies.

According to the official press release, any person involved in the issuance of a stablecoin or related product without the written approvals from regulatory authorities will be considered illegal. The proposed Act aims to protect US consumers from cryptocurrency scams and the risks associated with such projects.

Read more on the STABLE Act here.

What Is Keeping Bitcoin under $20k?

For several weeks, Bitcoin has been inching ever-closer to $20,000. There have already been a number of smaller retracements that have kept Bitcoin from $20k over the last two weeks.

So, Finance Magnates asked the question: what is keeping Bitcoin under $20k?

With expert insight from Alex G. Piré, Market Strategist and CFA, Kadan Stadelmann, CTO at Komodo, David Merry, the Chief Executive of Coin Journal and Alex Green, Managing Partner of Voor Group, we delved deep into the world of Bitcoin.

Read the Bitcoin analysis here.

Saudi Arabia Inches Closer to Officially Launch Digital Currency with UAE

Saudi Central Bank (SAMA), in partnership with the Central Bank of the UAE, has concluded a joint 1-year central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot dubbed ‘Project Aber’.

Read more on Project Abere CBDC here.

Swissquote Announces Partnership with Tesla to Launch Car Leasing

Switzerland-based online Trading Platform Trading Platform In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real In the FX space, a currency trading platform is a software provided by brokers to their respective client base, garnering access as traders in the broader market. Most commonly, this reflects an online interface or mobile app, complete with tools for order processing.Every broker needs one or more trading platforms to accommodate the needs of different clients. Being the backbone of the company’s offering, a trading platform provides clients with quotes, a selection of instruments to trade, real Read this Term, Swissquote announced this week that it has partnered with the world’s largest electric car manufacturer, Tesla to increase its services in the credit sector.

The broker is launching a new digital leasing offering in cooperation with Tesla to help swiss clients interested in purchasing new Tesla cars.

Read more on the Swissquote Tesla partnership here.

Christine Lagarde Bashes Bitcoin and Libra

Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), published an article this week mentioning the risks associated with the use of privately-owned Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term.

Lagarde criticised bitcoin and other stablecoins but spoke positively about the digital euro.

The official article published on 30 November in L’ENA hors les murs magazine stated that crypto users cannot rely on digital assets to maintain a stable value.

Lagarde bashed the speculative and highly volatile nature of cryptocurrencies.

Read more on Lagarde bashing Bitcoin and Libra here.

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