Elon Musk Owns Bitcoin Including His Companies
During the recent online conference “The B Word”, Technoking Elon Musk admitted that he personally owns BTC (bitcoin). He also stated that Space X, his other company owns the digital currency just like Tesla.
“I do own Bitcoin, Tesla owns Bitcoin, SpaceX owns Bitcoin.”
He also owns ETH (ethereum) and of course his favorite crypto, DOGE (dogecoin). Musk was among the speakers of the said event. Among the attendees were Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, a known bitcoin maximalist, and Ark Invest founder Cathie Wood.
Although Musk admitted that he owns a significant amount of cryptocurrencies, the amount remains undisclosed.
Although he seems to have a falling out with BTC (bitcoin) after it was removed as payment for Tesla cars, Musk stated that he never sold his BTC (bitcoin) holdings. He also revealed that promoting the virtual asset will also be beneficial for him as an investor.
“If the price of Bitcoin goes down, I lose money. I might pump, but I don’t dump.”
If that is the case, why did he post cryptic tweets that made the price of BTC (bitcoin) plunge that has even resulted in a crash? What are your thoughts on this? Given his influence in the crypto world, Musk can make prices of cryptocurrencies either spike or plummet in just a single tweet.
Salvadorans Protested Against Bitcoin Law
Despite the three-month ban on protest due to the foregoing pandemic, Salvadorans have gathered on the streets demanding from the government to provoked the Bitcoin Law passed under Bukele’s administration.
According to reports, the protest was organized by the “Block of Resistance and Popular Rebellion and was carried out using banners and slogans. The anti-bitcoin crowd was composed of leftist unions, student associations, and other concerned parties.
A recently conducted survey reveals that more than 70% of Salvadorans expressed disapproval of the law. Although El Salvador’s adopting BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender was welcomed by the entire crypto community, Salvadorans think otherwise.
Idalia Zuñiga, one of the activists stated:
“It is a law that generates legal insecurity and that could be used to defraud users and also facilitate money and asset laundering.”
Another protester cited volatility as a major concern.
“For those earning a minimum wage, in one moment you may have $300 in Bitcoin, and the next day those $300 can turn into $50.”
The passing of the Bitcoin Law was also marred with controversy. Though most bills must normally go through a strenuous process of study, consultation, and adaptation, the Bitcoin Law was approved in just less than six hours. From its passing, it will only need 90 days to take effect and Salvadorans will have to accept it whether they like it or not.
In a report by El Mundo, Jamie Guevara, the deputy leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMNL) has filed a lawsuit to stop the implementation of the Bitcoin Law and declaring it as “unconstitutional”.
In previous reports, the World Bank has declined Bukele’s request for assistance for the implementation of BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender in the country.
“While the government did approach us for assistance on Bitcoin, this is not something the World Bank can support given the environmental and transparency shortcomings.”
Though the adoption of BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender in the country was primarily to benefit the 70% of the country’s population that has no access to banking facilities, the recent course of events clearly states that the majority of the Salvadorans are not yet ready to embrace the most dominant cryptocurrency.
China Warns US Senators to Stop Making Trouble Out of Digital Yuan
The two giant countries are again in a clash after China warned US Senators to “stop making trouble” out of digital yuan.
The Chinese government will grant access to all visitors to digital yuan without the need of opening a local bank account during the trials on the upcoming 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. According to the People’s Bank of China, there were 20.8 million that have opened a virtual wallet as part of the trial.
US senators which include Marsha Blackburn, Roger Wicker, and Cynthia Lummis have warned the US US Olympic Committee and requested to prohibit American athletes from using the digital yuan as it may be used as a tracking and tracing tool.
“Olympic athletes should be aware that the digital yuan may be used to surveil Chinese citizens and those visiting China on an unprecedented scale, with the hopes that they will maintain digital yuan wallets on their smartphones and continue to use it upon return.”
On July 20, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian responded in the warning letter issued by the group of US Senators.
“The US politicians should abide by the spirit stipulated in the Olympic Charter, stop making sports a political matter and stop making troubles out of the digital currency in China.”
The creation of the digital yuan was created to replace some of the cash in circulation. Since 2014, the country has already been exploring CBDC and committed significant resources. The country’s own digital currency was first launched in October 2020.
The digital yuan could be the largest threat to the west according to a statement by Kyle Bass.
“And I believe the digital yuan is the largest threat to the West that we’ve faced in the last 30-40 years, and it’s because it allows China to actually get their claws into everyone in the West and allows them to potentially export their digital authoritarianism.”
Binance Immediately Halts Selling Stock Tokens
On July 16, major crypto exchange Binance announced that it stop offering stock tokens effective immediately. It will continue to support stock tokens until October 14, 2021, at 7:55 pm UTC only. It has advised its users to sell their holdings within the prescriptive time.
“Users who currently hold stock tokens may sell or hold them over the next 90 days. Users will no longer be able to manually sell or close their positions after 2021-10-14 19:55 (UTC). Thereafter all stock token positions on Binance.com will be closed at 2021-10-15 13:30 (UTC). Please note that the closing prices will be based on actual executed prices after the market opens for trading at 2021-10-15 13:30 (UTC), and may differ from the market prices from the previous day.”
Currently, Binance offers stock tokens for Apple, Tesla, and Coinbase. The move by the crypto exchange comes amidst pressure from regulatory bodies in different parts of the world with Italy as the most recent. On July 15, Consob, Italy’s financial regulatory body declared that companies of “Binance Group” are “not authorized to provide investment services and activities in Italy.”
Barclay and Santander UK blocked payments for Binance after UK FCA issued a warning against Binance Markets Limited stating that it “is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK”.
Despite all these attacks against the crypto exchange giant, Binance CEO “CZ” Changpeng Zao stated in a blog post that “compliance is a journey”.He further added:
“Binance still has a lot of room to grow. Binance has grown very quickly and we haven’t always got everything exactly right, but we are learning and improving every day. We hope to clarify and reiterate our commitment to partner with regulators, and that we are proactively hiring more talent, putting in place more systems and processes to protect our users.”
