Bitcoin Not Back by Majority of El Salvador Citizens
In a recently conducted survey, the majority of Salvadorans expressed disapproval of BTC (bitcoin) according to a report by Reuters. As further stated in the report, 54% regard the adoption as “not at all correct”, 24% expressed it as “only a little correct”, while only less than 20% approved of the cryptocurrency plan.
Oscar Picardo, head of Disruptiva’s institute of science, technology, and innovation commented during the presentation of the survey result stated that the move was a “risky bet on digital transformation”.
The survey also reveals that 46% of the respondents knew nothing about BTC (bitcoin) and almost 65% stated that they would not be open to being paid with the digital asset.
El Salvador made headlines after its President Nayib Bukele announced that the country is adopting BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender. The news has caused euphoria not just for bitcoin proponents but for the entire crypto industry as well. It even resulted in a 5% jump in the price of the cryptocurrency at that time. The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) announced its support for the implementation of BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender after the World Bank declined Bukele’s request for assistance.
The Bitcoin Law will take effect on September 7 of this year. The country’s adoption of the BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender was primarily to cater to 70% of the country’s population that has no access to banking facilities.
Argentine Lawmaker Proposes Crypto Salary Bill
On Monday, Congressman José Luis Ramón proposed a bill that will enable employees to receive their salaries in full or in part in cryptocurrencies. He further added:
“The idea is that they can strengthen their autonomy and conserve the purchasing power of their remuneration.”
The lawmaker also argued that cryptocurrency can be used as a hedge against inflation. The country has recorded a high rate of inflation with more than 50% in 2019. Though it has slightly dropped in 2020, the inflation rate remains relatively high. FocusEconomics panelists even projected that the inflation rate will reach 48.0% by the end of 2021.
Ramon said that cryptocurrencies have long been used in the country primarily due to the advantages that they offer. He further added:
“This project was born from our participation in the Knowledge Economy forum some years ago, where we saw the need to solve some problems.”
Unlike Salvadorans, Argentines are more inclined to cryptocurrencies particularly with BTC (bitcoin). According to a survey conducted last year, 73.4% of the respondents stated that cryptocurrencies are the best alternative to save and protect their funds against surging inflation. Also, the number of crypto users recorded a remarkable increase of 60% during the pandemic. Ripio Director Juan José Méndez stated:
“The pandemic accelerated the adoption of crypto platforms. Today we have 1 million users in Argentina when at the beginning of 2020 we had 400 thousand, and it is a figure that grows month by month.”
Will Argentina be the second country next to El Salvador to adopt BTC (bitcoin) as legal tender? Which country will be next?
NFT Price Surges as Bitcoin and Other Cryptos Down
While prices of major cryptocurrencies have suffered another price drop, prices of other NFTs recorded a significant increase. Gaming token Axie Infinity increased by 2.25% while Decentraland was up by 4.58%.
According to reports, the NFT market has surged to $2.5B this year recording a new high.
On Thursday, BTC (bitcoin) was down by 9.8% while ETH (ethereum) dropped by 15.5%. Today, BTC (bitcoin) has slightly increased 1.76% but ETH (ethereum) remains down by 2.48% in a 24-hr chart in a data by Crypto.co.
The volatility of the crypto market has greatly increased over the past few months. BTC (bitcoin), the most dominant cryptocurrency in the industry has been constantly in a price swing. After setting an all-time high at $65K in April, the cryptocurrency price plummeted to $30K in May as a result of a massive sell-off following China’s crackdown on all crypto-related activities like mining and trading. The effect of the consecutive BTC (bitcoin) price crash even spanned to the traditional market.
In recent data by Crypto.co, BTC (bitcoin) is now at $ 32,744.17 and has dropped by 98% from its previous all-time high price. But the current boom of the NFT market opens an investment option for investors in the industry.
UK Giant Bank Blocks Payment to Binance
On Thursday, Santander UK announced in a tweet that it has blocked payments for Binance. The bank stated that the reason behind its action was to protect its customers from the growing number of crypto frauds.
In recent months we have seen a large increase in UK customers becoming the victims of cryptocurrency fraud. Keeping our customers safe is a top priority, so we have decided to prevent payments to Binance following the FCA’s warning to consumers. At pr… https://t.co/Glq8KQqbwn
— Santander UK Help (@santanderukhelp) July 8, 2021
In an email sent to its customers, the bank stated:
“We’re stopping payments to Binance for your protection. We want to let you know that from 8 July 2021, we’ll be stopping payments from Santander accounts to Binance wherever possible. This follows the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s recent warning to consumers and is to help protect you from fraud. For now, we won’t be restricting payments from Binance into your account(s). We’re taking this step as we want to do everything we can to protect you and help keep your money safe. Well continue to monitor the situation, and let you know if anything changes. “
On July 5, Barclay also suspended debit and credit cards payment following notice from FCA regarding Binance Markets Limited not being able to conduct any regulated activity in the U.K.
Binance, the leading crypto exchange worldwide in trading volume has been in a number of collisions with regulatory bodies. On June 27, FCA ordered Binance Markets Limited and the Binance Group to stop all regulated activities for derivatives and securities in the country. In March, the crypto exchange was placed under probe by the CFTC over an allegation that the platform allowed U.S. residents’ customers to buy and sell derivatives. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao declined to comment on the issue but he stated:
“We’ll continue to improve our compliance. We’ll also work very actively with regulators around the world to improve the compliance standards of the industry.”
With Binance under threat by regulations, how will this affect the crypto market as a whole?
