Bermuda’s New Stimulus Token, Vienna & Singapore Stock Exchanges Go Crypto, Scam Alert in India With BTC’s Impenetrable Line
In this edition:
- Bermuda Revives Its Economy With a Stimulus Token
- Vienna and Singapore Stock Exchanges Go Crypto
- Indian PM’s Twitter Account Hacked by Crypto Scammers
- Bitcoin and the Prisoner of $12k Resistance Line
Hi there, fellow Anchorians, and welcome to another edition of Weekly Crypto Roundup. First of all, can you believe it’s September already?! To be honest, most days were kinda the same these past few months, but the truly important thing is – we’re steadily putting this jinxed year behind us.
Perhaps it’s just me, but does anyone else have this feeling like last week’s been unusually quiet? Nonetheless, there are always thrilling events in the world of crypto and we’ll talk about them in a minute. Before we jump into this 56th edition, I would like to know a little bit more about the crypto adoption in your country!
Feel free to share your thoughts, experience, and opinion on regulation in our Telegram Community. Okay, now we can dive in!
Bermuda Revives Its Economy With a Stimulus Token
The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic made us all rethink our priorities and rearrange our lives. I believe it’s the same with sovereign countries – faced with the danger for public health and the recession, governments had to get creative and solution-oriented.
A great example comes from the island of Bermuda where the government partnered up with a stablecoin platform dubbed Stablehouse to create a pilot program for a digital stimulus token. The idea originally came to life in 2019 but the current events sped things up.
With this stimulus token, Bermuda plans to revive its economy by deploying a digital currency, and this strategy is mostly aimed towards retailers and vendors. Via digital wallets and by simply scanning a QR code, citizens of Bermuda will be able to purchase anything they want on the island.
Additionally, this stimulus token will enable fast and efficient distribution of financial aid. Philippe Bekhazi, chief executive officer of Stablehouse said:
“A stimulus token is providing people in need with emergency money. The problem is it has been difficult for people to receive their cheques or bank transfers that are slow or with details are not up to date, or people not banked. What we are proposing is bypassing all the middlemen, bypassing the banks, and airdrop what is basically an IOU from the government to the people.”
A drop off is ensured for everyone who registers with their ID on the government website. With this initiative, the government of Bermuda plans to incentivize people to use cryptocurrencies more. (A quick reminder, Bermuda accepts USDC as a means for tax payments.)
Great work, Bermuda, it’s always lovely to see progressiveness in terms of crypto adoption. We’ll see which countries will follow!
Vienna and Singapore Stock Exchanges Go Crypto
Wiener Börse (or Vienna Stock Exchange in English) listed 21Shares’ ETPs ABTC and AETH. In this manner, the Vienna Stock Exchange became the third official regulated market to list a BTC product.
After Germany and Switzerland, according to the words of 21Shares’ chief executive Hany Rashwan, Bitcoin ETPs are now available to the entire DACH region.
“We started with the Swiss market due to our home roots and having a crypto-friendly landscape. In July 2020, we entered the German market by listing ABTC on Deutsche Boerse XETRA. This listing in Austria now gives all German-speaking countries easy exposure to this asset class. Outside the DACH region, no other jurisdiction globally provides such comprehensive and ample access to Bitcoin,” Rashwan added.
On the other side of the globe, Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX) wants to list price indexes for Bitcoin and Ethereum in partnership with UK-based company CryptoCompare.
“As the world moves swiftly towards digitalization in the creation and accumulation of wealth, digital assets are increasingly being adopted by investors. We are excited about this collaboration with CryptoCompare to offer a suite of new indices for market participants in Asia, reinforcing our endeavor to innovate and meet market needs,” said Simon Karaban from SGX.
This is another acknowledgment for crypto and one step further towards mass adoption. While stock exchanges are part of world crypto aims to revolutionize, this type of collaboration is beneficial for both sides.
Indian PM’s Twitter Account Hacked by Crypto Scammers
Unfortunately, scams are just another everyday part of the crypto industry but it is our duty as fellow crypto enthusiasts to raise awareness about them. The latest target of these attacks was Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose Twitter account was hacked by a group called John Wick.
On September 2nd, a series of tweets were sent from the @narendramodi_in account asking for a donation for the PM National Relief Fund for COVID-19. This account is currently followed by 2.5 million people so you can see the potential danger of this deception.
‘’I appeal to you all to donate generously to PM National Relief Fund for Covid-19, Now India begin with crypto currency, Kindly Donate Bitcoin to 0xae073DB1e5752faFF169B1ede7E8E94bF7f80Be6 #eth #crypto,’’ was written in the tweet.
Politicians seem to be a preferable target by these scammers – recently, a 17-year-old hacked the accounts of former US president Barack Obama and his VP Joe Biden. Additionally, since Colombia proclaimed its support toward crypto and blockchain, scammers used the name of Colombia’s President Ivan Duque Marquez in a BTC investment scam.
While most of the people, especially those from the crypto community, can easily recognize these scams, others just see ‘bad crypto people’ wanting easy money. Let’s protect our community from those giving us a bad name!
Bitcoin and the Prisoner of $12k Resistance Line
This week, Bitcoin went to $12k and back again. Clearly, this price level has been an insurmountable hurdle for BTC for some time. And while some optimistically predict the $41k price by the end of this year, the reality is slightly different. Nevertheless, we can only wait and see.
After the latest rejection, the BTC price went down for $400 in just a few minutes since the bulls have once again failed to overcome the strong resistance line at $12k. While we can’t be sure of the exact reasons behind these occurrences, it seems there is a hiccup in demand once the $12k line is reached. The BTC market can indeed be miraculous, so we’re anxious to see what will happen with the price since the year is slowly approaching its final months.
The current situation might wake up the bears, so be prepared to act swiftly with your hedging mechanisms in place. Many experts continue to encourage hodlers to be patient and wait, but these days there are other cryptocurrencies to explore. Whatever your choice is, make a data-based decision, sit tight, and enjoy the ride.
Final Thoughts
Here we are again, at the end of another Roundup! While we, unfortunately, aren’t from the Caribbean, we applaud recent Bermuda’s efforts to drive crypto adoption in the country. Keep up the good work! We shall see if other stock exchanges will follow Viena’s and Singapore’s path, too.
Beware of the scammers and trade carefully! Even in a quiet week, crypto remains interesting – there are no dull affairs here, my fellow Anchorians. Of course, I will see you next week but until then, I wish you fair winds and the following seas!
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is not legal, accounting, or financial advice. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor. I am not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. The Information should not be construed as investment or trading advice and is not meant to be a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrencies.
