The token burn rate on Ethereum intensified last January, surpassing $1.000 billion. This and more news in this practical daily summary so that you are always informed with the most recent events that occur within the crypto world.
Cryptocurrencies and altcoins
📍Ethereum burns over $1.000 billion in gas fees in the past month. According to the data of Watch the Burn, the burning of ethers, the cryptocurrency native to the Ethereum network, has surged in the past month, surpassing $1.000 billion in gas fees.
The most widely used protocols within the Ethereum ecosystem and, therefore, the biggest burners of the network, continue to be opensea, the largest market NFT of the industry and Uniswap, the decentralized exchange (DEX) in greatest demand in DeFiIn total, the number of ethers burned in January amounts to 398.055 ETH, worth over $1.104 billion at the time of writing.
Source: watchtheburn
Bitcoin and Blockchain Adoption
📍MicroStrategy buys another 660 bitcoins on the dip. Although the value of Bitcoin (BTC) shows signs of recovery in the market, it is still 43% below its all-time high seen last November. An opportunity that many whales in the crypto industry and institutional investors, such as MicroStrategy, are taking advantage of to increase their BTC holdings.
Michael Saylor, president of MicroStrategy, a business intelligence firm located in the United States, reported on his Twitter account that the company invested another $25 million to acquire 660 BTC. With this new acquisition, The company holds a total of 125.051 BTC on its balance sheets, making it the largest institutional investor in this cryptocurrency. At the time of this writing, the bitcoins held by MicroStrategy are trading at around $4.850 billion.
📍Russians own about 12% of total cryptocurrency value, government says The Kremlin's estimates of cryptocurrency holdings by Russian citizens were published According to the data, Russians own more than 16,5 trillion rubles (about $214.000 billion) worth of cryptocurrencies, which represents about 12% of the total value of the industry today.
The figures were revealed by Russian government officials at a time of great debate over cryptocurrency regulation in the country. While the Central Bank of Russia is calling for a complete ban on the crypto industry, several officials and politicians have argued for more flexible regulation that does not stifle innovation. Vladimir Putin, the country's president, asked his officials not to forget the competitive advantages that Russia has to lead cryptocurrency mining.
Miners
📍Solo Bitcoin miners continue to mine blocks on the network, despite difficulty increasing by 28% over the past year. Bitcoin difficulty is at all-time highs, surpassing 26,6 trillion (T) Currently, however, this does not seem to be an obstacle for solo Bitcoin miners, who continue to mine blocks on the network despite their low computing power.
According to Bitcoin developer and CKPool administrator Con Kolivas, another solo miner has joined this year's lucky miners who have managed to mine valid blocks on the Bitcoin network, taking home the current reward of 6,25 BTC, worth around $242.000. According to Kolivas, the miner has only 1,14 PH/s of power on the Bitcoin network and was likely online for at least a month. In total, there are now 4 solo miners who manage to mine valid Bitcoin blocks operating with little hash power.
Cybersecurity
📍More than 64.000 bitcoins stolen from Bitfinex in 2016 are moving to an unknown address. A total of 20 Bitcoin transactions, totaling 64.641 BTC stolen from cryptocurrency platform Bitfinex during the 2016 hack, were detected by blockchain analytics bot Whale Alerts. The cryptocurrencies were moved from the hackers' dormant addresses to an unknown address.
During the hack, Bitfinex lost 119.756 BTC, currently valued at over $4.640 billion. The platform has offered rewards to the hackers to incentivize them to return the funds, as well as to people who may know their whereabouts.
Rules and Regulations
📍Thailand caters to crypto community, removes 15% capital gains tax on cryptocurrencies. According to the Financial Times, the Thai government has withdrawn the decision to impose a 15% tax on cryptocurrency capital gains, after its plan met with great opposition among crypto industry participants. However, it seems that it will indeed impose an income tax on cryptocurrencies.
Thailand had announced plans to introduce cryptocurrency taxation earlier this year.
📍Meanwhile, Latin American regulators are preparing to regulate cryptocurrenciesIn Colombia, the National Tax and Customs Directorate (DIAN) is planning to audit cryptocurrencies, to establish tax control and minimize tax evasion. For its part, the Central Bank of Ecuador will include cryptocurrencies in the category of investment assets, to apply the corresponding laws and regulations in order to control their use and commercialization in the country. Guillermo Avellán, manager of the Central Bank of Ecuador, clarified which will not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender, due to their level of volatility.
Continue reading: John Izaguirre joins Bit2Me as CEO and Product Manager of Bit2Me Launchpad, the new token launch platform
