Bitcoin in the News - February 2022

 1. Russia is launching a pilot program of its own Ruble backed digital currency. Twelve banks are involved in the pilot that will facilitate customer to customer transactions. The second stage of the pilot will facilitate transactions with the federal treasury, customer to business, business to business and business to government transactions. The news comes the same week as the Central Bank of Russia proposed a ban on investing, missing and issuing cryto-currencies. 
 

2. A bitcoin mining ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) has been approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Valkyrie Miners ETF (ticker symbol WGMI) will launch this week on the Nasdaq. Valkyrie CEO Leah Wald and CIO Steve McClurg have partnered with us (BitcoinBasics) on many projects and we expect to interview them about the launch and ascertain more details. 

3. Thailand drops proposal for 15% capital gains tax on cryptocurrency trading and mining. The tax was proposed late last year but after backlash from the public and political parties, it was dismissed. Governor of The Tourism Authority of Thailand said “Crypto is the future, so we must make Thailand a crypto-positive society to welcome this group of quality tourists.”

4. The year 2021 El Salvador was the first Nation-state to recognise Bitcoin as legal tender. It did not impose mandatory vaccinations or ‘vaccine passports’.   The same year the nation’s revenue from tourism was 54% higher than expected (from $800 million to over $1.4billion) and overseas arrivals came within  20% of its 2019 pre-pandemic arrivals; of significance as the same year global tourism was still down on average by over 70%

Sources

1. https://www.nfcw.com/whats-new-in-payments/russia-launches-digital-ruble-pilot-with-12-banks/
2. https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/nasdaq-will-list-valkyrie-bitcoin-mining-etf-on-february-8
3. https://www.btctimes.com/news/thailand-drops-15-percent-capital-gains-tax-on-cryptocurrencies
4. https://elsalvadorinenglish.com/2022/01/28/el-salvador-exceeded-1460-million-in-foreign-currency-from-tourism-in-2021/