BT Daily News: New FTX Boss slams Sam Bankman-Fried, El Salvador President vows to buy 1 Bitcoin daily, and more
1. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Tron’s Justin Sun to Buy a Bitcoin Everyday
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and Tron cryptocurrency founder Justin Sun, who is also a Permanent Representative of Grenada to the World Trade Organization, on Thursday announced they would accumulate one Bitcoin every day, notwithstanding the possibility of a prolonged crypto winter. “We are buying one #Bitcoin every day starting tomorrow,” Bukele tweeted. In response, Sun stated that he echoed Bukele’s initiative in buying a Bitcoin daily and that starting tomorrow, he too will buy one Bitcoin a day. Due to massive deleveraging in the market in May and June of this year, there were not many major marginal sellers left in the market.2. Australian firm raises $28M to expand Bitcoin mining capabilities
The turbulent climate of the crypto industry is not putting a full stop to builders in the space. Arkon Energy, an Australian renewable data center infrastructure company, recently raised millions to expand its Bitcoin (BTC) mining operations and acquired another European-based data center.The funding round was completed with $28 million raised by the data center infrastructure company, which uses 100% renewable electricity to mine BTC. Arkon extracts renewable power trapped in electricity markets to sustainably lowers its costs.
In addition, Arkon acquired one of Norway’s leading renewable energy-based data centers, Hydrokraft AS, as a part of a larger plan to create a “vertically integrated green Bitcoin mining platform.”
However, on Oct. 6, the Norwegian government proposed eliminating the reduced electricity tax available for BTC miners in the country. The country’s finance minister said the power market is in a completely different situation now compared with when it first initiated the tax break in 2016.
Similarly, in the Canadian province of Quebec, the energy manager for the region asked the local government to cut power from crypto miners due to high energy demands.
3. New FTX Chief Slams Sam Bankman-Fried
In critical remarks about the mismanagement at bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, new FTX CEO John J. Ray III said never in his career has he seen such a complete collapse of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. In his 40 years of expertise working on huge business meltdowns like Enron, Ray, who was hired after FTX declared bankruptcy last week, said he had "never" encountered anything like the current situation. This situation is unprecedented, Ray wrote in a statement that was submitted to the Delaware bankruptcy court, adding that there were compromised systems integrity and inadequate regulatory oversight abroad, and concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated, and potentially compromised individuals."4. Binance halts USDT and USDC deposits on the Solana blockchain temporarily
The stablecoin deposits USDC and USDT on the Solana blockchain were temporarily suspended, according to a statement released on Thursday by cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The deposits were resumed later. The USDT and USDC stablecoins are linked to the US dollar and supported by a number of blockchains, including Solana and Ethereum. They were created and are owned by the businesses Tether and Circle, respectively. Binance has not yet provided any justification for why it decided to halt the deposits. The two stablecoins from Solana have been suspended from deposits and withdrawals, as rival cryptocurrency exchange OKX also revealed earlier this week.5. Could Hong Kong really become China’s proxy in crypto?
The reason behind Beijing’s benevolence to such a U-turn lies in the anxiety of Hong Kong losing its status as the principal Asian financial center. It has certainly faltered during the COVID-19 pandemic when the hardline lockdown policy, exercised in China and Hong Kong, caused an investment escape wave to the neighboring competitor, Singapore, which had eased its restrictions much earlier.Another major factor behind China’s possible support of Hong Kong’s crypto liberalization, according to Hayes, is the former’s problem with a giant United States dollar trade proficit. Historically, like almost any nation in the world, China has been storing dollar income in assets like U.S. Treasury bonds.
But the example of Russia, whose foreign assets were blocked due to financial sanctions after an invasion of Ukraine, has worried Chinese officials. Hence, it is highly probable they would seek another type of asset in which to store their USD income. Cryptocurrencies and related financial products might be the option.
Putting crypto aside, recent years have seen tightening political, cultural and economic control of China over Hong Kong with the national security law of 2020 sweeping the previous civil freedoms away, a change in school curricula to emphasize the Chinese history of the region and the ongoing integration of Mainland companies into the island’s juridical space.
These signs of the shortening distance between the Mainland and Hong Kong might attract the attention of global regulators. As one banker said to CNN recently, “The worst scenario is that the West would treat Hong Kong as the same as the mainland China, and then Hong Kong would suffer the kind of sanctions.”