'Atomic Settlement' New York Fed Completes First Phase of Digital Dollar Experiment Called 'Project Cedar'
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York has published findings stemming from an experiment dubbed “Project Cedar,” a protocol that uses a wholesale digital dollar in order to improve financial transactions. Michelle Neal, head of the bank’s Markets Group remarked on Friday that the research “indicated that settlement could occur in fewer than 10 seconds on average and that horizontal scaling was possible.”
Democrats and Republicans Agree Cryptocurrency Is the Future of Finance,
‘Cryptocurrencies Are the Future of Finance’
Grayscale Investments, the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, announced Tuesday that its new national survey has revealed that “Democrats and Republicans agree cryptocurrency is the future of finance.”
The online survey was conducted on Grayscale’s behalf between Oct. 6-11 by The Harris Poll, a global market research and consulting firm. A total of 2,029 adults, who are likely voters, participated.
The survey examined “how Americans view the state of the economy and cryptocurrency against the backdrop of the 2022 United States election,” the crypto firm detailed, adding:
More than half of Americans surveyed (53%) agree that ‘cryptocurrencies are the future of finance,’ including 59% of Democrats and 52% of Republicans, with 44% of Americans noting that they expect to have crypto as part of their investment portfolio in the future.
With record-high inflation and a looming recession, 25% of respondents say inflation and the current economic climate have made them more interested in cryptocurrency.
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein commented: “As we approach the midterm election, U.S. voters are considering the intersection of cryptocurrency, traditional finance, and the state of the economy.”
Unionbank to Provide Bitcoin and Ethereum Custody and Trading Services via Metaco
On Nov. 2, 2022, the Philippines-based financial institution founded in 1981, Unionbank, revealed it is now offering bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) services for customers. According to the announcement published on Wednesday, Unionbank is one of a number of select financial institutions approved by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) to operate as a virtual asset service provider (VASP).
Unionbank has started the pilot with bitcoin and ethereum custody and trading services. In 2019, Unionbank launched a stablecoin pegged to the value of the Philippine peso. At the end of April 2022, Unionbank entered the metaverse economy as well. The Philippines-based universal bank Unionbank is utilizing Metaco’s platform Harmonize, which is dubbed a “digital asset custody and orchestration platform, as a fully managed service deployed in the cloud.” Metaco’s Harmonize will “manage governance and operations for the [Unionbank] pilot.
“Unionbank’s collaboration with its strategic partner Metaco has been critical in the bank’s pursuit of realizing its vision of delivering superior, customer-centric services to the Philippine market,” Henry Aguda, the chief technology and operations officer and chief transformation officer at Unionbank, remarked. “We are proud to continue UnionBank’s series of industry firsts, this time being the first regulated bank in the country allowing digital currency exchange feature for clients.”
Costa Rica wants ‘crypto’ taxes removed as it eyes transformation into digital asset hub.
Costa Rican lawmakers are making moves to transform the country into a digital currency paradise. The key piece of the puzzle is eliminating all taxes on digital assets including BTC.
The plan to remove taxes was contained in a bill presented to Congress by Johana Obando. Titled the Cryptoassets Market Law (MECA), Obando notes that the piece of incoming legislation will “give protection to individual virtual private property, to the self-custody of crypto-assets and decentralization.”
-Wahid Pessarlay
China’s digital yuan wins big in cross-border pilot but potential pitfalls threaten efforts.
A Bank for International Settlements (BIS) report on the recently concluded cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot places China at the fore. According to the report, China emerged as the leader from the efforts featuring the United Arab Emirates, Thailand, and Hong Kong.
The multilateral CBDC effort dubbed mCBDC was the brainchild of BIS, with the pilot running for six weeks and had the participation of 20 central banks. By the end of the initiative, the project had processed $22 million in trade transactions, showing significant promise in solving the problems typically associated with cross-border payments.
Hong Kong seeks legal backing for retail asset investors to attract leading Web3 firms.
Hong Kong is moving toward a softer regulatory stance for digital assets after the industry endured a challenging couple of years, with the blanket ban in China on digital assets and the effects of falling economic indices following the pandemic hampering the sector’s growth.
As a measure to restore faith in Hong Kong’s teeming retail traders, administrators have imposed a mandatory licensing program for digital asset service providers scheduled to take effect in 2023. Another plan by the special administrative area is listing large-cap virtual currencies, but it is unclear which tokens will be listed.
Economics Professor Steve Hanke Says Probability of a U.S. Recession is Now 90%
Professor Steve Hanke has been critical of the central banks worldwide and on Friday, he said the chances of a recession is very likely. Hanke spoke with the news anchor for Kitco News David Lin, and explained that he upped his prediction to a 90% chance a U.S. recession will occur. “Where we’re going is determined by where the money supply is going,” Hanke told Lin on Friday. “The Quantity Theory of Money is a way to determine national income determination.”
The professor of applied economics at Johns Hopkins University added:
We had the money supply being goosed in early 2020, when COVID hit, we had the money supply growing, on average, about three times faster than it should have been growing to hit a 2% inflation target. As a result, we had a lot of inflation.
Inflation in the U.S. has been an issue and the U.S. Federal Reserve’s key inflation gauge, the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, increased by 0.5% in September. Furthermore, the September consumer price index (CPI) report had shown consumer prices jumped to 8.2%. Hanke says quantitative tightening is now a big issue as the money supply has contracted significantly, the economics professor stressed during his interview.
“The last seven months, the money supply has actually contracted by 1.1%,” Hanke told the Kitco anchor. “That’s almost unprecedented. That means, of course, you have a big change in the money supply and then there’s a transmission mechanism. There are lags between the thrusts in the money supply, whether it’s going up or it’s going down, and what happens to the real economy,” Hanke added. The economics professor opined that he thinks these factors will lead the U.S. toward a large recession.
Turkey’s central bank set to launch state-backed digital currency in 2023
Turkey has embraced central bank digital currencies (CBDC) after several months of deliberating over them. Now, the results are in, and the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) has confirmed that it is eyeing a 2023 launch for the digital iteration of the lira.
The announcement was revealed in Turkey’s Presidential Annual Program for 2023, with the Strategy and Budget Directorate highlighting plans for the CBDC launch. According to the budget document, financial provision has been made for a “blockchain-based digital central bank money to be implemented.”
Peter Brandt on Dogecoin Outlook
Veteran trader Peter Brandt shared his analysis of dogecoin (DOGE) Sunday. Brandt has been a futures and FX career trader since 1975. He is a chartist and the author of the Factor Report. He trades a variety of markets, including Dow futures, bonds, corn, crude oil, European wheat, Osaka Dow, U.S. dollar, and sugar.
Tweeting a chart of DOGE, Brandt wrote: “This is called a bear channel, the upside violation of which has ended the bear market that began at the May 2021 high.”
Elon Musk— Says He Buys Twitter 'to Help Humanity'
Tesla and Spacex CEO Elon Musk has completed the acquisition of Twitter Inc. and reportedly fired the company’s CEO and CFO. “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square,” he said. “There is currently great danger that social media will splinter into far right wing and far left wing echo chambers that generate more hate and divide our society.”
Dogecoin (DOGE) was once again in the green, as the token rose by as much as 17%.
The surge in price comes as long-term supporter of the meme coin Elon Musk moved closer to completing his takeover of Twitter.
In a statement released earlier today, Musk stated that "The reason acquired Twitter is because it is important for the future of civilization."
@User001
