The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is fluctuating around $42,000 on Dec. 5, continuing to show strength after Jerome Powell’s statement on interest rates last week.

Bitcoin, gold price booms on rate cut hopes

BTC’s price kickstarted the new week by climbing above $41,400 for the first time in 17 months. In doing so, the cryptocurrency followed gains in the gold market, its traditional safe-haven rival whose price rose to a new record-high on Dec. 1.

BTC/USD vs. gold daily price performance. Source: TradingView 

Rate-cut expectations may have served as the common denominator for Bitcoin and gold’s price rallies this week. Notably, investors have become more confident about a Federal Reserve pivot on…

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The foundation supporting Cosmos-based cross-chain smart contract platform Neutron will acquire 25% of Confio, the software development company behind CosmWasm, the default virtual machine in the Cosmos ecosystem.

This acquisition is intended to drive technological improvements to the CosmWasm virtual machine and improve its performance, security and interoperability. 

Confio, a German GmbH corporation, will sell 25% equity of its shares in this strategic investment. 

According to Avril Dutheil, a core contributor of Neutron, the investment is being made by the Neutron Foundation in cash as part of its mandate to ensure the long-term growth and development of the network. It did not…

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Pension funds are in a perpetual crisis worldwide, with low demographic rates in many countries foreshadowing a dim future for such investments, combined with young people’s lack of faith in the continued existence of social security models.

In order to stay afloat, many pension funds have strived to remain apprised of new investment opportunities, including cryptocurrencies. According to a 2022 study published by the CFA Institute, “94% of state and government-sponsored pension funds are invested in one or more cryptocurrencies.”

But pension fund interest in volatile cryptocurrencies has not come without consequences.

In April 2023, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) backed off…

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Developers have a new way to build social logins into blockchain applications following a partnership between smart contract wallet Safe and Web3Auth.

The tool, SafeAuth, combines Web3Auth’s social login technology with Safe’s Account Abstraction software development kit (SDK) 

Smart accounts were introduced via the ERC-4337 standard, built to improve the general Ethereum user experience through more intuitive and customizable crypto wallets.

SafeAuth enables users to set up smart wallets using an existing email address, removing the need to remember lengthy seed phrases. 

These smart accounts will also be interoperable, meaning that users will be able to link and interact with…

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The Bank of Italy announced on Dec. 5 through its official channels that it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Bank of Korea – South Korea’s central bank- regarding IT and payment systems. 

According to the Italian central bank, this memorandum of understanding will entail the “mutual sharing of knowledge and information” when it comes to information and communication technology (ICT) issues.

Particularly, it mentioned ICT issues related to real-time settlement systems and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

The announcement said the meeting was attended by the general manager of the Bank of Italy, Luigi Federico Signorini, who signed off on the…

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A bill defining crypto assets as securities and featuring the capital gains tax on them made it through the Parliamentary Committee. It will be introduced to the lower chamber of Parliament as a next step. 

As the Kenyan newspaper Business Daily reported on Dec. 4, the Capital Markets (Amendment) Bill, 2023, has been approved by the National Assembly’s Finance and National Planning Committee. The report cites the Chairman of the Committee, Kimani Kuria:

“This is a very critical law that will guard our country against proceeds of crime and terrorism financing. Cryptocurrencies are already being traded by millions of Kenyans yet we have no law to govern it. We approve this Bill for… Read more on Cointelegraph