Vivek Ramaswamy unveils crypto policy platform criticizing mixer sanctions

Republican U.S. Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy unveiled a crypto policy framework on November 16 at the North American Blockchain Summit (NABS) in Fort Worth, Texas.

Called, “The Three Freedoms of Crypto,” the framework states that developers of smart contract code should not be held liable for the actions of people who use the code. 

In the document, Ramaswamy vowed to “direct government prosecutors to prosecute bad actors, not the code they use and not the developers who write that code,” if elected President. In an accompanying speech, Ramaswamy specifically targeted sanctions against crypto mixer Tornado Cash, stating “the case brought against the Tornado Cash…

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Tether plans major expansion into BTC mining with $500M investment: Report

Tether is planning a large-scale expansion into Bitcoin (BTC) mining, according to Paolo Ardoino, who is expected to take the helm at the company soon. 

The stablecoin firm may spend around $500 million in the next six months on the construction of mining facilities and investments in other miners, Ardoino told Bloomberg in an interview. The company will build mining facilities in Uruguay, Paraguay and El Salvador as it grows its computing power to 1% of the BTC mining network. The new sites would have a capacity of between 40 and 70 MW, he continued.

We’re quite close to add another extremely powerful piece of the puzzle for @Tether_to ecosystem.

Total of 5 mind-blowing projects (and…

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Let Michael Saylor cook – Blockworks

Crush carbon under nearly three-quarters of a million pounds of Earth, heat it up to 2,000 degrees, and you make diamonds.

Subject a man to two decades of Wall Street shenanigans — from before the dot-com boom until now — and you get Michael Saylor. 

The former MicroStrategy CEO and relentless Bitcoin bull is back in our feeds. In a recent podcast, Saylor huffed at the notion that buying almost $5 billion worth of bitcoin took “conviction.” 

Saylor says: “How many chairs are you sitting on right now? Are you all-in on the chair? The point is you put on one pair of glasses, one pair of AirPods. You look at me through one screen, you’re using one microphone. That’s one…

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German Parliament Member Wants To Make Bitcoin Legal Tender

A member of the German Bundestag (federal parliament), Joana Cotar, has expressed her support for making Bitcoin a legal tender in Germany, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Cotar told the publication that she wants to initiate a “preliminary examination” for legal framework to officially recognize Bitcoin as legal tender in the country.

“This includes ensuring the legal security for companies and citizens…We need to combat potential risks such as money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities associated with Bitcoin. But without stifling innovation and the freedom aspects of Bitcoin,” she said.

To further this matter and raise awareness in the German…

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LATEST: Major Stablecoin Issuer Tether Holdings Dives into Bitcoin Mining with $500 Million Investment

Tether Holdings Ltd., led by its incoming Chief Executive Paolo Ardoino, is venturing into Bitcoin mining with a substantial investment of approximately $500 million over the next six months. The company plans to build its mining facilities and invest in mining companies, including extending $610 million in credit to Bitcoin mining firm Northern Data AG. Under Ardoino’s guidance, Tether aims to secure a 1% share of Bitcoin’s total computing power, marking a significant shift from its primary stablecoin business. This strategic move could have a transformative impact on the crypto industry.

Brazil’s crypto regulatory environment is driving competitiveness — CEO of Coinext

Cryptocurrency may be “out of fashion”, but it still draws new users to Web3 every day, in particular in emerging markets such as Brazil, according to Bitcoin maximalist José Ribeiro, CEO of crypto exchange Coinext. 

During the Web Summit in Lisbon, Ribeiro discussed with Cointelegraph’s Joe Hall Bitcoin’s perspectives, Brazil’s vibrant crypto economy and how regulatory clarity has boosted competition in the country’s payments sector.

According to Ribeiro, the Bitcoin volume transactions in Brazil will reach a record level in 2023, as more global crypto exchanges set operations there, such as Binance, OKX, and Coinbase.

“The competitiveness has increased considerably, which is part of the…

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Aave Companies rebrands to Avara, acquires Ethereum self-custody ‘Family Wallet’

Decentralized finance (DeFi) group Aave Companies has been rebranded to Avara as it looks to broaden its user base across the Web3 ecosystem.

Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Avara (formerly Aave Companies), tells Cointelegraph that the company’s growing number of offerings, including liquidity protocol Aave, the GHO stablecoin, Lens Protocol and Sonar, necessitated an umbrella brand with broader Web3 appeal.

“We will continue to innovate in DeFi and build tools for developers while creating new, intuitive and compelling products that attract mainstream people”

Kulechov adds that the broader industry has focused on building infrastructure to enable the development of products that…

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The Primary Issue: Letter From The Editors

“This letter is featured in Bitcoin Magazine’s “The Primary Issue”. Click here to subscribe now.”

First things first, the primary function of Bitcoin is to remove the State’s special privilege of debt pardoning through monetary printing. Bitcoin is rules without rulers; a cypherpunk technology that empowers the individual with verifiable financial independence. A peer-to-peer bitcoin transaction is speech. The right to run a node, enforce consensus, and validate economic activity with impeccable fidelity to genesis should be upheld and supported by any person, even if not seeking public office in the most influential regulatory regime on the planet.

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Aave Companies is rebranding to Avara

The blockchain infrastructure company behind open-sourced liquidity protocol Aave has rebranded from Aave Companies to Avara. 

Inspired by a Finnish word that translates to ‘spacious,’ Avara will oversee existing portfolio brands, including liquidity protocol Aave, decentralized social media protocol Lens, and stablecoin GHO, among others. 

The Aave brand will continue under the umbrella of Aave Labs, and no changes will be made to the Aave protocol’s native token (AAVE).

Aave on Ethereum has an estimated total value locked (TVL) of $9.2 billion, split between Aave V2 with over $4 billion and Aave V3, which launched on Ethereum mainnet last January, has a TVL of over $5 billion,…

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Singapore plots ‘live’ wholesale CBDC pilot for next year

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced Thursday that it plans to issue a “live” central bank digital currency (CBDC).

The regulator plans to partner with local banks, and the partnership will see a wholesale CBDC used “as a common settlement asset in domestic payments.”

“Retail customers will be able to use these tokenized bank liabilities in transactions with merchants who can in turn credit these tokenized bank liabilities with their respective banks,” MAS managing director Ravi Menon said.  

Prior to the announcement, MAS had only simulated issuing CBDCs in test environments. 

“The ‘live’ issuance of central bank digital money for use as a common…

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