Bitcoin (BTC) supporters are watching as almost every central bank in the world lowers interest rates and the global fiat money supply skyrockets. Statistics compiled by Charlie Bilello, CEO of wealth manager Compound Capital Advisors, show that in 2020, 84 of the world’s 118 central banks have cut interest rates. “Bitcoin cannot be printed!” Largely due to the coronavirus, institutions have slashed rates by as much as 1,700 basis points, with Argentina leading the way. Israel has changed the least, with a 15 basis point reduction, while Ukraine, Pakistan, Barbados and the East Caribbean join Argentina at the top of …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Indonesian exchange Tokocrypto have listed a rupiah-backed stablecoin, Binance IDR (BIDR). According to an announcement on June 30, Binance and Tokocrypto users can now trade BIDR against Bitcoin (BTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Tether (USDT) and Ether (ETH). Users will also be able to directly purchase and redeem the stablecoin at a rate of 1 Indonesian rupiah each ($0.000070). A part of Binance’s expansion plans BIDR is pegged to Indonesia’s fiat currency and runs on Binance Chain. Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao claims that this is the first stablecoin pegged to this fiat currency …

Cryptocurrency exchange ByBit now lets its users exchange over 20 fiat currencies for cryptocurrency. According to an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on June 22, ByBit users can trade their U.S. dollars, Australian dollars, Canadian dollars, euros, Singapore dollars, British pounds sterling and many others for crypto of their choice. ByBit CEO Ben Zhou said that it was two partnerships that came together to make it possible: “Thanks to our payment partners Banxa and XanPool, Bybit users can now frictionlessly purchase crypto with credit or debit card.” At the same time, ByBit users are eligible for a $10 bonus in Bitcoin …

Economist, financial commentator and gold advocate Peter Schiff once again bashed Bitcoin in a tweet, essentially calling it fiat currency — the name for regional currencies, such as the U.S. dollar. "The Fed gets Bitcoin right," Schiff said in a June 20 tweet, adding: "It categorizes it with fiat, in contrast to gold that has real value. It sees nothing new in Bitcoin, just in the way it's exchanged. As confidence in both traditional and crypto fiat is lost, savers will return to gold." The U.S. Fed classified Bitcoin fiat In a June 18 post, Liberty Street Economics, a blog …

Singapore's central bank and financial regulatory authority is looking to cooperate with China in the field of central bank digital money. Ravi Menon, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, has voiced the country’s readiness to enter into a close cooperation with China in relation to digital currencies. Speaking at a financial forum in Shanghai, Menon highlighted China’s progress in the development of its central bank digital currency, or CBDC, known as the digital yuan. Singapore, which is also actively exploring blockchain-based CBDCs, is looking to exchange related knowledge and expertise with China, Sina Finance reports …

The culmination of a year and half of work, the American Gaming Association has proposed a set of updated policy guidelines for casino payments. The proposition looks to let visitors fund their activities at gambling establishments via digital avenues instead of allowing only physical fiat currency, said a statement Tuesday. It remains unclear whether the AGA includes cryptocurrencies under its digital payments reference. Cointelegraph reached out to the AGA for comment but received no response as of press time. The masses want options More than half of customers desire other payment options, the statement said, adding: "The principles come at …

The United States now has debt equal to a giant 2.65 billion Bitcoin (BTC) — more than 21 times the number of coins that will ever circulate. According to figures by statistics monitor U.S. National Debt Clock, the country’s gross debt has crossed the historic $26 trillion mark for the first time. U.S. debt since March beats Bitcoin supply The almost inconceivable number comes after several months of inflationary measures by the Federal Reserve, which have seen the dollar supply increase dramatically. As Cointelegraph reported this week, the U.S. M2 money supply now stands at a record $18.115 trillion, while …

The European Central Bank (ECB) may be fearing default as rumors circulate that it plans to plant at least half a trillion euros of “bad” debt in a “bad bank.” As Reuters reported on June 10 citing two people familiar with the matter, the ECB now wants to quarantine its financial junk. ECB praises “useful” asset management firms The reason, the sources say, is that rising unemployment may fuel the risk of mass defaulting on debt obligations. Even excluding the coronavirus unemployment surge, the Eurozone already has $500 billion of debt which is unlikely to be repaid at all. This …

The battle of Bitcoin (BTC) versus fiat money is witnessing not a flippening but a “flattening” as coronavirus upends economic policy. A chart of the United States’ M2 money supply compared to the largest cryptocurrency shows that while one is leveling out its supply, the other is going “parabolic.” BTC hardens, USD goes “parabolic” Uploaded to Twitter by Robert Breedlove, CEO of digital asset investment firm Parallax Digital, the chart highlights the strikingly different paths taken by fiat and Bitcoin since coronavirus hit with full force in March. Bitcoin’s fixed supply schedule — the number of new coins issued halves …

Another day, another trillion dollars — the European Central Bank (ECB) has announced it will double its coronavirus purchase program to €1.35 trillion to the dismay of Bitcoin (BTC) proponents. In a press release on June 4, the ECB became the latest central bank to up its controversial response to coronavirus, adding €600 billion to the so-called pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP). ECB: “flexible” asset purchases will continue Launched in March and originally worth €750 billion, PEPP is a mass buy-up of public and private sector securities. Similar to the actions of the Federal Reserve, the scheme has so far …

London-based financial technology startup Plutus is offering rewards through its debit card when users shop Nike’s online store. Doing so unlocks up to 3% in crypto and 9% cash rewards for those purchases. Rewards are available for British pounds and euros only In order to receive the rewards, customers must use the Plutus Visa Card while shopping online. As Plutus currently operates within the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area, the service is now available for purchase in euros and the British pound, a spokesperson from the firm told Cointelegraph. The rewards are generated in Plutus’s native token, Pluton …

One of the core narratives of Bitcoin (BTC) since inception is the oft-stated goal of separating money and state. While this has certainly been a powerful creed in the currency’s early adoption by the crypto-anarchist and techno-libertarian communities, what does this actually mean? It’s quite simply a call for a neutral form of money. When stripped of the more political messaging, Bitcoin is fundamentally the introduction of a credibly neutral, global system of value transfer that is open and permissionless yet cryptographically secure and verifiable. This burgeoning crypto economy is still relatively early in its development, yet in the ten-plus …