Last week, we found out that Mt. Gox’s repayment of claims to creditors is around the corner, while NFT showcasing has now been expanded in the social media space (from only Instagram to add Facebook). Read more in this week’s ProBit Bits.
Trustee to start assigning repayment claims to Mt. Gox creditors
Last week saw the Rehabilitation Trustee in the MtGox case disclose September 15, 2022 (Japan time) as the start date for the assignment of rehabilitation claims to creditors. During the period, the Trustee will cease accepting applications for claim transfer procedures. It also plans to suspend access to the application system for transferees and the transferors of rehabilitation claims to ensure safe and secure repayments and to avoid unexpected disadvantages.
In a July update, the Trustee informed creditors who have waited for more than eight years that preparations were being made to repay their claims (about 141,686 BTC). Creditors were advised to register online and indicate how they would like to receive their repayments.
Meanwhile, there have been rumors that a massive Bitcoin dump would follow the repayment. Some of the Mt. Gox creditors have since taken to Twitter to debunk the claim saying the exchange has not completed the repayment process.
Top tech company in Indonesia ventures into crypto
Last week, Indonesia’s biggest tech company joined the crypto market after acquiring a local crypto exchange, Kripto Maksima Koin. GoTo Gojek Tokopedia (GOTO), which was formed last year as ride-hailing-to-payments company Gojek merged with e-commerce leader Tokopedia, paid about $8.38 million for the exchange, according to Reuters.
“We believe that blockchain technology may play a mainstream role in the future of finance,” GOTO reportedly said in a statement.
While linked to Indonesia’s recent uptake in crypto, digital assets are considered popular in Asia. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), not many parts of the world have embraced crypto assets like Asia, with India, Vietnam, and Thailand being the top adoption countries for individual and institutional investors.
The IMF notes that the contagion seems to be spreading through investors as it observed that the correlation between the performance of Asia’s equity markets and crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum has increased.
Facebook joins Instagram to support NFTs
On a larger scale, Meta made an update last week to say it has started giving people the ability to post non-fungible tokens (or NFTs) that they own across both Facebook and Instagram. It used to be only on Instagram before the extension of support for the digital collectibles on Facebook.
This will enable people to connect their digital wallets once to either app to share their digital collectibles across both.
Meta introduced digital collectibles on Instagram in May when it started offering users the opportunity to showcase their NFT holdings on the social media platform. With the expansion to 100 countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and the Americas, users can now connect their Coinbase Wallet and Dapper wallets and be able to post digital collectibles minted on the Flow blockchain.
Top court blocks CAR’s citizenship for crypto plan
In a new twist, the high court of the Central African Republic (CAR) last week declared a government plan to offer some privileges in the country for cryptocurrency an unconstitutional move.
Last month, CAR started selling its national digital asset, Sango Coin, in a public sale that comes with a 1-year lock-up period offers of citizenship, e.residency, and lands.
The top court now says the offer of citizenship to investors who purchase $60,000 of Sango Coin is not acceptable “considering that nationality has no market value” according to Bloomberg.
CAR followed El Salvador’s steps to make Bitcoin its legal tender after the country’s parliament unanimously adopted a bill in April to make it the first country in Africa to adopt Bitcoin. At the time, Central Africa’s regional banking regulator issued a reminder to all member countries of the bloc’s ban on cryptocurrencies.
El Salvador’s bond sale is still on hold
For the record, the planned El Salvador Bitcoin bond would likely be delayed until later this year. This is according to the Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino. First announced in November 2021, the project raised $1 billion from investors with Bitfinex selected as the sole exchange provider. It was supposed to have been issued in the first quarter of 2022 but was postponed to September. Now, according to Ardoino, it has been shifted to a later date.
Iran is getting bigger with crypto
Iran last week passed legislation that establishes a legal framework for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be used as payment for imports to the country. According to a local news outlet, Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine, and Trade, Reza Fatemi Amin, confirmed that the top cryptocurrency could now be used to pay for the importation of vehicles instead of fiat currencies like the US dollar or euro. Amin notes that the legislation which also addresses fuel supply and electrical consumption for crypto mining has the support of the country´s central bank. Iran recently made its first import trade payment using crypto. The Vice Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, and President of Iran Trade Promotion Organization, Alireza Peymanpak, wrote on Twitter that the Islamic Republic made its first official order of imports worth $10 million with cryptocurrencies.
The province of Mendoza is part of another country that showed interest in crypto last week. The Argentinian province started accepting cryptocurrencies for tax payments from residents via its official web page.
CFTC, SEC issued joint proposed rules on hedge funds’ exposures to digital assets
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) started a request for comments on the proposed amendment to Form PF.
The form is for the confidential reporting of certain SEC-registered investment advisers to private funds as well as those registered with the CFTC as commodity pool operators or commodity trading advisors. With regards to digital assets, the proposal would add a new sub-asset class since many of these hedge funds have been showing interest.
“We have observed the growth as well as the volatility of this asset class in recent years,” the two agencies note in their joint proposed rules. “We understand that many hedge funds have been formed recently to invest in digital assets, while many existing hedge funds are also allocating a portion of their portfolios to digital assets.”
The CFTC and SEC believe it is important to “collect information on funds’ exposures to digital assets to better understand their overall market exposures.”
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