Despite continuing mainstream adoption and technical improvement, Bitcoin spent the latter half of the week in the mid-$7,000 range, having failed to hold the $8,000 level.
Argentina’s Banco Masventas revealed that it would be exiting the SWIFT payment system in favor of Bitcoin. SWIFT is used for sending wire transfers between banks but the system, designed in 1973, is showing its age.
The Marshall Islands, home to some 53,000 citizens, became the first nation in history to officially adopt a cryptocurrency as their national currency. The new currency, called the Sovereign (ticker symbol SOV), is now legal tender in the Marshall Islands and must, therefore, be accepted for payment, business taxation, and banking purposes.
The Polish Finance Ministry announced the reversal of its recent ruling on cryptocurrency taxation. Trading in crypto will no longer be heavily taxed.
The US Justice Department is launching a criminal probe into Bitcoin price manipulation. It is alleged that certain traders are using questionable practices, such as “spoofing” or placing large, fake orders, to drive exchange prices.
Finally, both Bitcoin Gold and Verge have recently suffered different types of 51% attacks compromising the security of their respective networks. Quite a few million dollars were stolen throughout these attacks. This serves as a warning about the vulnerability of coins with a relatively weak community of miners.
That’s what happened this week in Bitcoin. See you next week.
