Subnostr

Bitcoin Veterans 1y ago

BTC Daily Intelligence Bulletin (DIB)

Block: 828,553

DTG/ICOD: 0800EST 02Feb24

Precedence: Routine (RR)

Controls: Public Release

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BLUF: El Salvador set to Re-elect Bukele on Sunday / Biden Targets Israeli Settlers with Sancitons / New Congressional Act may take Digital Assets of Corporate Balance Sheets / Atmoshperic River Hits SOCAL

Market Data: Price: 1 BTC= $43,137, 21.0 oz Gold

24hr Hi: $43,398 / Lo: $41,933

Vol: $20B (Down 20%)

Mkt Cap: $846B (Up 2%)

HashRate: 643 EH/s

Avg Fees: 35,273 sats/tx (Up 110%)

Nodes: 14,445

---Reports---

-International Events-

1. ‘World’s Coolest Dictator’ Nayib Bukele set for landslide election win in El Salvador for war on gangs: El Salvador will hold an election this weekend that President Nayib Bukele is expected to win easily. A January 2024 opinion poll from the University of Central America’s public opinion institute showed 82 per cent of voters supporting Bukele. Bukele’s crackdown on drug gangs has also won him the support of a nation tired of violent crime. (SouthChinaMorningPost)

2. Biden authorises sanctions on Israeli settlers for ‘extremist violence’ in West Bank: In a message to Congress announcing the new sanctions, Mr Biden said he’d declared a national emergency “to deal with the threat posed by the situation in the West Bank, including in particular high levels of extremist settler violence, forced displacement of people and villages, and property destruction”. (IndependentUK) (AC-As the Biden Administration has failed to halt the severity of the response from Israel in Gaza, Biden is now using the Treasury Dept as leverage against Israeli settlers themselves. This is an unexpected tactic in the geopolitical quagmire of this Israeli conflict. On analysis, it appears Biden is trying to thread the line of support to Israel and the Palenstinians at the same time. It also shows the reliance the administration has placed upon quick reactionary economic warfare.)

-US Events-

1. ‘Pineapple Express’ sweeps California as an atmospheric river fuels storms and floods the state: Heavy rain flooded California roadways and much-needed snow piled up in the mountains as the first of back-to-back atmospheric rivers pummeled the state Thursday. (AP)

2. Ex-CIA computer engineer gets 40 years in prison for giving spy agency hacking secrets to WikiLeaks: The bulk of the sentence imposed on Joshua Schulte, 35, in Manhattan federal court came for an embarrassing public release of a trove of CIA secrets by WikiLeaks in 2017. He has been jailed since 2018. (Politico)

-Regulatory and Legal-

1. US House Financial Services Committee Members Demand More Time to Debate New Digital Payment Proposal: Leading members of the U.S. House Financial Services Committee, Chairman Patrick McHenry, Subcommittee Chairman French Hill, and Representative Mike Flood, have requested an extension of the public comment period for the CFPB’s proposed rule on digital consumer payment applications. This request centers on the committee’s concerns over the rule’s potential impact on the digital asset industry and its demand for a more comprehensive stakeholder review. (Bitcoincom)

2. US Congress About To Lift Major Bitcoin Institutional Adoption Barrier: NC Representative Wiley Nickel, joined by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Representative Mike Flood, has put forth a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution that aims to overturn the SEC's directive requiring banks to include customer cryptocurrency assets on their balance sheets, potentially clearing a major hurdle for the institutional adoption of Bitcoin and other digital assets. (Bitcoinist)

3.China to include crypto in money laundering rules amid crackdown on cybercrime gangs: An executive meeting of the State Council late last month chaired by Prime Minister Li Qiang discussed including provisions for virtual assets to update its AML regulations. The updates are expected to go into effect in 2025. (DLNews)

-Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)-

1. UAE and China Complete First $13.6M Cross-Border CBDC Transaction: The United Arab Emirates and China have executed their first cross-border central bank digital currency (CBDC) transaction valued at $13.6 million using digital dirham and digital yuan. According to PeopleCN, the 50-million-dirham ($13.6 million) transaction occurred via the m-CBDC Bridge platform during the Central Bank of UAE’s 50th anniversary celebration in Abu Dhabi. (CyrptoNews)

-Institutional Concerns-

NSTR

-Economic Indicators-

1. Bank of England Holds Rates, Signals Cut This Year: The decision comes after US Fed says rate cuts are possible but not imminent (WSJ)

-Technological Updates-

NSTR

-Security Incidents and Concerns-

1. FTX’s Missing $400 Million Were Stolen in SIM-Swapping Hack, DOJ Says: FTX’s Missing $400 Million Were Stolen in SIM-Swapping Hack, DOJ Says. Three people have been charged with orchestrating a SIM-swapping scam that siphoned more than $400 million from FTX as the cryptocurrency exchange spiraled into bankruptcy. (Bloomberg)

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