Source: Bitcoin Price Dips Below $10K as BTC Shrugs Off Its First Fed Rate Cut

Bitcoin (BTC) price fell back below $10,000 on August 1 as markets broadly shook off the first Federal Reserve interest rate cut since 2008.

Bitcoin doesn’t care about the Fed

Data from Coin360 showed the largest cryptocurrency hovering just below the significant barrier once more Thursday, having climbed as high as $10,138 in the past 24 hours.

A sudden uptick took BTC/USD $500 higher Wednesday, a move which itself followed a dramatic downturn over the weekend which saw the pair shed $800 in minutes.

Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

The temporary return to $10,000 accompanied fresh debate on crypto and blockchain regulation in the United States, while this week’s rate cut also served to fuel excitement among traders.

As various sources noted, the cut was the first from the Fed since Bitcoin’s creation over ten years ago.

“In preparation for the halving, the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates to further highlight Bitcoin’s economic innovation. Everybody, be sure to thank Jerome Powell for sticking to the Bitcoin as store of value thesis!” Michael Goldstein, president of the Nakamoto Institute, commented on Twitter about the event.

At press time, however, Bitcoin appeared broadly unaffected by U.S. economic policy compared to its behavior in light of regulatory noises throughout last month.

As Cointelegraph reported, mixed messages from Congressmen and others produced significant volatility, with BTC/USD still down $4,000 versus its July highs. Compared to exactly one month ago, however, the pair has tracked neither up nor down.

Altcoins stagnate further

A similar picture presented on altcoin markets. Sideways action has defined the top twenty cryptocurrencies by market cap in recent days, tokens moving in step with Bitcoin.

Ether (ETH) the largest altcoin by market cap, moved up by a modest 0.7% on Friday to hit $213, having spent the past week in a corridor between $200 and $223.

Ether 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Other major alts broadly replicated such behavior, an exception being Litecoin (LTC), which gained 4.8% to lead the market as its halving is now less than a week away.

By contrast, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and its fork, Bitcoin SV (BSV) both lost around 2.5% in Friday trading.

The total cryptocurrency market cap stood at $273 billion, with Bitcoin’s share at 65.1% of the total.

Source: Fed Chairman: ‘No One Uses It’ — Bitcoin a Speculative Asset Like Gold

The Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve has said that a globally adopted cryptocurrency system could conceivably remove the need for reserve currencies.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee on July 11, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell gave his analysis of whether a cryptocurrency system with global prevalence could diminish — or even go so far as to remove the need for — so-called anchor currencies.

With the U.S. dollar de facto the world’s dominant reserve currency, Powell acknowledged the possibility of a preeminent cryptocurrency redrawing the current financial landscape — yet noted that as of yet, this has stopped short of becoming a reality. The Fed chairman said:

“I think things like that [the obsolescence of today’s reserve currencies] are possible but we really […] haven’t seen widespread adoption. Bitcoin is a good example, almost no one uses it for payments […] it’s a speculative store of value like gold.”

Powell’s comparison is noteworthy given the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s role as a custodian for the gold held by entities such as the U.S. and foreign governments, other central banks, and official international organizations.

Powell acknowledged that the prospect of cryptocurrencies coming to replace reserve currencies has been implied since their inception and that its realization could see the global financial system — and specifically the Federal Reserve System — profoundly transformed. He noted:

“People have been talking about this since cryptocurrencies emerged, but we haven’t seen it. That’s not to say we won’t — and if we do, then yes, you could see a return to an era in the United States where we had many different currencies, in the so-called national banking era.”

As reported, Powell had testified before the House Financial Services Committee earlier this week and acknowledged that the impact of Facebook’s forthcoming stablecoin Libra could be of a “potentially systemic scale” for the global financial and regulatory landscape.

In China, central banking veterans have characterized the widespread anticipation of Libra as being “inseparable from the global dollarization trend,” and stressed that Beijing should respond with precautions and rigorous policy research to seek to maintain a strong monetary status.

Source: Fed Chair Says Facebook Needs to Satisfy Regulatory Concerns Regarding Libra

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said there needs to be broad satisfaction with the way Facebook is handling regulatory concerns regarding its forthcoming stablecoin Libra. Powell gave his comments in a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee on July 10.

Rep. Steve Stivers asked Powell during the meeting, “if Facebook can’t sufficiently answer your questions about anti-money laundering, Know Your Customer, what would your message be to the banks that provide banking to Facebook, and what would your advice to Facebook be?” Powell replied:

“ … I just think it cannot go forward without there being broad satisfaction with the way the company has addressed money laundering, all of those things. The number of concerns that I list at the beginning, data protection, consumer privacy, all of those things will need to be addressed very thoroughly and carefully.”

Powell also discussed how the project falls outside traditional regulatory bounds, highlighting the scale of the proposed cryptocurrency project:

“I think it’s something that doesn’t fit nearly or easily within our regulatory scheme. It does have potentially systemic scale.”

Chairwoman Maxine Waters also questioned Powell on whether the Fed has concerns about monetary policy with respect to Libra. Powell answered similarly, saying:

“Libra raises many serious concerns regarding privacy, money laundering, consumer protection, and financial stability. These are concerns that should be thoroughly and publicly addressed before proceeding.”

Powell previously testified on Libra in a press conference on June 19. When asked about the Fed’s role in regulating Libra, Powell suggested that they would not have direct authority, but would nonetheless be influential:

“… we don’t have plenary authority over cryptocurrencies as such. They play into our world through consumer protection and money laundering and things like that. But, I would say that … through international forums … we have significant input into the payment system and, as you know, play an important role in the payment system here in the United States.”

As previously reported by Cointelegraph, Maxine Waters, members of the House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services and a number of advocacy groups have called for a moratorium on Libra’s development.

David Marcus, the head Libra’s corresponding digital wallet service Calibra, has now replied both via a public Facebook post and in a letter to Waters and the committee to assuage their concerns and promise cooperation.

Source: Brazil Tax Authority Requires Reporting All Bitcoin Transactions Starting Today

Brazil Tax Authority Requires Reporting All Bitcoin Transactions Starting Today 3369 Total views 112 Total shares Listen to article 2:19 N

Beginning today, Aug. 1, Brazil citizens are obligated to report on their crypto transactions with the country’s tax authority, the Department of Federal Revenue (RFB).

Entities in Brazil must report on all kinds of crypto transactions

As Cointelegraph Brazil reports today, transactions involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) must be reported to the RFB in accordance with rules established by Normative Instruction 1,888 introduced in May 2019.

As reported by national public news agency Agência Brasil, the new measure applies to individuals, companies and brokerages, and includes all kinds of crypto-related activities, including buying and selling, as well as donations, barters, deposits, withdrawals and others.

The measure requires entities to provide monthly reports by the end of the month following the month when crypto-related transactions occurred, the report notes. As such, the information for the month of August should be provided until the last business day of September.

According to the rules, local crypto exchanges will have to inform the RFB about all the operations regardless of value. However, those who use foreign exchanges or brokerages, or make peer-to-peer transactions in crypto, will have to report on the transactions if the monthly amount exceeded 30,000 Brazilian reais ($7,800), Cointelegraph Brazil reports.

Penalties range from 1.5% to 3% of the amount of unreported transaction

Those who fail to report on their crypto transactions will face penalties ranging from 100 to 500 Brazil reais or from $25 to $130. The RFB is also authorized to charge from 1.5% to 3% of the amount of the unreported transaction as a penalty, according to Agência Brasil.

The RFB believes that digital currency market in Brazil has more investors than Brazil’s second oldest stock exchange, B3, which reportedly has about 800,000 customers. By applying the measure, the authority intends to combat illicit activities such as money laundering, tax evasion and terrorist financing, the report notes.

Recently, head of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo expressed concerns that Brazilians could start using crypto to evade taxes.

EWS Beginning today, Aug. 1, Brazil citizens are obligated to report on their crypto transactions with the country’s tax authority, the Department of Federal Revenue (RFB). Entities in Brazil must report on all kinds of crypto transactions As Cointelegraph Brazil reports today, transactions involving cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) must be reported to the RFB in a