Crypto Penetration blog 🔩

🔆 Special stream for our subscribers 🗺 Africa, Latin America and Asia are large crypto markets where billions of people live and where - unlike Europe and the US - crypto regulation is just beginning. Together with Kenyan crypto enthusiast Eric Maina, we will discuss how regulation there has changed in 2024 and what awaits us in 2025. We will also look at the level of TON adoption in these developing markets. 🙋 Come to the channel this Sunday at 18-00 Dubai time. Tomorrow!

🇨🇿 In the Czech Republic, the Central Bank discusing purchase of BTC 🇪🇺 This in itself is a big event for the EU, which is suspicious of crypto. See the recent statement by Christine Laggard. ⚡️ The purchase of crypto, or rather Bitcoin, is being discussed at the official level by the central bank of an EU country. Could Satoshi Nakamoto have imagined this?

🇻🇳 Will Vietnam introduce a crypto sandbox? 📝 Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment has announced that it plans to create a sandbox for crypto projects in the country. Such measures are the first step towards full-fledged regulation. ⭕️ At the moment, cryptocurrencies have no official status in Vietnam, but transactions with them are not prohibited. There is not even a clear taxation procedure for cryptocurrency income. At the same time, they are very popular: crypto is used by Vietnamese migrants for international money transfers. In addition, Vietnamese culture (like other Asian cultures) leans favorably to gambling, and people willingly invest in crypto. 🇻🇳 If Vietnam follows this path, it will be a big event for the whole of Asia, because Vietnam has one of the largest economies in the region.

🇺🇾 Uruguay imposed crypto regulations 📜 Uruguay introduced cryptocurrency regulation at the end of last year, making it the third Latin American country to do so in 2024, alongside Peru and Bolivia. ✈️ I recently moved to this country. It is known as an attractive place for digital nomads and is also called the Switzerland of Latin America. You can read more about Uruguay in this article. ➕ One of the differences between Uruguay and other Spanish-speaking countries is the availability of tax breaks. The climate here is also good: it is not hot in summer and not cold in winter - temperatures range from +10°C to +30°C (50°F to 86°F).

🇺🇸 The situation in the USA ❎ Last week, the SEC canceled Bulletin 121. This document required banks to submit special reports to the regulator on crypto assets on their balance sheets. ❎ Trump also canceled Biden's Executive Order 14067, which implied the introduction of additional controls over the turnover of digital assets. ❎ Following the release of Ross Ulbricht, one of the first-wave Bitcoin enthusiasts, Roger Ver, filed a pardon for Donald Trump (he is accused of tax evasion in the United States). 📊 In general, despite Trump's statement about the possible creation of a Bitcoin reserve, the market reacted last week with only a slight increase, and then fell - the BTC rate fluctuated from $98,000 to $108,000. The inflow of funds into Bitcoin ETFs amounted to more than $1.75 billion. ⌛️ But for now, the market is waiting for new decisions (not promises) from regulators on the Bitcoin reserve or FED's sharp reduction in the interest rate. Then further growth is possible.

🗽 Donald Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, the darknet marketplace (weapons, drugs). 🪁 The US lifted sanctions on Tornado Cash - the second and final decision on this was made by a Texas court. 🏋️ Trump and Melania coins trades have reached high volumes - Solana validators have earned over $25 million from their transactions. ☄️ House democrats criticize the TRUMP coin: they are sure that having his own meme coin will allow Trump to receive bribes and hidden payments. Thus, the TRUMP coin threatens national security. 💲 American regional authorities continue to discuss investments in Bitcoin ETFs and crypto: similar initiatives are being discussed in Kansas and Texas.

🇺🇸 The inauguration of Trump 🗽 The inauguration of Donald Trump has become a big event for the local crypto industry and led to the following events: ⚾️ Launch of Trump and Melania meme tokens. 💯 Resignation of legendary Gary Gensler from the SEC and accession of Mark Uyeda as interim chair. However, new SEC chair Paul Atkins will probably be approved by the Senate soon. ✨ Caroline Pham is now approved by Donald Trump as chair of the CFTC, increasing its power in crypto regulation. 🤐 During the inauguration, Trump said nothing about the regulation of cryptocurrencies in the US.

🔆 How has crypto regulation changed in LatAm in 2024? 🇦🇷 Argentina is the only country in the region besides El Salvador that has VASP licenses. In 2024, 101 companies registered as VASPs. 🇧🇷 Brazil's regulation has not changed: crypto exchange as an activity still does not require a license. 🇲🇽 Mexico's regulation has not changed. But the first statistics have appeared and the results are impressive: 53 companies report their crypto transactions in financial intelligence and the volume of transactions increased 4 times in 2024 🇸🇻 El Salvador has introduced an analogue of the VASP license - CASP - and the old Bitcoin-specific licence (BSP) is likely to be canceled. 🇺🇾🇵🇪🇧🇴 Uruguay, Peru and Bolivia have introduced regulation. Before that, there was none. 📰 More details and information on other countries can be found in this article.

🗽 Trump Launches Personal Memcoin ⚾️ Donald Trump has launched his own coin - Trump Memcoin. I think this coin has a good chance of repeating Pepe's fate. You can buy $Trump through the Raydium wallet on Solane. It looks like a very risky asset with investment potential for all 4 years of the presidency. 💯 By the way on the passed week, amount of inflows into US Bitcoin ETF saw more than $1.8 billion amid Trump inauguration expectations.

📝 Latest regulation news 🇮🇳 Bybit will limit its operations in India from January 12. 🇹🇭 Thailand continues to optimize its crypto regulation - crypto payments are currently prohibited there, but a special economic zone is planned in the capital, where it will be possible to pay with crypto. 🇺🇸 Donald Trump will soon choose his candidate for the post of head of the CFTC. This agency, after the adoption of the federal law on crypto in the United States, will receive the lion's share of control over the licensing of exchanges and other VASPs 🇷🇺 Deputy Aksakov promised that in Russia it is possible to soften the test regime for the turnover of cryptocurrencies within the country.

🎷 How did regulation change in LatAm in 2024? (Part 1) 🇦🇷 Latin American countries are known for their relatively easy and straightforward immigration procedures for foreigners. At the moment, probably the most popular country on the continent for permanent relocation is Argentina, where it is quite easy to obtain citizenship by naturalisation after living in the country for 2 years. 📜 And at the same time, it has one of the most developed procedures for regulating cryptocurrencies - there is a federal law regulating VASPs and their registration procedure. In 2023, licensing procedures were adopted, and in 2024, companies began to actively register. There are already 101 companies in the Argentine VASP registry. 🇧🇷 Brazil, the largest economy, accounts for roughly half the population and half the GDP of the entire region. No wonder it attracts foreigners! The foundations of cryptocurrency regulation here were laid at the end of 2022 when a federal law was passed by the country's parliament. 🗒 The law prescribes the need to licence VASPs, but the country's Central Bank has yet to adopt all the necessary regulatory rules for this (promised in 2024), there is still no VASP registry in the country, and Crypto exchanges can operate without a licence. This is likely to change in 2025. 🇲🇽 Mexico has not changed its regulation in 2024 either: the old rules adopted in 2021 under the fintech law remain in effect. The law requires banks and fintechs to obtain a licence for crypto transactions. However, ordinary VASPs (not banks) can legally operate in the country without a licence; they only need to send reports to the country's financial intelligence unit (UIF) and tax authorities (SAT). 💯 A total of 53 legal entities sent such reports to the UIF in 2024. Also by law, crypto providers must send reports on all transactions over 70k pesos (about $3,400). The number of such transactions more than quadrupled in 2024. 🌞 In general, both in terms of relocation and launching crypto business, regulation in these three biggest Latin American countries is lax. But you also have to take into account that there are quite high taxes and restrictions on withdrawing capital from the country, which is not always good for business.

🇬🇪 My holidays in Tbilisi ✊ The protests in Tbilisi ended during the New Year holidays. Tourists can safely walk along Rustaveli Avenue. 🎉 Also crypto exchanges with a good rate for clients also took a vacation. Usually weekly days here in Georgia, it is possible to exchange offline USDT to USD with 1% fee. 💱 Online P2P exchange at approximately the same rate only for those, who have accounts in the two largest banks in the country - TBC and Bank of Georgia. But these banks do not open accounts foreigners and expats so easily. But for the same exchange on Credo, the commission is from 2% to 4%.

🇨🇭 Switzerland Bitcoin Initiative 🔖 Switzerland is officially considering holding a referendum on the creation of a state Bitcoin reserve. Information about this was published in the state newspaper. The initiative for the referendum comes from a group of citizens of the country.

🇺🇸 USA: 2024 Results and 2025 Forecast 🔻 Bitcoin fell below $92,000 yesterday and now the price is $94k. This is influenced by the decline in trading on the US stock market during the holidays and the likely slowdown in rate cuts by the Fed next year. The Fed rate may negatively affect the market next year as well. 🚰 For the first time in December, more money was withdrawn from US Bitcoin ETFs last week than was invested - $377.6 million. On the other hand, the outflow from ETFs last week, associated with changes in Fed policy, is relatively small compared to the billions of inflows for the whole of December. 🦅 In addition, Donald Trump has not yet taken office. But he and his team (David Sacks, Paul Atkins, French Hill, Cynthia Lummis and others) plan to do a lot to improve cryptocurrency regulation in the US next year and push for the adoption of the Bitcoin Reserve Act - this is a positive factor for the market in the long term. 📝 This year, Bitcoin ETFs were adopted as a mainstream financial instrument. And in the US, many legislative acts have been prepared that should have a positive impact on the industry. Two key ones are FIT21, which will remove part of the industry from SEC regulation, and the Bitcoin Reserve Act mentioned above. 🚀 Even now, before the adoption of these laws, the market has already grown significantly. After adoption, the trend towards legalizing cryptocurrencies will most likely only strengthen. And as a result, the development of the industry will continue.

✈️ 2024 Highlights: Record Telegram profit as a basis for TON ecosystem growth 🌡 Hello, subscribers. I had three days off with a cold. Now I’m recovering, just like crypto prices, and I want to sum up the year for you. 🤑 You probably know that this year was the first in which Telegram made a profit. Pavel Durov claimed, that total Telegram profit exceeded $1 billion and our lovely messenger already has 12 million premium subscribers. 💪 Durov noted that Telegram has “500 million in cash reserves, not including crypto assets”. However, Telegram will definitely continue to develop its monetization. Developing a partnership with TON has powerful potential to increase a company's profitability. 🔋 So if Telegram is doing well, then you need not stress about the TON ecosystem - which will only increase the number of users and, among other things, invest in developing projects and infrastructure for one of the world's largest blockchains. 🧑‍⚖️ Some are concerned that Telegram has difficulties with regulators in different countries around the world. These fears have especially increased after Durov's arrest in Paris. But as we can see, they have not come true - the messenger continues to operate and is in dialogue with regulators. For example, the company applied for a license in Malaysia this week. 🗺 Cryptocurrencies and blockchain are the new Internet of money, which was finally recognized in the world this year. And TON and Telegram are a portal to this new world.

💎 New Fintech Solution from Altery 💳 Altery has integrated TON and USDT top-up into its payment card. The card is available in European Union and CIS countries. 💸 Card users may provide payments in fiat including USD, EUR or GBP. It also supports direct transfers of fiat currencies to bank accounts.

🦒Africa is gradually legalizing cryptocurrencies 🌍 This year, not only Europe and the United States have worked on regulating cryptocurrencies. There are positive trends in this direction in Africa as well: 🇿🇦🇹🇿 So far, the most developed of the major African economies in this regard is South Africa. It is not difficult to obtain a license there, and all the rights and opportunities of users (including crypto payments) are spelled out in legislation. More than 200 licenses have already been issued. 🇸🇨🇹🇿 New countries have defined the concept of cryptocurrency in law: the Seychelles and Tanzania 🇲🇦🇬🇭 Even more countries in the region are planning to introduce regulation for crypto exchange next year: Morocco, Ghana, Rwanda (!) and possibly Ethiopia. 🚀 The general trend towards the legalization of cryptocurrencies is also clearly visible in Africa. However, in Kenya and Nigeria, crypto businesses cannot operate normally yet. 🇰🇪 Together with crypto enthusiast Eric Maina from Kenya, we have prepared an article on this topic to describe the African crypto regulation landscape.

🇺🇸 Tornado Cash founder demands all charges be dropped 🙅 Tornado Cash founder Roman Storm is demanding that all charges against him be dropped. His legal team is relying on a previous appeals court ruling that OFAC's sanctions against the mixer were illegal. You can read our article about the Tornado Cash case and the appeals court ruling. 🗽 Storm filed the motion in the Manhattan District Court on 18 December. He argues that since the appeals court ruled in the previous case that the Tornado Cash smart contract is unchangeable and cannot be altered by the developers in any way, the current case (on complicity in money laundering) has no basis. ✊ Storm also relies on the opinion of Joseph Van Loon, an expert from his team, that the developers of Tornado Cash cannot control how and by whom their protocol is used. In general, demanding a full acquittal is a bold maneuver that can at least help Storm and his team reach a settlement. As the saying goes ‘Be realistic, demand the impossible!’

📉 Market correction 🇺🇸 The market reacted poorly to the latest Fed briefing on December 18, despite the rate cut of 0.25%. It's all about the revised forecasts for the next year: the Fed will take a break and stop cutting the rate. These are the expectations of the market and analysts. 🔻 As a result, BTC prices fell below $95,000. Ethereum lost almost all of its growth and now costs $3,200. The prices of most coins from the TOP-100 fell by 15-20%. The outflow of funds from the Bitcoin ETF on the next trading day after the Fed meeting was $671 million. 📝 However, one should not draw far-reaching conclusions - after all, the Fed's policy may change soon after Trump takes office as president. Also, in 2025, the United States (and other countries) will probably adopt Bitcoin as a reserve fund. All this can have a positive effect on the market.