Prix de Bit.StoreSTORE

South Korea’s cryptocurrency market is booming, with more than 16 million citizens—over 30% of the population—now holding crypto exchange accounts. This huge user base has led the country’s top traditional banks to push lawmakers for regulatory changes that they say currently block fair competition and limit innovation in the digital asset space, as per a report from local news outlet Money Today . At a high-level meeting held this week, executives from the nation’s largest financial institutions—KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Hana, Woori, NH Nonghyup, Jeonbuk Bank, and internet-only Toss Bank—urged lawmakers from the ruling People Power Party to revisit the one-to-one partnership rule between banks and crypto exchanges. Woori Bank’s President Jung Jin-wan argued that local exchanges should be allowed to partner with multiple banks, citing consumer limitations and institutional demand. Under current law, each crypto exchange in South Korea must partner exclusively with one bank to offer fiat-to-crypto services, a regulation aimed at preventing money laundering and ensuring real-name verification. While effective in enforcing accountability, critics argue that it has created an uneven playing field, allowing some banks to reap massive user growth while others are left out. Related: Survey: Nearly 50% of Korean Investors Expect US Tariffs to Harm Crypto Market and Drive Price Drops The prime example cited is K-Bank. The neobank that partnered with top exchange Upbit in 2020, saw its user base skyrocket from 2.19 million to 6.6 million in a single year. As of late 2024, that figure had nearly doubled to 12.7 million. This outsized growth, enabled by regulatory exclusivity, has made the current framework a contentious issue among South Korea’s major banking players. Data obtained by opposition lawmaker Cha Gyu-geun and reported by Yonhap reveals that South Korea’s crypto user base surpassed 16 million following US President Donald Trump’s election win last November. That number represents nearly one-third of the country’s population, with holdings totaling more than 102.6 trillion won ($70.3 billion). Analysts are predicting the figure could hit 20 million by year-end, despite concerns of market saturation. Related: Google Play Store Boots Unregistered Exchanges in South Korea On the other hand, a recent report from the country’s Ethics Commission for Government Officials revealed that more than 20% of high-ranking public servants hold crypto assets, averaging 35.1 million won ($24,000) each. The disclosures—totaling 14.4 billion won ($9.8 million) across 411 individuals—include holdings in mainstream tokens such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin, and LUNC. Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is for informational and educational purposes only. The article does not constitute financial advice or advice of any kind. Coin Edition is not responsible for any losses incurred as a result of the utilization of content, products, or services mentioned. Readers are advised to exercise caution before taking any action related to the company.

Circle’s Head of Global Policy Dante Disparte believes the crypto space needs more regulatory clarity in the form of frameworks like Europe’s MiCA. During a fireside chat session at Paris Blockchain Week with TRM Labs’ Global Head of Policy Ari Redbord on April 8, Disparte emphasized the importance of clear regulation in helping bring more investors, financial institutions, and stakeholders into the crypto space. “The regulation works. If international investors are attracted to invest not just in France but to gain from the legal and regulatory clarity that MICA provides, that creates an environment of legal certainty,” said Disparte. Therefore, he believes Europe has the best chance to “enshrine what universally portable internet-based money and financial services could mean” through its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation or MiCA framework. In fact, the Circle ( USDC ) representative stated that his team has been trying to advocate for two stablecoin acts in the United States , the GENIUS Act and STABLE Act , to reach the level of legal clarity that MiCA is able to provide for European markets. “When you put them together you get a Stable Genius. A framework that up levels to MiCA so that we have transatlantic harmonization and regulatory reciprocity, as opposed to create a race to the bottom even across the U.S. and the European partnership,” stated Disparte. Moreover, Disparte said that Circle supports European regulators’ decision to equate MiCA-compliant stablecoins to an e-money token, in which the framework prohibits the token from generating yield for customers who hold stablecoin . “We agree. We think interest in stablecoin land is a secondary market innovation. And if you want the innovation to work as stated, if you want the bill of goods to work as stated, it has to be a unit of measure, a medium of exchange and a store of value just like a physical dollar or a physical euro,” said Disparte. Introduced in June 2023, the MiCA stablecoin laws brought about strict regulations and standards for crypto firms and stablecoin issuers, one of them is a ban on offering stablecoin interests or yield. As a result, stablecoin issuers like Tether ( USDT ) and Circle had to adjust their operations by complying to the MiCA laws if they wish to continue operating within the European regions. In July 2024, Circle became the first stablecoin company to secure a Electronic Money Institution license from French regulators, allowing them to market their MiCA-compliant stablecoin across Europe.

The current state of bitcoin adoption and the cryptocurrency’s status as digital gold and a store of value are being criticized by bitcoiners who advocate for a more practical function. Jack Dorsey, CEO of Block, a bitcoin tech company currently working on creating its own bitcoin mining solutions, believes that bitcoin can still fail at this stage by becoming irrelevant to addressing the problems it was first designed to solve. At the Presidio Bitcoin’s 21 in 21 podcast, when asked about the possible causes of a hypothetical bitcoin failure, Dorsey remarked that irrelevance might cause bitcoin’s downfall in the long term, signaling a shift toward payments as one of the elements to prevent this outcome. “I think it has to be payments for it to be relevant uh on the everyday otherwise it’s just something you kind of buy and forget and only use in emergency situations or when you want to get liquid again,” Dorsey assessed, remarking payments as the main driver behind the adoption that would save bitcoin. Later in the podcast, Dorsey mentioned payments again as the main mitigating solution to a hypothetical bitcoin failure outcome. He noted that to prevent this ill fate, bitcoiners need to be “building simple, accessible experiences that solve the payment use case making it scale making it fast like giving the speed of the Visa and Mastercard networks real competition.” Dorsey also criticized bitcoin’s lightning network, the microtransaction-oriented layer 2 protocol, calling to open bitcoin for more complementary protocols to be launched, considering elements such as ease of use and practicality. “I think we can do better than lightning, and it’s not that like lightning is bad, it’s just challenging,” Dorsey concluded. Read more: Jack Dorsey’s Block Bets Big on Bitcoin Mining 免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到[email protected]，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。

Cryptocurrency is being acknowledged and integrated into the international legal and economic system. The National High Court of Brazil (STJ) issued a landmark decision establishing that crypto could be seized as payment for outstanding debts. The case, which has now put the digital assets system in the sights of the judicial system, enables a new set of opportunities to redeem debts from actors that have not used the traditional finance system for storing funds. The court based its decision on the fact that cryptocurrencies are assets liable to taxation, whose transactions must be reported to the Federal Revenues Service, and even if not legal tender, these can be used as a form of payment and a store of value. Nonetheless, in its decision, the entity recognizes that there are operational difficulties regarding seizing digital assets, as they can be moved out of the regulated exchanges. In this sense, the court commented that a new system designed to facilitate this kind of action is already being developed. The ruling states that: The implementation of a system like this will undoubtedly make it simpler and faster to search for crypto assets owned by the executed party and carry out the respective seizure on them. The appeal solves a controversy created by an earlier request to a court to seize cryptocurrency assets. Before, the First Chamber Reserved for Business Law of the Court of Justice of Sao Paulo denied this request, arguing that there is a lack of regulation regarding the commercialization of these assets in Brazil. In the same way, it also established that allowing these searches would break the financial confidentiality of the executed party without adding any value to solve the creditors’ requirements. Read more: Federal Revenue Agents Might Seize Bitcoin From Travelers in Brazil 免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到[email protected]，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。

Co-founder of BitMEX Arthur Hayes warns that U.S. Treasuries may no longer hold their position as the world’s top reserve asset. In a post on X, he says America’s expanding debt, coupled with changing trade policies and rising global tension, could push investors toward gold and Bitcoin. Hayes points to the sharp rise in U.S. federal debt since the gold standard ended in 1971, using a St. Louis Fed chart showing an 85-fold increase. Hayes says this expansion reflects the credit needed to support the global economy as the U.S. dollar took center stage in trade and finance. Related: The Unexpected Upside: Tariffs Depress Treasury Yields, Shine Light on Crypto He noted that this debt-driven growth has produced uneven results. Some Americans gained wealth, while others saw few benefits. Hayes argues that this divide fueled political discontent, leading to the election of Donald Trump by those who felt excluded from decades of economic expansion. Trump’s push to reduce the U.S. current account deficit via tariffs could backfire, Hayes stated. If foreign nations earn fewer dollars through trade, they might be forced to sell existing U.S. Treasury and equity holdings to support their own economies, rather than recycling dollars into buying more U.S. assets. Hayes added that even if tariffs ease later, policy uncertainty might deter foreign reliance on the U.S. financial system long-term. Given this potential instability, Hayes believes gold will re-emerge as a preferred neutral reserve asset, as it’s untethered to national policies like tariffs and tradable globally. He anticipates central banks increasingly using gold for international trade settlement. He also highlighted Bitcoin as a digital alternative store of value, likely gaining appeal as trust in traditional financial systems weakens. Related: Bitcoin Not Suitable for Reserves, Says South Korea’s Central Bank Hayes predicts these macroeconomic shifts, particularly potential currency turmoil between the U.S. and China, could ultimately launch Bitcoin’s price to $1 million. He specifically forecasts the USD/CNY exchange rate reaching 10.00, driven by political pressures and Beijing’s policy resistance, calling this currency shift a potential “super bazooka” for Bitcoin. Hayes plans to elaborate on the USDCNY dynamic in a future essay. Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is for informational and educational purposes only. The article does not constitute financial advice or advice of any kind. Coin Edition is not responsible for any losses incurred as a result of the utilization of content, products, or services mentioned. Readers are advised to exercise caution before taking any action related to the company.