OTC’s Weekly Retrospect 05/12–09/12/2022
Each week we bring you a round-up of the most important Bitcoin and virtual asset-related stories making waves in the cryptosphere.
Published in
2 min readDec 9, 2022
Major news stories this week;
- Quebec Shuns Bitcoin Mining in Bid to Conserve Power
- Bitcoin Bloodbath: Holders Realized $213 Billion In Total Losses Over Past Year
- Coinbase Questions Tether Reserves, Aks Users To Switch USDT To USDC
- Nigeria bans ATM cash withdrawals over $225 a week to force use of CBDC
- Bitcoin Lightning company Strike enables payments to 3 African countries
Story Summaries;
- Canadian province of Quebec wants to stop selling cheap power to cryptocurrency miners amid the global energy crunch. The government-owned utility Hydro-Quebec asked a provincial regulator last month to reallocate the 270 megawatts of energy, equivalent to the energy consumed by roughly 97,000 households, that it had set aside for crypto mining.
- Data shows Bitcoin holders have locked in losses amounting to a total of $213 billion during the past year. As per data from the on-chain data analytics firm Glassnode, the losses realized have meant that 47% of the bull market gains are now gone.
- In a controversial move, leading American exchange Coinbase has urged its users to switch their Tether (USDT) to USD Coins (USDC).
In a blog post titled “Switch to the trusted and reputable digital dollar,” Coinbase writes that USDC is “one of the most trusted and reputable digital dollars, fully backed with high-quality reserves.” To incentivize users, Coinbase has waived the trade fees for USDT/USDC all global retail customers. - The limits set by the Central Bank of Nigeria are part of a broader push to encourage digital financial transactions.The limits are cumulative limits for each withdrawal, so an individual withdrawing $45 from an ATM who then tries to withdraw cash from a bank on the same day would be hit with the 5% service fee.
- Strike enabled payments to Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana for U.S. users through its “Send Globally” feature. A partnership with the African payments platform Bitnob powers the new feature.
