PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024

Bitcoin Daily: Hillary Clinton Critiques Bitcoin; Cryptocurrency Transactions Now Taxed in Argentina

Bitcoin Daily: Hillary Clinton Critiques Bitcoin

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a skeptical view of bitcoin, saying there are worries that it could undermine the dollar, Bitcoin Magazine reported.

“What looks like a very interesting and somewhat exotic effort to literally mine new coins in order to trade with them has the potential for undermining currencies, for undermining the role of the dollar as the reserve currency, for destabilizing nations, perhaps starting with small ones but going much larger,” she said, according to the report.

 

In other news, most cryptocurrency transactions and exchanges will be subject to taxation in Argentina after the government clarified and updated new rules limiting tax exemptions to third-party payment service providers.

Read more: Argentina Releases Decree to Tax Crypto Exchanges, Transactions

Argentina will levy a 0.6% tax on exchanges for cryptocurrency purchases and sales. The new tax is effective immediately.

 

Meanwhile, a 50-year-old Southern California man, Hugo Mejia, has received a three-year prison sentence for running a crypto-related business as an anonymous way to launder money for drug trafficking, Fox Business reported.

He was allegedly running an unlicensed business that exchanged around $13 million in bitcoin and cash, disregarding money exchange regulations, according to the report.

Mejia allegedly made his money through exchanging bitcoin for cash and vice versa and charging commissions for the transactions, which went on from May 2018 to September 2020, the report stated.

 

In other news, El Salvador is delving further into bitcoin and plans to issue sovereign bitcoin bonds.

See more: El Salvador Plans to Build Tax-Free Bitcoin City

The country, which has already made bitcoin a legal tender, will issue $1 billion in tokenized U.S.-dollar denominated 10-year bonds to pay 6.5% through the Liquid Network, according to the report.

Half of the funds will be converted to bitcoin. The other half will help with infrastructure and bitcoin mining, which will be powered with geothermal energy, the report stated.

El Salvador will also build “Bitcoin City,” which will be free of income, property and capital gains taxes, according to the report.

 

Lastly, bitcoin was trading over 3% lower Friday (Nov. 19) and is likely headed for its worst week in six months, Fox Business reported.

The price was around $57,200 Friday, a one-month low, according to the report.

The worst-week prediction came as traders have booked profits from a rally. There was worry that creditors from Mt. Gox, a crypto exchange that closed down, might liquidate their payments, the report stated.

PYMNTS-MonitorEdge-May-2024