Thomas Jordan, president of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), said on Friday during a meeting that the central bank is against buying and holding bitcoin as a reserve currency, citing concerns that it does not meet the requirements for currency reserves.
His statement was as follows:
Buying bitcoin is not a problem for us.
We can do this either directly or buy bitcoin based investment products.
We can arrange the technical and operational terms relatively quickly when we are convinced that we should have Bitcoin on our balance sheet.
But from the current perspective, we do not believe that Bitcoin meets the requirements for currency reserves, which is why we have decided so far not to include Bitcoin on our balance sheet.
Jordan also referred to concerns about global warming and the termination of his investments in companies that contribute to bitcoin mining and thus contribute to carbon emissions in an indirect way.
He added:
It makes no sense for us to sell all of our shares, as they will be bought by someone else.
The important thing is that the economy can transform itself to produce fewer carbon dioxide emissions.
This should be done in a systematic and orderly manner.
We are already seeing an energy supply problem right now, with high energy prices causing problems, especially for low-income people.
The comments come in the wake of protests by anti-climate activists outside the Berne meeting, calling on the Swiss central bank to end investment in such companies.
However, they did not specifically mention Bitcoin and its environmental concerns either.
BBVA Bank and Crypto in Switzerland:
BBVA Switzerland Branch has previously announced the addition of Ethereum to the custody and trading service.
As a result, BBVA Switzerland's private banking clients will be able to manage Bitcoin and Ethereum on the bank's platforms.4y 
CryptoVillageChinese authorities will donate 15 million yuan ($2.3 million) in electronic yuan to residents of Shenzhen's Futian District.
The move aims to promote the adoption of China's central bank digital currency and promote the financial product among the broad Chinese community.
Efforts to make a successful CBDC in China continue:
Contrary to its hostile view on digital currencies, the government of the most populous country in the world has a completely different stance on central bank digital currencies (CBDC).
Over the past year, the Chinese authorities have launched several initiatives to spread the digital representation of their national currency.
According to Global Times coverage, the latest step in this effort includes distributing more than $2 million in digital yuan to residents of Futian (the central business district of China's third largest city, Shenzhen).
e-CNY will be divided into 130,000 red packages and distributed by lottery method using the WeChat payment tool.
Residents can join the draw by registering.
Later, they will be able to spend the collected money at nearly 5,000 stores in the region without having to make a minimum purchase.
This is not the first time that the Shenzhen city authorities have distributed the digital yuan among the city's residents.
In 2020, they distributed 10 million yuan (about 1.5 million dollars) worth of Chinese electronic yuan.
Soon, the initiative expanded to the cities of Chengdu and the capital, Beijing.
Residents of Chengdu received $4.6 million in Chinese CBDC, while residents of the capital, Beijing, received $6.2 million of it.4y CryptoVillage The UK's National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) has told cybercrime experts it is losing 3 to 4 times the rate of other cops.
The cryptocurrency industry appears to be largely responsible for this, with major companies poaching these professionals with tempting offers and much higher wages than they get in the police wires.
Migration to the crypto world:
According to a Bloomberg report, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis are among the companies paying big money to hire former police officers and cybercriminals.
A Coinbase spokesperson explained that these experts can play an essential role in helping keep client funds safe, and establishing trust in the cryptocurrency economy.
Binance also hired experts from the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last week.
The appointments are aimed at ensuring the company's compliance with regulations and sanctions worldwide as politicians increasingly wary of crypto's role in illegal activity.
According to the âNPCCâ statement, the crypto industry is generating a lot of money, and as such, companies operating in it can afford to offer very attractive salaries that lure cyber security experts away from the police wires.
Andrew Gould, Head of the Cybercrime Unit at NPCC, said:
The loss of experienced cyber personnel is a huge problem for us.
Their skills are in great demand in the private sector, where they can triple their salaries and that is why they are going.
According to NPCC estimates, about 15 people from prominent police and law enforcement backgrounds now work for major crypto firms. This number is expected to increase over the next 12 to 18 months.
Gold added:
While we do not envy them for an operationally well-deserved pay increase, we cannot afford to lose such highly skilled employees at this rate.4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage CryptoVillage According to a study conducted by the âFast Private Jetâ company, which aimed to measure the rate of adoption of cryptocurrencies in the world and to determine the places that accept cryptocurrencies more than others.
The results of the study show that the central European country âSloveniaâ is the most friendly country for cryptocurrency in the world.
In addition, its capital, Ljubljana, is the most welcoming destination for crypto companies in Europe.
Central Europe Leading the Way to Crypto Adoption
The Italian-based airline Fast Private Jet has conducted a global study to determine which countries have the most places where cryptocurrency is accepted as a form of payment.
Slovenia ranked first, while another Central European country such as the Czech Republic ranked second.
While Argentina, Japan, Spain and Colombia ranked in the top six.
Slovenia has 72 stores and 33 sports venues that accept Bitcoin or altcoins.
The capital of Slovenia, Ljubljana, is also the most crypto-friendly destination in Europe.
Currently, it has more than 137 companies and 584 different websites that allow cryptocurrency payments, while its largest shopping mall is called âBTC City.â
While Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, is the second most European-friendly destination for cryptocurrency.
The third most crypto-friendly city in Europe is Madrid, Spain, while Malta ranked last in the statistics.
The âFast Private Jetâ study also looked at the United States, revealing that New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco have the most restaurants, cafeterias, and companies that accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment.
Unsurprisingly, China is among the least crypto-friendly countries worldwide.
Oman, Egypt, Algeria, Qatar, Iraq, Tunisia, Morocco and Bangladesh also have a hostile attitude towards the crypto industry and have been placed next to China.
Earlier this month, Coincub research estimated that Germany was the most crypto-friendly country in the first quarter of 2022, while Singapore and the United States came in second and third, respectively.
However, the companyâs study differed from the âFast Private Jetâ study because it looked at factors such as cryptocurrency laws in different countries, the number of fraud casesâŚ
Slovenia is among the countries that adopt the most cryptocurrency:
This is not the first time that the central European country has found its place in similar studies.
Last year, digital asset platform Crypto Head determined that Slovenia, with an index of 5.96, was the seventh most prepared country for cryptocurrencies.
In the research process, the company combined several factors, including annual Google searches for cryptocurrency per 100,000 people and the number of ATMs.
Given that the United States has over 30,000 crypto-enabled ATMs, it's no wonder that it took the number one spot.
Interestingly, the island of Cyprus, located on the Mediterranean, took second place.4y CryptoVillage Robinhood has seen a sharp decline in trading activity for the first quarter of 2022, according to the company's latest financial report.
The report indicated that the broader cryptocurrency market remains bearish and the recent global equities sell-off contributed to the disappointing financial numbers.
The first-quarter report said the company's total net revenue was $299 million, down 43% from $522 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Transaction-based revenue from cryptocurrency trading fell 39% to $54 million.
Like most high-growth tech companies, Robinhood struggles to turn profitability, but has significantly reduced its loss over the course of the year.
The company reported a net loss of $392 million, or $0.45 per share, compared to $1.4 billion, or $6.26 per share, a year earlier.
Wall Street expected a net loss of $0.36 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
The company stated that the results reflected the macroeconomic change, with its CEO, Vlad Tenev, saying that perhaps for the first time, its customers were experiencing a reversal of low interest rates, low inflation, and rising markets.4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage Solana's network, one of Ethereum's biggest competitors, fell for seven hours after its main bet fell out of line, according to Austin Federa, head of communications at Solana Labs.
According to "You Today", the network has returned to online mode, and successfully completed the reboot of the group at 3:00 am GMT.
Solana suffered outages due to the huge number of incoming transactions which led to a network blockage, as the network processed 100 gigabytes of data per second.
Candy Machine, an app designed to mint non-replaceable tokens, was the main reason behind the long downtime.
Some users criticized Solana for censoring NFT bots that kept the network down for seven hours.
Solana emerged as one of the best Ethereum competitors in 2021, due to its high throughput and extremely low fees.4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage Leading digital asset exchange Binance has banned accounts linked to relatives of government officials in Moscow, amid mounting international sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
According to Bloomberg, Binance has banned several accounts linked to relatives of some senior government officials in Russia, and this move comes as sanctions continue to be imposed on Moscow in response to its military attack on Ukraine.
The daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Polina Kovaleva, and Elizaveta Peskova, daughter of Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, have been among the most prominent users who have been denied access to their accounts in the past two months.
Binance also banned Kirill Malofeev, the son of Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, whom Washington has accused of financing pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
The move to close the accounts comes after the platform in April allowed limited services to Russian users to comply with the latest round of sanctions approved by the European Union.
The restrictions apply to Russian citizens, residents and legal entities with crypto assets worth more than 10,000 euros on the platform.4y CryptoVillage GMT and APE are some of the most volatile coins in the digital market, with the two coins gaining from 100% to 444% in less than a month, making them the most profitable assets among the top 100 coins in the Market Cap.
GMT STEPN price performance makes it one of the most unexpected assets in the market that brought early investors more than 400% profits, making it the most profitable asset in the cryptocurrency market this April.
GMT Market Performance
According to u.today, the recent price performance does not indicate a reversal as the currency is down only 13% and has not yet encountered the first support levels, which may serve as the basis for a further rally.
APE coin
According to APE's daily chart, it is moving in a sharp uptrend and is not showing any weaknesses despite the recent 18% reversal, which some traders and industry experts consider to be the top.
Apecoin Chart
Since the listing, APE has lost 78% of its value in one candle and has not yet recovered to the same value, and at the moment it needs to gain at least 71% to the high.
APE is closely related to the performance of the BAYC NFT group, which is gaining more attention from users after the release of Metaverse.4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage Bitcoin, the major cryptocurrency, is on track to record a red month.
The bitcoin price has so far fallen by nearly 14.8% in April.
The best cryptocurrency has had a rough start this year, dropping more than 15% in January.
It was the worst start to a new year for bitcoin since the brutal bear market of 2018.
In late March, Bitcoin surged to a new yearly high of $48,234, but its momentum faded after the bulls failed to reach above key resistance levels.
Meanwhile, the US dollar reached its highest level in two decades earlier this week.
The US Dollar Index (DXY), which measures the performance of the US currency against a basket of other foreign currencies, managed to reach 103.9 last Thursday.
The Japanese yen lost its safe haven status and fell to its lowest level against the dollar earlier this week after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda reiterated his commitment to long-term ultra-easy monetary policy.
This way, the central bank will be able to continue to defend the target yield.
A weak dollar is usually a tailwind for the world's largest cryptocurrency.
In late 2020, for example, the DXY index fell below 90 to reach its lowest level in more than two years.
This coincides with a significant increase in the price of Bitcoin.
Bitcoin has so far failed to recover the $40,000 level despite the dollar giving up some of the gains it made earlier.
The largest cryptocurrency is currently trading at $38,600 after declining nearly 3% in the past 24 hours.
@user4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage CryptoVillage The Solana-based STEPN (GMT) cryptocurrency has become the 45th in terms of total market capitalization, following the recent price hike.
Reasons for the rise and shine of the GMT digital currency:
The main reason for the GMT digital currencyâs rise by 20% in the last 24 hours is due to the announcement of its addition to trading on the Coinbase platform.
According to Coinmarketcap data, the GMT digital currency, which is the governance token for the STEPN project, has risen nearly 20% in the past 24 hours to a record $4,1024.
Meaning that the price of the GMT digital currency has risen more than 3000% in the past three months, and the coin is currently among the best performing cryptocurrencies this year.
Its current market value is around $2.4 billion.
The coin's initial rally was triggered by speculation that it will partner with a major sports brand this year.
While STEPN has yet to make an announcement on the matter, the hype around this possibility has already stoked and positively affected the coin's price.
In a big push for adoption, Coinbase says it will now support the STEPN project's cryptocurrency
The world's largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has also published that it will now support STEPN's NFT sneaker business.
NFT sneakers give access to Move-to-earn features.4y CryptoVillage Damac Properties, a Dubai-based real estate giant affiliated with the United Arab Emirates, has decided to accept Bitcoin and Ethereum in property sales.
In a statement issued by Damac Properties, it was stated that the Dubai-based company is adopting digital currencies to keep pace with the digital transformation project. Accordingly, the company has added the two largest crypto assets in the market, Bitcoin and Ethereum, as payment options.
Damac Properties started its activities in 2002, and continues its activities in many countries, especially in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman and England, with the exception of Dubai. The company's profit last year was $816.8 million.
Apart from accepting cryptocurrencies in sales transactions, the company has investment plans within the metaverse world, which is closely related to the cryptocurrency industry. With the aim of building virtual cities with the new Metaverse project, DAMAC stated that funding of about $100 million has been allocated for this purpose.4y CryptoVillage CryptoVillage For the first time for a major corporation, one of the world's largest asset managers, Fidelity Investments, will allow investors to add bitcoin to retirement plans.
Reports released earlier today revealed that Fidelity has stated that some of the 401(k) accounts it manages plan to soon provide investors with the means to invest in Bitcoin through dedicated Digital Asset Accounts.
According to press reports, Fidelity Investments has assets under management of $4.2 trillion.
Speaking about this, Dave Gray, the companyâs president of retirement offerings and platforms, said:
Fidelity believes that blockchain technology and digital assets will be a much larger part of the future of the financial industry.
Fidelity also revealed that MicroStrategy will be its first customer for the new products, which comes as no surprise, given that the software giant holds approximately 130,000 bitcoins on the company's balance sheet.
It will begin offering bitcoin in 401(k) accounts later this year.
The investment firm also revealed that it aims to expand the accounts and reach more sponsors by the middle of this year while noting that employees can put up to 20% of their balance into these accounts.4y CryptoVillage 
