By Kapil Rajyaguru
Czech National Bank Governor Weighs Bitcoin For Future Reserve Strategy.
The governor of the Czech National Bank, Aleš Michl, recently considered Bitcoin as a potential diversification strategy for the country’s foreign exchange reserves, highlighting growing government interest in cryptocurrency as a savings technology.
In an interview with CNN Prima News, Michl said he was considering acquiring “a few Bitcoin” for diversification, which wouldn’t count as a significant investment for the bank. Any decision to acquire Bitcoin would require the approval of the Czech National Bank’s board, which consists of seven members.
Bitfinex Derivatives To Move To El Salvador After Securing Local Crypto License.
The derivatives arm of crypto exchange Bitfinex has secured a Digital Asset Service Providers (DASP) license to operate in El Salvador. In a Jan. 7 statement, Bitfinex Derivatives said with the approval of the DASP license, it will relocate from Seychelles to the Central American nation.
The firm lauded El Salvador’s continued efforts in developing new crypto frameworks, saying the move aligned with its broader goals to deliver financial services in the region.
Anthropic Expected To Reach $60bn Valuation After Funding Deal.
AI firm Anthropic is reportedly in talks to raise $2 billion—a deal that would put the company’s valuation at roughly $60 billion.
According to a Jan. 7 Wall Street Journal report, Lightspeed Venture Partners is leading a funding round for the OpenAI rival. In December 2023, Anthropic’s valuation stood at $18 billion, indicating a potential increase of more than 233% in just 12 months.
Founded in 2021 by former members of OpenAI, Anthropic went on to publicly release its version of an AI-powered large language model (LLM) called Claude in 2023. The LLM rivals OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which the firm launched in 2022.
Kazakhstan Shuts Down 36 Illegal Crypto Exchanges In 2024 Crackdown.
Kazakhstan took down 36 illegal cryptocurrency exchanges in 2024 amid ongoing efforts to combat money laundering in the region, a significant drop of 96.3% from 2023.
On Jan. 6, the Financial Monitoring Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan announced the shutdown of 36 crypto exchanges operating without proper authorization in 2024.
The agency noted that illegal crypto exchanges help facilitate money laundering by allowing unvetted fiat-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat transfers.
You need to login in order to Like