I hope everyone is having a great Friday. Thanks again for reading.
For those who missed it earlier this week, we wrote about how Bitfinex Securities set up a legal entity in El Salvador and what that means for the country’s crypto adoption prospects.
Besides that, here are several things we think you need to know from this week:
Samson Mow said he’s leaving Blockstream to work on nation-state Bitcoin adoption. His activity in Mexico will be important to watch. Meanwhile, Mow says he will stay on as CEO of gaming company Pixelmatic.
Concerns continue to swirl over El Salvador’s Bitcoin adoption policy. If the country gets put on FATF’s grey list, the reporting requirements could hamper its efforts to launch a virtual volcano bond token. Salvadoran economist Ricardo Castaneda is skeptical toward the volcano bond, the papers of which are due later this month.
Morena Valdez, El Salvador’s tourism minister, claims that tourism numbers increased 30% since Bitcoin adoption. However, she cited a poll - not formal tourism stats.
Rodolfo Delgado, El Salvador’s top attorney, says Chivo transactions to be investigated. Cristosal is the NGO tracking fraudulent identities across Chivo.
Bitbase, an ATM company, wants to expand its network into Mexico, Venezuela & Colombia. Spanish Bitbase is in talks with the government and hopes to wrap up talks this year. Bitbase is led by Álex Fernández and Adria Llorens.
Guatemala’s Bitcoin Lake is using the LN wallet BBWallet. Vancouver-based Coinos is involved in setting up the lightning infrastructure there.
Bitcoiner Ricardo Salinas Pliego took a stance on Russia-Ukraine. The Mexican business leader thinks Mexico should focus on its problems at home, a nod to AMLO’s nationalist, inward-looking stance on foreign policy matters.
Argentina’s central bank is working on regulations for digital wallets. Crypto wallets are likely to get caught up in a spat between Miguel Pesce’s central bank and Mercado Pago, Mercado Libre’s digital wallet. The measure won’t prohibit digital wallets but it will force stronger KYC.
Also in Argentina: Chaco province’s governor Jorge Capitanich is mining Bitcoin with a state-backed tech start-up. It’s a stark contrast to the government’s crypto skepticism and aligns with Neuquen’s Strike-hosted lightning network experiment.
Thanks again for reading. Have a great weekend.