Key Takeaways
- According to BICCON, it is prohibited to close or freeze the bank accounts of people or firms accused of trading cryptocurrency.
- On Monday, Vice President Joe Biden indicated that he will propose Jerome Powell for a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
- The CEO of Microstrategy says that bitcoin will become a $100 trillion asset class and grow by 100X from its present value.
BICCON, a coalition of Nigeria's leading cryptocurrency and blockchain advocacy organisations, released a public statement on November 22 advising impacted people and businesses to seek legal counsel and restitution in the courts when appropriate.
Furthermore, the group maintains that no Nigerian entity, public or private, should be exempt from the legislation.
Bitcoin.com News has previously revealed that Nigerian financial institutions have started suspending or blocking bank accounts of businesses suspected of dealing cryptocurrencies since November 3.
Since the Central Bank of Nigeria issued a directive on February 5, the institutions have said they are complying with the mandate.
Despite these bank assertions, the blockchain committee maintains that financial institutions should not freeze or restrict accounts only because their owners are bitcoin traders. BICCON's official statement explains:
We challenge the conduct of deposit money banks (DMBs), nonbank financial institutions (NBFIs), and other financial institutions (OFIs) that block, close, and/or freeze the bank accounts of persons and companies engaged in cryptocurrency trading or cryptocurrency-related transactions. T
he Federal Republic of Nigeria's present legal framework does not permit this..
The statement also reiterates BICCON's position on a CBN order that financial institutions first used to justify the exclusion of crypto firms from the banking system.
Biden renominates Powell to lead the Federal Reserve after overseeing the country's largest-ever monetary expansion
In a statement released on Monday, Vice President Joe Biden announced that he has selected Jerome Powell to chair the US Federal Reserve for another term. Lael Brainard will serve as the Fed's vice chair during Powell's second term as chair. In light of the uncertainty about who might succeed him, Powell was re-elected.
Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley pushed Vice President Joe Biden at the end of August to appoint a chairman who would address social transformation and the so-called climate catastrophe. Biden refused. However, two weeks later, sources close to Washington informed the media that Biden would select Powell again.
President Biden was said to be close to making a choice, and Lael Brainard was mentioned as a possible candidate last week. Biden's decision to nominate Powell for a second term led to Janet Yellen saying that the economy will "continue to benefit from his management."
The White House said in a statement that "America needs steady, independent, and effective leadership at the Federal Reserve to advance its dual goals of keeping inflation low and prices stable, as well as creating a strong labor market that broadly benefits workers with better jobs and higher wages." According to the White House,
President Biden has complete faith in Powell and Brainard's knowledge, judgment, and integrity to continue delivering on those objectives and to help rebuild our economy back better for working people.
The CEO of Microstrategy Discusses Bitcoin Becoming a $100 Trillion Asset Class — Says BTC Will Grow 100X
Michael Saylor, the CEO of Microstrategy, claimed that the cryptocurrency is beating gold as a store of wealth and he is not concerned about regulation. "I'm not bothered in the least by the restrictions that are now being enacted."
In an interview with CNBC on Friday, Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor discussed the prospects for bitcoin's long-term development. Among other things, he highlighted institutional adoption and regulation of bitcoin, market volatility, gold vs. bitcoin, and BTC as the world's main digital asset and safe-haven investment.
His firm presently has 114,042 BTC. According to him, the present price of bitcoin is too high, therefore he's deciding whether or not to hold onto his bitcoins. His reply was, "We'll keep stacking as long as we want to."
Saylor was asked whether he believes "bitcoin has replaced, or will replace, or is in the process of replacing gold as the store of value for most investors," and he said, "I don't believe so." According to him, the benefits of bitcoin over gold, such as its ease of transfer and minimal storage costs, were mentioned:
It's very obvious that bitcoin is winning and gold is losing... and it will continue... This decade, digital gold is going to be the new gold.
On the subject of regulation, Saylor said: "I'm not at all concerned with the restrictions that are going on right now."
Bitcoin is "the only ethical, technological, and legal safe haven in the whole crypto ecosystem," he said, adding that "Bitcoin is the only safe harbor for institutions to utilize bitcoin as a store of wealth.
Crypto regulation, according to Microstrategy's pro-bitcoin leader, would "have an influence on security tokens, decentralized finance exchanges, crypto exchanges, all the various use cases of crypto that are not bitcoin."
Do you agree with BICON's position on the ban of Nigerian bank accounts?
