El Salvador has made Bitcoin legal tender, on par with the U.S. dollar within its country. The U.S. government may have some concerns. The U.S. government may not be too happy with the way Nayib Bukele is running El Salvador, and it expects the Salvadoran president to take great care in the way his country adopts and uses Bitcoin now that it is legal tender. Victoria Nuland, a long-time U.S. State Department official and the current Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, recently met with President Bukele and urged his government to do whatever it can to regulate Bitcoin and avoid any potential illegal activity associated with the cryptocurrency."I did suggest to the president that whatever El Salvador chooses to do, you ensure that it is well regulated, that it is transparent and that it is responsible, and you protect yourself against malign actors," she said, according to statements reported by AFP.source

With China forcing crypto miners out of business, owners of small hydropower plants are offloading their hardware. Advertisements for small hydropower plants on e-commerce site Xianyu have increased since the start of the crackdown in May, while prices for the hardware have dropped, according to a report in the South China Morning Post. One seller told a reporter for the publication that, “You can secretly mine cryptocurrency if you buy a hydropower station,” while three other sellers confirmed that more power stations are on the market ever since the government cracked down on mining. These hydropower plants tend to operate with a capacity of up to 50 megawatts, and are thus considered “small.”source

Elon Musk talks a lot about Bitcoin’s carbon footprint. And investors are paying attention, according to a new survey. Musk had initially helped the coin reach new highs. Bitcoin rose 8.5% to $44,790 after Tesla disclosed that it had bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin in February, and continued to soar until April, when it hit its all-time high of $62,000. Then Musk said his car company would stop accepting Bitcoin, citing environmental concerns. Powerful computers, often powered by coal, use entire countries-worth of electricity to crunch complex sums necessary to process Bitcoin transactions.source

Congressman Carlos Rejala has big Bitcoin plans for Paraguay. But legal tender status isn't in the cards for the South American nation, and here's why. Nayib Bukele's political moves in El Salvador earned the president the support of a large part of the cryptocurrency industry, as the Central American country opened its doors to Bitcoin as legal tender. The news, of course, piqued the interest of several politicians around the world, causing a wave of pro-Bitcoin intentions across Latin America. One of those politicians who quickly jumped on the wave was Carlos Rejala, a Paraguayan congressman from the Hagamos Party.  In early June, a series of tweets from Rejala positioned him among observers as the next politician to push for adopting Bitcoin as legal tender—Paraguay could become the “next El Salvador,” eager Bitcoiners speculated.more

After China announced that it would begin ramping up its efforts to restrict the mining of cryptocurrency, the price of bitcoin (BTC-USD) fell to below $30,000 earlier this week, trading at a value not seen since the turn of the new year. The cryptocurrency has since rebounded slightly, now holding at a level just above $32,000.Though the news and subsequent crash may have caused short term headaches in the crypto market, China’s crackdown on mining may actually benefit crypto in the long run, according to some experts. “I think it's actually fantastic news for the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Peter Smith, Blockchain.com co-founder and CEO, told Yahoo Finance Live. “You're going to see a diversification of mining operations around the world. We've been seeing that trend over the last two years, as large mines are built in Europe, the U.S., and a variety of other geographic locations—but that trend is going to accelerate hard now.”source

Bitcoin's wild week has many investors worried. Should they be?. That Bitcoin bull may still have some kick in him yet, despite the events of the past week, experts tell Decrypt.
Bitcoin’s latest price crash (or “correction,” if you’re technical and perhaps more optimistic) has many investors worried—especially those new to the game who have been quick to sell. Some are already fearing the worst—another frosty crypto winter, when we’re still in May. Bitcoin showed signs that the bull run may be coming to an end when the crypto market suffered its worst dollar-denominated pullback in history, and for a whole host of reasons.source

Cathie Wood, Adam Back, and others will join the Twitter and Square CEO for the online conference, part of a new Bitcoin educational initiative. Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey recently said that it’s his mission in life to spread adoption and promote awareness of Bitcoin. The latest step in the process? Launching an online conference designed to educate institutions about the leading cryptocurrency.
The B Word is the name of the initiative, and it will go live on July 21 with an online conference featuring Dorsey and other notable speakers. Square is co-sponsoring the event along with investment firms ARK Invest and Paradigm.source

Total value locked across decentralized finance-enabled smart contracts has dipped 35% from its peak. The drop in the price of Ether (ETH) is failing to shake out the long-term holders, while the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector is also providing opportunities for investors.
So suggests a new Glassnode report that noted many long-term Ether holders (>155 days) are sitting atop profits despite ETH/USD’s 55% decline from its peak level above $4,300. In comparison, the short-term Ether holders (
“After almost hitting 46% of the market cap in unrealized gain, short-term holders are now holding an aggregate paper loss of -25% of the market cap,” Glassnode wrote. “Conversely, long-term holders remain firmly in profit, holding paper gains equivalent to around 80% of the market cap.”
Those in losses have a higher probability of liquidating their ETH holdings, added Glassnode while citing its proprietary STH-NUPL (short-term holders’ net unrealized profits-losses) indicator, which fell below zero.more