A recent study indicates that Spain is one of the hottest countries regarding real estate offerings that can be paid with cryptocurrency. The report, prepared by Forex Suggest, found that Spain is the country with the most properties available for crypto, followed by Thailand, Portugal, and the UAE.

Spain Ranks First Among Countries With Properties on Sale for Crypto

A recent study made by Forex Suggest, which examined which countries had the most properties on sale for cryptocurrency, found that Spain was the hottest destination for real estate crypto investors. The study, which aggregated properties available in specialized crypto real estate portals, found that 289 properties were available to purchase with crypto in Spain alone.

The report explains that the properties offered are mostly located in the cities of Alicante and Marbella, and more urban properties are in the city of Barcelona.

This number puts the country at the forefront of all other nations by a significant number. Second to Spain is Thailand, with 227 properties available, and a popular cryptocurrency haven, Portugal, ranks third with 130 properties available.

Also, the report found that the country with the most expensive prices of properties available to buy with crypto was Canada, averaging almost 250 bitcoin per property, while properties in the Philippines have an average price of a little more than 15 bitcoin, being the cheapest around the world. El Salvador, a country that has adopted bitcoin as legal tender, falls in the middle, with average prices of close to 40 bitcoin per property.

Real Estate and Crypto

The document assesses the benefits and problems that transferring a property for crypto might bring to both owners and buyers. Among the most important benefits is avoiding the associated costs of transferring and paying with fiat currency, especially if the properties involved are located overseas.

Among the problems described by the report are the low availability of mortgage lenders willing to accept cryptocurrency as a deposit, and the current stringent regulatory framework in countries like the U.K., which might bring additional paperwork to the process.

The acceptance of crypto for real estate payments has been steadily growing, with several platforms opening the doors to list prices in crypto since last year. In Aug. 2021, one of the first reported real estate sales paid in crypto happened in Venezuela, when an apartment was sold using Tether’s

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed an emergency action against Miami-based investment adviser Bkcoin and one of its principals, Kevin Kang. “The defendants disregarded the structure of the funds, commingled investor assets, and used more than $3.6 million to make Ponzi-like payments to fund investors,” the SEC alleged.

SEC’s ‘Emergency Action’ Against Bkcoin, Kevin Kang

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced Monday that it has filed an “emergency action” against Miami investment adviser Bkcoin and one of its principals, Kevin Kang, “for orchestrating a $100 million crypto fraud scheme.” The securities regulator explained that “it successfully obtained an asset freeze, appointment of a receiver, and other emergency relief” against Bkcoin and Kang.

The SEC detailed that from at least October 2018 through September 2022, Bkcoin raised approximately $100 million from at least 55 investors to invest in crypto assets. “Bkcoin and Kang assured investors that their money would be used primarily to trade crypto assets and represented that Bkcoin would generate returns for investors through separately managed accounts and five private funds,” the securities regulator detailed, adding:

The defendants disregarded the structure of the funds, commingled investor assets, and used more than $3.6 million to make Ponzi-like payments to fund investors.

The complaint alleges that Kang misappropriated at least $371,000 of investor money to pay for vacations, sporting event tickets, and a New York City apartment, among other things. Furthermore, “Kang attempted to conceal the unauthorized use of investor money by providing altered documents with inflated bank account balances to the third-party administrator for certain of the funds,” the SEC further said.

Moreover, Bkcoin allegedly made material misrepresentations to some investors by falsely claiming that either the company or one of its funds had received an audit opinion from a “top four auditor.” However, neither Bkcoin nor any of its funds actually received an audit opinion at any time.

The securities regulator alleged that Bkcoin and Kang “violated the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws.” The SEC seeks permanent injunctions against both defendants, as well as disgorgement, prejudgment interest, and a civil penalty. In addition, the complaint calls for an officer and director bar and conduct-based injunction…

Billionaire Mark Mobius, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, says he cannot take his money out of HSBC in Shanghai, China. Citing severe capital control by the Chinese government, he stressed: “It’s crazy … They’re putting all kinds of barriers.”

Mark Mobius Has Trouble Getting His Money Out of HSBC in China

The founder of Mobius Capital Partners, Mark Mobius, revealed that he cannot get his money out of HBSC in China during an interview with Fox Business last week. Mobius spent more than three decades at Franklin Templeton Investments before starting his own company. He previously served as the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group where he managed more than $50 billion in emerging markets portfolios.

Discussing the Chinese economy and problems with government control, the billionaire revealed:

I’m personally affected. I have an account with HSBC in Shanghai and I can’t take my money out … I can’t get an explanation of why they’re doing this. It’s just amazing. They’re putting all kinds of barriers.

“They don’t say: ‘no, you can’t get your money out.’ But [they say] give us all the records from 20 years of how you made this money and so forth,” Mobius detailed. “This is crazy,” he exclaimed, emphasizing that this problem is “significant.”

He proceeded to caution about investing in China, stating: “The government is restricting the flow of money out of the country … So, I would be very, very careful investing in China.” Instead of investing in China, he explained: “What we are doing is going into Hong Kong which seems to be a little more open and able to get money in and out … Putting money into China, I think you have to be very, very careful.”

Discussing the impact of China reopening after lifting its zero-Covid policy, the Mobius Capital founder opined: “Now you have a government which is taking golden shares in companies all over China.” He warned, “That means they’re going to try to control all of these companies,” noting that it already happened to Tencent and Alibaba.

Mobius stressed:

I don’t think it’s a very good picture when you see the government becoming more and more control-oriented in the economy.

“The bottom line is that China is moving in a completely different direction than what Deng Xiaoping instituted when they started the big reform program,” Mobius said, referring to the Chinese leader who served from December 1978 to November…

Latam merchants will be slower in adopting cryptocurrency payments compared to merchants in other regions, according to the latest payments survey conducted by Ripple and the Faster Payments Council. The survey, which polled close to 300 payment leaders at a worldwide level, suggests that massive crypto adoption for payments will solidify in three years.

Ripple Crypto Payments Study Shows Latam Will Lag Compared to Other Regions

The latest crypto payments study conducted by Ripple and the Faster Payments Council, a U.S. membership-based organization, shows that Latam merchants will take more time to implement cryptocurrency-based solutions when compared to other regions. The paper, which seeks to understand and measure the impact that cryptocurrency will have on the payments arena in the future, shows that other regions will have the edge in the area even with Latam’s difficulties regarding inflation and fiat currency devaluation.

Of the almost 300 payment institutions consulted in the poll, 67% believe that the boom in cryptocurrency payment adoption in Latam will occur more than three years from now. Comparatively, when dealing with regions like Africa, the poll shows that more than 80% of these leaders believe that more than 50% of the merchants will adopt crypto payments in less than three years from now.

Latam falls behind other regions like Europe and APAC, which also enjoy more favorable predictions for the massive implementation of cryptocurrency payments.

The Future of Cryptocurrency Payments

The survey presents a favorable panorama for crypto payments, viewed by leaders in the industry as a way of complementing the legacy payments system. The new blockchain-based system presents several advantages, including reduced process complexity, lower costs, and enhanced transparency, according to the report.

One of the biggest improvements of the new crypto-based payments system is said to reside in the ability to make cross-border settlements cheaper and easier. Juniper Payments, one of the members of the Faster Payment Council, estimated that institutions would save $10 billion by 2030 by using the alternative crypto system to settle payments.

In fact, this is one of the biggest advantages reported as key to the adoption of crypto for payments. Almost 70% of the institutions polled answered that the lower cost of the payment was the largest benefit of using blockchain tech for payments.

Digital adoption for payments is already growing in…

Terawulf, a bitcoin mining operation, has announced that it has energized the first nuclear-powered bitcoin mining facility in the United States at the company’s Nautilus Facility in Pennsylvania. According to the company, approximately 1 exahash per second (EH/s) or close to 8,000 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) bitcoin miners are now online, and another 8,000 mining rigs will be delivered shortly.

Nuclear-Powered Bitcoin Mining — A Milestone for Carbon-Free Bitcoin Mining

Terawulf announced on Monday that the first behind-the-meter bitcoin mining facility powered by nuclear energy has been energized, with nearly 8,000 ASIC mining rigs now operational. The current 8,000 account for 1 EH/s of SHA256 hashpower, but Terawulf expects to deploy another 8,000 miners in the coming weeks to reach 1.9 EH/s by May. According to the company’s press release about the Nautilus energization, Terawulf will receive a fixed electricity rate of around $0.02 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for the next five years.

The Nautilus facility is considered a milestone as it is the first bitcoin mining facility of its kind to receive carbon-free energy 24/7 from the 2.5 GW Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. “With the recent energization of the Nautilus facility earlier this month, approximately 16,000 of Terawulf’s owned miners, representing 1.9 EH/s of self-mining capacity, are on-site and being brought online daily,” said Paul Prager, the chairman and CEO of Terawulf, in a statement. “The Nautilus nuclear-powered mining facility benefits from what is arguably the lowest cost power in the sector, just $0.02/kWh for a term of five years.”

While 2022 was rough on bitcoin mining operations, 2023 has been easier on bitcoin miners due to a significant rise in the price of bitcoin (BTC) since the end of last year. Additionally, several firms are expanding mining operations, with some locating to Pennsylvania. Seven days ago, Mawson Infrastructure Group launched a mining operation based in Pennsylvania after exiting Australia. In addition to the 50-MW Nautilus facility, Terawulf announced that it is expanding operations at its Lake Mariner facility in New York. This move will increase the Lake Mariner operation from 60 MW to 110 MW.

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