Cryptoasset prices stabilized somewhat last week, after the first two weeks of the year saw precipitous falls.

Bitcoin started last week badly, at one point falling below the $40,000 level on the eToro platform last Monday. But the price of the world’s largest cryptoasset has since stabilized, trading up above $44,000 on Thursday before settling to trade around the £43,000 level over the weekend.

Ether also had a poor start to last week, falling below $3,000 on Monday, its lowest level since the end of September 2021. The cryptoasset has recovered somewhat however, rising to trade around $3,300 by Thursday and holding that range over the weekend. 

Block building mining infrastructure

Payments firm Block (formerly Square) is building systems for bitcoin miners, according to general manager Thomas Templeton.

The firm, which is led by former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, is looking to mine its own bitcoin too. 

Templeton laid out plans for mining in a series of tweets, saying the company wants to make the process of mining more distributed and efficient. 

He added that buying and maintaining the physical infrastructure for mining, from rigs to energy consumption, make it harder for people to mine themselves. 

While the plans are vague at the moment, this is not the first time Block has indicated a willingness to create bitcoin mining systems. CEO Dorsey tweeted in October 2021 that the firm was looking into the process of creating open source systems for individuals and businesses to use to mine the cryptoasset. 

Rio de Janeiro to allocate reserves to crypto

The mayor of one of Brazil’s largest cities has indicated it will begin to hold reserves in cryptoassets.

The mayor, Eduardo Paes, said on Thursday the city’s government would invest 1% of its treasury into cryptoassets. 

The city also intends to offer taxpayers discounts if they pay their tax bills in bitcoin. Finance secretary Pedro Paulo announced the city will offer a 10% discount to certain taxes when paid in bitcoin. 

The announcement was made at Rio Innovation Week, which was also attended by fellow crypto enthusiast, Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez. 

Paes intends to turn the city into a hub of crypto innovation, with other unannounced tax innovations to encourage the crypto sector still to come in the region. 

Lords committee talks down UK CBDC while Swiss test meets success

A committee of peers in the UK’s upper chamber, the House of Lords has dismissed the idea of a UK CBDC.

The Economic Affairs Committee looked at CBDCs and found that while some advantages existed, it would create significant financial stability issues. The committee also said it had concerns over privacy for users. 

Committee chair Lord Forsyth of Drumlean said: “We took evidence from a variety of witnesses and none of them were able to give us a compelling reason for why the UK needed a central bank digital currency. The concept seems to present a lot of risk for very little reward. We concluded that the idea was a solution in search of a problem.”

The report comes however at a time when other countries are already trying CBDCs, with some proving a success.

The Swiss National Bank announced on Thursday that it had conducted a successful test, where it settled transactions with five commercial banks using a CBDC. 

The trial included major investment bank names including Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS. The trial demonstrated the execution of instant payments of between 100,000 and 5 million Swiss francs. 

Switzerland is one of the most advanced nations in CBDC terms, with ‘Project Helvetia’ as it is known looking close to paving the way to a fully-functional digital currency for the Alpine nation. 

Benoit Coeuré, head of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub, which participated in the trial, commented: “We have demonstrated that innovation can be harnessed to preserve the best elements of the current financial system, including settlement in central bank money, while also potentially unlocking new benefits.”