Forbes - 🚨 Bitcoin = legal tender 📄✍

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	Good Tuesday morning. This is Billy Bambrough, getting you up to speed with the big news from the world of bitcoin and crypto. Don't miss Forbes' special, Labor Day CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor offer!


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$51,144

$3,763

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Sol burning bright 🕶️


	Cryptocurrency prices are almost universally falling this morning, despite the widely-reported plan to pump the bitcoin price to mark El Salvador's adoption of the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin briefly rallied last night after El Salvador's president said the country had bought 400 bitcoins but has since fallen back toward $50,000—down 1% on this time yesterday. The one bright spark is solana, the ethereum rival that's seen its price add a blistering 6,000% since this time last year. Solana's sol token is up 30% on the last 24 hours even as every other top ten cryptocurrency records drops of between 5% and 10%. Litecoin, the so-called silver to bitcoin's gold, has dropped 10% after rallying through last week. Now read this: The disastrous voyage of Satoshi, the world’s first cryptocurrency cruise ship

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El Salvador makes history 📖



	People are seen in a store where bitcoins are accepted in El Salvador's "Bitcoin Beach" in El Zonte last week AFP via Getty Images


	Bukele's bitcoin bonanza: Just ahead of the Central American country of El Salvador making history with its formal adoption of bitcoin as legal tender alongside the U.S. dollar, the country bought around $21 million worth of bitcoin—400 coins. In a series of tweets last night president Nayib Bukele, who's been the driving force behind the radical experiment, revealed the purchase in what's thought to be the first step in a larger push to add bitcoin to the country's treasury. Sell the news: The bitcoin price spiked following Bukele's announcement but has since fallen back, dropping toward $50,000 per bitcoin before finding support at around $51,000. Past master: "The process of bitcoin in El Salvador has a learning curve. Every step toward the future is like this, and we will not achieve everything in a day, nor in a month," Bukele tweeted. "But we must break the paradigms of the past." All eyes on bitcoin: Reuters reports "El Salvador leads world in adopting bitcoin as official currency," the New York Times goes with "In global first, El Salvador adopts bitcoin as currency," while the Wall Street Journal's headline reads: "El Salvador becomes first country to adopt bitcoin as national currency." Keeping cool: Today, El Salvador launches a bitcoin wallet app called Chivo (meaning "cool" in the local slang), which Salvadorans can download and sign up to using a national ID. Bukele has promised every citizen $30 in bitcoin if they sign up and bitcoin supporters around the world are planning to match that by buying $30 of bitcoin today. Last week, the Congress in El Salvador passed a law to create a $150 million fund to help facilitate conversions from bitcoin to U.S. dollars. Why it matters: It's hoped Salvadorans will save about $400 million that's spent annually on commissions for remittances but detractors fear bitcoin could increase regulatory and financial risks and a poll last week showed the majority of people in the country are skeptical that the bitcoin adoption is being done with their best interests at heart. Fudders spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD): The International Monetary Fund (IMF), which provided an emergency loan to El Salvador last year and is now negotiating another round of lending, is wary of the bitcoin adoption plan, warning that it raises a number of economic, financial and legal issues. In late July, Moody's Investors Service pushed El Salvador's debt rating deeper into junk territory, citing "a deterioration in the quality of policymaking" including the government's decision to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. What next? Other countries around the world are watching El Salvador's bitcoin experiment for signs of success and others will likely follow suit if it seems money can be saved and reliance on the U.S. dollar can be reduced. Now read this: El Salvador’s dangerous gamble on bitcoin

JPMorgan is worried about crypto... again 😟


	🌊 Wall Street giant JPMorgan, which has correctly called at least one crypto market sell-off already this year, has warned over "froth and retail investor mania" currently coursing through the crypto market. 📈 In a Monday note to clients, JPMorgan managing director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said retail investors have been propelling smaller cryptocurrencies to never-before-seen highs, with bitcoin and ethereum losing market share. The note was seen and first reported by Forbes' Jonathan Ponciano. Bitcoin's share of the market looks "uncomfortably low" by historical standards, according to Panigirtzoglou. ✍️ "The August rally in non-fungible tokens and the pickup in decentralized finance activity have helped not only ethereum but also alternative cryptocurrencies that facilitate or plan to facilitate smart contracts, such as solana, binance boin and cardano," Panigirtzoglou wrote. "The previous phase of retail investors’ mania into cryptocurrency markets was between the beginning of January and mid-May... and retail investors are making cryptocurrency markets look frothy again." Good to know: India Must Accept Crypto as an Asset, Says Former Central Banker

✨ Kim Kardashian vs the FCA ✨


	🛡️ The U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said people in the country need to be protected from crypto investments promoted online, with the watchdog's chair, Charles Randell, singling out U.S. celebrity Kim Kardashian and calling for urgent action to risky or fraudulent crypto projects from luring investors. 🗣️ "It’s difficult for regulators around the world to stand by and watch people, sometimes very vulnerable people, putting their financial futures in jeopardy, based on disinformation and fear of missing out," Randell said in a speech yesterday. "Social media influencers are routinely paid by scammers to help them pump and dump new tokens on the back of pure speculation." The Financial Times has a full write-up. 💯 Kardashian recently encouraged her social media followers on Instagram to speculate on cryptocurrencies, disclosing that the post was a paid advertisement. However, Randell criticized existing rules that don't require influencers to give any information about the cryptocurrency they're promoting, including that this particular token was "created a month before by unknown developers—one of hundreds of such tokens that fill the crypto-exchanges"—adding: "I can’t say whether this particular token is a scam."

	Billy Bambrough
	Forbes Contributor

I am a journalist with significant experience covering technology, finance, economics, and business around the world. I write about how bitcoin, crypto and blockchain can change the world.

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Forbes - 🚨 Bitcoin = legal tender 📄✍

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