According to Cointelegraph, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff members have issued a guide for policymakers and banking institutions on enhancing the global uptake of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). The guide, titled ‘Central Bank Digital Currency Adoption Inclusive Strategies for Intermediaries and Users,’ was released on September 21 and emphasizes the need for inclusive strategies for both intermediaries and end-users. It introduces the REDI framework to facilitate CBDC adoption.The IMF staff members highlighted that successful CBDC adoption requires proactive strategic policy and design choices that benefit both end-users and intermediaries. They urged central banks to prioritize stakeholder engagement. The REDI framework, which stands for regulation, education, design and deployment, and incentives, is designed to assist central banks in improving CBDC adoption within their countries.The framework focuses on four key pillars. The regulation pillar explores potential regulatory and legislative measures to foster CBDC adoption. The education pillar recommends developing communication strategies to build CBDC awareness, with central banks serving as the central point of communication. The design and deployment pillar emphasizes the need for strategies targeting specific user groups and creating an extensive network of intermediaries. Lastly, the incentives pillar suggests introducing monetary and non-monetary incentives to encourage mass adoption of CBDCs, such as subsidizing setup costs, transaction fees, and taxes for merchants.The paper also called for further discussions on pre-existing concerns, including the sustainability of the CBDC system, ensuring the integrity of the system, and balancing adoption with financial stability. In a related note, in August, two IMF executives proposed that increasing the average crypto-mining electricity costs globally by up to 85% through taxes could significantly reduce carbon emissions. Shafik Hebous, deputy division chief of the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department, and Nate Vernon-Lin, climate policy division economist, suggested that a tax of $0.047 per kilowatt hour could drive the crypto mining industry to curb its emissions in line with global goals.

The global cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $2.20T, down by -0.43% over the last day, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading between $62,787 and $63,560 over the past 24 hours. As of 09:30 AM (UTC) today, BTC is trading at $62,799, down by -0.52%.

Most major cryptocurrencies by market cap are trading mixed. Market outperformers include SLF, ARDR, and PENDLE, up by 34%, 23%, and 21%, respectively.

Top stories of the day:

IMF Recommends Strategies for Global CBDC Adoption

BTC Exchange Depositing Addresses Reach Lowest Level Since 2016

Bitcoin Spot ETF Holdings Reach Record High

Peter Schiff: Gold Prices Surge Amid Economic Factors

Ten New Projects Launched on BNB Chain in September, Covering DeFi and Gaming Sectors

Analysis: Fed Rate Cuts Boost Bitcoin as Looser Monetary Policy Favors High-Risk Assets' Growth

Visa Partners with dtcpay to Launch Crypto-To-Fiat Card

Key Economic Events to Watch Next Week

Larry Fink Views Bitcoin As A Legitimate Financial Tool

MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Holdings Surpass 250,000 BTC

Market movers:

ETH: $2579.81 (+1.09%)

BNB: $583.2 (-0.31%)

SOL: $145.9 (-1.15%)

XRP: $0.5929 (+1.35%)

DOGE: $0.10744 (+1.11%)

TON: $5.616 (+1.30%)

TRX: $0.1516 (-0.20%)

ADA: $0.3524 (-0.87%)

AVAX: $27.12 (-1.45%)

WBTC: $62682.04 (-0.56%)

Top gainers on Binance:

SLF/USDT (+34%)

ARDR/USDT (+23%)

PENDLE/USDT (+21%)

In a move that signals growing confidence in Turkey's economic trajectory, Japan's Rating and Investment Information (R&I) has revised the country's credit outlook from "negative" to "stable." This shift acknowledges the Turkish government's successful efforts to maintain fiscal discipline, combat inflation, and promote macroeconomic stability even as the global economic landscape remains uncertain.
Factors Behind the Upgrade
Several factors underpin R&I's positive assessment:
Strong Growth Potential: Turkey's youthful population and robust economy position it for continued growth, even amidst global headwinds.Fiscal Responsibility: The government's commitment to prudent fiscal policies has improved the fiscal balance and demonstrates a focus on sustainable growth.Tighter Monetary Policy: The Central Bank's tight monetary stance has curbed inflation, a key step in achieving macroeconomic stability.Improved External Position: A narrower current account deficit and increasing foreign exchange reserves point to a recovering external sector.
Moderating Growth, Continued Challenges
While Turkey experienced impressive 5.1% growth in 2023, a slowdown is expected in 2024 due to tighter monetary policy and subdued domestic demand. However, exports are projected to rise with the recovery in Europe. Forecasts from both the Turkish government and the IMF anticipate growth around 3.4-3.5% for 2024.
Challenges persist, including elevated inflation, the need for post-earthquake reconstruction, and external vulnerabilities. However, the government's proactive measures, including further fiscal deficit reduction and debt management, are seen as positive steps.
A Positive Step Forward
R&I's upgrade of Turkey's credit outlook highlights the country's progress toward economic stability. Though challenges remain, the government's focus on fiscal discipline, inflation control, and sustainable growth paints a promising picture for Turkey's economic future.

#IMF #Turkey #türkiye #Japan

El Salvador’s sovereign debt surged on Monday following an announcement by President Nayib Bukele that the 2025 budget would not include any new debt issuance, according to a report by Zijia Song and Vinícius Andrade for Bloomberg. This move signals a shift towards fiscal austerity and could be a pivotal step in securing a long-awaited deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Bloomberg reported that the country’s dollar bonds due in 2035 saw a notable rise of 2.2 cents on the dollar, reaching their highest level since 2021.

Bloomberg highlighted that Bukele’s plan to present the 2025 budget by the end of September comes at a critical time, as El Salvador has struggled to meet its financial obligations. Investor confidence had waned earlier this year due to the lack of progress on securing an IMF deal, an agreement that had been delayed by concerns over the country’s fiscal policies and its adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender. Bloomberg added that the IMF has been cautious, citing these factors as major obstacles in their negotiations.

Carlos de Sousa, a portfolio manager at Vontobel Asset Management, told Bloomberg that while the government’s fiscal position has deteriorated over the past year, the promise of no new debt is seen as a positive step. Sousa referred to the announcement as a vague yet important move towards reducing the fiscal deficit, with Bloomberg describing it as potentially signaling an era of fiscal responsibility for the nation.

In its coverage, Bloomberg noted that Bank of America upgraded El Salvador’s sovereign debt from market weight to overweight following an investor trip to the country. The analysts, including Lucas Martin and Jane Brauer, noted that the government appears to be closer to finalizing a deal with the IMF than ever before. According to Bloomberg, this optimism was shared by other investors, including HSBC’s Nathalie Marshik, who mentioned that even the controversial issue of Bitcoin could be softened to advance the negotiations.

However, Bloomberg cautioned that not all investors are convinced. Arif Joshi, a co-head of emerging market debt at Lazard Asset Management, expressed skepticism to Bloomberg about the timeline for any agreement. He emphasized the importance of seeing concrete progress rather than promises.

Even though the pledge of a balanced budget is promising, Bloomberg quoted Jared Lou, a portfolio manager at William Blair, who said that the biggest hurdle to finalizing the IMF deal remains the issue of Bitcoin as legal tender in El Salvador. Many investors are closely watching how the government will navigate this challenge and trim the fiscal deficit, which stood at 2.5% of the nation’s gross domestic product as of July 2024.

Featured Image via Unsplash

El Salvador President Bukele expects to submit a 2025 government budget with no planned deficit.

The 2024 budget had a $338 million deficit and the gap when Bukele became president in 2019 was $1.2 billion.

In August, the International Monetary Fund announced that it had different discussions with Salvadoran authorities and “progress has been made in the negotiations toward a Fund-supported program.”

The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said he will submit a 2025 deficit-free budget to the Legislative Assembly.

“I announce that this September 30 we will present before the Legislative Assembly for the first time in decades the first fully financed budget, without the need to take a single cent of debt for current spending," said Bukele on Sunday, during the commemoration of the 203 years of El Salvador’s independence. "El Salvador will no longer spend more than it produces annually," he continued. "We will not even lend money to pay the interest on the debts that we inherited, we will even pay that from our own production."

"A more robust economy and a truly independent country will be seen, not only because it has more freedom and security but because it will be financially independent, fiscally independent," he added. "The new generations will inherit an economically prosperous country.”

El Salvador’s Finance Minister, Jerson Posada, detailed that it will be “the first time in decades that the country will have a budget that will not issue a single cent of debt, neither local nor foreign”, Diario El Salvador reported.

Bukele has an overwhelming majority in the Legislative Assembly, with 57 of the 60 total seats among legislators from his party, Nuevas Ideas (54), and allies (3).

The 2024 budget gap was $338 million on total spending of $9.1B, according to an official document published by the Assembly. The budget deficit when Bukele took office, in 2019, was $1.2 billion.

El Salvador is unable to print money to fund expenditures because in 2001 it imposed the U.S. dollar as legal tender. The country famously added bitcoin as legal tender in 2021.

Although there are no official documents on El Salvador's bitcoin purchases, the website NayibTracker — which put together a portfolio based on Bukele’s announcements — shows that the Central American country currently holds 5,874 bitcoins at a total value of $331.4 million, which represents an unrealized gain of 32.6% or $43 million.

Bukele last month acknowledged that “Bitcoin hasn't had the widespread adoption we hoped for ... it could have worked better, and there is still time to make some improvements, but it hasn’t resulted in anything negative.”

In August, the International Monetary Fund announced that it had different discussions with Salvadoran authorities and “progress has been made in the negotiations toward a Fund-supported program, focused on policies to strengthen public finances, boost bank reserve buffers, improve governance and transparency, and mitigate the risks from Bitcoin”.

Shafik Hebous, and Nate Vernon-Lin, two executives from the IMF recently noted that crypto mining and data centres now account for 2% of global electricity use and nearly 1% of global emissions. They added that mining footprint is growing and could reach 3.5% in three years.

The executives called for the implemention of a tax system that’ll steer companies toward curbing emissions, opening the flood gates for opposing views and applauds, with MENA Bitcoin experts also weighing in.

IMF believes direct tax could curb crypto mining emissions

Shakif and Nate noted that the IMF estimates a direct tax of $0.047 per kilowatt hour would drive the crypto mining industry to curb its emissions in line with global goals.

They added, “If considering air pollution’s impact on local health as well, that tax rate would rise to $0.089, translating into an 85% increase in average electricity price for miners. Such a levy would raise annual government revenue of $5.2 billion globally and reduce annual emissions by 100 million tons (around Belgium’s current emissions).”

A September IMF paper found crypto mining could account for 0.7% of global carbon emissions by 2027. Adding that emissions from AI data centres could bring the total to 1.2% — 450 million tons of emissions in total.

MENA experts weigh in on IMF Crypto taxation solution

Speaking to Cryptopolitan, Talal Tabaa Founder and CEO of MENA based crypto exchange, CoinMENA, believes that the IMF’s proposal underscores a fundamental misunderstanding of Bitcoin, energy and free markets. He stated, “Such a tax would stifle innovation, increase costs, and be nearly impossible to enforce globally, hence the existence of tax havens.”

He also believes that this would push miners to less regulated areas. According to Tabaa deciding what energy use is good or bad should be left to free markets and not regulators.

The CEO said, “Taxing Bitcoin mining because of its energy use is as illogical as taxing airplanes for using more energy than sailboats, such logic stifles progress and innovation. Free markets should be allowed to evolve and address energy concerns naturally; otherwise, we’d all still be crossing the globe in sailboats.”

On the other hand, Mohamed El Masri, Managing Partner of UAE-based Hodler Investments, which recently launched a Digital Energy Fund from DIFC (Dubai International Financial Center) in UAE, believes that the IMF’s call to impose a power tax of $0.047 – $0.089/kWh on crypto and AI compute, respectively, is quite aggressive.

El Masri notes, “The positive thing about the IMF’s focus on crypto and AI compute is that it justifies the exponential growth that is expected for these industries. This should be a vote of confidence for international and institutional investors looking to allocate capital towards energy and compute infrastructure of the future.”

He asserts that the IMF’s serious consideration of this tax policy reflects their recognition of crypto and AI as substantial economic drivers. El Masri explained that if the IMF did not view these sectors as integral to the global economy, it would not be exploring measures to address their carbon footprints.

He further added that, “Implementing this tax policy could potentially open up new financing avenues for the IMF, including funding for carbon capture storage and utilization projects or even encouraging private sector investments. This could also lead to significant revenue opportunities through carbon credits for various stakeholders, including governments.”

Bitcoin mining companies are switching to AI

Already major Bitcoin mining companies have started to swap out some of their mining equipment in favor of rigs used to run and train AI systems. These pivots have been warmly received by investors, leading to the market cap of 14 major bitcoin mining companies jumping in value by 22%, or $4 billion, since the beginning of June, per a J.P. Morgan report in June 2024.

In a Time article, Nazar Khan, the COO and CTO of bitcoin mining company, Terawulf, stated, “If you go back five or 10 years, 80% of the data center loads were located in six or seven primary markets. Those markets are filled up, and a couple of them have already issued moratoriums on further data center construction. So those data center loads are now looking for new homes.”

Even investment firm, VanEck, noted that Bitcoin miners could generate additional revenues around $13.9 billion by 2027 diverting energy to AI and High-performance computing.

Core Scientific, the fourth largest Bitcoin miner by hashrate, recently landed a 12-year contract with AI hyperscaler CoreWeave. This deal is expected to generate over $3.5 billion in revenue by supplying 200 megawatts of infrastructure.

The post Is Ripple’s XRP Set for a Major Breakout or Just Another FUD Strategy? appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News

Ripple’s XRP has been experiencing a turbulent period, with its value dropping by 7% over the past two weeks. The cryptocurrency fell to a local low of around $0.50 but has since recovered slightly, currently trading at $0.54. 

This recent volatility has sparked discussions in the crypto community, with some experts suggesting that the fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) surrounding XRP might be part of a larger strategy to manipulate market sentiment.

Ongoing FUD Against XRP

NotFinancialAdvice (NFA), a well-known crypto analyst, recently shared his thoughts on the FUD affecting XRP. He suggests that some influential people might spread these negative stories to prevent regular investors from buying XRP at lower prices. This could help these powerful entities buy more XRP at a discount.

Why I don’t believe #XRP FUD. pic.twitter.com/KS93Cq9i5G

— NotFinancialAdvice.Crypto (@NFAdotcrypto) September 11, 2024

Over the time XRP has faced various FUDs including worries about price manipulation, legal issues, and the potential impact of Ripple’s stablecoin (RLUSD). Despite efforts to disprove these concerns, they keep popping up.

While FUD might be pushing away retail investors, XRP’s potential and Ripple’s important partnerships with groups like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations (UN) still attract interest from big institutions. 

NFA thinks that this FUD is likely designed to scare off retail investors and let institutions keep more control over XRP.

Potential for a Big Breakout

Despite the FUD, market analyst Steph has presented an optimistic outlook for XRP. Steph points to a bullish technical formation on the daily chart that hints at the formation of an inverted Head and Shoulders pattern. 

BUY #XRP BEFORE $40.00 !!! pic.twitter.com/d6O67E7b0A

— STEPH IS CRYPTO (@Steph_iscrypto) September 10, 2024

This pattern suggests a potential trend reversal if XRP closes above the neckline around $0.65. 

With XRP currently at $0.54, a successful breakout above this level could trigger a significant rally, potentially driving the price up to $1.11—a 106.31% increase from current levels.