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The Turkish government is on the verge of finalizing comprehensive regulations for the cryptocurrency market. It has been known for a number of months that Turkey had been working towards the production of a regulatory framework for crypto, with the primary objective of securing the country’s removal from the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) "grey list." According to revelations from Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Simsek, who participated in an interview with the Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, those regulations are now nearing completion.Photo by Emre on UnsplashFramework in advanced stagesSimsek disclosed key elements of the forthcoming regulations, emphasizing the government's commitment to legally defining critical concepts in the crypto space, licensing trading platforms and aligning with the standards set by FATF. The crypto framework tailored for the Turkish market is in the advanced stages of development, with a meticulous evaluation of its technical aspects underway, noted Simsek. The overarching goal is to mitigate the risks associated with crypto trading, especially for ordinary investors, aligning with international standards to facilitate the country's removal from the FATF's grey list. Licensing and defined termsSimsek outlined the forthcoming guidelines, stating that crypto platforms will be mandated to acquire licenses from Turkey's Capital Markets Board (CMB). A number of months ago, Bora Erdamar, the director of the BlockchainIST Center, an Istanbul-based university research and development center for blockchain technology, had underscored the importance of establishing licensing standards as part of the new crypto framework. Erdamar claimed that would be necessary in order to “prevent abuse of the system.” Erdamar is of the view that any such regulatory framework may include digital security protocols, advanced custody services, compulsory proof of reserves and capital adequacy requirements. It’s understood that the regulations will provide legal definitions for essential terms such as "crypto assets," "crypto wallets," "crypto asset service providers," "crypto asset custody service" and "crypto asset buying and selling platforms." As an example, Simsek clarified the definition of crypto assets as "intangible assets that can be created and stored electronically using distributed ledger technology or a similar technology, distributed over digital networks, and capable of expressing value or rights." While emphasizing the reduction of risks in crypto trading, Simsek clarified that the regulations would not encompass the specific tax regime for virtual assets. The proposed regulations have long been under consideration as Turkish authorities aim to bring clarity to the crypto market. The Minister assured that the crypto legislative proposals would be finalized this month, preceding the FATF evaluation scheduled for February. Notably, between July 2022 and June 2023, Turkey ranked fourth globally in raw crypto transaction volumes, recording approximately $170 billion in activity, trailing behind the United States, India and the United Kingdom, as reported by the blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. A report by KuCoin last year identified a marked increase in adoption in Turkey.  It’s believed that wayward inflation over recent years relative to the Turkish lira is playing a large part in that trend. In recent weeks the Turkish president took the step of appointing an expert in blockchain and crypto assets to the central bank’s rate-setting committee. 

Bitcoin Miners Likely Selling at $28K Level, Says MatrixportAccording to a report by Singapore-headquartered digital asset financial services provider Matrixport, Bitcoin (BTC) is facing selling pressure at the $28,000 price level, possibly due to miners offloading their newly mined coins.The report, cited by CoinDesk on Friday, suggests that miners are being compelled to liquidate their inventory as profit margins have contracted in recent weeks.Photo by Pixabay on PexelsHashrate all-time highMining has become an intensely competitive and often unprofitable endeavor due to the ongoing rise in Bitcoin miner difficulty. The hashrate, or measure of how easily miners can discover a new block of Bitcoin reached an all-time high earlier this week. Markus Thielen, Head of Research at Matrixport, noted that given the current input cost and potential revenue expectations, most machines produced before 2022 appear to be unprofitable.“At the current input cost and potential output revenue expectations, most of the machines produced before 2022 appear to be unprofitable,” Thielen wrote.Forced sellingConsequently, miners are forced to sell their inventory at the current level rather than holding out for higher prices, which Matrixport anticipates. The report highlights the significant upside potential for miners if Bitcoin prices were to increase by 10% or more, as profitability could quadruple.The narrowing profit margins for miners reflect the challenges they face in a highly competitive market. As mining difficulty continues to rise, miners must allocate more resources and computing power to mine new coins, reducing their profitability. The situation is particularly tough for miners operating older machines, which are less efficient and more costly to run.The selling pressure exerted by miners can have a short-term impact on Bitcoin’s price. However, Matrixport’s analysis suggests that if Bitcoin experiences a notable price increase, miners could see a substantial improvement in their profitability. This potential upside convexity creates an incentive for miners to continue their operations and withstand the current market conditions.Ordinals bring increased feesOn the other hand one recent development that is assisting miners is the increase in transaction fees, with the development of Bitcoin Ordinals and BRC-20 tokens over the course of the past six months. That interest seems to be ongoing, and if anything we’re likely to see further development of tokens running on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. On Thursday, Seychelles-based crypto trading platform OKX proposed a new BRC-30 token standard which would enable staking of those tokens, alongside staking of bitcoin.Singapore-based Matrixport is a portfolio company of crypto investment venture capital firm Foresight Ventures, which is also headquartered in Singapore. The firm provides a suite of products that it is positioning to be innovative and easy to use, offering an all-in-one crypto financial services platform, enabling users to earn, invest, loan, and trade digital assets.The Matrixport report indicates that miners are likely selling their Bitcoin at the $28,000 level due to squeezed profit margins. While this selling pressure may affect short-term price dynamics, the potential for increased profitability if Bitcoin prices rise significantly provides miners with an optimistic outlook for the future.

Indian Railways (IR), the state-owned manager of India’s railway network, plans to issue non-fungible token (NFT)-based train tickets to transport pilgrims to Maha Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious festival. The Hindu festival is of particular significance given that it only occurs once every 144 years. ChainCode Consulting partnership According to a report published by Indian news outlet Pune.news on Jan. 13, IR has collaborated with ChainCode Consulting, a Bangalore-headquartered enterprise blockchain development and consulting firm, to provide the digital tickets. The Polygon blockchain has been chosen as the network upon which the NFT tickets will be minted. The tickets will then be made available to end users via NFTtrace, a real-world assets (RWA) tokenization and traceability platform run by ChainCode Consulting.Photo by Choong Deng Xiang on UnsplashLong-running collaborationService users and railway personnel will be free to check the validity of tickets on the public blockchain. This announcement is just the latest installment of a long-running collaboration between ChainCode Consulting and IR. In March 2024, a similar project was pursued by both parties. On that occasion, the collaboration involved the release of a series of NFT tickets for use on a train line running from Lucknow, the capital of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to the Indian capital, New Delhi.  In that instance, NFTs were minted on the Hyperledger blockchain. A previous collaboration, earlier in 2024, saw NFTs minted on Polygon for digital tickets covering journeys to the sacred Hindu city of Ayodhya. Commenting on the choice of Polygon relative to this latest collaboration, Alok Gupta, CEO of ChainCode Consulting, stated: “By partnering with IRCTC and leveraging the Polygon blockchain, we are enabling a digital-first experience that complements the spiritual and traditional significance of the Mahakumbh while introducing a new level of engagement through NFTs.” Polygon is an Ethereum ecosystem scaling network. With that, it has fast throughput and low gas fees and it's on this basis that it’s understood that Polygon was chosen in this instance. Aishwary Gupta, global head of payment and fintech at Polygon Labs, the key developer behind the Polygon blockchain, told Cointelegraph that public blockchains are playing an important role in doing away with middlemen and intermediaries.  The Polygon Labs executive stated that at both state and central government levels in India, Polygon has been used on a number of projects. He added: ”With its low cost and high throughput, we are sure that the NFTs being issued around Maha Kumbh Mela would be yet another great success.” $94 billion market opportunityTicketing remains one of the proposed use cases for blockchain technology that has the potential to gain traction. That potential hasn’t gone unnoticed by ticketing industry leader Ticketmaster. In 2023 the company rolled out token-gated ticket sales. The feature enables artists to reward fans who hold NFTs with access to exclusive pre-sale events, prime concert seating and many other incentives and rewards. NFT technology offers a solution to a number of issues experienced within the events industry, including ticket scalping, fake tickets and security issues. The live events business is a $94 billion industry, underscoring the opportunity available to be exploited by innovative NFT-based ticketing startups.