Crypto market sentiment improved vastly last week following the push by El Salvador to embrace Bitcoin as the country’s legal tender.

Already, Bukele’s announcement appears to be causing a domino effect in the Americas with government officials in Panama, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay reportedly looking to follow El Salvador's footsteps in embracing Bitcoin.  Many edited their profile pictures by adding the 'Laser Eyes' effect, a symbolic way of showcasing their bullish outlook for Bitcoin.

However, it’s not just Latin and Central American countries making noise about Bitcoin. On Sunday, Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan delivered a speech urging the country’s central bank to begin exploring cryptoassets. Even crypto-sceptic India appeared to reverse a previously hostile stance on Bitcoin, with local media reporting last week that the government is considering a new law to regulate digital asset trading in the country, and is also weighing the possibility of approving Bitcoin as an asset class.

Below is our weekly roundup of industry news. If you’d like to get in touch with us about any of our products or services, we look forward to hearing from you. Just send us a note.

This week's top stories

Volcano-powered Bitcoin mining goes from Twitter idea to state policy in El Salvador

Less than 14 hours after securing approval for a bill to make Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, the nation's president, Nayib Bukele, said he had directed local geothermal company, LaGeo, to allow Bitcoin miners to plug into his country’s volcanic resources. Bukele said that engineers had already dug a new well that would become the centre of a new Bitcoin mining hub, and shared a video. Read More

Bitcoin Taproot upgrade finally locked-in, activation set for November

Bitcoin, after four years, will finally get its Taproot upgrade after 90% of miners voted for the upgrade through 'Speedy Trial'. The change to the network opens up new possibilities for privacy, multi-signature wallets, security and scaling, and is expected to take full effect in November 2021. Read more

Cryptocurrency comes to retirement plans as Coinbase teams up with 401(k) provider

Clients of 401(k) provider, ForUsAll, will be able to invest part of their retirement plans in cryptoassets as a result of a new partnership with Coinbase. The deal will allow workers in plans it administers to invest up to 5% of their 401(k) contributions in Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and others. As of yet, executives at ForUsAll haven't disclosed how many of the firm’s 400 employer clients have signed up for the cryptocurrency platform. Read more

In case you missed it..

⚡️Solana Labs raises $314m via private token sale as ecosystem support expands.

⚡️China’s Qinghai province orders all crypto miners to shut down.

⚡️Chinese search engines block queries of Binance, OKEx, and Huobi.

⚡️Tesla will resume accepting Bitcoin when it uses more clean energy, says Musk.

⚡️MicroStrategy ups Bitcoin bond sale to $500m.

⚡️I should have bought a lot more Bitcoin: hedge fund billionaire Marc Lasry.

⚡️Iranian president wants to regulate crypto as soon as possible.

⚡️India could soon classify Bitcoin as a regulated ‘asset’.

⚡️Basel committee proposes banks set aside capital to cover Bitcoin exposure.

⚡️Invesco joins ETF hopefuls after filing two crypto applications.

⚡️Elizabeth Warren compares 'bogus' crypto to 'legitimate' CBDCs in senate hearing.

⚡️Texas to allow state banks to hold Bitcoin.

⚡️Indian law enforcement agency alleges crypto exchange WazirX violated FEMA rules.

⚡️French, Swiss central banks to experiment with CBDCs for cross-border payments.

⚡️Berkshire Hathaway invests $500m in Brazilian digital bank.

⚡️US DOJ retrieves over $2.1m in Bitcoin paid as ransom by Colonial Pipeline.

⚡️WEF issues DeFi policy ‘toolkit’—and Columbia’s already planning to use it.

⚡️Square partners with Blockstream to build a solar-powered Bitcoin mine in the US.

⚡️Polkadot says it’s ready to begin auctioning off its parachain slots.

⚡️Crypto trading platform Coinseed is shutting down following NYAG lawsuit.

⚡️Hong Kong includes CBDC in fintech strategy.

⚡️1.3% of Bitcoin’s supply has now been wrapped onto Ethereum.

From Copper

Alan Howard leads $25m extension to Copper.co’s Series B fundraising

Last week, we announced our partnership with Alan Howard and Elwood Asset Management for the next phase of the Copper journey. Mr. Howard led an extension of our $50m Series B funding round that raised an extra $25m. He said: "I am delighted to have the opportunity to support Copper. Their pioneering technology, particularly in the security and speed of cryptocurrency transactions, is essential for the traditional world to offer crypto products to their clients. This, coupled with their relentless focus on servicing clients with industry-leading customer support, is taking the best from both worlds and positioning the firm as the dominant player in the digital asset infrastructure space.” Read more

New Analyst Retrospective series

Last week, we launched a new Analyst Retrospective series that looks back on the previous month, sharing the most interesting (or weird) trends we've spotted from assessing on-chain data. The first instalment of the series discusses Ethereum supply on leading exchanges continuing its downward spiral. Read it here.

New insight: Taproot - What is it and how will it benefit the Bitcoin network?

As mentioned earlier, Taproot, the most significant improvement to Bitcoin’s protocol in years, now has enough mining support for an upgrade. In this article, we share a high-level overview of what Taproot is and what the implications are for investors such as yourselves. Read it here.

New event: The Chamber of Digital Commerce Parallel Summit 2021

On Thursday at 1pm ET (6pm BST), our CEO Dmitry Tokarev will be delivering a keynote on the institutional case for digital assets at The Chamber of Digital Commerce Parallel Summit 2021. Register here to join the event and hear from Dmitry and other leading industry players such as Michael Saylor and Lyn Alden.