Today, there are 35 million cryptocurrencies in the market. In the last 24 hours alone, 162,932 new ones have been created. These are all called altcoins and represent alternatives beyond Bitcoin. The total value of the cryptocurrency market—that is, the capital currently invested—amounts to €1,902,400,000,000. A lot of zeros, right? To put it in perspective, this figure is approximately 10% higher than Spain's GDP (an indicator that measures the wealth generated in a territory). Six months ago, it exceeded €3 trillion.

"Donald Trump pocketed $1,408,500,000." That was the headline of the newspaper's editorial. The New York Times On January 20, the first anniversary of the second term of the man who has turned the presidency into an unprecedented business, the newspaper warned that the figure was a conservative estimate, based solely on official data. "No president in the history of the United States has used his position of power to benefit himself as much as Trump," a senior editor added to the magazine. ForbesThe data from the economic magazine was even more lavish: Trump had a fortune of $7.3 billion in September, $3 billion more than the previous year in the same period.

They used advertisements to adopt or buy puppies. They asked for an initial payment for the animal and then, little by little, demanded further transfers for vaccinations, transport, microchipping, a cage... When the string of payments ended, they vanished, and the client never saw a trace of the pet they had bought. This was just one of the fraudulent activities carried out by the criminal network that the Civil Guard has dismantled in Vizcaya, in the Basque Country. The organization used multiple phone lines, bank accounts, and false or stolen identity documents to deceive buyers. Three members of the clan even controlled an octogenarian man, forcing him to beg. They isolated the elderly man from his family and also used his information to open bank accounts with which they committed scams exceeding €36,000. Furthermore, the illegal activity didn't end there. As detailed by the Civil Guard, the criminal group also fraudulently received social benefits—guaranteed income and minimum living income. In fact, the police force estimates that the clan improperly received over €560,000 in social benefits. Finally, they used the money obtained through scams and illegal social benefits to invest up to €55,000 in cryptocurrencies.

Digital money, in a strict sense, has been with us for a long time. Fortunately, paying, transferring, or accumulating money is, in most cases, a process that no longer involves any physical exchange—neither coins nor bills—nor the use of traditional payment instruments such as checks, cheques, or promissory notes. All of these have been progressively replaced by card charges, transfers, and other transactions reflected only in accounting entries, without the physical movement of money.

Kevin Durant, one of the greatest basketball players in history, has just recovered millions of dollars in Bitcoins, with their value multiplied by 180 (unintentionally) since he made the investment. And why do we talk about "recovery"? Because he had lost his password. This story is not unique: thousands of people who acquired them between 2010 and 2015—when the cryptocurrency system was still relatively undeveloped—can no longer access their funds.

CaixaBank will launch a cryptocurrency next year along with eight other European banks. The new digital currency will fall into the category of stablecoins, which, unlike Bitcoin and Ether, among others, avoid volatility and variability by being linked to stable assets. In this case, in which the Catalan financial institution creates a consortium based in the Netherlands together with ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB and Raiffeisen Bank, the reference currency will be the euro. The plan is expected to be operational next year.

CaixaBank has decided to join eight other major European banks – ING, Banca Sella, KBC, Danske Bank, DekaBank, UniCredit, SEB and Raiffeisen Bank International – to create a stablecoin pegged to the euro, designed in accordance with the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). stablecoin It is a type of cryptocurrency designed to minimize the volatility of its value—as is the case with cryptoassets of this type, such as Bitcoin—by linking it to one or more assets with a stable value. In this case, it is the euro.

New tax policy measure in Argentina's capital. The Buenos Aires city government has announced that it will accept cryptocurrencies for the payment of local taxes, such as property taxes and vehicle registration fees. "The goal is for the city to become a world leader in crypto", proclaimed the head of the capital's government, Jorge Macri.

As Walt Whitman says, "Every person contains a multitude." For this reason, always behaving ethically is heroic. It's a verified phenomenon: ethical values dissolve like a sugar cube when two or more values conflict. This process begins with a shift in perspective. We move from the ethical ideal to a more operational objective: achieving a short-term result. A contradiction arises between two objectives, and our brain can't handle it well. We end up rationalizing the choice with thoughts like "everyone does it," "it's too little," or "it's an exception," and we're left feeling completely at peace. An example: one day when we're in a hurry to get somewhere (operational result) we excuse ourselves from running amber lights (or even red lights) when we know we need to slow down.

He crypto fiasco The attack by Javier Milei a few weeks ago has once again exemplified the close relationship between the far right—especially the so-called anarcho-capitalists—and cryptocurrencies. The far-right president of Argentina promoted the digital currency $Libra as soon as it was launched on the marketMoments after seeing the light of day, its value swelled rapidly, only to suddenly deflate to record lows. The operation caused thousands of people to lose money: specifically, it is estimated that 44,000 followers of the Argentine leader could have been victims of the operation, although Milei claims that "only" 5,000 were involved. "If you go to the casino and lose money, what's the point?" he later justified. in an interview.

Governments and supervisory bodies are suspicious about cryptocurrencies. The aim is to increase control over a kind of asset which, precisely, is going through one of its worst moments due to the war in Ukraine. The Spanish government has now taken a step further in this direction. The Ministry of Finance is preparing a royal decree which will amend the General Tax Law and the Personal Income Tax Regulations and incorporates new obligations for owners of cryptocurrencies, both at an informative level and in terms of the operations they make. "It is a new currency we should be able to regulate so that there is no kind of fraud or any undesirable effect on the economy", Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero told TVE on Tuesday.

The American tycoon John McAfee, creator of the well-known antivirus that bears his surname, has been found dead Wednesday in his cell in the Brians II prison, in Sant Esteve Sesrovires (Baix Llobregat), where he had entered on 4 October, as confirmed to ARA prison sources. Everything points to the fact that it could be a death by suicide.