Bitcoin price – Live: Tesla investor sticks by $250k prediction for 2022 as Goldman plans ethereum options

A senior minister in Tunisia has called for bitcoin to be decriminalised in the country after a teenager was reportedly arrested for using the cryptocurrency to buy something online.

Finance Minister Ali Kooli said in a TV interview with Carthage+ that the current law was outdated and “did not represent changes in the global economy”.

He said: “Is it conceivable that a young man is imprisoned for using digital currency? I do not agree with this law and I will work to change it.”

The news comes after politicians in several countries expressed interest in following El Salvador’s lead by adopting bitcoin as legal tender.

Billionaire investor Tim Draper has stood by his prediction that the price of bitcoin will hit $250,000 next year.

Draper is one of the most prominent figures in the crypto space, having previously purchased 30,000 bitcoins seized by US Marshalls for less than $20 million back in 2014. That same stash is now worth more than a billion dollars.

As an early backer of Skype, Tesla and Twitter, Draper is famed for his future-facing investments, and has made billions of dollars in the process.

“I think I’m going to be right on this one,” Draper told CNBC. “I’m either going to be really right or really wrong [but] I’m pretty sure that it’s going in that direction.

The president of Tanzania has called on financial chiefs in the country to prepare for the arrival of bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

Speaking in Mwanza, President Samia Suluhu Hassan said Tanzania’s Central Bank should explore the use of bitcoin following El Salvador’s announcement last week that it would be adopted as legal currency.

“We have witnessed the emergence of a new journey through the internet,” she said, according to local newspaper The Citizen.

“I know that throughout the nation, including Tanzania, they have not accepted or started using these routes. However, my call to the Central Bank is that you should start working on that development. The Central Bank should be ready for the changes and not be caught unprepared.”

Bitcoin has dipped back below $40,000, with analysts warning that the market is facing a key testing point.

“Bitcoin is at its highest level since May, a notable recovery but the cryptoasset has yet to convincingly break through – and most importantly, close above – the $41,000 mark,” says Simon Peters, a market anaylst at the online trading platform eToro.

“We’ve seen the price face resistance earlier in the year at this level when it was trading around what was then an all-time high, and I would really need to see a stronger increase to feel optimistic about the price recovering and possibly pushing onto $50,000 and beyond.”

Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex is confident that bitcoin’s trajectory will remain positive.

He tells The Independent: “Sentiment towards the king of crypto continues to shift into positive territory. Whether we are about to witness a resurgence in the crypto bull market or a return to a longer-term trend remains to be seen. While the past few days have shown once again that celebrities and the movers and shakers in the space can impact the price, this will not last forever. The momentum that has won bitcoin increasing recognition as an asset class continues to gather pace.”

Bitcoin has received its first major upgrade in four years, after miners approved a protocol known as Taproot.

Miners claim it will make bitcoin’s network more robust and strong, while making it more private by essentially making every transaction appear to be of the same kind on the blockchain.

Crypto exchange OKcoin explains: “BTC transactions are publicly broadcasted on the blockchain, and since different types of transactions have different digital fingerprints, it’s pretty easy to obtain identifying information about specific transactions.

“How’s that an issue? Well, being able to track the past use of certain coins can ‘taint’ them and make them less valuable than ‘clean’ coins. It directly hurts bitcoin’s fungibility.”

The upgrade will officially activate in November.

MicroStrategy is set to increase its vast bitcoin holdings after completing a $500 million offering of secured notes

The software firm has close to 100,000 bitcoins, valued at nearly $4 billion – roughly four fifths of the company’s market cap – making it the biggest corporate investor in cryptocurrency by some distance. By comparison, Tesla holds roughly 43,000 bitcoins.

“MicroStrategy estimates that the net proceeds from the sale of the notes and the related guarantees will be approximately $488 million, after deducting initial purchaser discounts and commissions and estimated offering expenses payable by MicroStrategy,” the firm said in a press release.

“MicroStrategy intends to use the net proceeds from the sale of the notes to acquire additional bitcoin.”

Global banking giant Goldman Sachs is planning to expand its cryptocurrency trading options beyond bitcoin.

Mathew McDermott, head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, says the investment bank will offer options and futures trading in ether – the digital currency driving the Ethereum network and the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency behind bitcoin.

“We’ve actually seen a lot of interest from clients who are eager to trade as they find these levels as a slightly more palatable entry point,” McDermott told Bloomberg.

“We see it as a cleansing exercise to reduce some of the leverage and the excess in the system, especially from a retail perspective.”

Good morning and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of the crypto market.

Bitcoin has bounced back above $40,000 at the start of the week, which has helped fuel a recovery across the rest of the market.

After a volatile few weeks, the leading cryptocurrency is now trading at its highest level since May, while Ethereum (ether), Cardano (ada), dogecoin and other leading digital currencies are all in the green on Tuesday morning.

Stay with us and we’ll bring you all the latest news, analysis and expert predictions from the crypto space.