Bitcoin Daily: Turkey To Test Digital Currency In 2021; Japan Prepares To Issue CBDC; Bitcoin Crests $28,000

The price of bitcoin has passed $28,000 on Sunday (Dec. 27) just hours after also passing $27,000 for the first time, according to the NASDAQ.

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    In a continuing showing of the strength of the cryptocurrency, bitcoin is now valued at $500,000, according to the report.

    The rise of the currency’s value has been surging just over the past holiday weekend, breaking $25,000 on Friday (Dec. 25) and then $26,000 on Saturday (Dec. 26).

    In the U.K., bitcoin has become available at over 16,000 ATMs in December of this year, a press release from East London-based cryptocurrency company BitcoinPoint says.

    With the new updates, holders of bitcoin can cash out their money at Cashzone ATMs, which are the country’s most widely-used machines.

    The update will help to alleviate a common issue with bitcoin in that there were few user-friendly, secure methods to buy, sell and use cryptocurrency in general. The new partnership will do well for the mass-adoption of crypto, the company anticipates.

    Binance KR will cease operations because of low usage and volume with limited trading pairs of BKRW. That resulted in limited liquidity for users, a company blog says.

    After the closure of the exchange, the Binance KR team plans to look over its strategy.

    The exchange will close trading services on Jan. 10, 2021 at 1 p.m., and the anticipated hard shutdown will take place Jan. 29, 2021, the blog says.

    Japan might look into launching its own central bank digital currency (CBDC) in both the public and private sectors, according to a report from Japan Times.

    Hiromi Yamaoka, a former senior official in charge of payment and settlement systems at the Bank of Japan, said China’s recent move toward adopting digital yuan had inspired other countries to try their hands at it, the report says.

    While there are no immediate plans, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) will launch a feasibility study on the idea next spring.

    Turkey is planning on piloting its own CBDC in the second half of 2021, according to a report from CoinDesk.

    Naci Ağbal, the country’s central chief banker, said as much in a statement to members of parliament Friday (Dec. 25). The project had not been previously disclosed, and Ağbal said the conceptual phase was already done and ready for further pilot action next year.

    With the surprise announcement, Turkey now joins Sweden, China and the Bahamas in some of the lone countries progressing to a pilot phase for CBDC.

    Miami Mayor Francis Suarez might want to make his city a hub for crypto at the government level, a report from CoinDesk says.

    Suarez announced on Twitter that he was considering the idea of a crypto-based local government, and tagged Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital, who is a new Miami resident and crypto Twitter celebrity, to ask for help. He said he wanted the city to be the “vanguard” of innovation for crypto.

    Suarez has also pushed for Silicon Valley tech experts not happy with California’s regulations to move to his city instead.


    AWS and Vonage Partner to Distribute ‘Natural-Sounding’ AI Voice Agents

    Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Vonage have partnered to deliver “natural-sounding” artificial intelligence (AI) voice agents for use in customer support and proactive outbound engagement like reminder calls and follow-ups.

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      This collaboration brings together AWS’ speech-to-speech foundation model Amazon Nova Sonic, which enables “more humanlike voice conversations,” and the Vonage Voice API, which provides flexible voice capabilities on a global carrier network on a per-second basis, the companies said in a Tuesday (July 15) press release.

      These AI voice agents can be used in channels that include telephones, WebRTC and mobile apps, according to the release.

      The combination of AWS’ and Vonage’s offerings provides a solution that offers responses that are natural and context-aware, development that is seamless and scalability that allows it to be deployed by businesses of any size, per the release.

      “By integrating Amazon Nova Sonic with the Vonage Voice API, we’re making it easier for organizations to deploy intelligent voice agents at scale, enhance customer engagement and streamline operations,” Fabio Cerone, managing director, telecommunications at AWS, said in the release.

      Christophe Van de Weyer, president and head of business unit API at Vonage, said in the release that the collaboration “enables organizations to transform how they engage with customers by adopting generative AI solutions that create added value for internal and external communications.”

      Research firm CB Insights said that voice AI startups raised $2.1 billion in 2024, up eightfold from the previous year. The firm said this growth was driven by advances in voice AI models that gave a big boost to applications in various use cases.

      It was reported Friday (July 11) that Meta acquired voice technology/AI startup PlayAI to support the company’s efforts in AI, which is its chief priority.

      An internal memo from Meta reportedly said that PlayAI’s “work in creating natural voices, along with a platform for easy voice creation, is a great match for our work and road map.”

      In September, Salesforce said it was acquiring AI voice agent developer Tenyx to advance its own AI solutions.

      Salesforce said it would use Tenyx’s voice AI expertise to deliver “more intuitive and seamless customer interactions.”