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✖️ dYdX Chain trading goes live, enters beta mainnet stage following governance vote
The standalone Cosmos-based Layer 1 dYdX Chain has entered its beta mainnet stage, enabling active trading to go live for the first time following a decisive governance vote. Transitioning from its alpha stage, dYdX Chain’s beta launch occurred at 8:45 a.m. EST on Monday, according to a blog post by the dYdX Operations subDAO, which leads decentralized infrastructure for dYdX Chain. The launch followed a community vote to change trading on all markets from post-only to active, which garnered over 99% support.
Users can now engage in trading across more than 33 perpetual markets via the dydx.trade platform, offering up to 20x leverage. No trading rewards will be distributed during this stage, but validators and stakers will accrue trading fees, according to the post. “The beta stage serves as the critical testing phase for active trading environments,” the subDAO wrote. The alpha mainnet for dYdX version 4, along with the debut of its Cosmos-based blockchain, was launched on Oct. 26, signaling a notable transition for the leading decentralized derivatives platform to become a standalone Layer 1 on Cosmos after previously relying on Ethereum Layer 2 scaling solution StarkEx in version 3.
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📣 Onecoin 'Compliance' Head Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud and Money Laundering Charges
Irina Dilkinska, the one-time head of legal and compliance at Onecoin, has pleaded guilty to “wire fraud and money laundering charges,” Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has said. In a Nov. 9 press release, Williams said the charges against Dilkinska relate to her role in organizing the transfer of $110 million in fraudulently obtained funds to a Cayman Islands entity.
Founded in 2014 by Ruja Ignatova, aka Cryptoqueen, and Karl Sebastian Greenwood, Onecoin operated as a multi-level marketing (MLM) network which encouraged members to recruit others to purchase cryptocurrency packages. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, Onecoin generated billions of dollars for founders like Ignatova but left many investors worse off. “As Onecoin’s so-called ‘Head of Legal and Compliance’ Irina Dilkinska accomplished the exact opposite goal of her position. As she has now admitted, Dilkinska facilitated the laundering of millions of dollars of illicit profits Onecoin accrued through its multi-level marketing scheme.”
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🆘 DeFi platform Raft pauses minting of its stablecoin after acknowledging 'security vulnerability'
DeFi platform Raft paused further minting of its stablecoin known as R on Friday after it acknowledged what it said was a "security vulnerability." Users on social media pointed to onchain data that showed a presumed hacker had burnt millions worth of ether in the apparent exploit. Wintermute Head of Research Igor Igamberdiev said 6.7 uncollateralized R stablecoin had been minted and then converted into ether.
"The twist is that they converted them into ETH, which was sent to the null address," he wrote on X, detailing an apparent coding mistake. "Instead of sending ETH to the attacker, coins went to the null address, which has no private key, oops." The R stablecoin depegged from its typical price of $1, falling to as low as $0.18 before recovering somewhat. It was trading for $0.78 at 6:34 p.m. ET, according to CoinGecko. "We are currently investigating and will provide an update as soon as we can," it wrote on X. "Existing users are still able to repay their positions and receive their collateral."Instead of sending ETH to the attacker, coins went to the null address, which has no private key, oops." Raft did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Block.
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🔵 Circle releases v2.2 for USDC and EURC stablecoins with improvements to account abstraction, security, and lower gas fees
Stablecoin issuer Circle launched its v2.2 upgrade for USDC and EURC. The new features for the two stablecoins include decreased gas costs, better support for account abstraction and increased security for transactions on EVM blockchains, according to a company statement. The last time Circle unveiled upgrades to USDC was in early 2021, the firm added. There will be six new changes to the USDC and EURC smart contracts and they'll be implemented through a single v2.2 upgrade.
The upgrade is fully backwards-compatible, does not introduce any breaking changes to existing integrations, and requires no action from developers or users," Circle wrote in the release. Further updates include enabling signature validations from smart contract wallets, improvements to checking blocklists, better resilience against forks, removing blocklist checking from functions that don't move funds, skipped timestamp check when deadline is set to maximum amount, and a one-time rename for the EURC symbol from EUROC, the firm added. Circle will begin rolling out the v2.2 upgrades on Nov. 9 and plans to finish the updates "the next few months."
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💰 Ether is now slightly outperforming bitcoin, whose dominance is declining
Ether has made a small advancement over the last week in terms of its performance relative to bitcoin, according to data from CoinShares. "Over the last week, ether has outperformed bitcoin by about 4.55%," CoinShares Research Associate Luke Nolan told The Block. However, Nolan added that a closer look at the ETH/BTC trading pair shows ether's recent gains are more of a technical bounce than an indication of a pickup of interest in Ethereum itself.
Nolan shared ETH/BTC ratio data with The Block that showed that ether had recently dipped into technical lows against bitcoin that were last seen in June 2022. However, the data revealed ether has bounced back above these lows over the past few days. zkLink Co-Founder Vince Yang put forward some possible reasons for the recent ether uptick. "The upcoming Cancun upgrade has resulted in increasing interest and demand. We believe the driving factor of ETH is the development of the technology and ecosystem. The demand and the price of ETH will continue to rise, at some point, likely to overturn bitcoin which has no real business use case other than value storage and transaction," Yang told The Block.
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🔴 Ava Labs lays off 12% of staff to ‘reallocate resources,’ CEO says
Ava Labs, the main developer of the Avalanche blockchain, laid off 12% of its workforce, its chief said today. Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, said in a post on X that the staff cuts allow the firm. “This reduction in force affected 12% of Ava Labs…Bear markets are difficult to navigate,” Sirer wrote. “Ava Labs is fortunate to have significant runway and resources at our disposal, and we will be focusing those resources on advancing the Avalanche ecosystem for years to come.”
Sirer did not specify which company divisions had to reduce their headcounts, but Garrison Yang, Ava Labs’ VP of Growth and Strategy said today in a LinkedIn post that the company has laid off employees in the marketing team. “Today was the last day at Ava Labs for many people on our world class marketing team,” Yang said in the post. “These are the people who [brought] Avalanche's gaming brand from zero to top of the pack in less than a year… These people have helped Avalanche navigate multiple industry blow ups, a bear market, and countless other challenges.”. The layoff comes after the company said last month that it had hired two Polygon and OKX employees.
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🏦 Coinbase 'Ready to Hit the Ground Running' on Bitcoin ETF Approval, Says COO
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is prepared to move quickly if a spot Bitcoin ETF is approved soon, Coinbase COO Emilie Choi said during an earnings call Thursday with investors and analysts. “We are ready to hit the ground running,” Choi said. “They should add credibility to the market, and we should see increased liquidity and market stability, as we've seen with other asset classes, such as a gold ETF.” The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has hesitated to approve one thus far.
Crypto moguls, such as the Winklevoss twins, have pursued ETF-like products that let investors gain Bitcoin exposure in a brokerage account for more than a decade. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has hesitated to approve one thus far. However, the hype has hit new levels this year, in light of Grayscale’s courtroom victory and several financial giants, such as BlackRock and Fidelity, that have thrown their weight into the mix of ETF hopefuls. JP Morgan analysts think it’s “most likely” that a spot Bitcoin ETF is approved within the next three months. As a spot Bitcoin ETF makes it easier for institutional investors to trade Bitcoin—without needing to worry about self-custody.
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🔵 Circle Mint Account Closure for Individual Customers, Institutions Only Now Supported
Circle, a well-known company in the cryptocurrency world, particularly for issuing stablecoins, has announced that it is currently in the process of discontinuing support for consumer Circle Mint accounts. This strategic decision, which has been communicated directly to individual consumers, is designed to streamline operations solely for consumer accounts. Importantly, this change will not affect business or institutional accounts, which will continue to operate as usual.
Circle Mint Account Closure for users with zero balances in their accounts because support will soon end. The closure of these consumer accounts is currently scheduled for the end of November. This means that users who wish to mint Circle stablecoins, such as the widely-used USDC and the Euro-based EURC, will need to look for alternative platforms on which to conduct these activities. In addition, Allaire highlighted the strong partnerships that Circle has built with various global retail entities. This includes their strategic partnership with Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. These partnerships have allowed for comprehensive retail access to USDC at no additional fees while also maintaining a 1:1 exchange rate.
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💰 Solana-Based Products Lead with 74% AUM Increase in October: CCData
October witnessed significant advancements in the industry owing to the launch of six ETH Futures ETFs, offering investors a chance to delve into Ether futures. Bitcoin responded positively to the developments. Further gains were fueled by speculations about BlackRock’s application approval of a spot BTC ETF in the United States. As a result, the total assets under management (AUM) for digital asset products surged by 6.74%, reaching $31.7 billion in October. This represented the first upturn since July 2023.
Despite affiliation to FTX and its disgraced founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as its own share of outages, Solana has managed to recover this year. This is evident by the continued inflow streak over the past several weeks. Meanwhile, the assets under management (AUM) for Bitcoin-based products also surged by 11.1%, reaching $23.2 billion and commanding a 73.3% market share. This signifies a rise from 70.5% in September. Ethereum-based products, however, witnessed a decrease despite the introduction of new ETFs. These products collectively experienced a 5,45% decline, lowering their AUM to $6,35 billion, and their market share dropped to 20.1%. This marks a down from 22.6% in September. Basket-based products, on the other hand, saw a 2,10% increase, reaching $1,19 billion and capturing 3,75% of the market.
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🇹🇼 Taiwan officially proposes crypto bill with first reading passed at parliament
Taiwan officially proposed a draft crypto act for first reading today. "After the first reading of the bill, discussions on the regulatory framework for the virtual asset industry have progressed to the next stage," Yung-Chang Chiang, a member of the Legislative Yuan who jointly proposed the special act, told The Block. A proposal to regulate crypto assets passed the first reading at the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan’s parliament, according to official records.
Taiwan’s FSC last month released guidelines for the crypto sector to form its own self-supervisory rules through a potential industry association, such measures lack legal enforceability, the lawmaker said. “In this case, under the authority of this special law, regulatory authorities can impose administrative penalties on operators who violate these self-regulation rules. Without such a special law, the regulators would lack the ability to impose penalties,” Chiang told The Block earlier this month at a parliament hearing. The special crypto law, proposed by Chiang and 16 other lawmakers, would require all crypto platforms operating in Taiwan to apply for a permit. If they failed to, regulators could order them to cease operations.
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🇺🇸 FBI Charges 6 for Allegedly Running $30M Money Transmitting Business Using Crypto
The FBI has charged six people for allegedly operating an illegal $30 million money-transmitting business using cryptocurrencies, according to court documents filed Wednesday in the Southern District of New York. The six – Shaileshkumar Goyani, Brijeshkumar Patel, Hirenkumar Patel, Naineshkumar Patel, Nileshkumar Patel and Raju Patel – operated without an appropriate money transmitting license in New York, according to the filing. The details, disclosed in the unsealed affidavit of an FBI agent seeking the individuals' arrest.
The U.S. Magistrate judge has granted the conditional release of at least one of the people named, Naineshkumar Patel, according to a court document. The filing cites an unidentified co-conspirator as saying that at least some clients "made money by selling drugs" and that the wealthiest clients "were hackers." The co-conspirator told an undercover officer that he had made approximately $30 million over three years through the exchange of cash for virtual currency. The arrested individual would later become a confidential source and for the next eight months cooperate with law enforcement in approximately 80 controlled pick-ups of cash totaling approximately $15 million.
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💰 FTX customer refund plan outlines settlement to return 90% of funds
According CoinDesk, FTX customer refund plan could return up to 90% of creditor holdings that were held at the exchange before it went bust. The debtors’ group, overseeing the bankruptcy process, plans to file the proposal with a U.S. Bankruptcy Court by December 16, 2023. FTX collapsed after CoinDesk published revelations about its balance sheet. The new CEO, John J. Ray III, criticized the company’s financial controls, and founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing criminal charges.
The proposal suggests dividing the missing customer assets into three pools based on the circumstances at the start of the Chapter 11 cases: assets for FTX.com customers, assets for FTX.US customers, and a general pool of other assets. Customers with a preference settlement amount below $250,000 can accept the settlement without any reduction in claim or payment. Creditors would also receive a “Shortfall Claim” against the general pool, corresponding to the estimated value of the missing assets at the exchange. However, there may be obstacles to the recoveries, such as taxes, government claims, and token price fluctuations.
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💰 GBTC discount to NAV hits lowest level since 2021 as SEC elects not to appeal Grayscale ruling
The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) discount has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fails to appeal against the recent Grayscale ruling. The GBTC discount to net asset value (NAV) — meaning how much lower the market price of each share is than the value of the bitcoin it represents — is trading below 16% for the first time since December 2021, hitting 15.9% by market close on Friday, according to The Block’s data dashboard.
GBTC trades at a discount as the shares currently cannot be redeemed, so the only option is to sell them to other prospective buyers. However, it historically traded at a premium until 2021’s crypto credit crunch. The narrowing trend — seeing the discount shrink from over 40% before BlackRock and others filed spot bitcoin ETF applications in June — is likely a sign of increased optimism the SEC will approve a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S., including the potential conversion of GBTC. However, the decision not to appeal doesn’t necessarily mean the regulator is ready to approve one. The SEC had until midnight on Friday to appeal the ruling involving Grayscale's attempt to convert its flagship GBTC fund into a spot bitcoin ETF.
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🇪🇺 EU regulator warns of DeFi risks, pushes back against 'code as law'
The European Securities and Markets Authority published a report outlining multiple risks to investors and financial stability stemming from decentralized finance. "Although investors' exposure to DeFi remains small overall, there are serious risks to investor protection, due to the highly speculative nature of many DeFi arrangements, important operational and security vulnerabilities, and the lack of a clearly identified responsible party," the report said.
The independent EU authority warned that DeFi operates in the absence of trusted intermediaries, which "could otherwise mitigate risks pertaining to financial stability and investor protection." The report, published Wednesday, highlighted the regulator's primary concerns regarding DeFi innovations. It separated smart contracts into five categories to help regulators understand the "enormous technological complexity of these systems." "Smart contracts remain an unregulated phenomenon where the accepted principle is exemplified by the notion that 'code is law,'" the regulator asserted. It said adherence to this principle creates a tendency to accept smart contract outcomes, "regardless of any moral or legal consideration."
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🏦 NPS Buys Coinbase Shares For A Total Of $19.9 Million, Signaling Crypto’s Rise
The world’s third-largest pension fund, NPS buys Coinbase shares in Q3, marking its first venture into the crypto industry. This year alone, the pension fund acquired 282,673 shares of Coinbase Global. According to the latest holdings report submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the NPS bought $19.9 million worth of shares in the digital asset company during the third quarter. This year alone, the pension fund acquired 282,673 shares of Coinbase Global.
The acquisition marks the first time NPS has included any crypto-related security as part of its investment option. With over $755 billion in assets under management, it is not common for investors like NPS to directly invest in digital assets. Instead, they typically enter the industry through company investments, as seen in this case with Coinbase. Coinbase, with its position at the forefront of the industry, is well-positioned to take advantage of this growing interest. It is expected that similar moves by other investors will emerge in the coming months, signaling the continued development and potential of the crypto market. The fact that NPS, a traditional finance and investment entity, has shown interest in purchasing Coinbase shares highlights.
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🔻 Ex-Polygon Veteran Wyatt Joins Optimism Foundation Unit in Growth Role
Optimism Foundation has hired Ryan Wyatt as as chief growth officer, just four months after he departed rival Polygon Labs in a management shakeup. As CGO of Optimism Unlimited Ltd., an operating subsidiary of the Optimism Foundation, Wyatt will be responsible for supporting blockchain development, and helping developers build across the Optimism ecosystem. The Optimism Foundation is tasked with supporting the broader community of companies and developers committed to Optimism's technology.
Earlier this year, when the U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase launched its Base blockchain, the project relied on technology from OP Labs, the primary developer behind Optimism. He has a wealth of experience in gaming from his time at Polygon as well as in a prior role at YouTube, where he first started exploring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital ownership. “I really do think that Optimism is the best team in crypto, hands down,” Wyatt told CoinDesk in an interview. “I loved my time at YouTube, I loved my time at Polygon. I'm super happy with the work that I did at both of those places. I'm so eager about what Optimism can do and what they've already done.”
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📣 JPMorgan Adds Programmable Payments to JPM Coin
Users of JPMorgan's (JPM) blockchain-based settlement token, JPM Coin, can now program their accounts to make payments automatically according to preset conditions. The financial giant is allowing clients to plug in conditions for funds to be moved to cover overdue payments or margin calls, according to an email on Friday. Previously, they had to set standing orders for payments to take place at a particular time, whereas now they can program them to kick in when the relevant criteria are met.
JPMorgan introduced JPM Coin in 2019 to enable institutional clients to make wholesale payments on a blockchain. Last month it reached the milestone of handling $1 billion of transactions daily, though this remains a trivial figure compared with the $10 trillion the bank moves every day in total. "This new feature helps clients to respond dynamically to events, which is ever more important as 24x7 payment infrastructure proliferates, and responding to volatility becomes vital," the bank said. Previously clients would need to set standing orders for payments to take place at a particular time; now they can program them to kick in when the relevant criteria are met. whereas now they can program them to kick in when the relevant criteria are met.
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📈 Unlock a world of crypto insights at Charts | Signals & Trading with over 133,000 members. Discover technical analysis, swing, and scalp trades to elevate your trading journey. Don't miss out, join the channel now and become a part of this thriving community
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🪙 Aave pauses V2 on Ethereum, freezes certain assets on V3 due to reported issue
DeFi lending protocol Aave has paused some operations as a temporary protection measure following reports of an issue, the protocol announced in a post on X. No funds are at risk, the protocol added. The protocol has paused Aave V2 operations on Ethereum, along with freezing certain assets on Aave V3 on Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. The protocol announced service will be restarted following the approval of a forthcoming proposal to restart the paused operations.
The protocol clarified that V3 remains live on Ethereum, Base, and Metis, and V2 operations on Polygon and Avalanche are unaffected. Aave did not respond immediately to a request from comment from The Block. The protocol has paused Aave V2 operations on Ethereum, along with freezing certain assets on Aave V3 on Polygon, Arbitrum, and Optimism. The protocol announced service will be restarted following the approval of a forthcoming proposal to restart the paused operations, and that a postmortem explaining the issue will be released "once the issue is fully resolved." No user funds are currently at risk, the protocol added.
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🪙 Tether extends debt financing to Northern Data capped at $610 million
Northern Data Group, a German data center operator, has secured a debt financing facility of up to €575 million ($610 million) from Tether Group, the stablecoin issuer, to expand its Bitcoin mining, AI, and data center operations. “Northern Data Group entered into a loan agreement with a company of the Tether Group, under which it secured a €575 million debt financing facility,” Northern Data wrote in a statement. “The facility is unsecured, at standard market conditions and has a term until Jan. 1, 2030.”
Northern Data Group to continue capitalizing on the market opportunities within each sector of our three subsidiaries, Taiga Cloud, Ardent Data Centers and Peak Mining," Northern Data CEO Aroosh Thillainathan added. "We’re excited for the further innovation we will achieve through this raise as we drive further progress in the AI, ML and Generative AI industries.”. Peak Mining is the group’s mining business, with the financing being used to scale its Bitcoin mining operations via purpose-built MicroBT liquid-cooling mining technology. Liquid-cooled mining offers more efficient heat management and potentially higher hardware performance compared to traditional air-cooled mining. However, it typically involves higher setup costs and more complex maintenance.
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🇬🇧 UK confirms plans to regulate crypto industry with formal legislation
The U.K. government on Monday confirmed plans to regulate the cryptocurrency industry, announcing in a consultation paper that it will look to bring in formal legislation for crypto activities by 2024. The government published its response to a consultation paper issued earlier this year, which outlined recommendations on regulating the crypto industry. In the Monday paper, the government said it intends to bring a number of cryptoasset activities under the same regulations that govern banks and other financial services firms.
The government’s proposals include stricter rules for exchanges, custodians that store crypto on behalf of clients, and crypto lending companies. The U.K. also proposes stricter regimes for market abuse and cryptoasset issuance and disclosures. The government aims to introduce laws for the crypto industry before Parliament by 2024, according to the paper. The EU set out a clear framework for digital assets with its MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation, including a licensing process for crypto firms. The U.K. is further ahead in the process than other tech leading nations. Numerous bills are going through Congress, but the U.S. is far behind others when it comes to bringing about formal federal laws for the crypto industry.
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📣 JPMorgan Settles Transactions for $1 Billion Daily Using JPM Coin
JPMorgan has reported that jpm coin, the cryptocurrency created by the financial giant, is being used to settle $1 billion daily. According to statements from JPMorgan’s Global Head of Payments Takis Georgakopoulos, the bank plans to expand on jpm coin’s usage in the future, widening adoption. Jpm coin allows making transactions denominated in dollars and recently in euros using the Qorum blockchain, a distributed ledger created by the bank in 2016 and sold to the Ethereum software company Consensys in 2020.
Announced in 2019 by JPMorgan and beginning to be used commercially in 2020, jpm coin is one of the few blockchain applications being used by banks to reach this level of adoption, even if the amount pales in comparison to the $10 trillion transacted using JPMorgan’s traditional banking solutions, according to Bloomberg. Georgakopoulos hinted at a possible application of deposit tokens for retail purposes. Deposit tokens, which JPMorgan considers an evolution of stablecoins, represent a claim on a deposit at a regulated financial institution, like a bank. More recently, in September, sources stated the bank was developing a platform that would use deposit token technology to bring quick settlements and payments to its institutional customers.
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🇺🇸 SEC's Gensler stays true to form, uses Wednesday speech to say crypto is full of 'fraud, scams, bankruptcies and money laundering'
Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler is standing firm in his long-held view that many cryptocurrencies are subject to existing securities laws, despite pushback from the industry. Gensler, who has also said that crypto firms are subject to the same rules as traditional finance, reinforced his view on Wednesday in prepared remarks at the 2023 Securities Enforcement Forum. His comments came amid a week of rabid speculation about the status of pending applications for spot bitcoin ETFs.
The agency has brought numerous cases against crypto firms over the past year, including ones against U.S.-based Coinbase and the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance. In those lawsuits, the agency often cites the Howey Test, a 1946 U.S. Supreme Court case involving citrus groves to determine whether transactions are investment contracts and thus subject to securities laws. However, that approach has garnered criticism from some, including Coinbase, which has said the SEC stretched its arguments in Howey "beyond recognition." Gensler also spoke in general about charges the SEC has brought against others, including a case involving the former CEO of McDonald's. "And don’t get me started on crypto," Gensler said. "I won’t even name all the individuals we’ve charged in this highly noncompliant field."
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🟠 Binance onboards fiat partners for Euro withdrawals and deposits following Paysafe separation
Binance penned new partnerships with fiat providers to enable Euro transactions, a month after Binance's original Euro banking partner Paysafe stopped working with the firm. "We have signed agreements with a number of new regulated and authorized fiat partners to provide a variety of fiat services to our community. Users have already started being migrated to the new services," Binance wrote in a Thursday release. Services stemming from the partnership includes EUR transactions via Open Banking.
"Being able to easily convert fiat to crypto, and back to fiat again, is a crucial part of advancing the adoption of digital assets globally. Without an easy way to buy or sell crypto, users who are new to the space can find the process of buying or selling crypto unintuitive and intimidating. Offering fiat services provides essential ease of use to all participants in the crypto ecosystem," Binance added. Binance's new partnerships come after the firm experienced another major setback in the summer, when the German financial regulator BaFin rejected Binance's custody license application. "SEPA," or Single Euro Payments Area, includes 36 countries that enable cashless Euro payments in the European Union.
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🪙 Vitalik Buterin Sold ETH: No Personal Gain from ETH Sales Since 2018!
Vitalik Buterin sold ETH recently clarified ongoing speculation surrounding his alleged ETH sales, emphasizing that any transfers to exchanges should not be misconstrued as personal divestment. In a statement addressing the public, Vitalik Buterin sold ETH emphasized that these transactions were essentially acts of philanthropy or support for various charitable causes or projects, rather than indicative of any personal financial motives. Vitalik Buterin sold ETH’s declaration comes as a response to growing speculation surrounding the motive behind his recent ETH transfers.
Buterin’s commitment to utilizing his cryptocurrency holdings to support philanthropic and developmental projects aligns with his longstanding advocacy for leveraging blockchain technology for social good. His previous contributions and involvement in various charitable initiatives have earned him widespread acclaim within the crypto community and beyond. He made it clear that the transfers were made to aid various charitable or developmental initiatives, where the recipients were compelled to convert the donated ETH into fiat currency to meet necessary operational costs. With Ethereum’s significant impact in the world of decentralized finance and the broader blockchain ecosystem, Buterin’s statement serves to dispel any doubts regarding his commitment to the principles of altruism and the transformative potential of blockchain technology for social welfare.
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🪙 Tether Promotes Paolo Ardoino to CEO
Stablecoin issuer Tether has appointed Paolo Ardoino as its new CEO with former CEO Jean-Louis van der Velde transitioning into an advisory role. Ardoino became Tether's CTO in 2017 after joining Bitfinex three years prior. In that time Tether's (USDT) market cap has grown from less than $100 million to $83.5 billion as it experienced exponential growth starting in 2020. Van der Velde will remain as Bitfinex's CEO whilst Ardoino has retained his role as CTO at both Bitfinex and Holepunch, according to a press release.
“Paolo is extremely well-suited to lead Tether into this exciting new era,” said Jean-Louis van der Velde. “I believe Tether is poised to continue its rapid growth, with a continued focus on emerging markets and transformative technology. I think I can speak for the entire company when I say that we eagerly anticipate Paolo’s leadership as he guides Tether toward a future where finance knows no bounds.” The press release states that Ardoino envisions Tether as a "tech powerhouse" that will "reshape the future of finance."Tether's (USDT) market cap has grown from less than $100 million. The new CEO also hopes that company will expand the influence of the USD in global trade and exchange, which will ensure its utility in emerging markets.
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💰 Caroline Ellison Blames FTX Collapse Caused Solely By Sam Bankman-Fried
Caroline Ellison, the chief executive officer of Alameda Research, testified in the fraud trial of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, revealing details about Alameda and FTX Collapse Causes. Ellison described how FTX’s affiliated hedge fund had borrowed billions of dollars from the cryptocurrency exchange’s deposits, creating a massive hole in Alameda Research’s balance sheet. Bankman-Fried asked Ellison to create alternative balance sheets to conceal the debt, but Ellison felt a sense of relief when the companies eventually collapsed.
Bankman-Fried asked Ellison to create alternative balance sheets to conceal the debt, but Ellison felt a sense of relief when the companies eventually collapsed. She testified that Bankman-Fried was primarily responsible for the leveraged position that led to the collapse, despite his claims that she was in charge of Alameda’s borrowing. Added to the FTX collapse cause, Ellison detailed the growing sense of crisis in the crypto industry and the pressure she felt as Alameda borrowed billions from FTX. Bankman-Fried directed her to create false balance sheets and later blamed her for the worsening situation. She further revealed that Bankman-Fried sought the help of a foreign government in the past, mentioning a “large bribe” paid to Chinese officials to unfreeze $1 billion in Alameda funds. Ellison admitted to lying to other employees about the bribe.
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