Sebastian Sinclair

Online brokerage app Robinhood says it plans to enable withdrawals and deposits of cryptocurrencies including dogecoin. In a tweet Wednesday, the app provider said it “fully intends” to provide the extra functionality, though not date is provided for when it might be activated. Currently, traders can only buy and sell crypto assets within the app, according to its support page. The tweet came an hour before […]

The world’s oldest central bank, Sweden’s Riksbank, is to extend its pilot project for a potential central bank digital currency (CBDC) for another 12 months. According to a press release on Friday, the project, which is being carried out with assistance from professional services firm Accenture, will run until February 2022. The Riksbank said it would continue developing a technical solution for a central bank-issued e-krona […]

The head of the St. Louis Federal Reserve believes bitcoin does not pose a threat to the U.S. dollar’s status as the global reserve currency. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, James Bullard said the Fed’s policy focus will remain fixed on a global dollar economy “as far as the eye could see.” “Whether the gold price goes up or down or the bitcoin price […]

Australia’s blockchain and cryptocurrency companies need more support from the federal government and regulators to boost confidence within the country’s business sector, according to Steve Vallas, CEO of advocacy body Blockchain Australia. Speaking at the Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology on Thursday, Vallas said Australia has a blockchain “base” from which it can accelerate development and that his organization is now “signaling” […]

Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will conduct a public hearing this month to gauge what qualifications should be imposed on retail investors opening new cryptocurrency trading accounts. According to a report by the Bangkok Post on Sunday, the regulator is concerned for investor safety amid the recent meteoric rise in cryptocurrency prices and the resulting flood of sign-ups to local exchanges. The regulator aims to […]

SBI Holdings, a major Japanese financial services firm, is currently in discussions with foreign financial firms to establish a cryptocurrency joint venture. SBI’s founder and CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said his firm would “definitely” turn the venture into a core earner for SBI, while adding his firm is considering large scale mergers and acquisitions (MA). While Kitao noted at least two deals were on the table for […]

Policymakers in India will provide a transition period if a proposed ban on cryptocurrency usage is passed as expected. According to a report by Bloomberg on Thursday, a senior Financial Ministry official – speaking under condition of anonymity – told Bloomberg cryptocurrency holders were likely to be given a three-to-six month period to close their positions. Those still holding digital assets after the window closes will […]

The first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in North America has been given the go-ahead by Canada’s financial regulator. According to a decision document on Thursday, the receipt of approval from the Ontario Securities Commission was filed under a Multilateral Instrument passport system in multiple Canadian jurisdictions. Those territories include British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest […]

Rows of latest-model laptops, highly sought after by the gaming community, have been spotted in China being used to mine cryptocurrency. In tweets posted on Wednesday, images show a room filled with “several hundred” gaming laptops said to be kitted out with Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics processing units (GPUs). WCCTech, a computer and gaming publication, said the laptops shown in the tweets come from the Chinese […]

Mobile-focused blockchain payments startup Celo has raised $20 million from the likes of Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), Greenfield One and Electric Capital. According to a press release on Wednesday, the funding will go towards fleshing out its suite of offerings. Celo is a proof-of-stake blockchain built on Ethereum, designed to support stablecoins and tokenized assets, while utilizing cellphone numbers to secure a user’s public keys. To date, the startup […]

A website imitating the defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has been posted online as of Tuesday, hoping to lure unsuspecting victims. A warning notification was sent out on Tuesday from both the exchange’s law firm Miller Thomson, which represents the now-former users of Quadriga, and Ernst and Young (EY), a court-appointed bankruptcy trustee for the exchange. The website can be accessed at the same URL that the […]

A piece of virtual land on blockchain marketplace and gaming platform Axie Infinity has just sold for a record-breaking sum in cryptocurrency. At around 23:00 UTC on Monday, one of the platform’s newest community members, “Flying Falcon,” purchased the digital estate of nine adjacent Genesis blocks for 888.25 ether, roughly $1.5 million at the time. The transaction marks the largest non-fungible token (NFT) transaction of all […]

A Wisconsin woman has been charged for trying to solicit a murder over the dark web paid for with bitcoin. According to a report from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Monday, Kelly Harper, 37, used a dark web site to pay the administrator to have a man tracked down and then killed. Harper has admitted to authorities she paid in bitcoin for the planned crime. Three journalists […]

The additional funding will go towards the acquisition of more miners, expanding infrastructure and boosting working capital. Source link

Cryptocurrency hedge fund founder Stefan Qin pleaded guilty Thursday to deceiving investors out of more than $90 million. According to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday, Qin, a 24-year-old Australian national and founder of Virgil Capital, had been charged with a single count of securities fraud in Manhattan’s federal court. Between 2017 and 2020, Qin operated two funds, Virgil Sigma Fund […]

A demonic digital artwork on the Ethereum blockchain has been sold for a small fortune via peer-to-peer marketplace OpenSea. Selling for 420 ETH (roughly $650,000 at the time of purchase on Wednesday), the collectible non-fungible token (NFT)-based artwork is known as a Hashmask. The buyer, @seedphrase on Twitter, posted: The Hashmask platform, from Switzerland-based Suum Cuique Labs, hosts a collection of 16,384 unique digital portraits created […]

Bluford Putnam, chief economist and managing director of CME Group, believes bitcoin is an “emerging competitor” to gold. In a CME-presented explainer video posted by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Putnam said the yellow metal’s ongoing production, likely to increase in 2021, contrasts with bitcoin‘s fixed supply. The World Gold Council estimates roughly 197,576 metric tonnes (217,790 tons) of the shiny metal have been mined throughout history with […]

Two Malaysians accused of running a scam involving bitcoin could soon face physical punishment as dictated under the country’s stiff penal code. According to a report by the Malay Mail on Tuesday, Reduan Ismail and Adan Ibrahim are alleged to have defrauded three women of more than 150,000 Malaysian ringgits (around $37,000). If convicted the pair face a maximum of 10 years in prison, caning and […]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) is already set to make a movie telling the week-old story of a group of retail investors from social media platform Reddit who took on the financial might of Wall Street. According to a report from Deadline on Sunday, MGM acquired the movie rights to a book proposal known as “The Antisocial Network” on Friday from New York Times best-selling author Ben Mezrich. Winklevoss […]

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX has listed a WallStreetBets (WSB) index quarterly futures contract in a bid to capitalize on the retail trading fervor that exploded in recent days. Announced Thursday via blog post, the basket of markets that make up the contract include stocks being targeted by the Reddit trading group – Nokia (NOK), Blackberry (BB), EMC Entertainment (AMC), GameStop (GME), iShares Silver Trust (SLV) – […]

Scott Minerd, chief investment officer of the multi-billion dollar investment firm Guggenheim Partners, believes bitcoin may struggle to stay above $30,000. In an interview with Bloomberg Television on Wednesday, Minerd said he didn’t think bitcoin‘s institutional investor base was “big enough” or “deep enough” to justify its current valuation. The comments come weeks after he publicly declared bitcoin’s price should be in the hundreds of thousands […]

A San Francisco man is heading to prison after a U.S. court sentenced him for conducting a multi-million-dollar cryptocurrency fraud, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release on Tuesday. Jerry Ji Guo, 33, was handed a six-month sentence by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman and ordered to pay nearly $4.4 million in restitution after he had pleaded guilty to initial coin offering (ICO) […]

While many respondents saw bitcoin as a major bubble, 25% believed it could double its price tag to north of $70,000 by the start of 2022. Source link

Ernst and Young (EY), the bankruptcy trustee for the defunct exchange QuadrigaCX, is trying to resolve a dispute over how to value the firm’s cryptocurrency assets before disbursement to creditors. EY will head to court on Jan. 26 to argue the valuation date for cryptocurrency claims should be considered from the date of the exchange’s bankruptcy on April 15, 2019. The firm is taking a different […]

India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, CoinDCX, has launched a new app aimed to make it easy to buy and sell bitcoin and other top digital assets in a bid to capture 50 million new users. According to a press release on Tuesday, the exchange’s app offering, CoinDCX Go, provides newcomers to the cryptocurrency space a “quick check-in check-out trading experience.” The app is said to be backed […]

The publisher of the upcoming online space strategy game “Infinite Fleet” is providing a chance to buy into equity and share in future profits through the launch of a public security token offering (STO). Announced Monday, Luxembourg-based Exordium has just launched the token-based funding round in select European countries. The tokens are priced at $0.50 per EXOeu token and are being issued by tokenization platform Blockstream […]

The mostly ASIC devices used to mine bitcoin are said to have been consuming 95 megawatts per hour of electricity at a reduced rate. Source link

An offline mobile map for travelers has raised $50 million in a seed-funding round led by Alameda Research. Announced Monday, the funding will go toward the launch of a multi-currency wallet on Maps.me and enable a decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem on the offline mobile map platform. Cryptocurrency lender Genesis Capital and institutional cryptocurrency firm CMS Holdings also participated in the round. According to a press statement […]

Ripple has inked a deal with a Malaysian money transfer business and Bangladesh’s largest mobile financial services provider to enable a remittance corridor between the two countries. According to an announcement Tuesday, Malaysia’s Mobile Money and Bangladesh’s bKash will leverage Ripple’s global payments network, RippleNet, for wallet-to-wallet transactions. “This partnership will … contribute further to our national economy by encouraging inward foreign remittance flow through legal […]

A petition to the European Parliament hopes to persuade the bloc to provide financial support to victims of cryptocurrency crime. The petition, filed Wednesday by lawyer Jonathan Levy, seeks the implementation of a “regulatory scheme to compensate victims” who were fleeced of digital assets by fraud, hacks and extortion. To date, 44 supporters have signed the petition. Levy wants the EU to implement a .0001 cent […]

The eye-watering strike option supplants the company’s previous $300,000 maximum offering listed on Jan. 9. Source link

Multi-asset brokerage eToro has issued a warning to users looking to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies over the coming weekend. According to an email sent to customers and as reported by Bloomberg on Wednesday, the Israel-based company said customers could face “possible limitations” due to “challenges” in the platform’s ability to support buy orders. The company said they may impose limitations on customers looking to purchase […]

An executive at multinational investment bank Goldman Sachs believes an increase in the participation from institutional investors is the “key” to stabilizing nascent markets such as cryptocurrencies. Speaking on CNBC’s The Coin Rush on Tuesday, Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, said the cryptocurrency market “is becoming more mature” but still has a way to go. “Right now they’re [institutional investors] small … […]

The World Economic Forum (WEF) and seven major mining companies have completed the initial stage of a blockchain platform that tracks carbon emissions along the mining value chain. In a press statement on Monday, the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative (MMBI) from the WEF said its proof-of-concept carbon tracing platform COT was in development for over a year. The finalized platform will track embedded greenhouse gas […]

The liquidator of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange Cryptopia has told former customers they can now begin making claims for the return of their funds. In a blog post Wednesday, the New Zealand branch of accountancy firm Grant Thornton said it has opened a claims portal allowing affected users to register for the repatriation of property still held by the exchange. All accounts were frozen after over […]

Two U.S. government agencies are taking action against the founder of a cryptocurrency project who allegedly pulled an exit scam and avoided taxes while spending the proceeds on a lavish lifestyle. According to an indictment filed in the U.S. Southern District Court of New York and unsealed on Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has charged Amir Bruno Elmaani, a.k.a. “Bruno Brock,” on two counts of […]

Ray Dalio, the founder of the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, has offered a more positive stance on bitcoin than in comments that made headlines last month. In a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA) on Tuesday, Dalio said he thought bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies had “established themselves” over the last 10 years and were interesting “gold-like asset alternatives.” The billionaire hedge-fund manager also noted that […]

Bitcoin has fallen precipitously in the past few hours and is testing a key level of psychological support near $18,000. At around 06:00 UTC on Dec. 8, the price of the world’s first cryptocurrency fell to around $18,031 from $18,770. It subsequently retraced slightly to $18,200 by press time, according to CoinDesk’s bitcoin price index. The last time bitcoin experienced a similar drop was on Dec. […]

Last week, as bitcoin broke its all-time price high, institutional investors poured the second highest amount on record into cryptocurrency funds. According to a Reuters report citing data from digital asset manager CoinShares on Monday, large scale cryptocurrency funds saw an inflow of $429 million last week alone. The largest-ever weekly inflow was $468 million seen three weeks ago. The data showed the sector jumped to […]

A Singapore government research department has launched a new program intended to advance commercial applications of blockchain within the city-state. According to a report by The Strait Times on Monday, the S$12 million (US$8.99 million) program from the National Research Foundation (NRF) will support research and development of real-world use cases for the technology. The Singapore Blockchain Innovation Programme is expected to interact with up to […]

A Japanese city is turning to blockchain technology to allow residents to vote online in local elections. According to an announcement on Thursday, Tokyo-based blockchain firm LayerX and digital ID solutions provider xID have teamed up to build a “safe and convenient” voting platform for the city of Kaga in Ishikawa Prefecture. The city hopes the initiative will address some concerns with voting online and make […]

The U.S. Department of the Treasury wants state and federal regulators to keep a vigilant watch on digital asset innovation. According to a report released on Thursday by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, digital assets are a “particularly good example” of both benefits and potential risks associated with innovation. The report highlighted the ambitions by nations around the world in their experiments with central bank digital […]

The world’s largest music streaming service is on the hunt for a new associate director to lead its activity within the Libra stablecoin project, recently rebranded to Diem. According to an announcement, Spotify is looking for an associate director to join its Payment Strategy and Innovation team. The successful candidate will be responsible for defining the streaming giant’s global payment strategy where they will “assess the […]

One of the world’s largest ridesharing companies, Cabify, is moving to offset its carbon emissions with the help of blockchain technology. Announced last week, the Latin American ridesharing business has tapped Valencia, Spain-based blockchain fintech firm ClimateTrade to digitize and track its carbon emissions. ClimateTrade’s chief marketing officer, Ana Karen, told CoinDesk via email that Cabify selected her firm’s platform as a way to compensate for […]

Security token platform Dusk Network has become a shareholder of a Dutch stock exchange for small- and medium-size enterprises (SMEs). Announced Tuesday, Dusk Network’s share acquisition in Nederlandsche Participatie Exchange (NPEX) follows a partnership period where both companies developed pilot projects to further financial product innovation. A representative of Dusk told CoinDesk the stake was “around 10%.” As reported previously, Dusk has plans to tokenize shares […]

The head of the world’s largest asset manager has provided a somewhat bullish take on the world’s first cryptocurrency. According to a report by CNBC on Tuesday, CEO of BlackRock Larry Fink said bitcoin has “caught the attention” of many people and that the cryptocurrency market was still relatively small compared to others. Speaking to the former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney at the Council […]

Ethereum Classic (ETC) has undergone a hard fork that ushers in a new upgrade aimed to increase miner participation and increase security. According to the ETC explorer by Blockscout, at around 3:45 UTC on Sunday, the ETC mainnet reached a block height of 11,700,000, automatically triggering the anticipated Thanos upgrade. Terry Culver, CEO at ETCLabs, told CoinDesk Thanos is an “important milestone” as the network moves […]

The Venezuelan arm of the restaurant chain now accepts dash and bitcoin through CryptoBuyer. Source link

Libra, the Facebook-linked stablecoin targeted continuously by lawmakers, might get off the ground as early as January 2021, albeit in a more limited format than the original multi-currency basket envisioned. According to a report by the Financial Times on Friday, the Libra stablecoin project might actually see the light of day, according to “three people involved in the initiative,” though it may only launch a single dollar-pegged stablecoin. […]

Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange OKEx has reopened withdrawals five weeks after an abrupt suspension. In a short blog post on Thursday, the exchange announced that it was lifting the freeze at 08:00 UTC and pointed users to a compensation and loyalty program in an attempt to appease disgruntled users. As reported by CoinDesk on Wednesday, OKEx had been preparing its platform functionality ahead of the reopening by […]

Bitcoin fell more than $1000 dollars before rebounding, in the leading cryptocurrency’s sharpest decline in almost three weeks. At around 2:15 UTC, BTC began to tumble significantly as its value dropped below a previous area of support at around $18,474. Spot volume across major exchanges also rose sharply as bitcoin’s 24-hour range fell to between $19,474 and $17,284 – its sharpest decline in since Nov. 7, […]

The Australian Border Force (ABF), the country’s customs and border protection agency, wants to simplify cross-border trade with Singapore using blockchain technology. In collaboration with Singapore Customs and the Singapore Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), the blockchain trial aims to reduce administration costs and increase trade efficiency. Specifically, it will test digital verification platforms across both the ABF’s intergovernmental ledger and IMDA’s TradeTrust platform for sharing […]

Gazprombank (Switzerland), an arm of the bank owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom, has carried out the first client transactions as part of its new bitcoin services. Announced Tuesday, the bank’s launch of institutional cryptocurrency services comes after approval was granted by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. “Digital assets will become increasingly important for our clients and the global economy,” said the bank’s CEO, Roman […]

Pendal Group, an Australian Securities Exchange-listed investment manager with over A$100 billion (US$73.6 billion) in assets under management, is getting into bitcoin. As reported by the Australian Financial Review on Monday, Vimal Gor, Pendal’s head of bond, income and defensive strategies, said with the cryptocurrency “entering the realm of mainstream,” the company is now investing in bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. “All the big […]

Australia-based West Coast Aquaculture (WCA) has completed an A$5 million (US$3.65 million) initial public offering, becoming the first firm in the nation to use cryptocurrency for its capital raise. In an announcement provided to CoinDesk on Monday, fintech firm STAX said it had assisted WCA in raising just over 89%, or just over A$4.4 million (US$3.2 million), of the total raise via the stablecoin tether (USDT), […]

Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace has filed two patent applications it claims will assist authorities in tracking transactions made with the monero (XMR) cryptocurrency. According to an announcement on Friday, the firm most recently filed a document titled “Techniques and Probabilistic Methods for Tracing Monero” as a follow up to the earlier “Systems and Methods for Investigating Monero” patent application – both arising from the firm’s work […]

Mingxing “Star” Xu, founder of OKCoin and CEO of OK Group, has resurfaced after being detained by Chinese police. According to a report by Bloomberg Thursday, Xu appeared on a private social media platform to post that he had been cooperating with an investigation relating to an equity merger that OK Group had finalized years prior. The equity investee was the target of a “complicated” legal […]

One of the world’s largest poker networks has said its players currently prefer bitcoin to fiat money for payouts. Winning Poker Network, which operates a number of online poker sites, said it has been forced to buy millions in bitcoin a day to meet the demands of exiting players. As reported by Bloomberg on Thursday, 90%–95% of Winning Poker’s payouts are in bitcoin because of the […]

The U.S. Federal Reserve and the rise of “zombie companies” is prompting investors scramble to hedge against inflation using bitcoin and gold. That’s according to Mark Yusko, founder and CEO of investment firm Morgan Creek Capital Management, who spoke with CNBC’s Fast Money host Melissa Lee on Thursday. Yusko took aim at zombie companies (those that need bailouts at times of financial stress to stay in […]

A Dublin man involved in the theft of more than $2 million in cryptocurrency through SIM-swap attacks has been sentenced to almost three years in prison. Conor Freeman, 21, was handed down a two-year and 11-month sentence in the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on Tuesday. He had pleaded guilty to several charges involving “guile and deception,” according to Judge Martin Nolan. As reported by The Irish […]

Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego just declared 10% of his portfolio is now tied up in bitcoin. Announced in a tweet on Wednesday, Mexico’s second-wealthiest man responded to questions that “many people” ask him about bitcoin, saying: “YES. I have 10% of my liquid portfolio invested.” “Bitcoin protects the citizen from government expropriation,” Pliego added as he recommended “El Patron Bitcoin” – a book that is […]

Bitcoin’s price broke through $18,000 in what some experts are attributing to global events and bullish fundamentals in crypto. The world’s top cryptocurrency by market capitalization reached a high of $18,062 at 03:01 UTC, a price point not seen since Dec. 16, 2017. Over the past 24-hours, bitcoin has ranged between $16,560 and $18,062. Bitcoin is now up 146% on a year-to-date basis and has gained […]

Price appreciation in all cryptocurrencies this month is a factor behind the growth, but so are inflows. Source link

A senior executive at U.S.-based financial giant Citibank has penned a report drawing on similarities between the 1970s gold market and bitcoin. The whole of bitcoin‘s existence has been characterized by major price swings, “exactly the kind of thing that sustains a long-term trend,” said Thomas Fitzpatrick, a managing director at Citibank, in his report solely intended for the bank’s institutional clients. The report was first […]

With the launch, BitPay now provides an alternative to crypto payroll services such as BitWage. Source link

Axelar, a decentralized protocol designed by the founding members of Algorand to allow cross-blockchain communication, has raised $3.75 million in seed funding. Announced Thursday, the round saw participation from investors including Binance X, the investment arm and accelerator of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, as well as San Fransisco-based venture capital firm DCVC (Data Collective). Other participants included crypto operator fund Divergence Ventures, serial entrepreneur Waikit Lau and […]

The U.S. dollar value of the cryptocurrency liquidity locked up in decentralized finance is surging, buoyed by big gains for some lesser known projects. Source link

Blockchain platform ShareRing is integrating with Rakuten Travel Xchange, an online travel booking subsidiary of Japanese e-commerce giant Rakuten. The integration will mean Rakuten Travel Xchange customers can opt to use ShareRing’s self-sovereign identity app to access bookings at over 600,000 hotels and 200,000 rentals, according to an announcement Wednesday ShareRing said the blockchain-powered product allows passports and other travel documents, bank cards, accommodation, flights and […]

China Construction Bank (CCB) has tapped Hong Kong-based digital asset exchange Fusang for the issuance of $3 billion-worth of debt securities over a blockchain. According to a Wednesday report by the South China Morning Post, tokenized bond certificates will be issued through the state-owned bank’s Labuan, Malaysia, branch over a period of three months. Notably, the digital securities will be exchangeable for bitcoin on the Fusang […]

Lawyers of embattled former NFL player and investor Reginald Fowler have filed a motion to withdraw as his representative counsel. Source link

A former software engineer at Microsoft received a nine-year prison sentence Monday for an elaborate multi-million dollar criminal scheme involving bitcoin and digital gift cards. Ukrainian citizen Volodymyr Kvashuk, 26, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court in Seattle for 18 federal felonies related to his scheme to defraud Microsoft of more than $10 million. This marks the first case of its kind in the U.S., […]

New Jersey has inched closer to implementing its own “BitLicense.” Source link

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) is seeking legal amendments that would make it mandatory for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) within the country to report the names of their customers. According to a press release from the financial watchdog on Wednesday, a proposed update to the Act on Reporting and Using Specified Financial Transaction Information is aimed to help guard against money laundering. The act […]

Taurus Group, a Swiss fintech firm, has taken on Sygnum Bank as the latest client for its digital asset custody services. Sygnum, which is one of two B2B players that hold banking licenses from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), will utilize Taurus’s Protect secure storage infrastructure, as well as leverage Taurus’ cluster of blockchain nodes, known as Taurus Explorer. Taurus Explorer provides unified APIs […]

Coinbase is hiring in Japan, with various roles up for grabs in the capital Tokyo. Source link

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of cryptocurrency derivatives platform FTX, made the second-largest donation to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. Source link

An Australian senator has come out as a big fan of blockchain, saying the technology could help facilitate government processes, tighten up financial regulation and more. As reported by ZDNet on Wednesday, Andrew Bragg, senator for New South Wales, boldly said that “the future is technology by blockchain,” at the Future of Financial Services 2020 virtual conference. “It may well be the solution to one-touch government […]

The Bangladesh arm of HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, has completed the country’s first cross-border blockchain trade finance transaction. According to a press release on Tuesday, the digitized letter of credit (LC) transaction brought a notable reduction in the processing time compared with traditional methods – down from the average of five to 10 days to under 24 hours. The move signifies an important […]

Blockchain payments startup Ripple has joined an alliance comprising of almost 1,000 major U.S. companies and CEOs calling for calm and fairness in Tuesday’s presidential election. The Civic Alliance now has 993 member firms with an employee count totaling more than 5 million, according to the its website. “We believe voting should be safe and accessible to everyone, everywhere. That’s why Ripple is 100% in #ForDemocracy […]

Hong Kong’s government is seeking to change the rules for cryptocurrency trading firms operating or offering services within the city jurisdiction. A new consultation paper detailed by Clara Chiu, director of licensing at the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), in a keynote speech at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2020 on Tuesday, will propose that the SFC be given expanded regulatory oversight over all “centralized virtual asset […]

The governor of the People’s Bank of China praised recent tests of its national digital currency at the Hong Kong Fintech Week conference on Monday. Over 4 million transactions totaling more than 2 billion yuan ($299 million) have been conducted using the digital yuan, Yi said. Financial services in remote areas have been bolstered by new technologies, the governor explained, including microloans and risk management, which […]

Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX is increasing the margin requirements on its TRUMP and other President 2020 futures contracts. Announced Friday, the exchange said it is upping the initial margin requirement to $0.50, meaning traders must put up that amount to acquire 1 short TRUMP contract. The change comes in on Saturday at 12:30 UTC. Conversely, users wishing to go long TRUMP require $0.36, which is also […]

Figment said the latest round will enable it to continue developing its blockchain staking, governance and developer tools. Source link

The chief of Canada’s central bank has said its national digital currency initiative is progressing past the experimental phase. In an interview with Reuters published Thursday, Bank of Canada (BoC) Governor Tiff Macklem said his institution is working with G7 member states on its plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC). The digital dollar project, he said, is now moving beyond the proof-of-concept stage and […]

ASX said it was eyeing a new date of April 2023 due to higher levels of demand than expected. Source link

Decentralized lending platform Cred says it’s cooperating with law enforcement over a “loss of funds.” Source link

Coinbase has halted trading on its platform as bitcoin crawls to 2019 highs. Source link

The exchange is making it simpler to pay for cryptocurrency with Visa and Mastercard with a direct service through a regulated subsidiary. Source link

The U.S. government is pursuing a civil forfeiture claim on more than 300,000 units of the tether (USDT) cryptocurrency after they were reported stolen in a hack earlier this year. The funds, co-owned by Shixuan Cai and business partner Lin Jian Chen, were later frozen by operator Tether Ltd. after Cai reported the theft to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) in April, court documents filed […]

Chinese authorities have arrested 77 individuals and shuttered gambling sites using the dollar-pegged tether (USDT) cryptocurrency. Source link

The mandatory upgrade is the first post-launch upgrade to the Filecoin network. Source link

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The CFTC wants futures commission merchants to take care when dealing with customer’s funds. Source link

A solution being implemented to safeguard against so-called 51% attacks on the Ethereum Classic (ETC) network may not be as secure as other alternatives, according to a new analysis. This summer, the ETC blockchain suffered three such attacks in a month. Soon after, ETC Labs – leading organization supporting the network – announced it would roll out the Modified Exponential Subjective Scoring (MESS) solution as an […]

Polymarket, a decentralized information marketplace, has closed a $4 million funding round led by Polychain Capital.  Announced on Monday, the round was joined by some of the industry’s most well-known advocates and investors such as former AngelList CEO Naval Ravikant, former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors among others. The startup said the investment will help it move to stage 2 of its beta […]

The Twitter authentication service lets .crypto domain holders verify address ownership via the MyEtherWallet app. Source link

The vote had been intended to decide whether or not to reduce the token threshold required to make and pass proposals on the DeFi protocol. Source link