The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) is reportedly seeking to ban all cryptocurrency transactions in Pakistan. Pakistan’s Sindh High Court reportedly held a hearing related to the legal status of cryptocurrencies in the country, in which several Pakistani authorities, including the SBP, submitted a document to the court, arguing that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) are illegal and cannot be used for trade. According to local news channel Samaa TV, the document cited at least 11 countries, including China and Saudi Arabia, that have opted to ban cryptocurrencies. The Pakistani central bank reportedly urged the court not only to ban cryptocurrency activity but also to impose penalties against crypto exchanges. The SBP also referred to several investigations against ...
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is putting more effort into increasing compliance in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Russia and Ukraine. Binance is planning to extend its operations in the region and boost local cryptocurrency compliance and education, Gleb Kostarev, head of operations for Russia and the CIS at Binance, told Cointelegraph on Tuesday. The company additionally expects to focus on the local Binance Smart Chain development and community, he noted. As part of the effort, Binance announced several local hires, including Olga Goncharova, Binance’s new director of government relations in Russia and the CIS. Goncharova previously served at the Bank of Russia as director of the bank’s report processing department from 2014. She was responsible for...
BTC Markets, the largest digital assets exchange in Australia, has announced it will be sponsoring professional tennis player Ajla Tomljanovic for the Australian Open and Sydney Tennis Classic tournaments taking place this month. In a Tuesday announcement, BTC Markets said it would be backing Tomljanovic as part of a partnership inspired in part by “increased investor activity from female investors in the last financial year.” Users from the crypto exchange will have the chance to win tickets to the tournaments and a meeting with the tennis star with a nonfungible token showing proof of attendance. Flash Competition to win 2 tix to see @Ajlatom play tomorrow at the Sydney Classic! Yup, you read that right, tennis & crypto united at last Gotta love how Aussies support their own – ...
Liechtenstein-based crypto exchange LCX has confirmed the compromise of one of its hot wallets after temporarily suspending all deposits and withdrawals on the platform. The hack was first identified by PeckShield, a blockchain security company, based on the suspicious transfer of ERC-20 tokens from LXC to an unknown Ethereum wallet. hot wallet compromised? @lcx https://t.co/uL5a7oCFfM — PeckShield Inc. (@peckshield) January 9, 2022 The probable hot wallet compromise was soon confirmed by the exchange as it announced the loss of numerous tokens including Ether (ETH), USD Coin (USDC) and other tokens including its in-house LCX token. Ethereum blockchain based assets such as ETH, USDC, EURe, LCX and other assets have been moved to the Hacker ETH Wallet: 0x165402279F2C081C54B00f0E08812F...
Pakistan‘s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) reportedly issued a formal notice to crypto exchange Binance in an effort to identify links around a multi-million crypto scam in the region. The government of Pakistan started a criminal investigation after receiving numerous complaints against an ongoing scam that involved misleading investors into sending funds from Binance wallets to unknown third-party wallets. According to local coverage, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing has issued an order of attendance to Binance Pakistan’s general manager Hamza Khan to identify the exchange’s link to “fraudulent online investment mobile applications.” KARACHI: Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has detected an online fraud of Rs100 billion using a cryptocurrency and issued notice to the local represent...
A cryptocurrency exchange in Hong Kong has reportedly stopped all withdrawal requests, according to reports. Coinsuper is the sole crypto firm in China that is licensed by the government, and was founded by a former senior UBS Group AG executive in November 2017. The report by Bloomberg suggests that customers of the bourse have been unable to withdraw funds since late November, based on a review of messages on the exchange’s primary Telegram chat group. Five clients reportedly filed police complaints after token withdrawals were apparently halted, leaving them unable to reclaim around $55,000 of cryptocurrency and money. I called the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong about the withdrawal trouble of the Coin Super Exchange, I was asked to report to the Hong Kong Police Force, but this ...
The end of the year is normally a time to wind down and prepare for the holiday season, but the last few weeks of 2021 saw a crypto market that showed no signs of resting. One of the headline-grabbing stories related to Terra reaching an all-time high in terms of the total value locked (TVL), and the project surpassed Binance Smart Chain (BSC) as the second-largest decentralized finance blockchain after Ethereum. After reaching the $20-billion TVL mark on Dec. 24, Terra’s TVL has come down to around $19.3 billion at the time of writing according to data from Defi Llama, but this is in no way, shape or form a bearish signal. Top 5 total value locked on the top 5 blockchains. Source: Defi Llama Currently, Terra has only 14 protocols built on the chain, compared to the 257 protocols on ...
Stablecoins have emerged as a foundational part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem over the past couple of years due to their ability to provide crypto traders with an offramp during times of volatility and their widespread integration with decentralized finance (DeFi). These are necessary for the health of the ecosystem as a whole. Currently, Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are the dominant stablecoins in the market, but their centralized nature and the persistent threat of stablecoin regulation have prompted many in the crypto community to shun them and search for decentralized alternatives. Top 9 stablecoins by reported market capitalization. Source: Messari Binance USD (BUSD) is the third-ranked stablecoin and is controlled by the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. DAI, the top rank...
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky tweeted a poll on Monday asking his roughly 400,000 followers what they wanted from the rental platform in 2022. Chesky has today revealed that the majority of respondents want to be able to pay with Bitcoin (BTC) or other popular digital currencies when renting their next house or apartment on Airbnb. Other requests included clear pricing displays, a loyalty program for visitors, up-to-date cleaning charges, and enhanced customer service. Got 4,000 suggestions. Here are the top 6: 1 – Crypto payments (top suggestion)2 – Clear pricing displays3 – Guest loyalty program4 – Updated cleaning fees5 – More long-term stays & discounts6 – Better customer service Already working on most, will look into others now! https://t.co/rxE...
Indian crypto exchange WazirX has reportedly paid over $6.6 million (49.2 crore rupees) following non-payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) on trade commissions. The total recovery includes the pending tax of $5.43 million (40.5 crore rupees), the interest and a penalty for non-payment. Government officials from the Central GST and Central Excise committee (CGST Mumbai Zone) recovered the funds from the crypto exchange after detecting a GST evasion of $5.43 million on the commissions. A typical GST fraud involves creating fake invoices without actually moving the goods between the seller and the buyer. Officers of CGST Mumbai East comm’te have detected GST Evasion of Rs 40.5 Cr. on commission of Wazir X Crypto Currency & recovered Rs 49.2 Cr. in cash as GST, interest & Pena...
Bitcoin (BTC) balances rising on exchanges may not be a sign of investors preparing to sell, new research argues. Unveiling the latest data from across exchanges on Dec. 28, Glassnode on-chain analyst TXMC pointed the finger at fresh changes in China for rising balances elsewhere. Binance “absorbing” orphaned Huobi users The end of December is seeing nerves fray as a rangebound BTC price combines with increased inflows to exchanges. A classic indicator that traders are at least arming themselves to de-risk in the event of further price weakness, Binance has been particularly closely eyed as its BTC stocks rise. At the same time, however, Chinese investors are being frozen out of international spot trading venues in the aftermath of China’s ongoing crackdown on cryptocurre...
Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange FTX is calling on banks to reach out and discuss the possibility of accepting stablecoins in exchange for a $1 million reward. In a Tuesday Twitter post, FTX said it was exploring forming relationships with banks in different regions to allow users to have “near-instant and near-free deposits and withdrawals” through stablecoins. The exchange floated the idea of offering a $1 million prize for the first bank in each region to accept the tokens but hinted it would be open to giving more. How much would it cost to convince a bank to accept stablecoins? If we offered a $1m prize for the first bank in each region that does it is that enough? Do you work for a bank and want to discuss this? — FTX – Built By Traders, For Traders (@FTX_Official) December ...