Policy and Regulation
Celsius seeks help from Citigroup and reportedly hires restructuring attorneys
Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the network is seeking to restructure to survive the financial crisis it is caught in At the start of this week, Celsius announced that it was temporarily halting withdrawal services on its platform Crypto lender, Celsius, has sought the services of ‘restructuring’ attorneys from the international law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, WSJ reported on Tuesday. The lending firm is exploring the restructuring avenue amid alleged liquidity issues, with the lawyers from the largest US lobbying firm being called to offer assistance. The lawyers will reportedly advise on the financial restructuring path and offer consultation services. However, it is not concluded that this is the firm’s path. Citing unnamed sources in the know, the...
Weekly Report: New York passes bill limiting Bitcoin mining, El Salvador delays Bitcoin bonds again, Japan limits stablecoin issuance, and more
Here are this week’s most intriguing stories in the cryptocurrency sector: Not yet Bitcoin bonds, El Salvador’s Finance minister says When El Salvador adopted Bitcoin for use as an official tender in September last year, it also set out on several Bitcoin ambitions. Among them; are building a Bitcoin city and establishing Bitcoin bonds worth $1 billion. The bonds, having been postponed earlier in the year, seem set for another delay as Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya confirmed that the nation would not venture into offering them in the current bear market. Speaking during a recent interview with a local news outlet, the finance minister was queried on the state of the $1 billion bonds that were not issued in mid-March as initially planned. No official date when the ...
Terra’s collapse prompts UK regulation of stablecoins
The collapse of UST and LUNC has made it a matter of urgency for the United Kingdom as well as other jurisdictions to have proper regulatory frameworks for digital assets The, the UK hope will ensure economic and financial stability as well as safeguard investors from losing out on their investments by oversighting stablecoin issuers. The United Kingdom has become the latest country to express concern on the stability of stablecoins and call for their regulation. This echoes the sentiments of the European Union as well as the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – both having raised questions on the long-term stability of these digital assets. The authorities, in the consultation paper they released, hope that proper regulation will create a conducive environment for investor...
Seoul authorities launch an official investigation on the TerraUSD crash
Terraform Labs employees have been summoned by South Korean prosecutors in a bid to establish the exact cause of the collapse of Terra assets The investigators have also tightened up scrutiny on exchanges to make sure investors are protected from the same fate that befell Terra and its native tokens South Korean authorities have reportedly launched a full-scale investigation to find the exact reason for the collapse of algorithmic stable coin UST and its sister token LUNA. The investigation is being conducted by the joint financial and securities crime investigation team from the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office. Investigators probing to determine if there was price manipulation The investigation team seeks to find from the Terra lab employees if the project’s founder, Do Kwon, i...
Weekly Report: FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried to spend billions on political and acquisition initiatives
FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried early this week hinted that he would continue with his political donations, financially backing the ‘right’ presidential candidate in the 2024 US Elections. Details on this and other top headlines in the crypto space below: SBF to join the league of major political donors in the next US elections The crypto exchange billionaire known to be pro-Democratic party has set his sights on breaking the biggest political donation ever made in the US. In a podcast session, SBF revealed that he was willing to spend as much as $1 billion – a figure he described as a “sort of a soft ceiling”. He confirmed he would put “north of $100 million,” adding that the exact amount would depend on the candidate running and the political seats in question. This is not the fir...
India’s crypto exchange CoinSwitch calls for regulatory clarity
The country’s central bank has previously raised concerns over the assets’ threat to the country’s macro-economic and financial stability Last month, two major exchanges disabled deposits via the popular payment system in use within the country The uncertainty surrounding India’s crypto space has left traders and investors with doubts and strings of unanswered questions. This murky scenario has created mixed signals in the country with one of the highest potentials for crypto investors – India is the second-most populous country in the world – and threatened the freedom of exchanges to operate freely. New Delhi’s income tax imposition on crypto could be a sign of approval The central bank’s growing concern for investor welfare is warranted, cautioning that dealing in digital assets is at i...
Weekly Report: China back atop mining charts as Russia mulls crypto legalisation
Despite China’s ban on crypto mining, it remains among the leaders in hash rate Portugal is issuing regulations to establish capital gains tax on cryptocurrencies Japanese bank Nomura is launching a crypto subsidiary later this year Russia’s trade minister insists crypto legalisation is not a matter of if but when Shopify merchants can now integrate Crypto.com Pay for payments on their storefronts Report: China lags only the US in Bitcoin mining despite ban mid-last year Crypto mining, particularly Bitcoin, has and will foreseeably continue being an environmental concern given that it uses a proof of work consensus model, which by design is energy-intensive. Last year, China banned all cryptocurrency mining in the country over the massive power...
Binance seeks German license after recent approval by French regulators
The crypto exchange giant aims to become a licensed digital asset service provider in the biggest economy in Europe The move comes just weeks after the exchange acquired regulatory approval from France regulator in a quest to bite into the European market Expansion plans by the world’s largest crypto exchange in terms of volume, Binance, have shifted focus on winning regulatory approval in Germany. Co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao announced that the exchange held back late last year after pressure from financial authorities across several jurisdictions, Germany included, forced them to stop operations. Germany could join Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain in the list of jurisdictions where Binance has clearance to operate in. Binance CEO recently revealed at a conference that the exchange...
El Salvador hosts 32 central banks and 12 other institutions to discuss Bitcoin
The majority of central banks and financial authorities that featured are from Africa The continent lags in terms of crypto adoption and use compared to Europe, America, and Asia It has been more than seven months since El Salvador made Bitcoin its legal tender – a decision the country’s president Nayib Bukele has insisted is for the good of the citizens. This is despite caution from monetary institutions like the IMF and strong opposition by a faction of El Salvadorians. During this period, the Central African Republic followed suit in adopting the Satoshi coin as an officially accepted currency form – the first in Africa. On Monday, El Salvador president Bukele met with representatives from central banks and financial institutions of 44 different countries, as he had previous...
Weekly Report: Flamingo Casino Club shuts down, Talos becomes a unicorn, HIVE Blockchain consolidates its shares, and more
Flamingo Casino Club, which offered users fraudulent NFTs, has been asked by five US states to cease operations Crypto trading firm Talos became a unicorn at $1.25 billion after raising $105 million, it said Tuesday Bitcoin miner HIVE Blockchain to enact share consolidation, aiming to enhance institutional visibility IOSCO predicts the crypto sector could get a regulator within the next year Chile to ponder further before issuing a digital peso, central bank says Virtual casino parading metaverse-linked NFTs asked to cease operations in five states The states of New Jersey, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Alabama and Texas have alleged that the Flamingo Casino Club is running a scam by offering NFTs linked to a metaverse casino. In effect, regulators in the respective states issued emergency orders o...
Coinbase CEO cites ‘informal pressure’ for withdrawing UPI payments in India
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says the exchange faced informal pressure from the RBI to retract its UPI option in India Armstrong holds an even more bullish stance, notwithstanding Coinbase’s reported $430M net loss in Q1 Last month, Coinbase launched UPI payments for Indian crypto users, but before the product could even take off, it was withdrawn as an option, with the crypto exchange offering users no explanation for the rollback. UPI is a widely-used payments infrastructure built by an internetwork of banks. The decision to withdraw the offering had been preceded by a caution by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which manages the UPI. The organisation denied being aware of “any crypto exchange” using UPI payments. Informal pressure from the RBI Addressing th...
Spanish regulator orders Binance to cease offering crypto derivatives
Binance has dropped its crypto derivative offerings in Spain as it is yet to be fully licensed in the country Elsewhere, Binance Turkey is taking legal action against fake ads The largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, has been told by the securities regulator in Spain, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores (CNMV), to stop offering customers its crypto derivatives products, as per local reports. The trading platform has since removed the option for the crypto derivatives from its website, effectively preventing users from creating new operations. Binance has been seeking approval, and the move to comply with the order is part of the exchange’s efforts to woo the regulator. The regulator, on past occasions, warned against crypto derivatives such as futures ...
