Six specialised investigators in cryptology are needed as the National Crime Agency (NCA) of the United Kingdom builds up a cybercrime team. “This role will be part of a new project that will form a specialised cryptocurrency and virtual assets team,” the job posting
The financial services giant PayPal has successfully registered as a crypto service provider with the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority, according to the regulator’s website.After being added to the registry on Tuesday, Paypal UK Limited is allowed to do “certain cryptoasset activities.”Businesses that provide cryptocurrency services in the United Kingdom are required to adhere to the FCA’s anti-money laundering regulations and be granted registration. In August, PayPal announced that it was temporarily pausing cryptocurrency purchases in the country in order to comply with the recently imposed marketing regime. Landing on the register, which opened in 2020, means PayPal can also approve its own crypto-related communications.
Upon the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is widely anticipated to maintain its benchmark fed funds rate at 5.25%–5.50%.Looking for hints about the future course of monetary policy, traders in both traditional and cryptocurrency markets will be concentrating on the policy statement that goes along with the rate decision and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s press conference after the meeting. The Fed is expected to hike interest rates one more time (timing undecided), according to Fed speakers over the past few weeks. This will bring an end to the historic rate hike cycle that has seen the fed funds rate rise from 0% in March 2022 to the current range of 5.25% to 5.50%.However, recent volatility in the financial markets, a few weakening economic indicators, and a recent uptick in geopolitical tensions may provide the Fed with a reason to abandon the notion of further rate increases. Perhaps waiting for more fuel, Bitcoin’s impressive October breakout from the $27,000 region has been stuck in the $34,000–$35,000 range for the past week.Few are anticipating a push outside of that range, but any dovish signal from the Fed could provide one. “We still see another U.S. rate increase as unlikely in the current cycle,” Matthew Ryan, head of market strategy at
The layer 1 Near Protocol’s native token, NEAR, surged on Wednesday following the announcement of a collaboration with Nym Technologies.NEAR has outperformed the rest of the cryptocurrency market, rising 11% in the last 24 hours.At the time of press, Solana’s SOL was the only token to make significant progress on Wednesday, rising by 10%.For the most part, ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) were flat. The Near Foundation announced a partnership with Nym Technologies, a venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Binance Labs-backed privacy infrastructure project.A press release stated that the collaboration will incorporate the Nym mixnet into the Near ecosystem.Any blockchain can be integrated with the Nym mixnet, a chain-agnostic layer-0 privacy infrastructure. According to the press release, the partnership will give privacy to all traffic on Near’s blockchain, enabling users to access dApps, NFTs, and DeFi privately. “The open, transparent nature of public permissionless blockchains means that transaction data is visible to anyone who cares to look,
What is Bitcoin Cash (BCH) ? Peer-to-peer electronic cash system Bitcoin Cash (BCH) prioritises low transaction fees and enhanced scalability. In 2017, a
Over 100,000 people joined the nonprofit Stand With Crypto in the first few weeks of its launch, according to organizers of Coinbase’s (COIN) successful effort to mobilize a grassroots movement of pro-amateur cryptocurrency advocates across the nation.Contacting legislators and learning about their views on cryptography are made simple on the group’s website.The chief strategist of Stand With Crypto, Nick Carr, stated that 80,000 people have contributed money so far, surpassing the $2 million milestone.Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, is the sole donor of half of that funding. “Our goal is to truly unite and coalesce the crypto grassroots community,” Carr said in an interview. He said the group is
Retail investors in Mexico were introduced to “Stablebond,” a tokenized bond offering, by Etherfuse, a platform that aims to enhance decentralized blockchain infrastructure, during Solana’s breakpoint conference in Amsterdam.Mexico is the company’s second-largest Latin American bond market after Brazil, which is why the company is focusing on it.According to the research, the market has an average daily trading volume of $200 million and $623 billion in outstanding debt, making it one of the most liquid in Latin America. According to a press release from Etherfuse, institutions, governments, and foreign investors account for the majority of trading volume in Mexico; this indicates that there are few retail or individual bond investors.Etherfuse is trying to change this by providing Stablebonds to retail investors; currently, just 2% of bondholders are Mexican.In line with the press release, stablebonds are constructed on Solana and supported by the Mexican government. This occurs as the practice of tokenizing physical assets gains traction.The tokenized Treasury market increased from approximately $100 million at the beginning of the year to $698 million as of Monday, according to real-world asset (RWA) monitoring platform RWA.xyz. “Stablebonds mark an evolution of investment solutions,” said Dave Taylor, CEO and co-founder of Etherfuse, in the statement. “By marrying
Blockchain in modulesHaving distributed its native TIA token to 580,000 users, Celestia has now launched its mainnet beta program.With its description as a “modular data availability network that securely scales with the number of users,” Celestia seeks to address the stability and scalability problems that plague monolithic blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana. “It’s the start of a new era,” the Celestia Foundation, which supports development on the network, wrote in a blog post. “The
The final regulations for the cryptocurrency ecosystem were released by the U.K. government, which stated that regulations will be implemented gradually and that early in 2019 legislation pertaining to fiat-backed stablecoins will be introduced.An update released on Monday states that as the government incorporates lending and trading into the purview of traditional financial regulation, other crypto domains, like algorithmic stablecoins, will follow.These regulations will place pertinent activities under the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) jurisdiction. The plans are expected to be well received by the industry, which has been complaining that the government has been slow to act. The plans are in line with an April 2022 policy set out by Rishi Sunak, the then-finance minister and current prime minister, to make the U.K. a hub for cryptoassets. In a statement accompanying the document, Treasury Minister Andrew Griffith said he was “very pleased to present these final proposals for
DefiLlama data shows that just two weeks ago, the total value of all assets locked on decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols was at its lowest point since February 2021. Now, it has surged to a three-month high of $42 billion.Rising asset prices and new entries from players looking to make money through lending and staking are the two main drivers of the DeFi market’s comeback. The asset that supports most of the DeFi market, ether (ETH), has risen from $1,590 to $1,810 over the last two weeks. Meanwhile, other stocks, such as aave (AAVE) and lido (LDO), have posted gains of 25% and 34%, respectively.In tandem with an increase in asset values, the volume of transactions across DeFi protocols reached a record high of $4.4 billion on October 24, the highest since March, according to DefiLlama. This month, the launch of Solana’s native staking product—which yields 8.15% APY in addition to its 7.7% rate on liquid staking—saw a 120% increase in total value locked (TVL) for Marinade, the company’s largest lending protocol.Jito, a rival protocol to Marinade, has increased by 190% to $168 million in TVL during the same time frame.On Ethereum, however, new inflows have been demonstrated by the fact that the capital on Enzyme Finance, Spark, and Stader has increased by 37% to 55%, exceeding the increase in asset prices. This month, the recently launched layer one blockchains Sui and Aptos have also seen strong growth; TVL on Sui has increased from $34 million to $75 million.Thla’s increased activity has been a driving force behind Aptos, whose total TVL this month crossed the $75 million threshold.Even with a successful month, there are still risks in the DeFi space because a small decline in ETH’s price would result in significant on-chain liquidations.Presently, a $76.2 million position on Aave is scheduled to be liquidated in the event that ETH crosses $1,777, and over $100 million is scheduled to be liquidated in the event that the price drops by 20%.
According to blockchain analyst ZachXBT, on October 25, at least 25 LastPass users had their cryptocurrency accounts compromised by hackers, stealing $4.4 million in value.Users’ password information is encrypted and stored on the LastPass platform.An employee was the target of an attack last year that involved the theft of their login credentials, compromising its cloud-based storage service. At least 80 cryptocurrency wallets have been identified as compromised as a result of the hack by ZachXBT and MetaMask developer Taylor Monahan.A list released by Monahan claims that money has been stolen from the blockchains of Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB, Arbitrum, Solana, and Polygon. “Cannot stress this enough, if you believe you may have ever stored your seed phrase or keys in LastPass migrate your
A significant increase in volume is being observed in bitcoin institutional investment vehicles as anticipation of potential regulatory changes in the United States
Former US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Jay Clayton’s comments about the agency’s regulatory strategy drew harsh criticism from Ripple CEO Brad
According to Gabor Gurbacs, strategy adviser at investment management company VanEck, El Salvador can emulate Singapore and grow into a major financial hub
The mere sight of cryptocurrency market charts can wear traders out, and it’s likely that this added to the length of the bear season.It may seem like a never-ending grind for both novice and seasoned traders to stay afloat in the cryptocurrency market after it hit historic lows for well over a year. It’s critical for traders to get together and share knowledge during periods like these, when the volatility of the market makes individual efforts and manual orders rarely profitable.One project attempts to address this possibility by integrating a social component into cryptocurrency trading.With the automated trading that CryptoRobotics provides on cryptocurrency exchanges, users can put well-liked strategies into practice.Traders can execute trades concurrently and profit from each other’s profitable trading strategies thanks to their cloud-based technology.By creating a trading index that will unite all traders and investors into a single, large community with common objectives, CryptoRobotics hopes to bring traders and investors together with features like autostrategies, copy trading, and crypto signals. CryptoRobotics’ dedication to bringing traders and investors together for a common goal is one of the company’s primary points of differentiation in the market.CryptoRobotics wants to build a trading index that supports a community with shared objectives, in contrast to many other projects that concentrate on increasing commissions and fees. Their profit-sharing model guarantees equity and justice for every member of the community.Successful traders receive rebates, and investors split profits with the traders who developed the strategies.This strategy emphasizes community support and acknowledgment for enthusiastic traders, appealing to both novice and seasoned traders. Trading robots and signals—first supplied by analysts or seasoned traders, and then carried out by robots—are combined in the auto-following CryptoRobotics feature.This feature makes it easier for beginners to trade continuously with a simple setup.Professional traders and analysts can profit from their trading strategies by using automation in the interim. CryptoRobotics is also integrated with fifteen significant cryptocurrency exchanges. With its risk-management system, users can trade on spot and futures exchanges using its bots.The team at CryptoRobotics elucidated that the project amalgamates optimal methodologies from conventional asset markets, such as user-generated strategies, duplicate trades, and risk mitigation via multi-asset investment. “CryptoRobotics is a platform for beginners and experienced traders, but most importantly, for enthusiastic traders who
Multiple customer emails shared indicate that Kraken will suspend all Tether USDT,DAI, Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Wrapped Ether (WET), and Wrapped Axelar (WAXL) transactions in Canada in November and December. In response to a request for comment, a Kraken spokesperson said, “We constantly monitor the assets on our platform to ensure we
The Southern District of New York Bankruptcy Court received an adversary proceeding filed by cryptocurrency exchange Gemini on October 27 against bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Holdco.62,086,586 shares of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) are at stake.232,000 Gemini users loaned money to Genesis via the Gemini Earn Program, using them as collateral.It is currently estimated that the collateral is worth nearly $1.6 billion.As per the lawsuit, Gemini obtained $284.3 million by way of collateral foreclosure, which it then distributed to Earn users. However, Genesis has challenged the action, thereby obstructing Gemini’s distribution of the income. Genesis has also suggested that the Earn Users’ deficiency claim be determined by using the initial value of the collateral—more than $800 million—instead of the foreclosure value.Because the value of the foreclosure exceeded its initial estimate, Genesis would be able to release hundreds of millions of dollars to other creditors. “But it was Gemini who bore the market risk related to the Initial Collateral for the benefit of Earn Users following
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index calculations, Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s wealth likely decreased by $11.9 billion as income at the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world dropped by 38%.Bloomberg said on Friday that CZ’s fortune will decrease to $17.2 billion as a result of the decline.According to Bloomberg, his net worth peaked in January 2022 at $96 billion. Using data tracking websites like CoinGecko and CCData, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index determines Binance’s revenue by analyzing trading data from the spot and derivatives markets. According to CCData, Binance’s market share in cryptocurrency trading decreased to 51% by the end of the third quarter, from a peak of 62% in the first quarter due to a zero-fee offer.
Since its beginning, the internet has undergone tremendous change, and websites are now an essential part of our everyday existence. Nonetheless, the conventional
The self-described creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, prevailed in a case before the US Appeals Court on Thursday involving disputed cryptocurrency valued at billions of dollars.Judges on the Eleventh Circuit stated that Wright, who has claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the author of the white paper proposing the blockchain-based currency, was not in a legal partnership with the late David Kleiman when they ostensibly mined bitcoin together more than ten years ago. Appeals Court judges stated that the Kleiman estate, now represented by David’s brother Ira, “has not shown that the court relied on an erroneous legal standard or made a clear error of judgment” in overturning sanctions imposed on Wright for having “wilfully obstructed” the legal process, as defined by the lower-tier District Court. The verdict supports a Florida jury’s 2021 ruling regarding the Kleiman estate’s claim to half of the bitcoin mined, which was reportedly valued at billions of dollars.Judges said that although Wright’s attorneys shouldn’t have questioned the Kleimans about their fraternal ties, it didn’t materially affect the jury’s decision-making.The $100 million that Wright was previously ordered to pay to Kleiman’s company, W&K Info Defense Research, on which a separate dispute is still pending, was not covered by the appeal. In order to reclaim control of the cryptocurrency that his company, Tulip Trading, believes it has lost access to, Wright has filed a lawsuit against a group of cryptocurrency developers in the United Kingdom for their refusal to incorporate a backdoor mechanism in a bitcoin-based software.Wright’s claim to be Nakamoto led Norwegian judge Helen Engebrigtsen to rule in 2022 that it was reasonable to label him a “fraud” and “scammer.” The ruling has since been appealed.
Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe of the Bank of England (BOE) stated in a speech on Thursday that the BOE received more than 50,000 responses to its consultation on a digital pound.Cunliffe said at a conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, D.C. that the majority of attendees expressed concerns over privacy, programability, and the decline of cash.The central bank stated that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) will probably be required even though it hasn’t made a formal decision on whether to issue one yet. The digital pound consultation was open from February to June. When making electronic payments, users of the digital pound will have access to the same degree of privacy as they do now.In an attempt to allay worries, he added that the BOE would not view personal information.Respondents were worried that the central bank would limit the functionality of the digital pound and make it programmable, but Cunliffe assured them that would not occur. “It would be for private sector firms to develop and offer, for user consent, payment services involving greater programmability,” he said.
A system that will enable communication between stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and blockchain-based transactions is being tested by Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures. The technology is designed to resemble the SWIFT messaging layer used in conventional banking infrastructure.A group of banks, financial institutions, and consultancies are operating the Universal Digital Payments Network (UDPN), a permissioned blockchain system made up of validator nodes, for a number of test cases, including the transfer and swapping of USDC stablecoins. The Chinese Blockchain-Based Service Network (BSN) co-founder Red Date Technology and IT consultancy GFT Group developed the system, which directs and permits transactions across a variety of networks, including stablecoins on public blockchains and CBDCs. In the comparatively long history of cryptocurrencies, banks and other organizations have formed consortia in an attempt to reach a consensus over the most effective way to handle blockchain-based transactions in private environments.These commercial blockchains have attracted little attention thus far, despite some hoopla.Digital currencies serve as both a medium and a communication, raising the question of why SWIFT messages need to be sent in parallel.According to its developers, the solution is that UDPN applies members’ decentralized digital identification standards (DIDs), which have been proven via testing, and simultaneously serves as an interoperability bridge across different kinds of blockchain networks, enabling a regulated and bank-friendly environment. “The UDPN is a network where the affiliation of members is permissioned. But the key thing here is that the
Bloomberg revealed on Thursday that the massive American banking company JPMorgan (JPM) now processes $1 billion worth of transactions daily using its digital currency, JPM Coin.The article, which quotes an interview with the bank’s head of payments, Takis Georgakopoulos, claims that the Wall Street Bank intends to increase the use of the coin. JPMorgan’s institutional clients can now conduct wholesale payments across accounts globally using blockchain technology thanks to JPM Coin, a settlement token.JPM Coin was launched in 2019 and has only been used to make dollar-denominated payments thus far. In June, support for euros was introduced. “JPM Coin gets transacted on a daily basis mostly in U.S. dollars, but we again intend to continue to expand that,”
As soon as prosecutors call their last witness, FBI Special Agent Marc Troiano, Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to testify in his criminal fraud prosecution related to its inception. While Bankman-Fried has attempted to portray the demise of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange as an unavoidable accident, he is exposing himself to difficult questioning from prosecutors. He has given interviews to reporters, launched a Substack newsletter, and tweeted to explain his company’s downfall after it filed for bankruptcy in November 2022. FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after the previous exchange CEO is alleged to have misused the money of investors and users, losing over $8 billion in the process.In recent weeks, the U.S. Department of Justice has contended that Bankman-Fried oversaw a number of actions that allowed Alameda Research, another of his companies, to steal money and conceal losses until the “house of cards” dramatically collapsed.In their depositions, Bankman-Fried’s former associates and close associates, namely former CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison, former Director of Engineering at FTX Nishad Singh, and former Chief Technology Officer of FTX Gary Wang, all accused him of deliberately ordering them to permit Alameda to withdraw funds from FTX customers and to conceal those activities from investors and the jury in the New York court. During a teleconference on Wednesday, main defense attorney Mark Cohen stated that the defense also plans to bring financial expert Joseph Pimbley, attorney Krystal Rolle from the Bahamas, and at least one other possible witness.
Due to a “technical issue,” cryptocurrency withdrawals on Binance are currently not possible, as to a post on the exchange’s X account. “We are experiencing a technical issue with crypto withdrawals,” the post said. “As a result, they are temporarily unavailable whilst our team
The sharp price increases in bitcoin (BTC) appeared to halt on Wednesday morning as traders probably cashed out of a week-long surge that saw prices rise as much as 25% in anticipation of the U.S. government approving spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs).Major tokens moved in different directions. Cardano’s ADA fell 2%, while Solana’s SOL tokens gained 3%, bringing the total gain for the week to about 30%.As traders played down concerns about an impending sell-off by the FTX bankruptcy estate, SOL token values increased. With a gain of 0.42%, the CoinDesk Market Index (CMI), a comprehensive tracker of hundreds of tokens, indicated modest advances in the market as a whole.A negative market known as “crypto winter,” which is marked by lower pricing and few venture capital expenditures, may be coming to an end, according to some traders, if institutional adoption becomes apparent. “What we are potentially seeing is a permanent thawing of so-called ‘crypto winters.’ While the digital asset market will always have
In a seed investment round headed by Polychain Capital and Bain Capital Crypto, Nocturne Labs, the startup behind the privacy on-chain accounts protocol Nocturne, revealed on Wednesday that it had raised $6 million. Other well-known Ethereum backers, such as co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Bankless Ventures, HackVC, and Robot Ventures, participated in the investment round. As stated in an interview, Nocturne Labs CEO and co-founder Luke Tchang stated that the funds will be utilized to both settle legal fees and advance blockchain development.Using blockchain technologies including account abstractions, stealth addresses, and zero-knowledge proofs, the Nocturne protocol is anticipated to emerge in the second half of November and introduce private accounts to the public blockchain. According to a press release, the accounts “function like conventional Ethereum accounts, but with built-in asset privacy.” According to Tchang, Nocturne might face competition from other privacy-focused protocols like Railgun or Aztec. “People have
With bitcoin (BTC) trading above $34,000 for the second day in a row, shares of firms involved in the cryptocurrency space soared. This was due to optimism that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would eventually approve an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the spot price of the largest cryptocurrency.At the time of writing, the stocks of cryptocurrency financial services company Galaxy Digital (GLXY), software company MicroStrategy (MSTR), which owned more than 158,000 bitcoin on its balance sheet, and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) had all increased by more than 14% on Tuesday. More than 15% was contributed by bitcoin mining firms that are more susceptible to changes in the value of digital currencies, such as Marathon Digital (MARA), Riot Platforms (RIOT), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Mawson Infrastructure (MIGI).Additionally rising, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq equity indices ended a five-day losing run.The sharp increase in bitcoin’s price on Monday—which reached $35,000—was the catalyst for the market’s advance in stocks related to cryptocurrencies.The planned BlackRock exchange-traded fund (ETF) raised hopes when it appeared with the ticker $IBTC on the website of Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC), a major U.S. market utility that handles all securities transactions. Massive players in conventional finance (TradFi), such as BlackRock, filed for a spot ETF with the SEC earlier this year, sparking excitement over a possible spot bitcoin ETF.The asset managers, akin to those overseeing a physically backed gold ETF, will have to purchase, hold, and preserve the digital assets for their clients if permitted. This might lead to an increase in the value of the underlying cryptocurrencies as well as their entire market. “Authorised participants will have to buy bitcoin if a spot ETF gets approved in order to create shares for an
ARK Invest, Cathie Wood’s tech-focused investment manager, has sold about $2.5 million worth of shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).The fund offloaded 100,739 shares, or around 2% of its holdings in the ARK Next Generation ETF (ARKW).The sale took place at the same time as bitcoin (BTC) saw a bullish spike, rising above $34,000 for the first time in almost eighteen months.Ark is the second-largest holder of the trust with over 5.6 million GBTC shares, according to FactSet data. The expectation that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) would eventually approve a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is what is responsible for the momentum of bitcoin. This anticipation stems from asset management giant BlackRock listing its proposed ETF on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation database, bearing the ticker $IBTC. After the investing business won its legal battle with the SEC over the latter’s denial of its request to convert the trust into an ETF, Grayscale’s GBTC may also be granted approval as a spot ETF in the United States.Moreover, Ark purchased $2.4 million in shares of the well-known trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) and sold roughly $3.3 million worth of Coinbase (COIN) cryptocurrency exchange shares.ARK, led by Cathie Wood, has a history of accumulating equities near cryptocurrency companies during down markets.This GBTC share sale is an illustration of the opposite strategy, which is to profit from a positive market environment.
According to a Web3 strategy workshop report, payments giant Mastercard is investigating the best ways to work with self-custody wallet companies like MetaMask
