Despite customer dissatisfaction and persistent queries regarding the firm’s plans to provide Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Vanguard Group CEO Tim Buckley has maintained his strong stance.Buckley warned against adding Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs in retirement investment plans in a recent Vanguard video, citing the asset’s volatility. “We don’t believe it belongs, like a Bitcoin ETF belongs in a long-term portfolio of someone saving for their retirement. It’s a speculative asset.” Buckley also argued that Bitcoin’s utility as a store of money is unclear, noting that Bitcoin suffered a large decrease with the stock market crisis in 2022. “When stocks got hammered in the recent crisis, Bitcoin went right with them. And so it is speculative. Really tough to think about how it belongs in a long-term

A CertiK assessment states that the yield farming app was compromised through a potential private key breach. The Mozaic Finance yield farming protocol was exploited on the Abitrum network on March 15, as the protocol’s development team reported in a statement. According to the team, the hacker has placed all of the stolen money on

The detention of Gambaryan, according to the Chamber of Digital Commerce, is arbitrary, devoid of due process, and poses a serious threat to diplomatic relations and international legal norms. Pressure is mounting on the Biden administration to act quickly to facilitate the release of two prominent figures from Binance: Nadeem Anjarwalla, a senior executive at

Digital asset exchanges and custodians now have to pay an application cost of 300,000 naira ($186) instead of the prior 100,000 naira ($62) under the amended requirements. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Nigeria has put out a proposal to revise the regulations governing platforms that provide cryptocurrency services. It suggests raising the registration

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy charges related to the demise of one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. The prosecution asked a federal judge to sentence Bankman-Fried to at least 40 years and up to 50 years in prison. In a sentencing

Self-reported MicroStrategy (MSTR), a bitcoin development company, has priced a $525 million convertible debt offering and plans to add to its 205,000 bitcoin (BTC) stack. The $500 million private placement was increased, and buyers were given the opportunity to purchase up to an additional $78.5 million of the paper, so profits are probably closer to

Investment bank Stifel (SF) stated in a research study on Wednesday that Galaxy Digital (GLXY) ought to be a core position for equity investors wishing to get exposure to the digital asset ecosystem. Resuming coverage, Stifel maintained a buy rating and a C$20 price objective for Michael Novogratz’s cryptocurrency financial services company. On Thursday, Galaxy

The public was alerted by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) on Friday that cryptocurrency exchange MEXC was operating in the region without a licence. The SFC stated in an email that “where appropriate, the SFC will not hesitate to take enforcement action against unlicensed platforms.” MEXC has previously run afoul of the law.

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance separated its venture capital division, Binance Labs, earlier this year. This was one of the most significant moves made by new CEO Richard Teng, who took over for Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in November, according to a Friday Bloomberg story. A disclaimer on Binance Labs’ website states that the company is “an

As of March 14, the cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has been added to the warning list of Hong Kong’s Securities & Futures Commission (SFC).“The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warns the public of an unlicensed virtual asset trading platform (VATP) known as Bybit,” the agency stated, “which offers trading services in crypto-related products in a number of jurisdictions.”Eleven items (Bybit Futures, Bybit Options, Bybit Leveraged Tokens, Dual Assets, Bybit Lending, Bybit Wealth Management, and others) that are provided by the Bybit exchange are included as warnings. “The SFC is concerned that these products have also been offered to Hong Kong investors and wishes to make it clear that no entity in the Bybit group is licensed by or registered with the SFC to conduct any “regulated activity” in Hong Kong,” said the regulator. Presently, before they may be made available to Hong Kong residents, goods connected to cryptocurrencies may be classified as securities or futures contracts and need to be licensed by the SFC.The notice dated March 14 pertains to Bybit.com and its proprietor, Bybit Fintech Limited, who is registered in Seychelles. This is not to be confused with https://www.bybit.com.hk, a related domain that is under the ownership of Spark Fintech Limited and does not now offer cryptocurrency services in Hong Kong.Bybit is presently applying for a virtual asset trading operator license (VATP) in Hong Kong through its subsidiary Spark Fintech Limited, according to a story published by Cointelegraph on February 1.The SFC has granted licenses to only two cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong: HashKey Exchange (licensed on November 9, 2022) and OSL Exchange (licensed on December 15, 2020). The deadline for cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Hong Kong to file a VATP application expired on February 29.Unlicensed businesses must cease operations in the Special Administrative Region by May 31.Similarly, exchanges whose VATP applications have been rejected by the SFC must exit the city within three months.

According to a finding by Judge James Mellor in the United Kingdom on March 14, Craig Wright is not Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of the Bitcoin network.On March 12, closing arguments began in London in the lawsuit filed by the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) against Wright, an Australian computer scientist who has claimed to be Nakamoto since 2016.COPA was seeking injunctive relief to prevent Wright from falsely claiming to be Nakamoto.Wright has been accused of significant document falsification to back up his claim to be the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator.According to COPA’s last submission. “Dr. Wright has been shown to have lied on an extraordinary scale. […] He has invented an entire biographical history, producing one tranche after another of forged documents to support it.” The trial began on Feb. 5. Wright had offered to settle the case out of court on Jan. 24, but COPA declined. The goal of COPA is “to encourage the adoption and advancement of cryptocurrency technologies and to remove patents as a barrier to growth and innovation.”It has 33 members, including Coinbase, Block, Meta, MicroStrategy, Kraken, Paradigm, Uniswap, and Worldcoin.In 2023, the Wrights sued 13 Bitcoin Core developers and a number of corporations, including Blockstream, Coinbase, and Block, for copyright violations including the Bitcoin white paper, file format, and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain.In response to the case, the Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund stated.

Following a recent research note released by the broker on Thursday, Bernstein began covering the trading platform Robinhood (HOOD) with an outperform rating and a $30 price target. The firm attributed the bullish call to a “monster” crypto cycle. According to the research, “we expect total crypto market cap to reach $7.5T by 2025 versus

Following an effort to enhance corporate cross-border payments, Fireblocks, a platform that provides infrastructure for transferring, storing, and issuing digital assets, has teamed up with Zodia Markets, an institutional cryptocurrency exchange based in the United Kingdom. According to the press release, the partnership will enable businesses to move money more quickly by using stablecoins as

The Dutch central bank fined cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com 2.85 million euros ($3.12 million) in October of last year, the regulator revealed on Wednesday. According to the notice, Foris DAX MT Limited (DAX MT), the company that operates Crypto.com, was fined for providing services in the Netherlands without first registering with De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB). The

India’s stock market will soon have a quicker trade settlement system in place to better compete with investors’ rising preference for cryptocurrency exchanges.Madhabi Puri Buch, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), declared on March 11 that a T+0 transaction settlement cycle would be implemented by March 28.Trades can choose to use this optional service, which is designed to meet the needs of those seeking same-day settlement.Since 2021, the Indian stock market has been using a T+1 settlement cycle, meaning that every stock trade is resolved the next day.The T + 1 settlement cycle was implemented gradually, just like T + 0. Buch claims that in order for the Indian stock market to compete with cryptocurrencies, a shift to T+0 is necessary.Investors, in her opinion, anticipate quick settlements, and they will go to an area that already provides them if a “well-regulated market cannot compete with the crypto world” in the near future. SEBI claims that T+0 and the rapid settlement cycle will benefit investors by enabling them to get monies and securities instantly. Additionally, same-day settlements will provide the investor more control over their money and assets and remove the possibility of a settlement deficit. A notice of noncompliance was recently issued by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), a division of the Indian Ministry of Finance that collects financial intelligence regarding violations under the nation’s Prevention of Money Laundering Act.On December 28, 2023, Binance, HTX, Kraken, Gate.io, KuCoin, Bitstamp, MEXC Global, Bittrex, and Bitfinex received notifications for operating unlawfully in India.Twelve days were granted to the exchanges to comply with Indian requirements regarding Know Your Customer and Anti-Money Laundering. Even though India has consistently rejected cryptocurrencies, the country is nevertheless implementing blockchain technology in a number of national projects.The nation recently disclosed that it is home to more than eight million official government papers spread across five distinct blockchain systems. Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Ethereum are the three main blockchain systems that India employs to produce its goods.At present, India uses five blockchain products: the certificate chain, document chain, medicine logistics chain, judicial chain, and property chain.

    According to numerous local news sources, Thailand’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a tax exemption for cryptocurrency earnings in order to promote fundraising through investment tokens. One source claims that the exemption eliminates the possibility of double taxation by removing the necessity for holders of investment tokens with the 15% capital gains tax withheld

According to a report by the Financial Times on Tuesday, Nigeria has requested that Binance provide details about its top 100 users in the nation as well as the whole transaction history for the last six months. The demand is made as the third week of Binance’s compliance chief and Africa region manager’s incarceration in

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has ordered First Trust Advisors and SkyBridge Capital, the hedge fund led by Anthony Scaramucci, the former White House Communications Director under Trump and investor in digital assets, to label their bitcoin (BTC) ETF application as abandoned. In a notification released on Wednesday, the SEC stated that since the

Two of Binance’s senior executives are allegedly still being held in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, even after the company announced last week that it was leaving the country.According to a March 12 Wired story, two executives from Binance, Tigran Gambaryan, a former federal agent from the United States specializing in cryptocurrencies, and Nadeem Anjarwalla, another executive, had been detained in Abuja for two weeks without passports.Since February 26, 2024, Anjarwalla, the regional manager for Africa based in Kenya and Gambaryan, the head of Binance’s criminal investigations team, have been held at a government facility. According to Gambaryan and Anjarwalla’s families, Nigerian prosecutors have not provided information on whether the two face criminal charges. “There’s no definite answer for anything: how he’s doing, what’s going to happen to him, when he’s coming back,” Gambaryan’s wife, Yuki Gambaryan, reportedly said. A spokesperson for Binance confirmed to Cointelegraph that Gambaryan and

After being integrated with Blockstream’s Greenlight solution, users of the Bitcoin-only app Relai, based in Switzerland, will be able to use Lightning payment capability.Blockstream’s Lightning-as-a-service solution is being integrated into Relai’s wallet platform, which is exclusive to Bitcoin, according to a release shared with Cointelegraph that explains the specifics of the partnership.Greenlight is configured to enable 100,000 Relai users to send and receive inexpensive Bitcoin payments over the Lightning Network while keeping control of their private keys.By integrating Greenlight, Relai can avoid developing and maintaining custom Lightning infrastructure. In June 2023, Blockstream introduced Greenlight as a substitute service that allows platforms and developers to offer quick, inexpensive Bitcoin payments.Utilizing Blockstream’s infrastructure while maintaining user control over private keys is essential to the service.Custodial solutions represent an alternate choice that provides expedited onboarding and convenience; however, these usually erode user security and privacy assurances.Security and privacy are given priority in noncustodial systems, although they come with higher operational and technological costs. The method used by Greenlight to enable custodial Lightning divides nodes into smaller, independent parts.Greenlight enables all activities involving private keys to be carried out on a user’s device acting as the signer, using Core Lightning as the foundational implementation.The infrastructure of Blockstream powers the remaining nodes and requirements for operations. In order to guarantee end-to-end verification, Blockstream developed its signer on the Validating Lightning Signer project.This implies that no one with comparable control or access, including the infrastructure operator, may start operations involving their cash; only users may do so. With a user-controlled client interface and signer and a wallet provider running a Bitcoin node that connects to the network, the design is akin to hardware wallets.Blockstream manages the node, but user-controlled components have the ability to start payments and sign invoices. When Relai was established in 2020, its only goal was to trade and store Bitcoins.Over the previous four years, the app has produced trading volume of over $300 million.Relai’s move to integrate Lightning payments follows the lead of several of the largest exchanges aiming to enhance their Bitcoin payment capabilities.September 2023 will see the integration of Bitcoin Lightning payments into Coinbase’s offering, as stated by the largest exchange operator in the US.Citing Bitcoin’s status as the most valuable asset in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong claimed that the platform’s features will enable quicker and less expensive BTC transactions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of Thailand has granted an exemption, permitting institutional investors and extremely wealthy individuals to purchase cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The SEC’s Secretary-General, Pornanong Budsaratragoon, announced on Monday that asset managers would now be permitted to purchase spot bitcoin (BTC) ETFs on American markets. The SEC Act classifies spot bitcoin

The bitcoin (BTC) treasury of El Salvador currently has $84 million in unrealized profit on the assets it began buying in September 2021. The nation of Central America’s bitcoin treasury reached over $206 million as of Tuesday, a 69% increase on starting capital due to the cryptocurrency’s 250% surge over the previous year. According to

A regulatory sandbox was established by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to provide prospective stablecoin issuers with a penalty-free environment in which to develop and test certain operations. The regulator stated on Tuesday that the sandbox gives regulatory flexibility and is in line with Hong Kong’s strategy to control fiat-backed stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies linked

The administration estimates that these taxes may bring in close to $10 billion in 2025 and more than $42 billion over the next ten years. U.S. President Joe Biden will once again push wash trading rules, cryptocurrency mining taxes, and other regulations in his proposed budget for the future year.Line items for applying wash sale regulations to digital assets, information reporting requirements for financial institutions and digital asset brokers, reporting regulations for foreign cryptocurrency accounts, incorporating cryptocurrency in mark-to-market regulations, and an excise tax on mining are all included in the president’s proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year, which was made public on Monday. “The Budget saves billions of dollars by closing other tax loopholes that overwhelmingly benefit the rich and the largest, most profitable corporations. This includes: closing the so-called ‘like-kind exchange loophole’ that lets real estate investors defer tax indefinitely; reforms to tax preferred retirement incentives to ensure that the ultrawealthy cannot use these incentives to

The largest stablecoin by market value, USDT from Tether, will be live on Celo, a layer-1 platform with a mobile focus. Currently, Celo is moving from an independent blockchain to a fresh layer-2 built on top of Ethereum. With an emphasis on emerging regions, the platform aims to be a mobile-first network that provides users

ARK Invest, Cathie Wood’s investment manager, sold more than 580,000 Coinbase (COIN) shares during the week that concluded on March 8. At Friday’s closing price of $256.62, those sales were valued at $149.85 million. Three of ARK’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs)—the Innovation ETF (ARKK), the Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), and the Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF)—were

Edul Patel, the CEO and co-founder of Mudrex, an Indian cryptocurrency investment platform, said that institutional and retail investors in India will be able to purchase U.S. spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “In a recent interview, Patel stated that this is much more valuable to institutions because retailers already had access to it.” While

According to the CEO of asset manager ARK Invest, bitcoin will reach $1 million before 2030.Cathie Wood stated that there are “new expectations for institutional involvement” in the rise in Bitcoin prices in an interview with the New Zealand Herald on March 7. Since the first spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were introduced in the US, bitcoin has changed, according to Cathie Wood.Speaking to a crowd of mainstream journalists, the well-known supporter of Bitcoin reiterated her belief in the future of the biggest cryptocurrency.She clarified that ARK itself was compelled to reassess its level of bullishness on Bitcoin due to the overwhelming interest in and momentum surrounding the spot ETFs.Prior to now, the company had set a price objective of $1 million for each bitcoin by 2030.The roadmap is now being updated. “That target — it was before the SEC gave us the green light, and I think that was a major milestone, and it has pulled forward the timeline,” she explained, referring to the regulatory nod from U.S. regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission. Wood went on to say that no significant wirehouse, including Bank of America, Merryl Lynch, and Morgan Stanley, had yet to support the institutional effort. “No platform has approved Bitcoin yet, so all of

Local cryptocurrency stakeholders have expressed regret at the current prohibition on Binance naira operations in Nigeria, claiming that it will negatively impact many Nigerians’ means of subsistence and may lead to a rise in the country’s youth unemployment rate.Local cryptocurrency insiders told Cointelegraph in separate interviews that other exchanges will emerge to fill the void left by Binance’s withdrawal and find a method to stay in compliance with local laws as a result of Binance delisting its naira-related services.According to Nathaniel Luz, CEO of Flincap, a liquidity provider for cryptocurrency exchanges, a number of Nigerian traders who depend on P2P trading on Binance for their livelihood are now impacted.They have, nevertheless, recently led to trading on Telegram and WhatsApp groups. Luz emphasized this development by saying.According to the chief marketing officer of Flincap, Oladotun Wilfred Akangbe, the continuing uncertainty surrounding cryptocurrency regulation in Nigeria and the decision to seize operations of Binance can undermine the confidence of many people in the space. It can lead to massive fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) in the

More bitcoin (BTC) has been amassed by the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) in its less than two-month existence than by MicroStrategy (MSTR).IBIT had 195,985 bitcoin on Friday following another day of strong inflows, per the fund’s most recent declaration.As of February 26, 193,000 tokens were held by the corporation, according to MicroStrategy’s latest public announcements. Given that MicroStrategy priced a $700 million capital round earlier this week with plans to utilize the proceeds to buy more bitcoin, it’s plausible that the company has increased that sum since then.With the exception of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which was converted from a closed-end fund, BlackRock’s IBIT has consistently added hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of bitcoin every day since the spot ETFs launched on January 11. This has made it the largest new spot product. The next cryptocurrency in line for IBIT would be Grayscale’s GBTC, which currently possesses about 400,000 tokens despite having lost almost 200,000 bitcoin since the spot products’ launch. The main driver of bitcoin’s more than 60% price increase this year has been the enormous demand for the new spot ETFs.According to statistics from CoinDesk Indices, the cryptocurrency crossed $70,000 for the first time ever on Friday morning and ultimately hit a new all-time high of $70,136.Bitcoin was trading at just less than $70,000 at the time of publication.