January’s stablecoin transfer volume has already exceeded $300 billion, surpassing that of December. On the layer-1 Solana blockchain, the volume of stablecoin transfers has been continuously rising and has already surpassed a previous record this month. As per Artemis, a blockchain analytics company, the transfer volume of stablecoins on Solana has surpassed $300 billion in

Legal action has been brought against Colorado-based pastor Eligio “Eli” Regalado and his spouse Kaitlyn for allegedly scamming investors out of millions of dollars by selling an unregistered cryptocurrency token known as INDXcoin.As a digital asset that is “God-backed,” the token was promoted to pious Christians.Through the token’s sales, the pair reportedly raised over $3.2 million for their internet church, Victorious Grace.The Regalados were accused of fraudulent actions and unlawful securities sales without proper registration by the Colorado Securities Commissioner, who launched a case against them.Consequently, Victorious Grace Church’s assets have been blocked by a Colorado judge.Legal documents show that the Regalados asserted that INDXcoin had enough assets to support its value and was supported by a cryptocurrency index. Aside from the couple’s assertion that the token was backed by God’s promise of victory, the Colorado Securities Commission asserts that the token had little to no basis. “Defendant Eli leveraged the potential investors’ faith,” the complaint said. “He stated that their investments’ success was guaranteed by God.” At first, the Regalados claimed that INDXcoin was immune from securities laws since it was a utility token rather than a security offering.Experts, however, disagreed, claiming that the token met the requirements to be classified as a security.Unfazed, the couple asserted that INDXcoin was declared a utility token by God.Eli Regalado, claiming divine guidance, urged investors who voiced concerns about the lack of returns to hang onto their money.Additionally, the Regalados were in charge of the Kingdom Wealth Exchange, which served as a medium for exchanging INDXcoin for US dollars. According to Colorado officials, the couple regularly terminated the platform in order to avert a bank run.They closed the exchange last year due to a lack of active “stakers.”They then declared that God had commanded them to tell INDXcoin holders to stay invested and refrain from raising doubts about the circumstances.The Regalados are accused of stealing $1.3 million for their own use, such as opulent purchases, cosmetic dentistry, trips, and house improvements, during their fundraising efforts.Eli Regalado acknowledged the accusations in a video that was uploaded on the INDXcoin community website, but he also claimed that a sizeable amount of the money went to the IRS and the home renovation that God had given them permission to perform. On January 29, the Colorado Securities Commissioner has requested a preliminary injunction, and the Regalados are expected to appear in court for that hearing.In its ongoing legal battle with blockchain startup Terraform Labs, the SEC requested last year that a judge rule on whether or not specific cryptocurrencies are securities.A federal judge recently questioned whether the commission would have control over markets it doesn’t have jurisdiction over if it were allowed to apply its regulations on Coinbase in the SEC and Coinbase dispute. “I want to understand how your standard does not sweep in the collectible market or commodities,” U.S. District Judge Katherine Polk Failla told SEC lawyers in the courtroom. “It is

The attorneys for Ripple contended that the US Securities and Exchange Commission had more than enough opportunities to acquire more papers prior to the deadline. Attorneys for Ripple Labs have maintained that the request for further financial papers to be examined by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is unfounded. They maintained that the

The US watchdog referred to Debiex as a “bogus digital asset platform” and brought civil claims against the exchange for allegedly embezzling money. Exchange of cryptocurrencies Regulators in the United States are investigating Debiex, claiming that top employees set up intimate ties with prospective clients in order to steal their money. The U.S. Commodity Futures

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is reportedly in early talks with G42, based in Abu Dhabi, and SoftBank Group, based in Japan. Sources familiar with the plans revealed on January 19 that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman intends to use the money generated for a chip business to construct a number of semiconductor production facilities. In an

Following a distributed denial-of-service attack on Friday, the cryptocurrency exchange HTX and its HTX DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) have resumed operations. The HTX advisor and cryptocurrency tycoon Justin Sun said on his X account that the services had been restored following an almost 15-minute interruption. The purpose of a denial-of-service (DDoS) assault is to overwhelm

According to a study report released on Thursday by financial behemoth JPMorgan (JPM), $1.5 billion has been withdrawing from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), causing Bitcoin BTC to fall by more than 15% since the spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were introduced last week. Instead of switching to less expensive spot bitcoin ETFs, analysts under Nikolaos

ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) is being replaced by ARK Invest’s newly listed spot bitcoin ETF. A trading notice issued on January 18 states that the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) purchased 365,695 shares of its own bitcoin ETF, ARKB, for $15 million and sold 758,915 shares of BITO, valued at about $15 million.

As the first of a new wave of bitcoin ETF providers, BlackRock’s (BLK) spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) crossed the $1 billion assets under management threshold on Wednesday. On January 12, trading began for the asset manager’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). “We are excited to see IBIT reach this milestone in its first week,

According to a press release from the firm on Thursday, Kiln, an Ethereum staking platform, has completed a $17 million fundraising round.Along with IOSG, Crypto.com, Wintermute Ventures, KXVC, and LBank, 1kx led the round.The Paris-based company stated that it also includes further funding from current investors.Kiln announced a $17.6 million Series A in November 2022, which was extended with this additional investment. Kiln stated that additional product development and the company’s worldwide expansion—which includes the launch of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Singapore in the first quarter—will be financed by the funds raised. “Our mission is to democratize value creation in the digital assets ecosystem, providing millions of users with easy access to rewards through our platform,” said Laszlo Szabo, CEO and co-founder of Kiln. Since its founding, Kiln has raised $35 million from investors, including contributions from Consensys, GSR, Illuminate Financial, Kraken Ventures, and Avon Ventures.

A partnership has been formed between the $2 billion-valued Sui Foundation, the company behind layer-1 blockchain Sui, and Stork, an off-chain data feed oracle. For dealers and builders, the partnership seeks to improve speed and access to unique index and mark prices. App developers, decentralised exchanges (DEXs), and lending protocols developing on Sui’s blockchain will

To increase liquidity on its WOO X exchange, Woo said that it has closed a $9 million round from several present and potential market makers on the platform. “Since our DMM programme launched in August of last year, we are excited to discuss the extended relationship of market makers on WOO X. Notably, these top

Over the past week, the market has experienced a decline of about 7% due to the gradual implementation of the newly approved Bitcoin ETF.Although many of the skeptics’ predictions regarding the price of bitcoin following the introduction of the ETF have come true, Jurrien Timmer of Fidelity believes the sell-off will not last much longer.The present movements in the price of bitcoin, according to Timmer, Fidelity’s Director of Global Macro, point more toward a short-term positioning adjustment than a long-term trend reversal. According to Timmer, the price of bitcoin is currently fair and is influenced by the rate at which the economy’s real interest rates are rising as well as how quickly its network is expanding. Longer-term prospects are promising. Timmer anticipates a stabilization of the recent gains, contrary to several forecasts that suggest bitcoin may decline and find support between $32K and $38K. “The short-term question is whether this a sell-the-news moment. My guess is that it will take a little time to consolidate the recent gains, now that the big moment has arrived,” Timmer posted on X. “There were more than a few participants who ‘equitized’ future spot positions through either the futures market

On Tuesday, ARK Invest purchased shares worth $15.9 million in its own spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which was just listed. 365,427 shares of the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB) were added to the Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) by Cathie Wood’s investing firm. Tuesday’s closing price for ARKB shares was $43.51, down around 11%

Proponents of cryptocurrency have been fixated on “de-dollarization,” a concept that refers to a move away from the US dollar (USD) serving as the world’s reserve currency, ever since bitcoin (BTC) first appeared more than ten years ago.The calls became more urgent last year as the federal debt reached a record $34 trillion and some smaller banks in the United States experienced difficulties.Data, however, indicates that the dollar continued to be the most widely used currency in cross-border transactions, with demand for US government bonds remaining stable on a global scale. “USD’s share in international SWIFT transactions surged in 2023 to reach its highest level in more than ten years. In contrast, the EUR share collapsed, and that of the JPY and GBP moderated,” Credit Agricole’s G10 FX strategy team said in a note to clients on Monday. “The growing importance of the USD as

Since spot ETFs recently made their debut in the United States, smaller cryptocurrencies are having their moment while bitcoin (BTC) trades listless. Notable examples are KLAY, the utility token of the Layer 1 blockchain network Klaytn, which is supported by the massive Korean internet company Kakao, and CHZ, the native token of the Chiliz network,

According to executives at Magic Leap, a mixed reality business that has raised $3.9 billion, including a recent $590 million investment from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, the metaverse will take off once it correctly fits with what the market requires. In an interview with Venture Beat, Magic Leap’s CEO Ross Rosenberg and CTO Daniel

Interoperability service Following a brief halt in trading due to an alleged $3.3 million exploit, Socket and its bridging platform Bungee resumed operations early on Wednesday. Developers stated that the vulnerability happened because attackers were aiming for wallets that had infinite permissions to Socket contracts. Apps that use blockchain technology to access tokens—or a particular

On Tuesday, the financial authority of the European Union released guidelines for cryptocurrency companies to adhere to its anti-money laundering and anti-terror funding mandates.The European Banking Authority (EBA) stated in a news release that by broadening the scope of its current regulations to include cryptocurrency, it “harmonizes the approach” that crypto asset service providers (CASP) throughout the EU should take to combat financial crime. “The risks of this happening can be increased, for example because of the speed of crypto-asset transfers or because some products contain features that hide the user’s identity. Therefore, it is important that CASPs know about these risks and put in place measures that effectively mitigate them,” the statement said. Along with its historic Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislative package, the EU last year completed laws governing the transfer of funds via digital assets.Since then, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global watchdog, has recommended changes to the proposed guidelines to prevent the exploitation of cryptocurrency transactions. The EBA has produced guidelines on risk-based supervision of CASPs and is currently consulting on these changes.Further recommendations regarding the internal policies and controls that CASPs ought to have are also being consulted. “Given the interdependence

The joint venture cryptocurrency exchange Binance Thailand, a product of Gulf Energy Development, and Binance, has announced that it is now available for trading. “We are incredibly humbled to finally inform the Thai audience about the debut of our local platform. Gulf Binance CEO Nirun Fuwattananukul said in a statement, “We have been working closely

The company that runs the cryptocurrency exchange based in Hong Kong, HashKey Group, announced on Tuesday that it had “nearly” reached its fundraising goal of $100 million. In August, HashKey made the announcement about the fundraising round, not long after receiving approval from Hong Kong’s security regulator to provide retail cryptocurrency trading. The company has

The cryptocurrency exchange’s Dubai-based subsidiary, OKX Middle East Fintech FZE, announced on Tuesday that it has obtained a licence from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) and will begin full operational use in the coming weeks. Through the exchanges and its app, the company will be able to offer spot services and spot pairings

Phishing is a kind of cyberattack that tricks users into disclosing personal information like passwords, usernames, and bitcoin private keys by using social engineering techniques. Cybercriminals typically use phone calls, text messages, or emails to plan phishing assaults. Hackers usually trick their victims into entering their private keys or crypto wallet credentials by using malicious

Google’s (GOOGL) cloud business has become a validator and infrastructure provider on the Flare network.According to a Monday release published by CoinDesk, Google Cloud is one of 100 firms taking on this joint role, contributing to the Flare Time Series Oracle (FTSO) and protecting the network as a validator. Developers can access decentralized data through Flare’s Oracle system—dubbed “the blockchain for data” by the company.Oracles are entities that link networks to external systems so that smart contracts can be executed based on inputs and outputs from the outside world. This term is used in blockchain terminology. FLR, the native token of the network, is now trading at about $0.018 and has a market capitalization of almost $550 million.Following announcement of the partnership, the token increased by more than 4%.In order to assist developers in creating use cases for blockchain technology and promoting its adoption, Flare’s infrastructure suppliers are in charge of supplying high-quality data.It’s a major collaboration for Flare and a reminder of the continued embrace of blockchain technology at major tech companies like Google, as hardly many organizations provide access to as much data as Google Cloud does.

According to a recent report by cryptocurrency issuer Circle, which shows other use for cryptocurrencies besides speculative trading, the company witnessed a spike in remittances flowing via Asia via its USDC stablecoin.A cryptocurrency called USDC is backed by liquid cash and assets that are equivalent to cash, and it is correlated with the value of the US dollar. According to the research, $130 billion worth of USDC entered Asia in 2022.As per Circle, the value of digital currency received globally is attributed to the Asia-Pacific region at 29%, while North America and Western Europe contribute for 19% and 22%, respectively. Remittance transfers are another portion of these quantities, which is significant for developing nations like the Philippines that have sizable expatriate populations.According to the report, Circle has teamed up with Coins.ph, a Philippine-based exchange, in an attempt to win a portion of this about $36 billion market.In the research, Circle also says that USDC is helping bridge the region’s $510 billion trade finance gap, which is the absence of liquidity accessible to enterprises for cross-border transfers and credit.This helps especially in developing nations where there are limits on capital outflows, as companies frequently find it difficult to secure the finance they need for global trade. Taipei-based XREX is one business that is utilizing USDC to close this gap.Its founder, Wayne Huang, described how XREX uses stablecoins to create financial conduits across nations, using Taiwan’s strong dollar liquidity and other countries in Southeast Asia’s currency shortage in a CoinDesk profile from 2022.The usage of stablecoins in speculative trading has decreased 90% over the previous five years, according to Circle. According to the survey, 33% of Latin American consumers have made payments using stablecoins, and between 2021 and mid-2022, the region’s residents would have received $562 billion in digital money.

Although the amount of new capital that the new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) will draw is unknown, J.P. Morgan stated in a research paper that substantial inflows of funds from other cryptocurrency products are anticipated. According to the research, the market’s response to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) grudging acceptance of spot

A feature of the XRP Ledger network was leveraged in an unsuccessful exploit attempt on famous crypto exchange Bitfinex, CEO Paolo Ardoino stated in an X post on Monday. roughly $15 billion worth of XRP were reported by on-chain service WhaleAlerts to be moved in an alleged transaction early Monday — equivalent to roughly half

The use of tokenized investment funds is growing, but credit rating agency Moody’s Investor Services issued a warning in a study on Monday, citing the technology providers’ “limited track record” as a factor in the heightened risk. Investment funds known as tokenized funds use distributed ledger technology (DLT), the driving force behind cryptocurrencies, to digitally