Commerzbank AG declared on Wednesday that it has acquired a crypto custody license in Germany.According to the release, “with particular emphasis on crypto assets,” the license would enable the worldwide bank with its headquarters located in Frankfurt to provide a wide range of digital asset services. It has proven to be a difficult task for businesses wishing to provide related services to obtain a crypto license from Germany’s conservative financial markets regulator BaFin. As the first full-service bank in Germany to receive the license, Commerzbank intends to establish a safe custody platform for digital assets. “Now that we have been granted the license, we have achieved an important milestone. This highlights our ongoing commitment to applying the latest technologies and innovations, and it forms the foundation for supporting our customers in the areas of digital assets,” Dr. Jörg Oliveri del Castillo-Schulz, chief operating officer of Commerzbank said

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador unveiled a dollar cost averaging (DCA) strategy at the national level in November 2022, pledging to purchase one bitcoin daily.According to Bukele’s public declarations at the time, the nation already had 2,381 bitcoins, which had been bought at an average cost of about $44,300.At that time, the price was just $19,000, meaning the nation had lost around $60 million on its investment. Since then, Bukele has remained largely silent over El Salvador’s bitcoin purchases, and the precise quantity of bitcoin held by the nation is unknown because no official government record exists. According to CoinDesk, El Salvador purchased 2,744 bitcoin as of November 14 if the nation did, in fact, buy one bitcoin every day for the previous year.On the basis of the average price of Bitcoin on each of those days, the average purchase price throughout the nation would have decreased to about $41,800.Assuming that the price of bitcoin is $36,000 right now, El Salvador would have lost almost $16 million on its bitcoin holdings.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has frequently issued warnings about rising threats to the nation’s economic growth and ability to repay its debt since Bukele attempted to make bitcoin legal cash.Even with the slight paper losses on the country’s bitcoin holdings, things now seem to be on a good note. As of mid-August, El Salvador’s bonds had returned 70% year to date, and some well-known banks were advising that further gains were likely.Earlier this month, S&P Global raised the nation’s debt from CCC+ to B-.According to polls, Bukele has a commanding advantage in the race for reelection in 2024, having just declared his desire to run. There are still unanswered issues about whether the public is hurrying to adopt a bitcoin standard.Given how much the economy depends on payments from abroad, remittances would be one place to look.Only 1.2% of the $7 billion in overseas remittances in 2022, according to central bank data, were made using bitcoin wallets.

Recently, Standard Chartered’s fintech investment and venture arm, SC Ventures, unveiled Libeara, a new tokenization platform. According to the announcement, the platform will make it possible for accredited investors to create a tokenized Singapore dollar government bond fund. Additionally, Libeara has teamed up with FundBridge Capital, a Singaporean association for fund managers. “By partnering with

Tokenization use cases are being tested by the central bank of Singapore in collaboration with leading financial services companies such as JPMorgan (JPM), DBS (D05), and BNY Mellon (BK). The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Wednesday that the tests will look at fund management, automated portfolio rebalancing, multicurrency clearing and settlement, foreign currency

Hex Trust, an institutional-grade cryptocurrency custodian, announced on Wednesday that it has received a full operating licence from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) in Dubai. The operating licence is the last permission granted to crypto service providers under VARA’s regulatory framework, which went into force earlier this year. After passing the last stage of

The Hitchin and Harpenden member of parliament, Bim Afolami, was named economic secretary to the U.K. Treasury on Monday. In this capacity, he will oversee policy related to cryptocurrency and central bank digital currency (CBDC). Andrew Griffith, who had expressed a desire for the nation to serve as a centre for cryptocurrency even after FTX

The cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com said on Tuesday that it has been granted a license to conduct specific virtual asset service operations in Dubai. The licence has been given to its Dubai-based company, CRO DAX Middle East FZE, which in March was given preliminary approval by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) for a minimal viable

In an updated guidance, Australia’s tax authority clarified that it believes wrapped tokens or token interaction with decentralised (DeFi) lending protocols fall under the purview of its capital gains tax on crypto products. Investors in cryptocurrencies were alerted by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) last year that capital gains and losses on sales of digital

Following CFTC approval of the products in June, Cboe Digital, the cryptocurrency division of the Chicago Board of Options Exchange, said that it will begin listing margined bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) futures on January 11.According to a press release, it will make history as the first clearinghouse and regulated exchange in the United States to offer both spot and leveraged derivatives trading on the same platform.Regular futures do not let traders to take positions larger than their collateral; however, leveraged futures do. Among the trading companies supporting the new offering are B2C2, BlockFills, CQG, Cumberland DRW, Jump Trading Group, and Marex. “Futures have long served as valuable hedging instruments in the traditional financial markets, and we couldn’t be more excited to extend access to this tool further into the digital assets markets and offer margined trading for our customers,” Cboe Digital President John Palmer said. “We believe derivatives will foster additional liquidity and hedging

Ethereum (USDT) valued at $27 million was taken over the weekend by a hacker from a wallet connected to the Binance deployer, according to blockchain analyst ZachXBT. The $27 million in loot was transferred to the exchanges FixedFloat and ChangeNow after being converted to ether (ETH). After that, all money was converted to bitcoin (BTC)

According to court documents, bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Genesis has agreed to pay $33 million to settle $1 billion in claims made by the now-defunct crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The hedge fund’s claims against Genesis pertain to transfers that occurred before the lender’s own bankruptcy in January. The fund’s collapse in June 2022

Bitget, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced on Monday that its Hong Kong branch will close on December 13 due to its decision not to submit an application for a local cryptocurrency licence. BitgetX HK launched in April with the goal of facilitating peer-to-peer (P2P) transfers and spot trading. However, as of right now, users can only

A worrying trend has seen hackers—wallet drainers in particular—start using the Ethereum network’s CREATE2 opcode to circumvent security safeguards in some wallets. This development was made public on Sunday by blockchain security company Scam Sniffer through an X post. The purpose of the CREATE2 opcode was to enable contract address prediction prior to deployment. Most

The notion that regulation of the cryptocurrency industry was necessary was previously rejected by the group “Bitcoin Argentina.” Non-governmental entity(Bitcoin Argentina) put forth a bill that would regulate the cryptocurrency market in a way that maintains decentralisation and boosts public confidence. Ricardo Mihura, the president of Bitcoin Argentina, presented the proposed legal framework on November

A lawsuit has been launched against ByBit, its investment arm Mirana, and several executives by the FTX bankruptcy estate, which is led by CEO John J. Ray III.The goal is to retrieve money and digital assets that ByBit removed from FTX just before it collapsed; these assets are estimated to be worth $1 billion at this point. According to the lawsuit, ByBit took large amounts of money and digital assets from executives at FTX, Time Research, a company connected to ByBit, and Mirana just before the company collapsed. It did this by using its “VIP” access and connections with FTX employees.Employees of FTX kept note of VIP customers’ withdrawal requests in a spreadsheet called “VIP Request – Prioritize (Settlement)” during the withdrawal issues that occurred in November 2022.According to the lawsuit, FTX’s settlement team made a considerable deal of effort to give priority to Mirana’s large withdrawals, which led to transfers of more than $327 million to Mirana.According to reports, ByBit and its executives withdrew assets worth around $1 billion from FTX in total. The lawsuit alleges that in order to prevent the FTX estate from withdrawing assets valued at more than $125 million from the ByBit exchange, ByBit placed restrictions on it.It is said that ByBit is attempting to retrieve $20 million that it was unable to take from FTX before to its collapse by utilizing these assets as leverage.Despite portraying BitDAO as a decentralized organization administered by community members, the lawsuit alleges that in October 2021, a ByBit executive secretly disclosed to FTX that the business controls BitDAO, now known as Mantle.Then, in May 2023, ByBit made contact with the FTX bankruptcy estate on the possibility of reversing the transaction, despite the fact that the FTT tokens’ worth of about $4 million was far smaller than the value of the BIT tokens, which at the time were valued at over $50 million. Following FTX’s rejection of the “illogical proposal,” BitDAO quickly changed its name to Mantle and introduced MNT tokens, which BIT holders could convert at a 1:1 ratio.BitDAO apparently stopped FTX from converting as soon as it started, and then conducted a “community vote” to determine whether or not to prevent FTX from converting its tokens. A notice of violation of the automatic stay in Chapter 11 bankruptcy was sent to ByBit by FTX, according to the lawsuit.With votes that appeared to be connected to ByBit officials, the “community vote” nevertheless went through.The wallet “dtoh.eth,” which was identified as Mirana Ventures, a Mirana subsidiary run by David Toh, is noteworthy for having cast the fifth-largest vote.The lawsuit targets ByBit with regards to the token program and the assets stored on its network, seeking “compensatory and punitive damages.”

With an emphasis on doing what FTX failed to accomplish, which is secure customer cash, a group of former FTX executives have joined forces to assist in the development of a new cryptocurrency exchange in Dubai. With Trek Labs, a Dubai-based business that was granted permission to provide bitcoin services in the area in late October, ex-FTX attorney Can Sun is spearheading the charge.Trek Labs will market those services under the name Backpack Exchange. As the CEO of Trek’s holding company in the British Virgin Islands, Armani Ferrante, a former employee of FTX, will assist Sun, the Wall Street Journal reported on November 11.Additionally, Ferrante is the owner of Backpack, a bitcoin wallet that is a part of Backpack Exchange.Claire Zhang, Ferrante’s wife and Sun’s former legal deputy at FTX, is a member of Trek’s executive team.Zhang, however, intends to leave Trek once it secures an investment round because she has been working for free to “help bootstrap the exchange,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Ferrante and Sun emphasized that they wished to apply the knowledge gained from FTX’s inability to safeguard client money.With the use of multiparty computation (MPC) technology, Backpack’s technology provides a self-custody solution that guarantees the security of cash.Before any money is sent, an MPC transaction usually requires the approval of multiple parties. It will also enable Backpack customers to verify funds whenever they want, Sun told WSJ. “In a post-FTX world, you need trust and transparency to create a true alternative to the other players.” According to the company, Backpack Exchange will launch more broadly later this month after completing its beta testing.As a testimony in the current fraud trial of Bankman-Fried, Sun disclosed that the former CEO of FTX had approached him in search of a legal explanation for why FTX’s money were held by Alameda Research. Bankman-convicted Fried on all seven counts pertaining to fraud. The day after Bankman-Fried informed him about the use of customer funds, Sun claimed to have resigned from his position as general counsel at FTX. “This went against everything that I stood for and was represented to me by Sam.”

Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy and an advocate of Bitcoin, believes that by the end of 2024, demand for BTC might have increased by up to 10 times despite the impending halving of the cryptocurrency.Saylor answered a question on his predictions for Bitcoin and its ecosystem for the next four to five years during a keynote on November 10 at the 2023 Australia Crypto Convention. Saylor responded by first providing an overview of the years 2020–2024 and pointing out that during that time, Bitcoin was viewed as a “offshore unregulated asset” as opposed to a “institutionalized mainstream app.”Focusing on the short term, Saylor predicted that BTC will turn into a “adolescent mainstream asset by the end of 2024″ and outlined important supply and demand factors that will soon be in effect. “I think that this next 12 months is going to be a big. Because demand [on a monthly basis] should double or triple or maybe go up by a factor of 10, anywhere from two to 10. […] and the supply available for sale will be cut in half in April.” “So instead

The native token of Solana, SOL, has increased 20% in the past day, extending a three-week uptrend that has completely erased the asset’s annual losses. As of the time of writing, market data indicated that the token was trading for close to $54. The last time it had reached that level was in the weeks

MAS-registered Dtcpay, formerly known as Digital Treasures Centre, offers some point-of-sale and online cryptocurrency payment services already. The Singaporean company dtcpay is introducing a payment system for online and in-store transactions that will accept both fiat and cryptocurrency payments. In its announcement, the company mentioned Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether. The business is collaborating with Allinpay

Deaton emphasises that the lawsuit against Ripple is primarily about a regulatory dispute rather than fraud. In the ongoing legal battle between Ripple and the SEC, attorney John Deaton has effectively argued on behalf of XRP holders that the projected $770 million disgorgement for Ripple is unlikely. He bases his forecast on a number of

The bench led by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) noted after hearing the plea that the petitioner’s requests are more legislative in nature. A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that sought to create rules and a set of guidelines for cryptocurrency trading in India was denied consideration by the Indian Supreme Court. The bench led

Recently, Celsius Network announced a significant turning point in its bankruptcy journey on Twitter. After a successful creditor voting process, the company announced via a series of tweets that its Plan of Reorganisation had been confirmed by the court. With this announcement, Celsius Network’s efforts to successfully navigate bankruptcy and reorganise its business have advanced

According to a Bloomberg report citing a person familiar with the matter, wealthy clients of Swiss bank UBS can now take exposure to three crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) through the lender’s Hong Kong platform. The securities regulator in Hong Kong, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), has authorised the three cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs): Samsung

MicroStrategy (MSTR), a business software company, is the largest public holder of bitcoin (BTC) at a 25% gain in value, or over $1.1 billion, due to the asset’s recent surge in price. Holdings of Bitcoin at the business started by Executive Chairman Michael Saylor, who frequently tweets about his support for the biggest cryptocurrency, topped

According to multiple sets of on-chain data, hackers have emptied the hot wallets of cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex, resulting in an estimated loss of $114 million Blockchain security companies PeckShield and Cyvers detected a possible hack at approximately 10:55 UTC. Twelve minutes later, Poloniex made an announcement stating that the wallet on the exchange had been

Hodlnaut, a cryptocurrency lender with headquarters in Singapore, is going to be liquidated, according to Aaron Lee and Angela Ee, the company’s previous interim judicial managers. On November 10, a winding-up order was submitted to Singapore’s High Court. More than 17,000 creditors of the exchange will continue to receive updates from the liquidators Hodlnaut filed

According to a new report by a technology policy think tank in New Delhi, the country’s most divisive crypto policy—a 1% transaction tax withheld at source—needs to be reduced to 0.01% in order to assist the government in fulfilling its objectives of increasing revenue and enhancing transparency.According to a report by the Esya Center, the tax, known as TDS, is a type of income tax that has caused up to 5 million cryptocurrency dealers to relocate their transactions abroad and has potentially cost the government $420 million in revenue since it was implemented in July 2022. Going beyond the group’s previous report that found Indians shifted over $3.8 billion in trading volume from domestic to foreign cryptocurrency exchanges following the announcement of controversial crypto rules, the findings in the “Impact Assessment of Tax Deducted at Source on the Indian Virtual Digital Asset Market” go even further.They demonstrate how the tax, at least partially, fell short of one of its declared objectives: taxing the wealthy. “While the VDA market in India is burgeoning, the benefits of the same are being reaped by offshore exchanges,” said Vikash Gautam, the report’s author, referring to virtual digital assets. “Data shows that two likely policy objectives of the tax – to curb speculation and create transparency around transactions – have not been