A bill that will assist law enforcement in seizing and freezing cryptocurrency used for criminal activity was approved by UK lawmakers on Thursday. The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, which will go into effect on Thursday, is anticipated to receive the King’s approval and address a variety of criminal activities, including cybercrime and drug

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 works on the fix. Fiat withdrawals are available and working. All funds are SAFU. We apologize for the inconvenience and will update on progress.” The notice was released eighteen minutes after one of the exchange’s wallets processed a withdrawal at 10:45 UTC, according to etherscan.The outage occurs following a record-breaking $100 billion in trading volume across all cryptocurrency markets on Tuesday—the largest daily volume since the November 2022 crash of FTX.

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 bulls and bears, institutional adoption is pushing us closer to perpetual spring,” shared Diogo Mónica, co-founder at Anchorage Digital, referring to the many spot ETF applications. “Between recent price action and movement

According to reports, options range from selling the exchange as a whole—including its sizable customer base of over nine million—to possibly partnering with another organisation in order to revitalise the platform. After filing for bankruptcy, FTX is giving serious thought to its future. The company’s investment banker, Kevin Cofsky of Perella Weinberg Partners, reportedly disclosed

The sales and exchanges carried out in 2025 are expected to be impacted by the proposed regulations when they take effect in 2026. The time for comments on the proposed August 2023 crypto tax reporting rules has been extended by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States. The deadline for the public consultation

According to the statement, the digital euro will make electronic payments an essential component of the financial system. Spain’s central bank, Banco de España, has joined a chorus of European banks readying their clientele for the possible advantages of a digital euro. On October 19, the central bank released a brief statement outlining the characteristics

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 eventual ETF, which will result in significant flows to buy an increasingly illiquid supply of bitcoin,” said CoinShares head of research James Butterfill. According to Butterfill, investors’ perceptions of bitcoin will significantly change if the surge reaches $40,000 in value.“Market participants would be in full anticipation of it being ‘mainstreamed’ and accepted as a major asset class (like existing ones such as gold etc.).”But he issued a warning: given the erratic nature of digital currencies, the price might go sharply in the opposite direction if there is any unfavorable information about when the approval will happen. “Any detriment to the early ‘24 timeline for

The head of Binance’s U.K. operations left the company last month, joining a growing list of senior executives leaving the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world. According to his LinkedIn profile, Jonathan Farnell, the former CEO of Binance U.K. and CEO of its payment service Bifinity (which was dissolved in August), departed the company in

Noble, an asset issuance chain designed to facilitate communication between blockchains, was created by NASD Inc., which has raised $3.3 million in a seed round. Polychain Capital led the fundraising, which also included participation from Circle Ventures, Borderless Capital, and Wintermute Ventures. Noble is a component of the inter-blockchain communication protocol (IBC), which facilitates data

A spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) is expected to be approved, and institutional investors are licking their chops to purchase bitcoin (BTC). The ticker for a BlackRock ETF appeared on the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC) website on Tuesday, sparking the largest cryptocurrency in the world to surge to a 17-month high of $35,000. According

Tom Emmer, a Republican from Minnesota who has co-chaired the Congressional Blockchain Caucus and sponsored several bills pertaining to cryptocurrencies in recent years, announced on Saturday that he is running for the Speaker of the House. Moving legislation and scheduling votes, the Speaker of the House is in charge of the House of Representatives. Having

On October 24, the controversial and ambitious Worldcoin (WLD) project will convert operator rewards from USDC stablecoins to its WLD tokens, thereby increasing the amount of tokens that are available for purchase on the open market. In a recent post, Worldcoin stated, “The WLD token was launched with a relatively low circulating supply of just

The financial regulator in Hong Kong has expanded on previous guidelines that restricted the sale of spot products to accredited investors, thereby enabling intermediaries to provide their services to a broader customer base. “The policy is updated in light of the latest market developments and enquiries from the industry seeking to further expand retail access

MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) bitcoin (BTC) holdings have once again been profitable as the cryptocurrency’s price has risen to around $31,000 on Monday morning.When bitcoin fell about 80% from its peak in November 2021, the company’s hoard was severely undervalued in the latter part of 2022. However, events like the impending halving event and the release of a spot ETF helped turn things around, resulting in a nearly doubling of the price this year. Michael Saylor, who was once MicroStrategy’s CEO and is currently its executive chairman, has developed into one of the cryptocurrency’s most ardent backers and is still a frequent buyer.The only sale his company has made thus far is a 708 bitcoin deal that was valued at $11 million in December 2022. The corporation added 5,445 bitcoins for slightly under $150 million, or an average price of $27,053 apiece, in the weeks leading up to September 24 of this year. These transactions were the most recent ones that are known to the public.This increased MicroStrategy’s total bitcoin holdings to 158,245 at an average price of $29,582 apiece, or an approximate purchase price of $4.68 billion. With a gain of about $160 million at the current price of $30,650, the bitcoin wager is profitable at around $1,000 per coin.According to data from Bitcoin Treasuries, the corporation owns 158,245 bitcoins, which is over 14 times more than the next closest institutional holder. Moreover, MicroStrategy may be purchasing much more.The business announced in August that it could sell up to $750 million worth of stock in order to acquire funds, with the intention of using some of the profits to buy bitcoin.

Because a new class of replacement cycling attacks poses a threat to the Lightning Network, Antoine Riard thinks the Bitcoin community is facing a “hard dilemma.” Citing security flaws and underlying difficulties in the Bitcoin ecosystem, security researcher and developer Antoine Riard is leaving the Lightning Network development team. A new class of replacement cycling

John Deaton, a supporter of cryptocurrencies and attorney, has criticized the Lightning Network, saying that the “Spend The Bits” protocol on the XRP Ledger (XRPL) is more efficient. For Bitcoin, layer-2 scaling is provided by Lightning.By facilitating off-chain, peer-to-peer transactions, it is intended to increase the efficiency and scalability of Bitcoin transactions. Deaton disclosed that he is an angel investor and Spend the Bits’ chief legal officer in a message published on October 21 on X (previously Twitter).Spend The Bits, a Bitcoin blockchain substitute for Lightning, was previously hailed by Deaton.The protocol was praised by the pro-XPR lawyer in September, who described it as a more secure way to use Bitcoin than Lightning. The timing of Deaton’s admission on Saturday coincided with an X post from online cryptocurrency investigator WhaleWire.Concerns were expressed in this tweet on a recent finding in Lightning that pointed to a serious security flaw and forced a developer to leave the project.According to the developer, the Lightning Network’s code contains intentional flaws that might give attackers total control over the network.Significant supporters of Bitfinex, Tether, and BlockStream are also associated with the Lightning Network.The security and reliability of Lightning have come under scrutiny in light of this revelation. According to 1ML, the Lightning Network has a 5,338 BTC network capacity as of this writing.With the payment protocol experiencing a 15% decrease in capacity over the previous three months, this has raised concerns about the network’s resiliency and long-term survival.

Rep. Tom Emmer, a Republican who is supportive to cryptocurrencies, is running for speaker of the US House of Representatives. Several politicians have endorsed the 62-year-old.After the initial round of voting on October 17, Representative Patrick McHenry is still in charge of the post in an interim capacity.Jim Jordan, the Republican Party’s choice for speaker, was unable to receive enough votes to take over as speaker.Reporter Jake Sherman of NBC News first brought attention to Emmer’s search on October 20. Sherman wrote on X (previously Twitter) that Emmer “has told members of the House Republican Conference that he will seek the nomination for speaker.” “The Minnesotan is currently the No. 3 House Republican. He’ll immediately become the frontrunner in this race,” Sherman added. Additionally, according to CBS News, an unidentified source close to Emmer revealed that he was “making calls” to seek the nomination.McHenry does not have the power to advance legislation in the House as the acting Speaker.As a result, work on a number of bills—including ones pertaining to cryptocurrency—has stopped, underscoring the need of choosing a new speaker.Members of the cryptocurrency community would probably appreciate Emmer’s decision to become Speaker.Emmer has advocated for digital assets on numerous occasions and has a track record of opposing the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement-based approach to regulation, which is led by Gary Gensler. The public has already shown some support for Emmer.On October 20, Representative Brad Finstad issued a statement endorsing Emmer for the speakership. “From the day that I arrived in Congress, it has been a privilege to work alongside

Users of FTX have reported getting misleading emails that seem to have come from FTX Trading, FTX EU, and West Realm Shires Services. There is a withdrawal fraud that is allegedly targeting FTX consumers. Sunil, an advocate for FTX creditors and user of X (previously Twitter), warned FTX account holders of a phishing scheme and

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has sued Binance; a coordinated defence effort is in progress. Based on allegations that date at least as far back as July 2017, this lawsuit asserts that Binance, led by CEO Changpeng Zhao, operated as unregistered exchanges, brokers, dealers, and clearing agencies, earning a sizable amount of money

According to court filings, Thor Technologies and its creator David Chin have been found guilty of executing an unregistered offering of crypto asset securities worth $2.6 million, and as a result, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has granted a default judgment against them.A district court in San Francisco rendered a decision on Wednesday, and the SEC made an announcement on Thursday. The SEC first filed accusations against Thor Technologies on December 21, 2022, over a year ago. Default judgments usually arise from the other party’s failure to comply with specified requirements, such as missing deadlines for document submission or trial attendance.The SEC had filed charges against Thor and Chin for marketing and selling “Thor Tokens” in order to raise money for a software platform that catered to gig economy employees and businesses.According to the SEC, offers and sales of Thor Tokens were advertised as investment opportunities but were not registered with the agency.In April of 2019, Thor declared that it was going to cease operations because of “many regulatory challenges.” Thor and Chin are not permitted to take part in any crypto asset securities offerings by the court, and a disgorgement of $744,555 along with $158,638.06 in prejudgment interest has been ordered.Chin is free to buy and sell stocks for his own account, including crypto-asset securities, despite the order.

Users of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance were notified on Thursday that additional fiat service providers for deposits, withdrawals, and payments in euros (EUR) have been added.According to a blog post on Binance, the business has agreements with “a number of new regulated and authorized fiat partners” to offer EUR services to its users in Europe.According to the post, services include buying and selling digital assets via SEPA, bank cards, or fiat balances; EUR spot trading pairs; and EUR deposits and withdrawals via the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) payment network. Following Paysafe’s September withdrawal from serving Binance users, the exchange’s previous euro service provider made the news.Last month, a few European Binance users expressed dissatisfaction over their inability to withdraw euros from the exchange prior to Paysafe’s deadline. Either in the email or the blog post, the corporation did not identify the new service providers.Remarks were requested, but no one from Binance responded right away.This year, multiple executives have left Binance and its affiliates, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world based on trading volume, due to legal action from various authorities and regulatory pressure.As to Bloomberg, the most recent departure was the CEO of Bifinity UAB, a subsidiary of Binance that is registered in Lithuania and handles fiat payments. The CEO resigned on Thursday.

A joint opinion statement on regulating a digital euro was released by the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Data Protection Board. In response to the European Commission’s July 2023 proposal, the European Data Protection Board and the European Data Protection Supervisor jointly released a statement recently. In order to improve the personal data

Increased confidence around the possible approval of numerous spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has contributed to the rise in Bitcoin (BTC) this week, according to a research report released by JPMorgan (JPM). The applications’ clearance is getting closer thanks to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) decision not to appeal a recent decision in the

The U.S.-based automaker Tesla (TSLA) reported updated earnings on Wednesday that showed its holdings of bitcoin (BTC) remained stable in the third quarter.The company may not have bought or sold any bitcoin in the three months that ended in September if the quarterly report on bitcoin did not include it.For the fifth consecutive quarter, the holding’s value has stayed constant at $184 million at the conclusion of the third quarter.At 9,720 bitcoin, Tesla still holds the third-largest bitcoin holdings of any publicly traded firm, according to bitcointreasury.net.The only companies that dwarf it are MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA). With a reported 43,000 tokens, the company, headed by cryptocurrency enthusiast Elon Musk, invested $1.5 billion on bitcoin in February 2021.Within that same month, Tesla announced that it would start taking bitcoin payments.Nonetheless, in the months that followed, the business abandoned its plans.First quarter 2021 saw the sale of 4,320 bitcoin, and last year it liquidated 75% of the remaining amount at a significant loss.Tesla’s earnings per share dropped from 95 cents to 53 cents during the July-September quarter, representing a 44% decrease from the same period last year. The company posted a net income of $1.85 billion. On Wednesday, Tesla’s stock price was down 4.78% at $242.68.

In an effort to move toward a more decentralized form of governance, Polygon, a scaling solution for the Ethereum blockchain, published a proposal on Thursday to establish a “Polygon Protocol Council.” The proposal nominated 13 initial members, including representatives from Coinbase and the Ethereum Foundation. The proposal, known as PIP 29, will be “responsible for the narrow-in-scope, timelock-limited changes to system smart contracts implemented on Ethereum for existing and future Polygon protocols,” Polygon said in a press release. According to the announcement, the council will “execute the community-led process to initiate future upgrades, including those proposed in the Frontier

According to a recent court hearing, bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX utilised consumer cash to repurchase all of the company’s shares owned with rival exchange Binance. As part of the repurchase, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao stated in a 2022 post that the business has received nearly $2.1 billion in FTX’s FTT tokens and Binance US dollar

Customers have been alerted by Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) regarding the MEXC exchange providing financial services on its website without the necessary authorization. BaFin authorization is required for MEXC’s crypto custody services. The regulator stated on its website that a company may only offer financial services in Germany if it has received the

According to the business, Coinbase has chosen Ireland as its EU regulatory hub. Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), a new set of EU regulations, will permit cryptocurrency service providers to operate throughout the EU with a licence from any one of its 27 national regulators. Coinbase’s Vice President and Regional Managing Director for Europe,

The European Union’s data privacy watchdog warned in a statement on Wednesday that there should be no “excessive centralization” of the European Central Bank in plans for a digital euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled to make a decision later on Wednesday about the implementation of its plans for a central bank digital