According to a recent announcement from Japan’s National Tax Agency, crypto issuers are exempted from paying capital gains taxes on unrealized gains. Although, in the previous year the tax committee of the nation’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) accepted a plan to exempt cryptocurrency firms that issue their own tokens from paying corporation taxes on

The Hong Kong Economic Times’ chief executive, Li Ka-chung, expressed his happiness at attending the “Convergence of Finance, Innovating the Future” conference and the Hong Kong Economic Times Business Awards ceremony. Li Ka-chung, speaking to distinguished visitors and friends, stressed Hong Kong’s potential for leveraging its strengths as an international financial hub and promoting the

Bybit, a cryptocurrency exchange, announced recently that it had been granted a license to provide custody and exchange services in Cyprus. The company, which has its headquarters in Dubai, claimed that the action demonstrates its dedication to following local laws. After facing regulatory scrutiny in Japan and leaving Canada and the United Kingdom, the exchange’s

A number of significant media organizations have appealed a bankruptcy court’s decision to permanently redact the names of FTX users. The New York Times, Dow Jones & Company, Bloomberg, and the Financial Times argued that keeping the names secret effectively denies the public’s “presumptive right” to view bankruptcy filings in a recent filing with the

Recently, creditors of the insolvent cryptocurrency loan company Celsius Network updated their complaint to accuse Wintermute, a significant cryptocurrency market maker, of taking part in a wash trading scheme. According to the claims, Wintermute and Celsius officials conspired to mislead investors by manipulating the price of CEL tokens through shady market trading. Bloomberg reported recently

According to a recent notification released, Belgium’s top market regulator has ordered the troubled cryptocurrency exchange Binance to stop providing services to local clients immediately. The Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) claimed that Binance was “offering and providing exchange services in Belgium between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custody wallet services,

To buy the fentanyl ingredients they supply to drug cartels around the world, Chinese chemical makers now take cryptocurrencies.90% of the Chinese chemical companies that supplied fentanyl precursor chemicals and advertised their goods online were discovered by researchers at the crypto analytics platform Elliptic. These companies also offered to accept payments in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Tether (USDT), which were found to be used by only a small minority of these organizations. The company recently reported that “many of these businesses were also willing to supply fentanyl itself, despite this being banned in China since 2019.”According to the investigation, the majority of the Chinese labs that provided the ingredients for fentanyl utilized accounts at “three specific exchanges” situated abroad that were left nameless.These businesses have received thousands of payments totaling just over $27 million, according to Elliptic’s analysis of their cryptocurrency wallets, which also showed that the number of “transactions has increased by 450% year-on-year.” Elliptic claimed that numerous suppliers have acknowledged sending fentanyl precursors and the drug itself to Mexico, the country from which the majority of the fentanyl entering the United States arrives. The blockchain analytics company continued, “Most fentanyl trafficked into the United States is manufactured using precursors imported from Chinese suppliers.”In a related development, a research from the blockchain analysis company Chainalaysis showed that bitcoin addresses linked to alleged fentanyl precursor suppliers in China have collected more than $37.8 million in cryptocurrency since 2018. According to the survey, Latin American cryptocurrency users remitted approximately $3.6 million worth of cryptocurrencies to chemical stores in China, making them the region’s most active participants in Fentanyl trafficking.

The use of Cardano’s ADA coin has significantly increased in the US, propelling the ecosystem’s impressive expansion. Cardano’s blockchain technology has grown its user base and development community due to rising interest and confidence in it. With this increase in use, the Cardano ecosystem is anticipated to expand and evolve. Despite American regulatory difficulties, Cardano’s ADA cryptocurrency is expanding.Cardano’s blockchain technology has been accepted and used without problems by both individuals and corporations in spite of these regulatory challenges. A blockchain technology called Cardano has seen its usage rise nearly twofold during the previous 18 months in the US.According to “Morning Consult”‘s crypto analytics, 7% of Americans, or about 10 million people, hold ADA.It has increased by over 100% since January 2022, when the adoption rate was 4%. The adoption of Cardano has grown as a result of a unique feature called staking, which has drawn more users eager to generate money.A decentralized service called staking pays users for keeping and validating transactions on a blockchain.Cardano has an intriguing incentive rate for creating passive income, coming in at just over 3% annually. Staking Rewards estimates that 62% of ADA coins are already staked, making it a common investment strategy. In terms of cryptocurrency networks that offer large staking payouts, Cardano comes in third behind Ethereum and Solana. A large number of American customers, possibly exceeding millions, stake ADA on centralized exchanges.

According to a Friday letter from Belgium’s top market regulator, the troubled cryptocurrency exchange Binance must immediately stop providing services to local clients.In Belgium, Binance is “offering and providing exchange services between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custody wallet services, from countries that are not members of the European Economic Area,” according to the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), which the regulator claims is against the law. “The FSMA has therefore ordered Binance to cease, with immediate effect, offering or providing any and all such services in Belgium,” the notice said. As it fights U.S. SEC claims that it broke securities laws and now learned that French authorities are looking into it, Binance is in the regulatory firing line.Due to regulatory concerns, the exchange also left markets in the European Economic Area like Cyprus and the Netherlands. A representative for Binance said in a statement released after the publication of this article, “We are unhappy to learn that the FSMA has made this decision despite our ongoing negotiations.We are examining the specifics of their notification, and we will keep cooperating with international and Belgian regulators in accordance with our commitments.

Due to increasing pressure from U.S. regulators on its staking service, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has seen a decline in market share in the expanding ether (ETH) staking industry. According to a Dune analytics data created by digital asset investment product-issuer 21Shares, the exchange’s percentage of ETH staking dropped to 9.7%, its lowest level since May

A federal judge recently handed down a five-year term to a British man who made around $900,000 from a complex Twitter breach and a second crypto-related SIM-swapping scheme, according to Inner City Press. Judge Jed Rakoff stated during the sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday that

The largest local cryptocurrency exchange, Mercado Bitcoin, has been granted permission by Brazil’s central bank to take part in the pilot program for the digital real, the central bank’s digital currency (CBDC). According to the local daily Valor, partners in the group headed by Mercado Bitcoin include Mastercard, broker Genial, registrant Cerc, and financial software

According to the Nevada Department of Business and Industry, the cryptocurrency custody company Prime Trust is experiencing “a shortfall in customer funds” and is unable to process all withdrawal requests this month. The Financial Institutions Division (FID) of the Department, which is responsible for monitoring trust companies subject to state regulation, ordered Prime Trust to

According to a court document filed recently the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has consented to postpone collecting a $30 million fine from the insolvent crypto lender BlockFi until investors have been paid back. The amount is what’s left over from a $50 million fine BlockFi paid to the SEC to resolve allegations that

According to a recent press release, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has brought an enforcement action against a resident of New York City named William Koo Ichioka for defrauding more than 100 participants in a commodity pool of over $21 million. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California has also brought

According to a press release on Thursday, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has initiated an enforcement action against a Californian man and his company for operating a sophisticated romance scam that defrauded hundreds of investors out of more than $1 million. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, claims that California businessman Cunwen Zhu defrauded at least 29 clients between April 2021 and March 2022 of more than $1.3 million designated for trading in digital assets, commodities, and forex through his company, Justby International Auctions.Zhu amassed the money for his own use, transferring the majority of it to bank accounts, digital wallets, and trading platforms for digital assets run by persons he allegedly employed in his alleged scam rather than investing it in cryptocurrency and forex exchanges. In order to “fatten them up with falsehoods, before soliciting the customer to participate in a fraudulent financial opportunity,” Zhu’s accomplices allegedly developed romantic ties with his alleged victims.Since the pandemic, “Pig Butchering,” or the romantic con, has become more common as loneliness among people who are required to stay at home has risen. “As people sought to escape the isolation of the pandemic and form a connection to others online, fraudsters saw a new venue to prey on and to take advantage of the public,” said CFTC Director of Enforcement Ian McGinley. The CFTC has already issued warnings about romance-related cyberfraud involving digital assets.In order to prevent people from falling for scams, the CFTC recently released a number of client protection fraud alerts and articles.

A bitcoin staking platform called Northstake that targets institutional investors raised $3 million from PreSeed Ventures, Morph Capital, The Aventures Fund, Funfair Ventures, and Delta Blockchain Fund for 2.8 million euros.The Copenhagen-based business, which saw over $80 million in crypto assets staked in 2022, handles the regulatory-compliant legal and technical aspects of staking, which is the process of supporting a public blockchain like Ethereum by posting collateral to the network in exchange for yield. Financial institutions are expected to have some exposure to staking cryptocurrency, and this is especially true now that Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, has switched to a proof-of-stake consensus structure.Through collaborations with the custody technology company Fireblocks and the blockchain analytics service provider Chainalysis, Northstake streamlines the procedure while keeping compliance in mind.According to CEO Jesper Johansen, the Danish company is courting interest from sovereign wealth funds and similar institutions. In an interview, Johansen stated that institutional investors are “looking at this and trying to figure out what staking is and where does the yield come from” at the asset manager and sovereign fund levels.It’s noteworthy that one of our ultimate beneficial owners in this round of funding is ATP, one of the biggest asset managers in Europe and a state-owned pension fund in Denmark.Rather than offering complicated decentralized staking protocols like Lido or Rocketpool do, Northstake focuses on straightforward staking products, according to Johansen. Institutions are unable to manage the anti-money laundering (AML) concerns associated with not knowing the identity of a staking counterparty or the nature of the funds being channeled through smart contracts, he claimed. In a statement, Kavita Gupta, the founder of Delta Blockchain Fund and a consultant to Northstake, said, “At Delta, we are bullish on institutional staking services as it allows them to realize the full potential of holding cryptocurrency by earning passive income, supporting the network, and holding tokens beyond just having them sit as the speculative asset on the balance sheet.”

After negotiating a tentative agreement to buy rival Prime Trust earlier this month for an unknown sum amid rumors that the company was on the verge of bankruptcy, cryptocurrency custodian BitGo canceled the deal.After “considerable effort and work to find a path forward with Prime Trust,” BitGo terminated the process, the company announced on Thursday. “This decision was not made lightly, and BitGo remains committed to our mission to deliver trust in digital assets.” According to a source at one of Prime Trust’s former clients, the company has been losing clients and money to rivals for weeks as suspicions about its operations grow.After BitGo tweeted this, the cryptocurrency exchange Stably informed its users that Prime Trust has stopped accepting deposits and withdrawals at the request of the Nevada Financial Institution Division. Due to Prime Trust’s suspension of USD deposits and withdrawals, Coinmetro, another cryptocurrency exchange, also stated that it was unable to execute new U.S. dollar

An artificial intelligence interface powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been unveiled by Polygon, an Ethereum scaling solution, to help developers create decentralized apps for the network.In a blog post published on Wednesday, the Polygon team announced the launch of the new product. The GPT-4 big language model, which powers the artificial intelligence interface known as Polygon Copilot, was trained using textual information on the Polygon blockchain. Developers who are producing non-fungible tokens (NFTs), looking at wallets and transactions, or developing decentralized applications (dapps) on the network would have access to statistics and insights from this. Additionally, Polygon Copilot features three levels (basic, advanced, and degen) that will assist users with onboarding based on how comfortable they are using the UI.As stated in the blog article by Polygon, “Whether you’re a professional builder, an enthusiast, or an inquisitive user, Polygon Copilot is an AI-powered interface that opens a universe of interactions, simply by “asking.” The improvement is one of several technological and promotional endeavors together referred to as “Polygon 2.0.”Polygon published a proposal on Tuesday with the goal of upgrading its primary blockchain, the Polygon POS chain, to a zkEVM validium.

A deal to buy two facilities in Dalton, Georgia for $9.3 million in cash has been reached by the Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining company CleanSpark (CLSK). A recent email release stated that the facilities would house over 6,000 Bitmain Antminer S19 XPs and S19J Pro+s and that they would boost CleanSpark’s hashrate by just under 1

In a press statement on Tuesday, Iris Energy (IREN) said that it is renewing its strategy around hosting high-performance computing alongside bitcoin miners as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) continues to soar.Several miners have recently expanded into other forms of computing, including Applied Digital Corporation (APLD), Crusoe Energy, and Hut 8 Mining (HUT).By 2028, it is predicted that the need for data center space for AI would reach $76 billion, because to the rising popularity of huge language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Iris Energy intends to grow its data center capacity from its present 5.6 exahash/second (EH/s) to 9.1 EH/s by early 2024, the miner claimed.Around three to four years ago, “significant time was invested in exploring” a high performance computing strategy, “including signing a strategic memorandum of understanding with Dell Technologies in March 2020 to test and develop potential data center solutions for energy intensive compute applications, including leveraging Dell Technologies’ HPC and artificial intelligence expertise,” according to Iris Energy. Recent events suggest that “the time may be right to expand into this sector,” employing either the current sites of Iris Energy or those that are being built, the business stated.According to the press announcement, the miner has purchased materials with lengthy lead times to expand and put out a second 100 MW facility, which would increase its mining hashrate to 13.6 EH/s if full with mining rigs. Because miners have access to inexpensive electricity and data center infrastructure, it could appear simple for them to switch to AI and cloud computing.However, in terms of operating quality, uptime, and customer service, high-performance computing businesses have different needs than mining.

Blockchain investigator MistTrack claims that hackers who stole $35 million from cryptocurrency wallet Atomic Wallet earlier this month utilized the cross-chain liquidity protocol THORChain to hide their illicit gains. MistTrack reports that in the last two days, 503.08 ether (ETH), or roughly $870,000, related to the hack was transferred to THORChain before being exchanged for

An official from the International Monetary Fund said on Monday that new platforms for cross-border central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) might be more effective and secure while still guaranteeing that nations can implement compliance checks and capital controls. Tobias Adrian, director of the IMF’s monetary and capital markets section, believes that a worldwide CBDC platform

Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom have approved a new law that would classify cryptocurrency as a regulated industry there. The Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB), which was approved on Monday by the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament, now moves on to the legislative process. The comprehensive measure, which is over 340

According to information provided to CoinDesk, the European Union legislation required to support a digital euro that was scheduled to be released on June 28 has been delayed.The action comes in response to last week’s comments by finance ministers that seemed to cast doubt on the plan’s justification and the release of the draft bill, which addresses privacy and technical difficulties for the central bank digital currency (CBDC).The publication date of the draft legislation, which was supposed to occur before the European Central Bank made a final decision on whether or not to issue the money in a digital format, has changed more than once.It was initially scheduled for May. According to a provisional forward agenda released this week, the measure was most recently slated for discussion and publishing at a meeting of the European Commission’s decision-making body on June 28.The commission did not identify a new publication date or offer an explanation for the delay.At their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, the euro area’s finance ministers also reviewed the plans. After he presided over the discussions, Irish Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said in a statement that ministers stressed the “importance of developing a compelling and clear narrative regarding what would be the added value of this development” in terms of a difference to the economy and citizens’ lives, adding that “within our institutions ministers want to support this work but also look at how we can further develop that narrative. “The legislative draft that CoinDesk saw last week seeks to forbid both shops charging for the use of digital euros as well as banks charging interest on them.

Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Labs, was found guilty of forging documents and was given a four-month prison sentence by a court in Montenegro.On Monday, a Basic Court in the nation’s capital, Podgorica, announced the verdict and said that the imprisonment period would be factored into the sentence.The South Korean native and another Terra official, Han Chang-Joon, were both detained in the Balkan country back in March for allegedly possessing forged passports.Despite the fact that bail was granted last week after a second attempt by local courts, the two have remained in detention since their arrest. The court also ordered the confiscation of Kwon and Han’s two passports from Costa Rica, two passports from Belgium, and two identity cards.Before being apprehended in Montenegro, Kwon insisted he was “not on the run,” despite the fact that South Korean officials had launched an international manhunt for him and had even asked Interpol for a red alert.Authorities in South Korea and the United States have asked for his extradition to face charges in connection with the demise of the multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency company Terra in May 2022. Kwon would remain in “extradition custody” for six months while South Korea’s case is being considered, the High Court in Podgorica previously confirmed to CoinDesk.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the market value of the US dollar-pegged Binance USD BUSD stablecoin has dropped by over $1 billion over the last 30 days, placing it in fourth place among other stablecoins.The BUSD market cap is currently at $4.3 billion, down 29% from $5.54 billion on May 18 at the time of writing.Since December 2022, when its market worth exceeded $23 billion, the stablecoin has been in a declining trend. Following FTX’s abrupt fall in November 2022, significant developments surrounding Binance coincide with the decline in BUSD’s market valuation.A claim that the US Department of Justice might target Binance in December 2022 resulted in net withdrawals of $3.6 billion over the course of seven days.Massive BUSD redemptions from market makers were seen on the exchange, including more than $245 million from Jump Finance. In September 2019, Binance and Paxos Trust collaborated to launch the BUSD stablecoin.Paxos publishes and owns the product, and Binance has a brand license.The alliance presented new difficulties for Paxos.The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegedly filed the company with a Wells notice in February saying that BUSD was an unregistered securities. Following the investigation, Paxos was told to cease issuing BUSD by the New York Department of Financial Services.BUSD’s market share was significantly reduced as a result of all of these events, falling from $15.88 billion on February 12 to $8.38 billion on March 13. The SEC’s complaint against Binance for allegedly providing unregistered securities on June 5 dealt the company its most recent blow.13 allegations were brought against the exchange by the US regulator, including unregistered offers and sales of the BNB and BUSD coins. With Tether USDT returning to its all-time high and most stablecoin market caps dropping, the market dominance of stablecoins linked to the U.S. dollar has changed over the previous year.Market share for Circle’s USD Coin USDC fell from 34.88% in May 2022 to 23.05% in May 2023.BUSD’s market share fell from 11.68% to 4.18% within the same time span, while Dai’s DAI’s share of the cryptocurrency market fell from 4.05% in May 2022 to 3.66% today. On the other side, USDT is expanding.In May, the stablecoin had a 65.89% market share, up from 47.04% in May of last year.While USDC’s market cap has decreased from a high of $55 billion to just $29 billion, its value has increased to $83.1 billion.

The founder and CEO of the well-known crypto exchange, Changpeng Zhao ( Binance) has recently disclosed a new development. As per the executive, the company has issued a cease and desist notice for Binance Nigeria Limited. The respective platform has been labelled by the crypto exchange as a deceptive entity. Recently, the CEO of Binance

Wyre, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency payments company, is closing its doors after almost ten years in operation, citing the financial difficulties caused by the bear market and not by the hawkish “regulatory agency direction” in the United States. The company wrote in a blog post on June 16 that it has made the tough choice to wind down in order to “protect the best interest of our key stakeholders and customers.”Wyre is still protecting consumer valuables.You can still withdraw whatever assets you have on the Wyre platform through the dashboard until Friday, July 14. After that, we will have a different procedure to reclaim any assets that are still on the platform, according to the company. Additionally, the Wyre team hinted that its assets are currently up for sale, saying: “If you’re interested in acquiring Wyre’s or its subsidiaries’ assets, please reach out to 88 Partners.” Since one-click checkout business Bolt scrapped its ambitions to buy Wyre for $1.5 billion in September 2022, the company is said to have gone down the gutter. Trouble first surfaced on January 4, 2023, when Juno, a supplier of fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solutions, urged its users to remove their crypto assets off the platform and take self-custody because of the purported “uncertainty” surrounding its custodial partner Wyre.The next day, MetaMask discontinued support for Wyre’s cryptocurrency payment services due to the same problem. A few days later, Wyre set a 90% withdrawal cap for all users, but immediately lifted it on January 13 after receiving funding from an unknown “strategic partner,” raising hope that the company was recovering. Additionally, 75 staff were reportedly let go by Wyre in January. Wyre joins a long line of cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses and initiatives that have crumbled under the weight of an extended bear market.Unbanked, a crypto fintech company; BottlePay, a Lightning Network payments platform; HotBit, a cryptocurrency exchange; Terressa, a platform for nonfungible tokens; and TradeBlock, a platform for institutional trading from Digital Currency Group, all shut down in May alone.