OKX, a prominent cryptocurrency exchange, announced that it had withdrawn its application to offer digital asset services in Hong Kong. “After careful consideration of our business strategy, we’ve decided to withdraw OKX HK’s VASP license application at this time,” the exchange said on its website. By May 31, the exchange—which ranks third in terms of traded volume according to CoinGecko data—will no longer offer centralized virtual asset trading services within the region. Customers will only be able to withdraw their monies after that. Huobi Hong Kong, an HTX subsidiary operating in Hong Kong, was among the several applicants that withdrew their petitions from the Securities and Futures Commission earlier this month. The government is presently reviewing the licensing of a number of significant cryptocurrency exchanges, including Crypto.com and Bullish, the company that owns CoinDesk. The latest exchange was authorized by the SFC in 2022.

The virtual asset services providers (VASP) registration was obtained by the Irish branch of the U.K.-based crypto infrastructure startup Ramp Network, the company announced in a news statement on Thursday. An organisation called The Ramp Network is developing payment rails to integrate cryptocurrency into the world’s financial system. Users who register will be able to

Pepe (PEPE) surged into the top twenty tokens in terms of market capitalization earlier on Thursday, according to CoinMarketCap statistics, after a “beta bet” narrative increased the token’s value by around 40% during the previous week. After being released in April 2023, the coin with a frog theme shot to a $1 billion market capitalization

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received updated 9b-4 forms from Bitwise, BlackRock, and Grayscale on Wednesday for their proposed spot ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The staking ether requirements were eliminated from all new forms, which some claim was creating a regulatory bottleneck. “According to the amended BlackRock filing, no action will be taken

SEC Chair Gary Gensler stated on Wednesday that the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act would be detrimental to investors and the work of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “The Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (‘FIT 21′) would create new regulatory gaps and undermine decades of precedent

The coalition that aims to respond to and prevent online fraud and scams includes cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase, Kraken, and other organisations in the space. According to a statement on Wednesday, the “Tech Against Scams” coalition will act as a gathering place for its members to work together to take action against the techniques scammers use

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has approved asset management WisdomTree (WT) to list cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). The company claims to be one of the first applicants to receive permission for its prospectus from the UK regulator. According to a statement released on Wednesday, WisdomTree’s Physical Bitcoin (BTCW) and

The president isn’t threatening to veto the measure that the U.S. House of Representatives is trying to approve to regulate the cryptocurrency market, which is encouraging for the sector. In an administrative policy statement released on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden’s White House stated that the administration was against the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act’s passage, citing worries about the act’s potential to weaken investor protections if it were to pass Congress. Additionally, contrary to prior remarks made by Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who has maintained that the industry does not require additional legislation specifically pertaining to the crypto markets, the bill indicated that the White House would want to collaborate with Congress on future legislation addressing the crypto markets. “The Administration is eager to work with Congress to ensure a comprehensive and balanced regulatory framework for digital assets, building on existing authorities, which will promote the responsible development of digital assets and payment innovation and help reinforce United States leadership in the global financial system,” the statement said. “H.R. 4763 in its current

According to the firms on Tuesday, Bitski, a browser extension wallet that focuses on Web3, has been acquired by Phantom, the top cryptocurrency wallet in the Solana ecosystem. According to a press announcement, Phantom and the Bitski team will work together to deliver embedded wallets to Solana. The deal’s financial details were kept a secret.

According to a press statement, USDX, a new stablecoin on layer-1 blockchain Flare, has been released by Hong Kong-based crypto custodian Hex Trust Group. Ahead of a surge in decentralised finance (DeFi) activity on the blockchain, USDX becomes the first native stablecoin on Flare. It will have a staking mechanism to a specific T-Pool, which

According to an S-1 update that Fidelity submitted early on Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company has retracted its plans to put Ethereum (ETH) holdings in its proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF). The company stated in earlier filings that it planned to give “one or more” infrastructure providers “a portion of the trust’s

Amidst the ever-changing digital terrain, several advancements are particularly noteworthy due to their potential to fundamentally transform our future. Of them, 5G networks and blockchain technology are particularly noteworthy, each bringing about substantial breakthroughs in their respective fields. With its incredibly quick data transfer, reduced latency, and improved connectivity, 5G promises to completely change how

Small and medium-sized enterprises have been urged by cryptocurrency exchange Binance to counteract the trend of high fully diluted valuations (FDV) and low float in the industry. Small and medium-sized projects were invited by Binance to apply for its listing initiatives on May 20.According to the exchange, the decision to assist small and medium-sized enterprises that have viable business plans would improve the cryptocurrency ecosystem. It stated. “We hope to enhance the development of the blockchain ecosystem through our support of small and medium-sized projects with strong fundamentals, an organic community base, a sustainable business model, and a dedicated team acting as responsible industry participants.” This appears to be a reaction to a pattern where projects are being launched with large market capitalizations but with a large number of locked tokens. On May 17, Binance Research brought attention to the growing trend of token projects launching with low circulating supplies. A significant amount of the token supply is set aside by these projects for upcoming releases. According to the report, these tokens experience rapid price appreciation under bullish market conditions. This

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the largest technical professional organization in the world, has awarded a research article that was published ten years ago and is considered a “blueprint” for the first practical application of zero-knowledge proofs, or ZK-proofs. The “genesis paper” titled “Zerocash: Decentralized Anonymous Payments from Bitcoin” is said to have paved the way for ZK-proofs in the cryptocurrency space and has now won the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy’s “Test of Time” award. This information was shared with Cointelegraph. “The award acknowledges the paper’s broad and lasting impact on both research and practice in computer security and privacy,” StarkWare wrote in a statement. The paper, with 2,400 academic citations, did not transform finance but paved the way for the proliferation of projects using ZK-proofs, the firm added. Additionally, it presented the first application of cryptography in a practical way to improve privacy in cryptocurrencies.Alessandro Chiesa, Christina Garman, Matthew Green, Ian Miers, Eran Tromer, Madars Virza, and Eli Ben-Sasson are the publication’s authors who get the award.StarkWare, a blockchain scaling company, was founded by Ben-Sasson. “The award reminds us that,

Following it’s part of their partnership with Kaamel Technology, XLink expedites previously announced security updates while looking into the root cause of the attack. On May 20, Bitcoin bridge XLink made the announcement that, as part of its first significant investigation into a recent security issue, it is collaborating with Kaamel Technology. In tandem to

A veteran of traditional finance (TradFi) has taken over as CEO of Grayscale, a digital asset investing firm. Sonnenshein left the company after ten years, a few months after the company’s flagship Bitcoin Trust became an exchange-traded fund (ETF). On August 15, Grayscale said on Monday, Peter Mintzberg, head of strategy for asset and wealth

Judge James Mellor said in his written ruling on Monday that Craig Wright lied “extensively and repeatedly” in both his written and oral testimony in the Crypto Open Patent Alliance lawsuit about his allegation that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. In March, Mellor came to the conclusion that Wright was not Nakamoto, the anonymous creator of

Developer of the coin-mixing system Tornado Cash, Alexey Pertsev, was found guilty based on a terrifying interpretation of criminal culpability that could have wider implications for the cryptocurrency industry. Given that Pertsev was found guilty by the Dutch court, he will now serve a five-year, four-month term for using Tornado Cash to launder money. This

With its price of BTC ticking down to $67,054, Bitcoin has solidified its position just above its critical support level of $65,000, and cryptocurrency traders think its structure is holding firm. Some people are really skeptical the rumors of an impending significant correction. On May 18, anonymous cryptocurrency trader Yoddha informed his 49,000 X followers,

Following the incident that happened after 2,000 bitcoin mining equipment were seized as part of a recent campaign intended to combat corruption. Owing to the high electricity requirements of cryptocurrency mining, the Venezuelan government has joined the list of nations that disapprove of it. A local news source reports that intentions to disconnect bitcoin mining

The XRP Ledger (XRPL) recorded 251.39 million on-chain transactions during the first quarter of 2024, an increase of approximately 108% compared to the last quarter of 2023. Ripple’s recent XRP market report shows that the XRPL saw an increase in on-chain transaction activity of 108% during the first quarter of 2024, along with a 45%

Many cryptocurrency analysts are viewing Phantom Wallet’s rise to the third spot in the Apple App Store’s utility category as a bullish indication for Solana. The utility category on the Apple App Store currently contains the cryptocurrency wallet Phantom Wallet in third place, just below Google and Google Chrome Apps. The increase might be an

Genesis Global, a bankrupt cryptocurrency lender, has obtained court permission to reimburse its creditors with almost $3 billion in cash and cryptocurrency. Due to this ruling, Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent firm, will not be able to emerge from bankruptcy. On Friday, May 17, Judge Sean Lane gave his approval to Genesis’ Chapter 11

According to the Australian Securities and Exchange Commission, John Louis Anthony Bigatton advertised the cryptocurrency loan platform in two social media posts and four seminars. An Australian man entered a guilty plea to his role in marketing cryptocurrency lending services for BitConnect, the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange. BitConnect was a notorious organisation that operated as a

Millions of dollars were transferred by the con artists to these American bank accounts, which were subsequently used to launder the money that was obtained illegally. Two people were detained by US authorities on suspicion of organising a money laundering conspiracy that involves transferring over $73 million through US financial institutions and finally turning the

According to the recent resignations, OpenAI has decided to disband the “Superalignment” team and incorporate its operations into other internal research initiatives. Every member of the OpenAI team that examined the existential risks posed by AI has apparently left or been taken over by other independent research teams. The other co-lead of OpenAI’s super alignment

The cryptocurrency industry’s groups and leading companies are pushing House leaders to back the initiative as the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to hold a vote that may bring the industry the closest to ever gaining regulation in the country. A coalition of companies and organizations focused on digital assets, including Coinbase, Kraken, Andreessen Horowitz, the Digital Currency Group, and roughly fifty more, wrote a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) through the Crypto Council for Innovation, urging them to pass the bill. It is anticipated that there will be a midweek vote on the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT21) during floor time next week. The measure clearly defines the responsibilities of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), establishing the CFTC as a premier regulator of digital assets. after addition to establishing further barriers against risky behavior, it would create consumer protections, such as guidelines for the custody of customers’ assets and how they are treated after bankruptcy. “By passing this legislation, we can accelerate the growth of blockchain technology and digital assets, fostering financial inclusion and protecting national security,” according to the letter. “It is crucial for the U.S. to maintain its leadership in financial innovation.” The resolution to reverse the SEC’s crypto accounting regulation was easily passed by the House and Senate, and the crypto sector in Washington is celebrating this victory, even though President Joe Biden has threatened to veto the attempt. The decision to remove the SEC’s Staff Accounting Bulletin 121 (SAB 121) was a victory for the industry, garnering support from the Democratic Party, which has been less forthcoming than the Republican Party in endorsing cryptocurrencies. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and over one in five Senate Democrats sided with the industry during that accounting battle, while over one in ten House Democrats did the same. However, the comprehensive measure that is being considered for a House vote is substantially larger in scope, and prominent Senate Democrats have not yet shown ready to match the House’s effort. The Senate’s current stance on cryptocurrencies is limited to suggesting that it would be open to bundling a bill governing stablecoin issuers with other financial legislation. The Democratic support for FIT21 in the House might play a significant role in determining whether the Senate takes action on the bill, according to Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee where it was introduced. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), their senior member, opposed the legislation, but it passed his committee with the support of a few Democrats.