The new Anti-Money Laundering Authority (AMLA) of the European Union will have its main office in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial center.By the middle of 2025, the supervisory body will be operational.If they operate internationally or are deemed high-risk, “high-risk and cross-border financial entities”—including cryptocurrency companies—will be subject to AMLA supervision.It will work with regulators and financial intelligence units in other EU nations to coordinate its supervision efforts.Frankfurt was named as the preferred location for the new agency’s headquarters in a news statement issued by the European Council and the Council of the EU on February 22.Situated in the city is also the European Central Bank.Alternative destinations that were shortlisted were Brussels, Dublin, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Riga, Vilnius, and Vienna. The executive board of the AMLA will consist of five full-time independent members in addition to the chair. The general board will be composed of representatives from financial intelligence units and regulators in each of the EU member states. June 2023 saw the implementation of the first comprehensive EU crypto framework, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA). However, June 2024 is anticipated to see the application of regulations governing “asset-referenced tokens” and “e-money tokens,” which essentially come under the category of stablecoins.In December 2024, regulations pertaining to “crypto-asset service providers,” encompassing trading platforms, wallet providers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and related services, will come into force.In the meantime, the EU has been hard at work developing rules pertaining to the application of artificial intelligence (AI).The European AI Act is the first piece of AI-focused legislation in the world. The preliminary agreement was adopted on February 13 by the Internal Market and Civil Liberties Committees of the European Parliament. The EU AI Act seeks to address generative AI models by establishing protections, such as copyright protection for creators.Additionally, it outlaws AI applications like social scoring and biometric categorization that endanger citizens’ rights.April 2024 is the planned date of the AI Act’s first legislative vote.

As the blockchain develops its DeFi ecosystem, the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave has implemented its money market protocol on the BNB Chain network.The BNB Chain team announced to Cointelegraph that Aave is now a part of the expanding list of DeFi protocols on the platform.The lending protocol is expanding the DeFi ecosystem on the blockchain network by partnering with platforms such as Uniswap and PancakeSwap.The network will have many DeFi lending protocols, such as Ambit Finance and Venus, with the launch of Aave on BNB Chain.In addition, BNB Chain offers decentralized exchanges (DEXs), perpetuals, LP tools, and liquid staking protocols at the moment.The team claims that it might soon include restaking methods in its DeFi ecosystem. According to BNB Chain, the addition of Aave to the network provides the BNB Chain community with access to one of the top DeFi lending platforms in the market.Through the link, Aave users may now take advantage of BNB Chain’s cheaper fees.According to the company, Aave users will also have access to the liquidity on the BNB Chain-based FDUSD stablecoin. BNB Chain developers can gain further advantages from the new integration, according to a statement released by the BNB Chain Core Development Team and shared with Cointelegraph.“Apps that expand on Aave liquidity can now be launched by BNB Chain developers, greatly enhancing BNB Chain’s DeFi capabilities.”The connection would enhance the present ecosystem by giving developers and decentralized applications (DApps) a lending platform, according to the BNB Chain team.Aave is a “user app,” according to them, and it can serve as a foundation for more intricate DeFi apps. Additionally, when Aave’s DeFi platform comes on the network, the BNB Chain community will also be exposed to additional choices for borrowing and lending as well as enhanced liquidity. The Aave-Chan Initiative (ACI) founder, Marc Zeller, expressed his excitement to welcome FDUSD to Aave v3 and introduce Aave on BNB Chain in a press release to Cointelegraph. Zeller clarified. “This integration opens up new possibilities for Aave users, and Aave DAO aims to be a key protocol in the BNB Chain ecosystem. We believe this addition will contribute to the overall growth and adoption of DeFi.” BNB Chain further emphasized that the Aave integration is a component of their strategy to promote widespread adoption by focusing on DApps, such as DeFi protocols.One of BNB Chain’s primary goals for 2024 is DeFi, as the company said in its market outlook released on January 31.The chain will prioritize gaming, artificial intelligence (AI), and decentralization by augmenting the number of active validators, in addition to DeFi.

The biggest restaking protocol on Ethereum by total value locked (TVL), EigenLayer, has announced a $100 million fundraising round led by venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).A Bloomberg story from February 22 states that the venture firm was the lone investor in the investment round.Blockchain Capital sponsored a $50 million fundraising round for the EigenLayer protocol in March.A PitchBook research states that venture capital (VC) funding for companies involved in the cryptocurrency space increased by 2.5% to $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023.Since March 2022, there has not been a rise in venture capital investments in cryptocurrency until now.PitchBook claims that the introduction of the first spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in January may have contributed to the increase in venture capital investments in the cryptocurrency space. Andreessen Horowitz general partner Ali Yahya believes that the collaboration may open up new application avenues. He stated to Bloomberg “It will enable all sorts of new kinds of applications to be built… People will stake capital in order to gain rewards from new services that get spun up on top of EigenLayer.” EigenLayer, which was established in 2021, allows stakers and validators to restake liquid derivative tokens for staking, such as Lido Staked ETH and RocketPool’s rETH, in order to validate and secure other networks.To increase yield, these assets can also be used in other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.With a TVL of $7.91 billion, EigenLayer is now the third-largest Ethereum protocol.DefiLlama data shows that EigenLayer’s TVL increased by 4.30% in the 24 hours before to 2:15 PM CET and by nearly 347% during the previous month. According to an official announcement, EigenLayer’s TVL began increasing on February 5 after the protocol momentarily lifted its staking cap in an effort to encourage organic development.EigenLayer’s TVL increased by more than 181% during this restaking time, from just $2.15 billion on February 5 to $6.05 billion on February 10.Although a new staking cap was implemented, the project intends to eventually eliminate this cap permanently.With a total TVL of $7.94 billion, restaking protocols rank sixth among all protocol categories on DefiLlama, with EigenLayer accounting for 98% of this total.First place goes to the liquid staking procedure, with a total TVL of $45.7 billion.

The cryptocurrency exchange KuCoin has reacted to complaints made by users on the social media site Reddit regarding their inability to remove their money from the exchange.In the KuCoin subreddit, Reddit users began claiming on February 21 that they were unable to withdraw their money from the exchange.A Redditor said that they have been unable to access their money for the past four months.The user stated that despite having given KuCoin all the information requested, they had still heard nothing from the exchange. They have had their account restricted for the past two months, according to another Redditor.The user alleges that in response, KuCoin made some “serious allegations,” stating that it had received a complaint with adequate proof linking the account to specific crimes like fraud, token theft, or hacking attacks.The Reddit user asserts, nevertheless, that they have not heard anything further from the exchange. Furthermore, a user reported that the exchange had frozen $30,000 worth of their Monero tokens.Another community member, however, claimed that even though they had a verified account and had used it for years, their ability to make withdrawals had been blocked.Users speculated about the claims’ sources and held debates in response to the reports on Reddit.Others advised users to “get out” in order to prevent any issues with their digital assets, while some speculated that the problem might be due to Know Your Customer inspections. Users were reassured by KuCoin that the company was actively working to address the issues raised on the subreddit, nevertheless.Moderators are already interacting with users in all four of the Reddit incidents to address their concerns, according to Eden Gao, KuCoin’s global public relations and branding associate, who spoke with Cointelegraph.The exchange, according to Gao, would continue the discussion and offer answers for each situation.The representative for KuCoin continued. “Please note that KuCoin does not freeze user accounts nor prohibit users from disposing of their assets. To enhance user security, KuCoin implements a comprehensive risk control system and voluntarily cooperates with authorities or law enforcement organizations around the world to enhance our practice.” Along with that, the KuCoin representative stated that some customers of the exchange “might experience some disruptions,” given its 31 million global users.However, Gao gave the community the reassurance that KuCoin has selected supporters on several open platforms, including Reddit, X, Telegram, and others.

The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group of South Africa will analyse use cases pertaining to stablecoins and deliberate on suitable policy and regulatory measures. Tokenization’s effect on home markets is another thing the committee is thinking about. For real-world assets (RWA) on a blockchain, tokenization is the process of representing them as securities. The team intends

Gyeonggi, the most populous province in South Korea, declared on Thursday that it had amassed $4.6 million from cryptocurrency tax evaders, as per a local article published by Yonhap News Agency. A digital tracking system, being employed for the first time in the nation, was implemented to enable the tracing and collection of the tax

The government of Hong Kong intends to introduce legislation for issuers of stablecoins and over-the-counter services for virtual assets. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau have started two industry-related consultations in the last few months. An official stated on Wednesday that Hong Kong’s government has reaffirmed its intention to move forward with enacting laws

The abrupt increase in volume coincides with VanEck’s Wednesday offering fee reduction to 0.20% from 0.25%. With respect to daily volume, HODL was the third largest, after GBTC on Grayscale and IBIT on BlockRock. One of the top ten spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds in the United States, VanEck’s HODL, had a 2,200% increase in

The wealthy twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have now contributed a total of $4.9 million to Fairshake, a Super political action committee (PAC) that supports candidates who support cryptocurrency, according to Bloomberg, which cited the most recent federal records. The Winklevoss twins, prominent bitcoin (BTC) investors and co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, were among

The blockchain intelligence company Crystal Intelligence is expected to continue growing through 2024, according to Navin Gupta, the company’s recently recruited CEO.In an interview with Cointelegraph, Gupta stated that, as the unregulated portion of the cryptocurrency market continues to contract, he anticipates that the company’s growth will pick up speed. This is because the US government’s approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has increased the number of businesses seeking operating licenses, according to Gupta. Says he. “Hundreds of firms were waiting in license queue, and they are in some form of regulatory discussion with the regulator to make sure that they get licensed. Every single firm that gets regulated needs compliance software, monitoring, and to prove to the regulator that they are doing Anti-Money Laundering compliance…” Institutions and regulators can obtain blockchain analysis, as well as investigative and compliance solutions, from Crystal Intelligence.A news announcement sent with Cointelegraph states that the company’s global customer base increased in 2023 and that over 50,000 businesses are currently being monitored by Crystal’s software.Bitfury established the business in 2017. Gupta predicts that when stablecoins become more widely used, there will be a greater need for Crystal’s compliance services. “[Stablecoin

Attorney John Deaton, who has supported the cryptocurrency sector, formally announced his candidacy for the US Senate from Massachusetts, but he made no mention of digital assets in his platform.In a video posted on his X account on February 20, Deaton declared that the main goal of his campaign would be to “take on the Washington elites,” alleging that Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts “gets nothing done.”In the video, there was a picture of a headline from Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly that mentioned Deaton’s involvement in defending cryptocurrency against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of the United States, along with the lawyer’s wearing an XRP shirt.The premiere video, on the other hand, concentrated on national concerns like border security and inflation. “I am running for U.S. Senate to continue my life’s mission to shake things up for the people who need it most,” said Deaton. If Deaton’s campaign is successful, Senator Warren, the current member of the legislature, who has held the position since 2013, will be removed.The senator from Massachusetts has been among the most outspoken critics of digital assets in the American government, arguing that the technology is largely utilized for illegal activities, such as funding terrorist groups.Deaton touted his work as an attorney supporting cryptocurrency on his campaign website, citing his filing of an amicus brief on behalf of XRP holders in a litigation between the SEC and Ripple, among other instances.The attorney has been a vocal supporter of cryptocurrency investors’ rights and has frequently criticized the SEC and legislators for their legal measures against digital assets. Despite appearing to be a Republican, Deaton did not identify his political party during the beginning of his campaign or on his website.As a Democrat, Senator Warren is seeking office.At the time of publication, Cointelegraph has not heard back from the offices of Senators Warren or Deaton. As of December 31, Senator Warren had raised around $16 million for her 2024 reelection campaign, with approximately $4 million in cash on hand, according to Federal Election Commission records.She apparently solicited funds before of Deaton’s formal campaign start, identifying Deaton as a “big cheerleader for crypto interests” and alleging the “crypto lobby has put a target on [her] back.”It is unclear if interest groups will be able to support Deaton’s Senate campaign.Senator Warren stated in an interview with Pod Save America that was published on February 18 that there were people in the cryptocurrency space with “giant buckets of money to spend” in an attempt to discredit her backing of the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act in Congress. A 2023 MassINC Polling Group poll found that 41% of Massachusettsans thought favorably of Senator Warren, whom many believed to be a hard shot to unseat.The candidates’ election day is set for November 5.

Popular Ethereum-based self-custody cryptocurrency wallet MetaMask recently declared that it would expand its default security alerts to cover users of mobile apps and browser extensions for Linea, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche blockchains.The wallet is seeing rapid user growth as it approaches its peak in 2022, which coincides with the addition of new security measures.From 19 million in September 2023 to 30 million in January 2024, there was a monthly increase in active users.The acceleration of user growth was ascribed to its mainstream collaborations with well-known trading platforms like Robinho. On January 29, 2024, an extension was used to incorporate the security alert feature for the first time on the Ethereum mainnet.Every time a known threat interacts with a user, security notifications inform them during the transaction.This tool mimics the requested transaction, identifies harmful tendencies, and alerts consumers when a transaction is likely to result in money loss. Unlike the majority of Web3 wallets, which depend on giving users’ transaction data to a third party for validation in order to generate security alerts, MetaMask asserts that its security alerts are privacy-focused. An experimental opt-in OpenSea alert, the security alert system was initially unveiled in April 2023 and contributed to the safeguarding of $500 million worth of assets.Due to the security alerts’ success, the company decided to include MetaMask wallet in their service. Many users who had activated the feature beforehand were able to avoid the notorious phishing scam in September 2023 when Vitalik’s X handle was compromised; according to MetaMask, Blockaid’s systems identified the malicious DApp 24 hours ahead of the hack, saving users $100,000 in assets. The feature was developed in collaboration with its security partner, Blockaid.Later in October, when Uniswap founder Hayden Adam’s Twitter account was hacked, the warning system also raised a red light.Senior product manager Barbara Schorchit of MetaMask told Cointelegraph that the company has noticed a minor increase in customer support tickets from people praising the functionality and alerting them to the dangerous website they were on. As a result, “we would also add it to our public phishing list and help protect others.” Schorchit said that the alert feature also helped users save over a million during the recent Ledger Connect Kit incident in December. “Nearly 100 front-end DApps were compromised, yet every MetaMask user who opted into the security alerts powered by Blockaid were protected, preventing what we estimate to be ~$1.15M

A recent research released on Wednesday suggests that Australian cryptocurrency holders have benefited greatly from the approval of U.S.-listed spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs). But the country’s economic uncertainties keeps opposing the hopeful attitude. After the spot bitcoin ETF was approved in January, 25% of Australians, according to the 5th edition of the Independent

Tyr Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund, is at odds with one of its clients over its holdings in the defunct digital asset exchange FTX, according to a Financial Times story published on Tuesday. According to the story, Tyr’s offices were seized by a Swiss prosecutor, and one of its clients, TGT, accused Tyr of “criminal”

According to Economic Secretary to the Treasury Bim Afolami, the U.K. government anticipates seeing stablecoin and staking services legislation for the cryptocurrency sector within six months. A similar schedule was revealed in October 2023 when the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England outlined their broad intentions for coordinating the supervision of the

The cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it will no longer support a few of its Bitcoin-linked leveraged tokens by April 3. On February 19, Binance declared that it will no longer support tokens that are leveraged in conjunction with Tether.BTCUP and BTCDOWN, ETHUP and ETHDOWN, and BNBUP and BNBDOWN are among the affected leveraged tokens.On February 28 at 06:00 UTC, the cryptocurrency exchange will halt trading and subscription services for the three leveraged token pairs.On the specified day, Binance claims that all trade orders for the leveraged tokens would be “automatically removed.”This implies that after that point on, users won’t be allowed to place any orders.Before the deadline, Binance encouraged its customers to exchange the leveraged tokens they were holding for other assets. After that, the exchange said that, beginning on April 1 and lasting until April 3, it will progressively delist and stop redeeming the tokens.Users will be able to redeem their tokens prior to the delisting date, according to Binance. The exchange stated that it will convert the tokens into USDT based on their corresponding value on the delisting date if users do not redeem their tokens by the deadline.Within a day, Binance will transfer the tokens to the users’ accounts and take the leveraged tokens out of their wallets. Leveraged tokens from Binance are derivative instruments that offer investors leveraged exposure to the underlying crypto assets.The price changes in the perpetual contract market have an impact on the tokens, which are a basket of perpetual contract positions.Leveraged tokens, according to Binance, let cryptocurrency traders take on leveraged bets without having to pledge any collateral.Additionally, it frees them from worrying about liquidation and the have to maintain a maintenance margin level.Trading leveraged tokens has advantages, but Binance cautioned that there are hazards involved as well, such as the “effects of price movements in the perpetual contracts market, premiums, and funding rates.”

Groq is a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that is causing quite a stir on social media thanks to its lightning-fast response time and innovative technologies that could eliminate the need for GPUs.After public benchmark testing on the social media site X went viral, demonstrating that Groq outperformed ChatGPT, a well-known AI chatbot, in terms of computation and reaction speed, the product became an overnight sensation. The reason for this is that the Groq team created a unique application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chip specifically designed for large language models (LLMs), which enables it to produce about 500 tokens every second.By contrast, the model’s publicly accessible version, ChatGPT-3.5, has a token generation rate of about 40 per second.Rather than using the expensive and rare graphics processing units (GPUs) that are usually used to run AI models, the creator of this model, Groq Inc., claims to have invented the first language processing unit (LPU) that powers its model. The business that created Groq is not new, though.It was established in 2016 and registered the term Groq as a trademark.When Elon Musk’s AI model, also named Grok (spelled with a “k”), began to gain popularity in November of last year, the creators of the original Groq wrote a blog post criticizing Musk for the name selection. “We can see why you might want to adopt our name. You like fast things (rockets, hyperloops, one-letter company names) and our product, the Groq LPU Inference Engine, is the fastest way to run large language models (LLMs) and other generative AI applications. However, we must ask you to please choose another

ARK’s three funds sold 499,149 Coinbase shares. The selling occurred following a run of analyst upgrades for Coinbase as a result of the company exceeding its 4Q earnings estimates. In response to Coinbase Global’s (COIN) better-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings, which above Wall Street estimates, ARK Invest sold about half a million shares of the cryptocurrency exchange

A bill that permits investment funds and venture capital firms to own cryptocurrency assets was passed by the Japanese government. The law might increase funding for Web3 startups if it is approved by parliament. The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry stated on Friday that the Japanese cabinet has approved a measure adding cryptocurrency to

The Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Commission has been granted $17,192 annually by Virginia’s Subcommittee on General Government. This funding will support the committee’s operations and reimburse travel costs. Recently, legislation established the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Commission to provide recommendations on blockchain and cryptocurrency technology. In its report released on Sunday, Virginia’s Subcommittee on General Government suggested

According to a PitchBook analysis, venture funding for businesses involved in the cryptocurrency space reached $1.9 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023, up 2.5% from the previous quarter. For the first time since March 2022, venture capital (VC) investments in cryptocurrency businesses have increased, the main areas of focus for the large cryptocurrency businesses