Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase saw its long-term issuer credit rating downgraded from BB+ to BB status by rating agency S&P Global following its latest earnings report this year. The agency confirmed the downgrade in a note on Thursday, pointing toward Coinbase’s weaker performance in the second quarter of 2022 as a driving factor. Intensified
Regulation
For Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin (BTC), the motivation to create a new payment ecosystem from scratch in 2009 stemmed from the economic chaos caused by the banking sector’s over-exuberant and risky lending practices mixed accompanied by the bursting of the housing bubbles in many countries at the time. “And who do you think
There’s a ferment brewing with regard to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and most people really don’t know what to expect. Varied effects seem to be bubbling up in different parts of the world. Consider this: China’s e-CNY, or digital yuan, has already been used by 200 million-plus of its citizens, and a full rollout
The government of Uzbekistan, which has previously made significant steps toward a moderate approach to crypto, announced Wednesday that it has restricted access to a number of large international crypto exchanges due to accusations of unlicensed activity. In a statement from Aug. 10, the National Agency of Perspective Projects (NAPP) projects informed that “various electronic
As the global Web3 ecosystem continued to evolve at a staggering pace, so have the various use cases associated with this niche. In a striking new development, a high-ranking Singaporean government minister recently noted that legal marriage proceedings, court case disputes, and government services could one day be conducted using Metaverse platforms. While delivering a
In an article I wrote for Cointelegraph, I commented on how the European Union has moved forward to regulate the crypto-asset market through Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) and Transfer of Funds Regulation (ToFR). With this subject as a background, I had the privilege of interviewing one of the people who knows the most about regulating
India’s Directorate of Enforcement (ED) announced Friday that it has frozen the financial accounts of Bengaluru-based financial services company Yellow Tune Technologies, some of which were held by Flipvolt crypto exchange, the Indian branch of Singaporean Vauld. The move is linked to an ongoing investigation into money laundering by China-linked instant loan companies. This is
The Bank of Russia continues working towards the upcoming adoption of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), planning an official digital ruble rollout in a few years. According to the Bank of Russia’s latest monetary policy update, the authority will begin to connect all banks and credit institutions to the digital ruble platform in 2024.
The chief of Australia’s financial services regulator Joe Longo has raised the alarm over the sheer amount of people that invested in “unregulated, volatile” crypto assets during the pandemic. Longo, chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) made the comments in an Aug. 11 media release for its research conducted in November 2021, which
According to a new community Discord post on Thursday, decentralized finance platform Oasis.app says that sanctioned addresses will no longer be able to access the application. As a result of the change to the terms of service, wallets flagged as high risk are prohibited from using Oasis.app to manage positions or withdraw funds. Instead, such
The chair of South Korea’s Financial Services Commission said the regulator plans to expedite its review of 13 bills pending in the country’s National Assembly related to digital assets. According to a Thursday report from South Korean news outlet Edaily, Financial Services Commission chair Kim Joo-hyun said a task force consisting of private experts and
It’s a story that still haunts the early generation of Canadian crypto users to this day. Four years prior, Gerald Cotten, co-founder of Canada’s then-largest cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, died under mysterious circumstances in India. But, before his passing, Cotten took virtual keys for digital wallets and moved them into cold storage, leading to the permanent
The United States subsidiary of electronic trading platform developer Clear Markets has reportedly received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, to offer over-the-counter crypto derivatives products with physical settlement. In a Tuesday notice, SBI Holdings — a stakeholder of Clear Markets — said the CFTC had approved the U.S. subsidiary operating a
On Thursday, cryptocurrency exchange Hotbit said it “suspended trading, deposit, withdrawal and funding functions,” with no timeframe for resumption. In explaining the decision, Hotbit stated: “A former Hotbit management employee who left in April this year was, unbeknownst to Hotbit, involved in a project in 2021 that law enforcement authorities now think is suspected of
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, has proposed requiring large advisers to certain hedge funds to report any exposure to digital assets. In a Wednesday notice, the SEC and CFTC proposed amending their confidential reporting form for certain investment advisers to private funds of
The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation of California (DFPI) continues to bring actions against crypto interest account providers, failing to comply with the local law. After commanding BlockFi and Voyager to stop their offerings in the state, the DFPI issued a desist and refrain order to crypto lending firm Celsius. The order simply means
Voyager Digital, the crypto lending firm that went bust due to the crypto contagion initiated by Three Arrow Capital’s (3AC) insolvency is currently fighting its bankruptcy court battle. The court proceedings and financial documents have shown a deep relation between the crypto lending firm and Sam Bankman Fried-owned Alameda Research. Alameda is a quantitative trading
Struggling through decades of economic sanctions, Iran has placed its first international import order using $10 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to a senior government trade official. News that the Islamic republic placed its first import order using crypto was shared by Iran’s Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine & Trade Alireza Peyman-Pak in a Twitter
On Tuesday, one day after the U.S. Treasury sanctioned cryptocurrency mixer Tornado Cash for its alleged role in cryptocurrency money laundering operations, intervals of 0.1 Ether (ETH) transactions began materializing from the smart contract to prominent figures such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and American television host Jimmy Fallon. It is not possible to trace the source of
The aggregate total value locked (TVL) in the crypto market measures the amount of funds deposited in smart contracts and this figure declined from $160 billion in mid-April to the current $70 billion, which is the lowest level since March 2021. While this 66% contraction is worrying, a great deal of data suggests that the