With the rise of the Taliban last year in August, Afghanistan faced global sanctions that led to many international organizations and money transaction services halting operations in the country. This made room for digital currencies and stablecoins to be widely used, at least to send or receive remittances. However, the Taliban government has recently banned
Regulation
The managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ravi Menon, addressed the agency’s mixed signals on crypto in the public sphere at a seminar on Aug. 29. The public claimed that local regulators were spreading crypto-positive sentiments while simultaneously threatening more regulations. According to the new statement from Menon, the observation is not
Major crypto exchange Binance has confirmed it restricted account access to $1 million in crypto for a Tezos tool contributor after being called out on social media. In a Thursday Twitter thread, Binance said it had restricted the account of Tezos staking rewards auditor Baking Bad “as the result of a law enforcement request.” The
In a cease-and-desist letter to fast-growing crypto exchange FTX, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) shed light on a now-deleted tweet from the exchange’s president, Brett Harrison, and issued a stark warning over the company’s messaging. Harrison’s original tweet said, “Direct deposits from employers to FTX US are stored in individually FDIC-insured bank accounts in
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has pushed back a decision on the latest application for a Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) by global investment firm VanEck. The company has long been trying to get the green light for what will be the first BTC ETF in America, with its first application
The Celsius Network is one of many crypto lending firms that has been swept up in the wake of the so-called “crypto contagion.” Rumors of Celsius’ insolvency began circulating in June after the crypto lender was forced to halt withdrawals due to “extreme market conditions” on June 13 and eventually filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has started taking measures to prepare for new cryptocurrency regulations addressing the ongoing liquidity crisis and withdrawal issues. Singapore’s central bank has sent detailed questionnaires to some applicants and holders of the MAS’ Digital Payment Token licenses, Bloomberg reported on Friday. Sent over the last month, the questionnaires were
Major Indian crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber had five of its premises searched by anti-money laundering agents on Thursday over alleged violations of forex laws. According to an Aug. 25 report from Bloomberg, India’s Enforcement Directorate searched CoinSwitch Kuber’s offices as well as the residences of its directors and CEO Ashish Singhal. A source told the
The impact of Federal Reserve policy and Bitcoin’s higher timeframe market structure suggest that BTC price is not yet ready for a trend reversal. Bitcoin (BTC) price continues to chop below the $22,000 level and the wider narrative among traders and the mainstream media suggests that a risk-off sentiment is a dominant perspective ahead of
Police have closed down at least 16 cryptocurrency exchanges in the Herat province of western Afghanistan in the last week, according to a report in Ariana News, an independent news outlet in that country. The report quotes a local police official as saying arrests had been made during the closures. The closures were carried out
Binance representatives participated in a hearing of the Philippine Senate Banking Committee, according to a report in the local press Wednesday. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas deputy governor Chuchi Fonacier, the country’s Security Exchange Commission (SEC) chair Emilio Aquino, and members of FinTech Alliance Philippines and the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority also took part in that
Bitcoin Depot, a major cryptocurrency ATM provider in the United States, is planning to go public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC). Atlanta-based Bitcoin Depot has reached a definitive agreement to merge with the SPAC GSR II Meteora (GSRM) in an $885 million deal in order to go public, the firm officially
A joint committee of the United States’s Uniform Law Commission (ULC) and the American Law Institute (ALI) finalized amendments to the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), regulating the specifics of digital asset transactions and crypto-as-collateral secured financings. The amendments are “recommended for enactment in all the States,” although each case of final implementation may vary depending
Cryptocurrency adoption in Russia has not been moving too fast as an overwhelming majority of Russians have apparently not ever bought crypto, according to a new survey. Switzerland-based cryptocurrency wallet provider Tangem has conducted a poll to learn more about cryptocurrency investors in Russia, local news agency Kommersant reported on Thursday. As many as 72%
A New York bankruptcy court has given embattled cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital the green light to pay retention bonuses to key staff members. The firm filed a motion with the United States Bankruptcy Court on Aug. 2 seeking approval for its Key Employee Retention Plan (KERP) which entailed $1.9 million worth of payments to 38
Are cryptocurrency games innocent fun? Or are they Ponzi schemes facing an imminent crackdown by regulators in the United States? Tokens related to cryptocurrency games — known colloquially as “GameFi” — were worth a cumulative total of nearly $10 billion as of mid-August, give or take a few billion. (The number may vary depending on
In a novel address at the University of California Berkley published on Wednesday, Olli Rehn, governor of the Bank of Finland, touted the possibility of a digital euro centralized bank digital currency (CBDC) functioning in tandem with private fintech solutions to facilitate the cross-border payment of services across Europe. The European Central Bank’s (ECB) investigation
Cryptocurrency companies have been moving to improve compliance worldwide amid the bear market of 2022, with many platforms increasingly securing licenses and approvals. As one may find it difficult to track all global regulatory milestones in crypto, Cointelegraph has picked up some of the latest compliance developments over the past couple of weeks. Global crypto
Searching for more evidence that self-custody of your cryptocurrency holdings beats a centralized manager? Look to the latest action by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The agency sent a letter to FTX Exchange this month — along with four other entities — that included a cease and desist order for “false and misleading statements.”
Two prominent YouTube content creators are set to lock horns in a legal battle over a cryptocurrency video allegedly promoting a project that ended up being a scam. Bitboy Crypto, a YouTube channel founded by Ben Armstrong, produces a variety of content focused on cryptocurrency news, projects and tokens and trading advice. The channel has