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📣 Celsius Can Convert All Altcoins To BTC, ETH After July 1
Celsius just stated that it had been given permission to begin liquidating its altcoins, as this insolvent cryptocurrency lender intends to payout to creditors using only the two most prominent cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn of the Southern District of New York accepted the action, which Celsius suggested following conversations with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which has said that a spectrum of less-used crypto coins needs regulatory permission. On July 1, 2023, Celsius will be able to sell or convert any non-BTC and non-ETH cryptocurrency into BTC or ETH. Celsius has $70.5 million in CEL, $51.8 million in MATIC, $26.2 million in ADA, $17.3 million in LINK, and $14.4 million in LTC, among other investments. The cryptocurrencies owned by Celsius amount to $218 million, according to an alleged balance sheet that went viral in April and include CEL, MATIC, ADA, LINK, LTC, DOT, BCH, AAVE, UNI, XLM, SOL, EOS, FIT, SRM, and BNB. Celsius’ native token is CEL, while the remainder is largely MATIC and ADA. The company has been in regular contact with the SEC and certain state regulatory agencies regarding the proposed distribution of cryptocurrency under the plan to ensure that all such distributions are in full compliance with applicable federal.
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✖️ DYDX Announces V4 Public Testnet Before Official Launch On July 5
Decentralized exchange DYDX said on Wednesday that it will launch the testnet of the DYDX Chain on July 5, 2023, at 17:00 UTC. Some of the functions in the testnet include connecting wallets, viewing order books, placing market orders, and viewing account information. The following core flows will be available for testing through integrations, APIs, web sockets, and web UI. At launch, the testnet only works with the Bitcoin and Ethereum markets, but it is anticipated that the open-source software will cover around 30+ markets when the network is upgraded. The link to the v4 Exchange Public Testnet will be made available on July 5. Based on the announcement, the launch comes ahead after reaching the fourth milestone before the scheduled date. In the third milestone (v3), the chain added advanced features to the stable internal test network. The developments in version 3 include limit order placement, dynamic funding rates, use of ABCI 2.0, and other latest Cosmos-SDK features. The third milestone also saw documentation integration for Validators and Market Makers as the dYdX chain partnered with a small group of internal validators to test different aspects of the network. Currently, the platform has completed many items and has more than 40 validators running for DYDX Chain.
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🇬🇧 UK Now Admits Crypto As Regulated Financial Activity In The Country
The United Kingdom (UK) has taken a proactive step to strengthen its financial ecosystem with the Royal Assent of the Financial Services and Markets Bill (FSMB). The UK Government has been working on the Financial Services and Markets Bill for quite some time, and it believes that its passage will play a central role in delivering the Government’s vision of growing the economy and creating an open, sustainable, technologically advanced financial services sector, and it includes measures to bring crypto and stablecoins under regulation. Among other things, the FSMB establishes a clear route for crypto assets to be regulated as financial products in order to facilitate their safe adoption in the United Kingdom. The necessity to release a functioning regulation remains one of the most pressing issues in the United States, and the clear progress in the United Kingdom has sparked fears that America would lag behind in adopting future innovation. The recently signed Bill in the United Kingdom is significantly more comprehensive since it considers wider innovation using blockchain technology. Significantly, the Act provides “sandboxes” that potentially promote the deployment of innovative technologies like blockchain in financial markets.
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📣 TUSD Depeg Due To TrueUSD Reserves Audited By FTX.US Collapsed
According to CoinDesk, the certificate of reserve of the troubled stablecoin TrueUSD was audited by The Network Firm, formerly Armanino, and worked with Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) for FTX.US to perform the audit. Armanino, an accounting firm of FTX.US, has ended its crypto audit business and abandoned its clients. The reason is that other clients in the industry consider Armanino’s reputational risk to question their audit results and put pressure on it. After the FTX incident broke out, American investors sued Prager Metis and Armanino, the auditors of FTX, accusing them of conspiring to commit extortion. Executives at Archblock, which powers the TUSD stablecoin, previously confirmed the Armanio team in emails to CoinDesk and said they would continue using The Network Firm. Earlier today, the community stirred with the rate of TUSD in Curve’s 4pool surpassing the 70% mark, and the stablecoin is showing a slight depeg signal. This case is reminiscent of Curve’s 3pool USDT rate crossing the 50% mark on June 15, not long ago, resulting in USDT being depeg for a short period of time.
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💰 Bitcoin miners sent $1 billion to exchanges since BlackRock ETF filing
Miners sent more than $1 billion worth of bitcoin from their wallets to cryptocurrency exchanges over the last two weeks. The currency outflows from miners suggest heightened trading activities and potential hedging strategies, according to the on-chain data analytics provider CryptoQuant, coinciding with the timing of BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF filing on June 15. The news was first reported by CoinDesk. Approximately 33,860 BTC has been sent to derivatives exchanges, though most funds have since returned to the miners' proprietary wallets. “This could signal that miners may be using their newly minted coins as collateral in derivatives trading activities,” CryptoQuant analyst Cauê Oliveira said. “A good example of this type of trading is known as hedging, which uses bets in the opposite direction to market consensus.”. Miners also saw an approximate 8,000 BTC reduction in their reserves during the period, CryptoQuant added, of which only a small amount was sent to spot trading venues.
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💰 Fidelity preparing to submit spot bitcoin ETF filing: Source
Asset management giant Fidelity is close to submitting its own filing for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining a long list of issuers keen to be first to market with such a product. A source familiar with the firm's plans says that it could submit its filing as soon as Tuesday, following the lead of asset management giant BlackRock. BlackRock's June 15 filing has been followed by other asset managers looking to launch their own spot bitcoin funds including Invesco, WisdomTree and Bitwise. The launch of a spot bitcoin ETF has been described as a gamechanger among market pundits since it can provide a way for investors to get exposure to the market without having to deal with the underlying asset. BlackRock's filing specifically has been pointed out as significant given the firm's size and significance in global markets. Fidelity is also a powerhouse, with tens of millions of retail brokerage clients and over $11 trillion in assets under its administration. The firm is also no stranger to crypto as it has operated an institutional custody and trading services business in the market since 2018. On the asset management side of the house, it has offered fund products .
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🇭🇰 Hong Kong Rating Agency Announces Index Performance Of Top 30 Coins
The Hong Kong Virtual Assets Consortium (HKVAC), a cryptocurrency exchange located in Seychelles, has announced the launch of its virtual asset index. In addition to Bitcoin, Ether and stablecoins, WBTC, BTCB, stETH, BCH, LTC, BNB, MATIC, ADA, ATOM, FIL, NEAR, ALGO, ICP, XRP, DOGE, DOT, WTRX, SHIB, TRX, LINK, LEO, XMR, XLM, OKB, LDO, HBAR, VET, QNT, FTM, EOS are all included in the agency virtual asset index. The HKVAC Cryptocurrency Big Market Cap Index measures the performance of high-cap cryptocurrencies in the global crypto market. Each quarter’s adjusted review date is the final day of the quarter (March, June, September, and December). The dependability of the trading platform is reflected in virtual asset exchange ratings, which encourage openness and accountability in the virtual asset trading industry. Accordingly, the performance of virtual assets that HKVAC included in the index is at a positive 21.82% year to date and down 9.97% in the past three months. Despite the relatively good performance of Bitcoin and Ether, other altcoins such as BNB, MATIC, ADA, and SOL have suffered a severe drop in recent times because of the suppression of the SEC. Nevertheless, the listed tokens include platform tokens, privacy tokens, and a substantial number of tokens classified as securities.
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🇭🇰 HSBC Hong Kong now lets customers trade bitcoin and ether ETFs
HSBC Hong Kong, the largest bank in the special administrative region of China, now allows customers to trade bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds (ETFs) listed on Hong Kong's stock exchange. There are three crypto ETFs listed on HSBC Hong Kong's investment platform — CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF, CSOP Ethereum Futures ETF and Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF — as per screenshots of the platform seen by The Block. Colin Wu, a Chinese crypto reporter, first reported the news. HSBC Hong Kong did not immediately respond to The Block's request for comment. The news means Hong Kong-based users can now easily trade crypto ETFs at the bank. The development marks HSBC Hong Kong as the first bank in the region to allow trading in crypto ETFs, according to Wu, who says the ETF listings occurred today. CSOP Bitcoin Futures ETF and and CSOP Ether Futures ETF are both managed by CSOP Asset Management and track the standardized, cash-settled Bitcoin futures contracts and Ether futures contracts traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), respectively. Both the ETFs were listed on Hong Kong's stock exchange last December. Samsung Bitcoin Futures Active ETF, on the other hand, debuted this January and is manged by Samsung Asset Management Hong Kong.
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💰 Lightning Network hits all-time high in bitcoin and US Dollar capacity
The Lightning Network, a second-layer payment protocol on Bitcoin, has reached a new all-time high bitcoin capacity — the amount of bitcoin locked in payment channels on the network. The record capacity of 5,630 BTC was hit on Saturday, according to The Block’s data dashboard, breaching the 5,620 prior peak on April 18. The network’s capacity in U.S. Dollars also reached an all-time high, exceeding $172 million. Lightning Network capacity is up 42% and 105% in bitcoin and U.S. Dollar terms, respectively, over the last 12 months as adoption has continued to grow. Lightning Network operates as a network of bi-directional payment channels on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, designed to enable fast and cost-effective micropayments. Enabling users to transact directly without immediate settlement on the main blockchain, Lightning offers a solution to the slower transaction speeds and higher fees associated with Bitcoin's mainnet. Users can open payment channels between themselves, allowing for off-chain transactions later settled on the Bitcoin blockchain. "There's just more happening. I think there's more happening on Bitcoin in terms of development energy in the last 12 months than in the last X number of years combined. It's really pretty amazing to see," Marcus said.
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📣 Banking Giants Crédit Agricole, Santander Seek to Provide Crypto Custody Under French Registration
A subsidiary co-owned by Crédit Agricole and Santander has registered as a digital asset service provider in France. The registration of Caceis, a company that specializes in offering financial services to institutional investors, allows the two major European banks to tap into the crypto market. The registration, granted by the AMF earlier this week, will allow the entity, Caceis, to provide custody services for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies. The move adds a major traditional financial services group to the growing number of crypto companies registered by the French watchdog, Reuters noted in a report. The DASP list already includes subsidiaries of other big players in the French financial market such as Societe Generale and AXA. Caceis was established in 2005 through the merger of the asset management activities of Crédit Agricole and Caisse d’Epargne, a French cooperative banking group. With a 69.5% stake, Crédit Agricole is its majority owner while Santander has a 30.5% stake. France has been open towards the crypto industry. Among the companies it registered as DASPs is Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
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📣 Su Zhu: oUSD Credit stablecoin Inspired By 2 Failed Stablecoins UST And FTT
Three Arrows Capital and OPNX founder Su Zhu, said on Twitter that the oUSD credit stablecoin launched by OPNX was inspired by UST and FTT (negative case). According to the OPNX founder, UST is a passive sink for investors, but the capital utilization rate is shallow, while FTT has a great borrowing demand. Still, Genesis and FTX users are lenders only naturally. The UST failed to issue enough active bonds, leading to a death spiral without a natural buyer. There were many techniques to avoid bank runaways in the UST and FTT cases. The margin currency should be the account’s unit, replicating the extremely stable derivative structure that OKX has had for many years, i.e., continuously socializing risk into a profit pool. As a result, OPNX uses oUSD to inherit the properties of provable solvency instantly, and provable liquidity (especially proof of non-liquidity that cannot be liquidity), and all client assets are on-chain, allowing it to avoid the risk of force majeure events calmly. Earlier, the OPNX exchange announced that they would launch the first Launchpad project, and oUSD will be available soon. Users can use USDT 1:1 from an unlimited oUSD purchase agreement. Its function acts as margin and PNL for all OPNX currency futures contracts (profit and loss).
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🪙 Coinbase Supports USDC Deposits And Withdrawals Through Stellar Network
Coinbase has added support for USD Coin (USDC) on Stellar, the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) said on June 23. That announcement indicates that Coinbase will allow both regular Circle withdrawals and deposits through the Stellar network. By supporting USDC on Stellar, Coinbase provides a critical access point for both companies and users to benefit from faster and low-cost USDC. The SDF says that Coinbase’s support for USDC on Stellar will allow faster and less expensive transactions. Specifically, it says that USDC on Stellar can offer “nearly zero” transaction costs and can complete transactions in as little as five seconds. Banks, fintechs, and exchanges can leverage USDC’s infrastructure, speed, and low costs on Stellar’s rails to access and build use cases around the digital dollar genuinely global. Stellar has developed a vast global network of interoperable on/off links powered by anchors: wallets, exchanges, and fintech businesses transferring value from fiat to digital or digital to fiat on and off the network. The SDF added that the addition would introduce a “significant [on/off] ramp” to USDC and Stellar’s existing wallets, exchanges, and fintech businesses. Coinbase Assets acknowledged the feature in its own tweet.
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💰 Leveraged Bitcoin Futures ETF to Start Trading Tuesday, Sponsor Says
Volatility Shares’ 2x Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITX) will become the first leveraged crypto ETF available in the United States after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) let it go effective on Friday, an executive at the company told CoinDesk. The regulator has not denied the application for the 2x ETF, Volatility Shares Chief Investment Officer Stuart Barton said, paving the way for its launch this upcoming Tuesday. “It’s exciting to see digital assets in the ETF wrapper,” Barton said. A leveraged 2x ETF allows customers to gain bitcoin exposure by only putting up half the value of the bitcoin. A prospectus filing said the ETF would correspond with the CME Bitcoin Futures Daily Roll Index. This comes in the wake up of bitcoin’s value steadily rising past $30,000 after multiple major traditional investment companies like BlackRock filed an application for spot bitcoin ETFs with the SEC. While a number of futures-based ETF products already trade, the SEC has consistently blocked spot products from launching. Other leveraged bitcoin futures products have also failed to secure the necessary approvals to launch.
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🇺🇸 SEC Waives BlockFi $30 Million Fine Until Investors Get Refund
The SEC has agreed to forgo the payment owed as part of the settlement of fees to BlockFi, to maximize and speed up payments to investors. The payment is the remainder of a $50 million fine that the crypto lending platform owes the SEC to settle allegations that it failed to register with the authorities that regulate the offering and sale of crypto assets-cryptocurrency lending products. BlockFi agreed to a settlement in February 2022 but filed for bankruptcy in November 2022 following the collapse of FTX. Sasha Hodder, the founder of Hodder Law, a firm specializing in crypto law, has said that the SEC could be one of the first creditors to receive a payment from BlockFi. The regulator among its claims should be included “general unsecured claims” in the current Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings; however, the regulator agreed to forego the payment “in order to maximize the amount that may be distributed to investors and avoid delay in such distribution” according to the agreement reached on June 22. Previously, crypto lender – which was forced to halt withdrawals following the collapse of the FTX exchange in November 2022 – also said on June 12 that it expected to complete the withdrawal testing needed to allow some customers to start getting their money back this summer.
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🇧🇪 Binance Was Ordered To Stop Service Immediately In Belgium
According to a Friday notification, Belgium’s Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) has ordered the troubled cryptocurrency exchange Binance to immediately stop servicing local consumers. Binance is marketing and delivering exchange services in Belgium between virtual currencies and legal currencies, as well as custodial wallet services, from nations that are not members of the European Economic Area, according to Belgium’s top markets regulator. This comes at a time when Binance Global and Binance.US are embroiled in legal issues. On June 5, the US Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against the exchange, alleging 13 different things. According to one of the lawsuit’s accusations, monies from these companies were combined into an account managed by Merit Peak Limited that included Changpeng Zhao. After that, the cryptocurrency market began to tremble. Binance.US also had issues after delisting more than 100 trading pairs from the Advanced Trading interface and discontinuing the OTC service. Simultaneously, the values of BTC, ETH, and BNB on the platform started to diverge from the global average.
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🟣 Polygon 2.0 to leverage Matic re-staking and new interoperability layer
Polygon Labs said it plans to unify new zero-knowledge chains using mechanisms such as re-staking and a common bridge in a move toward transitioning Polygon into a Layer 2 ecosystem. The design for Polygon 2.0 is intended to utilize a shared zero-knowledge infrastructure to power all networks within the ecosystem, pending approval by its governance body. This development comes on the heels of a recent community proposal to upgrade Polygon’s proof-of-stake network to a Layer 2 zkEVM Validium. Polygon 2.0 aims to create an ecosystem where we can continuously add block space and unify them with a shared bridge and an interoperability layer,” Polygon co-founder Brendan Farmer said in an interview with The Block. “Unified liquidity is everything for Polygon in the coming year. The proposed Polygon 2.0 network will incorporate an Ethereum Virtual Machine client and a shared ZK proving implementation, referred to by the team as an “interoperability layer” or a “common bridge.” The interoperability layer will be powered by an in-house developed cryptographic algorithm, Plonky3, and the end result will be a single, high-performance proving system that will underpin the entire network.
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💰 FTT Boom Over 65% In Just One Day, FTX Revival Effect Happened
FTT, once the token representing the FTX empire, seems to have caught up with the signal that FTX is planning to revive the exchange with extremely impressive gains in recent times. It seems like FTX, the revamped cryptocurrency exchange, is on the verge of relaunching with the goal of emerging as an altogether new platform. In response to the statement, FTX’s restructuring head, John Ray, said that the company had begun the process of interacting with interested parties in order to revitalize the FTX.com exchange. After the favorable statement, the native token of the defunct FTX exchange, FTT, attracted purchasers, resulting in a large price rise of more than 65% in only one day. At the beginning of the week, FTT had a stunning increase in momentum, resulting in a large gain of over 95% for purchasers in only four trading days. As a consequence, according to CoinMarketCap statistics, the market capitalization has recovered to $560 million. The FTT price, which is now trading at $1.722, has risen by more than 35% in less than 12 hours, increasing the total gain from June 15 to more than 150%. It is apparent that this is a breakout in comparison to the current crypto market, but can this growth be sustained? The current price has also reacted to the Fib 50% level at $1.85.
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📣 Voyager Crypto Exchange to Pay $1.1M in Legal Fees!
Kirkland & Ellis charged Voyager Digital $1.1 million in legal fees for work done on the crypto lender’s bankruptcy case in April. The firm’s highest-paid partners are charging upwards of $2,000 an hour for their work on the case, while some billed hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees for the month. George W. Hicks Jr., P.C, one of Kirkland & Ellis’ litigation partners, billed $153,211 in fees across 87.8 hours of work, while Nicholas Adzima, an associate, billed 118 hours and totaled $147,906 in compensation for the month. Kirkland & Ellis is one of the world’s largest law firms, and has brought in over $6 billion in revenue, according to a report by Law.com. The firm is representing a number of crypto companies in restructuring that fell into Chapter 11 during the bear market of 2022, including Celsius and BlockFi. The series of bankruptcies brought on by the 2022 bear market has been a boon for law firms. According to Bloomberg Law, FTX’s bankruptcy fees have already topped $200 million, while Celsius has already racked up over $50 million in fees in its proceedings. Some critics have pointed out that the long processes and high legal fees mean that creditors lose out as the dwindling pot of money is eaten up by attorney fees.
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⬜️ OKX Released The 8th Proof Of Reserve, All Coins Exceeded 100%
OKX, the second largest offshore cryptocurrency exchange, officially released the 8th Proof of Reserve (PoR). According to reports, OKX is dedicated to improving the transparency of PoR to the traditional financial audit level in order to maintain its position as the industry leader in security and transparency. The recent reserve ratio of 22 publicly traded coins all topped 100%, with BTC, ETH, and USDT all at 103% and a total value of $11.3 billion. It is one of the industry’s few major encryption exchanges that issue reserve certificates on a monthly basis. Proof of reserves (PoR) is the process of confirming that the customer assets held by a cryptocurrency exchange or financial institution match the number of assets kept in reserve on the customers’ behalf. PoR has been widely publicized as the major method for crypto investors to ensure that their assets are properly safeguarded. It’s also a crucial tool for crypto platforms since it allows them to demonstrate that they have enough assets to support transactions and withdrawals. The bankruptcy of FTX and the dissolution of Three Arrows Capital both stunned the cryptocurrency sector. They called into doubt the dependability and integrity of cryptocurrency custodians.
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🏦 Crypto.com To Establish New Lab To Focus On Blockchain, Web3, and AI Projects
Bitcoin exchange Crypto.com will open its first Global Innovation Lab in Singapore, focusing on blockchain technology, Web3, and artificial intelligence (AI). According to a press statement, the Singapore-based company’s Global Innovation Lab will aggressively experiment with frontier technologies, explore new businesses with strategic partners and hackathons, and find unique applications for blockchain, Web3, and AI. According to Prash Pandit, Senior Vice President of Product and Innovation at Crypto.com. The Global Innovation Lab will capitalize on Singapore’s strengths as a tech-driven city-state as well as a major global financial center to accelerate the growth of the fledgling digital asset market in an innovative and ethical way. The exchange unveiled the idea at the Point Zero Conference in Switzerland. The Swiss State Secretariat for International Finance and Elevandi, a not-for-profit organization established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for companies and policymakers to share ideas and insights in the fintech industry in Singapore and abroad, are co-organizing the conference. As a following step, Crypto.com will form a new staff entirely devoted to the Lab, with more jobs to be created in the future.
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💰 Riot’s Stunning $162.9 Million Bitcoin Mining Machine Deal
Riot, a prominent mining company in North America, has made a significant move in the cryptocurrency industry by acquiring 33,280 cutting-edge bitcoin mining machines from MicroBT. MicroBT, based in Shenzhen, China, is renowned as the world’s second-largest producer of Bitcoin mining machines. However, in a strategic decision, Riot has secured an agreement to have these mining machines manufactured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, marking a shift in production to the United States. The total value of the deal amounts to a staggering $162.9 million, with an approximate cost of $21.5 per terahash (T). This acquisition showcases commitment to expanding its mining capabilities and solidifying its position in the industry. The influx of these latest-generation mining machines will significantly enhance Riot’s mining infrastructure and bolster its mining capacity for Bitcoin. The move to purchase such a substantial number of mining machines is driven by the company’s ambition to capitalize on the growing demand and potential profitability of Bitcoin mining. As the cryptocurrency market continues to evolve, mining operations have become increasingly competitive, with companies vying to maximize their mining efficiency and output.
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🇨🇾 Bybit Gains Crypto License in Cyprus
Crypto exchange Bybit has gained a license for crypto exchange and custody services in Cyprus, the company said in a statement on Monday. “This landmark is a testament to Bybit's commitment to adhering to robust regulatory frameworks while expanding our global presence,” Ben Zhou, Bybit’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We wholeheartedly support the regulatory objective of building a cryptocurrency industry that is both compliant, secure, and transparent.” The Dubai-headquartered firm said the move shows its commitment to compliance with local rules. The license strengthens the exchange's presence in the European Union (EU) after it faced regulatory scrutiny in Japan and exited Canada, and the U.K. Companies in the European Union are preparing for new rules known as the Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, MiCA, that will allow them to serve the whole bloc with a license from a single member state. Cyprus is one of the EU members to introduce an advance registration regime before MiCA takes effect in 2024. Binance recently sought to withdraw its status in the country as part of an apparent regulatory consolidation anticipating MiCA.
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🟠 Binance reverses decision to delist privacy coins in Europe
Binance has decided to reverse its plan to delist several privacy coins in Europe after revising operations to comply with local regulations. It also commented that since it operates as an exchange registered in various European Union jurisdictions, it is “obliged” to follow local regulations that require exchanges to “be able to monitor transactions for coins listed on our platform.“ Initially, Binance was to delist privacy tokens for users in France, Italy, Spain and Poland, rendering them unable to buy or sell 12 privacy tokens beginning on June 26. The coins affected by the decision were to include: Decred (DCR), Dash,Zcash , Horizen (ZEN), PIVX (PIVX), Navcoin (NAV), Secret (SCRT), Verge (XVG), Firo (FIRO), Beam (BEAM), Monero and MobileCoin (MOB). However, since the decision has been retracted, various projects have taken to Twitter to reassure community members. These decisions from Binance come as the EU has been ironing out its standards for digital assets with its new Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations, which were signed into law on May 31. In July, the European Securities and Markets Authority plans to launch a MiCA consultation process, with the framework for the laws allowing an 18-month timeline to take full effect.
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⬜️ OKX crypto exchange to be operational in Dubai within the year, says executive
OKX received a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) preparatory license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) on June 15, according to a company statement. Gaining the license is the required step toward offering spot, derivatives, and fiat services, including US dollar and United Arab Emirates Dirham (AED) deposits, withdrawals, and spot pairs, to institutional and qualified retail customers in Dubai. In the statement, OKX said the United Arab Emirates is a key strategic hub for the exchange and it will operate from the new office in the Dubai World Trade Center. Forkast’s Jenny Ortiz spoke with OKX Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai about what the preparatory license means for the company and their plans in Dubai and the UAE. Basically we are allowed to offer spot trading. We also are allowed to engage with the banks to provide AED. So we’re going to provide AED tradable pairs so people in the region can, through robust KYC procedures, use directly linked bank accounts and trade cryptocurrency. We are a major crypto exchange integrated with the traditional banking system.
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💰 Robert F. Kennedy to Enforce Pro-Bitcoin Laws Should he Become President
Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who recently announced he will run for President of the US as part of the Democratic Party, vowed to implement Bitcoin-friendly policies if elected. The Republicans also have a crypto-loving candidate and his name is Francis Suarez. The 45-year-old, who currently serves as mayor of Miami, involved the city in numerous Bitcoin initiatives and became the first American politician to receive his salary in BTC instead of fiat currency. In a recent interview, Robert F. Kennedy Jr (the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy) reiterated his positive stance towards the cryptocurrency sector, more specifically, Bitcoin. He said he will “make sure” that America introduces rules that aid BTC and enable people to control their passwords, wallets, and nodes. Kennedy has previously described himself as an opponent of the US Federal Reserve, claiming it had collaborated with numerous banking institutions between 2008-2022 to print a colossal amount of money. In his view, the outcome of the controversial policy could cause a further monetary imbalance in the future, whereas Bitcoin could serve as an “escape route from the splatter zone.”. Subsequently, he opposed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
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🔻 Optimism Rebranded As OP Mainnet, Aiming To Create SuperChain
According to official news, Optimism has changed its name to OP Mainnet. The move is intended to reflect the goal of creating a “superchain” consisting of multiple L2 networks, with the OP Mainnet serving as the base layer for the “superchain”. OP Mainnet operates on Optimistic Synthesis, a technology aggregating Ethereum transactions on a secondary layer. The adoption of this technology enables faster and cheaper transaction processing, addressing the growing scalability concerns in the Ethereum network. OP Labs, the developer of the OP Mainnet, operates a development software stack known as the OP Stack, which allows developers to launch their own Layer 2 blockchains. Cryptocurrency exchange giant Coinbase is developing its own Blockchain, called Base, using the OP Stack. Bedrock has turned Optimism into a multi-client ecosystem, meaning there will be at least two options for the client software used to run the network. This means there will be at least two options for projects to use to launch the network. If something goes wrong with one client software, the Blockchain can rely on other users running other client software to keep the network running.
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📣 Wintermute Trading Accused Of Helping Celsius CEO Scam Investors: Report
Wintermute Trading Ltd., one of the biggest cryptocurrency market makers, was accused in a proposed class-action lawsuit of helping former Celsius Network Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Alex Mashinsky dupe investors in his now-bankrupt crypto lending firm. Wintermute Trading Ltd, one of the largest cryptocurrency market makers, has been accused of aiding in a fraudulent scheme alongside former Celsius Network Ltd. CEO Alex Mashinsky. The accusations stem from a proposed class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that starting in March 2021, Wintermute engaged in “wash trading” and other improper activities, artificially inflating the value of Celsius’s native CEL token and loan products. The investors also claim that Wintermute played a critical role in Mashinsky’s failed attempt to prop up CEL in May 2022 after the Terra and Luna tokens collapsed. Celsius froze all accounts on June 13, 2022, and filed for bankruptcy the following month amid a market crash that caused significant losses to investors. The lawsuit alleges that Wintermute’s “wash trading” activities corrupted the CEL token prices and reported trading volumes, which deceived investors.
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🪙 Bitcoin Cash Prices Spikes to 4-Month High; Open Interest Rises to 77%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has surged by 36.5% in the past three-days after EDX, the exchange backed by Fidelity, Schwab and Citadel, listed the token alongside bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC). In the past 24-hours it has increased by more than 10% to $143, its highest level since February, according to CoinDesk data. Open interest, a metric used to assess the nominal value of open trades on a specific asset, has risen by 77% to a nine-month high $135 million according to Coinalyze data. The rise in open interest suggests a shift in positive sentiment with hopes that the asset can experience institutional adoption after being listed on EDX. Bitcoin Cash was issued in July 2017 after it forked the original Bitcoin's blockchain. It made a record high of $2,947 during the peak of the 2017 bull market. However, despite early optimism, adoption of Bitcoin Cash as a payments network has paled into insignificance compared to its sibling. Over the past seven days, the total amount of transactions on the Bitcoin Cash network worth more than $100,000 is at $129 million. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has facilitated $75 billion in transactions during the same period, according to IntoTheBlock data.
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🇪🇸 Crypto.com Achieves Important Regulatory Win To Expand Services In Spain
Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com announced that it had obtained the Bank of Spain’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) registration. The registration came after a thorough examination of the exchange’s compliance with the Anti-Money Laundering Directive (AMLD) and other financial crime legislation, as well as its user protection measures. It will be able to provide a variety of goods and services to Spanish users as a result of this registration. Crypto.com has announced further progress in obtaining regulatory licenses and approvals across multiple countries and regions. The company has received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license for Digital Payment Token (DPT), as well as an MPI for e-money issuance, account issuance, and cross-border and domestic money transfer services from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. In addition to these approvals, Crypto.com has also been registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) in France. The platform has also obtained registration approval as a crypto asset business from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
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🪙 Algorand Cuts Block Time After New Upgrade
Algorand upgraded its protocol on Thursday to reduce block time, make application development on the network faster, and more cost-efficient. The proof-of-stake blockchain's upgrade will reduce block time to 3.3 seconds from 3.8 seconds, which is the “largest reduction of block time on a percentage basis,” Algorand Chief Product Officer Paul Riegle told CoinDesk. The upgrade comes in an increasingly competitive space in which many blockchains have introduced improvements. Block time measures how long it takes for the network to produce a new block of transactions. Other improvements include a simulator that allows developers to test and simulate issues before deploying their codebase to mainnet and a new plugin framework that allows people to create easy, customizable data. ALGO, the native cryptocurrency for the Algorand blockchain, has increased 4.9% in the past 24 hours to 12.8 cents, according to CoinDesk data. The upgrade, which incorporated feedback from the developer community, occurs as Algorand’s mainnet nears 30 million block and its four-year anniversary. such as Cardano's latest upgrade this week and BNB Chain’s upgrade last month.
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