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Bitcoin options reach highest point since 2021 amid banking crisis
Bitcoin option volumes reached their highest point since October 2021 when the price of bitcoin reach a high of over $60,000 amid a crisis in banking.The volume of bitcoin options...
The USDC depeg - Saving Investors from Liquidation
On Friday, March 12th, USDC began to trade below $1. Following the news that Silicon Valley Bank had collapsed it became apparent that Circle, the issuer of USDC, had held...
Coinbase to process ETH unstaking requests 24 hours after Shanghai update
Coinbase will begin to take unstaking requests around 24 hours after the Shanghai-Capella upgrade to the Ethereum network that will allow users to unstake ETH goes live, the exchange said...
Sam Bankman-Fried wants FTX to prioritize covering his legal bills
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried wants to use the crypto exchange’s director and officer liability insurance to pay his legal bills, his lawyers said in a court filing on Wednesday.If...
Binance to suspend GBP transactions as payments partner moves away
Binance will suspend GBP deposits and withdrawals after its payments partner Paysafe said it would no longer support them.The move will affect new users starting March 13 and all users...
Barney Frank: Regulators shuttered Signature Bank to show crypto is toxic
Crypto panic sparked a deposit run on Signature Bank, former Rep. Barney Frank said, but he argues that the bank had already stabilized before New York state regulators stepped in...
Silicon Valley Bank closed by California regulator
Silicon Valley Bank was closed by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation was appointed as the receiver. The FDIC created the Deposit Insurance...
Bitcoin falls to $20,000, leads drop in crypto prices as JPMorgan remains negative on crypto
Crypto prices continued to trade down driven lower by the latest U.S. banking casualties and worsening market sentiment. Bitcoin was trading around $19,990, down 5% in the past 24 hours,...
Hermes seeks court injunction to halt sales of MetaBirkin NFTs: Reuters
Luxury fashion brand Hermès is asking a federal court to block sales of non-fungible tokens based on its popular Birkin bag, according to Reuters.Last month, a New York jury ruled...
Galaxy Digital has excess capital after acquisitions, needs to get them right before spending again
Galaxy Digital has leftover capital after its two infrastructure acquisitions late last year, but plans on getting it right with those first investments, co-president Chris Ferraro said.In December, the firm...
GBTC trading at 45% discount to NAV less than a week from SEC trial
With less than a week until Grayscale presents oral arguments against the Securities and Exchange Commission, the discount price of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) traded at at a low of...
Coinbase no longer accepts payments via Silvergate Bank
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it had terminated its partnership with Silvergate Bank as its United States dollar banking partner, citing an ongoing investigation. In a tweet, the exchange said: ...
UAE emirate to launch free zone for digital and virtual asset firms
Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) seven Emirates, is set to launch a free zone for digital and virtual asset companies as the country’s approach to...
Former FTX exec Nishad Singh charged by the SEC for defrauding investors
A former director of engineering at FTX was “an active participant” in a plan to deceive FTX’s investors and went so far as to withdraw millions from FTX for his...
Dapper Labs said to lay off 20% more of its full-time employees
Less than four months after parting ways with more than 20% of its employees, Dapper Labs decided to let another 20% of full-time staff go, according to a document obtained...
Web3 database developer Polybase raises $2 million in pre-seed funding
Polybase, a crypto startup developing a privacy-focused decentralized database, raised $2 million in a pre-seed funding round.6th Man Ventures led the round, with Filecoin developer Protocol Labs, Orange DAO, Alumni...
Self-hosted wallet ban avoided in new draft of EU’s anti-money laundering bill
Self-hosted addresses, formerly known as “unhosted wallets” in the European Union's policies, are back in discussion as European Parliament staff look to clarify that lawmakers do not want an outright...
OpenSea makes changes to fees following tension with Blur
OpenSea is dropping fees, citing a shift in the NFT ecosystem and coming shortly after Blur made its case for creators to list on its platform rather than OpenSea.OpenSea, the...
Binance transferred $400 million from U.S. partner to Zhao-run firm, Reuters says
Binance secretly had access to a bank account of its U.S.-based partner and transferred more than $400 million from that account to a trading firm managed by Chief Executive Officer...
Mysten Labs CEO Evan Cheng is seeking to raise over $100 million for a web3 fund
Mysten Labs CEO and co-founder Evan Cheng is raising money for a venture capital fund focused on web3 investments, according to four people familiar with the matter.Cheng is in the...
NFT marketplace Blur set to raise at billion dollar valuation: sources
Blur, a rival to NFT marketplace heavyweight OpenSea, is set to close a funding round at a billion dollar valuation. The startup's valuation climbed to unicorn status in negotiations with...
Circle warned regulator about rival Binance stablecoin last year, Bloomberg says
Circle filed a complaint with the New York State Department of Financial Services last year over rival Binance's "mismanagement of reserves" for its own tokens, Bloomberg News reported. The news...
Paxos will no longer issue Binance USD stablecoin
The New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered crypto infrastructure firm Paxos to stop issuing the stablecoin Binance USD (BUSD), a Binance spokesperson told The Block."Paxos has informed us...
Crypto CEO pleads guilty to $250 million scam, SDNY says
Eddy Alexandre, the CEO of a purported cryptocurrency and currency trading platform called EminiFX, pleaded guilty to one count of commodities fraud and agreed to forfeit $248.8 million in addition...
PayPal pauses stablecoin project amid Paxos probe: Bloomberg
PayPal's putting work on its stablecoin on ice amid increasing regulatory scrutiny, Bloomberg News reported, citing a source.The news came a day after a report that the New York Department...
Bankman-Fried appeals judge's decision to reveal bond co-signers
Sam Bankman-Fried is fighting to keep the names of the two people who co-signed his bond a secret. The former FTX CEO appealed a judge’s decision to unseal the names...
Saudi Arabia, The Sandbox agree to collaborate on metaverse projects
Metaverse gaming platform The Sandbox and Saudi Arabia have come to an understanding of some sort. Details were not provided.Sandbox co-founder and COO Sebastien Borget took to LinkedIn to announce...
OpenSea rolls out new suite of tools offering one-stop shop for NFT drops
OpenSea has launched a suite of tools to let people or brands launch their own NFT projects. The tools aid deploying smart contracts across all supported EVM chains, configuring drop...
Coinbase stock up 21% following lawsuit dismissal
Shares of Coinbase have been rallying since Wednesday afternoon after a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the company.The stock was up by roughly 21%, trading at around $78.7 as...
Cipher Mining doubles hash rate capacity in January
Cipher Mining reached a hash rate capacity of 4.3 EH/s by the end of January, a 53.6% month-over-month increase.It also more than doubled the total number of bitcoin mined, reaching...
Tether denies it borrowed $2B from Celsius, as described in court report
Stablecoin issuer Tether is pushing back against assertions that it borrowed funds from failed crypto lender Celsius. According to a nearly 700-page report filed Tuesday from court-appointed examiner Shoba Pillay,...
Layer 1 blockchain Canto sees surge in trading activity
Cosmos-based Layer 1 blockchain Canto's total value locked (TVL) doubled in January, reflecting a breakthrough for the emerging blockchain. On Canto, TVL — or the dollar amount of assets staked...
Pantera returns to altcoins after seeking haven in bitcoin, ether
Crypto investment firm Pantera is rotating back into altcoins from bitcoin and ether for the first time since spring. The firm moved from altcoins to ether last year "to try...
Bitcoin miner Gryphon going public via deal to buy cannabis software company Akerna
Gryphon Digital Mining is going public in a deal to buy Akerna Corp. in an all-stock transaction.Privately-held Gryphon, which claims to be a carbon neutral bitcoin miner, will buy the...
Bankruptcy judge approves BlockFi’s employee retention program
A New Jersey bankruptcy court judge has approved BlockFi’s request to offer bonuses to top staff.“It offers the debtor and the employee an opportunity to move forward and maximize the...
Moody’s developing stablecoin scoring system: Bloomberg
Rating agency Moody's is developing a system to score stablecoins.It will include an analysis of up to 20 stablecoins and rate them based on the quality of attestations on the...
SEC bats down ARK's and 21Shares' second bitcoin ETF proposal
The Securities and Exchange Commission has rejected a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund proposed by ARK Investment Management and 21Shares. The decision marks the second time ARK and 21Shares have attempted...
Algorand Foundation poaches WhatsApp exec to lead marketing efforts
The Algorand Foundation hired former WhatsApp and Nike exec Jessica Tsai Chin to steer its marketing efforts. Previously head of brand for global privacy at the Meta-owned messaging app, Chin...
French senators vote to ease crypto licensing regulation
The French National Assembly voted in favor of rules that will ease licensing requirements for crypto firms, offering a sigh of relief for the industry.Lawmakers opted for an amendment proposed...
Law firm Sullivan & Cromwell can represent FTX debtors, judge rules
White shoe law firm Sullivan & Cromwell can represent FTX debtors in the trouble exchange’s bankruptcy case, a Delaware bankruptcy court judge ruled.“There’s no evidence of any actual conflict here,”...
Decentraland founders Ordano and Meilich join list of Genesis creditors
Virtual world platform Decentraland has not one but three of its executives and founders listed among the 50 largest non-insider unsecured claims against Genesis Global, the crypto lender that filed...
Binance Named as Counterparty in FinCEN Order Against Bitzlato
Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, was named as a counterparty in an order against the little-known cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato, accused of laundering $700 million by U.S. authorities on Wednesday.Binance,...
Flashbots seeks up to $50 million at a billion-dollar valuation
Flashbots, an Ethereum infrastructure service, is in discussions with potential backers about raising up to $50 million at a billion-dollar valuation.The startup hopes to raise between $30 million and $50...
Central African Republic working to integrate Sango coin into its economy
The Central African Republic (CAR) has set up a task force to explore modalities for integrating its national crypto, called the Sango coin, into the country’s economy, according to a...
US Charges Crypto Exchange Bitzlato With Money Laundering, Arrests Founder
The U.S. Justice Department and Treasury Department have targeted Bitzlato Limited with accusations of money laundering and arrested its founder in Miami, officials said in a Wednesday press conference.The Hong...
Shiba Inu Developers Reveal First Look of Layer 2 Blockchain Shibarium
Upcoming layer 2 network Shibarium will soon join the ever-growing fray of Ethereum-based blockchains, such as Arbitrum and Optimism, looking to solve the problems of scalability, speed and expense.A beta...
Nexo sues Cayman Islands regulator over rejected license
Crypto lending platform Nexo is suing the Cayman Islands regulator for denying the firm a virtual asset license.Nexo, which only last week saw its office in Bulgaria raided by 300...
Ignoring digital assets would be like sticking with paper over computers, BNY Mellon CEO says
BNY Mellon is committed to continue exploring the digital asset space, albeit cautiously.CEO Robin Vince said on an earnings call today that digital assets are the bank's "longest-term play" and...
Bitcoin steady above $19,000 at the US close as traditional markets rise
Bitcoin was up o.6% at the close of U.S. markets, trading around $19,460 while traditional markets reversed earlier losses to close higher. The biggest cryptocurrency is up almost 16% over...
Bitcoin Pushes Above $19K for First Time Since FTX Collapse
With an advance during the early afternoon Eastern time, bitcoin (BTC) briefly rose above $19,000, up more than 7% for the day and at its highest level since it was...
El Salvador one step closer to bitcoin bonds after law passage
El Salvador's Legislative Assembly approved a law on the issuance of digital assets, paving the way for bitcoin bonds that have been championed by President Nayib Bukele.The new law establishes...
FTX locates $5 billion in cash and liquid crypto, contemplates sale
FTX's new leadership says it has located $5 billion in cash, liquid cryptocurrency and liquid investment securities, two months after the troubled crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy protection.FTX attorney Andy...
Amazon Web Services Taps Avalanche to Help Bring Blockchain Technology to Enterprises, Governments
Avalanche is the first blockchain to form a partnership with Amazon’s cloud-computing platform.Cloud-computing platform Amazon Web Services will work with Ava Labs to try to bring wider adoption of blockchain...
Ethereum Software Firm ConsenSys to Cut Upwards of 100 Staff
CoinDesk estimates nearly 27,000 jobs have been lost across the crypto industry since April, based on media reports and press releases.ConsenSys, the developer of the crypto wallet MetaMask, plans to...
Gemini terminates Genesis loans, officially ends Earn Program
Gemini told clients in an email today that it is terminating customer loan agreements with Genesis Global Capital as it winds down its Earn program.Gemini said it will prioritize the...
FTX businesses including LedgerX draw interest from over 100 potential buyers
Roughly 117 parties are interested in buying entities of the FTX, according to a new legal filing in the troubled crypto exchange’s bankruptcy case. The crypto giant filed for bankruptcy...
Bitcoin's Modest Rally Sends Crypto-Related Stocks Sharply Higher
"Never short a dull market" is a favorite axiom of veteran traders, and it's proven true once again as a gain for bitcoin (BTC) – stuck in a very tight...
'Binance Effect' Means 41% Price Spike for Newly Listed Tokens
A study by Ren & Heinrich suggests that Binance's emergence as the dominant global crypto exchange might mean that its individual token listings are now getting a lot more attention...
Wallet associated with Justin Sun moves $100 million to Huobi
A wallet associated with Tron founder Justin Sun moved $100 million of stablecoins to crypto exchange Huobi. Two transactions took place at 11:10 a.m. UTC, moving $50 million each of...
Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Pays Off Silvergate Revolving Credit
Marathon Digital (MARA) fully paid off $30 million in revolver loans during December, freeing up 3,615 bitcoin (BTC) that had been pledged as collateral, according to its monthly update.The lender...
Coinbase shares drop 10% as Cowen downgrades stock and slashes price target
Coinbase shares fell shortly after the open as Cowen analysts downgraded the stock and cut their price target, citing dwindling retail volumes, lower revenue expectations and a harsh regulatory environment....
Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to Fraud, Conspiracy Charges
NEW YORK – Sam Bankman-Fried will go to trial in October.U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York ruled on a tentative date for the anticipated...
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms drops 'blockchain’ in rebrand
Riot Blockchain, one of the largest bitcoin miners in the industry, is rebranding its name to Riot Platforms to reflect the company's diversified business operations, it said in a statement...
Valkyrie wants to 'manage and sponsor' Grayscale's GBTC
Valkyrie Investments said it has a proposal for Digital Currency Group’s struggling Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and that it's ready to become a "sponsor and manager" of the fund.“We are well-equipped...
FBI Investigating 3Commas Data Breach
This week, an anonymous person leaked 100,000 API keys connected to the crypto trading service. The FBI is investigating the 3Commas data breach, CoinDesk has learned. The investigation comes after...
Alameda Research Liquidates Ethereum-Based Token Holdings for Bitcoin
Several tokens held by Sam Bankman-Fried’s embattled trading business Alameda Research were sold late on Wednesday to the tune of millions of dollars, as the firm's founders face criminal charges...
Turkey's Central Bank says digital lira tests will continue in 2023
Turkey's central bank said Thursday that it successfully carried out the first payment transactions on the Digital Turkish Lira Network as part of first-phase studies.The central bank will continue to...
FTX customers file class action suit to have their payments prioritized
Four FTX customers filed a class action lawsuit demanding priority in repayment, citing $2 billion in customer funds which have gone missing.The suit was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court...
Bitcoin Miner Argo Will Avoid Bankruptcy With $100M Bailout From Novogratz’s Galaxy
Bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain (ARBK) will avoid filing for bankruptcy protection, after it agreed to sell its Helios mining facility in Dickens Country, Texas, to Galaxy Digital (GLXY) for $65...
China's first national NFT marketplace to launch next week: Report
According to a report published by local news outlet Sina News on Dec 28, China will launch its first regulated platform for nonfungible tokens (NFT) trading on Jan 1, 2023....
US election agency approves use of NFTs as campaign fundraising incentive
According to the FEC, DataVault will receive “reasonable compensation” for each NFT issued to contributors as well as track all tokens issued for its own records. The United States Federal...
Bankman-Fried's Incredible Shrinking ‘$250 Million Bond’
Sam Bankman-Fried walked out of federal court on Thursday a free man on bail.News outlets all around the globe reported that Bankman-Fried got out on bail by posting a gargantuan,...
Nansen Analyst: On-Chain Data Shows Binance’s Financials Are a ‘Black Box’
Binance, the top cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, may be “tremendously well capitalized,” but its financials are still “very much a black box,” said an analyst at data insights company...
Core Scientific to File for Bankruptcy, Continue Mining Through Process: Report
Core Scientific (CORZ), one of the industry's largest bitcoin miners, plans to file for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday morning in Texas, according to a report by CNBC, but will continue...
Uniswap to allow users to buy cryptocurrency using debit and credit cards
Users of the decentralized exchange will also be able to use bank transfers to purchase crypto. Decentralized exchange Uniswap has partnered with fintech company Moonpay to allow users to buy...
Visa dreams up plans to let you auto-pay bills from your crypto wallet
Automatic payments for bills are commonplace in the traditional banking world and Visa has proposed a way to mimic the service using blockchain technology. Crypto-users may one day be able...
South Korea freezes US$93 mln in assets of former Terra-Luna associates
A South Korean court has approved local prosecutors’ request to freeze assets of about 120 billion Korean won (US$93.3 million) belonging to seven former associates of Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd.,...
Crypto investment firm CoinShares debuts trading on Nasdaq Stockholm
CoinShares’ stock was previously listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market, an alternative stock exchange for small and medium-sized companies. Major cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares has debuted trading on...
Binance.US agrees to buy Voyager's assets
Binance.US has entered into an agreement with Voyager Digital to acquire the bankrupt crypto lender's assets.The bid from the largest crypto exchange's U.S. arm "sets a clear path forward for...
Bitcoin fails to claw back Fed-related losses as Silvergate bucks downtrend
Crypto prices largely continued a slide that started with the Fed's 50-basis point interest rate increase yesterday. Crypto-related stocks were down, although Silvergate bucked the trend. Bitcoin slipped 4% to...
Crypto trading firm QCP Capital has at least $97 million stuck on FTX: Sources
QCP Capital, a crypto trading firm based in Singapore, has at least $97 million stuck on FTX after the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy last month.In an effort to recoup...
The Agenda podcast chats crypto and sex work with WetSpace CEO Allie Rae
Allie Rae of WetSpace joins Cointelegraph’s new podcast The Agenda to discuss how crypto and blockchain can empower adult content creators. What do the cryptocurrency and porn industries have in...
Warren, Marshall introduce bill to tighten money laundering rules for crypto
Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan., introduced legislation to tighten U.S. anti-money laundering rules to digital assets.The bill would expand know-your-customer rules to wallet providers, miners, validators and...
Sam Bankman-Fried says he will testify before congressional committee
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) confirmed he is willing to testify in front of the House Committee on Financial Services in Washington D.C. next Wednesday."I still do not have...
UK pushes crypto efforts forward through financial services reforms
The reforms include regulating stablecoins as a means of payment and creating a sandbox where firms and regulators can test new financial technologies. The United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer...
Amber Group ditches expansion plans after denying insolvency
Temasek-backed Amber has raised about $50 million in funding from a new sovereign fund, with the deal to be announced in January. Cryptocurrency trading firm Amber Group is putting its...
Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui to issue soulbound tokens to explore Web3
Japan’s financial giant Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group is experimenting with soulbond tokens to satisfy new social needs. The Japanese financial group Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) is moving to explore...
Fir Tree fund sues Grayscale in effort to force changes to Bitcoin Trust
The New York-based hedge funds want Grayscale to cough up information about its flagship Bitcoin trust which it believes could reveal potential mismanagement.Fir Tree Capital Management has filed a lawsuit...
Bankrupt Crypto Lender Celsius To Release $2.8-M In Bonuses To Prevent Staff ‘Poaching’
Celsius Network employees are now aware that the company, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, was given the green light from a bankruptcy court judge to distribute $2.8 million...
Ethereum And Ripple Are Committing Securities Fraud, Michael Saylor Claims
Bitcoin bull Michael Saylor notoriously doesn’t care much about altcoins, including Ripple (XRP) and Ethereum (ETH). In a most recent podcast appearance, Saylor spoke out about the classification of those...
S.Korean prosecutors mull second request of arrest warrant for Terra cofounder Daniel Shin
South Korean prosecutors investigating the collapse of Terra-Luna are mulling another request for the issuance of an arrest warrant for Terraform Labs Pte. Ltd., cofounder Daniel Shin and seven others,...
Bitcoin mining difficulty drops more than 7% as cash crunch hits miners
The Bitcoin mining difficulty level adjusted down 7.32% on Tuesday in Asia, the sharpest fall since July 2021, with many companies in the industry facing a cash shortage as energy...
NFT sales rise for first time in 7 months in November despite crypto price slump
Non-fungible token (NFT) sales in November rose for the first time in seven months to top US$530 million, shrugging off the sharp declines in cryptocurrency prices following the collapse of...
Here are the biggest stories in crypto to look out for this coming week
A crazy November has finally come to an end, but the fallout from the collapse of FTX will continue into the festive season and beyond. Legal action is continuing from...
Bybit reducing workforce as bear market deepens
Crypto exchange Bybit is reducing its workforce as a direct result of "the deepening bear market."The Singapore-based crypto exchange's CEO and co-founder, Ben Zhou, made the announcement on Twitter at...