Month: April 2021

A major governmental agency in Uzbekistan seems to be rethinking its stance on cryptocurrencies. The National Agency for Project Management under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, or NAFT, issued an official document proposing several amendments to licensing procedures for crypto trading. NAFT proposed to officially allow local residents to conduct “all types of crypto exchange trades involving crypto assets and tokens in exchange for the national currency and the foreign currency.” The authority stressed that crypto investors would trade Read more …

Individuals and companies are not the only ones who take advantage of the significant bitcoin prices surging across the board, despite recent pullbacks. In New Jersey, United States, a county yielded profits after liquidating seized cryptocurrencies during a drug investigation. Authorities Gained Control of the Cryptos in 2019 According to NBC New York, local authorities from Monmouth County got the bitcoin (BTC) during a raid in the context of an illegal narcotics distribution crackdown in 2018. Investigators found that such Read more …

It turns out the 100 million euro digital bond issued by the European Investment Bank earlier this week was actually a trial of a European central bank-issued digital currency, or CBDC. An April 28 announcement from France’s central bank, Banque de France, revealed the digital bond was settled using a CBDC on a blockchain. The two year-bond was issued on the Ethereum public blockchain on April 27 and settled the following day, with a maturity date of April 28, 2023. Read more …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission new enforcement chief, Alex Oh, has resigned from her position with the Securities and Exchange Commission just days after taking the role. According to an official SEC announcement, Oh stepped down for personal reasons. However, in Oh’s resignation letter to Chairman Gary Gensler — as seen by Bloomberg — the former enforcement chief revealed she was stepping down to avoid becoming a distraction, as she deals with controversies arising from a case she Read more …

Intercontinental Exchange, the operator of the New York Stock Exchange and the owner of Bakkt digital asset platform, has sold its 1.4% stake in the newly Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency firm Coinbase. Announcing the news Thursday on a financial results call for the first quarter of 2021, ICE chief financial officer Scott Hill said that the company sold its Coinbase stake for $1.2 billion. The executive noted that the sale generated approximately $900 million net after taxes. Hill said that the proceeds Read more …

Decentralized exchanges have indelibly changed the way that cryptocurrencies are traded. But in the grand scheme of things, the technology that’s driving these platforms is relatively young… meaning it’s inevitable that teething problems have emerged. Some of the heavy hitters that dominate the market at present are known as non-orderbook markets. While it’s tantalizing and somewhat romantic that these platforms are controlled purely by supply and demand, it often results in some unexpected downsides. There’s one glaring disadvantage that we Read more …

On Thursday, Apifiny, a global digital asset trading and mining network, announced the company’s subsidiary Apifiny Prime has been granted a broker-dealer license from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). The firm now joins the ranks of brokerage and exchange businesses like Coinbase, Etoro, and Circle. FINRA Grants Apifiny Prime a Broker-Dealer License The leading regulator that oversees American broker-dealers, FINRA has granted a broker-dealer license to Apifiny Prime. The license allows Apifiny to make private investor placements and vend Read more …

An Australian senate committee has published a report calling for a blockchain-based national land registry, better clarity over laws relating to smart contracts, and continued efforts to establish international standards for DLT. The Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre’s second interim report offers 23 recommendations spanning blockchain, consumer data, and corporate taxation. Five recommendations deal specifically with blockchain and digital assets, including that the Council of Financial Regulators Cyber Working Group takes into account international data Read more …

press release PRESS RELEASE. The first ever community-minted NFT launched at OpenSea this week, attracting a bid of 7 ETH for this historic event and giving 256 lucky users the opportunity to share the proceeds of the NFT auction with the artist. That large bid is the latest stage of a highly popular campaign, one that saw the opening rounds of NFT minting happen in a matter of minutes, instead of the expected span of five days. More than 12,000 Read more …

Ethereum extended its rally and it traded to a new all-time high near $2,800 against the US Dollar. ETH price is correcting gains, but dips are likely to be supported near $2,650. Ethereum remained well bid and it even climbed towards the $2,800 level. The price is now trading well above $2,700 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. There is a crucial rising channel forming with support near $2,700 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD (data feed via Kraken). Read more …

China’s crypto mining operations may be set for stricter supervision in the future, with the Government reportedly concerned about the energy consumption of Bitcoin mining in particular. Beijing sent an “emergency notice” to conduct checks on data centres involved in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency mining operations on April 27, which was reportedly met with some panic in China. However Chinese columnist Colin Wu or Wu Blockchain on Twitter, was quick to downplay fears of how this could impact Chinese Bitcoin Read more …

On Thursday, the Smart Bitcoin Cash team announced the launch of the Smartbch testnet explaining that developers and decentralized app makers can now experiment and develop with the high-performance, EVM-compatible Bitcoin Cash sidechain. Further, Bitcoin.com News spoke with Wang Kui the lead developer of the Smartbch project. The Smartbch tech lead told our newsdesk about the inner workings of the sidechain that can connect with the Ethereum network. Testnet for Smart Bitcoin Cash, a Bitcoin Cash Layer-2 Project Is Live Read more …