Blockchain & Digital Assets

December 15, 2023 @ 10:50 am By JD Alois  |  

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has issued a statement on the denial of a petition pursued by Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) in regard to a demand to craft specific rules for digital assets. In 2022, Coinbase announced a formal petition asking the SEC to:… Read More

December 15, 2023 @ 9:34 am By Tony Zerucha  |  

ZenLedger, a provider of blockchain data and tax solutions, this week announced a partnership with april, a developer of AI-powered financial technology focused on modernizing taxes, to launch the first end-to-end tax filing experience in the crypto industry.  Integrating with april, an IRS-authorized e-file provider, brings… Read More

December 15, 2023 @ 8:43 am By Omar Faridi  |  

As expected by most crypto industry participants, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has postponed its decision on whether to greenlight a spot Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF), which had been proposed by Invesco and Galaxy Digital. As part of a December 13, 2023… Read More

December 15, 2023 @ 8:00 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Coinbase International Exchange is set to introduce spot markets. Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) has officially announced the next phase of their Coinbase International Exchange expansion – the launch of non-US spot markets “for eligible customers.” This latest development is designed to address “the unique needs and demands… Read More

December 15, 2023 @ 7:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Jameson Lopp, co-founder and CTO at Casa, has shared key insights after the widely reported Ledger hack / security breach that appears to be impacting a large number of DeFi platforms and dApps, with some unconfirmed reports indicating major losses of crypto funds. Lopp, who… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 10:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

In the State of the Network report, Coin Metrics continues their focused series on Bitcoin mining, spotlighting data across the crypto mining ecosystem. According to the Coin Metrics update, mining stands as “one of the most intriguing parts of the digital assets industry, often capturing… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 9:18 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Galaxy (TSX: GLXY) has announced the intended formation of AllUnity, as part of a new partnership between DWS, Flow Traders and Galaxy, whose mission is to enhance the on-chain economy by issuing a fully collateralized EUR-denominated stablecoin. AllUnity will be regulated “by BaFin, Germany‘s financial… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 9:12 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) published an Accounting Standards Update (ASU) intended to improve the accounting for and disclosure of certain crypto assets. FASB Chair Richard R. Jones said: “The new standard responds to feedback from stakeholders of all backgrounds who indicated that improving… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 9:11 am By JD Alois  |  

Tokeny, a top digital asset enabler based in Europe, has received a strategic investment from Apex Group. The terms of the deal were not revealed, with Apex being labeled the “strategic lead” in the round, which did not mention other investors. Tokeny provides a compliant… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 5:55 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Sygnum launches its inaugural institutional investor crypto survey report, Future Finance 23. The purpose of the research is “to accurately measure institutional crypto adoption, track trends over time, and profile the needs and challenges of future institutional crypto market entrants.” Key themes include: 40% of… Read More

December 14, 2023 @ 5:45 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Approval phishing is a scamming tactic that has existed for many years, the Chainalysis team notes. But whereas approval phishing scammers have historically “targeted wide swaths of crypto users through the proliferation of fake crypto apps, romance scammers (also known as pig butchering scammers) appear… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 10:08 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Matter Labs, an engineering and cryptography research company working on and developing software in relation to the zkSync protocol, a layer-2 trustless protocol that provides a scaling solution for Ethereum, and Chainlink Labs, the primary contributing developer of Chainlink, the decentralized computing platform powering the… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 3:07 pm By JD Alois  |  

Latin American Fintech Bitso says it facilitated USD $8 billion in payments during 2023. Bitso said this represents a 60% increase versus 2020. The company claims that it provides services to more than 1700 companies leveraging blockchain technology to provide global transfers, payouts, and other… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 10:56 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The HBAR Foundation and Archax have shared plans to enhance their partnership by expanding support for HBAR staking, the native cryptocurrency of the Hedera network, as well as the pursuit of further tokenisation projects. Building on the recent addition of HBAR to its crypto spot… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 9:50 am By Omar Faridi  |  

This past week saw the release of Bitcoin Core 26.0, ushering in a new version of “Bitcoin,” the team at NYDIG noted. While the Bitcoin ecosystem at large consists of numerous pieces of software that interoperate (wallets, mining software, Lightning, alternative implementations of Bitcoin written… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 9:23 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Elliptic, the global firm focused on crypto-asset risk management, announced a partnership with The Ascent Group, an independent global fund administrator. The Singaporean company will leverage Elliptic’s real-time wallet transaction screening capability, which is “supported by Elliptic’s cross-chain and cross-asset Holistic Screening technology.” This suite… Read More

December 13, 2023 @ 8:37 am By Omar Faridi  |  

Today, less than 0.25% of total global assets are “represented on blockchain infrastructure, leaving massive efficiency gains uncaptured,” according to an update from Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN). Coinbase says that its goal is “to close this gap by enabling institutional use of next-generation financial technology.” Project Diamond… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 5:00 pm By Omar Faridi  |  

Tether, which claims to be the leader in innovative blockchain technology, has announced recently a “significant” collaboration with Bitkub Online Co., Ltd. (Bitkub Exchange), Thailand’s cryptocurrency exchange (reportedly one of the most active in terms of crypto trading volume). This collaboration aims to launch “a… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 10:07 am By JD Alois  |  

In a settlement with the State of New York, crypto exchange KuCoin has admitted that it operates a crypto trading platform that is effectively providing a service where users can buy or sell securities and commodities as defined by the State of New York. KuCoin… Read More

December 12, 2023 @ 9:44 am By Omar Faridi  |  

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision met virtually on 5 and 7 December to discuss a range of policy and supervisory initiatives. The Committee took stock of its review of various elements of “the prudential standard for banks’ exposures to crypto-assets published in December 2022.”… Read More