The largest US-based crypto exchange Coinbase has stopped payment services through United Payments Interface (UPI) on its platform for Indian users just three days after its launch in the South Asian subcontinent. The UPI is the payment portal governed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), which facilitates buy orders on Coinbase’s India services.
Regulation
Binance, the world’s biggest crypto exchange in terms of trading volume, received in-principle approval to operate in Abu Dhabi, marking its third regulatory approval in the Middle Eastern region after Bahrain and Dubai. The in-principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) allows Binance to operate as a broker-dealer in digital assets including cryptocurrencies
In an important precedent, a Supreme Court judge in New York state’s Yates County ruled in favor of cryptocurrency mining firm Greenidge Generation, dismissing a petition filed by a coalition of environmental activists. According to an Apr. 7 press release by Greenidge, judge Daniel Doyle dismissed a petition against the Greenidge Generation Holdings that a
The Council of the European Union has cut Russians off from certain cryptocurrency services as part of a package of restrictive measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “brutal aggression against Ukraine and its people.” In a Friday announcement, the EU council said it would be closing potential loopholes in using digital assets for Russian entities
European Central Bank executive board member Fabio Panetta provided an overview of the central bank’s current research on a retail central bank digital currency Friday when he spoke at the IESE Business School Banking Initiative Conference on Technology and Finance. Panetta said the issuance of central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, is “likely to become
The number of firms permitted to offer crypto services to U.K. residents under temporary registration status from the Financial Conduct Authority has dropped from 12 to five. According to a Thursday update to its list of “Cryptoasset firms with Temporary Registration,” the United Kingdom’s financial regulator named CEX.IO, Revolut, Copper, Globalblock and Moneybrain as companies
Following the announced integration of the payment app Strike with e-commerce platform Shopify to accept Bitcoin (BTC) through the Lightning Network, the crypto community raised concerns over the legal implications of the move. Crypto researcher Matt Ahlborg believes that the event is a very significant development for BTC as it allows the offloading of BTC
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the United States government corporation that insures depositors at U.S. commercial and savings banks, issued a financial institution letter Thursday. The letter requests the institutions supervised by the agency to notify the appropriate regional director of their activities with crypto-related assets or their intentions to engage in crypto-related activities. According
Speaking at the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami, Samson Mow, former chief strategy officer of Blockstream, named three new jurisdictions that would be adopting or proposing to adopt Bitcoin (BTC) as legal tender. As told by Mow, the first is that of the Caribbean island Roatán, which is part of Honduras. Honduras Prospera Inc. is
The Crypto Market Integrity Coalition, an organization founded two months ago by 17 cryptocurrency exchanges, firms and industry associations worldwide, announced 13 new members have joined. The group is centered around a pledge endorsed by members’ CEOs or chief compliance officers that (among other things): “We will integrate principles that uphold Market Integrity and Market
Financial regulators are standing in the way of expanded crypto services on Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s (CBA) mobile app. In an Australian first, the bank aims to grant all of its 6.5 million users access to cryptocurrency services. The CBA’s crypto products started a pilot of the services late last year after which it hoped
United States President Joe Biden is reportedly planning to nominate two commissioners to the Securities and Exchange Commission with different political party affiliations. According to a Wednesday report from the Wall Street Journal, Biden is considering Democrat Jaime Lizárraga, a staffer for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Mark Uyeda, counsel for the Senate Banking
The United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has announced it will impose sanctions on darknet market Hydra and virtual currency exchange Garantex. In a Tuesday announcement, the Treasury Department said it had worked with the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue
The European Commission is calling for financial services specialists to weigh in on the potential rollout of a digital euro. In a Tuesday notice, the European Commission’s Directorate‑General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union said it would be preparing an assessment of the central bank digital currency based on the expected impact
Two members of the House of Representatives have introduced legislation aimed at mitigating the risks to the United States financial system due to El Salvador adopting Bitcoin (BTC) as legal currency. In a Monday announcement, California Representative Norma Torres and Arkansas Representative Rick Crawford proposed legislation that would direct the State Department to create a
The United Nations arm aimed at assessing the science related to climate change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has named crypto among technologies that may require greater energy demands. According to a report released on Monday, the IPCC said cryptocurrencies, as part of the infrastructure around data centers and information technology systems