Despite Beijing’s ever-increasing crackdown on the crypto industry, there are still some signs of life in the People’s Republic regarding the Bitcoin network and OTC trading. China intensified its clampdown on crypto last week in an effort to suppress any remaining activity related to digital assets within its borders. The regime specifically targeted crypto transactions,
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged 12 New York-based crypto options businesses with allegedly failing to register with the regulatory body. In a Sept. 29 press release, the CFTC outlined that it is charging 14 entities in total, with the 12 crypto-focused firms all on the hook for failing to register as futures
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) published an issue paper providing its perspective on central bank digital currencies (CBDC). The paper outlines CBDC purposes, designs, as well as the potential benefits and associated risks. The bank will be seeking comments on the proposed paper until Dec. 6. The document focuses on a “general-purpose” CBDC that is
The use of new technologies such as blockchain or artificial intelligence has been in the spotlight lately and gaining more acceptance from governments around the world. On Sunday, Sept. 26, Germans voted in parliamentary elections that marked the end of Angela Merkel’s 16 years in office. Since 2005, Germany has experienced deep crises, but also
CoinEx cryptocurrency exchange is winding down operations in mainland China to comply with local anti-crypto regulations. The company officially announced on Thursday that it was going to completely retire user accounts verified as mainland China citizens as well as those linked to a mobile phone number from mainland China. The exchange has asked mainland China-based users
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has hired a former United States Internal Revenue Service agent to head its new intelligence division, a strong indication that the company is looking to bolster its compliance resources. Tigran Gambaryan joins Binance as vice president of global intelligence and investigations, the company announced Thursday. Binance is Gambaryan’s first private-sector employer since
Later today, the United States House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, a bill authorizing sweeping investments in domains such as passenger rail, bridge repair, clean and wastewater facilities, clean energy transmission, and universal access to high-speed internet. Also tucked into the massive bill are
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell believes the federal government needs to regulate the cryptocurrency market, but that a blanket ban on Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets is not in the cards. Speaking in response to a question from Republican Representative Ted Budd of North Carolina, Powell clarified that a China-style ban on digital assets
Decentralized exchange dYdX’s native token DYDX surged by nearly 80% this week as traders assessed its potential against China’s recent ban on crypto transactions. The DYDX price hit a new high of $26.50 on the FTX exchange after trading at around $13 a week ago. The China ban was an apparent boost for the dYdX
High transaction costs have been a thorn in the side of investors and developers for more than a decade and the issue became worse in 2021 after the emergence of decentralized finance (DeFi) and nonfungible tokens (NFT) led to record-high levels of activity across the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Since the completion of Ethereum’s London hardfork, cross-chain
Bitcoin faced another day of bearish pressure on Sept. 29 as the impact of China’s crypto crackdown and uncertainty about the regulatory landscape in the United States continue to weigh heavily on Bitcoin (BTC) and some of the larger-cap altcoins. Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the early morning rally above $42,000
Bitcoin (BTC) erased overnight gains on Sept. 30 as sudden problems at major exchange Bitfinex caused a mass outage. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Bitfinex investigates mystery shutdown Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD losing the $43,000 level following the news after hitting local highs above $43,800 on Bitstamp. With the
In a series of recent interviews and speeches, United States Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler has called the cryptocurrencies market the “Wild West” due to its unregulated and allegedly fraud-filled atmosphere, predicting that the coins were doomed to fail. Powers On… is a monthly opinion column from Marc Powers, who spent much of
An on-chain study released by Kraken Intelligence highlights strong accumulation behavior among Ethereum miners even as they faced the prospects of generating lower revenue following a major network upgrade on Aug. 5. Ethereum miners accumulated an additional 2 million Ether (ETH), worth $6.1 billion, after the so-called London hard fork’s activation. The latest bout of
Ether (ETH) price has seen quite a bit of volatility lately and to the surprise of many traders, the $4,000 level continues to present considerable resistance. Currently, the price is respecting the upward channel which started in August but every time the support is tested, the risk of an aggressive correction increases. With that in
Crypto traders breathed a sigh of relief on Sept. 30 after media headlines reflected positive news regarding adoption and future regulation in the crypto sector. Early in the day, Visa announced that it has developed a layer-2-based blockchain interoperability hub that will support cryptocurrency payments and Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell stated that the regulator has