Author: Coindesk
On Friday, Paris-based Bitcoin company Acinq announced it is pulling its popular Lightning network wallet, Phoenix, from app stores in the U.S., citing regulatory uncertainty. Users are recommended to close their channels and move their funds before access is terminated on May 3, 2023. Read the full article here
While some had expected the company might adopt the new digital asset fair value accounting standard, and thus report a sizable profit thanks to bitcoin’s (BTC) first quarter rally, the company elected not to do so. By the old standard, MicroStrategy at quarter’s end valued its bitcoin holdings at a price of $23,680 each, or $5.1 billion, rather than March’s closing price of $71,028, or $15.2 billion. Read the full article here
BTC drifted lower during the day from $64,000 over the weekend, slipping briefly to $61,800 before recovering to just near $63,000 at U.S. afternoon hours. The largest crypto by market value was recently changing hands at $63,000 down about 1% in the past 24 hours, holding up better than the broad-market CoinDesk Market Index (CD20), which lost 3% over the same period. Read the full article here
Rodriguez, 35, and his Samourai Wallet co-founder William Lonergan Hill, 65, were arrested last week – Rodriguez in Pennsylvania and Hill in Portugal – and charged with one count each of conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years and five years, respectively. Read the full article here
Zhu Haokang : Based on the analysis of various factors, we believe that cryptocurrency ETFs will be beneficial to cryptocurrency prices. First, Hong Kong’s crypto spot ETF market injects more liquidity into the crypto market. Second, accelerate the compliance of the industry. Third, funding channels have been expanded. Fourth, investors may obtain arbitrage opportunities between ETF prices and spot prices, allowing more market makers and arbitrage investors to actively participate. Fifth, with the passage of our crypto spot ETF, trading factors in traditional markets will also directly affect the cryptocurrency market. Sixth point, we believe that Hong Kong’s regulatory framework…
More than 160 of Changpeng “CZ” Zhao’s loved ones, friends and colleagues have written to a Washington judge ahead of the Binance founder and former CEO’s sentencing tomorrow, asking for leniency and painting a picture of Zhao as a devoted father and friend, and a “geeky” tech nerd who shuns luxury purchases despite his immense personal wealth. Read the full article here
“Tether has long believed in nurturing emerging technologies that have transformative capabilities, and the Brain-Computer-Interfaces of Blackrock Neurotech have the potential to open new realms of communication, rehabilitation, and cognitive enhancement,” Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether, said in a statement. Read the full article here
You might have heard the doomsday analyses comparing the most successful protocols of this wave, like Ethena or Eigen Layer LRTs, with risk management disasters like Terra, without really providing any credible evidence of the parallels. Fact is, this new generation of fast-growing DeFi protocols is much more mature and a lot of thought has gone into risk management. However, there is still plenty of risk. Read the full article here
By asking for a longer sentence, the DOJ seems to be sending a strong message, said Tama Kudman, a partner with Kudman Trachten Aloe Posner LLP. The DOJ has been trying to tamp down on money laundering via crypto, and Zhao was “pretty flagrant with anti-money laundering rules.” Read the full article here
To be sure, the dual-banking system itself at present is far from federalism perfected, and state and federal jurisdiction over banks does overlap in important ways; state-chartered banks that are members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and/or the Federal Reserve System, for example, face additional federal supervision. But such federal bank supervision makes even less sense for stablecoin issuers, which ultimately provide a payment tool (tokens designed to maintain a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar), not banking services. Read the full article here