cryptocurrencies
Georgia aims to adopt European crypto standards for Anti-Money Laundering
Georgia, one of the world’s most cryptocurrency-friendly countries, is moving to introduce new crypto regulations to pursue its ambitions to become a global crypto hub. Georgian lawmakers have prepared a new regulatory framework targeting digital business and cryptocurrency trading in the country, Georgian Minister of Economy and Vice Prime Minister Levan Davitashvili announced. Davitashvili said that a draft bill has been sent to the parliament and the amendments are expected to be passed in the autumn session, local news agency Business Media Georgia reported on Monday. According to the minister, the draft bill aims to coordinate local cryptocurrency laws with three major European Union directives, including the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), the Capital Requirements Directive (CRD) ...
Crypto ‘cannot be partisan,’ says US lawmaker who scored negative on bipartisanship index: Report
United States House of Representatives member Tom Emmer has reportedly suggested that regulating and encouraging innovation in the crypto space should not be a political win for either Democrats or Republicans. According to an interview released Tuesday by Axios reporter Brady Dale, Emmer said many of his colleagues in Congress were treating cryptocurrencies as a risk that merited warnings, rather than an investment opportunity for the United States. The U.S. lawmaker added that encouraging figures like FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried to stay in the country will open more doors for residents rather than driving them away with regulatory uncertainty. Emmer, who has often pushed back against the “regulation by enforcement” approach some government agencies — including the Securities and Exchange C...
Central African Republic court says new $60,000 citizenship-by-crypto-investment program is unconstitutional
According to Reuters, the Constitutional Court of the Central African Republic (CAR) said on Monday that the purchase of citizenship, e-residency and land using its government-backed Sango digital currency is unconstitutional because a nationality has no market value. Earlier in July, the CAR unveiled its Sango crypto hub to attract global crypto talent and enthusiasts, boost Bitcoin (BTC) adoption and implement new crypto regulatory frameworks. The Sango blockchain is built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, similar to a layer-2 solution. Part of the program includes a citizenship-by-investment program, where foreign nationals can effectively purchase citizenship in the CAR for $60,000 in crypto, with an equivalent amount of Sango tokens held as collateral and returned...
NFTs Gaming CEO apologizes for losing 12% of startup capital through crypto trading
According to a recent blog post, 0xfanfaron, CEO of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) gaming project Ragnarok, apologized publicly for his missteps in leading the company. Ragnarok is a crypto startup that brought in $15.5 million worth of Ether (ETH) for gaming development in April through its first-ever NFT sale. However, 0xfanfaron disclosed: “We exchanged the ETH from the mint for 15.5 million in USD Coin. As it turns out, this was a good move in treasury management. But when ETH’s price went down, I made mistakes by buying ETH multiple times when I thought it was an advantageous investment for the project.” 0xfanfaron further elaborated that he sold the firm’s Ether positions through a series of trades with the plan to reinvest at a “better time.” The ventu...
Ripple CEO comments on Crypto Leaks, denies funding law firm to target others
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse took to Twitter to deny recent explosive claims made by Crypto Leaks, an online publication focusing on corruption and fraud-related news in the crypto ecosystem. Crypto Leaks published a report on Friday containing a series of short videos from an unknown source. The report claimed that Ava Labs formed a secret pact with the law firm to use the American legal system “gangster style” to “attack and harm crypto organizations.” The same report also alleged that Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse funded a law firm to target competitor firms. The report claimed Roche, who founded Roche Freedman, was earlier working with Boies Schiller Flexner, a firm that was representing Ripple in its lawsuit against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)....
MAS doesn’t trust retail crypto investments, mulling more regulations
The managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ravi Menon, addressed the agency’s mixed signals on crypto in the public sphere at a seminar on Aug. 29. The public claimed that local regulators were spreading crypto-positive sentiments while simultaneously threatening more regulations. According to the new statement from Menon, the observation is not entirely wrong. He says the agency needs to do “a better job explaining” the situation. Overall, MAS is pro-digital assets, as directly stated by Menon, “yes to digital asset innovation, no to cryptocurrency speculation.” Regulators want the island country to become a hub for fintech innovation and distributed ledger activity. Though according to recent statements, where the problem lies is within cryptocurrenci...
Merch and perfume: Formula One trademark filing paves the way for F1 NFTs
Formula One could introduce nonfungible tokens (NFTs), digital collectibles and cryptocurrency payment support ahead of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023. F1’s trademark department registered two new trademark filings with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on August 23. The filings outline the trademark and logo for the Las Vegas Strip Circuit and a wide-ranging list of goods and services that the event intends to offer during next year’s race. Of particular interest were specific mentions of NFT and cryptocurrency-related offerings as well as blockchain-powered transactional services. The filing notes NFTs that will represent ownership of a wide variety of real-world items, including vehicle equipment, decorative items, clothing, bags, wallets and even R...
The number of crypto billionaires is growing fast, here’s why
Satoshi Nakamoto has more than 1 million BTC, making him the largest Bitcoin holder. He is followed by the founders of Grayscale and Binance, who together have about the same amount of BTC as Satoshi Nakamoto. When looking at the largest Bitcoin holders, there are a few parties that stand out. Of course, Satoshi Nakamoto, with a total of 1,100,000 BTC, has more significant holdings than number two and three holders of Bitcoin, namely Grayscale and Binance. These companies have over 600,000 BTC and 400,000 BTC, respectively, numbers that most Bitcoin investors can only dream of. Behind these top three Bitcoin holders are the cryptocurrency exchanges Bitfinex and OKX, both of which hold over 200,000 BTC. Then, with MicroStrategy and Block.one, there are two more parties that own more than 10...
Millions of dollars in ETH lie unclaimed in presale wallets — but there’s a way to get them back
Out in the cryptosphere, there’s a vast amount of wealth that’s seemingly out of reach. A long-running statistic suggests four million Bitcoin — almost 20% of the total supply — has been lost forever. Much of it was mined when the network was just beginning, with early adopters tearing their hair out after losing their private keys. One Welshman has endured a nine-year battle as he attempts to receive a hard drive containing 7,500 BTC from landfill. But this isn’t the only treasure trove that’s worth exploring. For example, did you know that over 500 Ethereum presale wallets are yet to be recovered… and collectively, they have a value of several billion dollars? The presale for ETH — which is now the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency — took place bac...
What is a seed phrase and why is it important?
A seed phrase might be confusing and probably you might be wondering how a seed phrase looks and maybe how it is created. The seed phrase is generated by a cryptocurrency wallet and the user has no way of customizing it. The words generated are derived from a list of 2048 words. So, how many words is a seed phrase? A seed phrase is made up of a long string consisting of a group of random words. The words on a seed phrase are simplified so that the user can remember them, unlike if the seed phrase consisted of long numbers or special characters. The recovery phrase consists of 12 to 24 words like energy, road or open. To avoid errors, these randomly generated words do not include pairs like “man” and “men” in the same seed phrase. Bitcoin im...
Hacker tries to exploit bridge protocol, fails miserably: Finance Redefined
Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. This past week, there were some major developments in the run-up to the upcoming Ethereum Merge slated for Sept. 15. Bitfinex became the latest crypto exchange to throw its support behind the chain split token. While DeFi bridge hacks have become a norm this year, developers behind Rainbow Bridge managed to foil an exploit attempt within seconds, leading to the hacker losing their safety deposit. The Tornado Cash developer who was arrested last week was sent to 90-day judicial custody awaiting charges. It didn’t go down well with the crypto community, who have actively rallied behind the developer and have accused...
How to tell if a cryptocurrency project is a Ponzi scheme
The crypto world has experienced an increase in Ponzi schemes since 2016 when the market gained mainstream prominence. Many shady investment programs are designed to take advantage of the hype behind cryptocurrency booms to beguile impressionable investors. Ponzi schemes have become rampant in the sector primarily due to the decentralized nature of blockchain technology which enables scammers to sidestep centralized monetary authorities who would otherwise flag or freeze suspicious transactions. The immutable nature of blockchain systems that makes fund transfers irreversible also works in the scammers’ favor by making it harder for Ponzi victims to get their money back. Speaking to Cointelegraph earlier this week, KuCoin exchange CEO Johnny Lyu said that the sector was fertile ground for ...
