Further cementing India’s decision to introduce an in-house central bank digital currency (CBDC) in 2022-23, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) proposed a three-step graded approach for rolling out CBDC “with little or no disruption” to the traditional financial system. In February, while discussing the budget for 2022, Indian finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke about…
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Bringing closure to the long-awaited judgment related to the money laundering activities over the BitMEX crypto exchange, one of the four federal district courthouses in New York reportedly sentenced two-year probation and six months of home detention to founder and ex-CEO Arthur Hayes. Arthur Hayes, along with the other BitMEX co-founders — Benjamin Delo and…
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Seven major crypto companies — Binance.US, Circle, Solana Foundation, The Aave Companies, Hedera, TRM Labs and Civic — joined hands to launch a community-driven scam reporting tool. Named Chainabuse, the tool aims to enable crypto users to issue warnings and discuss ongoing fraudulent activity such as scams and hacks in real-time. Launched on Wednesday, the…
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United Kingdom’s Department of Treasury, or Her Majesty’s Treasury, has reportedly decided to go ahead with regulating stablecoins as legal tender. While welcomed by the crypto community, the decision comes as a shocker due to its proximity to the recent fall of one of the most popular algorithmic stablecoin, TerraUSD (UST). A local report from The…
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Further distancing itself from any concerns of planned attacks on the blockchain, the Bitcoin (BTC) network established a new mining difficulty all-time high of 31.251 trillion — exceeding the 30-trillion mark for the first time in history. The creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, warranted the security of the BTC network through a decentralized network of…
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Just three days after debuting in the Indian market, United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase abruptly stopped using United Payments Interface (UPI), the most popular payment service in the region. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong later revealed that the service disruption was due to an “informal pressure” from India’s central bank. During Coinbase’s 2022 Quarterly Earnings call,…
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After nearly a three-year-long discussion about establishing a task force to oversee blockchain and crypto initiatives, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, signed a bill to create the Blockchain and Digital Innovation Task Force. The Utah State Legislature first saw the introduction of the house bill (H.B. 335) in early February 2022, which took nearly…
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Binance stands as one of the most persistent crypto exchanges when it comes to gaining regulatory approval and operational licenses from regulators across the world. In this effort to operate as a fully licensed financial institution, the exchange has stopped offering it’s crypto derivatives services in Spain as it reportedly awaits approval from the Spanish…
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Two committees of the Hawaii State Legislature — Commerce and Consumer Protection (CPN) and Ways and Means (WAM) — unanimously approved the launch of a specialized task force to explore the use and regulation of the crypto ecosystem. In a letter addressed to the President of the Hawaii Senate, Ron Kouchi, legislative members Donovan Dela…
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April 2022 marked the fourth consecutive month of a slowdown in the installation of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, ever since the slowdown began at the start of the year. BTC ATMs serve a crucial purpose for the Bitcoin economy, helping users physically retrieve or deposit BTC holdings against the corresponding cash reserves. Net change of cryptocurrency…
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