Major cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) could become a top three asset in the event of a theoretical debt default in the United States, according to a new survey. As U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to meet with Congress on May 16 to discuss the U.S. debt ceiling, investors are seeking hedges to protect their savings in…
Read more
Amid the ongoing banking crisis in the United States, financial regulators continue scrutinizing major traditional finance companies like HSBC and Scotiabank. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged HSBC’s securities arm HSBC Securities (HSI) and Scotiabank’s investment subsidiary Scotia Capital with penalties over recordkeeping violations. HSI agreed to pay $15 million to settle with…
Read more
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is actively exploring opportunities for offline payments involving a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. On May 11, the BIS Innovation Hub Nordic Centre published a comprehensive handbook exploring how CBDCs could work for offline payments. The guide is written in collaboration with technical consultancy Consult Hyperion, addressing objectives…
Read more
Bitcoin Ordinals, a technology that enables adding text, images and code on a satoshi — the smallest unit of Bitcoin (BTC) — continues to inspire debate among the Bitcoin community. Soon after the introduction of Bitcoin Ordinals in January 2023, the technology’s opponents began to raise concerns over its perceived flaws, citing issues like rising…
Read more
Amid the ongoing spike in Bitcoin (BTC) transaction fees, some cryptocurrency exchanges have moved to adjust the cost of withdrawing BTC from their platforms. The United States-based exchange Kraken has increased Bitcoin withdrawal fees to match the current fees on-chain, the company’s customer support manager wrote on Reddit on May 10. “This helps ensure withdrawals…
Read more
Singapore government-owned megabank DBS is among the few companies around the world that reaped major benefits from massive cryptocurrency collapses in 2022. DBS Digital Exchange, DBS Bank’s institutional crypto trading platform, saw a significant increase in Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes last year. According to DBS Digital Exchange CEO Lionel Lim, the number of DBS crypto…
Read more
Amid the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance recovering from several halts of Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals, its American arm, Binance.US, is selling BTC at a premium. The price of Bitcoin on Binance.US is $700 more expensive than the cryptocurrency’s market price on May 9. At the time of writing, or around 1:30 am UTC, Bitcoin was trading at…
Read more
Despite Hong Kong steadily progressing with cryptocurrency adoption, mainland China has not changed its anti-crypto stance in terms of local regulations. Some Chinese state-affiliated banks have increasingly opened bank accounts to serve crypto clients in Hong Kong. CPIC Investment Management — a China government-backed firm regulated as a Hong Kong entity — even launched two cryptocurrency…
Read more
Bitcoin transaction fees saw a sharp surge in early May, reaching their highest point over the past two years, according to data from CryptoFees. On May 3, the total amount of fees paid on the Bitcoin blockchain reached an amount of $3.5 million, jumping about 400% from late April. The average Bitcoin transaction fee reached…
Read more
As the cryptocurrency industry faces regulatory challenges in the United States, public crypto exchange Coinbase is moving forward with a global derivatives platform. On May 2, Coinbase announced the launch of the Coinbase International Exchange (CIE), a new institutional platform designed for crypto derivatives trading. The CIE will start trading by listing Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether…
Read more