Blockchain-based payments firm Ripple has obtained in-principle regulatory approval from Singapore’s financial regulator to offer digital asset payments and token products in the city-state. Ripple confirmed the approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a June 22 statement. The approval will allow its subsidiary — Ripple Markets Asia Pacific — to further scale
Starknet, a zero knowledge layer-2 scaling solution for Ethereum is one step closer to becoming fully Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible pending an August testnet launch of Kakarot, a new zkEVM. On June 3, the Kakarot team announced it had received new backing from Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin, Ledger co-founder Nicholas Bacca and Starkware. We
Recently renewed optimism for an approved Bitcoin (BTC) spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) is igniting “The Great Accumulation Race” for Bitcoin, according to industry pundits. Over the past week, Fidelity, Invesco, Wisdom Tree and Valkyrie have followed investment giant BlackRock in applying for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the United States Securities Exchange Commission, which some
Immutable Games’ Web3 trading card game Gods Unchained is now listed on the Epic Games Store and is available to its 230 million customers, according to a June 21 announcement. Gods Unchained is a collectible trading card game similar to Hearthstone or Magic: The Gathering Arena but with cards players can own and trade. Each
Cryptocurrency fund manager Valkyrie is applying for a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund (ETF), joining several other financial firms that have filed similar applications with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the last week. Valkyrie filed an S-1 registration form for a Bitcoin spot ETF with the SEC on June 21. In it, the firm
Lawyers representing United States-based crypto exchange Binance.US, global exchange Binance Holdings Limited and Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao have filed a motion alleging the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) misled the public in statements issued over an ongoing securities lawsuit. In a June 21 filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of
A team of researchers from the Bitcoin Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank, have roundly rejected the conclusions reached in a 2022 paper claiming that Bitcoin has an intrinsic scaling problem that will lead to limited adoption in the future. According to the Bitcoin Policy Institute’s researchers, the original paper, dubbed “Bitcoin’s Limited Adoption Problem,”
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit against Binance along with its U.S. platform and CEO Changpeng Zhao on June 5 in a Washington, D.C. federal district court for allegedly violating securities laws and offering unregistered securities. The U.S. regulator has accused the crypto exchange of offering unregistered securities in the form
BlackRock’s application for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) has encouraged other financial firms to follow suit. First, it was the New York-based asset management fund WisdomTree which made a new filing on June 21 for a Bitcoin ETF. This was then followed by investment manager Invesco, which reactivated its application for a spot
The United States Federal Reserve Board sees payment stablecoins as a form of money, Chair Jerome Powell said during questioning at the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee’s semi-annual hearing on Fed policy on June 21. Powell’s comments came in response to committee ranking member Maxine Waters, who asked for his reaction to the proposed
Ethereum has been the dominant smart contract and decentralized application (Dapp) network since its inception. An analysis based on Ether’s price (ETH), and its market capitalization, shows indisputable evidence that the blockchain has been gaining market share over time. As shown above, Ether’s dominance in market capitalization terms grew over the past couple of years,
Democrats with the United States House Financial Services Committee have introduced several bills in what they described as the “first wave” of legislation aimed at addressing failures at major banks. In a June 21 announcement, committee ranking member Maxine Waters said House Democrats had backed 11 bills drafted in response to the collapse of Silicon
Crypto mining firm CleanSpark is moving forward with its aggressive infrastructure expansion in the United States by acquiring two Bitcoin (BTC) mining facilities in a $9.3 million cash deal. According to a June 21 announcement, the two facilities CleanSpark will purchase are turnkey Bitcoin mining campuses in Dalton, Georgia. With turnkey mining, users can buy an
Bitcoin (BTC) returned to $30,000 after the June 21 Wall Street open in a triumphant continuation of the week’s gains. Bitcoin price destroys traces of multi-week downturn Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirmed a new multi-month high of $30,340 on Bitstamp. BTC price action continued to heat up throughout the day as bulls
Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced the launch of a regulated digital asset platform in Kazakhstan amid growing regulatory troubles in the West. The launch of the new platform was announced at a press event on June 20, 2023, in the presence of representatives of Kazakhstan’s banking industry, and Binance Kazakhstan’s leadership. The cryptocurrency exchange obtained
In the latest episode of The Market Report, Cointelegraph analyst and writer Marcel Pechman explains what’s behind Bitcoin (BTC) reaching 50% crypto market dominance for the first time in two years amid Blackrock’s spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) filing, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s crackdown on altcoins. According to Pechman, it must be admitted that
As cryptocurrencies and blockchain assets continue to grow in popularity and mainstream adoption, the United States Internal Revenue Service has taken an increasing interest in their taxation. In the U.S., cryptocurrency is subject to crypto tax and is classified as transactions instead of property or assets. Needless to say, failure to accurately track and report
Major hardware cryptocurrency wallet provider Ledger is getting closer to launching its planned solution to allow users to back up and recover a Ledger device seed. Ledger chief technology officer Charles Guillemet took to Twitter on June 21 to announce that the hardware wallet company has open-sourced the Ledger Recover white paper. Today, we are
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released a proposal for a common protocol that would specify the conditions for the use of various types of digital currencies. On June 21 MAS published a whitepaper that covers technical specifications outlining the lifecycle of its new Purpose Bound Money (PBM) concept, along with the names of financial
The world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) conference, Bitcoin 2023, in Miami, Florida, passed without major fanfare this year. Past conferences announced nation-state adoption, massive crypto integrations in the United States, and islands and territories worldwide embracing Bitcoin. Nonetheless, at Bitcoin 2023, one partnership with a potentially significant impact on the world’s 15th-largest economy flew under the radar.