The Ethereum Foundation team announced another milestone on the road to the Shanghai upgrade, with the Shapella fork on the Zhejiang testnet moving into the final pre-launch sequence, according to a blog post on Feb 10. The Shapella transition includes “many features,” and “most importantly to stakers and the consensus-layer, is the enabling of withdrawals,”
The parts that make up the cryptocurrency ecosystem are not all equal, United States Federal Reserve Board governor Christopher Waller told a conference audience on Feb. 10. He had clear preferences among the three elements of the ecosystem that he identified. Waller was hosted by the Global Interdependence Center at its “Digital Money, Decentralized Finance,
The CEO of crypto exchange Kraken, Jesse Powell, has called on Congress to pass a law to protect the U.S. crypto industry after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took action against his trading platform over its crypto staking service. Kraken’s CEO Responds to SEC Action Kraken CEO Jesse Powell urged Congress to pass a
The coinbase transaction’s value is based on factors such as each individual transaction’s value, block height, and halving. Miners can add any customizable text to the blocks they have created. The value of a coinbase transaction is determined by several factors. These include the value of every transaction validated by the block, the height of
Ethereum’s native token, Ether (ETH), saw its worst daily performance of the year as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) stopped Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, from offering crypto staking services. On Feb. 9, Kraken agreed to pay $30 million to settle the SEC’s allegation that it broke securities rules by offering crypto staking
The Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) recently provided the much-awaited guidelines for virtual asset service providers (VASPs) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which included a ban on privacy coins. On Feb. 7, VARA released several rulebooks for VASPs including the “Virtual Assets and Related Activities Regulations 2023” in which VARA mentioned a prohibition on privacy
Regulators in Argentina are mulling the inclusion of stringent requirements in their next cryptocurrency regulatory framework. According to reports, institutions like the national securities regulator, the CNV, will be studying the inclusion of proof-of-solvency requirements for exchanges and custody institutions in Argentina, in the wake of the demise of leading cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Cryptocurrency Exchanges
Bitcoin (BTC) fell to bearish target zones on Feb. 10 as bulls failed to hold important support above $22,000. BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Crypto wipeout mounts as BTC price loses $22,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD dropping to $21,633 on Bitstamp. The pair reacted badly to regulatory fears
The collapse of FTX and related developments did more to pull up or push down the price of Bitcoin (BTC) throughout Q4, compared to macroeconomic events such as rate hikes, according to research. In a “State of Bitcoin Q4 2022” report published on Feb. 10, Messari research analysts Sami Kassab and Chris Collar found that
Members of the crypto community seem outraged over the recent charges laid against crypto exchange Kraken in relation to its staking-as-a-service program in the United States. On Feb. 9, the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) announced it had settled charges with Kraken over “failing to register the offer and sale of their crypto asset
Paxos Trust Company — the New York-based stablecoin issuer behind Binance USD (BUSD) and Paxos Dollar (USDP) — is reportedly being investigated by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS). A “person familiar with the matter” told Bloomberg in a Feb. 10 report that the exact motive behind the probe is currently unclear. An NYDFS
FOX Business journalist Eleanor Terrett revealed an explosive leak in a tweet yesterday at 10 pm EST, which could affect the entire crypto industry or allegedly Ripple and its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Terrett wrote that she learned from an anonymous source close to the SEC that the U.S.
French luxury brand Hermes has won a lawsuit against an artist who depicted its famous Birkin bags in a non-fungible token (NFT) collection. The artist argued that NFTs should be covered under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment but the jury disagreed. Hermes Wins Lawsuit Against ‘Metabirkins’ NFT Creator French luxury design house Hermes has won
Finland-based peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency platform LocalBitcoins is shutting down operations after serving its customers for more than 10 years. LocalBitcoins officially announced the termination of services on Feb. 9, citing the tough market conditions of the ongoing cryptocurrency winter. “Regardless of our efforts to overcome challenges and turn our trade volumes and declining market share back
Robinhood’s board of directors has approved a plan to buy back the $578 million stake in their company that was bought by former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX co-founder Gary Wang last year. Robinhood confirmed in its fourth-quarter report, published Feb. 8, that it had received board approval to buy back the stake. “Our Board
Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments. China airdrops 180 million digital yuan to celebrate Lunar New Year According to state-owned media Global Times, Chinese cities airdropped a total of 180 million digital yuan (e-CNY) worth $26.6 million to boost consumption during the Lunar New Year celebrations between