- India’s Crypto Businesses Handed Anti-Money Laundering Obligations for First Time
India has added crypto to anti-money laundering rules, making crypto exchanges, NFT marketplaces and custody service wallet providers legally responsible for monitoring suspicious financial activities for the first time.
The businesses will have to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and comply with other mandatory processes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the Ministry of Finance said Tuesday.
While India doesn’t have a regulatory body dedicated to crypto, the move hands the FIU a significant role in overseeing crypto in the country. Until now, crypto businesses were not legally obligated to perform verification processes like Know Your Customer (KYC). This has been written into the law and thus becomes mandatory.
- Bitcoin Slips to 3-Week Low As Market Sees Federal Reserve Lifting Rates to 5.65%
Bitcoin fell to a three-week low Wednesday as U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s hawkish testimony to Congress spurred traders to price in a higher “terminal rate.”
The leading cryptocurrency by market value fell to $21,871 during Asian trading hours, a three-week low, CoinDesk data show. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency, nearly tested Tuesday’s low of $1,535.
Powell on Tuesday said the central bank is likely to raise rates more than previously expected, warning that the process of pushing inflation down to the 2% target has a “long way to go.” Since last year, the Fed has raised rates by 450 basis points (bps), roiling risk assets, including cryptocurrencies.
In response to Powell’s hawkish comments, traders of the Fed funds futures lifted their forecasts for the peak or terminal rate to 5.65% from around 5.47% early this week and 4.9% a month ago. In other words, traders now expect continued tightening over the coming months, with the central bank raising rates by at least 100 basis points before calling it a day.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7440588
- Russian Crypto Industry Association Asks Putin to Help With Regulations
The Russian Association of Cryptoeconomics, Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain (Racib) has called on President of Russia Vladimir Putin to back the crypto community in shaping the country’s regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and related technologies.
In a letter to the Russian head of state, its members warn that the government’s attitude towards digital asset regulation poses “serious risks of the economy lagging behind in the introduction of new financial technologies,” crypto news outlets Bits.media and RBC Crypto reported.
The organization insists that the current state policy does not allow Russian companies to take advantage of the potential of new financial instruments and forces them to relocate to other jurisdictions which entails direct financial losses for the treasury.
https://news.bitcoin.com/russian-crypto-industry-association-asks-putin-to-help-with-regulations/
- Jack Dorsey’s Block Reveals Plans for Bitcoin ‘Mining Development Kit’
Block, Inc. thinks it and developers can build better Bitcoin mining rigs. That’s why it’s considering building a “Mining Development Kit,” or MDK, it said on Tuesday.
The company hopes its do-it-yourself kit will spur innovation in Bitcoin mining hardware, it said in an announcement, alluding to a statement from CEO Jack Dorsey on Twitter in 2021 that the company was “considering building a Bitcoin mining system based on custom silicon and open source.”
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Block wrote it would share more details in the coming weeks and months but mused that the MDK would include basic Bitcoin mining rig components, like a hashboard and controller board, open source firmware, software, and lots of documentation.
https://decrypt.co/122947/jack-dorsey-block-bitcoin-mining-development-kit
- US lawmakers planning to reintroduce bill aimed at fixing crypto reporting requirements: Report
A group of United States lawmakers is reportedly planning to reintroduce legislation to change the reporting requirements for certain taxpayers involved in crypto transactions.
According to a March 7 report from Punchbowl News, Representatives Patrick McHenry and Ritchie Torres plan to reintroduce the Keep Innovation in America Act. McHenry was one of the leading voices behind the previously proposed bill in an effort to change the definition of a broker as defined in the U.S. infrastructure law — President Joe Biden signed the legislation in November 2021.
Under a draft of the bill, the requirement for brokers to report on digital asset transactions worth more than $10,000 to the Internal Revenue Service would be pushed from 2024 to 2026. In addition, “miners and validators, hardware and software developers, and protocol developers” would not be considered brokers.
- UK Financial Regulator Expands Enforcement Against Crypto ATMs to East London
The U.K Financial Conduct Authority has expanded its enforcement action against crypto ATMs, taking the investigation to east London after working with West Yorkshire Police to tackle crypto ATM operators in the northern city of Leeds.
The financial regulator is working with the Metropolitan Police and inspecting “several sites in East London suspected of hosting illegally operating crypto ATMs,” said Wednesday.
All companies providing crypto services in the U.K. must be registered with the FCA for compliance with anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing. The regulator has previously said that none of the crypto asset businesses registered with it are authorized to provide ATM services. So any crypto ATMs operating in the country are doing so illegally.
- Crypto Twitter’s Mixed Reactions to a New Rollup Solution for Bitcoin
A scalability solution unique to Ethereum is now compatible with Bitcoin. Rollkit allows for the storage of rollup information developed for Ethereum but on the Bitcoin network.
According to an official statement, Rollkit — a modular framework for rollups — was successfully launched on march 5, 2023. The solution could, at least in theory, help optimize the use of free space on the Bitcoin blocks, expanding the capabilities of the network:
Sovereign rollups on Bitcoin not only expand the possibilities for rollups, but also have the potential to help bootstrap a healthy blockspace fee market on Bitcoin, enabling a more sustainable security budget
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7439897
- Compass Mining Alerts Bitcoin Miners of Changes in Bitmain’s ASIC Design
Mining, a bitcoin mining company, posted a blog post titled “Bitmain Changed Its ASIC Design. Miners Need to Be Ready,” highlighting changes in Bitmain’s ASIC design. Compass believes bitcoin mining facility operators should be aware of the changes, which could cause issues. For example, the firm identified three problems with the Antminer S19, producing 90 terahash per second (TH/s), and the S19 XP, offering 140 TH/s.
William Foxley of Compass Mining explains that the new machines lack a peripheral interface controller (PIC) on the ASICs, making it harder to control individual hashboards compared to those with a PIC. The devices use aluminum plating on the side of the mining rig, which Foxley believes may contribute to overheating issues. Additionally, there is a “consolidation of all components onto one side of the board, causing an increased chance of hashboard errors.”
https://news.bitcoin.com/compass-mining-alerts-bitcoin-miners-of-changes-in-bitmains-asic-design/
- Environmental Impact of Bitcoin Mining ‘Deserves the Spotlight’: US Senator Markey
Senators are again taking a closer look at Bitcoin mining.
Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) chaired a session of the Committee on Environment and Public Works yesterday, focusing on the energy usage of mining.
The mining industry, Markey said, “deserves the spotlight.”
Markey is the sponsor of a bill pushing for more transparency from miners regarding their environmental impact.
“It has grown explosively in the United States over the past two years. It is extremely energy-intensive. And we’ve seen it harm the general public while enabling the creation of heavily-concentrated wealth in our country,” he said.
https://decrypt.co/122963/environmental-impact-bitcoin-mining-deserves-spotlight-us-senator-markey
- Bitcoin ASIC manufacturer Canaan saw 82% revenue drop in Q4
Two United States lawmakers have criticized crypto accounting guidelines outlined by the According to a new filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission on March 7, Canaan, a Chinese Bitcoin BTC $22,434 miner and manufacturer of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining machines, reported that its revenue decreased by 82.1% year-over-year to $56.8 million in Q4 2022. During the quarter, Canaan sold 1.9 million terahashes per second worth of computing power for Bitcoin mining, not accounting for lower ASIC prices, representing a 75.8% decline from Q4 2021.
At the same time, Canaan’s mining revenue improved 368.2% year-over-year to $10.46 million. As told by Nangeng Zhang, chairman and CEO of Canaan:
“To mitigate demand risks during the market downturn, we have been diligently improving and developing our mining business. Our efforts yielded more progress in early 2023 with 3.8 EH/s hash rate installed for mining as of the end of February. Accordingly, we have made decisive investments in bolstering our production capacity and expanding our mining operations to more varied geographic regions that offer advantageous conditions.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-asic-manufacturer-canaan-saw-82-revenue-drop-in-q4
