- Crypto Exchange CoinCorner Eyes Middle East Expansion Via Partnership With Emirates CEO’s Private Office
Isle of Man-based crypto exchange CoinCorner is looking to expand across the Middle East through a partnership with the private office of Sheikh Saeed bin Ahmed Al Maktoum, CEO of the Emirates airline and member of the ruling family of Dubai.
Through the partnership with Seed Group, CoinCorner will establish a platform for the buying, selling, sending, receiving and storing of bitcoin (BTC) and offer local businesses services to transact in crypto.
“Apart from individuals, a large number of companies are ready to embrace bitcoin and other digital currencies as legal tender for future transactions,” Hisham Al Gurg, CEO of Seed Group, said.
At the start of 2021, CoinCorner added support for the Lightning Network, a second layer on top of the bitcoin blockchain which enables transactions to be conducted more quickly through processing them on side chains. The hope is that this will address bitcoin’s scalability issues which hamper mainstream adoption.
- India to Finalize Stance on Legality of Cryptocurrency by Q1 2023: Report
The Indian government is finalizing its stance on the legality of cryptocurrency in order to submit its response to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for the country’s “mutual evaluation” by early 2023, Business Today reported Monday.
“The Revenue Department has already sent their views and the Department of Economic Affairs has now been tasked to prepare a detailed response on India’s stance on the legality of cryptocurrency,” a government official was quoted as saying.
The FATF mutual evaluations are “in-depth country reports analyzing the implementation and effectiveness of measures to combat money laundering and terrorist financing,” its website details.
The government official further told the publication:
One of the questions that we have to respond is on the legality of cryptocurrencies, since we have already started to tax them. We will finalize our responses by February-March 2023. We have to respond to the FATF by May.
https://news.bitcoin.com/india-to-finalize-stance-on-legality-of-cryptocurrency-by-q1-2023-report/
- Binance and FTX Lead $50M Race to Purchase Voyager’s Assets: Report
Crypto exchanges Binance and FTX have reportedly made the top bids of approximately $50 million each for the assets of the bankrupt crypto lending firm Voyager Digital.
Binance’s current bid is slightly higher than that offered by FTX, according to a Tuesday report by the Wall Street Journal citing sources familiar with the matter.
The WSJ’s sources said that neither offer had been accepted yet.
Voyager, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July this year with outstanding liabilities of as much as $10 billion, initiated the process of selling its assets at the beginning of this month.
The auction for the New York-based firm’s assets began on September 13. Other bidders reportedly include digital asset manager Wave Financial and trading platform CrossTower.
The winning bid is expected to be announced on September 29, although an announcement could come before that date.
https://decrypt.co/110218/binance-and-ftx-lead-50m-race-to-purchase-voyagers-assets-report
- Binance’s BUSD stablecoin now supported by Polygon and Avalanche
Binance USD (BUSD), a stablecoin developed by cryptocurrency exchange Binance is now available on Avalanche or Polygon. This is another addition to the massively growing cross-blockchain compatibility of BUSD stablecoin. In September 2019, Binance and Paxos partnered to launch its native stablecoin BUSD on Ethereum Blockchain.
According to Binance, users can now “safely and efficiently” explore these ecosystems with the help of their native BUSD token.
Currently, the BUSD stablecoin is the seventh largest cryptocurrency and its total market value stands at $20.5 million, as per Coinmarketcap data. Furthermore, BUSD grabs 3rd spot for USDT and USDC in stablecoins ranking.
Binance announced in September that it would convert users’ True USD (TUSD), USD Coin(USDC), and Pax Dollars (USDP), into BUSD. According to the company, such a conversion was necessary in order “enhance liquidity.” The removal of competing stablecoins is likely to increase demand for the house-owned BUSD token.
The post Binance’s BUSD stablecoin now supported by Polygon and Avalanche appeared first on Coinfea.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7206192
- Downfall of Canada’s Lambo driving ‘Crypto King’ reportedly sees $35M in losses
A self-described 23-year-old “Crypto King” is facing a raft of demands among 140 of his investors as they try to claw back a collective total of $35 million from his company AP Private Equity Limited.
According to a Tuesday CBC report, creditors are hard at work trying to unravel where all the money they allegedly gave Canadian Aiden Pleterski to make crypto and foreign exchange investments on their behalf ended up.
A bankruptcy trustee’s report, creditors meeting minutes, court filings and complaints made to Investigation Counsel PC reveal Pleterski owned 11 vehicles, leased four other luxury cars, regularly flew on private jets and was living in a lakefront mansion that was $45,000 a month to rent.
So far, roughly $2 million worth of assets have been seized, among them two McLarens, two BMWs and a Lamborghini.
- Hacked Crypto Market Maker Wintermute Has $200M in Outstanding DeFi Debt
Cryptocurrency market maker Wintermute, the victim of Tuesday’s $160 million hack, has over $200 million in outstanding DeFi debt to several counterparties, according to on-chain data.
The largest debt involves a $92 million tether (USDT) loan issued by TrueFi, which is due to mature on Oct. 15.
Wintermute’s loan book also includes a $75 million debt, comprised of USDC and wrapped ether (WETH), owed to Maple Finance and a $22.4 million debt owed to Clearpool. CoinDesk tracked Wintermute’s holdings using an address attributed to the market maker by the data site Nansen.
London-based Wintermute, which trades billions of dollars everyday across multiple crypto venues, became the latest company to get hit by a wave of hacks across the decentralized finance ecosystem on Tuesday. In August, cross-chain bridge Nomad had $190 million drained after hackers exploited a vulnerability, with $1.9 billion being stolen in hacks in the first half of this year, according to analytics firm Chainalysis.
- Africa-Focused Crypto Exchange Yellow Card Raises $40 Million via Series B Round
Yellow Card, an Africa-focused cryptocurrency exchange, recently disclosed it had closed its $40 million Series B funding round. The crypto exchange said it will use the funds raised to finance the development of new products as well as to “advance strategic partnerships across Africa.”
According to a press statement, the exchange platform’s latest funding round was led by Polychain Capital with the participation of Valar Ventures, Third Prime Ventures, Sozo Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fabric Ventures, DG Daiwa Ventures, The Raba Partnership, Jon Weiner, Alex Wilson, and Pat Duffy.
As reported by Bitcoin.com news in September last year, Yellow Card had raised $15 million in its Series A funding round. This round was led by Valar Ventures with the participation of Third Prime, Castle Island Ventures, Square, Coinbase Ventures, and Blockchain.com Ventures.
- Latest Draft of US Crypto Law Would Temporarily Ban Terra-Like Stablecoins
Leaders of the House Financial Services Committee continue to negotiate the terms of a proposed bill to regulate cryptocurrency, even as the window to act draws increasingly narrow heading into the midterm elections.
According to Bloomberg, the latest draft legislation would ban algorithmic stablecoins like TerraUSD (UST) for two years, while regulatory agencies conduct a study of “endogenously collateralized” tokens.
“Endogenously” means something produced or synthesized within the organism or system. Before TerraUSD and Luna imploded in May, its creators relied on an algorithm to mint or burn Luna to keep the value of TerraUSD stable at $1.
Over $40 billion in value evaporated within days, and the collapse has become Exhibit A in the crypto critic’s playbook, and has intensified the interest of lawmakers and regulators.
https://decrypt.co/110208/stablecoin-law-ban-terra-luna
- SEC Charges Crypto Influencer for Not Disclosing Incentive to Promote Unregistered ICO
The United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a lawsuit against prominent crypto influencer, investor, and entrepreneur Ian Ballina over an initial coin offering (ICO) dating back to 2018.
The SEC accused Ballina purchased $5 million worth of SPRK tokens from Sparkster Ltd. and received 30% bonus tokens before he started promoting it on social media. He did not disclose that he was given an incentive to promote the ICO, the regulator has charged in its lawsuit in federal court in Austin, Texas, media reports said.
SEC’s Case Against Sparkster
Sparkster and its CEO Sajjad Daya hogged the media headlines in 2018 and 2019 for never launching the SPRK tokens for which they had already raised $30 million in ETH. In an interesting development, one of the Sparkster wallets from 2018 got activated for the first time in May 2022, and 14,200 ETH tokens were swapped for $22.7 million USDC.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7206186
- New York Judge orders Tether to document USDT backing
The judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Katherine Polk Failla, ordered Tether to prove 1-to-1 backing of its eponymous stablecoin, Tether (USDT). The company is required to provide “general ledgers, balance sheets, income statements, cash-flow statements, and profit and loss statements” and other documents to the court.
The order was published on Tuesday as a part of a case that started back in 2019 — the initial complaint by a group of investors against iFinex, Tether and Bitfinex’s parent company, alleged that the firm manipulated the crypto market by issuing unbacked Tether with an intention to inflate the price of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).
Judge Polk Failla dismissed the iFinex requests to block the order on the grounds that the company has earlier produced the documents “sufficient enough” for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the New York Attorney General. She found that the Plaintiffs’ demand for “undoubtedly important” documents is well-established as they “appear to go to one of the Plaintiffs’ core allegations.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/new-york-judge-orders-tether-to-document-usdt-backing
