- Crypto Trading Firm PGI Dissolved in UK After Alleged Scam
PGI Global U.K. has been shut down after allegedly scamming would-be investors of around 612,425 pounds ($709,000) between July 2020 and February 2021.
The firm was dissolved by the U.K. High Court and the Official Receiver has been appointed has been appointed as liquidator, according to an announcement on the U.K Government’s website on Thursday.
“Investors were promised returns of up to 200%,” the U.K. Government said. “But when these did not materialise, investors were unable to withdraw the funds they had invested.”
Closure of the company was regarded as a matter of public interest, given PGI’s lack of cooperation, failure to maintain and deliver adequate accounting records, failure to comply with statutory obligations and lacking transparency.
PGI is part of Praetorian Group International Trading, which was shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Treasury.
- Singapore Seeks to Reduce Risks for Retail Crypto Investors With Restrictive Rules
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has put forward draft regulations that aim to restrict crypto trading for retail investors with the stated goal of reducing risks for consumers associated with decentralized digital currencies, while boosting the development of stablecoins. The city-state’s central bank believes the latter are credible as a medium of exchange.
The proposed measures have been detailed in two consultation papers published by the authority, with which it seeks feedback from industry participants. The plan is to introduce the new rules as guidelines before eventually incorporating them into the Payment Services Act.
“Trading in cryptocurrencies is highly risky and not suitable for the general public,” the MAS reasoned. At the same time, it acknowledged that such digital coins play a supporting role in the digital asset ecosystem and banning them would not be feasible.
- Hong Kong May Overturn Crypto Rules, Open Trading to Retail Investors: Report
Hong Kong is planning to put new rules in place that would make retail crypto trading legal in the city, as part of its efforts to become a center for crypto, Bloomberg reported.
The program, which is expected to launch in March next year, would reportedly put in place mandatory licensing for crypto platforms.
But the timetable for such a move is not finalized and is still subject to public consultation.
It comes amid Hong Kong’s efforts to regain ground as a crypto hub after Covid-19, political turmoil, and regulation took the shine off the city’s reputation as a place for cryptopreneurs to do business.
- Vietnamese Prime Minister Calls For Regulation On Crypto Assets
Vietnam currently has not officially recognized cryptocurrencies, but cryptocurrency trading is becoming more and more popular with people in the country, so Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that a legal adjustment is needed.
According to Vietnamese media vnexpress, giving opinions on the draft Law on Anti-Money Laundering (amended) at the discussion session on October 24, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said, when discussing at the Governmen, there are two types of opinions regarding regulation of transactions in virtual currency and anti-money laundering through this currency.
- Kazakhstan to build central bank digital currency on BNB Chain
In an announcement on Twitter, Changpeng Zhao, the founder and CEO of Binance, said the network will be a major component of Kazakhstan’s latest Web3 endeavor.
The Binance founder tweeted that the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) will integrate its central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital tenge, on the BNB Chain, the underlying blockchain of the Binance network.
National Bank of Kazakhstan (NKB) will integrate their CBDC on @BNBchain. #BNB https://t.co/33WMKwAczm
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) October 27, 2022
The NBK launched a CBDC pilot which included the participation of local merchants and consumers. Zhao said he looks forward to the bank further developing use cases to “bridge the gap between traditional banking and the crypto ecosystem.”
- Billionaire Quant Trader Donated a Record $1.9M of Bitcoin to a Super PAC
Jeffrey Yass is the billionaire co-founder of trading giant Susquehanna International Group (SIG) and also a political mega-donor: He and his wife are the 2022 elections’ fifth-biggest contributors, right behind crypto exchange titan Sam Bankman-Fried.
But when it comes to donating in crypto, Yass outranks even the FTX chief. In early July, Yass gave 100 bitcoin (BTC), then worth more than $1.9 million, to Crypto Freedom PAC, a representative for the super PAC confirmed to CoinDesk. It is the largest bitcoin-denominated political donation ever recorded by the Federal Election Commission.
“I think Jeff wanted to signal support” for cryptocurrencies, said David McIntosh, president of Club for Growth Action, which is linked to the Crypto Freedom PAC. He added that the crypto PAC backs candidates who are against government regulation of cryptocurrencies.
- Google Admits Crypto Winter Is Hurting Ad Business
Online advertising giant Google has partially blamed a slowdown in revenue growth on decreasing ad spending by financial firms, including those working with crypto assets. During parent company Alphabet’s earnings call on Tuesday, Google’s Chief Business Officer Philipp Schindler admitted to witnessing reduced search spending during the third-quarter and elaborated:
For example in financial services, we saw a pullback in the insurance, loan, mortgage, and crypto subcategories.
In a report quoting the executive, CNBC noted that the with an overall ad growth of 6%, the three-month period was Google’s weakest among all quarters since 2013, with only one exception, at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Dogecoin Soars 17% as Elon Musk Makes Closes in on Twitter Deal
Dogecoin (DOGE) continued its bullish price action for the second straight day, with the leading meme coin jumping to a new monthly high of $0.08022 today, according to data from Coingecko.
After a short fall, Dogecoin now changes hands at around $0.077614 a piece, up 16.7% over the past 24 hours. Trading volumes also spiked by 196% over the same period.
On a weekly note, DOGE has gained more than 31%, the largest weekly gainer among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Dogecoin, the tenth-largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $10.5 billion, is less than a billion dollars away from surpassing Solana (SOL).
Nearly $8.69 million Dogecoin futures positions were liquidated over the past 24 hours, according to data from Coinglass. Most (78.81%) of Dogecoin liquidations came from blown-out short positions.
- Post $114 Million Mango Markets Hack, Solana DeFi Projects Open Back
A few days back, Today NFT News reported, Solana DeFi trading hack costs its platform Mango Markets $100 million.
Now as per the recent news, after the $114 million hack of Mango Markets, two Solana-themed DeFi protocols are reopened.
Tulip, yield aggregator and UXD, stablecoin provider, have found tokens from Mango Markets and are eligible to continue with their services. Mango Markets is meant for trading tokens as well as lending and is based on Solana.
Coming to Solana, it is known to be the famous blockchain behind SOL. Also, a number of DeFi projects are being made on Solana.
Earlier this month, the hacker temporarily drove up the value of the collateral due Mango Markets owing to a glitch in its system. This was followed by taking out loans by the hacker from Mango’s treasury.
- Crypto investment firm Q9 gets provisional approval to operate in Dubai
A Hong Kong-headquartered crypto investment platform, Q9 Capital, received provisional virtual asset approval from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). The company announced its expansion to the UAE and applied for a full operating license as well.
According to its press release from Oct. 27, Q9 will establish a regional hub in Dubai and start providing services to qualified investors and financial service providers once it receives a full operating license.
The provisional approval from VARA gives the crypto platform the legal possibility to set up offices and provide digital asset exchange services to pre-qualified investors and financial firms. At the moment, Q9 also holds offices in Hong Kong, London and Limassol.
