- Kazakhstan Parliament Adopts Law Regulating Crypto Mining and Exchange
Kazakhstan’s Senate has adopted a bill designed to regulate cryptocurrencies and related activities in the Central Asian nation. Along with additional legal documents, the new law “On Digital Assets in the Republic of Kazakhstan” creates conditions for establishing a crypto ecosystem in the country, local media reported.
Members of the upper house of parliament considered the comprehensive package earlier in January and decided to propose certain amendments to the Mazhilis, which had already approved its version of the legislation. However, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dissolved the lower house on Jan. 19 and called early elections.
https://news.bitcoin.com/kazakhstan-parliament-adopts-law-regulating-crypto-mining-and-exchange/
- Smart Stake Joins List of Secret Network Validators Shuttering Operations
Staking service provider Smart Stake is the latest to announce it will no longer support the privacy-focused Secret Network.
The news comes after an internal conflict involving the project’s co-founder Tor Bair became public, however, in its Twitter post on Sunday, Smart Stake—aside from the “recent events”—also cited “complex/stressful validator operations” on the Secret Network, as well as the cost/effort ratio.
Slated for February 21, “the shutdown will be graceful and there will be no slashing for any of the delegates.”
https://decrypt.co/120195/smartstake-joins-list-secret-network-validators-shuttering-operations
- New York Assembly Receives Crypto Payment Bill for State Agencies
The New York State Assembly has received a bill that will legalize state agencies to accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment for fines, taxes, fees, civil penalties, and other state-related dues.
The bill was introduced on Thursday during a legislative session by Clyde Vanel, a prominent cryptocurrency advocate and a member of the Democratic party.
Clyde Vanel serves as the representative of the 33rd district of New York and is quite popular for sponsoring several crypto-friendly bills in the past, most notably the Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Study Task Force bill.
Proposed Bill Will Allow State Agencies To Accept Crypto As Payment
Designated as Assembly Bill A2532, the newly proposed crypto legislation aims to establish cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash as a means of payment to all state agencies in the city of New York.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7382044
- Philippines Securities Regulator Seeks Comment on Draft Crypto Rules
The Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines is consulting the public on draft enforcement rules targeting crypto under a broad consumer protections law.
The regulator published its plans for implementing rules and regulations set out in the Financial Products and Services Consumer Protection Act approved by former President Rodrigo R. Duterte last May. While the act does not name individual financial services or products, the SEC’s draft of rules for implementation, published Jan. 20, includes crypto in its classification of securities.
“Securities shall include ‘tokenized securities products’ or those which grew with the abstraction of key characteristics from cryptocurrency’s underlying distributed ledger technology to apply in the traditional financial sector,” the draft said.
- Bitcoin premium hits 60% in Nigeria as country limits ATM cash withdrawals
The price of Bitcoin BTC tickers down $23,226 in Nigeria has skyrocketed to well above global market levels amid continued efforts by the central bank to push its citizens into digitalized cash.
At the time of writing, the price of 1 BTC on the Nigerian crypto exchange NairaEX is 17.8 million nairas, equating to a whopping $38,792.
This is more than a 60% premium over the current market price of Bitcoin, around $23,700 at the time of writing.
It comes as the Central Bank of Nigeria has continued to impose limits on ATM cash withdrawals amid an ongoing effort to accelerate its shift to a cashless society.
Earlier this month, the central bank imposed a limit on cash withdrawals following a December announcement.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-premium-hits-60-in-nigeria-as-it-limits-atm-cash-withdrawals
- US Senator’s Resolution Encourages Capitol Gift Shops to Accept Cryptocurrency
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced Thursday that he has reintroduced the Adopting Cryptocurrency in Congress as an Exchange of Payment for Transactions (ACCEPT) Resolution. Cruz first introduced this resolution in November 2021. The senator from Texas said:
Cryptocurrency is generating new jobs, encouraging entrepreneurs to invent new values and creating new hedges against inflation, and presenting new opportunities. It is also increasingly being used as a secure form of payment for goods and services.
“This is precisely why we, here at the United States Capitol, should increase accessibility and signal our support for the burgeoning cryptocurrency industry to those who visit Capitol Hill,” he added.
- This Week on Crypto Twitter: Binance Faces More Insider Trading Allegations
Crypto this week was a mixed bag. After three weeks of consecutive growth, the fourth full week of 2023 saw Bitcoin prices virtually unchanged since last weekend, and while Ethereum depreciated a little, several altcoins like Aptos (APT), Axie Infinity (AXS) and Avalanche (AVAX) managed sizeable rallies.
On Monday, Conor Grogan, a director at Coinbase, alleged that there has been some pretty obvious insider trading at Binance in the last 18 months. This is not the first time such allegations have been made.
Researchers from crypto financial services platform Matrixport last weekend said that the end of the first day of Chinese New Year is an optimal time to open up long positions in crypto, because—based on the last eight years—selling 10 days later nets an average profit of 9%. Their findings were shared widely on Monday.
https://decrypt.co/120181/this-week-on-crypto-twitter-binance-faces-more-insider-trading-allegations
- Crypto Exchange Mango Markets Sues Exploiter for $47M in Damages
Decentralized crypto exchange Mango Markets sued its exploiter Avraham Eisenberg for $47 million in damages according to a United States District Court for the Southern District of New York filing on Wednesday.
Decentralized finance trader Eisenberg had, “through fraud and deception,” taken and converted approximately $114 million from Mango Markets. He later returned $67 million but “retained” the remainder, the filing said. Mango Markets now wants the remaining $47 million back in damages.
Charges have been piling up for Eisenberg. Last week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Eisenberg for draining the money from Mango Markets. Prior to that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission charged him for this exploitation and the lawsuit said he had violated federal commodities law by using a “manipulative or deceptive device” to affect the price of the MNGO token through swaps, and that he engaged in “manipulation of a swap.” Before that he faced similar charges from the Department of Justice.
- Crypto Queen, Who’s Wanted By the FBI, ‘Resurfaces’ After 5 Years
Ruja Ignatova referred to herself as the Crypto Queen and she’s now back in the spotlight, at least sort of, when news about the sale of a posh London penthouse hogged the headlines.
Ignatova presented her company, OneCoin, as a profitable competitor to Bitcoin in the expanding cryptocurrency sector.
In June 2016, bitcoin was an emerging trend and investors were eager to capitalize. In October of 2017, Ignatova completely disappeared from public view.
That time, the 42-year old Bulgarian-born German citizen crypto entrepreneur was in the initial stages of what would become a $4 billion Ponzi scheme.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7382244
- North Korean hackers try to launder $27M in ETH from Harmony bridge attack
North Korean exploiters behind the Harmony bridge attack continue to try and launder the funds stolen in June. According to on-chain data revealed on Jan. 28 by blockchain sleuth ZachXBT, over the weekend the perpetrators moved 17,278 Ether ETH tickers down $1,583, worth about $27 million.
The tokens were transferred to six different crypto exchanges, ZachXBT wrote in a Twitter thread, without disclosing which platforms had received the tokens. Three main addresses carried out the transactions.
According to ZachXBT, the exchanges were notified about the fund transfers and part of the stolen assets were frozen. The movements made by the exploiters to launder the money were very similar to those taken on Jan. 13, when over $60 million was laundered, the crypto detective said.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/north-korean-hackers-launder-27m-eth-from-harmony-bridge-attack
