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Coinbase expands in Europe with a new license from the Bank of Spain

Coinbase obtains approval from the Bank of Spain

In a blog post on September 22, Nana Murugesan, Vice President of International and Business Development at Coinbase, described the Bank of Spain’s approval as a significant achievement. Coinbase can now expand its services to retail consumers, institutional clients and developer partners in the region, she explained.

Murugesan further stated that it is worth noting that many countries are providing much-needed clarity and guidance to the crypto industry.

The SEC crypto attack and the MiCA regulation

In June, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against Coinbase, claiming that the exchange operated as an unregistered stock exchange, broker-dealer, and clearing agency.

This allegation arises from Coinbase’s allegedly unlawful facilitation of the purchase and sale of cryptoasset securities by combining the functions of an exchange, a broker, and a clearing agency without obtaining the necessary records required by the Commission.

However, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has expressed vehement criticism of the SEC, characterizing its regulatory approach as unfair and irrational when applied to digital assets.

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The high difficulty levels of the Bitcoin network are about to drop amid longer block wait times.

Hitting an all-time high on July 11, 2023, reaching a staggering 53.91 trillion, Bitcoin’s difficulty is about to decline to an estimated range of 3.9% to 4.04% on July 26, 2023.

The high level of difficulty of Bitcoin on the verge of halving

The next Bitcoin difficulty recalibration is scheduled for July 26. After a notable increase of 6.45% on July 11, it is projected that there could be a downward adjustment ranging between 3.9% and 4.04%. The generation of Bitcoin blocks occurs approximately every ten minutes and every 2016 blocks, a drop in mining difficulty occurs if the discovery process of these blocks extends for more than two weeks. On the other hand, the difficulty level increases if the mining of the 2016 blocks is completed in less than two weeks.

The lockdown breaks on July 21 and 22 were longer than the usual ten minutes, lasting between 11 and more than 12 minutes. While the hashrate peaked on July 8, it has been lower with an average of 371.1 exhash per second (EH/s) in the last few blocks of 2016. Over the last three days, Foundry USA controlled 30.08% of the global hashrate with 111.75 EH/s, followed by Antpool with 86.92 EH/s or 23.39% of the total hashrate. F2pool, Binance Pool and Viabtc follow the two mining pool leaders.

Currently, as of July 24, block times have shown signs of improvement, falling marginally below the ten minute average, and sometimes leveling off slightly above ten minutes and 24 seconds. Monday at 8:00 a.m. At m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), the order book is filled with 265,000 to 280,000 transactions in a holding pattern, waiting for their turn to be confirmed.

Miners are still struggling with the problem of clearing the backlog that has been bogging down the blockchain for months. To untangle the heap of unconfirmed transactions, 95 blocks need to be removed. An imminent difficulty reduction in a few days should pave the way for mining participants in their quest to discover these blocks.

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Hong Kong authorities encourage major banks to adopt crypto clients

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the regulatory body that oversees banking activities in the region, reportedly encouraged major banks like HSBC and Standard Chartered to establish relationships with cryptocurrency exchanges.

This effort to embrace the cryptocurrency sector comes despite the increased regulatory scrutiny the industry faces on a global scale. This initiative aims to position Hong Kong as a major global hub for the cryptocurrency industry.

However, the sector still faces challenges stemming from significant collapses in the past. A report dated June 15 revealed that three sources with knowledge of the matter revealed that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had raised concerns during a May meeting with UK-based companies and the Bank of China.

The HKMA sought explanations from these institutions regarding their reluctance to onboard cryptocurrency exchanges as clients. This indicates the HKMA’s active interest in encouraging banks to participate in the digital asset industry and potentially highlights its commitment to promoting the development of the cryptocurrency sector in Hong Kong.

Just weeks earlier, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) had issued a circular to banking institutions, emphasizing the importance of keeping abreast of developments in emerging markets and urging them to take a more proactive stance in exploring new sectors, including cryptocurrency. market.

Hong Kong Shows Growing Acceptance of Crypto Businesses

With ambitious aspirations to establish itself as a pre-eminent crypto hub in Asia, Hong Kong recently unveiled a regulatory framework legalizing the buying, selling and trading of cryptocurrencies for all its citizens, which will go into effect in June.

Hong Kong’s progressive approach to digital asset laws has instilled confidence in the domestic market, prompting several companies to apply for licences. Among them is Huobi HK, the Hong Kong subsidiary of global trading platform Huobi, which recently announced the launch of spot and managed services for business and retail clients in the region.

In the wake of lawsuits filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against exchanges Binance and Coinbase, Hong Kong is proactively positioning itself as a hotspot for entities affected by these legal actions.

Hong Kong Legislative Council member Johnny Ng recently took to Twitter to support struggling cryptocurrency company Coinbase. In a show of solidarity, Ng invited Coinbase and urged the company to consider establishing its operations in Hong Kong, where the regulatory environment is perceived to be more favorable for cryptocurrency businesses.

This month, Hong Kong recently introduced a comprehensive set of regulations tailored to the digital asset industry, marking a major milestone. These regulations create a framework that allows locally licensed cryptocurrency companies to start operating.

The highlight of this development is that licensed companies can now provide services to retail investors, allowing them to participate in cryptocurrency trading.

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Thailand launches retail CBDC pilot with 2 banks and Singapore payment service

The Bank of Thailand will launch a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilot project in a regulatory sandbox this month. Three payment providers will take part, according to local media. The project will involve up to 10,000 users and run through August.

Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri), Siam Commercial Bank and Singapore-based payments service provider 2C2P will partner with the Thai central bank on the project. Each of those organizations has made an app available to selected users that includes a wallet and a QR code scanner.

The Bank of Thailand announced it was developing a wholesale CBDC in 2018. It participated in the Bank for International Settlements’ mBridge cross-border payment project and Project Inthanon-Lion Rock project with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

In March, the country waived corporate income tax and value-added tax for companies that issue investment tokens. A government spokesman said Thailand could lose about $1 billion in revenue, but it expected investment tokens to generate $3.7 billion over the next two years.

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Circle to Launch USDC Stablecoin on Arbitrum, Tradecurve Exchange to Implement AI

Prominent stablecoin issuer Circle announced that it would launch USDC natively over Arbitrum starting June 8, 2023, replacing the short version of the stablecoin. A competing project, Tradecurve, will allow users to create AI-powered trading bots with the ability to optimize the performance of their portfolios, leading to greater efficiency.

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Circle to launch USDC Stablecoin in addition to Arbitrum

“USDC issued by Circle will be native to Arbitrum and will be considered the official version of USDC for the Arbitrum ecosystem. Over time, native USDC liquidity will grow and replace the currently circulating ‘Bridged USDC’ liquidity coming from Ethereum.” Circle announced in its statement.

Arbitrum will rename the Ethereum bridged version of USDC in block explorers and will now be known as USDC.e. The company also announced that there will be scope for ecosystem apps that will make the same change to their in-app user interfaces and other documentation.

Additionally, Circle noted several benefits of USDC’s native launch in Arbitrum, such as future Cross-Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP) support, which will eliminate delays in bridge withdrawals. There will be an updatable smart contract for any future improvements of the company and the possibility of institutional entry and exit ramps, among other advantages.

Anyone can access AI trading bots to optimize their portfolio with Tradecurve

Circle isn’t the only company breaking new ground by launching USDC in addition to Arbitrum, and competing projects like Tradecurve are also rolling out new ideas and innovations that could change DeFi for traders and investors alike.

The Tradecurve ecosystem is powered by the TCRV utility token and gives users access to features such as automated trading and artificial intelligence. Users can access hundreds of artificial intelligence and algorithmic trading systems through which they can improve and optimize the performance of their portfolio.

Furthermore, traders can create their own communities and members can automatically copy their trades via a subscription model. The Tradecurve team will implement Proof of Reserves (PoR) to increase transparency.

There is also high leverage starting at 500:1, a VIP account service, a dedicated trading academy and negative balance protection. Users are not required to complete KYC, making it a truly borderless platform that can be accessed from anywhere.

TCRV is now in stage 3 of its pre-sale, where one token is worth $0.015. A total of 23,637,981 TCRV tokens have already been sold, and its next price increase will be 20% to $0.018 in stage 4. Analysts predict that the price of TCRV could increase 100 times at launch, especially as it will be listed in Tier -1 exchanges and on Uniswap DEXs.