UK Watchdog Proposes Tougher Advertising Rules

According to the United Kingdom’s financial watchdog, newly proposed advertising rules in the United Kingdom could potentially see executives of crypto firms facing up to two years in prison for failing to meet certain requirements around promotion. These executives would be in violation of the rules if they failed to meet any of the aforementioned requirements.

The United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a statement on February 6 in which it revealed that if the proposed “financial promotions regime” is approved by Parliament, then all crypto firms within the country as well as those located outside of it would be required to adhere to certain requirements when advertising their crypto services to customers in the United Kingdom.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), “cryptoasset enterprises selling to UK customers, including those operating abroad, must be ready for this regime.”

“Taking immediate action will assist guarantee that they can continue to lawfully advertise their products to customers in the United Kingdom.” As a part of their preparations, we strongly advise businesses to get any and all guidance that may be required,” the statement said.

If the FCA’s proposed regulatory framework is implemented, companies dealing in cryptocurrencies would be required to get prior authorisation from the FCA before advertising their services, unless they qualified for an exemption under the Financial Promotion Order.

According to the governing body, a “cryptoasset firm” in the United Kingdom may only advertise and sell its products and services to clients via one of the following four channels:

According to the regulatory body, any marketing that is carried out outside of these channels would be in violation of the Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 (FSMA), which has a criminal penalty of up to two years in jail for each offence.

“We will take tough action where we detect companies advertising cryptoassets to UK consumers in contravention of the rules of the financial promotions regime,” the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) stated in a statement. “We will take action against firms that promote cryptoassets to UK consumers.”

Companies found to be in violation of the new regime risk having their websites taken down, receiving public warnings, and being subjected to further enforcement measures. In addition to the possibility of serving time in jail for its executives.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said that they would wait until “necessary legislation” is passed before publishing “our final guidelines for crypto asset promotions.” This might perhaps indicate that the financial promotions regime will undergo upgrades or adjustments in the future.

According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), “Subject to any changes in circumstances, we plan to adopt a similar approach to crypto assets to that outlined in our new regulations, which will be in force from February 1 2023 for other high-risk investments.”

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Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Reach Agreement with Federal Prosecutors

The attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried have struck a settlement with the federal prosecutors who are investigating his usage of chat applications.

SBF “must not utilise any encrypted or ephemeral call of messaging programme, including but not limited to Signal,” according to a document filed with the court on February 6. This agreement was reached between both sides.

However, in accordance with the terms of the agreement, the former CEO of FTX will be permitted to use FaceTime, Zoom, iMessage, SMS text, email, and Facebook Messenger.

Additionally, he will be permitted to use the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp; but, this privilege will be contingent upon the installation of monitoring gear on his mobile device “that automatically records and retains all WhatsApp interactions.”

The most recent deal is the result of efforts made by federal prosecutors before the end of January to prevent SBF from contacting current or former workers of FTX or its sibling trading business, Alameda Research.

Specifically, on January 15, prosecutors made the allegation that SBF had sought to “influence” the testimony of FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller via the use of the encrypted communications software Signal.

On the 30th of January, it was also alleged that SBF had contacted FTX CEO John Ray in order to investigate methods in which business monies that were related to Alameda wallets might be accessed.

As things stand, a ruling from February 1 states that in order for SBF to remain free on bail until his trial, he is not allowed to communicate with current or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research “except in the presence of counsel.” This restriction applies to all interactions with such individuals.

Since the end of December, SBF has been placed under house arrest in Palo Alto, California, and the beginning of his criminal trial in federal court in Manhattan is slated to take place in the month of October.

In the meanwhile, the district court in Delaware is making progress with the bankruptcy procedures for FTX. The Chief Executive Officer of FTX, Ray, gave evidence in court on February 6 and recalled how challenging it was for him to take control of the firm in November.

Ray said that “not a single list of anything” pertaining to bank accounts, income, insurance, or people could be located at FTX, which caused a frantic and disorganised search for information to take place.

FTX fell victim to hackers on the same day that he started directing the company through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures.

“Those hackers continued on almost all night long. It was truly 48 hours of what I can only characterise as utter horror,” he added. “Those hacks went on basically all night long.”

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Genesis creditor reveals new proposed restructuring plan that will see creditors getting back

According to information provided by a Genesis creditor, the most recent suggested restructuring plan between Genesis, Digital Currency Group, and creditors would result in creditors receiving at least 80 percent of the monies they contributed.

The cryptocurrency trading and market-making arm of Genesis Global will eventually be sold as part of efforts to restructure the company, according to an announcement made by Genesis Global on February 6 stating that it had reached a “agreement in principle” with Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its creditors.

Genesis Global Holdco is the holding company for Genesis, and DCG would give its portion of stock in Genesis Global Trading, which is the brokerage subsidiary business of Genesis, to Genesis Global Holdco.

As a result of the acquisition, all Genesis-related firms would be consolidated under a single holding company.

Under the terms of the transaction, DCG will be exchanging an existing promissory note for convertible preferred shares. The note is for $1.1 billion and has a maturity date of 2032. It will also make its current 2023 term loans, which have a combined value of $526 million, due to creditors when it has refinanced them and increased their aggregate value.

As part of the arrangement, cryptocurrency exchange Gemini will also make a contribution of $100 million to help customers of its Gemini Earn service whose money are now locked with the insolvent company.

Genesis will attempt to put its then-owned Genesis Global Trading business up for sale in the event that it is able to do so prior to the completion of these transactions, which need the required clearance from the court.

The Genesis creditor and crypto yield platform Donut issued a user update on February 6 stating that the plan “has a recovery rate of about $0.80 every dollar invested, with a path to $1.00” for Genesis creditors.

It was also said that the amount that may be recovered is contingent on the “equity note, achieved liquidation prices, and takes into consideration the unknown expenditures connected with the continuation of this bankruptcy.”

The collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX in November caused a liquidity issue at Genesis, which is presently being resolved by the company via the implementation of a reorganisation plan as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

At the time of the firm’s Chapter 11 filing, Genesis Global Trading was not mentioned in the paperwork, and Genesis Global Holdco said that the company will “maintain client trading activities.”

During the original bankruptcy hearing that took place in January, attorneys for Genesis said that the business was seeking a speedy resolution to the disagreements that it had with its creditors and expressed optimism that the company would emerge from the Chapter 11 procedures by the end of May.

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Crypto Companies Will Reportedly Have No Presence During Super Bowl LVII

It has been claimed that viewers of the Super Bowl LVII, which will take place on February 12 and will feature a matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, will not witness an abundance of commercials for cryptocurrency firms, as they did in 2022.

According to a report published by the Associated Press on February 6, there had been four potential deals with cryptocurrency firms for commercials in the 2023 Super Bowl that would have cost approximately $6 to $7 million. However, all of these deals fell through after FTX filed for bankruptcy in November. According to reports, the senior vice president of ad sales for Fox Sports, Mark Evans, said that large cryptocurrency firms will have “zero presence” on February 12, when about 100 million people might be tuned in to watch the football game.

Companies like as FTX, eToro, Crypto.com, and Coinbase all aired their first advertisements at Super Bowl LVI in 2022. In the FTX commercial that aired approximately nine months before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud, comedian Larry David is heard telling customers “don’t miss out” on cryptocurrency. This occurred around the same time that Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud.

Later on, David was included as a defendant in a class-action complaint that said he misled investors by promoting a cryptocurrency exchange without first doing enough research. Other well-known people, including as Matt Damon, who supported Crypto.com, and Naomi Osaka, a tennis star, who backed FTX, have also been subjected to criticism for their involvement in the cryptocurrency industry.

In contradiction to the information provided by the AP, the gaming startup Limit Break said on February 6 that it would broadcast an interactive advertising during Super Bowl LVII, during which it intends to give out nonfungible tokens (NFTs) with a dragon motif. The advertisement would apparently not depict a famous person, but rather it will have a QR code that viewers may scan.

After the cryptocurrency market crashed in 2022 and several companies, including FTX, Voyager Digital, BlockFi, and Celsius Network, declared bankruptcy, numerous authorities throughout the world began cracking down on cryptocurrency advertisements. According to recent reports, the Federal Trade Commission of the United States has initiated an inquiry into many cryptocurrency companies for “potential misbehaviour affecting digital assets.” The governor of the Central Bank of Ireland said in January that he would support legislation that would prohibit the advertising of cryptocurrency projects to persons under the age of 18.

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Riot Blockchain’s Texas Mining Operations Disrupted by Winter Storms

The cryptocurrency mining company Riot Platforms, previously known as Riot Blockchain, has announced that 17,040 rigs that were installed at its facilities in Texas have been rendered inoperable as a result of the “extreme winter weather” that has been experienced in Texas.

Riot said in a press release dated February 6 that two of the buildings of its Whinstone plant located in Rockdale, Texas were damaged in December as a result of the subzero conditions that the state endured for many days. From the 22nd through the 25th of December, temperatures plummeted below freezing in numerous areas of Texas as well as the rest of the United States.

According to Riot’s Chief Executive Officer Jason Les, “certain pieces of pipe in Buildings F and G were damaged during the severe winter storms that hit Texas in late December.” “It is likely that we will miss our previously declared aim of attaining 12.5 in total hash rate capacity in the first quarter of 2023 due to the harm that has been caused,” said the company.

According to Les, the damages caused an initial decrease in the facility’s hash rate capacity of 2.5 EH/s. However, when repairs were made, the business was able to return 0.6 EH/s to the facility. As of the 31st of January, the business Riot claimed creating 740 Bitcoin (BTC), which had a value of around $17 million at the time of publishing. Riot announced that there were 82,656 rigs operating with a hash rate capacity of 9.3 EH/s at that time.

Even though significant temperature reductions occurred in many regions of the United States in December due to increased travel over the holiday season, major towns in Texas such as Dallas and Austin were hit by a significant ice storm in early February. As a result of the weight of the accumulated ice, numerous tree branches and limbs collapsed, which caused damage to power lines, automobiles, and roadways, leaving thousands of inhabitants without access to electricity.

It is unknown if miners at Riot were impacted in a similar manner by the storm. Despite this, the firm did not disclose any reductions in operations as a result of the strain that the recent freeze placed on the electricity system in Texas.

Additionally, throughout the month of January, Riot reported selling 700 BTC for around $13.7 million. As of the 31st of January, the business had a total of 6,978 BTC. After the record-breaking heat wave that swept over the Lone Star State in July of 2017, the mining company reported selling coins.

During same month, Riot said that it intended to relocate a significant number of its mining rigs from a location in New York to one in Texas in an attempt to lower the company’s operational expenditures. Riot stock ended trading on the Nasdaq the same day it was released at $6.68, down 2.3%.

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Revolut Introduces Crypto Staking to UK and EEA

Customers in the United Kingdom and the European Economic Area (EEA) may now participate in crypto staking thanks to the neo-banking platform Revolut, which is headquartered in the United Kingdom and claims to have 25 million users worldwide.

The staking function, which will enable users to make money on their cryptocurrency holdings while it is still in the “soft testing” phase, is likely to go online this week, according to a report published by a news agency located in London called AltFi.

At the moment, the staking function is accessible for the DOT token issued by Polkadot, the XTZ token issued by Tezos, the ADA token issued by Cardano, and the ETH token issued by Ether, with returns ranging from 2.99% to 11.65%. Nevertheless, these returns are not guaranteed in any way.

Staking is a method that is used in the realm of cryptocurrencies. This process involves a person holding or locking up a certain quantity of a certain digital asset in a wallet for a given length of time. This time period may range anywhere from several days to several months. This activity contributes to the network’s overall security and verifies transactions on a blockchain that uses proof-of-stake. In exchange, people may choose to get freshly created coins or a portion of the costs associated with the transaction.

Revolut has, over the course of the last several years, been working to integrate cryptocurrency into its many businesses. It started providing crypto trading services in 2017, and these services have since grown to become an important source of income for the firm, especially with the launch of goods like crypto cashback for premium customers. Now, clients of Revolut have the ability to make purchases using their cryptocurrency holdings, and the company also allows trading for roughly one hundred other cryptocurrencies.

Revolut has also been providing free “Learn & Earn” courses on the fundamentals of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, and rewarding users who complete the programme with free cryptocurrency. This is part of the company’s effort to educate its customers on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.

After being granted an extension to operate as a crypto asset firm with temporary registration in March 2022, Revolut joined the ranks of the other 37 companies that have been given permission to provide these services in the United Kingdom. The extension allows Revolut to remain in business until March 2022.

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FTX CEO Describes ‘Pure Hell’ Leading Up to Exchange’s bankruptcy case

John Ray, who recently took over as chief executive officer of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX after the business declared bankruptcy, has revealed some of the chaotic incidents that have occurred at the firm after the bankruptcy filing.

Due to the fact that FTX does not have a physical office, Ray said in his testimony on February 6 before the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware that he and other experts had been “carefully” conducting an investigation into FTX’s actions. Claiming that “inadvertent mistakes” may result in “hundreds of millions of dollars of worth” being lost, the CEO of FTX seemed to be fighting back against a petition to appoint an independent examiner to the bankruptcy case.

According to Ray, there was “not a single list of anything” pertaining to bank accounts, income, insurance, or people when he assumed leadership of FTX in November 2022, which resulted in a “huge rush for information.” The chief executive officer of FTX said that on the same day that he helped file a petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, there were repeated efforts to steal cryptocurrency, which resulted in security specialists and liquidators working fast to safeguard cash.

“Your typical petition on the first day might be as hectic as it often is — this was something that I have never encountered before,” said Ray. “This was something that I have never experienced before.” “Those hacks continued for the better part of the whole night. It was really forty-eight hours of what I can only characterise as horror on earth.

Prior to gaining leadership of the firm, the current CEO of FTX said that he did not have any relationships with past executives at the exchange, including former CEO Caroline Ellison of Alameda Research, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as his parents. According to Ray, under Bankman-Fried, anybody “that was in a control position” no longer had the power to command the conduct of the FTX corporation in any way.

In the midst of a petition brought forth by the Office of the U.S. Trustee, in which it was argued that the court need to appoint an independent examiner who would provide a public report offering transparency into the bankruptcy processes, Ray testified. Although Ray having no relationship to Bankman-Fried previous to his taking over as CEO, Juliet Sarkessian, who represented the United States Trustee’s office, maintained that the appointment of an examiner was still in the public interest despite the fact that Ray had no link to Bankman-Fried.

The bankruptcy processes for FTX are now underway. During this time, creditors and other interested parties will make motions about the firm’s assets, examine the business, and divulge material that might possibly damage the criminal case against Bankman-Fried. On February 1, the legal team that is representing FTX debtors made a request to have subpoenas issued to members of Bankman-immediate Fried’s family in order to get information and documents from them.

When this article was written, Judge John Dorsey had not yet decided how to proceed with the motion for an examiner. This article is in the process of development and may be updated in the future.

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Investors Interested in Digital Assets Despite Volatile Market

The European cryptocurrency investment company CoinShares released its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report” on February 6. The report revealed that investors are demonstrating a strong interest in digital asset investment products, with inflows totaling $76 million last week, marking the fourth consecutive week of inflows.

The research suggests that investor attitude has shifted for the beginning of 2023, with year-to-date inflows already standing at a total of $230 million. This expansion has resulted in a rise in the overall assets under management (AUM), which have just reached their highest level since the middle of August 2022, when they stood at $30.3 billion.

Bitcoin (BTC) continues to be the primary centre of investor attention, as seen by its weekly inflows of $69 million, which represent for 90% of the overall flows for the week. The United States, Canada, and Germany are the primary contributors to this increase in investment, with weekly inflows of $38 million, $25 million, and $24 million, respectively.

However, perspectives on whether or not this rise can be sustained are split, and short-Bitcoin inflows of $8.2 million have been recorded during the same time period. Despite the fact that these inflows are very tiny in comparison to long-term Bitcoin inflows, over the course of the last three weeks, they have contributed an additional 26% of the entire AUM. Despite this, the short Bitcoin trade has not garnered a significant amount of interest so far in 2018, as measured by the total assets under management for short Bitcoin declining by 9.2%.

The value of investment products based on alternative cryptocurrencies such as Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), and Polygon (MATIC) all saw slight losses. Ether (ETH) producers only got a total of $700,000 in inflows, despite the increasing clarity around unstaking.

Positive capital flows into products that invest in digital assets are indicative of investors’ increased optimism towards the market as a whole. Activity in alternative cryptocurrencies demonstrates, among other things, that the market for digital assets continues to be diversified and ever-evolving.

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Total value locked in Ethereum-based Decentralized exchange

The Uniswap community cast their votes in support of implementing Uniswap v3 on Boba Network’s layer-2 protocol on Ethereum, and the majority of those votes were positive.

The proposal to implement Uniswap v3 on Boba Network that was put up by Boba Foundation and FranklinDAO was successful since it received more than 51 million votes. As a result of this, the Boba Network will become the sixth chain to instal Uniswap v3, with the deployment itself being slated to begin within the next few weeks. This action received support from a number of organisations, including GFX Labs, Blockchain at Michigan, Gauntlet, and ConsenSys.

According to Alan Chiu, co-founder and CEO of Enya Labs, which is a core contributor to Boba Network, this move will enable developers within the ecosystem to create a new generation of on- and off-chain decentralised finance (DeFi) applications on top of Uniswap. Chiu stated this information in an interview with Boba Network. Chiu provided an explanation, saying, “While the Uniswap protocol will remain permissionless, developers will be able to create a compliance layer over it that utilises Hybrid Compute to access current TradFi-friendly KYC/AML services.”

Chiu pointed out that as a direct consequence of this, the decentralised exchange will become more accessible to the whole institutional market. Additionally, the team at Boba Network believes that this presents an opportunity for Uniswap to expand into the key Asian markets. This is due to the fact that Boba Network has gained a lot of traction in South Korea and is slowly expanding to Japan. Uniswap is currently in the process of expanding into Japan.

In related news, a research from DappRadar uncovered the fact that DeFi is off to a strong start in 2023. According to information obtained from the statistics site, DeFi protocols had a considerable increase in their total value frozen in the month of January.

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HKSFC to Hire 4 More Staff to Supervise Crypto

When it comes to monitoring the operations of the cryptocurrency business, the authorities in charge of regulation in Hong Kong are ramping up their game.

According to a report that was submitted by the Securities and Futures Commission on February 6th, the organisation has plans to recruit four more staff members in order to “better regulate” the operations of local virtual asset (VA) providers. In addition, the additional monitoring would assist “better analyse the compliance and risk” by enabling retail investors to exchange virtual assets on regulated platforms. This will make it possible for more people to participate in the cryptocurrency market.

The commission said in a written announcement that “this is in response to a rising number of operators that have indicated interest in carrying out VA operations such as trading platforms and the administration of VA funds.”

This comes at the beginning of the implementation of a new licencing framework that will allow for larger retail investment in cryptocurrencies.

According to the regulations in place at the time, trading platforms that had been granted a licence to operate in Hong Kong could previously only service professional investors or clients who had portfolios worth at least $1 million (HK $8 million).

The Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Bill was amended in December 2022 to include the new licence system, which was then passed by lawmakers. On the other hand, it won’t go into effect until June 2023, so there’s still plenty of time for local companies and government authorities to be ready for a fresh influx of people into the market.

Hong Kong has been making progress toward its goal of becoming a centre for Web3 innovation and modernising its cryptocurrency business. This strategy called for the creation of an investment fund with a total of $500 million so that widespread implementation could be pushed via the local sector.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has just lately issued a statement indicating that it would not permit algorithmic stablecoins in its most current rule. The announcement was published online. However, the regulatory body has said that it plans to build a comprehensive regulatory framework for stablecoins, which would be based on the complete backing of assets of this kind.

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Bitcoin (BTC) $ 27,556.38 1.58%
Ethereum (ETH) $ 1,665.85 3.57%
Litecoin (LTC) $ 66.24 2.56%
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 250.23 2.51%