Australian firm, Monochrome Asset Management, has applied for a spot bitcoin exchange traded fund (ETF) with the global listing exchange, Cboe Australia, it announced on Friday.
Indonesia’s Crypto Market Booms as Transactions Hit $1.92B in February
The country’s registered crypto investors also surged to 19 million users last month.
Thai Regulator Orders Zipmex to Suspend Digital Asset Trading and Brokerage Services
Zipmex now has 15 days to correct its financial position and create a system to prevent the improper use of customer funds.
SEC Approval of Spot Bitcoin ETF Is Unlikely to Be a Game Changer for Crypto Markets: JPMorgan
Such ETFs have existed for some time in Canada and Europe, but have failed to attract large investor interest, the report said.
Blockchain Assoc. requests info on Prometheum over ‘suspicious’ approval
A FOIA request with the SEC regarding Prometheum has been filed, while others found former FINRA and SEC staffers among the firm’s ranks.
International Securities Regulator IOSCO Proposes Policy Recommendations for Crypto
The consultation period closes on July 31.
Crypto Exchange OKX Targets France as Regional Hub With Plan to Hire 100 People
OKX has applied for a Digital Asset Service Provider license to join dozens of companies that have already won approval.
Binance Australia’s Derivatives License Cancelled by Regulator
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled Binance Australia’s derivatives license, according to a press release.
US Bank collapse — Was crypto being targeted?
The latest episode of Decentralize with Cointelegraph unpacks whether U.S. regulators are targeting the crypto ecosystem through closure of SVB and Signature Bank.
Canadian Crypto Trading Platforms Face ‘Enhanced’ Rules Under New Regulations
The Canadian Securities Administrators published new guidance for the local crypto industry Wednesday, warning exchanges and other platforms they would have to abide by “enhanced investor protection commitments.”
US lawmaker blames ‘billionaire crypto bros’ for delayed legislation
The collapse of FTX has raised alarm bells across Washington D.C.
Coinbase expands to Australia with focus on institutions in ‘months to come’
With an expanded Australian offering, Coinbase’s VP of international and business development said the exchange faced “tough questions” from regulators and policymakers about its services.
Nexo Eyes SEC Broker Dealer License While U.S. Competitors Face Regulatory Pressure
There’s truly never a dull moment in DeFi. Reports have emerged this week that interest-yielding platform Nexo is pursuing an acquisition of an SEC licensed broker dealer with the intent to offer a “modified version” of the company’s products. How this would impact their current offering is unclear.
The move comes at a time of seemingly increased rocky roads for DeFi platforms.
Interest-Generating Products & Disruptive DeFi
Along with the company’s pursuit of a licensed broker dealer, Nexo is also in talks with nationally chartered banks. The platform is reportedly interested in finding a chartered bank partner that will sell Nexo products, likely with the intent to have better buy-in with U.S. regulators.
Additionally, reports state that the platform is looking at applying for an exemption to offer securities to non-accredited investors. Nexo is a London-based platform, which may play out to be a substantial advantage versus competitors that are stateside.
In recent weeks, U.S. state regulators have started to focus on DeFi platforms that are U.S.-based, namely Celsius and BlockFi. Regulators in a handful of states in the U.S. have begun issuing cease and desist demands for both firms. Meanwhile, major U.S.-based exchange Coinbase has been in a back-and-forth with SEC with regards to the exchange’s potential interest-yielding product, Coinbase Lend. Coinbase seems to have now placed an indefinite hold on a timetable for Lend, should the product even come to life at all.
Nexo is likely taking a close eye to see how these situations play out in the coming months, so they can position themselves accordingly when stateside regulators start eyeing non-U.S. based interest yielding firms that are operating in the states.
Native platform tokens, like $NEXO, have stayed away from U.S. integration as regulatory decisions still leave outcomes in question. | Source: NEXO-USD on TradingView.com
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The Road Less Traveled
During the midst of the DeFi madness with regulators, Nexo has still been building on it’s capabilities and offerings. In an email this week, the firm announced the addition of top-ups, withdrawals, and borrowing and earning with DOGE. At the beginning of September, the platform crossed 2M users. And last month, the platform introduced free and instant transfers from one Nexo wallet to another, as well as unlimited free internal withdrawals.
Nonetheless, Nexo co-founder Antoni Trenchev has said that overseas exchanges will have to “cross the same bridge” that Celsius and BlockFi are currently having to cross, in due time. “We haven’t quite decided on the particular variations of the exemptions and exactly how we’re going to structure this,” added Trenchev.
Will Nexo have the advantage of seeing how things play out for U.S. based firms, or will overseas platforms be subject to increased scrutiny? Consumers are left waiting for the snail-paced regulatory movement to determine how things play out.
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Featured image from Nexo.io, Charts from TradingView.com
After Targeting BlockFi, State Regulators Now Set Their Eyes On Celsius
Earlier this year, crypto lending platform BlockFi started facing the heat from state regulators in New Jersey, Texas, and Alabama. Other states have joined the fold since then, as well. Celsius this week is now facing similar cease and desist demands from all three of the same states that BlockFi first faced.
Let’s take a look at what we know thus far, and what it could potentially mean for DeFi moving forward.
Regulators Reach: What Celsius Is Facing
It’s becoming quickly apparent that Celsius is joining the fight in facing regulators in the same vein that BlockFi has. On Friday, Texas officials filed a cease and desist order against Celsius. The filing will require Celsius to show the state why it shouldn’t be ordered to stop offering it’s products to state residents. Celsius, like BlockFi, faces accusations that it is offering residents unregistered securities. The Texas hearing is scheduled for February 24.
Both Alabama and New Jersey seemingly issued similar actions on the same day. New Jersey ordered the platform to stop offering select products by November 1. In a similar action, Alabama demanded that the platform show why it shouldn’t be halted from offering products within 28 days.
A Celsius representative told Bloomberg that the firm is “disappointed these actions have been filed and wholeheartedly disagree with the allegations being made that Celsius has not complied with the law,” adding that the platform would not be making any immediate changes in services for clients.
Celsius’ native platform token, CEL, offers more aggressive yield rates – but is not currently offered in the U.S. | Source: CEL-USD on TradingView.com
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DeFi’s Uphill Battle
The news comes just a couple short weeks after Coinbase released a blog post regarding an impending lawsuit from the SEC, assuming that Coinbase moved forward with it’s anticipated Lend product. Coinbase has since applied for a National Futures Association license. It remains to be seen what happens with the Lend product and SEC.
Meanwhile, Celsius has quietly become a behemoth in DeFi. The platform reportedly holds over $24B in “community assets,” making it one of the biggest – if not THE biggest – crypto lender and interest-account provider. What it means for Celsius customers in the respective states taking action remains to be seen, and BlockFi could end up being a case study moving forward. However, what we’ve seen from BlockFi and regulators thus far hasn’t been much to establish a precedent. Thus far, throughout a handful of states, only new account registration has been restricted. Customers on BlockFi prior to the regulatory action have had no impact.
To date, consumers have largely been left in the dark on what sort of impacts could be seen here moving forward. The optimist in this situation might say that these actions could lead to regulation that establishes good practices and frameworks for crypto lending platforms. However, the pessimistic perspective would be led to believe that more states could join the ranks and that DeFi could face increased pressure from regulators given the impact on traditional banking institutions.
Either way, it seems hard to suggest that through these individual state regulators have consumer protection at the forefront. Where it leads from here remains to be seen.
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Featured image from Pexels, Charts from TradingView.com
Vermont Joins 3 States On BlockFi Regulatory Action
Several states’ securities regulators have been furrowing their brows with regards to BlockFi Interest Accounts (BIA) lately. This includes BlockFi’s home state of New Jersey, who was arguably one of the more strict in their action towards the firm; New Jersey issued a cease and desist that instructed the firm to stop offering their BIA product before the end of this week. Now, securities regulators in New Jersey have pumped the brakes for a moment, extending that deadline. However, in the meantime, Vermont has joined the ranks of New Jersey, Texas, and Alabama for issuing regulatory concerns around BlockFi’s BIA product.
New Jersey Extends Deadline
New Jersey’s state attorney general issued a cease and desist on July 19, ordering the firm to stop accepting new BIA accounts by July 22. That deadline was seemingly extended to July 28, and now has been extended once more to September 2. This will give the company over a month to sort through what appears to be very substantial regulatory hurdles. The news came as part of a company announcement on BlockFi’s website from CEO Zac Prince.
Prince also elaborated that New Jersey’s actions would not impact current BIA customers in the state, or other BlockFi products, and that the order only calls for preventing the creation of new BIAs. “Your access to BlockFi is completely unimpaired,” said Prince, adding that he saw these regulatory calls as “an opportunity for BlockFi to help define the regulatory environment for our ecosystem.”
As the broader crypto and DeFi landscape continues to grow, so too will regulatory eyeballs. | Source: CRYPTOCAP:TOTAL DEFI on TradingView.com
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Vermont Adds Their Name To The List
While another calendar month is likely a nice sigh of relief for BlockFi’s domestic team stateside, they’ll have their hands still full with Vermont joining the ranks of the aforementioned list of states targeting the BIA product.
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation has given the company 30 days to show the department commissioner evidence as part of a ‘Show Cause Order’. Alabama also issued the firm a Show Cause Order with a similar 30 day command. Additionally, like the three other states pulling out the regulatory microscope, Vermont is also calling out the BIA product as the main point of contention.
Through the flurry of headlines for the company in recent weeks, BlockFi has maintained it’s stance that it’s BIAs are not securities and that the firm is in active, ongoing conversations with regulators. The crypto grey area is likely to continue to cause emerging companies headaches, as regulators sort through what are and what aren’t securities.
Regardless of how the situation shakes out in each state, it’s likely going to be a busy few months for BlockFi ahead.
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Featured image from Pixabay, Charts from TradingView.com
Poland Regulators Spread Warning Against Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance
Poland Authorities have come up with their aggression against the most known cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The country’s watchdog for financial activities has issued a warning to the public against dealing with the cryptocurrency exchange.
According to regulators, the exchange is facing lots of regulatory issues globally, and as a result, consumers should be wary of it.
Related Reading | Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao States, “Compliance Is A Journey.”
There has been a lot of scrutiny on Binance in recent times. Many countries, including the UK, US, Canada, etc., are clamping down on the exchange activities in their country. Binance is the largest exchange globally, but it seems the growth attracts more financial watchdogs every day.
Cryptocurrency Exchange Binance Is Unregulated, Polish Watchdogs State
The Polish Financial Supervision Authority took the Binance issue a step further. The regulatory watchdog released a statement to inform the public that Binance is not regulated in Central Europe.
According to their statement, the cryptocurrency sector is not revised nor regulated by the appropriate PFSA.
Therefore, any association that the public engages into with Binance is at risk. From the statement, activities such as trading on the platform are risky as any loss will be on the users.
Looking at the daily chart, the cryptocurrency market is trading sideways | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com
The regulator implied that the risk is higher now as financial regulators worldwide are scrutinizing the exchange.
Related Reading | Russia Plans To Impound Unlawfully Acquired Cryptocurrencies
So, the PFSA advises the public to be cautious when trading crypto or using any other Binance’s services as they may lose their funds.
Regulators Scrutinizing Binance
To justify their stands further, the PFSA highlighted many of the warnings which Binance has received from global regulators.
For example, the regulators mentioned that the German FFSA (Federal Financial Supervisory Authority) had previously issued a warning against Binance.
The financial authority also mentioned that the “Financial Conduit Authority” and the Thailand Securities and Exchange Commission had also done the same. Moreover, the Cayman Island Monetary Authority (CIMA) warning also came up in the publication as a reference.
Apart from these warnings, other countries such as Singapore, Japan, the US, and Canada have been investigating and reviewing Binance’s activities in their countries.
The financial watchdog also recalled that it had issued a warning in January that it is risky to invest in cryptocurrencies. As a result, the market is not operating under the regulatory guidelines in Poland.
As for replying to the public warning, Binance has not made any statement yet. Even when our source reached out to ask them about it, the company has kept quiet.
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Let’s recall that the Binance CEO recently made a public statement stating that compliance is a journey. In that statement, he mentioned that the company is willing and available to work with the regulatory authorities to become better.
The CEO also mentioned that they’re eager to work with global regulators to achieve a solid crypto industry.
He further noted that the area of cryptocurrency regulation has remained uncertain. Even though he said that the increase in regulatory demands shows that the industry is growing and maturing as users expect.
Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com
Ex-Goldman CEO Blankfein Says Governments Would Likely Try to Shut Down Bitcoin If Becomes Too Successful
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A Crypto Ally as Top US Bank Regulator?
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