2024-01-16 06:11

The crypto exchange is a joint venture between Binance and Thailand's Gulf Innova. Binance and Gulf Innova, a subsidiary of Gulf Energy Development, said that their joint venture crypto exchange Binance Thailand is now open for trading. “We are deeply humbled to finally announce the launch of our local platform to the general public in Thailand. Over the past year, we have been working closely with Thai regulators, putting substantial effort into detailed planning,” Nirun Fuwattananukul, CEO of Gulf Binance, said in a statement. Binance TH offers digital asset exchange services with Thai baht trading pairs and integrates with local banks in Thailand while also partnering with Binance Kazakhstan for brokerage services under the supervision of Thailand’s SEC, the company said in a release. “With the full operation of Binance TH by our Thai joint venture to the general public in Thailand, we will uphold our unwavering commitment to security, transparency, and service quality. Blockchain technology and digital assets carry the power to bring about financial inclusion," Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, added in a release. “This is a strategic step forward, setting the stage for Thailand’s impending role as a key player in the global digital finance landscape.” The exchange secured a license from Thailand’s Ministry of Finance to establish a regulated crypto exchange and broker in May of last year, CoinDesk previously reported. Binance first announced the joint venture in January 2022. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/16/binance-thailand-crypto-exchange-open-for-trading/

2024-01-16 05:45

OKX Middle East Fintech FZE will be offering local currency trading pairs such as AED/BTC, AED/ETH, and more in the coming weeks, said OKX General Manager for MENA Region Rifad Mahasneh. OKX Middle East Fintech FZE, the cryptocurrency exchange’s Dubai-based subsidiary, has received a license from the Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), which will be put into full operational use within the next few weeks, the firm said on Tuesday. The Dubai virtual assets services provider (VASP) license will enable fiat transactions and allow the firm to provide spot services and spot pairs to institutional and qualified retail customers via the exchanges and its app. Dubai is fast becoming the preferred destination for much of the crypto cognoscenti. OKX, which now ranks as the world’s second-largest exchange by volume, had been given a preparatory license by VARA back in June of last year, but the latest announcement updates this to the operational level. “This allows us to offer services to UAE residents, which we’re going after, including spot trading and fiat-related services, which means deposits and withdrawals of local currency, United Arab Emirates dirham (AED),” said Rifad Mahasneh, OKX General Manager for the MENA Region in an interview. “In addition to that, we’ll be offering local currency trading pairs, so AED/BTC, AED/ETH, and the others, which is something new that we’re doing.” https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/16/okxs-middle-east-business-wins-dubai-virtual-assets-license/

2024-01-16 05:39

The former biotech executive was the only Republican contender to have a crypto plan. Vivek Ramaswamy – who pledged to lay off most of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and direct a path for digital assets policy if elected President– suspended his campaign for Republican leadership after a fourth-place finish in Iowa. In his concession speech, Ramaswamy thanked his supporters and endorsed former President Donald Trump. “I’m going to appear with Donald Trump at a rally in New Hampshire to lay out what I see and what we see for the future of the country,” he said. Ramaswamy’s crypto plan emphasized safeguarding software developers and unhosted digital wallets, treating most cryptocurrencies as commodities, and significantly reducing the SEC’s influence in the crypto sector. “A big part of what we’re missing today is clarity from our regulators,” Ramaswamy said in a prior interview with CoinDesk TV. “What we’re going to have is rescinding any of those regulations that are allowing the regulatory state to go after perfectly legal behavior, but by claiming that somehow it shouldn’t exist because they don’t like it. All of that can end on my watch. During a Republican leadership debate in December, Ramaswamy said that regulations need to play catch-up to the fast-moving world of digital assets. “The fact that SBF was able to do what he did FTX shows that whatever they have is the current framework isn’t working,” he said on stage. "It’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the SEC chair, couldn’t even confirm in front of Congress whether Ethereum is a regulated security,” he said during the December debate, referring to the debate inside the SEC on whether ether (ETH) is a security. “This is another example of the administrative state going too far,” he continued. The SEC is withholding from CoinDesk the emails and notes that influenced William Hinman’s pivotal 2018 speech at the Yahoo Markets Summit, only providing heavily redacted versions, where he declared ether not a security, a significant moment in cryptocurrency history. According to a disclosure from earlier this year, Ramaswamy owns between $100,001-$250,000 of bitcoin (BTC) in a Coinbase (COIN) account and between $15,001 and $50,000 in ether. See more: Vivek Ramaswamy Discusses Crypto Policy Changes If Elected President https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/01/16/vivek-ramaswamy-crypto-friendly-us-presidential-candidate-suspends-campaign/

2024-01-16 05:23

Operator of licensed Hong Kong exchange says raise will promote compliant, innovative global growth. HashKey Group, which operates the Hong Kong-based crypto exchange, has “nearly” met its $100 million fundraising target, the firm said on Tuesday. HashKey announced the fundraising round in August, shortly after it won a license from Hong Kong’s security regulator to offer retail crypto trading. The firm did not disclose the investors in the round and now has a valuation of $1.2 billion post-raise, giving it a “unicorn” status. Unicorn is a term used to describe private companies with a valuation of $1 billion or more. In October, CoinDesk reported that crypto fundraising in the third quarter of 2023 reached a three-year low of $2.1 billion across 297 deals, the smallest since Q4 2020, amid an industry downturn exacerbated by FTX’s collapse, with a shift in focus towards early-stage and infrastructure projects. However, given the dynamic rally bitcoin and other major digital assets had in the fourth quarter of 2023, along with the recent approval of the bitcoin ETF, many funds are changing their tune and have a sense of optimism going into 2024. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/16/hashkey-becomes-crypto-unicorn-after-closing-100m-raise/

2024-01-16 01:23

The successor to Saga will have new hardware and a cheaper price point, according to a person familiar with the plans. Solana Mobile plans to launch a second smartphone as it looks to ride the unlikely success of its first crypto-ready smartphone, a person familiar with the matter said. The upcoming phone will have the same basic features as its predecessor, called Saga: an onboard crypto wallet, custom Android software and a "dApp store" for crypto applications – but at a cheaper price point and with different hardware, the person said. The original phone cost $1000 when it first launched last year but later saw prices reduced amid struggling sales. The new Solana Mobile phone could help tamp down what's become a red-hot secondary market for the severely limited supply of existing Saga smartphones. At press time a factory-sealed Saga device was catching bids at $3,200 on eBay, five times more than its price five weeks ago. Back then Saga's backers were preparing to move on from their experimental phone, which had sought to create a mobile-first platform for crypto traders and NFT collectors but struggled to find a market big enough to justify its existence. That changed in an instant when crypto traders realized the phone came with an allocation of BONK tokens that more than covered the price of the device. In less than a week the Saga sold out. In the ensuing month Saga phones continued to yield dividends for their owners, with various projects airdropping lucrative tokens and NFT to the 15,000 phones in the wild. Those airdrops have bolstered the community around Saga and prompted more Solana developers to look into building mobile applications. A representative for Solana Mobile did not immediately return a request for comment. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/16/solana-mobile-to-sell-second-crypto-smartphone-source/

2024-01-15 11:08

The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. was much anticipated and well-priced, so the event will likely be a short- to mid-term top for the price, analysts said. Bitcoin (BTC) contrarian bets were seemingly proven right as the much-awaited approval of a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) turned out to be a “sell-the-news” event, one that analysts previously warned was possible given the token’s rapid price appreciation in the past months. “Sell the news” is a well-known term in capital markets and describes how asset prices, leverage and sentiment run-up in the lead-up to a bullish event, only for prices to tumble shortly after. BTC pulled back to as low as $41,500 early Monday, before recovering, after briefly hitting its two-year high above $49,000 as the first-ever spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. started trading last Thursday. The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. was much anticipated and well priced, so the event will likely be a short- to mid-term top for the price, analysts at Japan-based crypto exchange bitBank told CoinDesk in an email. “Bitcoin could be vulnerable to profit-taking selling pressures in the short term, but given lower U.S. treasury yields and the market’s optimistic outlook for the Fed’s early rate cuts, its downside risk may be limited,” they added. bitBank said it considered the $40,000 psychological level as a support for bitcoin prices in the near term. Elsewhere, analysts at 10x Research, led by Markus Thielen, said in a Monday note that they expected prices to find support at as low as $38,000. Meanwhile, FxPro market analyst Alex Kuptsikevich told CoinDesk in a Monday email that a correction to at least $40,000 per bitcoin would be “within bounds of typical corrections,” given the cryptocurrency’s price performance of over 150% over 2023. As such, long-term expectations for bitcoin remain largely bullish, given the apparent demand for ETFs, as volumes indicate, among institutional players. “Bitcoin ETFs will be transformative for the industry, allowing for vastly greater access from traditional wealth management - their launch will bring new investment into bitcoin from pensions, endowments, insurance companies, sovereign wealth, retirement plans, trusts, and many more,” shared Henry Robinson, founder at crypto fund Decimal Digital Group, in an email to CoinDesk. “However, while the ETF launches are exciting, we think they offer no advantage over self-custody. For long-term holders, the fee emissions will bleed a position substantially. It may take many years, but we expect demand for ETFs to dwindle as bitcoin adoption rises and self-custody becomes more common among institutions,” Robinson added. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/15/bitcoin-traders-eye-support-at-40k-as-etf-contrarian-bets-prove-right/