2023-12-12 15:41

Customers are free to withdraw or transfer funds and continue trading via Binance Russia's new owner CommEX, the company said Monday. Binance is ending support for the ruble on its peer-to-peer (P2P) trading platform as the firm exits Russia, according to a Monday announcement. Ruble's support on Binance P2P ends on Jan. 31 of next year, but customers can either withdraw their funds before the date or transfer funds to CommEX, Binance Russia's new owner, to continue trading. In September, the world’s largest crypto exchange said it was fully exiting the market and selling its local business to CommEX, which was seemingly launched a day before the sale agreement was announced. The scrutiny over the sale prompted Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao to clarify he was not the owner of CommEX in the days following the news. The company said in September that it was leaving Russia because being active in the country didn't align with Binance's compliance strategy. Binance recently agreed to pay $4.3 billion to U.S. authorities to settle several charges, including one related to sanctions law. Zhao stepped down as the company's CEO as part of the deal. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/12/binance-p2p-trading-platform-halts-ruble-support-following-russia-exit/

2023-12-12 14:42

The exchange will pay $5.3 million to the attorney general's office and refund New York customers $16.77 million. Crypto exchange KuCoin agreed to pay a total of $22 million and terminate access for users in New York state, court documents filed on Tuesday from the Supreme Court of the State of New York County showed. Kucoin will refund $16.77 million to New York customers and pay $5.3 million to the Attorney General of the State of New York to settle charges it violated securities laws by offering tokens – including ether – that meet the definition of a security without registering with the attorney general’s office. Attorney General of the State of New York Letitia James filed the suit in March, the first time a regulator had claimed in court that ether was a security. "I want to update all of you about our latest compliance action. @kucoincom has reached a settlement with the New York Attorney General (NYAG), solidifying our commitment to compliant operations," KuCon CEO Johnny Lyu said in a tweet. KuCoin will need to terminate access to its services and close relevant accounts for New York users no later than 120 days after the effective date of the order, the document said. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/12/kucoin-to-pay-22m-exit-new-york-to-settle-state-suit/

2023-12-12 14:36

A change to the structure of proposed spot bitcoin ETFs would enable authorized participants (APs) to create new shares in the fund with cash, rather than only with cryptocurrency, essentially opening the door to banks who cannot hold crypto directly. A change to the mechanics of BlackRock's proposed spot bitcoin (BTC) ETF opens the door for Wall Street banks, which face restrictions holding cryptocurrencies, to play a key role. BlackRock recently made it so authorized participants – a vital part of the ETF ecosystem – will be able to create new fund shares with cash, rather than only with cryptocurrency. As highly regulated U.S. banks are unable to hold bitcoin themselves, this set-up would enable the likes of JPMorgan or Goldman Sachs – firms with some of the largest balance sheets in the world – to act as APs to BlackRock's ETF. (Whether they want to is another matter.) The cash APs use in this process can then be exchanged into bitcoin by an intermediary and warehoused by the ETF's custody provider, as per a memo filing relating to a Nov. 28 meeting involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, BlackRock and Nasdaq. Optimism has grown that spot bitcoin ETFs will soon be approved by the SEC, which would be a game-changer for the digital assets industry if it lures in a flood of money from retail investors. A commonly held view up until now was that APs would be large market-making firms with experience in crypto, such as Jane Street, Jump Trading and Virtu – not banks. But the change means banks could get a cut of the action, and broaden the ranks of liquidity providers. "If the SEC accepts this revised, dual model of create and redeem with cash and physical, that means the liquidity that supports the ETF shares when they trade would be increased, because obviously, you have more potential APs as part of the process," CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung said in an interview. (CF Benchmarks is the Kraken-owned benchmarks administrator for several existing spot bitcoin ETF applications, including BlackRock's.) "And although trading firms like Jane Street, etc. are large and are experts, they fundamentally don't have the trillion-dollar plus balance sheets that large American banks have." https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/12/blackrocks-bitcoin-etf-now-invites-participation-from-wall-street-banks/

2023-12-12 14:19

"Project Diamond" lets institutions create and trade digital native versions of financial instruments such as debt using Base in a regulated manner. Coinbase's (COIN) asset management arm is joining the race to bring traditional financial (TradFi) assets to the blockchain with a new platform that lets institutional investors issue and trade digitally native debt instruments using Base, the exchange’s Ethereum scaling network. Project Diamond, developed by Coinbase Asset Management, combines Coinbase Prime’s custody service, the exchange’s Web3 crypto wallet, Circle’s USDC stablecoin and layer-2 network Base to create a capital marketplace. The platform has received in-principle approval from the Financial Services Regulated Activity (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and will enter the agency’s RegLab sandbox, the company said. It already issued and distributed its first debt instrument, a short-term discount note denominated in USDC stablecoin, on Base as a demonstration to regulators in Abu Dhabi. The platform is available to registered institutional users outside the U.S. Coinbase's release arrived at a time when there's a fierce competition with global banks and crypto-native companies to bring more traditional financial assets such as bonds and credit onto blockchain rails. The process is often tagged as the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), and experts say it can offer speedier settlements, cheaper operation and more transparency compared to old-school financial plumbing. Asset management firm 21.co forecasted that the market of tokenized RWAs may grow to $10 trillion by the end of the decade. Project Diamond takes tokenization to the next level, creating digital assets directly on the blockchain instead of crafting token versions of an already existing instrument. "Tokenization is an important first step, but the natural conclusion is a transition to digitally native assets," Shaun Martinak, head of infrastructure development, Coinbase Asset Management, said in an email. "Instead of tokenizing off-chain assets, this digitally-native debt instrument was created and matured fully on-chain, with an automated lifecycle that takes full advantage of next-generation infrastructure." “Today, less than 0.25% of total global assets are represented on blockchain infrastructure, leaving massive efficiency gains uncaptured,” Coinbase said. “Our goal is to close this gap by enabling institutional use of next-generation financial technology.” https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/12/12/coinbase-debuts-rwa-platform-built-on-base-under-abu-dhabi-regulators-oversight/

2023-12-12 09:39

Digital asset manager Grayscale's bitcoin investment vehicle's shares fell 8.6% Monday, reflecting the day's 5.8% drop in bitcoin. Cathie Wood's ARK Invest sold around $12.85 million worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares from its Next Generation Internet (ARKW) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Monday, the biggest sale in more than a year. The offload of 395,945 GBTC shares from ARKW leaves the fund with about $112.7 million worth of GBTC, a weighting of 6.95%. ARK aims for no individual holding in its ETFs to exceed a 10% weighting of the fund's total market value. Digital asset manager Grayscale's bitcoin (BTC) investment vehicle dropped 8.6% to $32.46 on Monday, reflecting the 5.8% decline in the value of the largest cryptocurrency by market value. Grayscale is hoping to convert the Bitcoin Trust into a spot bitcoin ETF in January. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to decide on its application, along with those of 13 other firms, early in the new year. ARK Invest also sold $1.88 million Coinbase (COIN) shares on Monday. That follows the sale of more than $100 million of the stock last week. Read More: Grayscale Setting Up for Bitcoin ETF Race by Hiring Industry Veteran From Invesco https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/12/12/cathie-woods-ark-invest-offloads-nearly-13m-worth-of-grayscale-bitcoin-trust-shares/

2023-12-12 06:00

The announcement follows a government rule change to require social media influencers to display their real names. Blockchain technology will be used to verify the real-name identities of China's 1.4 billion people, according to an announcement from the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), China's national-level blockchain initiative – a move likely to spark concern among data-privacy advocates. China's Ministry of Public Security spearheaded the initiative, called RealDID, with help from BSN. The RealDID service launch will enable users to register and log in to websites anonymously using DID addresses and private keys, ensuring that business data and transactions remain disconnected from personal information. China's top six social media platforms, including WeChat, Sina Weibo, Douyin, Kuaishou, Bilibili, and Xiaohongshu, mandate content creators with over 500,000 or 1 million followers to publicly display their real names or those of their financial backers, state media reported in October. State media said this was to enhance credibility and enable public supervision. BSN said in a release that this is the world's first national-level real-name decentralized identity system. BSN China is run by China's National Information Center in collaboration with Chinese big tech companies China Mobile and China UnionPay. Its international operations are managed independently by BSN Global, which is said to be a separate, firewalled entity. CoinDesk recently reported that a bipartisan U.S. bill was in the works that would ban federal government officials from using China-made blockchains and transacting with companies like Tether's parent iFinex, aiming to prevent potential national security risks and protect private data from foreign adversaries' access. Recently, the U.S. removed China's Institute of Forensic Science, which is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Public Security, from a trade sanctions list to advance counternarcotics cooperation, despite concerns over China's human rights practices, aiming to combat the trafficking of fentanyl and related chemicals into the U.S. Following this, China warned its chemical manufacturers against producing fentanyl precursors. In a recent circular, China's National Narcotics Control Commission said anyone involved in producing chemicals used to make the opioid were at risk of running into the "long-arm jurisdiction" of foreign law enforcement. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/12/12/chinas-ministry-of-public-security-launches-blockchain-based-real-name-decentralized-identifier-system/