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A bill exempting foreign residents from capital gains taxes on crypto sales, and lowering tax on stock-options-like crypto options for employees has passed a preliminary reading in the Knesset.

The Bank of England is working with payment platform Nuggets to investigate the design of a privacy layer for the UK’s proposed retail CBDC.

The feature would use untraceable connections to privately swap and check credentials without revealing identities.

“Nuggets initially worked with the Bank of International Settlements on Project Rosalind, in conjunction with the Bank of England and off the back of that work, Nuggets was then asked by the Bank of England to investigate and design the identity and privacy layer as part of its efforts to ensure privacy and security for the proposed digital pound,” Nuggets co-founder Alastair Johnson told The Block.

Critics have pointed out monitoring and privacy-related risks surrounding retail central bank digital currencies. On Tuesday, UK financial services minister Andrew Griffith spoke about CBDC privacy, monitoring risks and the need to “proceed cautiously” with designs for the digital pound.

Digital pound privacy layer 

Nuggets claims that its identity layer infrastructure will let CBDC users control and keep their data private by using Zero-Knowledge proofs. This will prevent tracking of transactions and meet strict anti-fraud and anti-money laundering standards. 

Central banks worldwide are pushing forward with CBDC projects, stressing that the technology will widen financial inclusion and simplify cheaper cross-border transactions. Both the UK Treasury and Bank of England suggest a late decade launch for their CBDC. 

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance is readying its platform for increased trading volume that it’s expecting to hit over the next few months, CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Wednesday.

“If we look at historical patterns, we want to be prepared for higher volumes,” he said during a Twitter Spaces “ask me anything” event, adding that the company is doing “a lot of preparation” to ready its systems for increased activity over the next six to 18 months.

Higher volumes have already started returning in recent weeks, compared to the bleak period that kicked off last November when the FTX exchange collapsed, according to Zhao. Several factors have led to the recent surge, including new filings for spot bitcoin ETFs and the upcoming Bitcoin halving event expected in April or May of 2024.

Binance CEO says he is ‘always bullish’

Zhao said bitcoin has seen four-year bull cycles based on historical patterns that suggest the next bull run could occur in 2025, as “the year after Bitcoin halving is usually the bull year.” He noted that it’s hard to predict the future.

Still, Zhao remains bullish on crypto over the longer run.

“We’re still very early. I think the industry still has a lot of room to grow,” Zhao said. “So I’m always bullish. I’m a builder, so I always have a positive outlook on things.”

Still, if the bear market were to continue, Binance has “stamina to last,” Zhao continued.

The company is currently embroiled in a legal battle with regulators in the U.S., with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission both suing the exchange and Zhao for allegedly violating federal laws. On the ongoing lawsuits, Zhao said Binance wants to seek “the most expedient, reasonable, and mutually agreeable solution possible.”

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Brett Harrison’s new firm, Architect, aims to be an one-stop platform for institutional-grade crypto trading.

Bitcoin’s price kept its head above $30,000 despite declining on Wednesday, with one analyst forecasting a summer of “aggressive accumulation.”

The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization dipped 1.6% to $30,458 at 1:06 p.m. in New York, according to CoinGecko.

K33 Research analyst Vetle Lunde sees the summer season underway as a prime accumulation period.

“Trading above $30k, with multiple positive catalysts ahead, I am becoming more bullish on BTC and view this summer as a key period to accumulate aggressively,” Lunde said.

After the resurgence of institutional interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs, Lunde added that “all ingredients are in place for a spicy market in the coming nine months, with institutional interest greenlighting BTC as a viable sound investment alternative.”

Increasing institutional interest in bi

BlackRock’s recent filing has ramped up CME and BTC ETP activities, the analyst noted, and the trend should persist until the filing’s initial decision deadline.

Lunde, however, pointed out a disparity with retail investors.

“We’re not anywhere close to seeing similar tendencies of FOMO from the retail side of the market,” he explained, noting a general apathy from retail participants. 

Lunde said the upcoming halving event will also shape bitcoin’s trajectory throughout 2023.

“It’s a fairly compelling narrative that the yearly BTC selling pressure from miners will be reduced by 164,250 BTC following the next halving,” he said.

Unlike previous post-halving rallies that started 6-12 months later, the current excitement could build sooner, especially if the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission delays its BlackRock verdict, he added.

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

Binance Labs led the round with HashKey Capital, NGC and Shima Capital among the other backers.

The DEX said users can now trade bitcoin and ethereum on the public testnet.

A central bank digital currency doesn’t have to be a privacy nightmare, says Dea Markova. But privacy is a convenient attack vector for critics of CBDCs.

Crypto exchange 1inch sold 11,000 ETH worth around $21 million to test out new features of a protocol upgrade. 

Users had puzzled over the transaction on Twitter, noticing the transfer on blockchain tracking tool Etherscan.

“Our team is testing the new feature in Fusion mode,” 1inch founder Sergej Kunz told The Block. “It’s possible to use custom preset to set duration, start and end auction amount. This kind of strategy is very helpful for rebalancing assets (for DAOs, Hedge and Investment Funds). Based on the results, the trade was executed with better average rate compared to just a market swap.”

1inch has been testing various features for the Fusion update, which augments the exchange’s Swap Engine for connecting users to liquidity providing professional market makers. Launched in December, the upgrade allowed for more cost-efficient transactions with added security on top, The Block previously reported.  

© 2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

The decentralized cloud storage protocol has seen its market value double this week.