FreeCryptoCurrency.Me

The UK’s chancellor Rishi Sunak set out plans on Monday to regulate stablecoins and issue an NFT as part of a bid to position the UK as a crypto-friendly tech hub.

The moves would see stablecoins recognized as a valid form of payment, the Treasury said in a press release, arguing that with appropriate regulation, they could provide a more efficient means of payment and widen consumer choice.

“We want to see the businesses of tomorrow – and the jobs they create – here in the UK, and by regulating effectively we can give them the confidence they need to think and invest long-term,” Sunak said.

Sunak has also put in a request at the Royal Mint for it to issue an NFT.

The Royal Mint is a government-owned mint that produces coins for the United Kingdom. In an emailed statement, it said it would share further details in due course. 

Through its official Twitter account, the Treasury said the move highlights the “forward-looking approach we are determined to take towards cryptoassets in the UK.” The tweet also said it would be issued by the summer. 

Alongside these regulations, the Treasury will introduce a ‘financial market infrastructure sandbox’ to enable firms to experiment and innovate and explore ways of enhancing the competitiveness of the UK tax system to encourage further development of the cryptoasset market, it said. 

The move comes amid a protracted period of confusion around crypto regulation in the UK, as firms have waited for verdicts from the financial regulator on anti-money laundering licensing. The process, conducted through the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has forced many to consider their place in the UK market, including crypto market maker B2C2, Blockchain.com, and wallet firm Wirex, which have all chosen to seek licenses elsewhere. 

Today, the FCA also called for contributors for its first “Crypto Sprint” event, as it promised to engage with the industry to inform its policymaking. 

In a post on its website on Monday, the FCA said the event on May 10-11 will bring together industry leaders — including technologists, crypto specialists, academics, regulated financial institutions, and consumer bodies. 

© 2022 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 UK’s financial regulator called for contributors for its first “Crypto Sprint” event as it promised to engage with the industry to inform its policymaking. 

In a post on its website on Monday, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said the event on May 10-11 will bring together industry leaders — including technologists, crypto specialists, academics, regulated financial institutions and consumer bodies. 

This gathering of crypto industry experts will be split off into teams with individuals roleplaying as ‘visionaries,’ ‘challengers,’ ‘reporters’ and ‘pitchers’. The FCA said it aims to increase its understanding of emerging crypto technologies and how they can be regulated.

Specifically, the teams will address three problem statements that the FCA says address key stages in the lifecycle of cryptoasset firms. These include disclosing information on the issuance of cryptoassets to investors, identifying and testing regulatory obligations for centralized and decentralized crypto companies, and gaps in its current regulatory framework. 

The news comes as the UK regulator extended the deadline for a select number of firms on its anti-money laundering register for cryptoasset firms. This follows an earlier report by The Block that crypto startups such as B2C2 have begun to pack up their UK operations ahead of the deadline. Previously, the regulatory body also sought a head of digital assets to build out its position on crypto. 

© 2022 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.

Elon Musk has taken a 9.2% stake in social media giant Twitter, according to Reuters, as of March 14.

Twitter’s share price has shot up to from $39.31 to $49.06 — up 25% — in pre-market trading on the news.

This comes after Musk held discussions on Twitter about the future of social media and whether it should be decentralized.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

© 2022 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.

Crypto exchange BitMEX has laid off about a quarter of its staff globally just days after abandoning plans to acquire a German bank.

The company — which is owned by 100x Group — currently employs roughly 300 people, meaning the cuts will affect around 75 employees, according to people familiar with the matter. Staff were informed about the move last week.

“BitMEX is making changes to our workforce in order to streamline for the next phase of our business. Our top priority is to make sure all employees who will be impacted have the support they require,” said a BitMEX spokesperson.

“Each of them have been instrumental in the remarkable journey BitMEX has taken from its roots as a small startup to one of the top crypto exchanges in the world. The BitMEX platform will continue to operate as normal, and we will not be commenting further at this time.”

The news comes just weeks after BitMEX’s co-founders Arthur Hayes, Ben Delo and Samuel Reed pleaded guilty to violating the US Bank Secrecy Act and agreed to pay criminal fines of $10 million each. In October 2020, the trio were hit with charges that they had illegally operated a crypto derivatives platform and violated anti-money laundering rules in the US.

A year later, BitMEX paid $100 million to settle charges brought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

One person with knowledge of the changes taking place at BitMEX said that former CEO Hayes, who stepped down in October 2020, had a hand in the cuts. “Arthur is taking a more active role in the company to effectively throw out what they have been planning and scale back everything,” the source said, referring to the firm’s recent push into services outside its bread and butter derivatives business.

Current CEO Alexander Höptner joined the firm in late 2020 to help BitMEX pursue a “wider vision of shaping the evolution of digital financial service,” as noted in a blog post announcing his appointment at the time. 

BitMEX’s spokesperson said the latest changes at the company “were implemented with the support of all our founders.”

“There is no change to the group’s management structure, which continues to be led by Alexander Höptner as CEO and his experienced executive team,” they said.

Beyond derivatives?

Last week, BitMEX confirmed that its planned acquisition of 268-year-old German bank Bankhaus von der Heydt — which it announced in January — had been abandoned after both parties mutually agreed to call off the deal.

Höptner had told The Block in January that the acquisition could prove an “an extreme accelerator” in BitMEX’s efforts to reestablish itself as a top ten crypto exchange by volume.

BitMEX has been pursuing a “beyond derivatives” strategy since April last year, with plans to expand its services to include spot trading, brokerage, custody, information products and an educational hub — while not losing its focus on derivatives. Höptner saw the Bankhaus von der Heydt deal as a way to deliver on that plan while incorporating appropriate onboarding, know your customer and anti-money laundering checks.

The appointment of banking veteran Marc Robinson as global head of custody in June 2021 was touted as another “important step” in helping BitMEX expand beyond derivatives. But Robinson has now left the company, according to a person familiar with the matter, who added that his departure preceded the job cuts.

Robinson and Hayes were contacted for comment but did not respond by press time.

© 2022 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.

Digital wealth manager Moneybox has raised £35 million ($45.9 million) in a Series D round that will help it push into crypto products. 

As laid out in an interview with AltFi, co-founder and co-CEO Ben Stanway said that the fintech firm would use the money to launch its first financial planning services, add a broader range of ETFs, and introduce crypto investing. 

Stanway gave the example of giving customers the option to hold “a couple of per cent” in Bitcoin as part of a larger portfolio.

The round was led by Fidelity International Strategic Ventures, alongside existing investors and new investor Polar Capital, and brings total funds raised by the digital wealth manager to £95 million. 

Moneybox’s platform currently supports more than 800,000 customers and has more than £2.9 billion in assets under administration, the company said in a press release. Since its Series C fundraise in July 2020, its assets under administration has more than tripled (+356%). 

The platform is the latest fintech to put its flag in the ground with regards to crypto. In March, Nordic neobank Lunar announced it was rolling out crypto tools alongside a $77 million raise. Investment app Acorns also joined the pack in March, by adding bitcoin exposure. The UK’s Revolut has long offered crypto investment tools and is said to be exploring a native token. Germany’s N26 is also reportedly due to launch a crypto trading tool through a partnership with Bitpanda.

“Moneybox is at a significant inflection point in its journey and this next chapter of growth will see them introduce new unique investment solutions helping to support millions as they save for the future,” said Alokik Advani, managing partner at Fidelity.

© 2022 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.

German startup lemon.markets has raised $17 million in seed funding in a round co-led by Lakestar and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

Founded by 21-year-old Max Linden, the startup aims to capitalize on the wealthtech boom by building application programming interfaces (APIs) for tech companies looking to integrate a stock trading feature. 

APIs are software bridges that allow businesses to more simply access each others’ systems. Linden says that there is currently no infrastructure that makes European capital markets accessible for developers, making it more difficult to build user-friendly stock trading products such as personalized portfolio trackers, trading automation and custom saving plans. 

“The problem is 85% of people in Europe have not invested in any form,” he said. “By building this infrastructure, we can allow other companies to solve very specific problems for different demographics, social backgrounds, and nationalities and cultures.” 

Using its business-to-business model, lemon.markets says it has already been approached by around 50 companies wanting access to its trading API for developers, the majority of which would be considered fintech firms, according to Linden. 

But with the rise of embedded finance — which has seen financial products woven into the offerings of a range of firms not typically engaged in financial services — lemon.markets has a long-term vision to serve customers outside of fintech. 

The roadmap for crypto

With the extra financing, the company largely plans to hire further in-house expertise to ensure regulatory compliance and build out its features to simplify building applications for European capital markets. 

Once the startup has fully developed its capital markets offering, Linden says crypto integration is very much on the roadmap — following the lead of a growing number of fintech firms, 

“Crypto is obviously top of mind,” he said. “Because in the end, we want to give people the ability to get the best portfolio possible and this is something which is requested by the mass market a lot.” 

Ten years down the line, he envisions a future where a lemon.markets API would enable access to both capital and digital asset markets with the aim of having as many tradable assets as possible — “tokenized houses, tokenized art or even tokenized wine.” 

He stressed that for now, however, his focus is 100% on traditional stock market trading. 

© 2022 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.

A Turkish prosecutor asked for  jail sentences as long as 40,564 years for 21 officials of the Istanbul-based Thodex cryptocurrency exchange, about a year after it was shut down and its CEO disappeared.

CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer, 28, was seen in footage at Istanbul airport last April. Turkish police have not been able to locate him, though he is wanted with a red notice, Interpol says.

The indictment accuses the defendants of creating a criminal organization, fraud and money laundering, Demiroren News Agency reported last week, according to Bloomberg News.

Thodex was part of a Turkish cryptocurrency boom that attracted investors seeking to protect their savings from inflation and a weakening currency.

The indictment said total losses at the exchange were about $24 million, but a report in February by Chainalysis estimated losses at $2.6 billion.

Ozer said in a statement issued last April from parts unknown that he would repay investors and return to Turkey, the report said.

Last year, Turkish police reportedly detained 62 people in the initial investigation, The Block reported at the time. Ozer was said to have fled to Tirana, Albania, according to Turkish police.

© 2022 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.

Trezor, a crypto hardware wallet company, has confirmed circulating reports that some of its users were the target of a phishing attack this weekend.

In a Sunday morning tweet, Trezor said it was investigating “a potential data breach of an opt-in newsletter hosted on MailChimp” and warned users to avoid opening emails from “noreply@trezor.us”.

“MailChimp [has] confirmed that their service has been compromised by an insider targeting crypto companies,” Trezor said in a subsequent post. “We have managed to take the phishing domain offline. We are trying to determine how many email addresses have been affected.”

“We will not be communicating by newsletter until the situation is resolved. Do not open any emails appearing to come from Trezor until further notice. Please ensure you are using anonymous email addresses for bitcoin-related activity,” the firm went on to say. 

Trezor users began to circulate warnings and screenshots of the phishing attempt on Saturday. Per the messages, the phishing attack was an attempt to induce users to download malicious code under the guise of Trezor’s Suite desktop app by alleging a fake security breach at the company.

Hey @Trezor, I just got an email from you or someone spoofing you that Trezor Suite might be compromised due to a hack. The email contains a link to download a newer version. Is that a legit email or a phishing email? Did you guys get hacked and find out about it today?

— Undisclosed ₿ (@BitcoinUndisc) April 3, 2022

@Trezor Just got an email from “noreply@trezor.us” targeting TrezorSuite users. If you got similar, DO NOT ACT upon it. pic.twitter.com/4cldJ46o3N

— pbnather (@pbnather) April 3, 2022

A comment request sent to MailChimp’s PR office was not returned by press time. 

© 2022 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.

Lawmakers in Oklahoma have advanced legislation in recent days that, if finalized, would extend a tax break to bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners that set up shop in the state.

The Commercial Digital Asset Mining Act of 2022, sponsored by state senator John Montgomery and state representative Ryan Martinez, aims to reduce the expenditures related to hardware and electricity used by commercial mining operations. 

“The original intent of the Legislature that the Oklahoma Tax Code recognize[s] the continuing development of new and advanced manufacturing and industrial processing technologies has led to new industrial processes,” the bill states. “Blockchain technology used in the commercial mining of digital assets is an industrial process that should be taxed in a manner similar to historical forms of manufacturing or industrial processing in order to encourage the location and expansion of such operations in this state rather than in competing states.”

A report by regional news outlet KOKH indicated that incentives worth a maximum of $5 million are being eyed, citing comments from Sen. Montgomery.

Public records show that the legislation cleared the Oklahoma Senate on March 22 in a 29-16 vote. The bill moved to the legislature’s lower chamber on March 23 and was referred to its technology committee on March 30.

Oklahoma is among a growing crop of US states eyeing the expanding bitcoin mining sector. States like Illinois and Georgia are weighing similar measures, and Kentucky’s government approved such tax incentives last year. 

Meanwhile, New York lawmakers are pushing for restrictions on the state’s mining sector, citing environmental concerns. 

© 2022 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.

With the emergence of NFTs and DAOs, along with the ubiquity of Twitter, it was only a matter of time before someone put all three together.

Meet Tweet DAO, a collective of individuals forming around an NFT collection and a single Twitter account.

The basic idea is that the creators of the decentralized autonomous organization are selling NFTs in the form of eggs. Those who buy the egg NFTs are able to make one tweet from the account per day. But there doesn’t seem to be any vetting over the quality of the tweets. It’s a free-for-all.

“I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I’ll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now,” brags one tweet.

A lot of tweets are, unsurprisingly, full of praise for the idea itself. Many of them are promoting the eggs, potentially trying to pump the value of their own NFTs — while the authors stay hidden behind the shared account. “This twitter account is the dumbest idea I ever heard, yet it may be the next Ether Rocks,” says one, referencing an early NFT collection that blew up in value last year.

Some tweets are used to promote the owner’s own NFT project or to try to sell one of their own NFTs. One tweet is attempting to offload a Pudgy Penguin NFT, which is on sale for 8.8 ETH ($30,700). 

Other tweets are sporadic and random, as you might expect. Some reference well-known crypto concepts like the UpOnly podcast, key crypto individuals like Do Kwon and Elon Musk and even a cult NFT collection called Milady Maker. One tweeted out the phrase “go sleep anon” in Morse code. 

If the concept catches on, it could do well for the creators of the NFTs. The collection is being sold on a sliding scale from 0.1 ETH ($340) to 1 ETH ($3,400) — increasing by 0.1 ETH for every 100 NFTs sold. That means the collection could net the creators up to 500 ETH ($1.7 million).

Some in the community are concerned, however, that the account may be closed by Twitter if it’s found to break its rules. Twitter has some restrictions on automated accounts and on taking payments for tweets. One tweet stated, “Please @jack don’t ban it,” in reference to Twitter’s former CEO, Jack Dorsey. 

Others were a little more self-reflective. One said: “I just paid $2,000 to tweet this. How thin the line between genius and madness.”

© 2022 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.