FATF & Furious – Preparing for Travel Rule Implementation April 29, 2024 After the recent Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meetings in Vienna and Paris, the crypto and digital asset industry has continued their furious preparation for travel rule compliance. The rule finds its origins in a 1996 rule from the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) which required all financial institutions to pass on certain information to the next financial institution when there was a transmission of funds involving more than one financial institution.
Stablecoins are starting to win the payments use case April 29, 2024 fter a 6-year break, Stripe, the payment giant, announced that it is re-introducing Crypto payments. This time it will not be Bitcoin, a clunky payment channel at best, but USDC, the stablecoin. It will be running on Solana and Ethereum rails and instantly convert to Fiat.
Latest de-peg drama highlights risks of restaking April 25, 2024 At its best, Decentralised Finance (DeFi) turns money into composable lego blocks. They can be combined together for different use cases. Players can put other legos on top of each other. The legos have high levels of liquidity, composability and can be used by anyone in a permission-less way. But these advantages come with a high and often still underestimated degree of risk.
SEC Lawyers Resign After Censure for Abuse of Power April 24, 2024 The SEC's failed case against Digital Licensing Inc., a crypto platform known as DEBT Box, is continuing to make waves. Michael Welsh and Joseph Watkins, the SEC’s lead trial attorney and the agency’s lead investigative attorney on the case, stepped down this month after SEC officials told them they would be terminated otherwise. This follows Chief District Judge Robert Shelby sanctioning and sharply rebuking the financial regulator for “gross abuse” of power.
Revolut plans advertising partnerships as it seeks new revenue streams April 23, 2024 Revolut is planning to monetise customer data through advertising partnerships as the firm looks to diversify revenue streams on its path to more sustainable profitability.
Mango Markets judgement raises more questions for smart contract law April 23, 2024 "What are you gonna do, arrest me?", Avi Eisenberg confidently wrote on Twitter days after he had successfully exploited the decentralised lending platform Mango Markets for $110 million in October 2022. To execute his exploit, Eisenberg did not use a hack but a financial engineering attack. He artificially drove up the price of the platform's native token MNGO on various exchanges. He then borrowed a large amount against his MNGO collateral on Mango Markets and defaulted on his MNGO position as soon as the price crashed.
FTSE 100 today: London markets set to reach fresh highs on increased speculation of BOE rate cuts April 23, 2024 Asian markets mirrored Wall Street's positive momentum, while oil prices rebounded and gold hovered near a one-week low. Bitcoin remained steady despite so-called halving. Investors eagerly awaited Global PMI data and Tesla's earnings report for market direction.
April is for events… and showers April 23, 2024 April is shaping up to be a monumental month for the world of Web3 as enthusiasts and industry leaders converge at various events around the globe to explore the latest developments in blockchain, crypto, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
FTSE 100 today: London markets poised for green start as Israel-Iran tensions ease; focus turns to ‘Magnificent Seven’ earnings April 22, 2024 Global markets saw a significant turnaround, with Asian stocks rebounding strongly while oil and gold prices dipped. Bitcoin, on the other hand, surged by 3 per cent. Investors are eagerly awaiting earnings reports from the "Magnificent Seven" companies and aviation giants Boeing and Airbus, making this a pivotal week.
Could DePIN be crypto’s ESG-friendly real world use case? April 18, 2024 So far in this cycle, there have been several narratives that have emerged. These include artificial intelligence (AI), real world assets (RWAs) and decentralised physical infrastructure (DePIN) tokens. Unlike meme tokens, these tokens and projects actually relate to solving a problem.