Crypto Currency

The regulator nabbed the crypto ATM operator turned exchange for securities law violations over its sales and statements of a crypto token. The United States securities regulator has handed down nearly $4 million in fines to crypto exchange Coinme for allegedly offering unregistered securities and giving “misleading statements” on its crypto token UpToken (UP). On April 28 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said it settled charges against Coinme, its subsidiary Up Global SEZC and the CEO of both firms, Neil Bergquist. Up Global agreed to pay a $3.52 million penalty, for which Coinme was also liable. Separate penalties against Coinme and Bergquist of $250,000 and $150,000 respectively were also leveled, which both have agreed to pay. In its order , the SEC alleged Coinme, Up Global and Bergquist’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of UP between October to December 2017 was an investment contract under the Howey test and were subsequently unregistered securities offerings. T...

Genesis is starting a 30-day meditation with its key creditors as its bankruptcy proceedings are close to hitting the four-month mark. Crypto lender Genesis and its key creditor group have agreed to a 30-day mediation process in an attempt to move forward with a final restructuring plan, though one company is expressing "frustration" over the pace of progress. On April 30, Gemini tweeted that Genesis, its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG), its Unsecured Creditors Committee (UCC) and Gemini have agreed to a 30-day mediation process in court on April 28.  Gemini said its aim is to “drive to a final resolution as soon as possible, and that it was “supportive” of mediation. Gemini, however, added it had “expressed our frustration” regarding “the pace of progress among the parties and the need for urgency.” 2/ Gemini is supportive of mediation and working with the parties to bring this to a conclusion. We have also expressed our frustration on the record on the pac...

If Bitcoin price breaks above $30,000, several altcoins such as SOL, ATOM, ICP and HBAR are well-positioned for a rally of their own. Risky assets marginally extend their up-move in April. The S&P 500 Index rose around 1.5% in April while Bitcoin ( BTC ) is on track to end the month with gains of more than 4%. Could the rally continue in May or is it time for a pullback? The recovery could face headwinds if the United States banking woes escalate further. JPMorgan Asset Management chief investment officer Bob Michele said in an interview with Bloomberg that the turmoil at First Republic Bank is unlikely to be limited to the bank only , and could cause a domino effect. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 If that happens, then the U.S. equity markets may witness a correction. However, it is difficult to predict how Bitcoin will react to such a crisis because, in the past few days, BTC price rose while legacy banking troubles deepened. But in case of a major upheava...

New Mexico is the cheapest US state to mine Bitcoin in terms of average electricity cost, while Hawaii is the by far the most expensive. It now costs Bitcoin ( BTC ) miners at least $17,000 to produce one BTC in the U.S. versus the $5,000-10,000 range a year ago, according to Bitcoin mining data resource  Hashrate Index and Luxor . Bitcoin hashprice has dropped 58% in a year Unsurprisingly, soaring electricity rates across the U.S. states have contributed to rising Bitcoin mining costs. Notably, between January 2022 and January 2023, the commercial electricity tariff surged at an average of 10.71% per U.S. state, higher than the average consumer price index surge of 6.4%. Average industrial rate rise between January 2022 and 2023. Source: EIA/Hashrate Index/Luxor Coupled with Bitcoin's downward performance in 2022, which saw a maximum drawdown from around $48,000 to below $15,000, it is evident that active miners generated consistent losses due to the increase ...

Bitcoin approaches the end of April barely moving as BTC price offers little short-term clues on trajectory. Bitcoin ( BTC ) narrowed volatility on April 30 as the weekly and monthly candle closes loomed. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Trader sees BTC price upside capped at $32,500 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView tracked BTC/USD as it loitered just above $29,000 throughout the weekend. After unsettled price action earlier in the week, Bitcoin returned to sideways trading, with markets witnessing an eerie calm despite the potential for volatility thanks to lower weekend liquidity. As such, traders were hopeful that no unwelcome surprises would greet the candle closes. $BTC / $USD - Update Stablecoin Sunday for #Bitcoin today please pic.twitter.com/4qphyAOssT — Crypto Tony (@CryptoTony__) April 30, 2023 “Nothing has changed,” popular trader Elizy summarized in part of recent Twitter analysis of the 3-day chart. Eliz...

YouTube’s swift intervention ensured damage control by preventing XRP hackers from interacting with the channel’s subscribers. Prominent YouTuber DidYouKnowGaming was able to regain access to his YouTube channel, which an anonymous bad actor hacked to promote XRP ( XRP ) cryptocurrency scams. While hacking into YouTube channels to promote scams has been a long-standing method of targeting unwary investors, the number of creators on the platform reporting hacks has increased. Most recently, DidYouKnowGaming — a YouTuber with 2.4 million subscribers — warned his Twitter followers about a hack. so sorry you're having to deal with this! first, we'll need to get some quick info from you & then we'll connect you w/ a specialist team who helps restore account access. follow us & we'll be able to DM you the info you need! — TeamYouTube (@TeamYouTube) April 28, 2023 After gaining access to the account, the hacker changed the YouTuber’s profile and cover images ...

The CIO of JPMorgan Asset Management said it’d be “naive to say that this is just limited to First Republic.” An executive at JPMorgan Asset Management is unsure how United States regional banks are “going to operate” when the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Federal Home Loan Bank (FHLB) emergency lending programs expire – warning that the possible collapse of First Republic Bank may cause a domino effect. In an April 27 Bloomberg television interview , Bob Michele, CIO of JPMorgan Asset Management said that the impact of First Republic's liquidity issues caused by significant deposit outflows isn’t “just limited” to the bank itself, but could potentially affect the entire banking industry. Michele emphasized that this is not an isolated incident, when asked if he sees this as a “First Republic problem or a banking problem.” He stated: “Well, I think we have both, I think it’s somewhat naïve to say that this is just limited to First Republic.” He added that t...

FDIC blamed SBNY’s board of directors and management for pursuing “unrestrained growth” using uninsured deposits without implementing liquidity risk management strategies. The United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corp’s (FDIC) post-mortem assessment of Signature Bank of New York (SBNY) revealed poor management and inadequate risk management practices as the root cause for its collapse. Signature Bank was shut down by federal regulators on March 12 in a bid to protect the U.S. economy and strengthen public confidence in the banking system. FDIC was appointed to handle the insurance process. @federalreserve @USTreasury @FDICgov issue statement on actions to protect the U.S. economy by strengthening public confidence in our banking system, ensuring depositors' savings remain safe: https://t.co/YISeTdFPrO — Federal Reserve (@federalreserve) March 12, 2023 On April 29, FDIC’s report on the matter highlighted the collapse of major US banks — Silvergate Bank and Silicon Va...

Circle launches cross-chain transfer protocol, Visa shares plans for stablecoin product, Kraken fights back in court, and more. Top Stories This Week Circle launches cross-chain USDC transfer protocol Circle launched a cross-chain protocol that enables USDC transfers between the Ethereum and Avalanche blockchains. The protocol works by burning the selected amount of native USDC on the source chain, and minting an equivalent amount of new USDC on the intended destination chain. The protocol essentially makes USDC transfers between the two networks faster and more user-friendly, as prior to its launch, people had to use third-party bridges or a Circle partner to facilitate transfers between the two networks. Additional support for Solana and other blockchains will be added later in 2023. Stablecoin payments: Visa shares plans for ambitious crypto product Cuy Sheffield, the head of crypto at Visa, announced a new cryptocurrency-related project, on April 24, focused on stablecoin pa...

Tencent Cloud’s deepfake creation service can analyze and train itself on three-minute videos and 100 voice clips to produce a convincing deepfake video within 24 hours. Tencent Cloud — the cloud services provider arm of Chinese tech giant Tencent — has launched a new digital human production platform allowing users to create deepfakes of any individual based on a three-minute video clip and 100 sentences of voice material. Tencent Cloud’s deepfake generator uses Tencent’s in-house artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to recreate fake videos of an individual. Scammers have widely adopted deepfake videos to mislead investors by impersonating prominent figures. In 2022, Tesla CEO Elon Musk warned against the rising number of deepfakes impersonating him to promote cryptocurrency scams. Yikes. Def not me. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 25, 2022 As reported by local media Jiemian, Tencent Cloud’s service can analyze and train itself on three-minute videos and 100 voice clips to...

The revocation of the ban in Italy required ChatGPT to reveal its data processing practices and implement age-gating measures among other legal requirements. Popular interactive artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, ChatGPT, has been reallowed to provide services in Italy after addressing the privacy concerns raised by the region’s data protection agency, Garante. On March 31, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was placed on a temporary ban in Italy after a watchdog suspected the AI chatbot of violating the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirement. Exactly 29 days after the ban, on April 29, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that ChatGPT was “available in Italy again” without revealing the steps taken by the company to comply with the Italian regulator’s transparency demands. we’re excited chatgpt is available in again! — Sam Altman (@sama) April 28, 2023 The revocation of the ban required ChatGPT to reveal its data processing practices and implement age-gating mea...

Mastercard’s new solution revolves around providing “secure transactions between users, verified according to standards” set by the company. Global financial services giant Mastercard has launched a new Web3 solution aimed at enhancing user verification standards and “reducing the opportunities for bad actors” in the digital asset space. The solution is dubbed the “Mastercard Crypto Credential” and its launch was announced on April 29. In an accompanying explainer video shared to Twitter, the firm outlined that its “building a way for Web3 and blockchain service providers to help secure transactions between users, verified according to standards set by Mastercard.” At #Consensus23 , we announced how we are instilling trust in the blockchain ecosystem through Mastercard Crypto Credential. With crypto wallet providers @Bit2Me_Global , @LiriumAG , @MercadoBitcoin and @UpholdInc and public blockchain network organizations @AptosLabs ,… pic.twitter.com/P33mtDVAas — Mastercard New...

The latest user-centric revamp is targeted at improving follower engagement and creating new revenue streams on the social media platform. Adding to the growing list of radical implementations to improve Twitter’s bottom line and promote citizen journalism, Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that creators on the social media platform can now monetize their content. Ever since Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the company has taken several drastic measures to turn itself into a profitable business, which include mass layoffs and introducing Twitter Blue subscriptions . While many previously-verified individuals retaliated the ask for a monthly fee to get a ‘Blue checkmark’ on Twitter, Musk saw it as a much-needed revenue stream for the company. The latest user-centric revamp — which allows users to monetize all forms of posts on Twitter globally — is targeted at improving follower engagement and creating new revenue streams on the social media platform. Content creators can now enable subs...

Patrick McHenry suggested that the hearings will look to add to the regulatory efforts being done on the bipartisan bill led by Senator Cynthia Lummis and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Patrick McHenry, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has announced a series of joint hearings in May that will focus on addressing the market structure around digital assets in the U.S. The move was revealed via a joint announcement on April 27 from Congressman McHenry, Glenn Thompson, Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, French Hill, Chairman of the Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion Subcommittee, and the Chairman of the Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development Subcommittee, Dusty Johnson. “Our Committees are embarking on an unprecedented joint effort to pass and sign into law clear rules of the road for the digital asset ecosystem. We must strike the appropriate balance to protect consumers without stifling responsible innovation,” the join...

Cooper Morgenthau embezzled $5 million from three different companies and lost almost all of it trading cryptocurrencies and "meme stocks." The former CFO of a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) was sentenced to three years in prison after embezzling $5 million that was used to trade cryptocurrencies and “meme stocks." An April 27 press release from the Department of Justice (DOJ) said Cooper Morgenthau, the ex-CFO of African Gold Acquisition Corp. (AGAC), embezzled more than $5 million from three different SPACs — AGAC, Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp I (SMAC I) and Strategic Metals Acquisition Corp II (SMAC II) between June 2021 and August 2022. Former chief financial officer of two SPACs sentenced to 36 months in prison for fraud scheme https://t.co/ZOvi2ksEi1 — US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) April 27, 2023 According to a related civil complaint from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Morgenthau wired approximately $1.2 million in fun...