UK MP says stablecoin is a gateway to CBDC, only crypto can ‘disrupt’ settlements

The United Kingdom remains committed to becoming a world crypto industry hub in spite of the recent negative events that have occurred on the market. It is “the sector I have dedicated the most time to,” Member of Parliament and HM Treasury Economic Secretary Andrew Griffith told a meeting of the UK Parliament Treasury Committee on Jan. 10, underscoring that commitment. The introduction of a wholesale stablecoin and the Financial Markets Infrastructure (FMI) sandbox will be next steps in the process. Those elements are included in the Financial Services and…

Market Maker Group One Discloses 13.5% Stake in MicroStrategy

The owner of more roughly 132,500 bitcoin (BTC), MicroStrategy is sometimes considered a bitcoin proxy, allowing traders – who for regulatory or other reasons cannot or don’t want to own it – to place bets on the crypto’s direction. MSTR suffered along with bitcoin in 2022, its stock plunging more than 70% as bitcoin slumped from about $48,000 in late March to close the year out at $16,500. Source DisclosesGroupMakerMarketMicroStrategyStake CryptoX Portal

Crypto.com delists USDT for Canadian users following OSC ban

According to user reports on Jan 10, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com plans to delist Tether (USDT) for Canadian users effective Jan 31, 2023. According to the firm, if users do not withdraw or convert their USDT assets by the deadline, then their Tether will be automatically converted into USD Coin (USDC).  “You may incur a retrieval fee if deposits of USDT are made from external wallets after this suspension period, and fund retrieval may not be possible in some cases.” In August 2022, Crypto.com announced that the Ontario Securities Commission had…

Sandeep Nailwal-backed Web3 accelerator launches demo day for first cohort

Web3 accelerator Beacon has wrapped up its first cohort with 13 graduating companies and has provided a venue for project founders to demo their blockchain-based startups.  Beacon’s first 12-week cohort, dubbed Cohort 0, kicked off in October with 15 companies across various cryptocurrency subsectors, including decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming and infrastructure. Beacon held a demo day on Jan. 10 with 13 graduating companies: Arcana, Blinkmoon, ChapterX, Colexion, Community Gaming, Cubist, FastLane, Meta Apes, Mystic Moose, Nillion, Davos Protocol, Timeswap and Ylide. Polygon co-founder and Beacon creator Sandeep Nailwal described the…

Crypto exchanges need to start giving customers their keys

The business model that cryptocurrency exchanges currently use relies on ignorance and fear.  It relies on their customers not knowing much about decentralized finance (DeFi) and their fear of what could happen if they get things wrong with their crypto investments. Cryptocurrencies seem like an obscure and risky investment to most, and unsurprisingly, concerns about losing assets in market crashes, losing wallets or security keys through carelessness, or being scammed by unscrupulous operators are prevalent. These concerns are reasonable considering the volatility of the market and the prevalence of sharks,…

Flare (FLR) airdrops 15% of total supply to XRP holders before correcting by 76%

The Flare (FLR) token airdrop began on Jan. 9, nearly two years after a snapshot of XRP (XRP) holders took place on Dec. 12, 2020. The FLR airdrop was distributed at a ratio of 1.0073 FLR per 1 XRP, with 15% of the total supply released to the community. A total of 28.5 billion FLR were distributed and according to Flare’s tokenomics, 58.3% of the total genesis FLR supply will be distributed over 36 months. Flare initial token distribution allocation. Source: Flare What is Flare? Flare is a Layer-1 blockchain…

MATIC Whale Pushes Coin Value With Massive Moves

The few months toward the end of 2022 brought devastating events in the crypto industry. With the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, chaos erupted in the crypto markets. Prices of almost all the crypto assets took a hit. Also, the negative contagion effect sprung up within the crypto space as the number of investors who lost funds on the platform kept increasing. However, the beginning of this new year shows signs of a positive dawn for most crypto assets. The crypto market has started seeing some green performance. For…

Former FTX.US President Brett Harrison Says He’ll Share His Story on Collapse of Crypto Exchange

Former FTX.US president Brett Harrison says he’ll share what he knows about the disgraced and bankrupt exchange “in time.” Harrison answered one Twitter user asking what the FTX.US exchange president knew about what was going at FTX. Says Harrison, “I’ll share in time.”  Harrison stepped down from his position as president of FTX’s US arm in late September, a little more than a month before FTX and FTX US both suddenly collapsed and filed for bankruptcy. The former president also recently responded to another Twitter user who asked him why…

Crypto service Tap Global becomes first 2023 listing on UK stock exchange

UK crypto app Tap Global has become the first 2023 listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange (AQSE), according to a press release from the company. The listing was accomplished through a reverse takeover by Quetzal Capital, according to a press release on Jan. 10. The first #AQSE listing this year. Thank you to @SimonPeterHunt of The Evening Standard (@standardnews) for covering the news of our stock market debut. #TAP #RTO #PLC Full article: https://t.co/NK5Wp2VqjG — Tap Global Group Plc (@TapGlobalPlc) January 10, 2023 Tap provides fiat banking services, a crypto…