Category: Exchanges

US Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Network for Laundering Drug Profits Through Cryptocurrency

boss

Key Takeaways OFAC sanctioned 6 people and 2 businesses using crypto to launder Sinaloa Cartel drug money. Exposing crypto’s illicit use, the U.S. Treasury blocked all assets of entities with 50% cartel ownership. Sec. Scott Bessent will next target more cartels after freezing US assets of these 12 linked individuals. US Sanctions Sinaloa Cartel Crypto Money Laundering Networks On Wednesday, the U.S. government Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned six individuals and two companies due to their involvement in a money laundering scheme for the Sinaloa cartel, one of…

Rwanda’s CMA Moves to License Crypto Exchanges as Unapproved Platforms Face Penalties

boss

Key Takeaways Parliament passed a law granting Rwanda’s CMA explicit power to license and regulate virtual asset providers. Jerome Ndayambaje noted bitcoin faces high scrutiny, while some of the world’s 9,000 cryptos will be blocked. The CMA is currently drafting secondary regulations to formally launch its licensing regime for crypto firms. Mandatory Licensing for Crypto Service Providers Rwanda’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) has outlined how its upcoming virtual asset regulations will govern cryptocurrency trading, token issuance and digital investment platforms, following Parliament’s recent approval of a landmark bill establishing the…

Entain Directly Targets Premier League Clubs Citing ‘Cryptocurrency Reliance’ in Sponsor Ban

boss

Key Takeaways Entain’s general counsel wrote to six Premier League clubs on May 15 over unlicensed gambling sponsor deals. Zinger letters cite Stake’s “ cryptocurrency reliance” and BJ88’s “unregulated payment methods like cryptocurrency.” Escalation follows February’s letter to Premier League CEO and May 7 IFR submission. Entain’s General Counsel Escalates Past Premier League and Regulator to Pressure Individual Clubs This escalation follows Entain CEO Stella David’s February letter to Premier League CEO Richard Masters and the company’s May 7 (IFR) submission to the Independent Football Regulator’s licensing consultation. Entain General…

Traditional Financial Exchanges Sound Alarm on HYPE’s Commodity Perps

boss

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the two biggest exchanges for energy-linked commodities, are pressuring US regulators to clamp down on the Hyperliquid decentralized exchange’s expansion into commodity markets. Executives from both companies say that Hyperliquid’s energy-linked onchain derivatives create insider trading and price manipulation risks, according to Bloomberg, which cited unnamed sources familiar with the ongoing talks with US regulators. ICE and CME cited the “anonymous” and “unregulated” nature of Hyperliquid as major risks to critical energy markets, like oil and gas, which could be used…

How Iran’s biggest crypto exchange stays off the OFAC blacklist

boss

Iran’s internet formally remained part of global routing, but user activity fell almost to zero. That points to a managed restriction on citizens’ access to the external network. Source: IODA. But in that digital darkness, one vital financial service continued to operate without interruption: Nobitex, a cryptocurrency exchange linked to Iran’s ruling elite. We compiled the available information about the platform and tried to understand how Iranian authorities use it, what investigations by analytics firms have revealed, and why, despite all these findings, the exchange is still not on OFAC’s…

Coinbase Exchange Experiences “Degraded Performance” for Over Two Hours After AWS Outage

boss

Key Takeaways Coinbase’s exchange suffered a 2+ hour outage on May 8, due to an AWS infrastructure failure. Some Coinbase users could not trade or faced degraded performance during the AWS disruption. Coinbase confirmed it is investigating the issue; no resolution timeline has been shared publicly. Major Disruption Affects Withdrawals, Trades Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges by trading volume, experienced a significant service disruption Friday morning after an outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud infrastructure provider underpinning the platform, knocked out trading access for a…

Bitcoin Exchange Reserves See $8B Outflow: Will BTC Rally Higher?

boss

Bitcoin (BTC) reserves on major crypto exchanges have dropped to their lowest level since 2023, with nearly 100,000 BTC withdrawn from Binance, OKX and Gemini in less than three months. The outflows coincided with stronger demand from accumulator addresses, as the cohorts’ holdings have increased by 60.5% over the past two weeks.  Bitcoin exchange reserves fall to two-year low Crypto analyst Amr Taha noted that Bitcoin reserves on Binance, OKX and Gemini have declined sharply since February. Binance recorded the largest drawdown, with reserves dropping to nearly 620,000 BTC on…

BTCC Exchange and AFA Launch a Trading Championship with a Million-USDT Prize Pool and a Messi-Signed Jersey

boss

May 7th, 2026 – Lodz, Poland BTCC, the world’s longest-running cryptocurrency exchange, today announced the launch of the BTCC x AFA Trading Championship, a futures trading competition running from May 6 to May 26, 2026. The campaign features a prize pool of over one million USDT, with the ultimate reward reserved for the No. 1-ranked trader: a jersey signed by Lionel Messi, captain of the Argentine National Football Team. The competition is open to all registered users. Traders compete on two separate leaderboards: a Futures Trading Volume Leaderboard, where the…

Morgan Stanley Emerges as Crypto Exchange Rival via Crypto Pilot

boss

Morgan Stanley has rolled out a cryptocurrency trading pilot on its E*Trade platform, charging lower basic retail fees than some of the largest US crypto and brokerage platforms. The Wall Street bank is charging clients 50 basis points on the dollar value of each crypto transaction, undercutting Coinbase, Robinhood and Charles Schwab on standard retail pricing, according to a Tuesday Bloomberg report. The offering is currently in pilot mode, with E*Trade’s 8.6 million clients expected to gain access later this year, Bloomberg reported. The pilot illustrates how major Wall Street…

Traders Push MEGA to $200M Market Cap as MegaETH Lists on 13 Exchanges at Once

boss

Key Takeaways: MegaETH’s MEGA token began trading on April 30, 2026, on Binance, Coinbase, and 11 other major exchanges at 11:00 UTC. MEGA opened near $0.183 with an FDV of $1.82 billion and $78M-plus in 24-hour volume on launch day. Only 11.3% of MEGA’s 10 billion supply circulates at launch, with unlock events scheduled at 6 and 12 months. MEGA Token Launches April 30 The Token Generation Event (TGE) marked the first time traders could access MEGA onchain via MegaETH’s mainnet DEX, with centralized exchange trading following one hour later…