TokenHolder

2023-03-17 17:40:36 Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission allows Signum Digital to offer security tokens

Signum Digital plans to offer professional investors a platform for security tokens known as STOs, which are traded on blockchain and linked to various asset classes such as private stocks, real estate, art and collectibles. After receiving final approval from the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), Signum will operate the STO platform under the brand name "CS-Pro." According to Signum, the platform will be the first of its kind in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been offering new initiatives for the city's cryptocurrency and digital asset sector since last year. At that time, it invited firms interested in providing STO services to submit proposals. Last month, the SFC published draft rules for virtual asset trading platforms to take effect in June, including a requirement for cryptocurrency exchanges to apply for licenses that would allow retail investors to trade certain large-cap tokens.

The region currently restricts virtual asset trading to professional investors with verified assets of more than HK$8 million (about $1 million). Major crypto exchange Huobi Global also announced last month that it is applying for a license to operate in Hong Kong, possibly moving its headquarters from Singapore to a special administrative region. Open / Comment

2023-03-16 17:35:38 "Nornickel will launch an employee compensation pilot at CFA

Nornickel's employees will begin to receive remuneration in the form of tokens linked in value to the company's shares. This was reported by Interfax.

Nornickel will provide the money for the issuance of the CFA called minetoken. The mechanism will be implemented through the blockchain platform Atomyze.

Employees who have been with the company for at least one year as of January 1, 2023 will be able to participate in the pilot program "Digital Investor". The amount of payments will depend on their length of service. No additional issue of Nornickel shares or buyback is envisaged.

"The token will be part of the social package that expresses recognition of the employee's merits and contribution to the success of the business over his years of service to Nornickel," the company representatives noted.

Due to the small size of the program, Nornickel does not expect any impact on the stock market.

After one year of holding a minetoken, it will be possible to sell it on the Atomyze platform or additionally purchase digital assets from its own funds.

In the future, the instrument may be scaled up to the retail investor market.

As a reminder, in February 2022, Nornickel's token issuer Atomyze, a tokenization platform, was the first to receive a license from the Bank of Russia to issue CFAs.

In addition to it, the register of information system operators includes Lighthouse, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and Masterchain.

Currently, the total volume of CFA issuance in Russia has reached 2 billion rubles, according to Atomyze. Open / Comment

2023-03-15 15:10:08 U.S. authorities have banned a $1 billion deal between Voyager and BinanceUS

Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York has said that approval of the deal -- or parts of the deal -- should be delayed until appeals can be heard in higher courts.

"Nothing in the Bankruptcy Code allows the courts to exempt parties from liability to the state for past and future actions," he added.

The U.S. Office of the Trustees, the division of the Justice Department responsible for overseeing bankruptcies, filed its appeal of the deal just one day after federal Judge Michael Wiles approved the agreement following a contentious four-day marathon of hearings.

Last month, the SEC filed an objection to Voyager's purchase, arguing that BinanceUS might violate federal securities laws.

If Voyager can't execute an asset sale, the company has another option - complete liquidation, which would likely result in much less compensation for creditors.

Voyager filed for bankruptcy back in July 2022, and has been actively selling off its assets since February of this year. According to analyst portal Lookonchain, Voyager sold 1,449 ETH through Wintermute. The sales were made for USDC. In total Voyager received 2.25 million - $1,553 per ETH. Open / Comment

2023-03-14 18:37:48 European Parliament held a vote on cryptocurrencies

The European Parliament voted to introduce new data controls for cryptocurrencies. They stipulate that smart contracts must include information about "an emergency switch to reset activity. It has been dubbed the Kill Switch feature.

The European Union bill was initiated back in 2022. It became known as the "Data Law. The document included provisions designed to give people more control over information from smart devices. In the end, 500 EU MPs voted in favor of the bill, 23 against, and 110 chose to abstain.

"The new rules will empower consumers and companies. They will give a say in what can be done with the data generated by connected products," said leading lawmaker Pilar del Castillo Vera during the March 14, 2023 debate.

Provisions included in the new version of the bill meant: smart contracts must "have data access controls and protect trade secrets. They would also integrate functions to stop or reset data. However, industry experts feared that could carry certain risks.

"The bill's article, as currently drafted, goes too far in addressing the issues raised by immutability," VU Amsterdam associate professor Thibaut Schrepel wrote on Twitter before the vote. "It exposes smart contracts to the point where no one can predict the consequences."

Schrepel stressed that the legal text of the document is unclear. It does not specify who, in practice, should "push the button" to shut down in a smart contract. In his view, this contradicts the fundamental principle that automated programs cannot be changed by anyone. Open / Comment

2023-03-13 17:12:29 Krasnodar resident arrested on suspicion of cryptocurrency fraud

According to investigators, the 20-year-old suspect created a page in the social network, where he offered services for investing in cryptocurrencies. A 22-year-old resident of Mikhailovsky district, Volgograd region, was "bitten" by the ads. In the course of correspondence the fraudster persuaded the victim to transfer 1 million rubles, promising a significant profit.

Once the victim began to demand profit and the original deposit, the scammer simply blocked him in a social network and changed his phone number. After that, a police report was filed. The law enforcement authorities reported that they managed to identify the offender and apprehend him. He confessed to the crime and said that he spent the money on appliances and other things.

A criminal case was opened by Part 4 Article 159 of the Criminal Code "Fraud on a large scale" and the suspect was placed under arrest. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Now investigators are trying to determine the involvement of the arrested in other similar crimes.

In February, it was reported that a resident of Tobolsk transferred 5.6 million rubles to cryptocurrency fraudsters. Open / Comment

2023-03-12 19:30:32 Bloomberg's expert expects a ruling on the Ripple vs. SEC in the coming months

Stein noted that the Ripple case is particularly interesting because it involves a digital asset that has utility, which suggests that the asset is a commodity.

However, the SEC alleges that Ripple was selling XRP tokens as a security, and buyers were treating them as such, hoping that the price of the asset would rise. This creates a complex legal issue that has been the subject of intense litigation.

"So, this is a really interesting case for the whole crypto sector, and I think we may get a decision on the summary judgment motions in the first half of this year," Stein said.

Judge Analisa Torres recently issued a new ruling in the case that included the removal of an important SEC expert witness from testifying. Patrick Doody, who was hired by the impressive regulatory agency to study token buyer expectations, was barred by Judge Torres from testifying in response to Ripple's motion.

Earlier, FOX Business reporter Charles Gasparino said the FTX collapse would be bad for the lawsuit because it casts a shadow over the industry and would force the judge to take a tougher approach to cryptocurrency. We think the collapse of Silvergate and Silicon Valley Bank will only exacerbate this situation. Open / Comment

2023-03-11 14:49:43 Iran moves to practical phase of testing state digital currency

A representative of the CBI's payment system oversight department said that the agency is ready to move into the practical application phase of the digital version of the Iranian rial. The digital currency issued by the CBI has been distributed to a limited number of state and commercial banks that have the necessary infrastructure and are ready to provide relevant services to the public.

"The rules governing the circulation of digital rials are the same as those for banknotes," said a CBI spokesman.

The Central Bank of Iran said it would start testing the digital rial in 2022. At the time, it was reported that CBI's digital currency was not intended to compete with global cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin or ether.

CBI's stated goal is to turn "cryptocurrency" into a digital version of the national fiat currency. Nevertheless, a number of industry experts suggested that the launch of the digital rial would allow Iran to take advantage of the new form of state currency to circumvent U.S. sanctions.

Earlier, the Central Bank of Iran announced its participation in a project to create a gold-backed Persian stabelcoin, which will be used in foreign trade settlements instead of the dollar, the ruble and the Iranian rial. Open / Comment

2023-03-10 15:35:06 Liquidation of Silvergate led to increased distrust of the crypto-industry

The collapse of one of the largest banks in the crypto industry led to another crisis of confidence in the industry

One of the largest banks in the cryptocurrency industry, Silvergate Capital, plans to wind down operations and voluntarily liquidate. This decision has caused the shares of cryptocurrency-related companies to plummet as the bank's collapse has triggered a crisis of confidence in the industry, Reuters writes.

According to Marcus Sotiriou, a market analyst at GlobalBlock, investors are now worried about the bank collapse. It could have serious implications for U.S. cryptocurrency regulation and the ability of banks to work with digital asset platforms and cryptocurrency brokerage firms.

"The demise of Silvergate was not a cryptocurrency issue. It was clearly because Silvergate didn't have enough cash, which led to a lack of capital because of bank runs," Sotiriou said.

That said, Konstantin Shulga, head and co-founder of Finery Markets, believes that the bank collapse could potentially mean a definite trend for cryptocurrency to move outside the U.S., at least until there is a more comprehensive cryptocurrency regulatory framework in the U.S.

KBW Managing Director Michael Perito recalled that Silvergate still has a $205 million Microstrategy term loan outstanding, though that loan was substantially collateralized by BTC and was running at year-end, and there is now no idea how or at what cost it might be liquidated.

"This would entail licensing crypto-financial intermediaries under securities laws and SEC oversight, and it should prevent the kind of fiasco that led to the bank raid on Silvergate in the first place," said Aaron Kaplan, head of Prometheum Inc.

Several companies have announced that they are cutting ties with Silvergate. LedgerX was the first to cut ties with the bank. Open / Comment

2023-03-09 18:21:25 India may continue to tighten regulation of cryptocurrencies

According to lawyers and industry participants, India's inclusion of cryptocurrency business in anti-money laundering regulations has strengthened the position of financial regulators. According to experts, laws in the country may further tighten laws against crypto activity in the near future.

As a reminder, earlier on March 7, 2023, India's Ministry of Finance added cryptocurrencies to the anti-money laundering (AML) law. The regulator required digital currency companies to register with the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and comply with mandatory processes under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

"This step is a serious one because if organizations don't regularly report near real-time, they could be heavily fined," said Vijayendra Pratap Singh, senior partner at law firm AZB & Partners. "This can also be seen as the next step in a string of restrictions on cryptocurrency in India following the imposition of a strict tax regime," which has caused virtual asset trading volumes in the country to plummet.

The industry's inclusion in the AML regulatory framework follows a June 2022 admonition from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to expedite identity checks on cryptocurrency users.

According to some experts, regulating the industry gives cryptocurrency in India "more legitimacy" and helps "curb malicious activity," said Punit Agarwal, founder of cryptocurrency tax platform KoinX.

Others, however, believe that the new regime "will have a negative impact on centralized cryptocurrency organizations in India." Dilip Sainberg, founder and CEO of MuffinPay, a crypto-bank, said. Open / Comment

2023-03-08 15:01:16 Revenues at mining firm Canaan down 82%

According to a press release issued on March 7, 2023, cryptocurrency mining equipment manufacturer Canaan (CAN) reported an 82% year-over-year decline in revenue. The figure fell to $56.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2022. The leaders of the organization explained this by the fact that their firm focused on the independent mining of virtual assets, rather than on the sale of the relevant equipment.

Canaan's revenue from mining cryptocurrency assets in the last quarter of last year was $10.5 million, an increase of 368.2% over the same period in 2021. At the same time, 75.8% less computing power was sold during the same time period.

The fourth quarter net loss on American Depositary Shares (ADS) was $0.38, compared to a net income of $0.04 in the previous 3 months and a similar $1 in the last quarter of 2021.

Representatives of the organization emphasized that Canaan's mining equipment was in low demand in the 2022 reporting period. According to them, this was a direct consequence of the drop in quotations of the flagship cryptocurrency bitcoin (BTC).

Canaan CEO and chairman Nangeng Zhang assured that the manufacturer has decided to continue to focus on self-mining digital gold. He stressed that this is to "reduce demand risks during a market downturn." According to the entrepreneur, as of the end of February 2023, Canaan had a computing capacity of 3.8 EG/s.

Zhang assured that Canaan expected to generate $65 million in revenue at the end of the first quarter of 2023. At the time this news was published, shares of the mining company were trading at $2.51 during pre-market trading. Open / Comment