Crypto’s market cap fell below $1T. Now what?

Crypto’s market cap fell below $1T. Now what?

Bitcoin’s value dropped as much as 17% after crypto lending platform Celsius froze withdrawals on its platform. Bitcoin fell to its lowest value since December 2020, contributing to crypto’s aggregate value sliding from a high of $3T to below $1T.

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Binance hosted billions in illicit crypto, exposé reports

Binance hosted billions in illicit crypto, exposé reports

Investigative work by Reuters suggests Binance has processed more than $2.35B in crypto originating from hacks, fraud, and illegal drug sales. The volume of illicit crypto processed by Binance has plummeted since it established KYC/AML protocols, but the crypto exchange has still failed to cooperate with cybercrime investigators on several occasions since then.

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What’s in the bipartisan Senate bill on crypto?

What’s in the bipartisan Senate bill on crypto?

Senators Cynthia Lummis (R., WY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D., NY) introduced a bill called the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which proposes a “complete regulatory framework for digital assets.”

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What’s behind the VC crypto push?

What’s behind the VC crypto push?

Binance Labs, the venture arm of Binance, the crypto exchange, announced a $500M fund to invest in Web3 and blockchain technologies. The raise comes a week after Andreessen Horowitz launched a $4.5B crypto fund.

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Is Robinhood’s crypto push bound to fail?

Is Robinhood’s crypto push bound to fail?

Reporting by Business Insider exposed a woefully delayed pivot to crypto trading by Robinhood. An overly cautious legal team and leadership churn further contributed to the slow pace.

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SWIFT, Capgemini eye interoperable CBDCs

SWIFT, Capgemini eye interoperable CBDCs

The international payments network, in partnership with Capgemini, a French IT services company, is testing how to interlink domestic Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) for international payments.

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Crypto may be crashing, but its carbon footprint isn’t

Crypto may be crashing, but its carbon footprint isn’t

Alex de Vries, a data scientist at the Dutch Central Bank, said the crypto sector’s $1T loss in the past few months may have slowed the growth of data mining, but it hasn’t decreased it. He estimated that, respectively, Bitcoin and Ether use as much electricity as Thailand and Kazakhstan.

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Miami Mayor’s endorsement may land MiamiCoin in hot water

Miami Mayor’s endorsement may land MiamiCoin in hot water

Reporting by Quartz suggests that Mayor Francis Suarez of Miami may have “tripped” regulatory wires during interviews in support of MiamiCoin. The cryptocurrency is a city-specific virtual currency created by CityCoins, and is designed to provide free money to cities.

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Crypto exchanges liable for sanctions evasion on their platforms, U.S. court says

Crypto exchanges liable for sanctions evasion on their platforms, U.S. court says

An unsealed memorandum opinion by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., states that virtual currencies are subject to sanctions laws, just like fiat currencies.

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TerraUSD fiasco fuels calls for stablecoin regulation

TerraUSD fiasco fuels calls for stablecoin regulation

TerraUSD’s value spiraled this week after depegging from a 1:1 value with the US Dollar. Its value hovered around 31 cents this morning, but it’s more than doubled since then to 69 cents.

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Has Tiger Global been defanged?

Has Tiger Global been defanged?

Tiger Global Management has lost around $17B since the start of the year, meaning it’s erased almost two-thirds of its lifetime gains, according to LCH Investments. Its decline is almost double that of the Nasdaq Composite.

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Crypto's regulatory potential with Aaron Kaplan (Prometheum)

Crypto's regulatory potential with Aaron Kaplan (Prometheum)

An early settler in the crypto space, Aaron Kaplan, Founder and Co-CEO of Prometheum and a securities attorney by trade, has, since 2014, advocated for crypto to be regulated as securities.

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Why did Binance invest in Twitter?

Why did Binance invest in Twitter?

Binance has joined 17 other investors to finance Elon Musk’s planned takeover of Twitter. The crypto exchange has pledged $500M to the effort.

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3 trends shaping celebrity power in finance

3 trends shaping celebrity power in finance

Four years of hindsight, especially the underwhelming results of crypto’s Super Bowl ad blitz, suggest the power of celebrity endorsements in finance is overhyped, or, at the least, uneven.

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Has the NFT market really plummeted?

Has the NFT market really plummeted?

The Wall Street Journal suggests the NFT market is collapsing, given data provided by the website NonFungible. But cryptoevangelists have pushed back on the piece, saying the WSJ founded its arguments off incomplete data.

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