Coinbase CEO Says SEC Requested All Crypto Assets Except Bitcoin to be Delisted

On Monday, July 31, the second largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, Coinbase, revealed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had requested the firm only to support the listing of Bitcoin. In an interview with the Financial Times, the chief executive of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, stated that the SEC urged the crypto exchange to delist other crypto assets except Bitcoin.

At that time, the crypto exchange had listed 250 crypto assets on its trading platform. Upon reaching on SEC to clarify why the crypto asset should be delisted, the SEC claimed that most of the tokens were securities. The market regulators told Armstrong that most of the crypto assets listed on Coinbase were considered as security apart from Bitcoin.

SEC Push for Delisting of Tokens

In response to the SEC claims, the Coinbase team demanded the regulators to provide a provision in the US law that considers Bitcoin not a security. The executive lamented that the SEC failed to provide further information concerning the delisting of the digital tokens.

In an earlier interview with the New York Magazine, SEC chair Gary Gensler stated that all other crypto assets except Bitcoin were securities. Gensler claimed that the SEC considers most crypto projects as securities except Bitcoin-oriented projects. He explained that in most projects, there is a group where the crypto enthusiast expects profits in return.

Gensler’s statement faced criticism from the crypto lawyers. In a statement, Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer at Blockchain Association, confessed that Gensler’s opinion was not in line with the law. In his argument, Chervinsky stated that Gensler comment will only be implemented unless the SEC defends the new provision in a court of law.

Chervinsky response to Gensler’s claims mirrors Coinbase reaction to proposed delisting of tokens. The CEO admitted that Coinbase was reluctant to honor SEC requests. He decried that the SEC’s opinion on crypto assets could lead to the end of the digital industry in the US.

Even though the SEC has legal authority over the crypto sector, Armstrong requested the regulators to present the matter in court.

Coinbase Faces Charges

Months after failing to comply with SEC request, Coinbase was caught on the wrong side of the law by the market regulators. In June, Coinbase was accused by the SEC of operating as an unregistered crypto exchange.

The SEC claimed that Coinbase offered 13 tokens which were unregistered securities. The SEC stated that Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL), Polygon (MATIC), and Sandbox (SAND) offered by Coinbase violated the securities laws.

The SEC lawsuit against Coinbase came when Binance faced similar charges of violating securities law.

In the wide-ranging interview with the Financial Times, the SEC confessed that its enforcement approach does not require the regulators to make formal requests on the delisting of digital assets.

However, the Coinbase team confirmed to hold talks with the SEC to support compliance. The regulators anticipate that the engagement with the SEC will support transparency and a fair rulemaking process to support the growth of the crypto industry. 

Additonally, SEC officials are mandated to share their opinion on actions by crypto firms that violate the securities requirements. Besides the SEC, the market regulators recognize that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has the legal power to supervise crypto activities.

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Binance Becomes First Crypto Exchange to Win Operational MVP License in Dubai

Binance has won an Operational MVP License from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the exchange announced in a blog on July 31. This makes the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume the first to secure such a license in the world.

By reason of the license, qualified users in Dubai will be able to access regulated virtual asset services in Dubai under VARA’s investor protection and market assurance standards going forward.

“We are pleased to announce that our Dubai subsidiary, Binance FZE, has become the first exchange to receive the Operational Minimum Viable Product (MVP) license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA),” the exchange wrote in the blog post.

The Operational MVP license enables Binance to offer services in Dubai approved by VARA, including exchange and broker-dealer services — initially to institutional and qualified retail investors,” it added.
Binance had obtained a provisional MVP license in March 2022 and a preparatory MVP license in September 2022.

Following satisfactory compliance, VARA has decided to grant the exchange permission to render services as a virtual asset exchange services provider, and as a virtual asset broker-dealer services provider for institutional and qualified retail investors in Dubai.

According to Binance, “This landmark development underscores our dedication to building a compliant exchange in partnership with local regulators and within Dubai’s unique regulatory framework for Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs).”

These services include the ability to safely convert virtual assets to fiat under VARA-designated standards compliant with the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force.

A huge milestone

Binance has faced several regulatory challenges in many jurisdictions. Even currently, the exchange stands trial in the U.S. on allegations of security laws violations and mishandling of customer funds. It has also failed to secure operational licenses in many countries, leading to its exit in some.

Securing this operational license in Dubai is therefore a major milestone for the exchange. Already, the exchange had considered looking to the Middle East as regulatory pressure has been intense in the U.S. and Europe.

Before now, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had expressed interest in building a physical global headquarters for the exchange in Dubai. This license brings the Binance chief closer to actualizing that dream.

Responding to the license, Head of Regional Markets at Binance, Richard Teng said: “We are honored to be the first exchange to be granted an operational Minimum Viable Product License by VARA — a result of over a year of due diligence, collaboration, and consistent demonstration of responsible intent – that now allows us to be able to leverage the potential of a progressive regulatory framework, enabling innovation while furthering user protection.”

The UAE supporting crypto

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), just like any other jurisdiction, is interested in protecting investors in crypto. However, at the same time, the country seeks to foster the growth of the crypto and blockchain industry by making clear regulations for the industry.

With this approach, the UAE will be a refuge for crypto companies like Binance that are under pressure in countries like the U.S. where there’s no regulation for the crypto industry but regulators use enforcement as their means of regulation.

Many other crypto exchanges have secured licenses in Dubai, and with Binance’s success, many more are likely to pursue the same.

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Most Top Global Banks are Crypto-Friendly, CoinGecko Study Reveals

Cryptocurrencies have gone through a lot, with regulatory pressure mounting on the industry currently. Governments are gearing towards crypto regulation but some are going to the extreme, seemingly destroying the industry.

Interestingly though, recent data reveals that most major global banks are crypto-friendly. The survey conducted by CoinGecko showed that 74% of the world’s top 50 banks by asset under management support crypto trading.

The study assessed how crypto-friendly each of the top 50 biggest banks are in 2023, especially in terms of ability to trade or facilitate on-ramping of cryptocurrencies natively or through licensed crypto exchanges.

The report shows that the top 3 largest crypto exchanges by trading volume and Trust Score are Binance, Coinbase and OKX, as of July 21, 2023. They were selected because of their global reach and compliance with crypto regulations in many countries to determine the ability of the banks in question to connect to a crypto exchange.

In spite of this seemingly encouraging report, the study also reveals that the adoption of crypto by big banks has slowed.

“The adoption of blockchain-based solutions by big banks has been relatively slow compared to other sectors. Strict regulations, market volatility, and recent high-profile failures of exchanges like FTX have hindered the integration of cryptocurrency trading into these large banks,” the report said.

Asian banks behind in crypto adoption

Although most major global banks are in support of crypto, there are some that still have a firm stand against crypto. Leading in this group are Asian banks, and China is taking the lead with all the 13 banks that do not allow connections based in China.

This is expected, because China has a long history of anti-crypto stance, with the People’s Bank of China banning financial institutions from making transactions in virtual currencies in 2013. The quest to create a digital Yuan is part of the strategy to keep the crypto market under state control.

However, the administrative region of Hong Kong is open to crypto, and likely to pull back China into the crypto market. Hong Kong’s crypto-friendliness is expected to:

“spread to the rest of mainland China, with the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Science and Technology Park Management Committee releasing a white paper on Web3 technologies at the end of May,” the report said.

Institutional trading getting popular

Although openness to crypto has slowed generally, banks seem to be open to institutional trading in particular. This has made institutional trading to become a growing trend among banks.

“However, blockchain technology is still firmly in the scope of big banks. Institutional clients have been able to get exposure to cryptocurrencies natively for some years at several banks:
“JPMorgan was the first bank to develop its own digital currency, JPM Coin, back in 2019 on an internally developed, private version of Ethereum,” the report stated.
Banks are also developing more interest towards full retail crypto trading through partnerships with crypto custody firms. For example, the Swiss digital asset safekeeping company Metaco has signed deals with several banks among the top 50 in consideration.
Neobanks such as Revolut and Wirex are currently taking the lead in native crypto trading. However through institutional trading, these banks may eventually accommodate retail investors as well, giving room to more banks opening their doors to cryptocurrencies

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BNB Chain Beats Ethereum in Number of Verified Smart Contracts According to Q2 Report

The crypto market has seen some upsides this year, but it has mostly been bearish. Bitcoin crashed to $15,000 in January, reaching the lowest level since the 2021 all-time high of over $60,000.

This has made investors have mixed feelings on the future of the industry, especially for altcoins. There has been a significant decline in the prices of altcoins, even at the time of writing this report, and there’s no sign of sustainable relief yet.

Despite the bearish trend in the crypto market in Q2 2023 however, the use of smart contracts has been on a steady increase, reports show. Ethereum has been the lead in terms of smart contracts, but that has changed in 2023.

According to the report, BNB Chain has surpassed Ethereum in the number of verified smart contracts in Q2 2023. The Binance-owned blockchain took 46.5% of the total number of verified smart contracts, while Ethereum had 31.3%.

BNB Chain is a Binance-owned blockchain upon which developers can build smart contracts and decentralized applications. Binance created the network to go into smart contracts as an option to Ethereum, since Ethereum had several issues such as high transaction fees and regular network congestion.

Although Ethereum has been the go-to platform for smart contracts for years, things are starting to change because of these weaknesses since BNB Chain provides a faster and cheaper alternative. This trend will likely continue as developers look for more affordable and faster ways to build and deploy smart contracts.

The data shows that developers have much trust for BNB Chain’s ecosystem. Ethereum also showed consistent growth, showing that it still retains an important position in the space as a long-standing leader.

Improvements to BNB Chain

BNB Chain was able to achieve faster transactions and lower fees because of improvements it made to the network. Worthy of note is layer 2 solution, zkBNB, which saw significant adoption in 2023.

The adoption is due to the application of Layer 2 solutions, like opBNB and zkBNB for addressing the scalability and cost issues associated with Ethereum. Such solutions are a relief to developers who have suffered from problems of congestion and high fees for many years.

The data also shows that other blockchains such as Polygon, Fantom, Avalanche, Arbitrum, and Optimism have demonstrated a steady engagement in their smart contract activities.

This ensures healthy competition that is likely to sustain innovation in the blockchain space, especially for smart contracts.

Smart contract adoption on the increase

Smart contracts are digital contracts on a blockchain that get executed when certain conditions are met. These have become increasingly relevant in today’s world as every sector seeks to automate its processes. They also eliminate disputes and reduce human error and fraud in processes involving contracts.

The Q2 report shows that smart contracts are seeing more adoption, indicating that developers have an unwavering faith in smart contracts and the potential of decentralized applications, regardless of what happens in the crypto market.

This suggests that more adoption is expected in Q3, with focus on enhancing smart contract security, stable momentum in Layer 2 Solutions Adoption, increased cross-chain interoperability, usability innovations, increased regulatory scrutiny, and an emphasis on educating the public about the benefits and risks associated with blockchain technology and decentralized applications.

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France and Germany Regulators Probing Worldcoin Over Data Privacy Concerns

In a recent update, the German regulators joined forces with France to probe the operation of Worldcoin. In an email statement, the French privacy regulators CNIL expressed concern about the controversial project led by the co-founder of OpenAI, Sam Altman.

Worldcoin was first launched by Altman to scan human irises. Lately, the internet has been washed by news concerning Worldcoin as millions of people flock to get signups.

Germany and France Set to Probe Worldcoin

After the scanning phase, the participant is issued a digital passport. Earlier, Altman and team have explained the importance of the World IDs in promoting the growth of the artificial intelligence sector. According to Altman, digital passports will be used to detect humans and robots in the future.

On July 24, the OpenAI team launched the Worldcoin token (WLD) and a distinctive protocol that will support the impending launching of the digital wallet. News concerning the launch of the Worldcoin token has sparked heated debates among the community.

In the context of the CNIL email, the regulators questioned the legality of Worldcoin in storing biometric information. The unanswered questions obliged the CNIL to work with the German Bavarian State Authority to probe the matter.

Surprisingly CNIL regulatory action mirrors Britain’s Information Commissioner’s Office’s (BICO) latest move in probing the controversial crypto project. A report by BICO revealed that the regulators would inquire about Worldcoin data privacy.

In the argument, BICO stressed the need for Worldcoin to undergo Data Protection Impact Assessment before conducting the proposed iris scanning. The regulators confessed that the iris scanning would gather high-risk data, which might violate the law and lead to ethical concerns.

Worldcoin Faces Probe

Earlier, the co-founder of the second largest blockchain Ethereum Vitalik Buterin had announced that the Worldcoin project had four major issues. Buterin lamented that the iris scanner might lead to ethical concerns for exposing individual confidential information to the public. He decried that Worldcoin might disclose individuals’ sex, medical, and ethnicity data to the third party.

Buterin’s statement echoed Pete Howson, a renowned scholar’s who demonstrated the need to improve the data security of Worldcoin. In his report, Howson lamented data violation occurs anytime. And such data breaches affect the quality of life of many. Howson stated that violating Worldcoin biometric data measures could harm the lives of vulnerable communities in developing countries.

Strategies to Improve Worldcoin Data Security

Despite the regulatory pressure, the Worldcoin team has ensured that iris scanning devices are available. The Worldcoin team has situated two biometrics in Britain and Germany.

In a Twitter statement, Altman admitted that the world has positively welcomed Worldcoin. He stated that there are crazy lines everywhere as people avail themselves of the iris scanning.

The executive was pleased to state that the verification process takes eight seconds at most. Even though multitudes have turned up for the Worldcoin registration, the executive confessed that achieving the expected mass adoption might take a little longer.

In his projection, the executive estimated that at the current verification rate, it might take approximately five years to onboard 19.6 million people, constituting 0.00245% of the global population.

Therefore to attain Worldcoin’s ultimate goal of mass adoption, the company would invest in increasing the number of orbs in thriving towns. The investment in orbs aims at increasing the registration number by five times.

Effect of Worldcoin Data Breaches

In a previous statement, the Worldcoin team claimed to comply with the global rules on processing personal data. The report demonstrated that Worldcoin has fully met the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK Data Protection Act.

Irrespective of this, Worldcoin plans to cooperate with the regulatory agencies to mull on privacy and data protection matters.

Furthermore, the Worldcoin group confirmed to have undertaken multiple Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA) in collaboration with the best-performing Law Information Commission Office (ICO)firm in the UK. The Worldcoin team announced that the DPIA will assist the firm in identifying high-risk data that could compromise biometric data collection. 

The ICO advised Worldcoin to develop clear procedures for processing personal data. The regulators urged Worldcoin to uphold compliance when gathering the biometric data.

The ICO recommended that Worldcoin to seek user consent before collecting the data. Also, the organization requested Worldcoin to enable users to delete personal information anytime.

Editorial credit: Rokas Tenys / Shutterstock.com

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Shiba Inu Developers Testing Shibarium to Ethereum Bridge

In a blog post, the team behind Shibarium, an Ethereum-focused layer 2 network, announced the launching of the testnet bridge. The launch aimed to support users to transfer their tokens between Shiba Inu and Ethereum blockchain network. According to Shibarium developers, the newly launched testnet bridge will only support “dummy assets.”

Shiba Inu Developers Begins Shibarium Testing

In a Twitter statement issued on July 28, Lucie, a marketing specialist at Shiba Inu, argued that the public testing phase would allow the crypto natives to explore the testnet bridge. Even though bad players have lately been eying to launch malicious attacks on vulnerable bridges, the Shibarium developers have adopted revolutionary technologies to strengthen the testnet bridge. 

Last year bad actor compromised a vulnerable bridge on the Ronin network heisting $622 million. The bridge attack was the largest on record linked to North Korean hackers.

In a subsequent Twitter comment, the Shiba Inu community demanded to know the official launch date for the testnet. Commenting on this, a blockchain infrastructure provider @NOWNodes stated that the launch date is near. Adding on that @NOWNodes reiterated that soon after finalizing the remaining task, the Shiba Inu team will update the community the first official partner to have Shibarium RPC nodes integrated.

Testnet Launching Compels Shiba Inu to Rally

In an interview with Shibarium chief developer Shytoshi Kusama, the executive confirmed that from August, the bridge would enable the user to transfer Ether (ETH) to the Shibarium network. The developer stated that the transaction from the two networks would take 30 minutes at most. However, Kusama explained that the bridge would not support real asset transactions. 

In his report, Kusama highlighted that Layer 2 network constitutes off-chain systems centered on separate blockchains. Typically, the Layer 2 protocol minimizes the scaling challenges, reduces gas fees and data congestion on the network.

Elsewhere a report from DoggyDAO, a Shiba Inu-owned decentralized autonomous organization, anticipates starting operations on the Shibarium. According to DoggyDAO, the Shibarium network will support the firm in funding blockchain-oriented projects.

A recent study demonstrated that the testnet bridge has gained momentum recently. From July, over 27 million transactions were conducted with 16 million wallets on the testnet bridge. This implies that the testnet network has gained popularity and is in high demand.

In an earlier report, the Shiba Inu team affirmed that the Shibarium would focus more on projects on the metaverse and gaming. The Shibarium team anticipates that the non-fungible token (NFT) sector will grow exponentially in the coming years.

Beyond this, news concerning the launching of the testnet propelled Shiba Inu native token SHIB to rally by 3.06% to exchange hands at $0.000008515. Launching the testnet supported Shiba Inu-based tokens such as BONE ShibaSwap to make significant gains. At present, 03:41 UTC BONE ShibaSwap increased by 1.34% to trade at $1.44, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Meme Coins Lead the Way as Crypto Market Starts Turning Green

The crypto market has been down the last few days, with Bitcoin leading the drop as usual. Bitcoin recently crashed under $30,000 for the first time in four months. This resulted in the general market experiencing a downward trend that has persisted for days.

However, it seems the trend may be coming to an end as the top cryptocurrencies have started turning green. Bitcoin for instance has suddenly gained 0.04% in the last 24 hours. In a similar fashion, Ethereum has gone up slightly, same as XRP.

Meme coins seem to have made the most progress, with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu recording 2.2% and 1.27% respectively in the last 24 hours at the time of writing this report. Dogecoin has also gained over 10%, while Shiba Inu has gained over 7% in the last seven days, according to Coin Market Cap.

This has made the meme coins to stand out among the top ten crypto assets this weekend, as most of them still bleed over the seven-day timeframe. This could be the beginning of a recovery for the market and the beginning of better days, at least for the short term.

Meme coins acing market

The meme coins are regarded as joke crypto assets, but they seem to be evolving into more than just joke tokens and coins. For Dogecoin, nearly everything Elon Musk does produce a positive effect for the coin.

For example, the recent change of Twitter’s name to X resulted in the price going up 20% suddenly. This is not a price reaction for nothing. Musk has declared he wishes to make X a platform for all things commerce, and analysts predict that DOGE will likely be the token that will be one of the app’s main payment methods.

They also expect it to be the payment method for ads, as well as used for tipping on the app. This could positively affect the price of the asset in the near future when Musk actualizes his dream on X.

For Shiba Inu, the surge could be related to the recent news of Shibarium nearing its final launch. The team announced that the project has already launched its beta version for public testing.

Although SHIB will not be the native token on Shibarium but rather BONE, the launch of the layer 2 blockchain network on Ethereum could also affect the price of SHIB positively, primarily through burns as the use of BONE on the network leads to the burn of SHIB.

How high will the market go?

Investors are watching the crypto market closely for a positive move, which may have been sparked already. But how high will the market go before slowing down again? This is not known, and is mostly dependent on Bitcoin’s move, unless an altcoin season is coming.

Some analysts however believe that an alt season is not likely to come until 2024 following Bitcoin’s halving. The Bitcoin halving is also expected to herald the next Bitcoin rally, which is usually followed by the alt season.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance has dropped to just over 48%. This usually indicates that altcoins are faring better, since they’re collectively taking the bigger chunk of trading volume for the market currently. Does this mean an alt season may come sooner than we think?

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Crypto Mining Retailer Phoenix Technology Set to Launch IPO in UAE

Phoenix Technology, the prominent crypto mining hardware retailer, confirmed plans to hold talks on an initial public offering (IPO) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). An IPO offering involves selling privately owned shares to retail and institutional clients.

According to two people privy to the matter, Phoenix has started the discussion on offering an IPO to the public. A source familiar with the matter claimed that Phoenix projects the listing to take place this year.

Phoenix Technology to Introduce IPO Offering

News concerning Phoenix’s IPO offering came when the mining company sought to establish the largest mining facility in the Middle East. The Phoenix group has acquired the necessary distribution rights for technological devices in Africa, Turkey, and the Middle East.

In 2021 the Phoenix team closed one of the largest purchase deals on record to acquire mining rigs worth $650 million. Subsequently, the mining company ordered crypto-mining application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) delivered in Q3 of 2022.

In an interview with “Entrepreneur Magazine,” the co-founder of Phoenix Technology, Bijan Alizadeh, confirmed that the acquisition aimed at enabling the mining company to increase its capacity to 1.4 GW. The executive expressed optimism that UAE would rank as the third-largest crypto hub in the world.

Recently the UAE has invested in improving its market attractiveness to bring more crypto firms to the region. In March, Dubai imposed new regulations on crypto assets and established a new regulatory agency Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA).

Suitability of UAE Crypto Market

Before then, the UAE had announced plans to launch free trade zones for digital assets dubbed the RAK Digital Assets Oasis (RAK DAO), aiming at attracting global players in the region. The free trade zone was named after Ras Al Khaimah (RAK), a city within the UAE.

 Unlike the US, the UAE has made significant milestones to support the growth of the crypto sector and safeguard the investor’s interests. Besides the regulations, the UAE, an oil-rich country, provides crypto mining firms with cheaper energy.

Recently miner Marathon Digital Holdings entered into a partnership agreement with Zero Two to establish a 250MW mining facility in Abu Dhabi. Correspondingly, Marathon’s top rival, Crusoe Energy, revealed plans to expand to Oman and Abu Dhabi.

In a recent survey, investors claimed that the Gulf region is more business-friendly than other jurisdictions.

A report from an official from Crypto Oasis Saqr Ereiqat revealed that the UAE had adopted streamlined regulations compared to the US’ fragmented regulations.

Even though the UAE is considered a business-friendly region, the regulators have imposed strict regulations. A few months ago, the regulators canceled BitOasis’ license due to noncompliance. After the suspension, VARA regretted that BitOasis failed to meet the deadlines.

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Fergatex Review – Is fergatex.com Scam or a Legit Crypto Broker?

Fergatex Review

The online trading industry has become extremely demanding in the past few years. Although it has become very attractive, its difficulties have also risen, making it complicated to grasp. The industry would become even more complex if you do not have the right direction or the right kind of support.

Trust me when I say this, the industry has a scarcity of reliable trading firms. However, I have managed to find a trading firm that I strongly believe, would be a fine choice. You would know what I’m talking about, once you go through my Fergatex review.

This firm has a high reputation in the online trading market, which comes from the strong dedication of the Fergatex.com trading firm. All I ask is that you go through my Fergatex review and learn about all the major offerings of this firm.

Improve Your Learning Abilities

Before talking about other prominent features of the Fergatex.com broker, I must talk about the educational content that the firm offers. You will know how this firm has been working hard to turn you into an experienced trader.

The firm offers an online learning center that comprises of latest eBooks and tutorial videos, offering so much learning content. The more you learn from the content, the better you become at trades. The platform has also put together a highly informative and up-to-date FAQs page, which answers all common queries about trading and about the firm. As you continue gathering knowledge from the content, your learning skills improve tremendously.

You can also choose to be with the trading experts in private coaching sessions as well as webinars. The more you interact with these experts, the more trading strategies you learn.

Accept Every Trading Market

The Ferga Tex trading firm has enlisted dozens of assets from all major trading markets such as stocks, forex, commodities, and cryptocurrency trading. However, the firm doesn’t want to impose anything on you. It is completely up to your will whether you’d like to stick to a single or go for multiple assets, to expand your portfolio.

However, the firm does encourage you to accept all the trading markets it offers. The more markets you explore, the more informed you become about the latest happenings in the overall trading industry. This gives you even more command over the trades.

Having the right kind of utilities and trading services is very crucial when trading and the Ferga Tex broker knows it very well. To achieve this, the broker has introduced multiple experience-based trading accounts, which offer balanced utilities and services, based on your experience.

You Can Count on the Support

You will never run out of guidance and support if you are with the Fergatex trading firm. This firm specializes in offering a tremendous amount of support via its 24/7 customer support representatives, account managers, and experts. Customer support is always reachable via a number of channels including landline and chat support. They are experienced and highly professional in dealing with each query with utmost responsibility and care.

When you sign up with the Fergatex broker, the teams at the firm assign your profile to an account manager. The responsibility of the manager is to ensure that you are never left alone, whenever trading, or facing any kind of difficulty. You are already aware of how trading experts can guide you and help you become a skillful trader.

Always Choose a Professional Firm

Remember, you must stick with a trading firm that is compliant with the latest operational guidelines. A compliant trading firm does not offer unreliable services and aims to operate within professional boundaries.

This is exactly what the Fergatex trading firm is doing by staying compliant with the AML and KYC guidelines. The firm is always adherent and it wouldn’t lower its stance from being a compliant trading firm under any circumstances. If you do not find it viable to adhere to the guidelines, then you can’t join Fergatex.

You will be amazed to witness the level of security that the Fergatex broker offers. The firm protects all of your sensitive data with encryptions, which comes from integration of the SSL Security. Whether you are adding your financial information or personal details, when signing up for an account, or updating it, you are secured with encryptions.

Is Fergatex Scam or Legit?

I know that you have no doubts about this firm’s legitimacy after going through all the major aspects of this firm. This firm is determined to improve its services and offerings, whenever it can, making it one of the top choices among the traders. The major attraction of this firm is its educational program which includes the latest trading training material and interactions with the experts.

Ending Thoughts

There aren’t many trading firms that offer a vast educational program to help improve your knowledge of the markets. If you have stumbled upon this opportunity, then you shouldn’t hesitate and grab it.

I’m hoping that my Fergatex review has given you enough information about this firm that you don’t have to explore its website any further. However, if you feel like taking a look at the website, then you should it for your satisfaction.

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Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia Sign MoU to Strengthen Financial Collaboration

The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) today to strengthen collaboration between the financial services sectors in the two jurisdictions.

The MoU was signed during a bilateral meeting held in Riyadh on July 26. Four major areas including financial infrastructure development, open market operations, market connectivity and sustainable development were discussed during the meeting.

The two jurisdictions also agreed to promote joint deliberations in financial innovation. The Governor of the SAMA Mr Ayman Alsayari and the Chief Executive of the HKMA Mr Eddie Yue signed the MoU at the SAMA headquarters in Riyadh.

The agreement mandates both parties to promote knowledge sharing in financial innovation and Fintech, focusing on emerging trends, best practices, regulatory issues, policies and legislations.

Collaboration between fintech hubs

Both Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong are two booming fintech hubs, particularly for cryptocurrencies. Hong Kong recently opened its doors to crypto companies to come and take advantage of its regulatory framework and prosper.

Saudi Arabia, even though it’s behind the United Arab Emirates in leading crypto innovation, is one of the upcoming countries in the region embracing the industry.

According to the Governor of the SAMA Mr Ayman Alsayari, the two authorities face similar challenges as emerging fintech hubs, and so need to collaborate on issues.

“Saudi Arabia’s financial sector is growing in size, with new entrants, new services, and new innovation each year, all supporting a diversified Saudi economy. As the Kingdom develops as a global Fintech hub, our links with other growing hubs become ever more important,” Alsayari said.

“HKMA is a longstanding partner of the Saudi Central Bank and also a leader in innovation. The MoU will support our relationship into the future, helping both authorities stay at the cutting edge and strengthening our ability to deal with mutual issues,” he added.

Also speaking on the collaboration, Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA, said the two parties both have huge potential and need to enhance mutual cooperation and exchange ideas on areas such as economy and trade, sustainable development, finance and Fintech.

“There is huge potential for collaboration between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong in areas spanning across economy and trade, sustainable development, finance and Fintech,” Yue said.

“The MoU, in particular, will further enhance mutual cooperation as well as exchange of information and expertise between the SAMA and the HKMA in financial innovation and Fintech. We look forward to working with the SAMA to promote investment and financial market connectivity between the Middle East and Asia,” he concluded.

The two jurisdictions also had an opportunity to share their own experiences in research and innovation, discussing progress made in areas such as supervision technologies (Suptech), tokenization and payment infrastructure.

A win for crypto

This MoU holds excellent potential for the crypto industry in both jurisdictions. Hong Kong is a fast-growing crypto hub that is ahead of Saudi Arabia. However with this collaboration, it is likely to influence Saudi Arabia more in favor of cryptocurrencies.

More of such collaborations are required between countries to enable crypto innovation to thrive in such places. It will not be a surprise to see Saudi taking some major steps towards embracing crypto innovation as well moving towards regulatory clarity for the industry in the coming months.

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Ramp Network Unveils Operation in Brazil, Eyes Latin America Expansion

In an advanced report, the fast-growing fintech company in Poland, Ramp Network, opened shop in Brazil to meet the ever-changing needs of Latin America. The announcement revealed that the fintech company would introduce its revolutionary technologies, such as a software development kit (SDK), to the Brazilian market.

Ramp Network Expand to Latin America

Also, Ramp plans to launch Web2 enterprise, Web3 games, and a crypto wallet in the South American country. According to Ramp, the expansion plans align with the company’s core mission of “bringing Web3 to the mainstream.”

The fintech company plans to allow Brazilians to purchase crypto assets through their wallets. Additionally, Ramp will offer holistic end-to-end, noncustodial on-ramp and off-ramping services.

In an interview, the chief technology officer at Ramp Network, Łukasz Anwajler, confessed that the fintech company plan to widen its market presence to Latin America due to the suitability of the market. The executive referred to recent research conducted by Chainalysis, a famous blockchain analytic firm, to examine crypto adoption in Brazil. 

In their findings, the Chainalysis team observed that Brazil ranks seventh with the highest number of crypto adoption in Latin America. The report demonstrated that in 2022 crypto assets constituted 9.1% of the revenue generated in Latin America.

Besides the suitability of the Brazilian crypto market, the executive stated that the region has clear regulations on digital assets, unlike in the US. 

Suitability of the Brazilian Market

A few months ago, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro enforced new regulations on crypto assets. Under the new legislation, digital asset companies and exchanges must seek a virtual asset provider license to operate in Brazil.

The new rules outline the penalties and court fines that noncompliant firms face. Also, the new regulation considers crypto assets as securities supervised by the Securities and Exchange Commission (CVM).

Remarkably the efforts made by the Brazilian government to create a welcoming crypto environment have inspired firms to expand to the region. In January, the second largest crypto exchange by daily volume, Coinbase, integrated Pix, a Brazilian payment platform, to allow users to trade using the local currency. 

Soon after entering the vibrant Brazilian market, the Ramp team will seek to partner with local payment platforms. The executive mentioned that Ramp plans to collaborate with government-sponsored payment company Pix. Anwajler announced that Ramp will recruit new talents from Brazil to promote business growth.

Ramp Network Reveal Expansion Plans to Latin America

Ramp integrated additional currencies, including the Brazilian real, in June on its payment platform. The integration aimed to support Ramp to easily expand to South America by allowing Brazilians to buy and sell crypto using their payment cards.

In 2022 Ramp generated $70 million in a series B funding round led by Mubadala Capital and Korelya Capital. The payment company affirmed that the investment will support the firm in adding additional currencies to its portfolios. Also, the payment company will use the $70 million generated from the funding round for global expansion. 

Over the past, Ramp Network has supported companies to trade cryptocurrencies. The fintech company has enabled companies to integrate currencies on their websites.

Ramp has worked with the best-performing payment companies, including Axie, Opera, Trust Wallet, and Brave. The company continues to support companies to buy crypto using Apple Pay, bank transfer, debit, and credit cards.

Editorial credit: marchello74 / Shutterstock.com

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Experts Raise Concerns on Security of Telegram Bots for Crypto Trading

Telegram bots are a popular way to trade cryptocurrencies on decentralized exchanges, even for beginners. However, there may be danger in the use of these bots in crypto trading.

According to experts, Telegram bots have hidden security vulnerabilities that make them risky to use. Of particular interest is how the bots handle user assets. Telegram bots do all the work for users – they create wallets where users are expected to deposit funds, they also generate private keys for those wallets.

While this seems very easy and enticing, security experts believe that Telegram bots are among the least secure to use for crypto trading. One of such experts and former Microsoft security lead, Christian Seifert has this to say.

“I think the rise of Telegram bots is a terrible development — closed source and you are handing over your private keys. This is even worse than back in the day when you sent some funds to an unknown exchange website,” Seifert stated..

“The bots might even be riskier than interacting with an unknown smart contract where you can specify and limit the approval. With bots, you essentially hand over everything and hope they don’t take your funds.” he added.

Telegram bots lack security audits

Although Telegram bots make trading easier, they are not properly audited to ensure they are safe enough to keep users’ funds secure. This places their assets at risk, especially with errors in the codes used to build those bots, and can lead to major security breaches and losses.

“These bots lack a proper security audit, provide no insights into the storage methods for private keys, and there’s an utter void of security documentation on their websites,” said Dave Schwed, COO of the security firm Halborn.

For those not familiar with it, security audits are done by third-party specialists to evaluate a system’s risk of security breach. This ensures that systems maintain the best security standards to ensure security of both data and assets of users.

Another major problem pointed out was a lack of end-to-end encryption on Telegram itself. Other messaging apps such as Whatsapp have this feature, ensuring that only the two parties communicating can know the content of their messages. A lack of such encryption opens the door to several security vulnerabilities

“While Telegram chats are encrypted, they lack end-to-end encryption. This means Telegram has the ability to decode messages, except when users choose ‘secret chats.’ Unfortunately, these secret chats don’t support bot interactions,” Schewd said.

“Given that bots function within Telegram’s non-end-to-end encrypted domain, any instructions reflecting a user’s financial actions might be at risk,” he added.

Prioritizing security

Experts have given several reasons why the use of Telegram bots to trade presents a major risk. The first is that they generate wallets and private keys which should be private and only known to the wallet user.

Also because Telegram lacks the end-to-end encryption that characterizes messaging apps, it could also be a potential death trap that can let fraudsters drain users’ wallets. With this in mind, while crypto traders can use the bots for easy trading, utmost caution should be applied while using these bots.

Other precautions like not investing more than you can afford to lose are even more important in this situation as anything can go wrong.

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U.S. House Democrats Kick Against Crypto Market Bill

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have kicked against a bill to overhaul how financial laws treat crypto assets. According to the lawmakers, the bill is overly friendly towards crypto.

Speaking on the proposed bill, Rep. Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee that debated the bill on Wednesday said:

“I am disappointed that Republicans have made the decision to move forward with a massive market structure bill to rewrite our nation’s investor protection acts,”

Senior members of the house have however agreed that a regulatory framework for stablecoins is in order and close to fruition. Waters and Republican House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry expressed optimism for a stablecoin regulation.

They are also hopeful that the almost completed negotiations could also pave the way for the market bill which will be up for vote again on thursday next week.

“There is goodwill and much hard work by the Republican staff on the Financial Services Committee, and the Democrat staff on the Financial Services Committee, in coordination with Treasury conversations,” said McHenry.

However, Waters, like many other Democrats, is calling for input from the securities and exchange commission (SEC) and particularly SEC chair Gary Gensler on the market bill. Republicans are not in agreement with this, saying they asked for Gary’s input weeks ago with no response.

The push for stablecoin regulation

Following the crash of TerraUSD last year, lawmakers in the U.S. have advocated for a regulatory framework that will ensure the safety of investors using stablecoins. Both Democrat and Republican lawmakers have mostly agreed on this, making it more likely for the bill to be passed.

The opposition from some Democrats is however likely to sabotage the passage of the crypto market bill, if a majority of Democrats fail to support it. Not all of them are against the bill though.

A Democrat Jim Himes pointed out that the inconsistencies in regulators’ definition of a security, and the outcome of the three-year old Ripple vs SEC case calls for the crypto market bill.

“I am confident that this legislation, while not perfect, makes the status quo better,” said Rep. Jim Himes. “I’m a deep skeptic of this industry but we deserve better than the status quo,” continued Himes.

House Republicans lobby Democrats

As part of a strategy to get Democrats to support the crypto market bill, House Republicans have agreed to add $120 million in funding to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission taken from the SEC, a move that some Democrats kicked against.

This is to enable the commission to oversee spot markets for digital assets, like bitcoin, that would fall under the commodities regulator’s jurisdiction if the bill were to become law. McHenry further offered to raise the funding level to $150 million over three years if it would help the bill across the line.

Rep. David Scott, D-Ga., who sits on the Financial Services Committee and top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee remains resolute against the bill though. “This is not just a bad bill, it’s a cruel bill, it’s a deceptive bill,” said Scott.

All hope is not lost though, as debate is ongoing and amendments are being made to reach a compromise. If successfully passed though, the crypto market bill may bring the much needed clarity that the crypto market desperately needs.

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Binance Withdraws License Application in Germany

The world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume Binance has withdrawn its initial application to Germany’s financial regulator BaFin. The exchange says it took the decision considering the tough regulatory struggle the crypto industry is facing.

Binance had embarked on an expansion plan involving obtaining operational licenses in many countries. However, it is slowing down with the expansion considering the realities on ground. In Germany in particular, the regulator had told Binance it will not grant the exchange a crypto custody license.

However,Binance decided to apply for an operational license all the same, but has now decided to change its mind until things start to improve.

“Binance confirms it has proactively withdrawn its BaFin (Germany’s financial regulator) application. The situation, both in the global market and regulation, has changed significantly,” a spokesperson for the company said on Wednesday.

“Binance still intends to apply for appropriate licensing in Germany, but it is essential that our submission accurately reflects these changes,” the spokesperson added.

Binance’s action is coming after the exchange has faced rejections and regulatory pressure in several countries including Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands. However, these are not the only places where Binance has faced serious issues with regulators.

The battle in the U.S.

Binance’s fate has gotten worse with the growing interest of regulators in the crypto industry. The U.S. seems to be where the heat has intensified the most. The exchange and its CEO Changpeng Zhao were dragged to court by the securities and exchange commission roughly two months ago on allegations of Securities laws validation.

The SEC also claims that Binance has mismanaged the funds of its customers, sometimes mingling it with the exchange’s funds. Binance however has denied these allegations, but has not been able to defend itself up to this point.

Binance isn’t the only exchange facing this battle though. Coinbase, the biggest crypto exchange in the United States is also facing a similar challenge with similar allegations. HoweverCoinbase claims that the SEC has no clear regulation for the industry and has already challenged it in court to produce a clear regulatory framework for the industry.

Another regulator the commodities and futures trading commission (CFTC) has also charged Binance to court, claiming that it violates the commodities Exchange Act.

The CFTC had also in March sued Binance, accusing the exchange of operating an illegal exchange and a “sham” compliance program, saying the company has “offered and executed commodity derivatives transactions on behalf of U.S. persons” in violation of U.S. laws since 2019.

Indeed, these regulatory challenges have affected Binance in many ways, leading to drastic actions such as staff retrenchment, and has also resulted in a drop in its market share of spot digital-asset trading volumes.

Binance gets set to defend self

Although Binance is still battling the SEC in court over allegations of violating security laws and mishandling customer funds, it is getting ready to defend itself against the CFTC’s allegations of Commodity Exchange Act violations.

The exchange is challenging the allegations by the CFTC in a filing within the week. According to the filing documents, the foreign Binance subsidiaries and Binance CEO Zhao plan to file a joint Motion to the presiding Court to Dismiss the Complaint.

If the crypto giant succeeds, this may be a win for other crypto companies facing similar charges from regulators in the U.S., and it will only have the SEC to contend with.

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Namibian President Signs Crypto Exchange Regulation Bill Into Law

The Namibian government has greenlighted a Namibia Virtual Assets Act 2023 regulation into law. The bill was enforced into law on July 14 after President Hage Geingob issued his final assent.

Consecutively the bill has undergone various legislative processes before the presidential assent. On July 6, the members of the Namibian National Assembly reviewed and approved the bill.

The drafted regulation was later submitted to President Geingob for approval. Guided by the Namibian law-making process, the legislators have officially published the approved legislation in the Gazette of Namibia. 

Even though the bill has completed the legislative approval process in Namibia, the Ministry of Finance has complete authority to schedule the dates to implement the new law.

Summary of Namibia Virtual Assets Act 2023 

Under the bill, President Geingob has granted the regulatory authority power to monitor the operation of local crypto exchanges. The new legislation outlines the procedure for regulating crypto activities in Namibia. 

The new regulation highlights the punitive measure the regulators will take to ensure compliance. The new rule mentioned that non-compliant virtual asset service providers (VASP) will face legal action.

According to the bill, non-compliant VASPs will be required to settle a penalty totaling $671000. Depending on the case’s complexity, the VASPs caught in wrongdoing will be placed behind bars for ten years.

In addition, the new legislation grants the Bank of Namibia the legal authority to ensure crypto assets will not be legal tender.

Namibia Amends Laws on Crypto Assets

In 2017 the Namibia government restricted the use of digital assets in the country. Reflecting on the Namibia Exchange Act of 1966, the authority banned the use of cryptocurrency in payment. At that time, the regulator declared that any individual or entity engaging in crypto-related activity would face legal action for violating the old-decade laws.

With the growing interest in crypto assets, the Bank of Namibia agreed to revise the old law in 2018. The bank formulated a proposal on the need to introduce crypto assets to the traditional finance market.

In the proposal, the bank recommended the introduction of digital ledger technologies and crypto to the conventional finance sector. Also, the bank advised the government to invest in creating awareness to the community on the benefits of adopting emerging technologies such as blockchain and crypto.

The bank submission was supported by other regulatory agencies reversing the country’s anti-crypto stance.

Race to Regulate Crypto Assets

The implicit move made by Namibia to push for mainstream adoption of crypto by creating friendly policies has inspired other African countries.

At the beginning of July, South Africa’s government imposed new regulations requiring the local exchanges to seek licenses. An official publication issued on July 5 illustrated that all crypto exchanges in South Africa should be licensed before December this year.

After the deadline, the South African government pledged legal action against non-compliant exchanges.

The South African move mirrors the regulatory actions taken by Botswana, Kenya, Seychelles, and Mauritius to regulate crypto assets. A few months ago, the Central African Republic (CAR) accepted Bitcoin as legal tender.

However, as Namibia joins others in the ongoing push for crypto adoption, other African countries impose restrictive measures on crypto assets. Recent research by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) revealed that Congo, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, and Sierra Leone are enforcing laws to ban crypto.

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Bitget Rebrands to Bring Customers Smarter Trading

Top crypto derivatives and copy trading platform Bitget has announced its rebranding, to focus on strengthening its position as a leader in innovative trading products. The initiative tagged “Trade Smarter” aims to empower individuals with intuitive tools for a secure, user-friendly, and efficient financial future.

In a blog post, Bitget said it has always encouraged more people to enter crypto and take advantage of its potential to create a better life. However, the process isn’t as easy as it sounds, since it requires knowledge and experience. Processes such as trading have also evolved with the growing crypto industry, making it more difficult than ever for beginners to enter the space.

Although Bitget has done its part in educating the public, that isn’t enough to enable beginners smoothly navigate the crypto industry, causing many to give up altogether or lose their investments. This necessitated the copy trading initiative which the exchange is known for currently.

However, this isn’t enough, so Bitget is launching a copy trading community while leveraging AI to help members trade smarter.

“Starting today, “Trade smarter” will be Bitget’s new brand tagline. Together with our users, we will continue to BUIDL the world’s largest crypto copy trading community, leveraging new technologies such as AI to help every member of the community trade smarter,” Bitget wrote in a blog post on Tuesday July 25.

Simplifying trading

In addition to building a vibrant copy trading community to help beginners trade smarter, Bitget says it is also rebranding its visual identity. This will streamline trading and make it more simple and efficient.

The exchange says it is adopting a “subtractive” approach by taking out some features to make the user interface simpler.

“The same idea also applied to our brand’s visual design, we adopted a “subtractive ” approach. The first element to be “subtracted” is the “tails” in Bitget’s iconic arrow logo,” the exchange wrote in the blog post. “The simplified graphic emphasizes a sense of “direction”. Whether it is copy trading today or AI-assisted intelligent trading in the future, our goal is to help users find their own trading direction that aligns with their investment goals,” it further stated.

Bitget has already applied the new design to its homepage, and will be placing it across pages of the official website, Bitget App, and various external brand displays over the next six months.

“We believe that the new visual language, with its eye-catching color combo and streamlined interactive interface, will provide users with a safer, easier, and more efficient crypto trading experience,” it wrote.

About Bitget

Bitget is a leading derivatives trading exchange with headquarters in Seychelles. The exchange currently serves over 20 million users, and will be turning five in September this year. At the core of the rebranding is the exchange’s commitment to serving its customers better.

Bitget lists three areas of commitment towards offering better services. These include prioritizing customer satisfaction, being transparent in its dealings, and turning wins into “win-wins” for the exchange, customers, and those it enters into partnerships with.

“Get ready to experience the revamped Bitget and join us in an exciting new chapter, where we’ll be helping even more people make the most of our services and trade smarter together!,” Bitget’s managing director Gracy Chen said in the blog post.

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Republic of Palau Launches Stablecoin in Partnership with Ripple

The Republic of Palau has launched a stablecoin, Palau Stablecoin (PSC) in collaboration with Ripple. The Director of Palau’s Digital Residency Program and a member of Palau’s Ministry of Finance, Jay Hunter Anson made the announcement on Twitter.

According to Anson, the first PSC has already been minted, which Representatives from both the Palau National Treasury and Ripple came together at Palau’s National Capitol in Ngerulmud to celebrate.

Speaking on the importance of the launch, Anson said it was a crucial step in their joint exploration of the stablecoin’s potential use cases within Palau.

“The PSC launch is an important milestone in our collaboration with Ripple as we work together to explore the possibilities of this stablecoin in specific use cases within our country. We have received explicit approval from the Palau Congress, giving the PSC pilot program an official stamp of legitimacy.”

The Republic of Palau has been working on a stablecoin project since December last year, which is a digital currency issued and managed by the Palau Ministry of Finance and fully backed by U.S. dollar cash balances. Users will hold the PSC in a digital wallet and can use it as fiat currency since it is not as volatile as conventional cryptocurrencies.

The government called for volunteers for the pilot of the stablecoin in March this year, in partnership with Ripple Labs. The essence was to explore the feasibility and benefits of the stablecoin – a U.S. dollar-backed digital currency program using the XRP Ledger, and now it is a reality.

PSC to solve financial challenges

The government of Palau started the stablecoin project to address the country’s unique financial challenges. Specifically, PSC will reduce payment cost and increase access to financial services among citizens. This will cover unbanked communities as well as different socio-economic groups.

The stablecoin will run on XRP Ledger (XRPL), and was taken through a carefully designed process to ensure maximum efficiency. According to Anson, the pilot tests shed light on the stability and usability of the Palau Stablecoin before considering its potential public release.

“Our controlled pilot tests have been enlightening, and we are optimistic about the potential impact of the Palau Stablecoin on our nation’s economy,” Anson stated.

Volunteers are already participating in the pilot, with videos showing citizens using the stablecoin for payment at selected vendors who confirmed the promptness of payment.

A big move for Palau

Palau is an island state in Oceania. Because it doesn’t have a functioning central bank, it has till this day depended on the U.S. Dollar as the medium of exchange in the whole country.

However, payments with USD may be more expensive and not as fast or accessible as a stablecoin, hence the need to develop PSC in collaboration with Ripple.

The creation of PSC therefore is a significant achievement for the national stablecoin initiative which the country’s president describes as a “step towards our own central bank digital currency.”

News of implementation of the stablecoin pilot has gotten the attention of the Ripple/XRP community, but a joint official press release on the event by Ripple and the Palau government is to be held on July 27 at 9:00 AM in Ngerulmud, Palau. It’ll be interesting to see how XRP price responds to this development.

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Connext Launches Cross-Chain Token Standard to Address Losses from Bridge Hack

Connext, the leading cross-chain bridging platform in Oakland, California, has rolled out a new token dubbed “xERC-20” to address any cyber-related crime, such as malicious attacks on bridges. 

An announcement conveyed by Connext on July 24 outlines the features of the “xERC-20” token. The report illustrated that the token issuers of “xERC-20” can maintain a list of official bridges on the platform.

Connext Seeks to Address Bridge Attacks

Additionally, the token issuers can control the number of tokens minted on the network. The announcement revealed that the “xERC-20” token will be available on Alchemix Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on the Connext protocol.

Initially, the Ethereum Improvement Proposal (EIP- 7281) was proposed by the founder of Connext, Arjuan Bhuptani, to prevent the recurrence of the Multichain hack.

On July 7, assets worth over $100 million were withdrawn from the Multichain bridging platform. After probing the matter, the Multichain team confessed that lousy actors had gained unauthorized access to the company system withdrawing funds worth millions.

Therefore to prevent bridge attacks, Bhuptani co-formulated the EIP- 7281 proposal outlining the process of standardizing tokens and improving the bridging on the network.

In his proposal, Bhuptani explained that launching “xERC-20” will help address the losses of assets caused by bridge hacks. The executive mentioned that the token issuer will be the only one affected in case of a bridge hack.

He added that each bridge will generate a unique version of the token on the network. The development led by Bhuptani outlines the new standards that tokens will be minted on their respective bridges.

Overview of the Ethereum Improvement Proposal

In the primary minting process, the token issuer is required to allow the minting of the token on the smart contract. The development of “xERC-20” mandates the token issuer to control the number of tokens minted on a specific bridge.

Beyond this, the EIP-7281 proposal stated that bridges would be allowed to mint their distinctive version of their token. This derivative token minted on the bridges will not be grouped as “canonical” coins.

However the proposed minting process on the bridges, aims to reduce the issuance of unofficial versions of tokens.

According to Bhuptani, the EIP-7281 development ensures the DeFi platforms remain safe and secure from bridge attacks. Describing the benefits of EIP-7281, Bhuptani confirmed that the token issuer is at risk of losses if a bridge attack occurs. He added that the bridge hack would not affect the end user.

Reflecting on the requirement for the approval of the EIP proposal, Bhuptani confirmed that the EIP editorial team had greenlighted the EIP-7281 project. He claimed that the approval process for EIP takes months.

In a recent update, the token issuer will launch Connext standard token before the final approval. At this stage, the user can provide valuable insights concerning the new token and any necessary development would be required on the EIP-7281. 

Commenting on this, the Connext team announced that the token standard would be forward-compatible with the official coin version. This will prevent vulnerable bridges with security problems from being misused.

Furthermore, developing the new token creates a friendly environment to encourage the token issuers to upgrade their supported bridges according to their preference. This development aims to improve the bridge’s security and the quality of the services. 

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Ethereum Co-Founder Vitalik Buterin Points Out Issues with Newly Launched Worldcoin

The long awaited Worldcoin from the CEO of OpenAI Sam Altman was finally released today. Many top crypto exchanges have already listed the new cryptocurrency, making the price soar to 90%. However Ethereum Co-founder Vitalik Buterin has some reservations concerning the new coin.

In a blog post earlier today, buterin who is also the chief executive officer (CEO) of Ethereum said there are four major risks associated with the biometric-based proof-of-personhood (PoP) system used by Worldcoin.

His main concerns were in the area of privacy, accessibility, centralization and security, which are all critical metrics anyone using a cryptocurrency would need to be aware of. Buterin proposed combining the use of social-graph and biometric techniques to mitigate these risks.

For those not familiar with it, PoP is a system designed to authenticate the uniqueness of a user in a decentralized way without relying on a central authority or revealing personal information. The system has many applications, including Sybil attack prevention by curbing multiple account creation, event tickets, airdrops and DAO voting.

Risks in Worldcoin

Indeed, the technology used in building Worldcoin has many applications. However, Buterin sees some major risks in the use of this technology for a cryptocurrency like Worldcoin, and highlighted those concerns.

For example, according to him, the use of iris scanning raises substantial privacy concerns as there is an inherent risk of identity-related information being misused or leaked, Buterin said.

“At the very least, if someone else scans your iris, they can check it against the database to determine whether or not you have a World ID. Potentially, iris scans might reveal more information,” Buterin said.

Another major concern Buterin pointed out is the lack of accessibility. Worldcoin can only be accessed by anyone if they visit an Orb. This limits access to the coin if enough Orbs are not created to ensure everyone can easily access one, and can potentially be a major setback.

In this case, there may be more Orbs in urban areas, limiting access to rural dwellers which is contrary to the goal of cryptocurrencies. Worldcoin however says it uses phone number verification in place of the Orb biometric imaging device.

Another risk according to Buterin is that of centralization. He said Worldcoin’s Orb hardware device may have backdoors that could cause decentralization. He also stated that Worldcoin’s governance and proprietary algorithms are further centralization concerns.

The last concern raised by Buterin was that of security of the system. He mentioned risks such as Phone hacking, coercion into scanning irises for someone else, selling or renting IDs and 3D-printed “fake people” used to dupe the scan for World IDs as some of such risks.

Buterin applauds PoP

In spite of all the concerns raised by the Ethereum CEO, he also acknowledged that the idea of proof-of-personhood in itself is a good one. He said the world needs a PoP system, or it will be dominated by “centralized identity solutions, money, small closed communities or some combination of all three.”

“I look forward to seeing more progress on all types of proof of personhood, and hopefully seeing the different approaches eventually come together into a coherent whole,” Buterin said.

He said if social-graph-based, general-hardware biometric and specialized-hardware biometric techniques are combined and used together, they can greatly reduce these risks, making Worldcoin a better crypto project.

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President Putin Signs Digital Rubles Bill Into Law

An official publication issued by the government of Russia revealed that President Vladimir Putin had green-lighted the bill on central bank digital currency (CBDC). The report illustrated that President Putin signed the bill into law on Monday, July 24.

The presidential assent gives the authority the power to continue developing the digital ruble. This implies that the regulators can proceed with CBDC pilot tests for the digital ruble from August 1.

President Putin Signs CBDC Bill

Initially, the policymakers had projected that the digital ruble pilot trials would launch in April. The projection failed to materialize after Gazprombank, one of its partners , advised the apex bank to delay the rollout of CBDC to avoid loss of substantial income.

At that time, the bank had signed a partnership agreement with 13 Russian banks, including Sberbank. Also, the bank planned to collaborate with payment platforms, including Mastercard, Visa, and Mir.

A scrutiny bill on CBDC highlighted the fundamental principles for introducing the digital ruble in Russia. With presidential consent, the regulatory agency will enforce the rule into law except for one ordinance captured in Article 3 of the bill. Under this section, the regulator will enforce the amended federal rules in August 2024.

The bill grants the central bank of Russia complete authority to oversee the development of digital ruble infrastructures. The bank will ensure the user assets are secure and will be accountable for all the stored digital assets.

Features of Russian Digital Ruble

Beyond this, the digital ruble provides users with a convenient method to make payments and transfer funds. The digital ruble will be classified as the third type of money close after cash and non-cash assets.

However, the central bank will prohibit using digital rubles in investment projects. Based on the new legislation, the digital ruble will not be used in acquiring loans to create bank accounts.

Additionally, the bill restricts the use of “digital ruble” in any promotion activities carried out by non-operators of the CBDC. The restrictive measure aims at enabling the authority to implement the digital ruble within the Russian territories.

An announcement from the central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina dated July 24, stressed that using digital rubles would be voluntary. The executive affirmed that the authority will not force anyone to use the digital ruble.

The 59-year-old policymaker confirmed the digital ruble would provide Russians and investors with a convenient and cost-friendly payment method. She projects that the endless benefits of the digital ruble will inspire the public to adopt the CBDC. The executive encouraged the Russians to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the CBDC.

Russian Set to Start CBDC Trials Next Month

Elsewhere the deputy governor of the Bank of Russia, Olga Skorobogatova, projected that Russia will experience slow mass adoption of the digital ruble before 2025 until late 2027.

Even though the launching of the CBDC has faced a series of delays, the bill has completed the legislative approval process. Before the Presidential assent, the bill was approved by the highest legislative body State Duma a few days ago. Reportedly members of the federation council approved the bill in early July.

A report from the chairman of the Federation Council, Nikolay Zhuravlev, revealed that adopting emerging technologies such as blockchain and crypto will position Russia in a significant place in international trade. The executive urged the regulators to leverage advanced technology to develop financial tools that can function independently.

Editorial credit: 279photo Studio / Shutterstock.com

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Ripple Seeks for Crypto License from United Kingdom Regulators

As Ripple triumphs over the partial win against the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the payment network plans to expand to the UK. In an exclusive interview with the DL News, Ripple’s managing director, Sendi Young, confirmed that the payment company had submitted its registration for a license to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

The executive mentioned that Ripple is seeking for crypto asset license from the FCA. Subsequently, the official confessed that Ripple plans operate as a regulated payment platform in Ireland. Young added that Ripple is also seeking an Irish payment institution license.

Ripple Applies for Crypto License

Referring to the court judgment summary issued by Judge Analisa Torres, the decision has cemented Ripple’s market value at a significant point to blossom. In a recent report, Ripple’s native token, XRP, surged by 60% following the court verdict. 

According to Judge Torres’ ruling, XRP was considered not a security. Addressing the interview question concerning the court judgment, Young expressed delight that the ruling was a huge win.

She anticipates that the court decision will propel the firm to expand its brand value in the US. Besides being well-positioned in the US, Young confessed that the firm will continue hiring in the UK.

She mentioned that the Ripple team has structured strategies and growth plans critical for its expansion to the UK. The executive announced that the firm has started registering for the crypto asset license to operate in the UK.

Additionally Young confessed that Ripple seeks a payment license to enter the Ireland market. She stated that Ripple had accumulated massive investments that triggered the firm to grow exponentially.

Ripple Reveal its Expansion Plans

A reporter from the DL News requested Young to disclose the Ripple growth plans for the UK and Europe markets. Responding to the query, Young affirmed that the firm will recruit new talents in the region. The hiring process might not abide by Ripple’s core mission since the firm plans to recruit more than the expected number.

Even though Young failed to provide further information concerning Ripple’s expected growth plans, she confirmed that the firm would increase its headcount. A revisit of a recent report depicted that for the last 18 months, Ripple increased UK and European staff by 75%. The statistic indicated that Ripple had hired 100 to 900 global talents at London, Iceland, Dublin, and Reykjavik offices.

Young was pleased to see the positive growth momentum for crypto in the UK. She recounted that the UK had promised to become an international crypto hub. With the commendable achievement, Young anticipates that the UK will become an investment center for crypto assets.

In a previous announcement, the chief executive of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, had revealed plans to flee the US market due to regulatory pressure. The CEO stated that the payment company will seek a suitable market overseas if the court ruling does not favor Ripple.

Overview of Court Judgement on Ripple Vs SEC Case

A review of the court judgment revealed that Ripple and SEC will undergo further trial. The interviewer expressed concern about the final court outcome. In his inquiry, he asked whether Ripple would exit the US if the court reversed the winning after the trial.

Young responded that most crypto firms have expanded outside the US for the last two years after SEC filed a lawsuit against Ripple. She confirmed that the payment company had not changed its stance on the US as its international hub. The executive anticipates that the US will attract more growth and investment after the court ruling. 

In the meantime, Ripple has set up 15 shops in different jurisdictions worldwide. Before the SEC filing, Ripple had established a significant investment attracting larger clientele. Irrespective of this, Young claimed that Ripple has been seeking opportunities to meet the market demand. She confessed that APAC and EMEA regions provide a strong market for Ripple. 

In her concluding remarks, Young slammed the enforcement approach adopted by the SEC. She stated that the SEC regulatory mechanism has deemed innovation in the crypto sector. Furthermore, she stated that SEC regulatory gaps have challenged the UK and EU to adopt favorable policies to attract more investment.

Editorial credit: Ira Lichi / Shutterstock.com

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