Friday, July 28, 2023

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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Thursday, July 27, 2023

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

Fergatex Review

Fergatex logo

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.

Fergatex website

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.

Fergatex trading assets

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, Ɓukasz 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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Wednesday, July 26, 2023

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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