Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Coinsense crypto wire your regular update of rapid fire summaries of all the happenings and goings-on with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Altcoins, DeFi, NFTs other digital Assets and the greater Global geopolitical scene at large; where we understand time is money and try not to waste any of yours. Tto that end, let's get started. December 14 2022.
The U.S Department of Justice is reportedly divided over whether to charge Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, with money laundering. The exchange has been under investigation since 2018 over its compliance with anti-money laundering laws according to Reuters. Half a dozen federal prosecutors believe the evidence collected is sufficient to charge the company and its executives. However, other prosecutors are said to have pushed back arguing that more evidence is needed to take legal action against Binance. The case is being considered by the DOJ the money laundering and asset recovery section the U.S Attorney's office for the Western District of Washington and the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.
Binance CEO CZ has warned staff of possible turbulence ahead for the exchange as it sees a wave of crypto outflows. CZ reportedly told staff in an internal memo that the next few months may be bumpy, but the company will be stronger for having been through it. Binance saw crypto withdrawals worth over $900 million dollars earlier this week as users took direct custody of their coins following the publication of the exchange's audit report. binance has resumed processing usdc's stable coin withdrawals after a temporary pause which gave rise to concerns among some Market Watchers Binance said it halted withdrawals because of inadequate usdc reserves on the platform requiring a token swap Binance. CEO CZ said that the situation would normalize as soon as Banks opened and the company would try to establish more fluid swap channels in the future. Binance saw its record outflows of stable coins on Tuesday with 5.2 billion dollars leaving the platform according to on-chain analytics firm crypto Quant.
Speaking of Crypto Quant, the CEO of the on-chain analytics service has said that binance's holdings have increased by 24% since the FTX bank run last month and that the outflows wave seen on Ethereum does not seem to have had any significant impact on the exchange's reserves. Binance's portfolio is worth around $60 billion dollars but the value of liquid assets held on the exchange that can be used in an emergency remains at around $20 billion dollars according to Nansen Data. Crypto Quant said that Binance does not appear to have any issues with liquidity or fund storage and that it should be able to withstand several more waves of outflows of a similar size to those seen earlier this week.
The price of Bitcoin has increased by five percent in response to U.S consumer price index data that has exceeded expectations the labor department reported that the CPI Rose by 0.1 percent between October and November with the inflation measure recording a score of 7.1 percent compared to the projected 7.3 percent. As a result, Bitcoin is trading closer to the eighteen thousand dollar level with the broader cryptocurrency market also seeing an increase.
Kitco news analyst Jim Wyckoff has said that the price movement may mark the beginning of a bullish upside breakout for Bitcoin. To the contrary Vaneck head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel has predicted that Bitcoin will test ten to twelve thousand dollars in the first quarter of next year amid a wave of bankruptcies from Bitcoin miners. Sigel said that this would mark the low point of the crypto winner and that Bitcoin's price would bounce back to thirty thousand dollars in the second half of 2023. He added that a lower inflation rate easing energy concerns and a possible truce in Ukraine and a turnaround in the M2 money supply would power the start of a new bull market.
John J Ray III CEO of FTX group testified on the collapse of FTX and the company's bankruptcy proceedings at a hearing on December 13th. Ray described the situation as the result of a small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals who failed to implement controls necessary for a company handling other people's money. He said that Sam bankman freed may have violated the automated stay of bankruptcy by undermining the bankruptcy's proceedings. Ray also discussed his interactions with Gary Gensler former chair of the SEC and the potential for a framework for digital asset exchange registration.
U.S based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reported a 66 percent increase in the number of requests from government agencies over the past year according to its transparency report. Tthe report showed the exchange received 12,320 requests between October 2021 and September 2022, with 95.3 percent of those relating to criminal enforcement matters. The U.S submitted the most requests at 5,304 but the number of international requests increased six percent to make up 57 percent of all requests over the past year. Coinbase has faced increasing scrutiny from regulators.
Jewel Bank, Bermuda's first licensed digital bank, has announced that it is issuing a fully backed stable coin Jewel USD on the polygon blockchain. The bank will maintain a minimum one-to-one Reserve ratio with United States dollars and will provide monthly and quarterly updates on the Jewel USD Reserve. Jewel bank will use polygon's ecosystem for commercial and Retail Payment Solutions with polygon facilitating the trade of over 20 stable coins on its Ethereum-based L2 scaling solution. Jewel Bank plans to expand its dual USD infrastructure to include institutional business and individual payments.
Canada's Securities administrators, the CSA, has banned crypto exchanges operating in the country, from offering margin or leverage trading services to Canadian clients. The regulator added that the exchanges must hold their Canadian clients assets with an appropriate custodian and segregate them from the platform's proprietary business. The CSA also warned that stable coins might constitute securities or derivatives, and that exchanges are prohibited from allowing Canadians to trade or have exposure to any crypto asset that are securities or derivatives. The regulator's measures are part of its efforts to strengthen its oversight of crypto trading firms by expanding existing requirements for those platforms.
The Australian government has announced plans to establish a framework for the licensing and regulation of cryptocurrency service providers in 2023. The move is part of a plan to modernize the country's financial system and follows the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, which forced its Australian entities to be handed over to licensed insolvency practitioners. The government will also assess which tokens should be regulated by financial services laws as part of its ongoing token mapping work. A consultation paper on the topic was released alongside the announcement.
Coincorner and Bitknob have partnered to allow users to send funds from the UK and Europe to select African countries through the Bitcoin lightning Network. The applications sent globally will use the lightning Network to send funds in fiat currencies. users can send funds in British Pounds or Euros to Nigeria Kenya and Ghana where they will be converted into the local currencies the lightning network will automatically convert the funds from pounds or Euros to Bitcoin, and then to the local currency of the African country. The funds will be deposited directly into the recipient's bank account or online wallet the partnership aims to provide a more seamless cross-border experience and reduce the friction and costs associated with traditional foreign exchange and money remittance companies.
Cardano is set to enter its final phase the Voltaire era which will see the altcoins network become self-sustaining through a voting and treasury system. The arrival of Voltaire, which is expected to take place soon, will mark the end of Cardano's five-era road map. The altcoin has been working on the final phase in parallel with its other developments, which saw the arrival of smart contracts on the network. the Treasury System will be used to fund Community approved Cardano improvement proposals which will allow network participants to influence the future development of the altcoin.
In China the Hingyang County Police Department has arrested several individuals for using cryptocurrency to launder money gained from fraud and gambling activities. The suspects had been using cryptocurrency to convert their profits from U.S dollars since 2018 under the leadership of an individual named Hong. During the arrest the police seized more than 41.9 million dollars 100 mobile phones and computers from the suspects the developments highlight the potential for cryptocurrency to be used for illicit activities and may lead to further crackdowns on cryptocurrency users in China.
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