Tag: may 24 2022

NY SPEEDING UP BITLICENSES FOR CRYPTO FIRMS. The banking authority in New York is speeding up work on its crypto company license regulatory framework, dubbed “BitLicense.” That’s according to Adrienne Harris, the head of New York’s Department of Financial Services.  Harris talked recently with theblockcrypto.com about  her work on extending the DFS’ licensing system for...

Goldman Sachs and British bank Barclays are part of a new $70-million funding round for five-year-old Ellwood Technologies, a cryptocurrency trading platform created by Alan Howard, a British hedge fund billionaire. Other investors include Dawn Capital, Galaxy Digital, and Germany’s Commerzbank. This new round of funding valued Ellwood at about $500 million. The round was...

Last week, Toronto firm Round 13 Capital announced it had filled a $70-million dollar fund that will be invested in blockchain companies and hopes to add another $30 million to it. The company already has channeled $15 million into six deals and expects to have all the money rehoused within two years. “This is the...

Further blurring the line between digital and traditional assets, cryptocurrency exchange FTX now allows customers to trade stocks commission-free on its platform. FTX has begun the service for select customers and will open the service to all users in the next few months, the company said. The exchange will not clear customers’ transactions through high-speed...

Even after cryptocurrency prices crashed earlier this month, more investors still may be lured to, and harmed by, the volatile asset, Gary Gensler, chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, warned in comments to reporters last week after a Congressional hearing. “I think a lot of these tokens will fail,” he said. “I fear...

Bitcoin will never be widely used as a payment system because it is inefficient and carries high environmental costs, Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, said last week in comments quoted by the Financial Times.   Bankman-Fried is “one of crypto’s most influential chief executive officers,” the FT noted. The “proof of work” system...

Countries with relatively strong fiat currencies are moving to CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) at a higher clip than countries with weak fiat currencies. They’re out to try to lead in establishing their digital forms of money versus competitors, and to try to undercut the use of cryptocurrencies. Those are the findings of a study...