Kategorie: Crypto News

Crypto exchange FTX has lost its Australian licence a few days after it collapsed and filed for bankruptcy.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), announced on Wednesday, November 16th, that it had suspended the licence issued to FTX Australia, the Australian arm of the FTX exchange.

In its blog post, the ASIC said;

“ASIC has suspended the Australian financial services licence of FTX Australia Pty Ltd (AFS licence 323193) until 15 May 2023 after it was placed into voluntary administration on 11 November 2022. Until 19 December 2022, FTX Australia can continue to provide limited financial services that relate to the termination of existing derivatives with clients.”

Prior to its suspension, FTX Australia’s AFS license allowed it to create a market for derivatives and foreign exchange contracts for Australian-based retail and institutional clients. 

The suspension came a few days after John Mouawad, Scott Langdon and Rahul Goyal of KordaMentha were appointed as voluntary administrators of FTX Australia and its subsidiary FTX Express Pty Ltd, which operates a digital currency exchange that is not regulated by ASIC.

ASIC added that it is monitoring this situation closely and speaking regularly with international regulators and external administrators.

FTX currently risks losing its licence in Europe following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. Last week, Bloomberg reported that the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) could seize FTX’s European licence.

The licence allowed FTX to operate in Europe and provide its services to customers all over the continent. 

These latest developments began to unfold after FTX collapsed and filed for bankruptcy last week. The cryptocurrency exchange was reportedly using customers’ funds to fund Alameda Research, its sister hedge fund.

The move was against FTX’s terms and conditions and sparked a series of events that saw the once mighty crypto exchange crumble to its knees. The events that unfolded also saw CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resign from his role.

The post The Australian Securities and Investments Commission suspends FTX Australia’s licence appeared first on CoinJournal.

Cryptocurrency‘s latest turmoil, coupled with what has happened in recent months, paints a picture of an ecosystem that could distabilise the global financial system, Senate Banking Committee Chair Sherrod Brown has said.

According to the US lawmaker, crypto has been used for pretty much everything illegal, including outright theft and fraud. 

“The last thing” anyone would want to see, he noted, is the new financial product ending up crashing the financial system.

FTX collapse one of red flags

His comments at a hearing involving top US banking regulators come at a time when crypto is again in the spotlight following the collapse of major crypto exchange FTX. 

The company was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried, who before his ‘empire’s collapse’, was a darling of Capitol Hill.   

But FTX’s implosion and reports of misuse of customer funds by Alameda Research, is already seeing increased activity across Washington and in other regions.

“The parallels to past financial crises throughout our history are troubling,” he said during the committee hearing, comments reported by The Block. The legislator, who has previously slammed crypto, continued to warn that there’s nothing “beneficial” to be gotten out of “hundreds of speculative cryptocurrencies.”

On what the outlook is across the legislative divide, Brown said:

“Many on my side of the aisle have raised warning flags about this. The last thing we need is for risky new financial products to crash our financial system. Thank you to those of you on the panel for your skepticism about cryptocurrencies.”

The post Crypto could ‘crash’ the financial system, US lawmaker warns appeared first on CoinJournal.