Schlagwort: crypto business

• Bitfarms’s C$60 million private placement with US institutional investors closes on or about November 28.
• The Canadian bitcoin mining firm will use the proceeds to acquire buy more miners and expand its infrastructure.

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms is seeking to raise C$60 million (approx. $44 million) from institutional investors in the US, the Canada-based firm announced on Friday.

Bitfarms will raise the funds via a private placement, with gross proceeds from 44.4 million common shares at C$1.35 per share.

Investors will also have warrants to purchase an aggregate of 22.2 million common shares with an exercise price of C$1.61 ($1.17) per share. The warrants have an exercise period of three years, Bitfarms said in a press release on Friday.

Bitfarms will use the private placement’s proceeds to acquire additional miners, expand its infrastructure and improve the company’s working capital position. The firm’s monthly mining output rose 7.3% in September.

According to today’s announcement, the private placement closes on November 28, 2023 or thereabout, the miner noted.

However, this remains “subject to satisfaction of customary closing conditions” and needs approval from the Toronto Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, New York-based investment bank H.C. Wainwright & Co. will act as the private placement’s exclusive agent.

The post Bitfarms announces C$60M private placement with US institutional investors appeared first on CoinJournal.

• UK authorised funds can now develop and implement tokenisation models.
• The green light comes after the Technology Working Group of the Government’s Asset Management Taskforce published its report on UK fund tokenisation.
• The HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) collaborated on the initiative.

UK investment funds have the approval to develop tokenisation, with the development coming after the establishment of a government taskforce on asset management earlier this year.

The announcement follows the publication of a report on tokenisation by the Technology Working Group of the Government’s Asset Management Taskforce, the Investment Association (IA) said in a press release.

According to the industry body, the ‘UK Fund Tokenisation – A Blueprint for Implementation‘ report includes input from HM Treasury and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and provides for a roadmap on use of distributed ledger technology (DLT) for fund tokenisation in the UK.

Milestone for UK funds industry

Allowing tokenised funds to adopt DLT in their operations, from sales to redemptions has the potential to open the industry to further growth, Michelle Scrimgeour, Chair of the Working Group and CEO at Legal & General Investment Management, said in a statement.

“Today marks a milestone in the implementation of tokenisation within the UK’s fund industry. Fund tokenisation has great potential to revolutionise how our industry operates, by enabling greater efficiency and liquidity, enhanced risk management and the creation of more bespoke portfolios,” Scrimgeour added.

The FCA said it welcomed the Working Group’s report, noting that it sets out guidelines on adoption of tokenisation models within the UK’s current legal and regulatory framework.

“We welcome the report today which identifies a way forward for tokenisation and has concluded that there are no significant regulatory barriers to the adoption of the proposed baseline model,” said Sarah Pritchard, FCA’s executive director of Markets and International.

UK’s support for innovation

Today’s announcement comes just a day after UK Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt proposed legislation for the country’s Digital Securities Sandbox. As highlighted by CoinJournal, the initiative aims at promoting digital assets use in financial markets. 

The initiative adds to the recently outlined Digital Sandbox that the FCA envisioned for early-stage digital assets firms.

Together with the passage of a key markets law recognizing crypto trading as regulated activity there’s been clarity on stablecoin regulation. As other developments come into the picture, what the industry sees are milestones that align with the UK’s quest to become the global hub for blockchain and web3 innovation.

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• SEC has filed a lawsuit against Kraken.
• The SEC is alleging that the exchange has been conducting unregistered operations.
• Kraken is also accused of fund commingling.

In a recent development, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, adding it to the list of platforms facing accusations of operating without proper registration as securities businesses in the United States.

The SEC alleges that Kraken engaged in unregistered activities, operating as an unregistered broker, clearing agency, and dealer. The federal regulator claims that Kraken traded numerous tokens deemed securities without complying with federal securities laws.

The lawsuit identifies specific tokens, including Algorand (ALGO), Polygon (MATIC), and NEAR Protocol (NEAR), as unregistered securities that Kraken traded. The SEC contends that Kraken played a direct role in promoting these tokens to the investing public.

Fund Mixing

Notably, the SEC points out that Kraken commingled up to $33 billion in customer cryptocurrency with its own corporate assets, creating what it terms a “significant risk.”

The regulator asserts that Kraken also mixed over $5 billion of its customers’ cash with its own, even using customer funds for operational expenses directly.

Kraken advocates for regulatory clarity in response

In response to the SEC’s allegations, Kraken issued a statement asserting its disagreement with the complaint. The cryptocurrency exchange defends its position, emphasizing that it does not list securities and expressing disappointment in the SEC’s approach to regulation.

Kraken advocates for effective US market regulation tailored to the unique risks and benefits presented by cryptocurrencies. The exchange suggests that Congressional action is necessary to address the current lack of regulatory clarity in the U.S., criticizing the SEC’s regulatory approach as harmful to consumers and detrimental to innovation in the cryptocurrency space.

As the legal proceedings unfold, Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance find themselves in a shared spotlight, navigating the regulatory landscape of the cryptocurrency industry amid increasing scrutiny from the SEC.

The post SEC charges Kraken with unregistered operations and fund mixing appeared first on CoinJournal.

• KyberSwap is yet to get back the $7 million that was stolen on November 22.
• The decentralized exchange has offered a 10% bounty to the hacker in a bid to get the funds back.
• Security firm Beosin unveils the intricacies of the exploit, attributing the attack to a vulnerability in Kyber’s liquidity pools.

Following the $47 million KyberSwap hack on November 22, the decentralized exchange protocol has made a bold move in an attempt to recover the funds.

The protocol has offered a bounty in a bid to encourage the hacker to return the stolen assets.

Incentive for the hacker

In response to an on-chain message left by the perpetrator, KyberSwap has offered a 10% bounty (amounting to $4.7 million) to the hacker who executed the exploit.

The hacker had hinted at negotiations with the KyberSwap team, stating, “Dear Kyberswap Developers, Employees, DAO members, and LPs, negotiations will start in a few hours when I am fully rested. Thank you.”

KyberSwap’s co-founder, Victor Tran, conveyed a straightforward ultimatum in an on-chain message, presenting the hacker with a choice: return the funds or “stay on the run.” The bounty offer is contingent on the hacker returning the remaining 90% of the stolen funds to a specified address by 6 am UTC on November 25.

The KyberSwap attack

The attack targeted KyberSwap’s Elastic pools, exploiting a vulnerability related to the tick interval boundaries on Kyber’s liquidity pools. Security firm Beosin revealed that the flaw allowed the hacker to artificially double the liquidity, draining $47 million across various blockchains, including Arbitrum,  Ethereum, Optimism, Polygon, and Base.

The incident underscored the persistent challenges and security risks in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. KyberSwap’s proactive approach of offering a bounty is aimed at mitigating the impact of the exploit and ensuring that liquidity providers are compensated for their losses.

The situation remains fluid as the hacker has not responded to the bounty proposal, maintaining silence since the attack on November 22.

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