Schlagwort: crypto market news

The US treasury has finned Bittrex exchange $24 million for violating sanctions issued by the United States against individuals in different countries around the world. According to the US treasury, Bittrex did not stop sanctioned individuals from Cuba, Crimea, Iran, Syria, and Sudan from using the exchange.

The US Treasury fine against Bittrex is one of the biggest fines that has been issued against any entity especially for contravening sanctions.

Where it all started

1,730 individuals that fell under the list of sanctioned individuals by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) were found to have used Bittrex between March 2014 and December 2017. It is reported that these individuals conducted about 116,421 transactions involving digital assets worth about $263.4 million.

It is important to note that Bittrex operated without a sanctions compliance program until December 2015, after which customer identity verification was enacted, followed by the retainment of a third-party vendor for the sanction screening process.

But even after putting in place measures to screen sanctioned individuals, Bittrex still lacked in its efforts leading to the issuance of a subpoena against it by the OFAC. The subpoena drove Bittrex to put in place multiple measures in a bid to curtail the number of violations.

The Treasury Department has noted this by saying:

“Bittrex subsequently implemented a number of other remedial measures, including implementing new sanctions screening and blockchain tracing software, conducting additional sanctions compliance training, and hiring additional compliance staff. Once implemented, these remedial measures substantially curtailed the number of Apparent Violations.”

The $24 million fine

To settle the fines of the aforementioned violations, specifically for allowing sanctioned individuals to transact with the exchange, Bittrex agreed to remit about $24.2 million.

It is however not the first time that the US Treasury has penalized a crypto exchange for violating sanctions. In February 2021, BitPay was fined $507,000 and BitGo was fined $98,000 for sanctions violations.

The post Bittrex fined $24 million for violating US sanctions appeared first on CoinJournal.

CACHE Gold, a DeFi protocol that supports fully backed, redeemable and regulated tokenized gold assets, has integrated Chainlink Proof of Reserve on the Polygon mainnet. After the integration CACHE Gold users can now verify on-chain cross-chain CACHE Gold tokens (CGT) on Polygon are fully backed by CGT tokens on Ethereum in a ratio of 1:1.

The latest Chainlink Proof of Reserve integration on Polygon builds upon the previous integration of Chainlink Proof of Reserve and Chainlink Price Feeds on the Ethereum mainnet. The integration on Ethereum helps users monitor the locked gold currently backing the CGT tokens. It also allows users to accurately verify that the token’s value accurately reflects the real-world market price of gold.

The combination of Chainlink integrations gives users an assurance that sufficient real-world gold reserves bake the CGT tokens on Polygon.

The CACHE Gold Token (CGT)

The CGT token is a fully backed, redeemable, and regulated tokenized gold asset. One CGT token represents one gram of pure gold stored in vaults around the world.

The CACHE Gold protocol ensures that the number of CGT tokens in circulation remains equal to the amount of stored physical gold. Every gram of the physical gold is tracked by the asset tracking platform GramChain and then verified by Chainlink Proof of Reserve and the proof is published on-chain.

The recurring verification enabled by Chainlink Proof of Reserve allows for transparency of the actual status of the reserves backing the tokens.

The assets (gold) long viewed by investors as safe-haven assets can now be used as a source of collateral in Polygon’s DeFi ecosystem.

Chainlink Proof of Reserve

Chainlink Proof of Reserve allows for the automation of smart contracts on-chain by keeping up-to-date reference contracts thus removing the need for manual audits. It also provides highly accurate and viable data by sourcing data from financially incentivized premium providers.

Chainlink Proof of Reserve Feeds are also decentralized at the oracle node level and data source thus removing central points of failure in the sourcing and delivery of external data to Polygon.

Lastly, Chainlink Proof of Reserve Feeds is transparent. They can be monitored by anyone in real time; a feature that allows any user to independently verify asset collateralization.

The post CACHE Gold integrates Chainlink Proof of Reserve on Polygon mainnet appeared first on CoinJournal.

Binance developers have today announced the release of the temporary urgent patch v1.1.16. The patch will fix the cross-chain infrastructure between the BNB Beacon Chain and the BNB Smart Chain after the recent $100 million cross-chain exploit.

The patch will re-enable cross-chain communication which had been temporarily hampered after the attack.

The v1.1.16 patch is more of a hard fork of the mainnet and the testnet. The Moran hard fork upgrade for the mainnet is expected to happen at block height 22,107,423 on October 12 at around 8 AM UTC while the upgrade for the testnet is expected to take place at block height 23,603,940 on October 11 at 8 AM UTC.

What the upgrade seeks to fix

In a nutshell, the upgrade will fix the vulnerabilities in the IAVL hash check, make the relayer whitelisted to the genesis, and introduce a block header in sequence check in the CrossChain Contract.

Validators will be required to check and upgrade with the patch immediately after the upgrade goes live since it is an emergency patch fix aimed at fixing issues and potential risks on the BNB Chain.

Binance developers have confirmed that users will be able to receive their funds immediately after the completion of the upgrade and the staking rewards will also recover the next day.

Afterwards, Binance will announce further improvements.

BNB token price continues to fall

The BNB price has been in a freefall mode since the BSC Token Hub exploit on October 7.

After a 5% drop on the very day of the exploit, the BNB token has dropped by a further 8%. At press time, it was trading at $271.22, which is way below its highs above $297 at the start of October.

The post Binance releases urgent patch to fix the cross-chain infrastructure after attack appeared first on CoinJournal.

Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced in a press release that it has received preliminary regulatory approval from Singapore’s monetary authority (MAS) to offer crypto services in Singapore. Following the in-principle approval, Coinbase can now offer “regulated digital payment token products and services in Singapore.”

Following the approval in Singapore, Coinbase has become one of the few crypto exchanges that have successfully gone through the painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process enacted by the MAS.

In an interview with Financial Times, the top fintech officer at MAS, Sopnendu Mohanty, claimed that the regulatory body had enacted the “painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process for institutions to prohibit bad behaviour rampant in the crypto sector.”

Coinbase expansion into Singapore

Coinbase has quietly been expanding its presence in Singapore has launched a technical hub in the region and increasing its efforts to hire Web3 personnel in the city-state.

Coinbase Venture arm has also invested in more than fifteen Singaporean Web3 startups in a push to boost crypto adoption in Singapore.

Besides announcing the regulatory approval, Coinbase’s press statement also added that the company’s CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong would be attending a stage event in Singapore alongside MAS’s chief fintech officer.

The statement reads:

“We are also excited to confirm that our CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong, will be taking the stage at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 4th, in a fireside chat with Sopnendu Mohanty, the Chief Fintech Officer at MAS.”

In the recent past, Singapore has grown into a global finance hub housing a large number of fintech institutions, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance firms, and corporate banks. This growing pool of fintech institutions has also expressed a desire to explore the budding crypto industry including investing some stake in some of the sector’s digital assets.

Prior to Coinbase’s in-principle approval, the MAS had granted in-principle approval to Crypto.com.

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Dapper Labs, the Vancouver-based company behind Flow blockchain, has suspended Russian accounts following the sanctions imposed on Russia and Russian nationals by the European Union on Thursday.

Dapper Labs stated in a press release:

“It is now prohibited to provide crypto-asset wallet, account, or custody services of any value to accounts with connections to Russia. However, Dapper has not closed the accounts.”

What the suspension means

Besides Flow blockchain, Dapper Labs specializes in non-fungible token (NFT) collectables. It has launched several NFT collectables including the famous Cryptokitties, Cheeze Wizards, and NBA Top Shot.

Dapper Labs was directed to take action on Russian accounts by its payment processing and store value partner which is subject to European Union regulations.

The Russians impacted by the suspension will not be able to buy, sell, or gift UFC Strike, NBA Top Shot, and NFL All Day NFT collectables. They shall not also be able to withdraw funds from their Dapper accounts or buy anything with their account balances.

The Russian users will however be able to still access accounts and view the digital assets that they purchased. Dapper maintained that the affected users still retain their ownership rights over the assets that they had purchased although they cannot sell them.

Dapper stated:

“Regardless of this new regulation, any NFT previously purchased by an impacted user continues to belong to that user. Any Moments you own and any Dapper Balance continue to be your property.”

Through its UFC Strike NFT collection, Dapper allowed the sale of NFTs related to Russian fighters like Khabib Nurmagomedov who have participated in the UFC.

EU sanctions

The updated sanctions against Russia and Russian nationals are an escalation of the previous sanctions established in April, especially on crypto.

The existing prohibitions on crypto assets have been tightened by banning crypto services regardless of a wallet’s value. The wallet value was previously capped at €10,000.

Last week, Russia also took steps to restrict crypto transactions and backlisted OKX, which is one of the world’s leading crypto exchanges.

More crypto and web3 companies are expected to follow suit with restrictions following the updated EU sanctions.

The post Dapper Labs suspends Russian accounts after new EU sanctions against Russia appeared first on CoinJournal.