Get your everyday, bite-sized digest of cryptoasset and blockchain-related news — investigating the stories flying beneath the radar of the crypto news.
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Privacy news
Economics information
- Finance ministers from the group of seven rich nations (G7) will vow this week to support their economies as they emerge from the pandemic and attain an“ambitious“ deal on a minimum global corporate tax from July, Reuters reported, citing a draft communique. „We commit to attaining an equitable solution on the feasibility of taxing rights and also to a high degree of vision on the rate to get a global minimum tax,“ the draft said, without citing any amounts, each the report. In May, the US proposed to set the minimum tax in 15%.
Legal information
- Ripple has won yet another battle in its war with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the court has ruled to deny the regulator’s motion to compel Ripple to make memos discussing XRP sales with the blockchain company’s lawyers, citing attorney-client privilege. The SEC wanted to see“all communications constituting, transmitting, or discussing any legal advice Ripple sought or received as to whether its offers and sales of XRP were or would be subject to federal securities laws.“ The three ICOs, established by Sirin Labs, Stx Technologies Limited, and Leadcoin, collectively raised USD 250m from investors across the world, it added.
- Five people who had aided the infamous Bitconnect exchange increase greater than USD 2bn during their promotional YouTube videos were sued by the SEC, Bloomberg reported. The unnamed people had earned commissions due to their recruitment and promotional campaigns that totaled more than USD 2.6m in 1 individual’s case.
Regulation news
- The central Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a memo now stating that, while particular banks and regulated entities have warned their customers against dealing in virtual monies by creating a reference to the RBI circular dated April 2018, such references“aren’t in order because this circular was put aside“ from the Supreme Court in 2020, meaning it is“no more valid from the date of the Supreme Court judgment, and so cannot be cited or quoted from.“ These entities can continue to carry out client due diligence processes in line with regulations governing standards for Know Your Client (KYC), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Combating of Financing of Terrorism (CFT), etc.they said.
Investment information
- Payment infrastructure company Circle said it has completed a funding round worth USD 440m which will fuel its further expansion. The growth of the stablecoin USD coin (USDC) contributed to the organization’s growth, as the market capitalization of the coin has grown by 436% in 2021 alone, and over 28,000% over the past 12 months, exceeding USD 22bn.
- Venture giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is in the process of increasing its third party crypto fund because 2018 to the tune of USD 2bn, Newcomer reported, citing undisclosed sources knowledgeable about the issue. The fund is reportedly going to charge a 2.5% management fee, which would translate into an annual USD 50m in fees alone.
- Asian financial solutions group DBS said it has priced an SGD 15m (USD 11m) digital bond, marking DBS Digital Exchanges security token offering (STO). „This paves the way for different issuers and clients to tap DDEx’s capabilities to effectively access capital markets due to their funding needs and sets the stage for more STO issuances and listings on DDEx as asset tokenization turns mainstream,“ they added.
DeFi information
- Belt Finance, a platform that provides automated market making for decentralized finance (DeFi), suffered a flash loan attack on Saturday which resulted in a reduction of over USD 6.23m in binance USD (BUSD). Per their report, the team is focusing on a payment program. This is only the most up-to-date in a string of events reported from the protocols constructed on Binance Smart Chain (BSC).
Exchanges news
- Japanese exchange Coincheck said it intends to launch the country’s first preliminary market offering (IEO) this summer. The company did not specify when the IEO of HTP, the indigenous token of the non-fungible token (NFT) electronic content distribution platform Hashpalette, could happen exactly.
- Singapore-based crypto derivatives exchange Bybit has been issued a formal warning letter from the Japan Financial Services Agency. It stressed that the company is not registered to operate crypto providers in the nation.
Marketing information
- The Bitcoin sign combined the famous Indianapolis 500 race this past weekend for a part of a sponsorship deal with Ed Carpenter Racing, the initial team to integrate BTC as a payment alternative for all of its employees. Ed Carpenter finished fifth, 1.24 seconds behind the winner, according to the race results.
P8 in my next #Indy500. Led 32 laps and has been right in contention to win the race. A few unfortunate moments on the… https://t.co/B3PJnD5VaE
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Privacy information
The Bitcoin (BTC) Taproot update could lock-in on the mainnet in less than two weeks, when the next BTC mining difficulty alteration is estimated to happen, which would make the Speedy Trial