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The co -founder s of Opyn stepped down as their defi options protocol faced charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in September. CEO Zubin Koticha revealed today in an X post that he and co -founder Alexis Gauba have chosen to exit crypto, attributing their decision to the recent regulatory actions faced by Opyn. Hey Crypto Twitter, It's been a while This one's a tough one… After the regulatory action against Opyn, @alexisgauba and I have made the decision that we are leaving crypto. This is honestly really emotional for me and Alexis. — zubin koticha (@snarkyzk) November 14, 2023 Opyn is a defi investment strategy platform with $20 million in total volume locked (TVL) on its protocol. In September, the CFTC brought charges against Opyn and two other defi entities, citing several violations. These included registration failures, the absence of a customer identification program, and the unlawful offering of leveraged and margined retail...

The Office of the Maine State Treasurer issued a program evaluation report in November with the intention to prioritize the management of abandoned cryptocurrency accounts.  Unclaimed crypto currencies continue to be a well-known issue in the industry, especially in the Ethereum ecosystem, where millions are believed to lay in unclaimed presale wallets. Cryptocurrency as an emerging issue The emerging issues section of the report shares that although their office doesn’t handle crypto currency, other programs like unclaimed property may consider abandoned crypto currency accounts . The section clarifies their current statutes leave the office without clear authority to recover crypto assets, but it is likely they “may want to do so in the future.” You might also like: Wyoming Legislators Propose a Bill Seeking to Issue a State-Backed Stablecoin The government website states that at present, they are holding $328,383,120 in unclaimed assets, although the amount that woul...

The U.S. Treasury Department is currently pushing for new rules that enhance monitoring and reporting capabilities on virtual currency mixers leveraged by illicit actors and terrorist groups. On Oct. 19, the Wall Street Journal reported that President Biden’s administration is set to designate crypto mixers as a threat to national security . The move reportedly comes as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) steps up vigilance against crypto terror financing citing geopolitical tension between Israel and Hamas. FinCEN published a Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) detailing its argument for this new legislation that would compel financial institutions to track, report on, and even block transactions linked with suspicious convertible virtual currency (CVC) mixers.  CVC mixing offers a critical service that allows players in the ransomware ecosystem, rogue state actors, and other criminals to fund their unlawful activities and ob...

The company considered selling Changpeng Zhao’s shares to continue with growth plans but decided to lay off one-third of its staff instead. Binance US was weighing selling shares controlled by Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) to stick to the company’s growth plans, The Block has learned, citing sources familiar with the matter. During an all-hands meeting, the firm’s staff was report edly presented with a presentation describing three options for what to do next. The first option was to continue the work as planned. Still, it would require CZ to “resolve” his issues with US regulators, put his shares in Binance US into a blind trust (a trust established by the owner giving another party full control of the trust), or sell them entirely. The second one described a scenario where the firm would have to slow down its burn rate while keeping investing in the platform even despite the bear market, the report notes. The third option was to go into ...

Also Read: Bitcoin , Ethereum To Rise Amid Positive US Fed & Inflation Data or Fall As Market Makers Exit Interestingly, the SEC Chair spoke about the need to protect investors, saying the Crypto Market s should not be allowed to harm them. In his speech, Gensler mentioned a 2018 conversation by Binance ’s then Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim with a colleague about how the crypto exchange is operating as an unlicensed securities exchange in the the United States . The same was included in the SEC’s recent complaint against Binance , which alleged it of lying to regulators. Gary Gensler Warns Crypto Market, Again Gensler reiterated in his opening remarks that most cryptocurrencies qualify as securities by the virtue of meeting the investment contract test. However, the SEC Chair made it a point to warn that lack of compliance could lead to more and more anti-crypto enforcement actions. He said, “not liking the message is not the same thing as not receiving ...

Also Read: Terra Luna Classic L1TF All Set For v2.2.0 Core Upgrade, LUNC Price Jumps 5% advertisement Robinhood Wallet Support for Bitcoin and Dogecoin The company had announced it was launching custody, send, and receive support for Bitcoin and Dogecoin to all users. The Wallet had also enabled in-app swaps on the Ethereum network. With this, users can now own, send, and receive crypto on Arbitrum, Bitcoin , Ethereum, Dogecoin, Optimism, and Polygon networks. Besides, they can swap crypto on Ethereum and Polygon, and connect to a wide range of decentralized applications (DApps). In a statement, the company said it was encouraged by the adoption and hence expanded support for new networks and tokens. Johann Kerbrat, the general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said, “We have been really encouraged by the adoption so far, and are excited to keep building for our customers around the world as we ship new Features and expand support for new networks and tokens....

Also Read: Kevin O’Leary Warns Michael Burry on His “Big Short” Bet advertisement This announcement comes at a time when the altcoin is back to being in bullish space thanks to the recently delivered Summary Judgment in the Ripple lawsuit against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The judgment effectively said that the token can not be deemed a security if it is sold through an exchange or through programmatic sales for retail buyers, while the previous judgment holds when it comes to institutional sales. Ripple Named As Key BIS Committee Partner According to the announcement, Ripple is now an official partner of the ‘Cross-border payments interoperability and extension taskforce’. The taskforce is a subgroup within the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. The BIS announcement comes just few days after Michael Miebach, chief executive officer at payments ...

Robinhood has been planning expansion into the United Kingdom since 2019 but the project has faced multiple delays. Cryptocurrency-friendly trading platform Robinhood is moving forward with plans to launch services in the United Kingdom with a new major local appointment . Robinhood has appointed former Barclays executive Jordan Sinclair as the new CEO to run its United Kingdom entity, according to data from the Financial Conduct Authority. According to FCA, Sinclair was approved by the authority to perform the CEO role at Robinhood’s U.K. arm on July 18. Prior to joining Robinhood, Sinclair was a managing director at the European fintech Freetrade for 13 months, according to his LinkedIn profile. The new Robinhood’s executive also worked as director of group strategy at the financial firm Barclays and corporate banker at Wells Fargo. The latest hiring comes in line with Robinhood’s long-running plans to launch a platform in the United Kingdom. Robinhood’s U.K. expansion has been rum...

A British hacker , Joseph O’Connor, aka the PlugwalkJoe, has been sentenced to five years in a United States prison for steal ing $794,000 worth of crypto through a SIM swap attack. The SIM swap attack case O’Connor was initially arrested in Spain in July 2021 for his involvement in a SIM swap attack on a crypto exchange executive in 2019. He was later extradited to the United States on April 26, 2023. In May, he pleaded guilty to several charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and money laundering. You might also like: Cyber heists in digital playground, school-age hackers steal millions in NFTs The identity of the hacked crypto executive has not been disclosed. Between March and May 2019, O’Connor and his co-conspirators successfully executed SIM swap attacks on three company executives. By gaining unauthorized access to multiple accounts and computer systems, they could steal and divert cryptocurrency worth approximat...

Meanwhile, the Bitcoin price showed slightly negative reaction to the central bank’s stance although it is possible that the dip is precursor to a market rally. advertisement Also Read: What In Fed Chair Jerome Powell Speech Could Spur Bitcoin Price Rally? Powell said inflation had ‘somewhat’ moderated but admitted that high inflation pressures means getting inflation back to the 2% target has a long way to go. At the end of 2023, the US Federal Reserve officials see inflation at 3.2% and 2.5% by the end of 2024, compared to the central bank’s target of keeping the inflation rate down at 2%. Whereas the officials see core inflation at the end of 2023 and 2.6% at the end of 2024. “Additional Rate Hikes Possible” The Fed officials warned that the central bank may not yet be done with raising interest rates, despite cooling inflation and the current pauses. This would add to the uncertainty in the market until the end of 2...

Brad Garlinghouse hinted that the eagerly-awaited Hinman documents could tip the balance in Ripple’s favor. With just one day until the Hinman documents are due to be unsealed, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse suggests the documents will be “well worth the wait." In a June 12 Twitter reply to a question raised by crypto YouTuber Jungle Inc, Garlinghouse said that while he did not want to “overstep,” both he and Ripple's chief legal officer Stuart Alderoty see the documents as being worth the 18-month fight to get them unsealed.  Wish I could go in depth now, but we've waited this long (18+ months), I don't want to overstep… suffice it to say @s_alderoty and I believe they were well worth the wait. — Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) June 12, 2023 The Hinman documents refer to internal SEC messages concerning a 2018 speech given by former SEC Director William Hinman. In the speech, Hinman said that while cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) may star...

Also Read: Bitcoin Rally Kickstarts Over Debt Ceiling Deal Confirmation News advertisement How Will Bitcoin Do By December 2023 The BitMEX CEO said Bitcoin might not reach the $70,000 mark this year but the year 2024 could be good for the Crypto Market . He said the top cryptocurrency could face another collapse in 2025 and 2026 due to geopolitical tensions. However, despite the opportunity to make profits, he predicted that most people will not invest in Bitcoin . He made the comments during the What Did Bitcoin podcast. “Next year (2024) is when I think we will cross that barrier ($70,000) and we get the blow off top in 2025 or 2026. And then it’s Armageddon.” Interestingly, Hayes said he did invest in PEPE Coin, the sensational memecoin that took the Crypto Market by storm in the last 2 months. Recommended Articles Crypto Presale P...