France has been supportive of the nascent industry and was the first major European country to grant registration to the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
Bitcoin and ether are still down about 4.5% and 8% respectively since the first SEC lawsuit was filed a week ago, though, indicating investors are still jittery about crypto.
The lawsuits against Binance and Coinbase Global have increased fears the crypto market’s ordeal could be prolonged further after the sector was battered by a string of meltdowns including the bankruptcy of FTX, Binance’s biggest competitor, last year.
It is the latest in a string of setbacks for Binance including the June 5 decision by the U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to charge the company with evading securities laws. Binance disputes the SEC charges.
Second-biggest token ether had its best session since March on Thursday and XRP, which the U.S.
judge ruled could be legally sold on public crypto exchanges, soared 73% on Thursday and held most of these gains on Friday.
The agency’s aggressive policing has sparked a wave of criticism from digital assets firms and advocates on Capitol Hill for what they describe as regulatory overreach.
“Investors in this asset class have learned their lessons the hard way and now are being much much more picky about who to deal with,” said Samed Bouaynaya, a digital asset portfolio manager at London-based hedge fund Altana Wealth.
The company said on Friday however that it has received registration in other European Union countries, including France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Sweden and Lithuania, and will continue to operate there.
June 23 (Reuters) – Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency, hit a more than one-year high on Friday, capping a week of gains helped in part by BlackRock’s plans to create a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) despite heightened U.S.
regulatory scrutiny on the digital asset sector.
The company registered as a digital asset service provider (DASP) on June 20, according AMF’s website, adding a major traditional financial services group to the growing number of crypto companies registered by the French watchdog.
Earlier this month, Nigeria’s markets regulator ordered Binance to halt its operations in the country, saying local unit “Binance Nigeria Limited” that courted Nigerian investors through a website was not registered or regulated, making it illegal.
The crypto industry has been on even shakier ground since the SEC sued crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase Global last month raised risks of further regulatory challenges for the sector.
The first bitcoin futures ETF was approved in October 2021, helping send the volatile bitcoin to an all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021, and raising hopes that a spot bitcoin ETF would soon be approved.
In the days leading up to the failure, customers of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange withdrew billions of dollars, hobbling the firm’s liquidity.
A rescue deal with rival exchange Binance also fell through, precipitating crypto’s highest-profile collapse in recent years.
SINGAPORE, July 14 (Reuters) – Cryptocurrencies were testing year highs on Friday as a run of favourable regulatory and investment moves have started to shift momentum in markets that had been stuck in a rut for months.
A spokesperson for Binance, which had been operating in the Netherlands without permission from regulators, said that the company had tried “many alternative avenues” to meet Dutch registration requirements.
At the meeting, Armstrong will also touch upon related issues, such as tax, national security, privacy, and climate, a New Democrat Coalition spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
June 28 (Reuters) – Bankrupt FTX is moving ahead with efforts to revive its flagship international cryptocurrency exchange, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday citing CEO John Ray.
June 27 (Reuters) – Asset manager Fidelity is expected to file with the U.S.
securities regulator for a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund, joining other big money managers seeking to launch bitcoin ETFs, the Block reported on Tuesday citing a source familiar with the matter.
“Although we maintain that the SEC’s request for emergency relief was entirely unwarranted, we are pleased that the disagreement over this request was resolved on mutually acceptable terms,” the spokesperson said via email.