Author: Bloomberg

Crypto forensics firm Elliptic said it has passed on to authorities information on a digital wallet that may be linked to sanctioned Russian officials and oligarchs. The wallet has “significant crypto-asset holdings,” in the millions of dollars, Elliptic co-founder Tom Robinson said in an interview Monday. The finding comes amid a heated debate on whether cryptocurrencies can be used to evade additional sanctions imposed on Russian oligarchs and officials since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With authorities confiscating the oligarchs’ yachts and overseas fiat assets, some worry they’ll turn to Bitcoin, Tether and privacy-enabling coins. “Crypto can be used for sanctions…

Binance Holdings Ltd. has signed a memorandum of understanding to buy Brazilian securities brokerage firm Sim;paul Investimentos.  Sim;paul is authorized by the Central Bank of Brazil and the Securities and Exchange Commission, Binance said in a statement. Any deal will require the approval of regulatory authorities, including the central bank. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, is looking to buy businesses that operate in traditional markets, its CEO Changpeng Zhao said in an interview with the Financial Times this month. “The strategy is about making the crypto industry bigger,” Zhao told the paper. Founded in China in 2017, Binance hasn’t…

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp USA said an influx of hires from Wall Street has helped expand its talent pool and boost the gender diversity of its staff. “Every time we post an opportunity or a role, we get tremendous inbound interest, mostly from people in traditional financial-services companies,” Robert Zagotta, chief executive officer of Bitstamp USA, said in an interview. “One of the reasons this is very positive for us is it also brings a higher level of diversity into the talent pool.” Even as Bitstamp hires more women, the male-dominated digital-currency industry struggles with its “crypto bro” reputation. Last week, Bain Capital…

CoinShares International Ltd. has increased its stake in Swiss-based online bank FlowBank SA, to 29.3% of the business in a 24.7 million franc ($26.5 million) transaction. The tie-up makes the digital asset investment firm a joint controlling shareholder alongside FlowBank Chief Executive Officer Charles Henri Sabet, a spokesperson said, with voting rights equal to 32.06%. Its previous stake was equal to 9.02%, acquired for $11.9 million in October. CoinShares, which manages financial and crypto-based exchange-traded products on bourses across Europe, said FlowBank will use its Galata product to connect the bank to digital asset protocols and markets as part of the deal.…

Bitcoin, Ether and Dogecoin got a quick boost on Monday after Elon Musk tweeted that he owns the digital tokens and isn’t planning to sell.  Bitcoin, which has fallen as much as 2.9% before Musk’s tweet, briefly erased losses before retreating again. Ether was up as much as 2.3% before giving up some gains. Dogecoin’s 3.8% gain over the past hour was the biggest among cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinGecko. Musk, the world’s richest person and the chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., is no stranger to social-media posts on cryptocurrencies. Last May he said he hasn’t “and won’t” sell any…

A European parliamentary committee will vote Monday on a new regulatory framework for crypto assets, which could accelerate passage of a measure that industry executives say could practically ban key digital currencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum in Europe. Crypto-assets issued and/or traded in the EU “shall be subject to minimum environmental sustainability standards and set up and maintain a phased rollout plan to ensure compliance” with those requirements, according to the final draft for the law, dubbed MiCa, that was seen by Bloomberg News. The Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee will vote on the bill on Monday. The reference to…

For smaller acts, NFTs offer financial gains once elusive in a music business dominated by streaming — at least for now. A savvy cadre of recording artists has been using the new, blockchain-based digital frontier sometimes known as web3 to do what they’ve always dreamed of: Making money by making music. The revenue they’re earning from selling their songs and music as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, is significantly larger than the pennies they pull in from streaming services such as Spotify. At the same time, they are providing a tangible use case for elements of web3, the preferred nomenclature of venture capitalists who…

Advocates see lower-cost transactions and greater access to the financial system, but critics worry about privacy. The world’s reserve currency may be about to go digital, potentially transforming the way Americans move and use their money. On Wednesday, the White House directed federal agencies from the Treasury to the Commerce Department to research a number of crypto-related topics, including the pros and cons of a digital dollar.  For consumers, the move could mean lower-cost transactions and greater access to the financial system, but it could also threaten their privacy and hurt U.S. banks that depend on deposits. And that’s only if the…

Over the past two months, as global asset markets were whipsawed by an increasingly hawkish Federal Reserve and then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Bitcoin remained stubbornly in a range. Only the briefest dip below $33,000; never above $46,000. As the sideways trading dragged on, Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine — and the sweeping financial sanctions heaped upon Russia in retaliation — added fuel to a long-running debate about crypto: Is it the ultimate haven from increasing governmental overreach? Just another risk-on asset class? Or a convenient tool for sanctions evasion crying out for stricter policing? For technical analysts, the discussion…

The crypto ambitions of large technology companies are drawing concern from a key Washington financial watchdog focused on consumer protection. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking that companies share with the agency their plans for the growing asset class, Rohit Chopra, the agency’s director, said on Friday. The CFPB is also working with other federal regulators to ensure consumers are getting protections as crypto gains more mainstream adoption. “We think it’s probably going to happen — if it happens — by riding the rails of some of the big tech companies or some of the other big players,” Chopra said in…