CRYPTO NEWS: Latest BITCOIN News, ETHEREUM News, TREZOR News, BINANCE News
CRYPTO NEWS: Latest BITCOIN News, ETHEREUM News, TREZOR News, BINANCE News
Get this, my friend! The European Union just made history on Thursday by voting in favor of a brand new crypto licensing regime called MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets). This makes it the first major jurisdiction globally to introduce a comprehensive crypto law. How cool is that? The vote was a landslide, with 517 in favor, 38 against, and 18 abstentions. I think it’s fair to say that the crypto world is changing for the better!
But that’s not all. The European Parliament also gave a thumbs up to a separate law known as the Transfer of Funds regulation. This one’s all about requiring crypto operators to identify their customers to put a stop to money laundering. The vote was 529-29, with 14 abstentions. Seems like they’re really trying to clean up the crypto space, huh?
So, after a heated debate on Wednesday, lawmakers mostly agreed on making crypto wallet providers and exchanges get a license to operate across the EU. They’re also making issuers of stablecoins (you know, those tied to the value of other assets) maintain sufficient reserves. This whole shebang started back in 2020 when the European Commission first proposed the regulation. Now, it’s just a matter of getting it approved by the parliament and the EU’s Council. If everything goes smoothly, we could see the main provisions come into play around June.
Now, let’s move on to some juicy courtroom drama! A court in the Netherlands ruled that Alexey Pertsev, a Russian developer who worked on the Tornado Cash privacy protocol, can await trial at home. He was arrested in August by the Dutch financial crime authority FIOD, but now he can breathe a little easier while he works on his defense, which deals with some important issues about privacy on Ethereum.
His lawyer, Keith Cheng, told CoinDesk they’re “ecstatic” about the decision. Pertsev will be released next Wednesday, just in time for the installation of electronic monitoring devices at his place. Oh, and get this – just before his arrest, Tornado Cash got sanctioned by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. They claim the service was used to raise funds for the North Korean regime. Yikes!
But the Dutch public prosecutor wasn’t done yet. They had initially argued that Pertsev was a flight risk and could hide evidence if released. This week, they came up with more specific charges, accusing him of habitually laundering over 500,000 ETH that he should’ve suspected was of criminal origin. Of course, Pertsev denies these charges. A further investigation hearing is scheduled for May 24.
In lighter news, PairEx.io, a decentralized perpetual exchange built on the Arbitrum network, is hosting a beta trading competition with a prize pool of up to 8,888 USD equivalent in ARB and PEX tokens. It’s the perfect opportunity for traders to show off their skills and potentially win big! The competition runs from April 3 to May 11, 2023, and participants can trade in BTCUSDT or ETHUSDT perpetual swap trading pairs on the PairEx.io platform.
To be eligible for rewards, traders need to achieve a minimum of 50,000 USDT in accumulative trading volume, complete at least 20 trades, and have a profitable wallet address during the competition period. So, if you’re feeling lucky, why not give it a shot?
Lastly, Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, announced the launch of a new batch of cloud mining products for BTC mining. Users can now subscribe to these products, purchase hash rates, and start accumulating mining rewards in their Funding Wallets.
