Blockchain/Bitcoin
France, Luxembourg and EIB Conduct Joint Wholesale CBDC Experiment
The Banque de France, Banque centrale du Luxembourg and European Investment Bank (EIB) successfully conducted a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiment. The experiment, known as the Venus initiative, involved a 100 million euro digital native bond issuance by
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BVNK Acquires System Pay Services to Provide Licensed E-Money Services
UK crypto payments platform BVNK has acquired payments company System Pay Services for its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) license after receiving Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) approval. The EMI license enables BVNK to broaden its product offering to include e-money services,
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BlockFi Files for Bankruptcy Due to Exposure to FTX
Crypto lender BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection citing a liquidity crisis due to substantial exposure to recently bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. BlockFi says that it is exposed to FTX via loans to Alameda, a crypto trading firm
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Estonia’s Kriptomat Partners Volt for Real-Time Payments for Crypto Trading
Estonian crypto platform Kriptomat has partnered with UK payment gateway provider Volt to enable customers to make real-time account-to-account payments to buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies. Prior to integrating with Volt, Kriptomat customers used bank transfers, credit cards and e-wallets
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UK’s Starling Bank Blocks All Transactions to and From Crypto Platforms
London-based Starling Bank recently announced in a text to its users that it has decided to block all incoming and outgoing transactions to crypto exchanges and other crypto platforms. Starling Bank says that while the technology and thinking behind cryptocurrencies
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Crypto Winter Wipes Out 72,000 Bitcoin Millionaires in 2022
Crypto comparison website Bitstacker conducted a study which found that there was a 70% drop in Bitcoin millionaires in November 2022 when compared to January 2022 due to the ongoing ‘crypto winter’. 72,000 Bitcoin holders were no longer millionaires due
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Market Participants See Potential in DLT and Tokenization to Shorten Settlement Cycle
The clearing and settlement landscape is on the brick of a major transformation, driven by the accelerated pace of technology development and adoption. In the coming years, market participants expect the settlement timeframe to substantially shorten as technology continue to
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Sygnum Granted In-Principle Approval to Operate in the Abu Dhabi Global Market
Swiss digital asset bank Sygnum has received in-principle approval from the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) to expand to the city. The approval allows the company to access Abu Dhabi’s established wealth management market and
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Finastra Partners Fragmos Chain to Digitalise OTC Derivatives Post-Trade
Finastra is collaborating with French blockchain platform Fragmos Chain to provide out-of-the-box integration with Finastra Summit, its over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market solution. The API-first integration via FusionFabric.cloud enables banks globally to digitalise their OTC derivatives products to reduce the costs
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Bitpanda Receives Full Crypto Custody and Trading License in Germany
Austrian crypto platform Bitpanda has received a full operating license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority or BaFin for the custody and proprietary trading of crypto assets. Bitpanda claims to be the first European retail investment platform to obtain
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