Exchanges Reviews - Page 2

Coinbase announces suspension of BUSD trading beginning March 13. The San Francisco-based cryptocurrency exchange referred to its "listing standards" in a tweet. Coinbase will suspend trading for the Binance USD stablecoin on March 13, the exchange announced on Feb. 27. The message mentioned its “listing standards” as being behind the decision. BUSD is the third-largest stablecoin by market capitalization. The decision will apply to Coinbase.com (simple and advanced), Coinbase Pro, Coinbase Exchange and Coinbase Prime, according to the Twitter thread. The exchange added, “Your BUSD funds will remain accessible to you, and you will continue to have the ability to withdraw your funds at any time.”

Huobi crypto exchange aims to expand to Hong Kong amid regulatory changes. The cryptocurrency exchange recently cut 20% of its staff, but now it will increase its personnel in Hong Kong from 50 to 200. Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi Global is seeking a license in Hong Kong as the Chinese special administrative region considers new licensing and regulatory moves that would allow it to serve retail customers. The new framework, which requires crypto exchanges to register with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), would allow the exchange to expand its services to the city. Huobi also plans to open a new exchange named Huobi Hong Kong that would concentrate on institutional and high-net-worth individuals, according to a Twitter thread by Justin Sun. The SFC recently opened the new Hong Kong licensing proposals for public comment, with the new regime to go into effect in June. News of the expected changes led to financial services providers lining up to take part in the new, expanded system in December.

Binance CEO: Crypto industry will probably move to non-dollar stablecoins. Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ,” says that the industry may start to use stablecoins pegged to the euro, yen, or Singapore dollar, following recent actions against the U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoin BUSD. The crypto industry will “probably” start using euro, yen, or Singapore dollar-based stablecoins in the future, reducing its reliance on United States dollar-based stablecoins, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as “CZ.” CZ gave the statement in a Feb. 14 Twitter Spaces event in answer to a question about the crypto industry using gold as a standard of value instead of the U.S. dollar. CZ agreed that it “makes sense” to use gold. However, “most people’s costs are still in fiat currencies.” For this reason, most people calculate their investment returns in dollars, which is why U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins are “still important.”

Coinbase CEO invites DC residents over for ice cream and crypto talk. Brian Armstrong said he had about an hour at the Dirksen Senate Office in Washington, D.C. to “chat about crypto” and enjoy low-sugar food at the building’s snack bar. Brian Armstrong, CEO of United States-based cryptocurrency firm Coinbase, is looking for lawmakers and regulators to discuss regulatory clarity in the crypto space. In a Feb. 13 tweet, Armstrong put a call out for anyone with access to the Dirksen Senate Office in Washington, D.C. to meet him at the building’s snack bar and “chat about crypto.” According to the Coinbase CEO, he was looking for “low sugar options” amid the selection of soft serve ice cream and toppings. “I’m in Washington D.C. and had a meeting canceled,” said Armstrong. “If anyone wants to come chat about crypto and how we get crypto legislation + regulatory clarity this year.”

Mastercard, Binance to launch their second prepaid crypto card in Latin America. Crypto adoption and usage in Brazil are higher than the global average. Credit card giant MasterCard has teamed up with the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance to launch another prepaid crypto card in Latin America. On Jan. 30, Binance announced the launch of the Binance Card in Brazil. The new card is issued by Dock, a payment institution regulated by the Brazilian Central Bank. It will allow new and existing Binance users in the country with valid national IDs to make purchases and pay bills with crypto assets. The card is in a beta testing phase and will be “widely available in the coming weeks,” according to Binance. Brazil is the second country Binance has launched the product following Argentina in August 2022. According to the announcement, Brazil is among the top ten markets for Binance globally.

Bithumb ordered to pay outage damages to investors by South Korean court. A ruling from local courts has Bithumb liable to pay just over $200,000 in damages to the 132 investors which filed against the cryptocurrency exchange. The ongoing saga of the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb continues, this time with ruling from local courts. On Jan. 13 the South Korean Supreme Court finalized its ruling that the exchange must pay damages to investors over a 1.5-hour service outage on Nov. 12, 2017. According to a local news source, the damages are equivalent to $202, 400 - or 251.4 million in the regional currency won. Initially, a district ruled against the investors, though it was later overturned. The finalized ruling from the Supreme Court ordered damages to be paid ranging from as little as $6 to around $6,400 to the 132 investors involved.

Crypto.com delists USDT for Canadian users following OSC ban. Registered cryptocurrency exchanges in Ontario, Canada, cannot list USDT due to regulatory prohibition. According to user reports circulating on social media on Jan. 10, cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com plans to delist Tether (USDT) for Canadian users, effective Jan 31. The exchange has told itcustomers that if they do not withdraw or convert their USDT assets by the deadline, then their Tether will be automatically converted into USD Coin (USDC). It wrote: “You may incur a retrieval fee if deposits of USDT are made from external wallets after this suspension period, and fund retrieval may not be possible in some cases.” In August, Crypto.com announced that the Ontario Securities Commission had accepted the firm's pre-registration undertaking for operations in Canada. As part of regulatory requirements, cryptocurrency exchanges operating in the Canadian province of Ontario are prohibited from listing digital assets banned by the OSC, which includes USDT. Similarly, Coinsquare, a cryptocurrency exchange regulated by the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC), currently does not list USDT as one of its available trading assets.

FTX did not hold back on company expenses in the Bahamas, according to court documents. FTX’s Bahamian company spent a staggering amount of money on luxury hotels and accommodation, flights and food in the nine months before the exchange’s collapse, court filings have revealed. According to bankruptcy court documents reviewed by Business Insider, FTX Digital Markets went through $40 million between last January and September, before filing for bankruptcy in November because of “liquidity issues.” More than $15 million went on luxury hotels and accommodation, with $5.8 million of that at one resort - the Albany Hotel. This is the luxury resort is where Sam Bankman-Fried lived in his $30 million penthouse until his arrest, the report added. Around $3.6 million went on the Grand Hyatt, a four-star hotel that hosted British royalty in March. There was also $800,000 spent at the five-star Rosewood resort. Furthermore, almost $7 million was spent on meals and entertainment, with around half of that on catering services, according to the documents. Nearly $4 million was spent on flights and over $500,000 was spent on postage and delivery.

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis has attempted to put the FTX collapse into perspective - comparing peak weekly-realized losses in the wake of the exchange’s collapse compared to previous major crypto collapses in 2022. The Dec. 14 report found the depegging of Terra USD (UST) in May saw weekly-realized losses peak at $20.5 billion, while the subsequent collapse of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius in June saw weekly-realized losses peak at $33 billion. In comparison, weekly realized losses during the FTX saga peaked at $9 billion in the week starting Nov. 7, and have been reducing weekly since.

Coinbase report shows dramatic increase in law enforcement enquiries worldwide. The crypto exchange says the overall number of enquiries is up 66%, with the United States producing the most by far; the U.S., and three European countries made 80% of all requests. Coinbase has seen information requests from law enforcement surge over the past year, the cryptocurrency exchange reported in its latest transparency report. The vast majority of the enquiries came from the United States and were tied to criminal investigations. Coinbase’s new transparency report covers the last four quarters ending with September. In that time, the exchange received 12,320 information requests from law enforcement, an increase of about 66%. The United States accounted for 5,304, or 43%, of those requests. The United Kingdom, Germany and Spain produced between 1,000 and 2,000 requests apiece. Those four countries accounted for 80% of requests, while 57 other countries also made requests. The 1,304 requests from Spain represent an increase o 940%. It was one of six countries that had more than doubled their enquiries in the last year. Twenty-one countries sent requests for the first time during the reporting period, including the Czech Republic, which sent 104 of them.

Binance's efforts to improve transparency of its reserves also exposed red flags in the crypto exchange's finances, according to accounting and financial specialists consulted by The Wall Street Journal. As noted by a former Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) member and investment manager, the report released by the audit firm Mazars give not bring investors confidence about the exchange's finances, as it lacks information related to the quality of internal controls and how Binance's systems liquidate assets to cover margin loans. Another red flag raised by the newspaper's sources regards the lack of information about Binance's corporate structure. According to the report, Binance’s chief strategy officer, Patrick Hillmann, was unable name Binance’s parent company, as Binance has been going through a corporate reorganization for almost two years. Differences between the total Bitcoin liabilities were also highlighted. The exchange's proof of reserves shows that Binance was 97% collateralized, excluding assets lended to users through loans or margin accounts, indicating that the 1:1 ratio of reserves to customer assets was not achieved.

Huobi, Poloniex announced strategic partnership despite initial denials of a merger. The exchanges will cooperate progressively in HT coin development, liquidity sharing and global compliance, plus Huobi will monitor Poloniex for new projects to list. Huobi and Poloniex announced a strategic partnership on Nov. 30. Reports of a planned merger of the two cryptocurrency exchanges emerged and were denied last week. The two exchanges will “progressively cooperate” on Huobi’s HT coin ecosystem development, connectivity, liquidity sharing and global compliance. Beginning in December, the Huobi Advisory Board will make a monthly evaluation of all Poloniex projects, with top performers potentially directly listed on Huobi, the exchange stated. Talk of a merger began with a tweet from Wu Blockchain. Poloniex is by far the larger of the two exchanges. It is not available to U.S. users.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has announced it will be “resuming ordinary” cash payments, salaries and benefits to its remaining employees around the world. The announcement came from new FTX CEO John Ray III on Nov. 28, as the insolvency professional looks to help FTX and its approximated 101 affiliated companies (FTX Debtors) navigate their way through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. "With the Court's approval of our First Day motions and the work being done on global cash management, I am pleased that the FTX group is resuming ordinary course cash payments of salaries and benefits to our remaining employees around the world.” “FTX also is making cash payments to selected non-U.S. vendors and service providers where necessary to preserve business operations, subject to the limits approved by the Bankruptcy Court,” he added. The announcement comes around 10 days after FTX debtors filed a motion to pay prepetition compensation and benefits to employees and contractors in the Delaware bankruptcy court on Nov. 19, which excludes payments to former FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, along with Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, and Caroline Ellison.

The Busan city administration has signed agreements with multiple crypto firms, including Binance, Huobi Global, Crypto.com, as well as the troubled FTX exchange. The FTX crash appears to have affected not only companies and investors but also entire cities that previously became partners of the troubled cryptocurrency exchange. South Korea’s second-largest city, Busan, is reportedly reconsidering its plans to build a local crypto exchange as a consequence of the FTX collapse, the local news agency Yonhap reported on Nov. 23. The government and financial authorities of Busan have become increasingly concerned about the concept of a public-private digital exchange amid the FTX contagion. “In view of various conditions, it is unreasonable for the city of Busan to promote the establishment of a digital asset exchange,” a Busan City official reportedly stated. The South Korean city has been engaged in establishing a local digital asset exchange for a few months, signing multiple agreements with crypto exchanges. Building such a platform as a public-private partnership model was reportedly a pledge of Busan Mayor Park Hyung-joon.

The new CEO of FTX gave a curt statement in response to the series of intermittent tweets by former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. The new CEO and chief restructuring officer for the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, John Ray, has icily responded to the erratic series of tweets from former CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The official Twitter account of FTX on Nov. 16 tweeted a statement from Ray addressing Bankman-Fried’s recent public statements, reiterating he “has no ongoing role at [FTX], FTX US, or Alameda Research Ltd. and does not speak on their behalf.” On Nov. 14 Bankman-Fried began a strange Twitter thread that — over the course of 40 or so hours - eventually spelled out “What happened” across nine tweets, he then went on to claim he was meeting with regulators, wanting to “do right by customers.” Afterward, he began to lay out the finances and leverage of FTX and its sister trading firm Alameda Research on Nov. 16 claiming FTX’s leverage was around $13 billion, not $5 billion as he originally thought.FTX’s downward spiral kicked off in early November with a series of events eventually leading to the exchange and its roughly 130 global subsidiaries filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States on Nov. 11. John J. Ray III took over as CEO on Nov.11 with FTX’s bankruptcy filings. He has gained notoriety for previously overseeing the bankruptcy of former fraudulent energy giant Enron which had around $63.4 billion in assets and was the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time.

The collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange has created a liquidity crisis in the crypto space, which could extend the crypto winter through the end of 2023, according to a research report by Coinbase. According to analysts, the FTX implosion could keep institutional investors at bay because they are even more likely to tread cautiously for some time. The crisis has negatively impacted several crypto-focused companies that have assets stuck on FTX following the company’s bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11. Investors also fear the contagion could spread, causing further damage to the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Although several investors were rattled by the collapse of FTX, billionaire venture capitalist and serial blockchain investor Tim Draper remains bullish on Bitcoin tickers down $16,509. In a Nov.15 interview with Cointelegraph, Draper doubled down on his $250,000 target for Bitcoin in 2023. However, investors should take the price projection with a pinch of salt because it is unlikely that Bitcoin will start a roaring bull market in the near future. What are the key support and resistance levels to watch out for on Bitcoin and altcoins? Let’s study the charts of the top-10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Tremors from FTX’s collapse reverberate through the scientific community. With Sam Bankman-Fried involved in so many philanthropic ventures, the fallout of FTX could also see a variety of grants and investments being subject to clawbacks or not honored. The fall of crypto exchange FTX appears to have already begun to impact the hundreds of grant recipients across a variety of philanthropic organizations backed by the exchange. During the COVID-19 pandemic, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried became known for backing a number of causes aimed at “humanity’s long-term prospects.” One of these was the FTX Foundation and its FTX Future Fund, which publicly launched on Feb. 28 and reported on June 30 that it had made 262 grants and investments totaling $132 million in projects — many of these involved in pandemic preparedness, among other scientific pursuits. However, the leadership team of the Future Fund announced their resignation on Nov. 11 in a group post noting: “We are devastated to say that it looks likely that there are many committed grants that the Future Fund will be unable to honor.” According to a Nov. 14 report from Science.org, there have been a number of grant recipients now concerned about their future following the FTX collapse, with SecureBio’s co-founder Kevin Esvelt suggesting that the firm is seeking emergency backup funding, stating: “We don’t think it is right that anyone should lose their jobs over a financial calamity totally unrelated to the excellent work they are doing”

Binance CEO shares ‘two big lessons’ after FTX’s liquidity crunch. CZ took to Twitter on Nov. 8 sharing “two big lessons” that crypto companies should learn amid the downfall of crypto exchange FTX. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has shared his take on “two big lessons” to be learned from the FTX saga, saying cryptocurrency firms shouldn’t use their own tokens as collateral and should also keep “large reserves.” In a Nov. 8 tweet, Zhao laid out two learnings after the significant “liquidity crunch” at FTX, which has ultimately resulted in a non-binding letter of intent from Binance to acquire the struggling exchange. Two big lessons: 1: Never use a token you created as collateral. 2: Don’t borrow if you run a crypto business. Don't use capital "efficiently". Have a large reserve. Binance has never used BNB for collateral, and we have never taken on debt. FTX’s liquidity issues appeared to have come after a Nov. 6 tweet from Zhao saying Binance would be liquidating its holdings of FTX Token FTT tickers down $4.00 following “recent revelations” related to reported ties between FTX and the trading firm Alameda Research showing the firm had significant FTT holdings.

Crypto exchange Kraken has already implemented its “advanced cryptographic accounting procedure” to allow users to verify their token balances since Feb. 2022. Crypto exchange OKX also announced its plans to roll out a Merkle tree-based Proof-of-Reserves audit system in a Nov. 8 Twitter post - something they consider to be an “important step” in establishing a “baseline trust” in the industry. The idea of more Proof-of-Reserve audits received near-full backing from the Twitter community, with crypto industry figures weighing in on the move by Binance. Host of The Daily Gwei podcast Anthony Sassano and founder of open-source crypto exchange ShapeShift Erik Voorhees both suggested Proof-of-Reserves are already integrated into decentralized finance (DeFi) and automated by smart contracts.

Binance Proof-of-Reserve pledge gains support following FTX crisis. The call for a more detailed disclosure of liquidity through the use of Proof-of-Reserves has been backed by many high-profile industry figures. Following the liquidity crisis and acquisition of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said his exchange will soon start a Proof-of-Reserves audit system to allow verification of its digital asset holdings. In a Nov. 8 Twitter post, Zhao pledged to implement a Proof-of-Reserve mechanism at Binance to provide “full transparency” through the use of Merkle Trees - a data structure used to encode blockchain data more efficiently and securely.