The cryptocurrency market continues to remain slightly bullish with Bitcoin (BTC) trying to gather momentum and break above the crucial $10,000 level. At the time of writing this article Bitcoin was trading at $8,646, reflecting a small gain of 0.2% in the past 24 hours. Ether (ETH), the native crypto of Ethereum blockchain is trading at $167, representing a gain of 1.1% in the past 24 hours.
Likewise, XRP, the native cryptocurrency of Ripple, is trading at $0.2346, reflecting a gain of 1%.
Other major altcoins, which has gained in the past 24 hours include Tron (TRX-$0.0168, 1.7%), Stellar (XLM-$0.0630, 4.9%), Dash (DASH-$110.13, 8.2%), IOTA (IOTA-$0.2505, 3.7%), Cardano (ADA-$0.0441, 3.9%), EOS (EOS-$3.65, 1.7%), Huobi (HT-$3.18, 2.1%), Monero (XMR-$65.31, 1.2%), Cosmos (ATOM, $4.61, 2.2%), Ethereum Classic (ETC-$8.87, 7.2%), Tezos (XTZ-1.55, 9.80%), Binance Coin (BNB-$17.47, 2.0%), Litecoin (LTC-$57.61, 1.7%), Bitcoin Cash (BCH-$343.81, 4.0%), ChainLink (LINK-$2.73, 5.1%). The altcoins which have lost in the past 24 hours are OKB (OKB-$2.93, -0.8%) and LEO (LEO-$0.8901, -0.4%).
Government level initiatives
Nathan Dahm drafts bill to create a state-supported innovative financial organization
Nathan Dahm, Senator of Oklahoma, has drafted a new bill proposing the creation of a state-supported innovative financial organization focused on blockchain technology. If the bill is approved, then it will create a new category of institutions. The bill will be tabled on February 3rd, 2020, and becomes effective on November 1st, 2020.
The bill, dated January 15th, 2020, pointed out that the state-chartered financial organization will be “the central depository for virtual currency used by governmental agencies in this state.”
The bill has also been drafted such that it will avoid regulatory hindrance, thereby paving the way for innovation, while also safeguarding citizens.
The document elaborates on the need to create the aforesaid financial institution: “The purpose of this new state-chartered financial institution shall be to provide valuable financial and technical services to blockchain and virtual currency innovators and developers.”
The bill intends to provide Oklahoma a proactive role in the development of new systems based on blockchain technology. Regarding Oklahoma’s participation, the bill reads, “Oklahoma is committing to partner with innovative technology, help develop next-generation financial products, and safely grow unique technical and financial sectors in this state.”
The CSA includes new guidelines to assess crypto trading platforms
Canadian authorities have published fresh guidelines to assess which cryptocurrency trading platforms come under derivatives rules. The Canadian Securities Administration (CSA) included new conditions in the “Guidance on the Application of Securities Legislation to Entities Facilitating the Trading of Crypto Assets.”
Broadly, the association demarked trading platforms that offer instant delivery of crypto assets to its users and those that retain the crypto assets until the client makes an official request. CSA arrived at the conclusion after an analysis of several platforms. Trading platforms that only allow a claim on cryptocurrency but do not perform instantaneous transfers without the client’s request are subject to securities law, and therefore come under derivatives laws.
The guidelines document elaborated on such platforms as follows: “Potentially, there will be ongoing reliance and dependence of the user on the Platform until the transfer to a user-controlled wallet is made. Until then, the user would not have ownership, possession, and control of the crypto assets without reliance on the Platform. The user would be subject to ongoing exposure to insolvency risk (credit risk), fraud risk, performance risk and proficiency risk on the part of Platform.”
The CSA will not implement securities rules to cryptocurrency exchanges, which does not treat cryptocurrency as a security or derivative, and transfers the asset immediately to the client’s wallet.
Private sector initiatives
Switzerland bank Seba to raise $95 million as capital
The newly established Switzerland-based cryptocurrency bank Seba, holding a regulatory license, intends to raise $95 million as capital, for the second time. Specifically, Seba intends to amass CHF 100 million (~$96.50 million) “from new investors, including financial institutions, family offices, and individuals.”
On November 12th, 2019, the crypto-friendly firm SEBA Bank AG formally announced its launch after Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) licensed the firm to offer its services in the securities and banking sector.
Seba raised $103 million a capital in its initial funding round, as per Seba CEO Guido Bühler, who said: “We are proud to have founded a bank within 18 months, raised CHF [Swiss francs] 100 million in capital from investors.”
Miscellaneous
$2.8 billion in illegal bitcoin transacted through Binance and Huobi
As per a recent study, more than 52% of illegal Bitcoin (BTC) worth $2.8 billion was transacted via Binance and Huobi cryptocurrency exchanges. Last year, criminal groups transferred a sum of $2.8 billion in Bitcoin to various cryptocurrency exchanges. The New York-based Chainalysis, in its study report, mentioned that Binance and Huobi had received 27.6% and 24.7%, respectively, of the aggregate transfers from anti-social elements in 2019.
The aforesaid popular cryptocurrency trading platforms were mainly responsible for facilitating the transaction of more than half of all illegal Bitcoin in 2019. This implies that all other exchanges put together received 47.8% of the total unlawful Bitcoin traded.
The study report from Chainalysis indicates that Binance and Huobi were used to transact Bitcoins from around 300,000 accounts suspected to have links with criminal activity in 2019. Specifically, less than1% of those accounts were used for transacting a major portion of the illegal Bitcoin. Chainalysis states that 810 accounts were used to receive 75% of illegal Bitcoins on both cryptocurrency exchanges last year.
Chainalysis further points out that several of those large accounts belong to over-the-counter (OTC) brokers. Of the top 100 OTC brokers that supposedly offer money laundering facilities, nearly 70 of them have an account with Huobi. This group, named “Rogue 100”, includes “extremely active traders who have a huge impact on the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”
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