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Singapore Plans More Rules to Curb Retail Crypto Speculation

Singapore Plans More Rules to Curb Retail Crypto Speculation

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Singapore’s financial watchdog, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has unveiled stringent new regulations aimed at curbing retail speculation in cryptocurrencies. The move comes as the city-state grapples with the risks associated with the volatile crypto market.

The MAS announced that individual investors would be barred from borrowing to trade cryptocurrencies. Additionally, digital payment token service providers are prohibited from offering incentives for retail trading in cryptocurrencies. This includes financing, margin, or leverage transactions. The use of locally issued credit cards for such transactions will also be prohibited.

Expanding Restrictions and Coverage

Previously, the MAS’ retail curbs only applied to investors within Singapore. However, the new measures will now encompass all investors, irrespective of their residency. Furthermore, the guidelines will cover incentives such as referrals and learn-and-earn programs associated with crypto trading.

These expanded measures are scheduled to be gradually introduced starting from mid-2024. The MAS aims to roll out these regulations in phases to allow time for adaptation within the industry.

Singapore Plans More Rules to Curb Retail Crypto Speculation

Image Source: bloomberg.com

Ho Hern Shin, MAS’ deputy managing director for financial supervision, cautioned that while these measures aim to mitigate risks, they cannot completely shield customers from the inherent volatility and risks of cryptocurrency trading. He urged people to avoid dealing with unregulated entities, including those operating from overseas.

Additional Requirements

Apart from curbing speculative trading, the MAS will require crypto firms to maintain high availability and recoverability of critical systems, mirroring the stringent standards expected of traditional banks. Moreover, these firms must establish robust processes to handle customer complaints and resolve disputes.

Also Read: How to Detect AI-Generated Deepfake Videos?

Singapore, a prominent crypto hub in Asia, has been taking steps to distance itself from speculative activities in the digital asset space. Previous efforts included plans to ban lending and staking following incidents like the collapse of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.

As Singapore strengthens its regulatory framework, the MAS emphasizes the need for caution and adherence to the new guidelines to mitigate potential risks associated with cryptocurrency trading. These measures represent the government’s ongoing efforts to protect investors while fostering a responsible and secure financial ecosystem in the burgeoning crypto landscape.

Binance CEO Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Money-Laundering Charges, Crypto Exchange to Pay $4.3 Billion in Penalties

Binance CEO Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Money-Laundering Charges, Crypto Exchange to Pay $4.3 Billion in Penalties

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The Department of Justice stated on Tuesday that Binance Holdings, the owner of the largest exchange for digital currencies around the globe, has entered a guilty plea to felony charges in the United States alleging that it had broken the Bank Secrecy Act along with other laws. The company also agreed to pay a penalty of $4.3 billion to end the inquiry.

Furthermore, according to the Department of Justice, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao filed a guilty plea for violating the BSA by neglecting to run an efficient money laundering prevention programme. Zhao is no longer the organization’s chief executive officer.

“Binance became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange in part because of the crimes it committed — now it is paying one of the largest corporate penalties in U.S. history,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Garland alluded to the U.S. government’s prosecution of another cryptocurrency executive, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who a jury found guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy earlier this month. “The message here should be clear: using new technology to break the law does not make you a disruptor, it makes you a criminal,” Garland said.

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Binance's Deliberate Breaches Enabled Funds to go to Criminals

Binance CEO Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Money-Laundering Charges, Crypto Exchange to Pay $4.3 Billion in Penalties

Image Source: coindesk.com

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated in a statement that Binance’s deliberate breaches enabled funds to go to terrorists, and cybercriminals, including perpetrators of child abuse via its platform. Today’s significant fines and oversight to guarantee adherence to US laws and regulations represent a turning point for the digital currency market. Any organisation, wherever it may be, that wishes to profit from the American financial system must abide by the laws that protect us all against criminal activity, terrorist attacks, and foreign enemies.

Also Read: Why Is Your AirPods Case Battery Draining Fast?

According to the Department of Justice, Binance, which debuted in 2017, aimed to draw in large numbers of clients. The company needed to register as a financial services firm with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and put in place an efficient money laundering prevention project that was fairly created to avoid Binance being utilised or used for the purpose of money laundering since it catered to American consumers, said the Department of Justice

Court records claim that Binance needed to put in place appropriate safeguards and operations, such as thorough know-your-customer policies or regular transaction tracking, to stop the laundering of cash. Furthermore, according to the Department of Justice, Binance never submitted a report of suspicious activity (SAR) to FinCEN.

Facebook Opens Up About Libra its New Cryptocurrency Project

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Only over ten days ago, an article from ‘The Information’ talked about Facebook’s rumoured cryptocurrency project, ‘Libra’, and today, the company has come out in open to announce that it will be launching its own cryptocurrency by the first half of 2020.

The biggest social network company, Facebook Inc., revealed on Tuesday, that it is ready to launch its cryptocurrency in 2020, in order to move its focus from social media to eCommerce and online payments.

libra cryptocurrency
Image Source: fortune.com

The
company reported that the new cryptocurrency won’t be a speculative
asset, like Bitcoin or the other major cryptocurrencies, but will be
a type of digital currency, as stable as the dollar, that people will
be able to use for normal expenditures or to transfer money globally.

According
to one of the spokespersons from Facebook, the company aims to
establish Libra as the first mainstream cryptocurrency, by offering
people to pay for online as well as offline services through it. In
the beginning, Libra will support online money transfer for the
countries that lack traditional banking facilities. And, after some
time, it will be used for day-to-day transactions.

Along with the cryptocurrency, the company is also working on its subsidiary, Calibra, a digital wallet, that will be used for the online transactions through the cryptocurrency. According to the company, Libra will be backed by the reserve of assets. Also, the new cryptocurrency will have its own new blockchain platform.

Facebook
is excited about Libra but has also got the regulatory concerns. It
has been facing backlashes from its users and the regulatory
authorities due to the data breaches alligations it holds. A
cryptocurrency from a company which has been responsible for these
hacks and breaches is quite questionable for the lawmakers and the
regulators.

The
company has already in talks with the regulators in the United
States, Europe and from the other countries, about the launch of its
own cryptocurrency. And, these regulators are also going in depth of
the announced project from Facebook to get to know more about it.
Since it is not purely a cryptocurrency, many of these regularities
doubt its privacy.

Facebook revealed that it has partnered with the Geneva-based association Libra for the development of its cryptocurrency. The organisation have been founded by some major companies from around the world, including Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, Stripe, eBay, Uber, Lyft, Spotify, Coinbase, Xapo, Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, Mercy Corps, and Women’s World Banking, along with Facebook. So these companies will also be playing a crucial role in decisions to be taken for Libra.

Ledger goes Mobile with its Next-gen Bluetooth Hardware Wallet Launched at CES 2019

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Only one day to go for the CES, and many of the companies have already revealed the products that they will be launching at the conference. On the same league, Ledger, the leading crypto wallet producer, has announced the launch of a new and more secure Bluetooth wallet Nano X, in the upcoming event of CES 2019.

Ledger has not only beefed up the storage for the latest device but has also added support for multiple, i.e. up to 100 wallets. It has also enhanced the support for more coins, i.e. up to 1100 coins. The wallet now can be managed through an app, Ledger Live, installed on the user’s smartphone. It can be enabled and connected to the wallet through the Bluetooth. This means that now the users can easily send and receive tokens from their phones.

Ledger Nano X
Image Source: pcmag.com

Also, earlier those hardware wallets were connected through a USB cable. Although the wireless connection may seem to be risky, the fact that the wallet is only connected through the Live app using a particular pin for each user can diminish the risk.

Ledger’s previously launched hardware wallet, the Nano S, had become very popular among its users. The device is quite similar to the Nano X, except it had storage and support for a lesser number of wallets and coins. A hardware crypto wallet is a more flexible way for keeping the cryptocurrency locally in a protected manner, without storing it on an exchange. The wallet is secured with the help of a unique key, that the users must input every single time they use it.

Ledger, on January 4, had tweeted on its official account, “You asked, we listened: more applications on a single device, coming soon – 7 Jan 2019,” followed by another tweet, “Your crypto assets, always secured, everywhere you go with #Bluetooth.”

Ledger’s CEO Éric Larchevêque said, “There have been a lot of requests from our users to have a native application.” On the Bluetooth device being secure, he stated, “The Bluetooth connection is only used to send public data, such as your public key. The transaction itself is encrypted end-to-end while using the highest level of encryption and security on the Bluetooth protocol. No private keys are on the Bluetooth connection. It’s the same as the USB cable. Security-wise, the architecture is the same.”

The Nano X has also got a bigger screen, and the navigation buttons have been moved to the front from the top. The device has got its users the facility for tracking their assets including minimal hardware requirements. The acceptance rate of Nano X can be estimated through the success of its predecessor, Nano S, previously had gained. The mobile app, Ledger Live, is set to be rolling out on the iOS as well as the Android smartphones from 28 January 2019, and the company has started the preorders for the device from today onwards. The cost for Nano X has been fixed at $119 and will be shipped by March this year.

Bitcoin Drags Down the Fellow Currencies with its Own Price Drop

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bitcoin
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Bitcoin successfully being steady at a higher value for a few months has faced a price drop in its value. Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency, and on Wednesday it experienced a sudden plunge in its value, shedding $400 within 30 minutes.

According to the CoinDesk data, the Bitcoin’s price drop has wiped billions of dollars from its market capitalization within minutes. It has also affected the values of other cryptocurrencies including Ripple (XRP), Ethereum, EOS, Stellar and Litecoin, dragging the value of each of them down, losing billions of dollars.

Bitcoin had attained a stability in its value, as recorded at the beginning of the month, the fall it has experienced has hit its 17-months volatility. The volatility comes when the value of the cryptocurrency gets into a state of stability, to end its stable trading. Also, the cryptocurrency trading by the whales (the people holding a huge share of cryptocurrency), also affects the price change of the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was having this stable state since September 17. The value of Bitcoin was above $6600, in the past week and has decreased sharply to $6,125. However, after some time of the price drop, Bitcoin recovered its value to an extent and reached briefly to $6,200.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) had already published a warning that the rapidly growing value of the cryptocurrency assets can create “new vulnerabilities in the international financial system”. The warning came to be true when Bitcoin’s value dropped to 4.65 per cent, over the 24 hour period. Bitcoin, with its price drop, is hardly maintaining any gains this month. In just thirty minutes the cryptocurrency market capitalization fell from $214 billion to $205 billion.

Buy Bitcoin for $1 in the Walmart Stores

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walmart-bitcoin
Image Source: bitcoinexchangeguide.com

According to a post, by TheKayleMain, in The CryptoCurrency subreddit, Walmart is planning to sell a set of six BitCoins for just $1 USD. The post was released on Monday, and included a picture, that displayed packages consisting of BitCoins that were bannered under the name of “Everyday Low Price”.

The BitCoin is a decentralised cryptocurrency that is created and held electronically. According to the Reddit readers, these BitCoins are a bit different in its manufacturing, as these are covered with chocolate. Pennsylvania based chocolate manufacturing company, the Frankford Candy & Chocolate Company, will cover the BitCoins with milk chocolate weighing about 1.48 Oz and will be wrapped with golden tinfoil.

According to the crypto forum, for now, these chocolate BitCoins will only be available in America. The launch of such BitCoin chocolates can make many other prospective investors to approach Wallmart as the intermediate for their market-to-market purchase of BitCoins.

Bitcoin’s price has already seen a slump from $20000 to $6000, this year, but, $1 exchange price for six bitcoins is quite inexpensive. Until now, Wallmart has not confirmed the news, but, Frankford gave a hint by tweeting on Friday, “Lots of Milk Chocolate + Bitcoins = Pure happiness.” With the tweet, it also posted a picture of chocolates covered with the gold foil having a Bitcoin sign on it.