The central bank of Russia is trying to evaluate the amount of Bitcoin (BTC) held by local investors amid a massive amount of money not returning to banks following the pandemic-fueled withdrawals. According to Elizaveta Danilova, head of the central bank’s financial stability department, the Bank of Russia is polling local cryptocurrency investors to estimate cryptocurrency investment volumes in Russia. “We need to work both on data and raising public awareness about the risks of such investments, which are backed by nothing,” Danilova said in a Reuters interview published on the Bank of Russia’s official website on Thursday. The official …

Bitcoiner Allan Flynn has settled his first complaint with the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) over being unilaterally debanked in 2018 and 2019 due to his occupation as a Digital Currency Exchange (DCE). The settlement comes 20 months after the Canberra resident first filed complaints with the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal against ANZ. In the settlement, the ANZ noted that it closed his accounts due to the risk of money laundering and terrorism funding (ML/TF) that it perceives among exchanges. It also acknowledged that the act of unbanking Flynn could “have amounted to unlawful discrimination contrary to …

Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies have a permanent role in financial markets, but other digital assets such as central bank digital currencies (CBDC) or nonfungible tokens (NFT) could likely outperform crypto, according to Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters. Speaking on a Standard Chartered conference call, Winters echoed the “crypto is here to stay” narrative and said there’s a role for non-fiat currencies, given the concerns about inflation. “Broadly, we’ve gone through a long period of low inflation, and we’ve got central banks experimenting in uncharted territory with very, very loose monetary policy,” Winters said, adding: “It’s perfectly reasonable for people …

Customers of Swiss-based financial institution SEBA Bank will soon be able to earn yields on their crypto holdings. In a Wednesday announcement, SEBA Bank said investors could use its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) lending services to generate yields as part of its SEBA Earn program. According to the bank, which focuses on offering digital assets, it planned on integrating support for other cryptocurrencies. “As institutional interest in digital assets accelerates, investors have a broader appetite for crypto assets, with a particular interest in earning services such as staking, DeFi and centralized crypto borrowing and lending,” said SEBA Bank CEO …

U.S. Bank, the fifth-largest retail bank in the United States, announced Tuesday that it is launching a cryptocurrency custody service for institutional investors, potentially setting the stage for wider mainstream acceptance of digital assets. As CNBC reported, U.S. Bank has partnered with New York Digital Investment Group, or NYDIG, to provide custody services for Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Litecoin (LTC). Gunjan Kedia, a senior executive at U.S. Bank’s wealth management and investment division, told CNBC that support for other cryptocurrencies like Ether (ETH) will be rolled out over time. Fund managers and other institutional investors have been increasing …

The old adage “The crypto market is not for the faint-hearted” was put on full display recently when the total market capitalization of the industry dipped to a relative low of $1.75 trillion on Sept. 20, only to make a strong comeback. Despite all of these fluctuations, however, demand from institutional investors remains strong, with reports suggesting that big-money players continued to recently “buy the dip,” especially on the heels of China’s most recent blanket ban that saw bears take control of the market, albeit briefly. To further elaborate on the matter, a recent CoinShares report revealed that over the …

One of France’s leading banks has turned to decentralized finance pioneer MakerDAO to propose the submission of bond tokens as collateral for a loan of the DAI stablecoin. The historic proposal, called “Security Tokens Refinancing,” was submitted to Maker’s governance forums by the international bank on Friday. It would be the first major collaboration between a traditional bank and a DeFi protocol, and could open the door for closer integration between the two sectors. Societe Generale (SG) labeled it as the “first experiment at the crossroads between regulated and open source initiatives.” The bank has proposed that it provide “OFH” …

The inaugural summer of decentralized finance (DeFi) in 2020 — when millions of dollars in the form of crypto were invested into DeFi platforms — caught the attention of people around the world. And as summer 2021 proved to be another major success for DeFi, more and more people are considering taking the leap and seeing how they can get involved in the booming sector. The sums involved are not insignificant. Starting at $1 billion in February 2020, over $40 billion flowed into DeFi platforms in just one year. For those intimidated by crypto, it hasn’t helped that many DeFi …

The legal status of cryptocurrencies remains a mixed bag of regulatory positions, depending on the jurisdiction being considered. While some countries move toward blanket prohibitions or stringent regulations, others elect to go with a more open approach to crypto. For Ukraine, the latter path appears to be the case, with the government encouraging legalized crypto operations within the country. Ukraine’s seemingly positive stance on cryptocurrencies also stands in stark contrast with neighboring Russia where officials are enacting regulatory roadblocks against the ownership and use of digital currencies. While Ukraine enacts laws to recognize and regulate crypto, the country’s central bank …

Nine banking industry associations have submitted a letter to the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) in response to its proposal to introduce stringent capital requirements for banks looking to hold crypto assets on their books. In June of this year, the BCBS had published a consultation paper that assigned a 1,250% risk weight to Bitcoin (BTC), meaning that banks would need to hold $1 in capital for each $1 worth of exposure they have to Bitcoin. In their letter this week, industry groups — among them, the derivatives associations ISDA and FIA, the Institute of International Finance, European markets …

South Korean crypto exchange Gopax, which is backed by Digital Currency Group, is facing potential closure ahead of the country’s fast-approaching deadline for platforms to submit their requests for an official operating license. To be eligible for a license, all crypto exchanges must show evidence that they are operating using real-name accounts at South Korean banks. The catch is that domestic banks have, for the most part, refused to engage in any risk assessment process for the country’s numerous small and medium-sized exchanges and have only been confident enough to service the country’s top four trading platforms: Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit …

On Wednesday, speaking at a meeting of the Exchequer Club — which is a group of senior economic and financial policy professionals headquartered in Washington, D.C. — Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu delivered remarks on the topic of safeguarding trust in banking. In the speech, Hsu named reducing inequality, adapting to digitalization, acting on climate change and guarding against complacency as the main priorities of his office. Speaking on the regulatory challenges emerging as a result of digitization of the financial system, the head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) listed rising cryptocurrency-related and …