The latest project from one of wallet provider Xapo's co-founders, Federico Murrone, has secured the go-ahead from Liechtenstein's financial regulator for his new startup Lirium to provide its crypto solution for banks, fintechs and marketplaces worldwide. The project, called Lirium, offers a plug-and-play backend solution that aims to enable various partners — whether they be neobanks, fintech firms or traditional banks — to include crypto in their product offerings without the headache of themselves developing technical capabilities or dealing with compliance matters. Lirium removes the need to manage crypto liquidity or implement their own security measures, as the solution runs …

Commercial banks in India are reportedly reluctant to do business with crypto exchanges in the country. According to Reuters on Thursday, crypto trading platforms in India are still finding it difficult to open accounts with financial institutions. While there is no crypto ban in India, banks are reportedly acting on the advice of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to shun cryptocurrency exchanges. Back in May, the RBI clarified its position on the matter, stating that there was no prohibition against banks servicing crypto exchanges. Indeed, India’s Supreme Court overturned a previous RBI rule that prevented banks from offering account …

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has partnered with the Atlanta-based enterprise payment behemoth NCR to enable Bitcoin (BTC) services for banks and credit unions in the United States. According to Forbes on Wednesday the deal will see 650 banks and credit unions in the U.S. able to provide Bitcoin trading services to their over 24 million customers. Apart from Bitcoin trading for its banking and credit union clients, the NCR is also reportedly eyeing BTC payment services for its almost 200,000 retail clients. NYDIG will reportedly offer its in-house Bitcoin custody solution, removing a major regulatory impediment for community …

The central bank of Russia is setting up a group of banking institutions to test its central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year. On Tuesday, the Bank of Russia officially announced the establishment of the first pilot group for testing the digital ruble, bringing together 12 Russian banks. The pilot members include Russia’s largest banks like state-backed Sberbank and VTB, as well as major private banks like Tinkoff Bank. Other participants include commercial bank Alfa Bank, Gazprombank, Promsvyazbank, Rosbank, Ak Bars Bank, Dom.RF, SKB-Bank, TKB and Soyuz bank. The bank reaffirmed Russia’s plans to complete a prototype digital ruble platform …

With the implementation of new rules from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC), many smaller cryptocurrency exchanges in the country fear they will be forced to shut down. These rules require each exchange to prove that it has a real-name account held at a Korean bank by Sept. 24, 2021 — the hitch being that domestic banks are refraining from engaging in any risk assessment for applicant exchanges, save for the country's top four trading platforms. Smaller exchanges are now reportedly considering suing the government over its alleged failure to take responsibility for much of its regulatory remit, according to …

Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) Governor Feras Milhem has revealed that the proto-central bank — which does not issue a domestic currency and operates under highly restrictive political and economic conditions — is exploring the idea of issuing a Palestinian digital currency. Raja Khalidi, director of the Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, told Bloomberg that “the macroeconomic conditions don’t exist to allow a Palestinian currency — digital or otherwise — to exist as a means of exchange.” Khalidi argued, however, that the PMA’s issuance of some form of digital currency may “send a political signal to show apparent appearance of monetary …

The world runs on consumer spending and consumer saving. It is everyday people who actually power the most important parts of the global economy and the global financial system. For consumers, this system runs through their retail bank. It is where most people save, spend and pay their taxes. This is the battleground for the coming fight: the battle for global consumer deposits. Make no mistake, this will be the fight of the century. It will change the shape of the world more fundamentally than the internet has already. The internet was about information. DeFi is about capital — and …

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has partnered with Q2, a firm specializing in providing digital services to financial institutions, to provide access to Bitcoin (BTC) for bank account holders in the United States. According to a release issued on Wednesday, the partnership will potentially open up Bitcoin buying, selling and custody channels to about 18.3 million bank customers in America. Indeed, Q2 provider internet banking services to about 30% of the Top 100 U.S. banks and serves over a tenth of the country’s digital banking customers. As previously reported by Cointelegraph, NYDIG began working towards providing Bitcoin trading services …

After six months of eyeing JPMorgan Chase’s custom blockchain service for repo markets, Goldman Sachs has started trading on the platform. Mathew McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs’ global markets division, confirmed the first transaction dated June 17 in an interview, Bloomberg reported. In the trade, Goldman Sachs swapped a tokenized version of a United States Treasury bond for JPM Coin, JPMorgan’s dollar-pegged stablecoin. JPMorgan started its private blockchain service to drive efficiency in repo agreements last year. The platform uses JPM Coin to swap digitized United States Treasury bonds. Goldman Sachs was one of the first …

United Kingdom-based financial institution TSB Banking Group Plc. will soon ban its over 5.4 million customers from buying Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. According to a report by The Telegraph on Saturday, the bank’s imminent crypto ban is due to alleged cases of fraud associated with cryptocurrency transactions. Bank TSB has reportedly received a plethora of complaints from customers about crypto-related fraud cases. Indeed, the U.K. bank says about 12.5% of payments to crypto exchange platforms involve transactions as against one in 5,500 for non-virtual currency-related transfers. Crypto exchange giant Binance has reportedly been linked to the rising number of …

The Agricultural Bank of China (AgBank) — the world's third-largest bank by assets — is set to implement Beijing’s firm anti-cryptocurrency measures and rigorously vet its clients to ensure they are not engaged in any form of illegal activities involving crypto transacting, trading or mining. AgBank’s statement today followed the institution’s meeting with the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), which convened major domestic banks and mobile payment service providers and ordered them to ensure that banking and settlement services are denied to clients engaged in crypto-related transactions. An official PBoC statement today reiterated that all banks and payment institutions “must …

In an interview with CNBC on June 14, legendary investor Paul Tudor Jones sounded the alarm over advancing inflation. After last week's consumer price index (CPI) report showed that United States inflation had hit a 13-year high, the founder of Tudor Investment advocated for a 5% Bitcoin (BTC) portfolio allocation. When combined, the world's 50 largest asset managers oversee $78.9 trillion in funds. A mere 1% investment in cryptocurrencies would amount to $789 billion, which more than Bitcoin's entire $723 billion market capitalization. However, there's a fundamental misunderstanding on how this industry works, and this is what impedes a 1% …