United Kingdom-based neo-banking platform Revolut, which boasts 25 million customers globally, has introduced crypto staking to its U.K. and European Economic Area (EEA) customers. According to a report by London-based news agency altfi, the staking feature is expected to go live this week, allowing users to generate income on their crypto assets during its "soft testing" phase. At present, the staking feature is available for Polkadot (DOT), Tezos (XTZ), Cardano (ADA), and Ether (ETH) crypto assets, with yields ranging from 2.99% to 11.65%. However, these yields are not guaranteed. In cryptocurrency, staking is a process where an individual holds or …

The United States dollar index (DXY) has started a strong recovery and its rise is putting pressure on Bitcoin (BTC) and the S&P 500 (SPX) index. The market participants will be keenly watching for any insights on future rate hikes when the Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell speaks before the Economic Club of Washington on Feb. 7. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s 43% rebound in January has improved sentiment among small investors. Crypto analytics firm Santiment said that the number of Bitcoin addresses holding 0.1 Bitcoin or less soared by 620,000 to hit 39.8 million, the highest level since Nov. 19. With the …

John Ray, who took over as chief executive officer of crypto exchange FTX, has described some of the chaotic experiences at the firm following the company declaring bankruptcy. In testimony for FTX’s case in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Feb. 6, Ray said he and other professionals had “carefully” been conducting an investigation into FTX’s activities, due to the company having no physical office. The FTX CEO seemed to be pushing back against a motion to assign an independent examiner to the bankruptcy case, claiming that “inadvertent errors” could result in “hundreds of millions …

For many countries, the tax season is right around the corner, which means companies in the crypto industry will need to be ready to help their users comply with local regulations. On Feb. 6, crypto exchange Binance announced it is launching a tax reporting tool to help users stay on track of their crypto transactions for tax reporting purposes. According to the announcement, Binance Tax lets its users download a tax summary report which includes any gains or losses which have occurred throughout the year in their Binance account. This includes spot trades, crypto donations and blockchain-based fork rewards. The …

India’s Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, stated that regulation “cannot be done” by a single country, it requires “collective action,” in a recent television interview. Speaking to Rahul Joshi on CNBC-TV18 in India on Feb. 3, Sitharaman noted that while the central bank is the “authority for issuing cryptocurrency,” the rest of the digital assets created outside are “using very useful financial technologies.” Sitharaman said that India is looking at a "global" standard operating procedure (SOP) to be “agreed upon” for regulating crypto assets, ahead of India hosting the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Bengaluru later this …

Several crypto firms have made job cuts this week amid the ongoing crypto winter, retaining “impactful” employees as they prepare for a “longer downtown.” At least 216 jobs were slashed between three crypto firms – open-source software laboratory Protocol Labs, blockchain data firm Chainalysis and U.S. cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex, with reductions of 89, 83 and 44 employees respectively. Juan Benet, CEO of Protocol Labs, the parent company of Filecoin, announced the job cuts in a blog post on Feb. 3 stating that the company has had to focus its headcount “against the most impactful and business critical efforts.” He stated …

The tZERO Crypto exchange, whose majority owner is Overstock, will shut down on March 6, the company announced via Twitter on Feb. 3. The company says that it will continue to focus on its regulated securities products after the shutdown, as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other regulators clarify the legal status of crypto assets. Today, tZERO Crypto informed its customers that it will be ceasing operations on March 6, following an orderly withdrawal of assets by the customers, which continue to be held by the custodian. 1/7 — tZERO (@tZERO) February 3, 2023 tZERO is …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) rally in 2023 has been boosted by expectations that the United States Federal Reserve will slow down the pace of its rate hikes as inflation has started cooling down. Some even anticipate a rate cut by the end of the year. That assumption received a jolt on Feb.3 when the U.S. employment data for January beat expectations and unemployment hit its lowest level since May 1969. If markets do not react negatively to news perceived as bearish, it’s a sign that the sentiment has turned positive. Traders may then shift their focus to the next important economic data …

The debacle between the global cryptocurrency exchange Binance and Zanmai, the operator behind the Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, continues in a new blog post from Binance banning the latter from utilizing its services. On Feb. 3, Binance released a post that acknowledged the ongoing “public debate” with Zanmai over its claims of Binance involvement in running WazirX. Binance said on Jan. 26 it gave WazirX the ultimatum of retracting its statements and continuing using Binance wallet services or terminating its usage. According to the announcement, Zanmai made no retraction and now has until Feb. 3, 2023, 23:59 UTC, to remove …

Bitcoin experienced the second-strongest January in its history — and the best since 2013 — rising nearly 40% amid wide reports that institutional investors were back on board. Zhong Yang Chan, head of research at CoinGecko, told Cointelegraph that there were “net institutional inflows into digital asset funds in January 2023, particularly in the last two weeks, with Bitcoin the largest beneficiary.” Meanwhile, a Jan. 30 CoinShares blog noted that the total assets under management in digital asset investment products — a good gauge of institutional participation — had risen to $28 billion, led by Bitcoin (BTC), which was up …

Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance is coming back to South Korea with a new acquisition of the local crypto trading platform Gopax. Binance has acquired a majority stake in the troubled crypto exchange Gopax, re-entering South Korea after exiting the market two years ago, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 3. The funding for the transaction reportedly came from a Finance-initiated investment project known as the Industry Recovery Initiative, to which Binance pledged $1 billion. Binance chief business officer Yibo Ling said that Binance has acquired a “meaningful” equity position at Gopax without disclosing the terms of the deal. The acquisition comes a …

Indonesia’s Ministry of Trade is reportedly aiming to roll out a national crypto exchange by June this year, six months after its previous target of December 2022. Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan shared the new target launch date on Feb. 2 at the opening of Crypto Literacy Month in Jakarta, noting that the government is currently reviewing which companies meet their criteria to become part of the exchange, according to local reports. There are five active crypto exchanges which are currently registered with the country's regulators, and according to Zulkifli the ministry’s crypto exchange could encompass all of them. While these …