Malta has warned citizens about an unlicensed cryptocurrency exchange serving its domestic market. Regulators ordered the platform to stop operating in a notice Dec. 5. The offending platform, OriginalCrypto, had first come to the attention of Italian officials concerned it may not have the required license to offer authorized “investment services and activities.” The platform’s owner, SolutionsCM Ltd., has now come under scrutiny from both countries, with Malta’s Financial Services Authority (MFSA) sharing the warning from Italy: “The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) has ordered the following companies to cease infringement of art. 18 of the …

Seven southern European Union member states have released a declaration calling for help in the promotion of Distributed Ledger Technology’s (DLT) use in the region, the Financial Times (FT) reports Dec. 4. The declaration was reportedly initiated by Malta and signed by six other member states, France, Italy, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Greece, during a meeting of EU transport ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. The participating governments explained that DLT –– one type of which is blockchain –– could be a “game changer” for southern EU economies. Namely, the document cites “education, transport, mobility, shipping, Land Registry, customs, company registry, …

Global retail giant Auchan is expanding TE-FOOD’s blockchain solution to improve the transparency of products’ history, U.S.-based news agency Cision PRWeb reports today, Dec. 4. The French retail group, which is reportedly the 13th largest food retailer globally with operations in 17 countries, has extended TE-FOOD’s FoodChain solution to five more countries. FoodChain is the international traceability information ledger by TE-FOOD, first applied by Auchan in its Vietnam branch. After a 18-month test of TE-FOOD’s blockchain tool in Vietnam, Auchan has now decided to deploy the products’ traceability solution in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Senegal. The blockchain-powered retail monitoring …

The Commissione Nazionale per le Società e la Borsa (CONSOB) has ordered three crypto-related companies providing unauthorized investment services to cease and desist, an official release states Monday, Nov. 19. The first company, a trading platform called Richmond Investing, has purportedly violated the Consolidated Law on Finance (TUF) — a fundamental law governing Italian financial markets — by failing to register as a financial intermediary in the country. The Italian securities market regulator has also suspend the activities of two other companies, Crypton Ltd. and Eagle Bit Trade, along with individual Alessandro Brizzi representing Cryptoforce Ltd., for 90 days. According …

The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has revealed they successfully passed the initial phase of testing their blockchain-powered interbank system, Italian financial media outlet Ansa reported September 29. By applying distributed ledger technology (DLT), the group of 14 Italian banks is planning to improve interbanking processes. Specifically, the association intends to boost the processing time of operations, increase the transparency of banking information, and enable the verification and exchange of information directly within the application. According to local Italian source Corriere Nazionale, the application of blockchain technology will also assist in specific aspects of banking operations that usually involve a number …

Italy is about to enter the European Blockchain Partnership, according to the country's Member of Parliament (MP) Mirella Liuzzi, as cited by Cointelegraph Italy Thursday, September 27. According to Liuzzi, the partnership — a collaboration of 26 EU countries — will be signed by the Minister of Economic Development, Labour and Social Policies Luigi Di Maio on September 28 in Brussels. In an interview with Key4biz, Liuzzi added: "Joining the partnership will allow Italy [...] to define its own line in the development of [blockchain] technology — a practice which the previous government had never implemented". Luizzi, the MP from …

Major league Italian soccer club Juventus announced Monday, September 24, it will launch its own cryptocurrency “fan token,” two weeks after a similar announcement from Paris Saint-Germain. The product of a partnership with “blockchain-based fan engagement platform” Socios.com, the Italian club aims to release its “Juventus Official Fan Token” as soon as Q1 next year. Like France’s Saint-Germain, which revealed its Fan Token plans with Socios earlier this month, Juventus aims to use the tradeable asset principally for fan voting and polling. The club currently ranks top in Italy and number two worldwide, with a fanbase reportedly topping 60 million. …

Major U.S. cryptocurrency wallet and exchange Coinbase has entered the crypto gift card market, allowing customers in certain countries to exchange coins for brand e-certificates, according to their July 25 blog post. In the post, Coinbase confirmed the new option was made possible through a partnership with UK-based startup WeGift, and will effectively allow cryptocurrency holders to pay for goods and services through brands such as Nike, Tesco, Uber, Google Play, Ticketmaster, and Zalando: “Starting today, Coinbase customers in the EU and Australia are able to instantly spend their cryptocurrency balances on e-gift cards, making us the first trading platform …

A working group devoted to blockchain on the initiative of institutions, hundreds of volunteers from all over the world, a big and efficient plan for the future – it’s happening in Naples, the capital of the Italian region of Campania in the south of the country. The city, through a recent press release, announced the creation of a special “focus group,” whose purpose is to “develop and eventually implement objectives related to blockchain technology”. In response, hundreds of scholars, experts, professionals and enthusiasts signed up as volunteers to participate in the project. We are talking about 300 people from all …

Italian cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail has announced that bitcoins (BTC) stored in the firm’s wallets have been seized by Italian authorities, according to official announcement published June 15. The statement says that authorities removed the funds from the exchange’s wallets following a court order by the Tribunal of Florence on June 5, but did not mention the current worth of the seized assets: “On June 5, 2018, pursuant to the Tribunal of Florence orders, the bitcoins contained in the company’s wallets were seized and brought under control of the judicial authorities pending further Court decisions in the pre-bankruptcy proceeding.” The seizure …

Fabio Panetta, deputy governor of the Bank of Italy, gave a keynote address focused on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) at the SUERF/BAFFI CAREFIN Centre Conference in Milan Thursday, June 7. Unlike cryptocurrencies - “a liability belonging to nobody” - the deputy governor stressed from the outset that a CBDC would be a liability of the central bank, backed by its assets. First addressing CBDCs as a potential means of payment, Panetta considered their advantages as “at best unclear” when compared with the existing digital payment mechanisms offered by the private sector. Where Panetta saw a key potential justification for …

The last four suspects in a two year case against alleged pyramid scheme OneCoin have been prosecuted in China’s Hunan Province, government-supported local news source the Justice Network reports Wednesday, May 23. The Zhuzhou Country Procuratorate of the Hunan Province examined 106 people, publicly prosecuted 98, and recovered around 1.7 bln yuan (around $266 mln) from over 20 provinces across China in the course of the case. Those prosecuted have received up to 10,000 - 5 mln yuan in fines (about $1,500 - $782,000) as well as four years or less of prison time. In 2016, Chinese authorities had already …