Sri Lanka’s central bank has selected a shortlist of three firms to develop a proof-of-concept (PoC) for a shared Know Your Customer (KYC) facility using blockchain. The project was initiated in fall 2019, according to a report from Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror on July 2. The central bank is looking to establish a blockchain-based facility that would enable the government and the banking sector to securely share and update customer data nationwide. Speaking at an event in Colombo on June 30, D. Kumaratunge — the central bank’s director of payments and settlements — told attendees, “We invited software companies to …

Veteran peer-to-peer (P2P) crypto marketplace LocalBitcoins has reported annual revenue of nearly $29.5 million for 2019. The revenue comprises a roughly 10% increase over 2018’s $26.9 million, however, the firm also noted a 6% drop in annual operating income to $19.8 million. LocalBitcoins’ staff also expanded significantly last year as the platform strengthened its know-your-customer (KYC) requirements in the third and fourth quarters of last year, with the firm’s headcount increasing from 26 to 43. LocalBitcoins stifles illicit activity “2019 was an invaluable learning experience for us, as we implemented anti-money laundering and know-your-customer (KYC) regulations," said LocalBitcoins chief executive …

Like every maturing industry, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing extensive developments on many fronts. The potential continues growing every year — from the emergence of initial coin offerings, the first blockchain-based projects and speculation on Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to decentralized finance and central bank digital currencies. Crypto has never run out of hot topics. Now, in 2020, the crypto asset field is no longer regarded as just another “dot-com bubble.” The subject is gaining more traction over the globe, and as COVID-19’s emergence has streamlined digital assets and crypto’s popularity, mainstream acceptance is just a few steps away. The derivatives …

Back in 2017, the Estonian government rocked the legislative side of the crypto world when they introduced a raft of new laws designed to support crypto projects. These licenses split into two different categories: those looking to operate a crypto exchange and those looking to undertake an initial coin offering. Both company types stood to benefit from the first “real” cryptocurrency licenses anywhere on the planet. As a result of these licenses, entrepreneurs digitally flocked to the small but great Baltic nation. The Estonian government was ahead in a number of ways. Not only was the country a trailblazer with …

LocalBitcoins, a major peer-to-peer (P2P) cryptocurrency exchange, has purportedly managed to significantly cut the amount of criminal funds on its platform in 2020. The P2P platform has seen a decline of over 70% in transactions from darknet markets between September 2019 and May 2020, LocalBitcoins claims. Jukka Blomberg, chief marketing officer at LocalBitcoins, told Cointelegraph that the drop comes in response to Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer regulations adopted by the platform in September 2019. The calculations are based on blockchain analysis by major crypto analytics firm Elliptic as well as LocalBitcoins’ own “clustering tools,” the firm said. The …

On June 25, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission charged the issuer of AML Bitcoin — not to be confused with Bitcoin itself — with conducting a fraudulent offering. These charges follow up on a criminal filing in San Francisco from June 22. AML Bitcoin’s story Per the complaints, Rowland Marcus Andrade and his NAC Foundation raised upwards of $5.6 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) for AML Bitcoin beginning in August 2017 and continuing through 2018, amid the huge ICO boom of that time. The criminal charges filed against Andrade in San Francisco on June 22 refer …

At the height of the unprecedented crypto boom of 2017, Estonia emerged as the digital trailblazer of the European Union, issuing hundreds of licenses to crypto companies. The country’s regulators moved to authorize the issuance of operating permits to crypto companies back in 2017 under Estonia’s e-Residency permit program. The e-Residency program is a government-issued digital identity and status that allows entrepreneurs, freelancers and digital nomads to run and manage paperless companies while living or traveling abroad. The lax rules at the time even enabled companies with no physical presence in the Baltic state to receive licenses. As a result, …

Forex traders have long been interested in what cryptocurrencies have to offer. There’s just been one problem: they often aren’t available on familiar platforms. Now, a company has launched a trading platform that unlocks access to crypto-centric products using MT5, meaning new digital assets as well as derivatives such as contracts for difference are available through a tool they know and trust. CryptoAltum says its infrastructure has been built in response to growing demand from those who, until now, have only focused on foreign currencies. The company also believes the platform will prove useful for traders who want an alternative …

A new website seeking to compile an active list of every cryptocurrency exchange that welcomes traders in some capacity without forcing them to hand over personal information through know-your-customer, or KYC, verification. Kycnot.me is only concerned with exchanges that support Bitcoin (BTC) or Monero (XMR), asserting that BTC is the largest crypto asset with the most adoption and XMR offers the strongest privacy protections. Website tracks KYC-free crypto exchanges The website currently lists 14 KYC-free trading platforms, many of which offer a peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto assets. However, the site has listed warnings concerning more than half of the exchanges …

On May 26, Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, a representative from the International Monetary Fund, stated that moving forward, the best way to harness the potential of central bank digital currencies would be by fostering synthetic partnerships between the private and public sectors. Further expounding his views on the matter, the deputy division chief of the IMF’s monetary capital and markets department stated that the vision behind CBDCs being completely under the control of a central bank is now an outdated one and that the entry of private players could help spur innovation. When asked about how such a partnership could even start …

Binance Korea will be monitoring activity on its platform for signs of money laundering thanks to a solution developed by Coinfirm. The partnership, announced on Monday, will help Binance’s Korea branch remain compliant with Anti-Money Laundering egulations resulting from the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule. Coinfirm provides a blockchain-agnostic AML platform offered to various institutions dealing with cryptocurrencies. Their previous clients include European banks, blockchain projects such as XRP and RSK, custodians such as Xapo and the government of Gibraltar. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Binance already integrated Coinfirm’s solution on its main platform back in October. Nevertheless, the main …

Regulations are not going anywhere. On the contrary, financial service providers face more regulatory challenges and higher costs than ever before. During the early days of cryptocurrencies, a “Wild West” culture emerged when regulators, uncertain on how to tackle this thing called blockchain, paid little attention to the thefts, scams and hacks plaguing the virtual-asset market. Today, this is no longer the case. No matter their roots, every virtual asset project from Telegram to Shapeshift to Libra is ramping up compliance while regulators continue to issue guidance, enforce regulations and pay closer attention to digital securities platforms, crypto exchanges and …