Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

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The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB), working in partnership with Bank ABC, recently announced it had successfully tested the transfer of funds across borders using JPMorgan’s JPM Coin. The test fulfills the central bank’s goal of creating safe and efficient settlement solutions for customers. Eliminating Inefficiencies in the Cross-Border Payment Arena With CBDCs Bahrain’s central bank recently said it had piloted its first cross border funds transfer using the JPMorgan blockchain. The transfer, which was carried out in partnership with Bank ABC, is the latest step taken by the CBB as it prepares to launch its digital currency. In his comments following the latest test, CBB governor, Rasheed Mohammed Al Maraj, is quoted by Unlock Media lauding the central bank’s ongoing tests. He said: We at the Central Bank of Bahrain are extremely pleased to announce the success of this test which aligns with our vision and strategy to continually develop and enrich the capabilities extended to ...

The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, says that crypto assets and stablecoins are no match for well-designed central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). “If CBDCs are designed prudently, they can potentially offer more resilience, more safety, greater availability, and lower costs than private forms of digital money,” she said. IMF on Crypto, Stablecoins, and CBDCs IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva gave a speech last week at the Atlantic Council in Washington D.C. regarding the future of money, cryptocurrency, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Noting that central banks have moved beyond conceptual discussions regarding digital currencies and are in the experimentation phase, she noted: “These are still early days for CBDCs and we don’t quite know how far and how fast they will go.” Nonetheless, the IMF chief said: If CBDCs are designed prudently, they can potentially offer more resilience, more safety, greater avai...

Switzerland’s largest bank, UBS, expects the United States Congress to take a long time to pass cryptocurrency legislation despite mounting interest in crypto investments and regulators calling for Congress to weigh in on crypto legislation. Congress Could Take a Long Time on Crypto Legislation The largest bank in Switzerland, UBS, published its view on U.S. crypto legislation Friday after the House of Financial Services Committee held a lengthy hearing on the regulation of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins last week. The Swiss bank’s U.S. Office of Public Policy explained that at the hearing, a senior Treasury official discussed recommendations made in a stablecoin report issued by the Department of the Treasury and other regulators. “To fill in regulatory gaps and address financial stability concerns, the regulators would like Congress to develop legislation that regulates stablecoin issuers as banks,” the UBS team detailed, noting that this proposal has received pushback from so...

Popular trading app Robinhood has revealed that its international expansion will be “crypto first.” The company said from the regulatory standpoint, crypto is “probably the easiest way to go global.” The trading platform is also looking for compliant ways to list more cryptocurrencies. Robinhood Becoming ‘Crypto-First’ Company Steve Quirk, Robinhood’s chief brokerage officer, talked about the firm’s turnaround strategy and crypto in an interview with CNBC last week. Noting that Robinhood now has seven cryptocurrencies listed, the executive revealed that the platform is trying to find ways to expand the number of cryptocurrencies listed. He described: We are doing a lot of exploration about finding compliant ways to expand that. Robinhood currently supports the buying, selling, and real-time market data for bitcoin ( BTC ), bitcoin cash ( BCH ), bitcoin sv ( BSV ), dogecoin (DOGE), ethereum ( ETH ), ethereum classic ( ETC ), and litecoin ( LTC ). Several executives from Robinho...

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has warned about romance scams using cryptocurrency. Scammers use romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially crypto, the federal agency explained. “2021 numbers are nearly five times those reported in 2020, and more than 25 times those reported in 2019,” said the FTC. FTC Warns About Crypto Romance Scams The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) issued a warning Thursday about crypto-related romance scams. The FTC is an independent agency of the U.S. government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil U.S. antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. “New data from the Federal Trade Commission show that more consumers than ever report falling prey to romance scammers. Consumers reported losing $547 million in 2021 alone,” the FTC wrote, adding: A growing trend in 2021 was scammers using romance as a hook to lure people into bogus investments, especially cryptocurrency. “Consumers who paid roman...

The Spanish parliament has introduced an amendment to the tax model 720 used to declare cryptocurrency and other holdings abroad, softening some of the penalties associated with it. The modification, which has not yet been approved, changes some of the harsher penalties that were declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the European Union last month. New Model 720 in Parliament An amendment of the tax model 720, which forced taxpayers to disclose crypto and other kinds of asset holdings outside of the country, was introduced in the Spanish Parliament on February 10th. The antifraud law which was approved last June dictates that cryptocurrencies abroad would have to be declared using this model. The proposed amendment seeks to eliminate certain penalties in the previous model 720 that were declared illegal by the Court of Justice of the European Union last month. According to the old structure, debtors could pay up to 150% of their holdings abroad depending on the circumstance...

Seven executives of the collapsed South Korean scam cryptocurrency exchange, V Global, were recently handed lengthy jail sentences as punishment for their role in running one of the country’s biggest crypto frauds. Verdict Sets New Benchmark Seven former masterminds of the now-defunct scam crypto exchange, V Global, were recently given jail sentences for their part in misappropriating nearly $1.9 billion in investors’ funds. Lee Byung-gul, who was the CEO of the entity when the funds went missing, was handed a 22-year jail term while his accomplices were given jail sentences that range between four and 14 years. According to a report by Forkast, the jailing of Lee Byung-gul and his fellow executives comes a month after prosecutors asked for life sentences. At the time, the prosecutors argued that handing the offenders life sentences would reflect the severity of the offenses. However, the report reveals that the jail sentences given to the CEO and his co-conspirators are in fact ...