Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

According to several reports, Wyre, a cryptocurrency payments firm, is allegedly sunsetting its business. Wyre’s purported wind down follows Bolt, another payments company, canceling its plan to acquire Wyre in September. Wyre CEO Ioannis Giannaros, however, told Axios that the company is “still operating” and is simply “scaling back.” Wyre Cryptocurrency Payments Firm Allegedly Shutting Down, CEO Denies Reports of Winding Down Operations On Jan. 4, 2023, Axios published a report that said Wyre, the digital currency payments platform, was winding down the company’s operations. Furthermore, several other reports about the situation stemmed from former employees and known associates. JD Ross, the founder of the music investment platform Royal.io said : Looks like Wyre just shut down their business. Everyone in our shared Slack channel disabled except the GC. Hearing no severance. “We’ll continue to do everything we can, but I want everyone to brace themselves for the fact that we...

A major Ukrainian chain of pharmacies has started accepting cryptocurrency through Binance Pay. The new payment method will be available online, according to the company, which operates hundreds of drugstores across the war-torn Eastern European nation. Pharmacy Offers Ukrainians Option to Pay With Crypto Using Binance Pay Customers of the Ukrainian pharmacy chain ANC can now buy medicines and other items using a number of cryptocurrencies. The new payment option is accessible since Tuesday, the company announced , claiming it has become the first pharmacy chain in Europe to offer it. From Jan. 3, you will be able to enjoy instant payments when purchasing pharmacy products. It will be possible to pay for orders with cryptocurrency on Anc.ua! The coin transactions will be processed through Binance Pay, the payment system developed by the world’s largest digital asset exchange by trading volume. It allows users and businesses around the world to spend, send, and receive over 70 di...

The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have jointly issued warnings about crypto risks to banking organizations. “The agencies have significant safety and soundness concerns with business models that are concentrated in crypto-asset-related activities or have concentrated exposures to the crypto-asset sector,” the regulators detailed. U.S. Regulators Warn About Crypto Risks The Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a joint statement on crypto risks to banking organizations Tuesday. They explained that events in the past year showed “significant volatility and the exposure of vulnerabilities in the crypto-asset sector.” The regulators named many risks, including fraud and scams, legal uncertainties, inaccurate or misleading representations by crypto companies, significant volatility in crypto markets, run ...

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas has disputed FTX’s claim that the value of the cryptocurrencies it seized from the bankrupt crypto exchange was not $3.5 billion. The new FTX chief’s “continued lack of diligence when making public statements concerning the Commission is disappointing,” the Bahamian regulator stressed. Bahamas Regulator and FTX Disagree on the Value of Seized Crypto Assets The Securities Commission of the Bahamas issued a statement Monday to “correct material misstatements” made by the new FTX CEO, John J. Ray III, regarding the value of the cryptocurrencies it seized from FTX. Ray represents U.S. FTX debtors in the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy filing (Chapter 11 Debtors). The Bahamian regulator explained that on Dec. 30, 2022, FTX and Ray “publicly challenged the Commission’s calculations” of the value of the crypto assets transferred to its digital wallets on Nov. 12. According to the Commission, over $3.5 billion in cryptocurrencies were seized from FTX....

The Nigerian crypto exchange Roqqu recently announced that it obtained a virtual currency license that allows it to offer its services in 28 European countries. According to Israel Ololade, the head of product at Roqqu, the European Union license “aligns with the brand’s drive to become the number one blockchain and crypto company globally.” Crypto Adoption Lags Behind in Europe The Nigeria-based cryptocurrency exchange Roqqu was recently granted a European Union (EU) virtual currency license, enabling it to offer its services to users in 28 European countries, a statement released by the firm has said. The license allows Roqqu users, including non-Nigerians, to trade digital currencies as well as to participate in the non-fungible token (NFT) market. According to the statement, the crypto exchange’s EU license means Roqqu is one of the first digital asset exchange platforms from Africa to expand into Europe. In a statement, the Nigerian crypto exchange also shared a few reasons wh...

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has reviewed what happened in 2022 in crypto, making several predictions about the future of the ecosystem. Dante Disparte, CSO of Circle, in an article published for the WEF, states that while 2022 has been a terrible year, the building blocks of the industry will continue to be “integral parts” of the modern economic toolkit. WEF Believes in Crypto’s Resilience The World Economic Forum (WEF) believes that the disastrous year that 2022 represented for the cryptocurrency industry can lead to growth and recovery of the ecosystem. An article written by Dante Disparte , published on WEF’s weforum.org, explains that while the recent downfall of FTX and the demise of the Terra blockchain affected millions of consumers in 2022 — with the market losing $2 trillion in that period — this has not changed the core of these technologies, which are currently being tested by financial institutions all over the world. On this subject, Disparte explains: While the...