Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Apple and Google have removed several major crypto exchanges from their app stores in India after the Indian Financial Intelligence Unit flagged nine crypto service providers as operating illegally in the country. Various telecom networks and internet service providers in India are also blocking the websites of affected crypto exchanges. India Continues Crackdown on Uncompliant Crypto Platforms Tech giants Google and Apple have taken action against several major crypto exchange apps in India following the crackdown on offshore crypto exchanges by Financial Intelligence Unit India (FIU IND). On Saturday, Google removed major crypto exchanges like Binance and Kraken from Google Play Store in India while Apple pulled crypto exchange apps from its App Store a few days earlier. In addition, various telecom networks and internet service providers in India have also started blocking the websites of affected crypto exchanges. In December last year, India’s Financial Intelligence Unit issu...

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler sees irony in the approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “This was about centralization and traditional means of finance,” said Gensler, warning: “Investors should be aware that this underlying asset is a highly speculative, volatile asset, and amongst its use cases is really for illicit activity, money laundering, sanctions, ransomware, and the like.” SEC Chair on Spot Bitcoin ETF Approval and Centralization The chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Gary Gensler, discussed the irony of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in an interview with CNBC Friday. The securities regulator approved 11 spot bitcoin ETFs last week. “There’s an irony in the midst of that. Satoshi Nakamoto [bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator] said this was going to be a decentralized system,” Gensler said, noting that the approval of spot bitcoin ETFs “has led to centralization.” The SEC chief stressed: ...

International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Kristalina Georgieva sees crypto as an asset class, not money. She dismissed concerns of bitcoin potentially displacing the U.S. dollar as the world’s dominant currency, citing the size of the U.S. economy and the depth and sophistication of its capital markets as key factors. IMF Chief on Crypto and US Dollar Dominance The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, dismissed crypto as money and explained why she didn’t see bitcoin as a threat to the U.S. dollar’s dominance in an interview with Yahoo Finance Live last week. Georgieva said: Our view is that we have to differentiate between money and assets. When we talk about crypto, we are actually talking about an asset class. “It could be backed up and in that sense, more secure and less risky, or it could be not backed up and therefore a riskier investment. But it is not exactly money. It’s more like a money management fund,” she described. Last w...

Circle, the stablecoin company, has completed the upgrade of its USDC stablecoin to the 2.2 version. The update brings a slew of changes, including gas efficiency improvements, support for account abstraction and smart contract wallets, and enhancements in the resiliency of the currency when dealing with forks. Circle Finishes Rollout of USDC 2.2 Improvements Circle is improving its USDC stablecoin to include new functions and improve its functionality. The company recently completed the upgrade of USDC to the 2.2 version, bringing a slew of changes destined to improve performance, and adding new features to the stablecoin. Most of these changes diminish transaction costs to perform specific functions. For example, the upgrade enhances the performance of the blocklist check function, which allows Circle to identify which wallets can transact and which can’t, according to Circle’s Access Denial policy. Circle estimates that this brings savings all across commonly used USDC operat...