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LATEST ARTICLES
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Investors will be hoping that the fall in the value of Bitcoin since US regulators approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products is not a sign of things to come.
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Instead of boasting about the billions extracted from the crypto exchange, the US Departments of Justice and Treasury should have closed it down.
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A tactical retreat on crypto regulation might help SEC chair Gary Gensler to avoid being bogged down in a war of attrition for the rest of his term.
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Japan is the first major market to put a regulatory environment around stablecoins into law.
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If the UK is to become an international crypto hub, it must focus on bringing regulatory certainty to the industry and the banks that back it.
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Leading firms join a new network of networks, but crypto natives see just another walled garden.
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Recent developments in crypto have hardened the view that convergence between digital and fiat currency trading structures is both inevitable and desirable.
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Tokenization is spreading fast. Regulated finance is finally embracing blockchain technology just as most cryptocurrencies stand revealed as overleveraged Ponzi schemes. The institutional herd is moving, but can the blockchains they are shifting onto bear the load?
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As the EU prepares to vote on its Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation in April, the UK government is hoping to steal a march as a location for cryptoasset businesses.
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New platform acts as central account keeper under Luxembourg law for first ever sterling bond deal on blockchain.
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The billionaire Winklevoss twins and DCG CEO Barry Silbert have been squabbling over $900 million of frozen customer assets. The SEC has just banged their heads together.
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The regulated US bank lost 70% of its deposits in a few weeks. But while that run shows the risks of banking the crypto industry, the key lesson is how it is still standing.
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Crypto promoters now want traditional financial market regulators to save them; those regulators would rather deliver the final blow.
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As the crypto edifice teeters, there is still one last chance for decentralized finance. If it can encode regulatory compliance into real-world financial assets issued in tokenized form and then trade, clear and settle in seconds at negligible cost and low risk, it might just survive.
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FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces the full wrath of US authorities, as rival agencies compete to make the most hyperbolic charges against the former crypto exchange head. Death by metaphor could be his provisional sentence.
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The Australian Securities Exchange took a leap of faith in commissioning Digital Asset to build a blockchain replacement for its clearing and settlement engine five years ago – perhaps too big a leap. Here, Digital Asset’s CEO explains what went wrong and what was learned.
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Concerns about the wider economy and its impact on disposable income have eroded individuals’ appetite for FX trading, despite attractive levels of volatility.
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While other economic blocs aren’t so convinced of the merits of issuing retail central bank digital currency, the eurozone is ploughing ahead. In doing so, however, it is having to water down the project to such an extent that its usefulness will be limited.
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The DAC space is crowded. Nevertheless, BNY Mellon has gone further than most of its peers in embracing crypto.
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In a highly unusual step, Singapore’s sovereign wealth vehicle has spelled out how and why it bought into the FTX story.
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The chief executive of JPMorgan’s Onyx blockchain business explains why it has been a long slog, and where the interest lies today after the crypto collapse.
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While its larger rival, Binance, may yet prop up FTX, the failure of the exchange that spent the summer rescuing other failed crypto organizations suggests that none are safe.
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As rates on government bonds rise and economies shrink, the vast stocks of developed market government debt look unsustainable.
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SEC chair Gary Gensler’s literally getting vibes that there’s something sus in the crypto wave.
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The $100 million line of credit from Dai holders to a Pennsylvania community bank to support commercial loans should have been a breakthrough, but further deals are on hold as the crypto purists fight back against the pragmatists seeking more exposure to real-world assets rather than digital ones.
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In a desperate effort to catch the next boom in assets with no fundamental value, institutional investors are hunting for new ways into crypto – and asset managers seem only too happy to supply them.
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Holders of cryptocurrency pay a heavy price for greater privacy.
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The head of crypto firm Galaxy Digital should get creative about his tattoo of failed token Luna.
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The current market slump gives banks a chance to repel competitors such as crypto firms and fintech lenders.
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The stablecoin is preparing an audit with a top 12 firm, chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino tells Euromoney. Why is Tether not already providing more transparency on its reserves?
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Following Terra’s death spiral, regulators will focus on the collateral backing the biggest stablecoins that are essential to the flow of real money into crypto.
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A new approach to crypto derivatives could signal big structural shifts for traditional financial derivatives away from intermediaries and central clearing.
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Banks in the Gulf are embracing blockchain, fintech, cryptocurrencies and AI as they look to cater to changing consumer demands and a rapidly evolving financial landscape.
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The global cryptocurrency platform is sponsoring the relaunch of a 122-year-old live music venue in London.
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China’s approach to central bank digital currency offers clues to how it may build a unique version of decentralized finance.
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Despite China’s ambitious plans for its digital currency, the e-yuan will struggle to become a lead player in international trade finance without notable changes, most importantly to capital controls.
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Sovereign wealth funds, other investors and banks will soon have to use cryptocurrencies to buy equity in companies building the decentralized web.
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The early days of war in Ukraine saw the price of bitcoin rise. New technology now improves the prospect that wealth stored in crypto may be spent.
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Oligarchs that use shell companies and fake identities may dodge the pain of Russian banks being shut out from Swift, heaping it on innocent people instead.
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Russians could try to use cryptocurrencies to dodge sanctions following the invasion of Ukraine, but a move into the mainstream by crypto exchange heads hungry for fiat currency wealth will complicate evasion tactics.
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Wyoming is wild, rugged and libertarian. It is now also America’s leading crypto state, home to thriving digital asset banks like Avanti, run by Wall Street veteran Caitlin Long. Can these young firms now get much-prized master accounts with the Federal Reserve?
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Portion’s Jason Rosenstein explains why he paid $1.2 million for a plot of virtual land amid the goldrush of corporations launching their brands in the metaverse.
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Facebook never recovered from the regulatory hostility that first greeted Libra. It is now selling what is left of Diem while building the very metaverses that might make its stablecoin useful.
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What is the point of hoarding cash when not even the local convenience store takes it anymore?
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The former CFTC chair who first authorized bitcoin futures sees regulatory complexities ahead for crypto, blockchain and DeFi companies.
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The smallest countries are among the quickest to reposition themselves amid the great digital disruption.
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Designed to bring fixed-rate term financing to DeFi protocols offering only volatile overnight rates, Pairwyse could impact traditional swaps and repo.
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Nobody doubts that cross-border payments could be more efficient and less laden with intermediaries. But are JPMorgan and Oliver Wyman right to suggest that central bank digital currencies are the answer?
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The Thai bank takes a step forward in its strategy to upgrade to a financial technology group.
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Is the best inflation hedge the asset you just bought? There is more at stake as prices rise than talking your own book.
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While regulators talk tough on stablecoins they must soon set rules for banks to hold cryptos on balance sheet to meet customer demands.
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The only way banks can fully embrace the blockchain technology now transforming finance is by dealing in cryptos.
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As conventional banks, asset managers and regulators embrace crypto, the institution warns this large and volatile asset class poses new risks to the world financial system.
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Widespread use of digital currencies will reshape the way liquidity is managed, but it will also force banks and corporates to move away from long-established practices.
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The likely use of central bank digital currency for payments, in addition to stablecoins and altcoins, would suggest that reports of the demise of the correspondent banking model may be premature.
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Other Latin American countries watch with interest as El Salvador’s bitcoin experiment gets off to a faltering start.
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While big banks and institutional investors spent years trying to bend blockchain for use in traditional finance, they missed out on the boom in crypto prices and the income from decentralized finance. Now, alarmed by stretched valuations and zero yields in conventional markets, they just want in. The race is on to build a sturdy infrastructure to support the stream of old money into new digital assets that could become a flood.
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High net-worth individuals once eschewed cryptocurrencies. When Covid hit, many learned to embrace them. They see the danger of endless QE and the returns to be generated in the world of decentralized finance.
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DeFi is not a strategic asset allocation for mainstream investors yet, but big gains on cryptos and now high yields are drawing in the front runners.
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With one of the earliest fintechs now offering bitcoin, it seems that established finance is taking over crypto. Or could it be the other way around?
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Institutions need more than custody to invest in fast-changing digital assets. The new firm will build administration and risk management too.
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The closer central banks come to hard design choices over retail central bank digital currencies, the less clear cut the case is to proceed with them.
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The death of John McAfee in a Spanish prison cell ends a flamboyant and colourful life.
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We are at the peak of the hype cycle for central bank digital currencies, now being touted as one of the most fundamental innovations in the history of central banking. It is time for central banks and governments to be honest with unenthused populations. CBDC can’t deliver all the many promised improvements. As we come to design choices, there will be trade-offs. We might get improved payments but less credit. We could see greater financial inclusion but will lose privacy. Are the few benefits really worth the risk of disrupting the financial system?
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Holding digital assets on corporate balance sheets demands a clear strategy for securely managing these assets alongside traditional stores of value.
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Investors in a faith-based asset look forward to higher highs and higher lows, even as regulators crack down once more.
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Corporates looking to acquire digital assets for treasury purposes need to take care in their accounting treatment.
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Fnality applies for a DLT-based sterling payment system pointing the way to faster and more resilient decentralized financial market infrastructure.
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By listing on Nasdaq, Coinbase may undermine itself, giving investors an easy way to bet on bitcoin without paying its own high fees.
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Bitcoin’s move into the mainstream is forcing crypto financiers to develop code switching skills to communicate with Wall Street without alienating online evangelists.
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Bitcoin’s boom is dependent on ‘whales’ holding on to long positions, but trading techniques from older markets could create opportunities for whale hunters.
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The dinosaurs of the banking world have recognised the threat from crypto. While there is no simple choice yet for fast and cheap cross-border payments, near instant domestic payments are the new reality.
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More companies are preparing to accept payment in crypto as the number of customers with digital wallets swells. But a confusing proliferation of payment methods means that innovation has made collecting payments harder, not easier.
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Crypto enthusiasts have hailed the electric car company’s announcement it will accept payment in bitcoin as a ringing endorsement – but not everyone is convinced.
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The bubbles in crypto and small-caps look obvious, but most markets are over-inflated and it is a fantasy that banks are immune to the risks.
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Bitcoin’s recent surge is accelerating integration with established capital markets, as Coinbase makes IPO plans and market-maker B2C2 is sold to Japanese financial services firm SBI.
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The Singapore-based bank believes it is the first in the world to launch a fully-fledged exchange for digital assets, including tokenization, cryptocurrency exchange and custody.
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The last-minute decision by a unit of China Construction Bank to cancel a trailblazing digital bond sale on a virtual exchange in a Malaysian island tax haven appears connected to a Chinese clampdown in the wake of the axing of Ant Group’s IPO.
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A new Swiss-Singaporean enterprise styles itself as the world’s first digital asset bank. It is regulated, resembles the structure of a mainstream bank and has some high-visibility advisers and investors, among them Peter Wuffli. Will it work?
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As the rest of the world’s central banks try to catch up with China, one can only wonder about the potential of programmable money.
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Fear of Chinese advances with programmable money and Facebook’s Libra are pushing central banks to digital currencies, which may transform financial markets.
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A pilot scheme taking place in Shenzhen this week offers a glimpse into China’s plans to build the world’s first national digital currency.
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The cryptocurrency has surged in 2020, as investors worry that coronavirus-exposed equity and bond markets are set to crash.
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First central banks ignored cryptocurrencies, then they mocked them, next they fought them and now they are building their own. Before long central bank digital currencies will be in use, with possibly startling consequences. What will it mean for privacy and personal freedoms? And could the backstop to banking become the banking system itself?
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Cryptocurrencies have a specific use-case in countries where local currencies are in crisis, but elsewhere they remain a volatile speculative investment and will struggle to take off as a means of payment.
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Facebook has come in for some robust criticism since the announcement of its Libra digital currency.
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The political and regulatory backlash has driven leading payments companies out of the Libra association, but a new version of the revolutionary stablecoin may yet appear.
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As entrepreneurs seek to improve institutional-grade custody and security for trading in crypto assets, conventional financial market participants remain suspicious.
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Regulators, politicians, competition authorities and central bankers have all been outlining objections to the Libra project from the first day Facebook announced plans to let its 2.4 billion users exchange payments in a new virtual currency. Don’t be taken in. Facebook wants the burden of compliance with all those KYC, AML and CFT rules. Being able to identify what its users are paying for is a treasure trove. The banking system and the world’s central banks, as the more enlightened already see, had better gear up for new competition.