Crypto News Weekly Round-Up

Crypto news are an important information source for crypto traders due to its regulatory and inherent volatile nature. If you’ve missed the crypto news of this week, this post provides a comprehensive look at the stories that made headlines. A lot has happened in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world. Here is a quick round-up of crypto news you may have missed:

US Federal Court Orders Bitcoin Trading Firm To Pay More than $2.5 Million

Crypto News: US Federal Court Orders Bitcoin Trading Firm To Pay More than $2.5 Million

CFTC, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has won a judicial fight against a company for running a Ponzi scheme focused around bitcoin. A New York federal court has directed New York corporation Gelfman Blueprint, Inc. (GBI) and its CEO Nicholas Gelfman to pay more than $2.5 million in public financial penalties and compensation in what was the first anti-fraud crackdown linking Bitcoin filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

This judgment came in connection with a civil enforcement action filed by the CFTC on Sept. 21, 2017. The CFTC Complaint claimed that from about January 2014 to January 2016, GBI and its CEO Gelfman, ran a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme in which they fraudulently requested more than $600,000 from nearly 80 people, probably for position in a merged stock fund that purportedly used a high-frequency, algorithmic dealing procedure. This was achieved by Defendants’ computer exchanging program named “Jigsaw.”

ICE Bakkt Bitcoin Futures To Launch On December 12

Crypto News: ICE Bakkt Bitcoin Futures To Launch On December 12

Bakkt Bitcoin daily futures contracts will formally commence exchanging on December 12, 2018, according to a release from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange and the company behind Bakkt.

The document further stated that the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract is a physically-settled daily futures contract for bitcoin held in Bakkt LLC. It is held in an ICE’s digital asset warehouse and will be cleared by ICE Clear US, Inc. Each futures contract calls for delivery of one bitcoin held in the Bakkt Digital Asset Warehouse and will trade in U.S. dollar terms. One daily contract will be listed for trading each exchange business day.

MBAex to bring Dash to Southeast Asia

Crypto News: MBAex to bring Dash to Southeast Asia

MBAex, the Southeast Asian cryptocurrency exchange, will be integrating DASH into its platform with USDT, BTC, and MDP trading pairs. MDP is their own platform tokens. The integration is thanks to the work done by Dash Embassy D-A-CH.

The exchange features trading fees as low as 0.05% with their VIP6 subscription and the normal rate of 0.1%. They also have extensive informational and research sections for traders. Over the next 2 years, MBAex plans to offer more products and services to grow their community, continue efforts on branding and marketing, and expand in European markets.

Russia & Albania: Contrasting Crypto Regulation

Crypto News: Russia & Albania: Contrasting Crypto Regulation

Russia’s draft law on digital financial assets has been edited again in a rather unexpected way. A confusing decision by lawmakers has seen the definition of crypto mining removed from the text containing proposals for regulating crypto assets in the country.

The new law will not address the issue of taxing crypto miners with its definition missing from the law book, though the industry has been looking forward to any move on the issue as a demonstration of the stance taken by Russian authorities on the matter. Albania is also set to introduce new cryptocurrency regulations in an ambitious move to invite new investment opportunities in the country and turn the nation into a regional hub for Cryptocurrency. The head of the Albanian Financial Supervisory Ervin Koci, informed investors that it hasn’t licensed any company to issue digital currencies just yet as the regulations are still being worked on.

Binance Uganda Launches Crypto-Fiat Exchange

Crypto News: Binance Uganda Launches Crypto-Fiat Exchange

Binance Uganda has started live trading just a week after allowing preliminary levels like deposits, withdrawal, and user attestation. This is the company’s primary move into developing the cryptocurrency exchange markets for a more comprehensive ecosystem that will include fiat currencies.

At the moment, the exchange holds pairings for BTC/UGX and ETH/UGX where UGX is the Ugandan Shilling. Binance perceives this as a possibility to boost growth in Africa as well as bring crypto to new territories. Binance has also announced the results of crypto donations for flood relief in Japan. The company has raised approximately US$410,000 in crypto-donations at that time in 7 days, getting a cumulative donation estimated at US$1,410,000 consisting of different types of ERC20 Tokens. In early October, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao had declared that the firm will give away all listings fees to charity, after users’ accusations about exorbitant fees for listing altcoins.

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