Bitcoin Price: US$ 61,140.86 (-1.95%)
Ethereum Price: US$ 2,974.21 (-1.05%)
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill overturning the SEC’s SAB 121, which had previously prevented banks from owning crypto, despite a looming veto threat from President Biden. The bipartisan bill aims to protect consumers by enabling regulated financial institutions to act as custodians of digital assets. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miner firm Core Scientific reported a revenue surge in Q1 2024, reaching a total revenue of $179.3 million since emerging from bankruptcy. This increase was propelled by higher Bitcoin prices and the company’s enhanced mining capacity, with plans underway for strategic mining equipment purchases following the Bitcoin halving event. In a parallel development, the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Blockchain Integrity Act, proposing a two-year ban on cryptocurrency mixers in an effort to curb illicit finance activities. During this ban, the Treasury Department is set to compile a comprehensive report detailing various aspects of transactions with mixers.
Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck and Thunder Bridge Capital have filed their registration statement on Form F-4 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, marking a milestone in their two-year journey towards a public offering. The merger, which was initially disclosed in March 2022, is designed to transform Coincheck into a publicly traded entity through a de-SPAC transaction with Thunder Bridge, and is anticipated to be finalised in the second or third quarter of 2024, subject to shareholder approval and regulatory clearance from the SEC. In parallel, stablecoin giant Tether has amplified its investment in the Georgia-based crypto payment provider CityPay.io, with the objective of bolstering CityPay.io’s expansion into Eastern Europe. This move builds upon Tether’s initial investment in CityPay.io in 2023, and aligns with the firm’s plans to establish over 500,000 crypto payment points across the designated expansion regions. Concurrently, payment processing and settlement firm Mastercard has forged partnerships with major banking institutions in the United States, including Citigroup, Visa, and JPMorgan, to pilot the Regulated Settlement Network (RSN), a shared-ledger technology that facilitates the settlement of tokenised assets.
The Solana network, despite its daily transaction fees and total value locked (TVL) still trailing behind, is on the verge of outpacing Ethereum in transaction fees, potentially cementing its reputation as an “Ethereum killer” as its total economic value approaches that of Ethereum’s. However, Solana’s strategy has been criticised due to past outages and its inability to manage high demand. Meanwhile, in the Ripple XRP case, the SEC has submitted its final response, contesting Ripple’s assertions and advocating for injunctions to prevent future infractions, even as Ripple’s chief legal officer maintains a positive outlook on resolving the lawsuit. Furthermore, Ripple is gearing up to launch XRPL enterprise solutions in the Japanese market through a strategic alliance with HashKey DX. In a related development, LocalMonero, a peer-to-peer trading platform for Monero, has abruptly ceased operations due to a mix of internal and external factors, marking another blow to privacy coins and services in the wake of recent shutdowns and arrests.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com
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