Hong Kong is poised to enhance its digital asset regulation within the next 18 months, marking a significant step in its mission to become a global hub for financial technology. At the Foresight 2024 annual summit, David Chiu, a member of the Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (Technology and Innovation), outlined the city’s…

After gathering dust for months, applications to list options on spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are finally getting attention from regulators. Expect BTC ETF options to start trading on United States exchanges this year. Options on Ethereum ETFs will soon follow. Options are contracts that grant the right to buy or sell — “call” or “put” in…

Venezuela’s government has blocked access to crypto exchange Binance, social media platform X and other online services amid unrest over disputed presidential election results. On Aug. 9, local anti-censorship organization VE sin Filtro posted to X that it “detected a DNS block on the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, which affects the normal operation of its website and mobile…

Defunct cryptocurrency exchange Celsius has filed a lawsuit against Tether alleging misappropriation of assets and seeking approximately $3.5 billion in BTC returns, damages, and legal fees. Up front: Tether reports that Celsius, in its lawsuit, seeks the return of approximately $2.4 billion worth of BTC. However, publicly available court documents show that Celsius has asked the court…

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has settled fraud charges with electric vehicle company Ideanomics over financial reporting and “misleading the public about the company’s performance.” According to the SEC website, its investigation revealed that between 2017 and 2019, Ideanomics and several of its senior executives engaged in significant material misrepresentations about the company’s…

The cryptocurrency industry is rare in that the strong returns from Bitcoin and Ethereum allow venture capitalists to avoid the early-stage risks they must make in other industries, according to a venture capitalist. “VCs have slowed investing in crypto by a lot, and it’s a bit of a nuanced reason,” Adam Cochran, partner at venture…