Israel said Thursday it is starting to seize cryptocurrency accounts used by the Palestinian Hamas group to raise funds for its armed wing using Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Benny Gantz, Israeli Defense Minister, ordered security forces to seize the accounts after a joint operation “uncovered a web of electronic wallets” used by Hamas to raise…

As local news reported, the Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has ordered the State Bank of Vietnam to study the feasibility and test the operationality of a pilot for a digital currency (CBDC). Unlike other countries, Vietnam is looking to test a digital currency built on blockchain technology, not a centralized protocol. According to…

Iran’s leadership now seems to have again decided to use cryptocurrencies to stabilize the country’s financial system. The first attempt was made in early 2019, but was unsuccessful. The Iranian parliamentary committee on economics has developed legislation titled “Supporting Cryptocurrency Mining and Regulation of Domestic Cryptocurrency Trade”. When it is adopted, the Central Bank of…

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand sees a central bank digital currency (CBDC) as a “solution” to the ongoing reduction in cash usage. The bank will open up public consultations regarding a CBDC and the new digital money like stablecoins. In a July 7 statement, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand announced releasing a set…

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao posted an open letter outlining Binance’s plans regarding the current crypto regulatory landscape, which followed the rise of the global regulation pressure on Binance. “Binance has grown very quickly and we haven’t always got everything exactly right, but we are learning and improving every day,” Zhao said in a blog…

China’s central bank deputy governor said the bank is “quite worried” about risks from private digital currencies, particularly so-called stablecoins, such as Tether, while China is testing its own digital yuan. According to CNBC translation, Fan Yifei of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has voiced concern that digital currencies pegged to a fiat currency…

Central bank digital currencies (CBDC) are a promising tool that will enable people to make payments quickly, inexpensively and without intermediaries. That is precisely why now the central banks of the world’s leading countries are conducting research and development, making plans to create their own digital currencies. However, the process doesn’t look particularly fast-rolling yet:…

The Kazakhstan authority has introduced a new law regarding cryptocurrency mining taxation. The officials published a statement saying that the signed law is expected to come into effect in January 2022 and to generate billions of tenge to the national budget. Kazakhstan joins Iran in taxing the mining industry, given the lucrative potential for business….

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has hired Michele Korver, previously of the Digital Currency Council in the U.S. Department of Justice, to serve as the agency’s first chief digital currency adviser (DCA). Korver, who has been involved in crypto-related Anti-Money Laundering (AML) operations since 2013, will advise FinCEN acting director Michael Mosier regarding cryptocurrency’s…

Alex Mashinsky, Celsius Network CEO and #63 in The Cointelegraph Top 100, suggested that Ether has already started “flippening” Bitcoin by market capitalization. In an interview with Kitco News on Monday, he said that Ethereum has already overtaken Bitcoin based on the US dollar value of holdings in Celsius’s network of over a million users….