Regulations

In the United States, the House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill that nullifies the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Special Accounting Bulletin 121, which requires banks to list their clients’ crypto assets on their balance sheets, unlike traditional assets such as securities. It remains uncertain whether the measure will even come into effect, as President Joe Biden has announced his intention to veto it.

Financial Institutions and Crypto Brokers

Following regulatory constraints, Revolut, the fintech company, has launched a new independent crypto trading platform named Revolut X in the UK for retail customers. Users can now trade over 100 tokens on the platform with fixed 0% maker and 0.09% taker fees, regardless of trading volume. British customers can access the new platform using their existing authentication data.

Bancolombia Group, one of Latin America’s leading banks and Colombia’s largest bank, has launched a crypto trading platform called Wenia. The bank aims to compete for market share with Latin American and Colombian crypto brokers such as Binance and Bitso by offering high-level security and introducing a stablecoin tied to the Colombian peso as part of its asset portfolio.

LD Capital, a digital asset fund focusing on primary and secondary blockchain investments, has partnered with Bitmain Antalpha Ventures and Highblock asset traders to create Hong Kong’s first crypto ETF liquidity fund worth 1 billion HKD (~128 million USD) to provide market-making services for Hong Kong ETFs, thus increasing liquidity and improving capital flow efficiency.

BitMEX, the crypto broker, has launched its options trading service in collaboration with PowerTrade to gain significant market share from Deribit, the largest crypto options platform. Initially, it aims to attract and incentivize users and traders with zero fees and cash rewards.

Binance and KuCoin have become the first offshore crypto asset providers to receive anti-money laundering (AML) permits in India, with both companies registered with the country’s financial authority (FIU-IND). This follows the banishment of seven other crypto brokers from the country last year.

Project Investments

Arbelos Markets, a crypto liquidity provider, recently raised $28 million in a seed financing round led by Dragonfly Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, Aevo, Polygon, Deribit, Immutable, and other investors. The newly raised capital will be used to develop quantum trading infrastructure, hire staff, and expand product offerings and market coverage.

Sophon, a layer 2 zkSync hyperchain built using Matter Labs’ modular, open-source framework ZK Stack, successfully raised $60 million through node sales. During the sale, 200,000 nodes were offered for purchase, of which 121,000 were sold for a total of 20,800 wETH. Investors included Maven 11, Paper Ventures, Spartan Group, and SevenX Ventures.

Blockchain Developments, Partnerships, Web3, and DeFi

Ore crypto project won the 9th hackathon’s top prize of $50,000 organized by Solana Foundation this year. Ore is a proof-of-work Solana-native initiative that allows people to mine on Solana using POW. Over 8,300 participants from 95 countries submitted a total of 1,071 projects, mainly in the infrastructure, gaming, DePIN, and DeFi sectors.

Canaan Inc., engaged in the development of ASIC high-performance computing chips, manufacturing computing equipment, and providing software services, has released the Avalon A15 series A 1566 product, an upgraded bitcoin mining machine with Canaan’s most advanced technology. The new product has an energy efficiency ratio of 18.5J/T and is capable of hashing 185T with a power consumption of 3420W.

SBI Holdings, the Japanese giant, announced a partnership with Chiliz to jointly establish a sports and entertainment joint venture. They plan to provide Japanese fans access to top club fan tokens such as Arsenal, Barcelona, AC Milan, Manchester City, Inter Milan, and Paris Saint-Germain.

OKX Ventures, the investment arm of OKX crypto broker, announced that it recently provided financing to the Void Labs’ “Blade of God X” action role-playing game, which stood out by allowing players to control the training of artificial intelligence (AI) models through the game. The “play-to-train” concept not only integrates advanced AI agents with blockchain technology but also enables their training, which can elevate action-packed games to new heights.

Regulatory Proceedings

Robinhood Markets’ crypto unit announced in a statement that on May 4, it received a Wells Notice from the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), indicating that the agency has made a preliminary decision to initiate enforcement proceedings against the crypto division for violating securities laws. However, the company’s legal counsel is firmly convinced that the crypto assets available on their platform do not qualify as securities under the law.

Seventeen months after filing for bankruptcy, FTX, the crypto broker, submitted another reorganization plan to the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The total value of the collected, converted, and distributable assets is estimated to be between $14.5 billion and $16.3 billion. If approved by the bankruptcy court, 98% of FTX’s creditors will receive approximately 118% of their allowed claims within 60 days of the plan’s effectiveness.

The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has appointed Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA), a London-based provider of forensic accounting and compliance advisory services, as the external monitor for Binance crypto broker. Over the next three years, FRA will ensure that Binance complies with the terms of the deferred prosecution agreement related to prohibited financial activities. During the oversight, the company will have access to Binance’s internal records, facilities, and employees to report on the company’s activities to the government.