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The Uk to tighten regulations on cryptocurrency advertisements to ensure that they are fair, clear, and not misleading.

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Houses of Parliament (Westminster palace) and Big Ben tower, London, UK

The U.K. government has announced plans to impose new rules on cryptocurrency ads to ensure they are fair, clear, and not misleading to consumers. The rules will be enforced by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). 

UK to Impose New Rules on Crypto Ads

The U.K. government announced Tuesday plans to impose new rules on cryptocurrency advertisements to “protect consumers from misleading claims.” The announcement states:

New rules will increase consumer protection while encouraging innovation.

The U.K. chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, commented: “Crypto-assets can provide exciting new opportunities, offering people new ways to transact and invest – but it’s important that consumers are not being sold products with misleading claims.”

The new rules will bring the promotion of crypto assets within the scope of financial promotions legislation to ensure they are “fair, clear, and not misleading,” the government explained, elaborating:

This means the promotion of qualifying crypto assets will be subject to FCA rules in line with the same high standards that other financial promotions such as stocks, shares, and insurance products are held to.

While emphasizing that it is eager to support innovation, the U.K. government noted that “research undertaken by the FCA highlighted the potential for misleading advertising of crypto products to cause consumer harm.”

Under the U.K. Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, a business cannot promote a financial product unless they are authorized by the FCA or the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), or the content of the promotion is approved by a firm which is, the government noted, adding:

This will provide the Financial Conduct Authority with the appropriate powers to regulate the market more effectively.

Recently, the U.K. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been cracking down on misleading crypto ads. In December, the British advertising watchdog banned seven crypto ads for Papa John’s Pizza, Coinbase, Kraken, Etoro, Luno, Coinburp, and Exmo. In November, it cracked down on ads for cryptocurrency floki inu (FLOKI).

Animoca Brands, a blockchain company, has raised $358 in order to upgrade Web3 and the Metaverse.

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Animoca Brands has announced the blockchain and cryptocurrency-focused firm has raised $358.8 million to bolster the non-fungible token (NFT) industry and “build the open metaverse.” The capital raise follows the firm’s previous $65 million and $138.88 million raises last year and today, Animoca Brands has an overall valuation of $5 billion. 

The firm Animoca Brands is a global developer utilizing popular brands, gamification, A.I., blockchain, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and mobile technology. On Tuesday, the company announced that the firm has secured $358.8 million in a financing round led by Liberty City Ventures.

In a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News, Animoca Brands further detailed that other investors included Smile Group, Stable Asset Management, Soros Fund Management, Wildcat Capital Management, Winklevoss Capital, 10T Holdings, C Ventures, Delta Fund, Gemini Frontier Fund, Gobi Partners Greater Bay Area, Kingsway, L2 Capital, Mirae Asset, Pacific Century Group, and Parafi Capital.

In addition to using the financing to increase NFT and metaverse adoption, Animoca Brands said that the “new capital will be used to continue funding strategic acquisitions and investments, product development, and licenses for popular intellectual properties.” Animoca Brands has a strong focus on building the metaverse by leveraging blockchain solutions and NFT technology. The company’s $358.8 million financing announcement adds:

Animoca Brands is working to build the open metaverse by bringing digital property rights to online users through the use of blockchain and NFTs; these technologies enable the true digital ownership of users’ virtual assets and data, and make possible various [decentralized finance] and gamefi opportunities (including play-to-earn), asset interoperability, and an open framework that can lead to greater equitability for all participants.

Singapore Bans Crypto Ads, Declaring Crypto Trading Unsuitable for the General Public, According to the Central Bank.

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the nation’s central bank, announced Monday that it has issued guidelines “to discourage cryptocurrency trading by [the] general public.”

The guidelines restrict cryptocurrency trading service providers from promoting their digital payment token (DPT) services to the general public. DPT is commonly known as cryptocurrency, the MAS clarified.

The central bank explained that companies should not market or advertise crypto services in public areas in Singapore or use third parties, such as social media influencers, to promote cryptocurrency services to the general public.

Companies can only market or advertise crypto services on their own corporate websites, mobile applications, or official social media accounts.

Loo Siew Yee, the MAS’ assistant managing director for policy, payments, and financial crime, noted that the central bank “strongly encourages the development of blockchain technology and innovative application of crypto tokens in value-adding use cases.” However, she stressed:

But the trading of cryptocurrencies is highly risky and not suitable for the general public. DPT service providers should therefore not portray the trading of DPTs in a manner that trivializes the high risks of trading in DPTs, nor engage in marketing activities that target the general public.

Crypto.com Capital Expands $200M Fund to $500M.

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Singapore-based Crypto.com Capital announced today that it is expanding the size of its fund to $500 million, from the $200 million it announced in March 2021.

  • Jon Russell, its newly hired General Partner based in Bangkok, told CoinDesk the fund will do seed and series-A deals, typically up to a $10 million check for the series-A.
  • So far Crypto.com’s maiden fund has invested in play-to-earn guild YGG SEA, Ledger, and Frax Finance
  • The fund will be focused on investing in DeFi, NFTs, and gaming. It will typically want to lead rounds.
  • Russell said the fund will be focused on growing the overall crypto ecosystem, not about making investments where Crypto.com thinks it can get business.
  • Companies that the fund invests in won’t necessarily get listed on the Crypto.comexchange, he said.
  • While Crypto.com capital is expanding, management wants to keep the fund lean and entrepreneurial. They don’t want to become “an a16z” with hundreds of staff — it’s not relatable to entrepreneurs in the crypto space that run a thin organization.
  • Although the fund is based in Singapore, and Russell in Bangkok, it will have a global remit.
  • In 2021, crypto firms raised $30 billion from VCs, according to PitchBook. Despite the bear market, there’s no sign of this slowing down as alongside Crypto.com Capital’s announcement FTX kicked off the year establishing a $2 billion venture fund to invest in crypto startups.

Site Fees for Ethereum Gas wtf’s $WTF Token Down 80%, Following $SOS and $GAS

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The cult website Fees.wtf, which shows Ethereum users their lifetime gas spend on transactions, saw its $WTF token plummet 80% in its initial week post-airdrop.

According to Coinmarketcap, the $WTF token price has plummeted more than 80% from its high of $0.20 on Thursday evening to $0.03 as of Monday morning.

Fees.wtf launched in early 2019 as a lighthearted way to show users their total transaction costs paid per Ethereum wallet.

“I was looking to show people how much gas they’ve spent in an easy to comprehend the format,” the anonymous founder of Fees.wtf told CoinDesk via Twitter. “As time went on and ETH increased in value, the website’s popularity grew as suddenly people realized those cheaper transactions in the past have added up to a lot of USD.”

Airdrop mania

Fees.wtf appears to have taken a page from the playbook of GasDAO, another project that launched last month that rewarded users with airdropped tokens based on a wallet’s gas usage.

Ethereum transaction costs, colloquially referred to as “gas fees,” have long been a pain point in the Ethereum community, with many bemoaning that high transaction costs have made Ethereum Layer 1 unusable for the average retail user. A single transaction (such as purchasing an NFT or swapping tokens on decentralized exchange Uniswap) could range from $15-$20 on the lower end to thousands of dollars during periods of peak demand.

On December 29, Ethereum users that have spent more than a $1,559 threshold in gas fees (a tongue-in-cheek reference to EIP-1559) were eligible to claim $GAS tokens.

GasDAO, in turn, followed in the footsteps of OpenDAO, a project that launched on Christmas Eve, airdropping users of non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea with free $SOS tokens.

According to Coinmarketcap, OpenDAO’s $SOS token is down 74% since its all-time high post-airdrop, while GasDAO’s $GAS token has plummeted 93%.

All three projects lured users into claiming free tokens and advertised high yields for staking the tokens, even as the values of the tokens have gone into freefall just days after the initial launch.

Gas guzzler

As Ethereum users raced to claim $WTF tokens during last Thursday’s airdrop, the congestion sent Fees.wtf to the top of Etherscan’s “Top Gas Guzzlers” dashboard, even rendering Ethereum near unstable for over an hour.

“At one point it was close to 40% of total gas usage,” a member of the Fees.wtf team told CoinDesk via Twitter. “I think a lesson to be learned here – for those that haven’t already learnt it from other launches – is to check gas prices before you just blindly click submit, as I’m sure a few people paid a hefty sum to get their airdrop.”

Posting one’s Fees.wtf gas usage has also become a flex for Ethereum users to both bemoan the high gas costs and signal one’s ‘whale’ status. Some longtime users of the Ethereum blockchain have taken to Twitter to post screenshots of their gas usage, with some exceeding millions of dollars.

The Fees.wtf team is composed of four anonymous members – a manager, community lead, developer and designer, who have all “been in the cryptocurrency space for many years” and “seen the evolution of the Ethereum ecosystem,” a member of the team told CoinDesk.

New features

For now, the Fees.wtf team is focused on developing the Pro Dashboard, a feature granted only to holders of the Fees.wtf NFT. That was airdropped to all claimants who were required to pay 0.01 ETH (approximately $33).

“We’re hard at work developing features that our users have been asking for over the years,” said a member of the Fees.wtf team. “The dashboard will focus not only on how much gas you’ve spent, but we’ll also look at ‘what ifs’, assist with gas usage for tax implications, and also try to help users find the cheapest times to make transactions.”

However it appears that the new Pro Dashboard has no relationship with the $WTF token, the latter of which appears to hold little utility. The team hasn’t yet indicated whether the token would provide governance use-cases for the project or be incorporated into the new dashboard product.

“I’ve always been a fan of the site, and so I hope the token does end up having a real use case,” Twitter user and community code reviewer @0xQuit told CoinDesk.

Until then, strap on the parachutes – it appears airdrop economics are succumbing to one inevitable force: gravity.

The Payments Company of Jack Dorsey is ‘Officially Building an Open Bitcoin Mining System.’

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In mid-October 2021, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey revealed the payments firm Block Inc. (formally Square) was considering joining the bitcoin mining industry. Three months later, Dorsey tweeted that his firm was “officially building an open bitcoin mining system.”

Jack Dorsey and the Block’s hardware general manager Tom Templeton discussed the company’s focus on bitcoin mining this week. Templeton explained that three months ago the Block hinted at building a bitcoin mining system and the firm has ultimately decided to step into the field.

Templeton insists the goal is to make mining “more distributed and efficient in every way” and this includes maintenance, purchases, and setting up. “We’re interested because mining goes far beyond creating new bitcoin. We see it as a long-term need for a future that is fully decentralized and permissionless,” Templeton tweeted.

Some of the problematic issues they had found people deal with when it comes to bitcoin mining include things like mining rig availability, machine reliability, and performance. “Some mining rigs generate unwanted harmonics in the power grid,” Templeton said. “They’re also very noisy, which makes them too loud for home use.”

Templeton further added that the company has evaluated a number of “IP blocks, open-source miner firmware, and other system software offerings.”

Moreover, the Block’s hardware team is building out a crew of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) and software designers. Alongside this, Templeton noted the firm is also hiring electrical engineers, analog designers, and layout engineers.

Data on January 16, 2022, shows there’s only a handful of ASIC bitcoin mining rig manufacturers today including Bitmain, Ebang, Canaan, Microbt, Innosilicon, Ipollo, and Strongu. Today’s top machines, in terms of profit per day and SHA256 terahash performance, are made by Bitmain, Ipollo, Microbt, and Canaan.

A single Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (100 TH/s) can cost anywhere between $10K to $15K per unit. This machine, in particular, using today’s BTC exchange rates and $0.12 per kilowatt-hour in electricity will generate an estimated $16.23 per day in profits.

Vitalik Buterin Asks Twitter Followers Which Crypto They Prefer to Overtake Ethereum

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Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin set up a pair of polls on Twitter asking his followers if 80% of all transactions and savings in the year 2035 are in one currency and it is not ether, which currency they would prefer it to be. He asked them to choose from a number of cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, cardano, solana, tron, and Binance coin.

Vitalik Buterin’s Cryptocurrency Twitter Polls

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin set up a pair of polls on Twitter Thursday for the Ethereum community. “You wake up in 2035 and 80% of all transactions and savings in the world are in one currency that is not ETH. Which would you prefer it to be?” He wrote.

In his first tweet, Buterin asked his followers to choose from BTC, USD, SOL, and ADA. The second tweet lets them choose from TRON, BNB, CNY, and NEO. After 24 hours, the first poll ended with 600,697 votes and the second with 358,743 votes. Cardano (ADA) tops the results of the first poll, followed by bitcoin (BTC) and solana (SOL). Tron (TRON) tops the results of the second poll, followed by Binance coin (BNB) and neo (NEO).

Buterin’s first poll includes the top cryptocurrencies by market cap, excluding stable coins. At the time of writing, bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, has a market cap of $821 billion based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets. Solana, the fifth-largest crypto, has a market cap of $47 billion while Cardano, the seventh-largest coin, has a market cap of $42 billion.

Top cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Source: Bitcoin.com Markets.

Buterin’s second poll includes the third-largest cryptocurrency, Binance coin, which has a market cap of $83 billion. Tron’s market cap is $7 billion whereas neo’s is less than $2 billion.

While the Ethereum co-founder’s polls appear fun and have attracted many comments and likes on social media, people questioned Buterin’s motives for posting such polls, the choice of cryptocurrencies he included, whether votes were made by bots, and the likelihood that 80% of transactions will be in one currency.

Bitcoin trader Tone Vays commented, “Is Vitalik looking for a new job?” The CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, opined:

These results are….. wild.

Other cryptocurrencies that have been recommended by Vitalik’s Twitter followers in response to the polls include XRP, dogecoin (DOGE), shiba inu (SHIB), and polkadot (DOT).

Meanwhile, several people pointed out that the outcome of Buterin’s polls-only reflects the popularity of certain cryptocurrencies among his followers and Twitter users, emphasizing that they have no bearing on the popularity of a particular cryptocurrency in the real world. Bank of America, however, believes that Solana could take market share away from Ethereum.

Uruguay installs its first Bitcoin ATM

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Uruguay’s first crypto ATM has been installed in the coastal city of Punta del Este, a major tourist attraction in the region.

Uruguay has reportedly installed its first Bitcoin (BTC) ATM, making it the 11th South American country to publicly encourage crypto adoption. Prior to Uruguay’s involvement, South America hosted 79 ATMs, which represented 0.2% of global BTC ATM installations.

According to Ámbito, Uruguay’s first crypto ATM was installed in the coastal city of Punta del Este, a major tourist attraction in the region. Uruguay’s first Bitcoin ATM was developed and installed in partnership with two local crypto companies — URUBit and inBierto. 

The crypto ATM in Uruguay currently supports withdrawal and deposits of five cryptocurrencies, namely — BTC, Binance Coin (BNB), Binance USD (BUSD), Ferret Token (FRT), and Urubit (URUB). FRT and URUB are in-house cryptocurrencies managed and distributed by URUBit and inBierto respectively. 

Adolfo Varela, the CEO of inBierto, confirmed that the initiative was 100% funded by the government of Uruguay. inBierto is a crypto investment platform, who is also a member of the Uruguayan Chamber of Fintech (Cámara Uruguaya de Fintech), a startup accelerator focused on the fintech sector. URUBit is a decentralized token created in Uruguay and deployed in the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Data from Coin ATM Radar shows that Colombia leads the South American market with 31 crypto ATM installations to date, who is followed by Brazil and Argentina at 22 and 11 installations respectively.

Other South American countries such as Ecuador, Venezuela, Aruba, Saint Kits, and Nevis have also installed one crypto ATM. 

inBierto has not yet responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Last year, an Uruguayan senator introduced a draft bill seeking to regulate cryptocurrency and enable businesses to accept crypto payments.

As Cointelegraph reported, senator Juan Sartori was not keen on adopting crypto as a legal tender. Instead, he suggested:

“Today we present a bill that seeks to establish a legitimate, legal and safe use in businesses related to the production and commercialization of virtual currencies in Uruguay.”

Pakistan’s Central Bank Has Decided to Ban Cryptocurrencies Completely: Report

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The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the country’s central bank, has reportedly come to a decision to ban the use of all cryptocurrencies within the country. The central bank has also asked the Sindh High Court to ban “unauthorized operations” of crypto exchanges and impose penalties on them.

A high-level interministerial committee constituted to make recommendations on whether any form of cryptocurrency should be permitted under Pakistani law reportedly submitted its report to the Sindh High Court Wednesday.

The committee was constituted by the Sindh High Court under the supervision of the deputy governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and officials from the Pakistani Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Information Technology, Telecommunication Authority, and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The 38-page report, submitted to the court by SBP Deputy Governor Sima Kamil, recommends a complete ban on all cryptocurrencies and related activities in Pakistan.

The committee stated that cryptocurrency should be declared illegal, emphasizing that after careful analysis, it found that the risks of cryptocurrency far outweigh its benefits for Pakistan. The report also warns that cryptocurrency could be used for money laundering and terrorism financing.

Furthermore, the committee urged the court to ban “unauthorized operations” of crypto exchanges and impose penalties on them as some countries have done. The report cites recent investigations by Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of crypto exchanges, including Binance, and the risks they pose to investors.

The Sindh High Court directed the committee to send a copy of the report to the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Law to make the final decision on whether any form of cryptocurrency will be allowed in Pakistan. The court also directed the two ministries to jointly recommend whether the crypto business of any form can be legally carried out in the country. They are to submit a report of their decision on April 11.

Petitioner Waqar Zaka, a television host and crypto entrepreneur, has argued that cryptocurrency should be declared legal. The court will resume hearing his petition on April 12.

According to reports, Iran permits the use of cryptocurrency in International settlements.

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Authorities in Iran are preparing to allow the employment of cryptocurrencies for international settlements. According to local media, central banks and government officials have given the green light to adopt a mechanism using digital coins in the field of foreign trade.

Iranian companies will be allowed to use cryptocurrencies in settlements with partners in other countries, local media reported. An agreement to that end has been reached by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Ministry of Industries, Mining, and Trade. Quoted by the Financial Tribune, the head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran, Alireza Peyman Pak, announced:

We are finalizing a mechanism for operations of the system. This should provide new opportunities for importers and exporters to use cryptos in their international deals.

According to the Iranian news agency IBENA, Pak, who is also deputy minister of trade, took to social media to provide details about the first meeting of a joint foreign exchange working group between his department and the CBI. The participants approved a number of measures to facilitate Iran’s foreign trade, including the adoption of the crypto mechanism.

A follow-up report quotes the same official as saying that the Trade Ministry will produce a plan within two weeks for the use of locally mined cryptocurrencies and coins acquired by private companies to pay for the import of goods. The initial proposal comes from the Central Bank of Iran.

Pak emphasized that cryptocurrencies and blockchain systems have many practical applications and if Iran ignores them, it will lose business opportunities. “In some of our target markets, especially in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, there may be restrictions on using cryptocurrencies, but in our major markets such as Russia, China, India and Southeast Asia, using cryptocurrencies is common.

Besides mining, which was legalized in 2019, Iran’s crypto space remains largely unregulated. In April, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) authorized domestic banks and money exchangers to use locally minted digital coins to pay for imports to the sanctioned nation. However, Tehran authorities have been going after crypto trading and payments in the country.

Cryptocurrencies have enjoyed growing popularity in the Islamic Republic, with up to 12 million Iranians holding one coin or another, according to a recent estimate. Some officials have opposed restrictive policies, insisting these could push innovations underground. Limitations will deprive the nation of opportunities, Iranian fintech warned in May, pointing out that local companies have managed to bypass the economic blockade with crypto transactions.

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