On Feb. 1 and Feb 2. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price surpassed even the most bullish price projections after the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) announced plans to raise interest rates by 25 basis points. Even though FED chair Jerome Powell told investors not to wait for interest rate cuts in 2023, during his press conference he did clearly state that the employment data is currently the main focus. The results of the ADP payroll survey revealed on Feb. 1 that U.S. private sector hiring was significantly slower in January. ADP's measure of private sector payrolls was 106,000, well below the 160,000 market …

According to local news outlet JS China, on Feb. 1, an annual meeting regarding the trial of the digital yuan central bank digital currency (e-CNY CBDC) was attended by senior Communist Party officials in the City of Suzhou. As part of the meeting outcomes, party officials have set a tentative key performance indicator (KPI) of 2 trillion CNY ($300 billion) for e-CNY CBDC transactions in the city by the end of 2023 to be implemented by municipal administrators through promotional efforts. Officials have also set a target of processing $30 billion in e-CNY loans for small and mid-sized businesses in …

The cryptocurrency community has ridiculed well-known Bitcoin (BTC) critic Charlie Munger for calling the United States to follow in the footsteps of China in banning crypto. In an op-ed article on The Wall Street Journal, the 99-year-old investment veteran has once again slammed crypto, calling a cryptocurrency a “gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house.” Munger also said that a cryptocurrency is “not a currency, not a commodity, and not a security,” adding that “obviously” the U.S. should now enact a new federal law that would ban crypto. According to Munger, the best way to approach crypto …

The idea of lifting the cryptocurrency ban has started floating in China as a former central bank official has called the country to review its stringent crypto restrictions. Huang Yiping, a former member of the monetary policy committee at the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), believes that the Chinese government should think again about whether the ban on cryptocurrency trading is sustainable in the long run. Huang voiced his concerns about the future of fintech in China in a speech in December, according to a transcript published by the local financial website Sina Finance on Jan. 29. The former official …

Authorities from the Hainan province in southern China have vowed to increase oversight on the nonfungible token (NFT) sector to “promote the healthy development” of the sector and to stomp out fraud and other associated risks. In a separate announcement, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) also announced that it is working on new features for its Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) pilot program, referred to as the digital yuan or eCNY. NFT oversight In a public notice posted on Jan. 29, Hainan’s market regulator and nine other agencies from the province outlined a lengthy plan to tackle the NFT …

The good news of the last week is that Bitcoin (BTC) continued to review, making around 10% up from Jan.16 to Jan. 23. But it has yet to change a worrying trend of crypto companies making headlines due to their troubles with the law. The United States Department of Justice launched a “major international cryptocurrency enforcement action” against China-based crypto firm Bitzlato and arrested its founder, Anatoly Legkodymov. The enforcers consider Bitzlato to be a “primary money laundering concern” connected to Russian illicit finance. While the exchange attracted little attention until the DOJ action, it had received $206 million from …

China’s Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) — the digital yuan, or eCNY — has received upgrades giving it smart contract functionality alongside a series of newly unveiled use cases. The smart contract function was launched on the Meituan app, a Chinese app offering retail and food delivery services, according to a Jan. 17 report by local cryptocurrency media outlet 8btc. When Meituan users place an order and pay with their e-CNY wallet, a smart contract triggers and searches for keywords and purchased items in their order. If a user buys something on the list of keywords for the day, they …

The crypto and blockchain space has had a turbulent past year, but that is not stopping users and enterprises from looking into the industry. A new survey from CasperLabs and Zogby Analytics revealed that the sentiment around blockchain adoption is especially positive among enterprises. The poll was conducted via 603 business enterprise “decision makers” in the United States, the United Kingdom and China. Nearly 90% of the businesses surveyed reported deploying blockchain technology in some capacity, with 87% saying they plan to invest in blockchain in the next year. This is particularly pronounced in China, where over half of the …

Chinese billionaire and Alibaba founder Jack Ma will no longer control the fintech giant Ant Group as part of recent changes to the company’s corporate structure. Ant Group officially announced that Ma has agreed to give up control of Ant Group as part of the company’s further corporate governance optimization and restructuring. Prior to the change, Ma was the control person in Ant, exercising control over the company through related entities in addition to his 10% stake in Ant. Once the restructuring process is complete, no single shareholder will have control over Ant, the company said in a statement. Major …

The People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, has begun including the country’s central bank digital currency, the e-CNY, in reports measuring the amount of currency in circulation. According to a 2022 financial statistics report released on Jan. 10, the PBoC said there was 13.61 billion digital yuan — roughly $2 billion at the time of publication — in circulation as of Dec. 31. The currency in circulation grew at a rate of 15.3% in December 2022, with the broad money supply reported to be 266.43 trillion yuan. The PBoC reported adding the digital yuan to its figures had not caused …

Xiao Yi, the former Chinese Communist Party secretary of Fuzhou, has confessed to “acting recklessly” in support of crypto mining during a state-run television broadcast. In an interview released by state-run media on Jan. 8, Xiao seemed to speak with a very subdued voice from what appeared to be prison, apologizing for being a “sinner” and causing “grave losses” to Fuzhou. The former CCP official pled guilty to corruption charges in December related to accepting more than $18 million in bribes for construction programs and illicitly promoting projects — including a localcrypto mining firm. According to a report from the …

Effective regulations are one of the key gateways to cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption. Due to greater compliance, crypto businesses saw broader acceptance from regulators worldwide. While the crypto ecosystem was awarded countless operational licenses and exposure to new markets, the fall of Terraform Labs, FTX and Celsius, among others, had a negative impact on the industry's reputation with investors and regulators alike. As we look back on 2022 and all it brought for the cryptocurrency industry, we're highlighting how the regulatory landscape has changed for cryptocurrencies and the blockchain industry as a whole. North America China’s blanket ban on crypto mining …