Things have not been looking too good for the crypto market in recent months, with the market seemingly being gripped by one piece of bad news after another. To this point, on Aug. 8, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued legal sanctions against digital currency mixer Tornado Cash. As per the regulatory body, since the platform’s inception in 2019, it has been used for a host of illicit money laundering activities estimated to be worth $7 billion. Of this sum, it is estimated that $455 million was controlled by the notorious Lazarus …

Around the world, personal financial stress is peaking. A recent study in America found that more than three in four people feel anxious about their financial situation. This is seeding anti-risk mentalities and prompting fears around the safety of long-term savings, including retirement funds. However, that shouldn’t mean hiding money under the floorboards. Nor should it necessarily mean handing over the reins to a low-growth pension fund, which at current rates of inflation, are likely to be losing value. It means being smarter about assessing all options and diversifying. And that requires freedom. That’s what Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) …

The chief of Australia’s financial services regulator Joe Longo has raised the alarm over the sheer amount of people that invested in “unregulated, volatile” crypto assets during the pandemic. Longo, chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) made the comments in an Aug. 11 media release for its research conducted in November 2021, which looked into investment behavior following the onset of t COVID-19 pandemic, stating: "We are concerned about the number of people surveyed who reported investing in unregulated, volatile crypto-asset products” The survey found that crypto was the second most common investment product, with 44% of …

An ambitious sustainability-based blockchain project has secured $100 million in a Series A funding round to drive its development. Indian entrepreneurs Pratik Gauri and Prateek Dwivedi have spearheaded the foundation of a fifth-generation blockchain network known as 5ire, which looks to incentivize the implementation of United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) for users of its system. The project has now attracted a total of $121 million in investment. A seed round secured $21 million from notable tech investors including Alphabit, Marshland Capital, Launchpool Labs and Moonrock Capital. A subsequent Series A fundraising round secured a $100 million investment from United …

A United States court has given liquidators permission to subpoena the founders of crypto investment firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC), including Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. According to a report by Law360 on Tuesday, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn issued an order on Tuesday allowing the subpoenas after being told by the counsel for the liquidators that the founders’ whereabouts are unknown and there were fears they could be selling off tens of millions in assets. The counsel, Adam Goldberg, said he didn’t know the current location of Zhu or Davies, alleging the duo have not provided “meaningful cooperation” with …

Switzerland’s Post Office is set to onboard cryptocurrency trading through its banking arm PostFinance as user appetite for custody grows in the country. Some 2.7 million users that currently bank with PostFinance, the fifth largest bank in the country, are expected to be able to buy and sell Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through an inhouse trading and custody service in the next two years. In correspondence with Cointelegraph, PostFinance spokesperson Dörte Horn confirmed that the executive board sees digital assets as a strategic growth area and will provide direct access to cryptocurrency markets through a proprietary service owned by PostFinance …

Despite the bear market scaring away many crypto investors in 2022, online brokerage firm M1 Finance is set to launch crypto trading accounts and trading services over the next few weeks. The Chicago-based company was founded in 2015 and claims to have more than $5 billion worth of assets under management (AUM). The brokerage also offers retirement accounts in addition to providing commission-free trading on stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). In a Tuesday blog post explaining the move, M1 CEO and founder Brian Barnes noted that it was primarily driven by strong consumer demand to support crypto assets: “The crypto …

Virginia’s Fairfax County continues to be a prominent public institutional investor in the cryptocurrency space and is set to diversify its portfolio with a move into yield farming. As previously reported, global asset managers VanEck announced that the Fairfax Employees’ Retirement System and Police Retirement System will invest $35 million into the firm’s crypto lending fund. It’s the latest investment move by the two county-run funds in the cryptocurrency space since their original foray began in 2018. Cointelegraph reached out to Andy Spellar, the chief investment officer of the Fairfax Employees' Retirement System, to unpack their investment in VanEck's crypto …

The implications of what anti-crypto regulations can do to a thriving economy can be seen first-hand unfolding in India. Supporting the massive decline in trading volumes across all Indian crypto exchanges, a report from WazirX reveals a change in investor sentiment as the Indian government imposed its second crypto law — a 1% tax deduction at source (TDS) on every crypto transaction. Trading volumes on Indian crypto exchanges saw an eventual reduction of 90-95% ever since the country introduced a law that would tax investors 30% on unrealized gains. With two consecutive taxes ready to eat away at their holdings, …

One of the main features of the Bitcoin blockchain is its transparency. Bitcoin lets anyone see every transaction that has ever been made on its network and check the balance of every address out there. Because of this transparency, we’re able to know who owns the most Bitcoin (BTC) in 2022. It’s important to look at who owns the most BTC, as the cryptocurrency’s supply is limited to 21 million coins. In February, Kim Grauer, director of research at blockchain forensics firm Chainalysis, told Cointelegraph that an estimated 3.7 million BTC have been lost, effectively deflating the cryptocurrency’s circulating supply. …

Tether chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino has confirmed that the stablecoin Tether (USDT) has been the subject of a “coordinated attack” by hedge funds looking to short-sell the United States dollar-pegged crypto asset. Speaking to his 151,600 Twitter followers on Monday, the Tether executive was responding to reports that hedge funds have been borrowing millions in loans to short USDT since the collapse of Terra in May. He alleged that hedge funds have been trying to create pressure “in the billions” to “harm Tether liquidity” with the aim of eventually buying back tokens at a much lower price. Ardoino levied …

The price of Terra (LUNA2) has recovered sharply nine days after falling to its historic lows of $1.62. On June 27, LUNA2's rate reached $2.77 per token, thus chalking up a 70% recovery when measured from the said low. Still, the token traded 77.35% lower than its record high of $12.24, set on May 30. LUNA2's recovery mirrored similar retracement moves elsewhere in the crypto industry with top crypto assets Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) rising by approximately 25% and 45% in the same period. LUNA2 price rally could trap bulls The recent bout of buying in the LUNA2 market …