The central bank of the Netherlands, De Nederlandsche Bank, has issued a warning to investors in KuCoin, saying the exchange was operating without legal registration. In a Dec. 15 announcement, the central bank said MEK Global Limited, or MGL, which does business in the Netherlands as KuCoin, was not in compliance with the country’s anti-money laundering, or AML, and the equivalent of combatting the financing of terrorism, or CFT, regulations. De Nederlandsche Bank added the crypto firm was “illegally offering services” as well as “illegally offering custodian wallets” for users. “Customers of MGL are not in violation,” said the bank. …

The metaverse and digital reality experiences are barreling toward consumers, whether they are ready or not. However, there are certain places in the world that are more ready to embrace a digital future from a technological standpoint. A new study by Uswitch, an internet and telephone service researcher, looked at a combination of fixed broadband speeds, broadband package prices, the number of blockchain financial start-ups and the price of high technology exports to determine which countries have the capacity to embrace the metaverse. At the top of the list is the Netherlands, with the most hospitable conditions to cater to …

Máxima Zorreguieta Cerruti, Queen of the Netherlands, said she was encouraged by the work the European Central Bank had accomplished in its efforts to launch a digital euro. Speaking virtually at a European Commission conference ‘towards a legislative framework enabling a digital euro for citizens and for businesses’ on Nov. 7, the queen said a digital euro could encourage financial inclusion among underserved communities by circumventing roadblocks including transaction fees and documentation requirements. According to the regent, a central bank digital currency, or CBDC, in the European Union could help reduce the cost of remittances, but may require policy reforms …

Despite the turbulence that broke out in the crypto market this summer, there is an important long-term marker that should be considered in any complex assessment — the combination of adoption and regulation. The latest report by EUBlockchain Observatory, named “EU Blockchain Ecosystem Developments,” tries to measure this combination within the European Union, combining the data on each and every member country from Portugal to Slovakia. As the original report counts more than 200 pages, Cointelegraph prepared a summary with the intent to capture the most vital information about the state of crypto and blockchain in Europe. We started from …

It’s another win for Bitcoin miners and the environment. A Dutch Bitcoiner has installed a Bitcoin (BTC) miner in a warehouse to replace the heating system powered by natural gas. Why? Because it’s cheaper, more environmentally friendly, and uses solar power. Our latest installation heats a warehouse with electricity instead of natural gas. We’ve installed manual valves to guide airflow. The sound has been attenuated under 40db with a large damper. The people that work in the warehouse enjoy the warm temperature and low sound. pic.twitter.com/fcdEUlqiuN — Bitcoin Brabant (@BitcoinBrabant) October 5, 2022 Bert de Groot is the founder of …

Philately? If you are a millennial, there is a good chance you used Google to find out that there is a word dedicated to collecting and studying postage stamps. This same search also paints the picture of a hobby in decline, as younger generations are increasingly preoccupied with their screens and the constant stream of dopamine hits served up by TikTok, Instagram, Twitter and other popular social media platforms. Two European postal services have looked to capitalize on the popularity of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in recent years to reinvigorate the philately sector. Cointelegraph caught up with Netherlands’ PostNL and the …

The United States-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase continues its aggressive expansion in Europe, with the latest regulatory approval coming from the land of tulips. Coinbase officially announced on Thursday that it had received registration from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the central bank of the Netherlands. The regulatory approval allows Coinbase to offer its retail and institutional crypto products in the Netherlands. According to the official DNB records, Coinbase is one of the major international exchanges approved by the Dutch central bank to operate cryptocurrency services alongside smaller local crypto firms. Coinbase Europe Limited and Coinbase Custody International are listed on DNB’s …

A judge in the Netherlands ruled that Tornado Cash developer Alexey Pertsev has to stay in jail for 90 more days while waiting for charges. Puzzled by the decision, the crypto community rallied to demand the release of the developer. In a Tweet, crypto investo Ryan Adams argued that the developer did something good for the public as he wrote the code for Tornado Cash. The community member then highlighted that "a few bad guys" decided to use Pertsev’s code and now the developer has to suffer the consequences. Apart from Adams, crypto researcher Jill Gunter also noted that there …

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 …

Ksenia Malik, the wife of Tornado Cash creator Alexey Pertsev Wife has lashed out at Dutch authorities for treating her husband like a "dangerous criminal" following his arrest last week. The Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) arrested Pertsev on Aug. 12 over an alleged use of the Ethereum-based privacy tool to launder money and conceal criminal financial flows. Speaking to Cointelegraph, Malik confirmed that Pertsev remains in the hands of Dutch authorities and has not had the chance to contact him since he was put behind bars. “He’s kept in prison as if he were a dangerous criminal,” …

Authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a developer that is suspected to be involved in money laundering through the crypto mixing service Tornado Cash. The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD), an agency in the Netherlands responsible for investigating financial crimes, officially announced on Friday an arrest of a 29-year-old man in Amsterdam. The man has allegedly been involved in facilitating criminal financial flows and money laundering through the decentralized Ethereum mixer Tornado Cash, the authority said. The FIOD pointed out that it doesn’t rule out multiple arrests in the case, noting that its Financial Advanced Cyber Team (FACT) launched …

ING Group, a Dutch multinational banking and financial services corporation, has spun out its digital asset business Pyctor to multi-asset trading infrastructure firm GMEX. GMEX has acquired ING’s institutional-grade digital asset custody solution Pyctor in a multi-million dollar deal, the companies said in a joint announcement on Monday. The Pyctor offering compliments GMEX’s MultiHub service, an institutional cross-platform business launched last year with the mission to bridge the gap between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), GMEX CEO Hirander Misra told Cointelegraph. Pyctor expands MultiHub with a number of digital asset-focused capabilities, including smart contract features, post-trade custodial and …