As Binance faces scrutiny from regulators around the globe, Poland’s finance watchdog has issued a consumer warning about the cryptocurrency exchange. On Wednesday, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA) published a statement on Binance’s growing regulatory issues around the world, stressing that the company’s operations are unregulated in Central European countries. The crypto market is “neither regulated nor subject to supervision” by the PFSA, the regulator noted, cautioning the public about the risks associated with trading on Binance, given the growing pushback to the exchange from global financial regulators, stating: “In line with the protection of financial market participants and …

Polish police have detained a suspect in an armed attack on FlyingAtom, a cryptocurrency and gold exchange in the city of Olsztyn in northeastern Poland. The incident, which occurred around 7 p.m. local time on Jan. 22, resulted in the injuries of two employees — one of whose situation was severe enough to necessitate an induced coma. According to local media reports from Jan. 23, the masked attacker escaped with gold worth 450,000 zloty (roughly $120,000), fleeing the exchange's office on the fourth floor of a skyscraper in the city center. Following the incident, police secured the area and scoured …

Olsztyn, Poland is reportedly the first city in the world to leverage Ethereum’s blockchain to aid the provision of emergency services, offering yet another tangible use case for distributed ledger technology. Olsztyn has completed a successful trial run of SmartKey, a bridging technology that connects blockchain with physical assets, to aid in police, fire and ambulance services. SmartKey will reportedly enable rescue teams to perform their jobs more efficiently by connecting a smart contract to Teltonika smart devices that are used by local rescue teams. This connection enables emergency crews to enter any building in the city without having to …

The COVID-19 pandemic has served both as an x-ray onto existing vulnerabilities in the global financial system, and as an accelerator for destabilizing tendencies, including higher sovereign and consumer debt in emerging markets. At an online meeting of the Central Bank Governors' Club, hosted this week by Bank of Russia Governor Elvira Nabiullina, representatives were unanimous in their expectations of the far-reaching consequences of the current crisis. At the meeting, the 26 central bank representatives that convened from Central Asia, the Black Sea region, the Balkan countries and beyond, also noted the pandemic-induced expansion of e-commerce, as well as digital …

Law enforcement officials from around the world hav taken action against a major transnational money laundering operation involving cryptocurrency. On Oct. 15, Europol announced a successful operation across 16 countries that resulted in the arrest of 20 individuals suspected of working for the QQAAZZ criminal network. The organization is accused of laundering tens of millions of euros for top cybercriminals since 2016. The funds are allegedly transferred through international bank accounts, shell companies based in Poland and Bulgaria, and via cryptocurrency mixing services. Around 40 homes were searched across the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Latvia, and Bulgaria as part of …

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority, or PFSA, issued a warning on the surge of scammers offering fake crypto investment opportunities, which they claim to be the only authorized investment fund in Poland. The scammers call potential victims by asking them to sell or buy cryptocurrencies through the fake fund, but first, they should send the cryptos to the PFSA compliance team’s wallet to verify the legality of the transactions and then, the regulator clears the payment to be deposited in the unexistent fund. The watchdog has been aggressive towards crypto in the past few years and added the following reminder …

A Slovak blockchain startup serves as the chief example of pandemic venture capital developments in central and eastern Europe (CEE), in a new report from Reuters on July 31. In the former Eastern bloc — where venture funding hit close to $1.6 billion in 2019 — uncertainty during the COVID-19 crisis has hit the start-up sector hard, particularly when it comes to early-stage deals. Alftins, a Slovak startup that is developing an online platform to trade digital assets, has recently secured funding from publicly-funded venture firm Crowdberry. The latter had earlier missed out on a version of the deal in …

While global jurisdictions are progressing with central bank digital currencies, private institutions also work on digitizing national currencies. Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI), a major Austrian bank, is working on a new form of national currency tokenization using blockchain technology. RBI is extending its collaboration with Polish-British fintech firm, Billon, following a successful test of end-to-end digitized national currency transfers. RBI Coin is designed to speed up cross-border transactions As announced on May 18, RBI and Billon are working on initial stages of an RBI tokenization platform, currently dubbed RBI Coin. The pilot is planned to be conducted until late 2020 …

New York-based blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis has launched a new initiative to shed more light on the scope of its latest cryptocurrency crime analyses. Published on May 4, three installments of the firm’s new Crypto Crime Intelligence Briefs provide insights into the mechanisms and routes being used for illicit transactions in the crypto space. In launching its new series, Chainalysis says that while none of the entities analyzed in its new briefs is currently under active investigation, it is releasing the information to support ongoing work by law enforcement, regulators, cybersecurity firms and compliance professionals. Global vectors to keep an …

Polish insurance company Link4 has partnered with a regtech firm Coinfirm to streamline document correspondence and storage with a blockchain-based system. Called Trudatum, the blockchain-enabled tool developed by Coinfirm reportedly allows the firm to transfer and store electronic documents and ensure their immutability. For Link4’s customers specifically, it means that their insurance papers could be accessed and verified online, thereby reducing the overall amount of paperwork for the company. Link4 considers itself the leader of the direct insurance market in Poland. Launched in 2003, the company was allegedly the first on the local market to sell motor insurance exclusively via …

Europeans are getting more confident about the future of the cryptocurrency industry amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. People in Europe are becoming more optimistic about the Blockchain space. In 2020, more Europeans believe that crypto will exist in 10 years than ever before, bitFLyer exchange reported on April 29. Amount of crypto believers in Europe edges up 3% in 2020 According to a new survey by bitFLyer, the number of Europeans who believe that crypto will still exist in 10 years has edged up from 63% in 2019 to 66% in 2020. The survey is part …

Blockchain’s varied applications are becoming more useful for global banking institutions with each passing day. Yesterday, Polish retail banks rolled out a blockchain-based customer data platform developed by the Polish Credit Bureau, also known as Biuro Informacji Kredytowej, or BIK. BIK, the biggest credit bureau in Central and Eastern Europe, has enabled banks in Poland to send notifications of commissions and fees changes on blockchain via its new document management product. Polish Credit Bureau and Billon were developing the platform since 2018 Developed in collaboration with Polish-British fintech firm, Billon, the BIK Blockchain Platform has been in development since the …