A Colombian court recently hosted its first legal trial in the Metaverse, with the court magistrate saying it felt “more real than a video call,” according to a recent report. According to a Reuters report published on Feb. 24, Colombia’s Magdalena Administrative Court held a court case in the Metaverse on Feb. 15, involving participants in a traffic dispute. The case, which went on for two-hours, was brought by a regional transport union against the police, which will progress “partly” in the metaverse, with a potential for the verdict to also be given in the metaverse. The participants appeared as …

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has filed a “limited objection” to crypto exchange Binance.US’s proposed $1 billion takeover of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital, citing a lack of “necessary information.” The limited objection was filed on Jan. 4, with the SEC pointing to a lack of detail regarding Binance.US’s ability to fund the acquisition, what Binance.US’s operations would look like following the deal, and how customer assets will be secured during and after the transaction. A limited objection is similar to a normal objection but only applies to a specific part of the proceedings. Additionally, the regulator …

In a report published on Friday, Reuters laid out the findings of its investigation into the regulatory compliance practices of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. The authors suggest the existence of a recurring pattern whereby the company’s CEO Changpeng Zhao, while proclaiming its openness to government oversight, ran an organization that systematically denied regulators’ requests for financial and corporate structure information and shirked proper client background checks. The reported findings are based on the accounts of Binance’s former senior employees and advisers, as well as the review of documents such as internal correspondence and confidential messages …

Major global interdealer broker TP ICAP is launching a cryptocurrency trading platform with Fidelity Investments and British banking giant Standard Chartered. TP ICAP’s upcoming crypto exchange is scheduled for launch in the second half of 2021 and will initially offer trading exclusively for Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency, Reuters reported Tuesday. Other digital assets like Ether (ETH) will be added at a later stage. Unlike the majority of typical crypto exchanges, TP ICAP’s crypto trading platform will offer post-trade infrastructure with a network of digital asset custodians as well as separate execution and settlement, intending to cut credit risks. …

The minister of finance of India, Nirmala Sitharaman, has given a ray of hope for the Indian cryptocurrency community as more fear, uncertainty and doubt circulate regarding a supposedly impending ban on digital assets. In a Saturday interview with India Today, Sitharaman emphasized that the ministry does not plan to shut off Indian innovations associated with Bitcoin (BTC) and its underlying blockchain technology. “From our side, we are very clear that we are not shutting all options off. We will allow certain windows for people use, so that experiments on the blockchain, Bitcoins or cryptocurrency [...] and fintech, which depend …

Slush Pool, the world’s oldest mining pool, put a Reuters headline about Bitcoin’s 2020 bull run in a block on Dec. 2. “Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; Bitcoin hits all-time peak” is now part of Bitcoin block number 659678. Announcing the news on Twitter, Slush Pool said that the pool’s miners wanted to “immortalize” the bullish Bitcoin (BTC) headline from mainstream media, making it live forever on the Bitcoin blockchain. Our miners asked us to immortalize it. Block 659678: Reuters 01/Dec/2020 Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; bitcoin hits all-time peakhttps://t.co/pmzK3HXhpw pic.twitter.com/LKpvlj9TC4 — Slush Pool | Braiins (OS+) (@slush_pool) …

The U.S. Dollar Index fell sharply today, extending a 10-month losing streak that places it at its lowest point since April 2018. International news agency Reuters marked the occasion with a story headlined: “Dollar plummets on U.S. stimulus hopes; Bitcoin hits all-time peak.” The article noted the tumble coincided with today’s news of a second COVID relief bill being discussed in Congress and the recommencement of negotiations between the United States Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The piece contrasted the falling dollar with the rising price of Bitcoin, which briefly surpassed all-time highs for …

British banking giant HSBC plans to move $20 billion worth of assets to Digital Vault, a new blockchain-based custody platform by March 2020. By deploying the platform, the global investment bank aims to digitize paper-based records of private placements in order to increase standardization and speed up processes in the growing industry, Reuters reports Nov. 27. HSBC reportedly expects the global volumes of private placements to surge 60% from 2017 to hit $7.7 trillion by 2022. The bank could not estimate how much the platform will save for the company or its clients, Reuters states. HSBC to help investors track …

United States’ payment giant Visa has launched a cross-border payment network derived from some aspects of blockchain technology, Reuters reports June 11. The network, called “Visa B2B Connect,” is designed to facilitate international payments made by global financial institutions by enabling direct interbanking transactions between businesses and beneficiaries. According to the report, the network already covers 30 trade channels worldwide to enable faster and cheaper cross-border payments, and is expected to expand to 90 markets by the end of 2019. Visa B2B Connect is partially based on blockchain technology, containing elements of Hyperledger, the open source distributed ledger technology (DLT) …

Mainstream media corporation Thomson Reuters was awarded a patent for a blockchain-based identity management system, documents from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released on April 2 reveal. The patent, originally filed on Dec. 22, 2015, describes a system providing identity services capable of receiving an identity from an identity provider system alongside validated identity data, and then storing it on a blockchain in an identity token. Moreover, the patent also describes variations of this procedure wherein the transaction uses a smart contract, the identity data is hashed, or the access to the system used is restricted and requests authorization …

CoinMarketCap announced that it will launch two cryptocurrency benchmark indices on Nasdaq Global Index Data Service, Bloomberg Terminal, Thomson Reuters Eikon and Börse Stuttgart. The news was revealed in a post on the crypto data firm’s blog, published on March 20. The two indices are calculated and administered by German index provider Solactive, the post notes. Per the announcement, the indices will cover the top 200 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, one including Bitcoin (BTC) and one without it. The latter benchmark will be called CMC Crypto 200 ex BTC Index (CMC200EX), while the one including Bitcoin is called CMC Crypto …

Sberbank and Interros Group have carried out an over-the-counter OTC foreign exchange repurchase agreement (repo) transaction employing smart contracts on a blockchain, Reuters Russia reports Nov. 30. The Interros Group is a Moscow-based private equity firm founded by Russian oligarch Vladimir Potanin in 1990, with stakes in Norilsk Nickel, pharmaceutical company Petrovax Pharm, and ski resort development firm Rosa Khutor. Head of global markets department and vice president at Sberbank, Andrei Shemetov, informed Reuters that the transaction is real, legally binding, and has been “concluded in electronic format using a smart contract and digital signatures through the IT platform of …